Eating up the miles

Well today we’ve done over 700KM (Can’t actually tell you without checking) but we’re about 20km east of Mildura.

Photos

So we had a coffee and breakfast in a fantastic place in Wagga Wagga – seemed to be the only place open. Wagga was simply stunning – so much more than I had expected. Fantastic wide, clean streets. Brand name stores, just a lovely country town, but not missing anything that a city would have.

We’re feeling really fresh and alert regardless of the distances, it’s certainly easy driving. We take every opportunity to stop and take photos.

We stumbled across Ron Clarke Steel Craftsman (or similar) next to the BP service station at Waddi.
To those who are not obsessed with the works of Charlie Boorman – he dropped in to this Ron Clarke guy in ‘By any means’. Maybe it’s just the celebrity connection, but either way I was soo impressed to just stumble upon this landmark – purely by chance!

We’ve stopped maybe 500M off the main highway, and the road instantly turned to this beautiful rich red sand.

I’m trying to upload a video of us preparing dinner. Home food is sooo good. You seem to feel far away from home when you’re continually eating foreign food, not hand made etc. However a simple sausages, mashed potato, gravy – so good. Sorry this post was late – fail Telstra… but more about that in the next post.

Our first camp of the trip

So we’ve stopped outside of Wagga Wagga and setup camp – we’ve now had dinner and just waiting for it to get dark enough to sleep.

We spent Christmas lunch at my parent’s house and left there at around 3.30pm. Thanks to everyone for our awesome Christmas gifts. We are a spoilt pair!

I’m feeling absolutely kaput right now – I think it’s due to the crazy lead up to this trip with all the organising, late nights and packing and now that we’re finally on the trip I’m totally drained! I’m sure I’ll pick up again tomorrow after a great night’s sleep. Looking forward to testing the sleeping arrangement in the back of the car.

The drawer setup in the back of the car is working a treat – thank you SO MUCH for all of your help with this Gary. We seriously couldn’t have done it without your help and workshop. And Graeme with his new found welding skills has knocked up a great steel frame.

It was raining quite heavily as we were driving this afternoon and it eased up a bit as we were setting up camp. Thankfully it’s now stopped and we’re enjoying being outside in the fresh, cool air. We rigged up a makeshift shelter for the back of the car so we could pull the drawers out and cook without us and our gear getting wet. It kept us dry and that’s all that matters.

As we were driving along the Hume Hwy at Gundagai, Graeme suddenly (but safely) jumped on the brakes and yelled “ROOF RACK!!” I jumped out and picked up this lone roof rack that had obviously fallen off a car at some point. Funny thing is, we needed one of those to attach our tarp to so we could make an awning if it rained. Hopefully it’s not broken and we can attach it to the car in the morning. If we can I’ll be waiting for someone to ask us, “Did you  lose a roof rack” because then we can say “Nah mate, we found one!”. They’ll think we’re totally weird and it’ll be worth the laugh.

Graeme’s off trying to get a photo of a couple of hares we saw hopping around near us earlier. Lol you won’t believe this but it’s actually right behind me now as I type – just hopped to within 15 feet of me. I think he just got his photo.

Can’t wait to get into more travelling in the morning. And the best bit is…we don’t know and don’t mind where we end up this time tomorrow evening.

Cheers, Cassie

First Laptop Post

OK – So we’re using Windows Live Writer, an offline blogging tool that allows us to prepare our posts offline, and submit them when we get online.
I’ve prepared a video of our setup just as another test. Hope you enjoy our journey.

Before anyone says anything about the strap holding the jerry cans – it’s been replaced with two ratchet straps.

Our Camper Setup

New Fridge

After 2-3 months of deliberation we finally settled on the ARB 47 litre fridge.
The build quality was much better than the waeco, the only small downside for our scenario is the height. Its ~510mm high. That means we don't have room for a fridge slide if we want it to be under the bed in the car. I may end up just making it easy to slide out rather than a roller slide. As you can see we opted for the canvas insulated bag. It already has saved it from heaps of marks and dust, but more importantly protects it from sun and heat that costs battery power. We plan to leave it off overnight as it only gains a few degrees overnight.


In my opinion it's the best designed one in the market. It's controls are digital, has low battery cut out, has the best latch and most usable space. The lids, latches, lights, and location of the power sockets are just right.

We bought it for the trip, and our test trip, and when we go camping locally. We went to go camping with my brother, but when it didn't eventuate, we just pulled over and made bacon & egg sandwiches in the bush. It's immediately given us more freedom. The picture was taken at a big dirt clearing, on some fire trail just off Tudor Valley Road. The coordinates are below.

Location:-35.484287 149.901022

Parents have been informed

Well, its been a long time coming, but finally we've let my parents know of our travel plans. Naturally we were faced with numerous questions, but at least now they will get their passports.
Today I bleed the brakes on the car, now they seem a bit sharper.
Changed a wheel bearing last weekend with help from Cassie's brother Jay

Location:Sunshine Bay,Australia

Wheel Bearings

Ah wheel bearings - they are my arch nemesis. I bet I hold the world record for replacing them. I was too embarrassed to take the car back to the mechanic who replaced them last time - it's probably only been 20,000KM. Today I setup workshop on a dusty paddock to see if I had the tools to change a wheel bearing in the middle of nowhere. Seems like I did, I was just confused about been unable to find this lock nut, and needing a huge breaker bar and special socket to remove it. Only after sitting at home studying the books, turns out I did remove the lock nut - with my fingers. It was only just sitting in there, with the lock washer on top of it. I mean it can't really come out, but it's worth noting. Excuse the poor quality video - I only had my phone on me.
I changed front diff oil and intend to replace the front brakes, and bleed all the brakes tomorrow.
It's weird - I feel like I'm budgeting kilometers left on the car so that I can do one final service before departure. OK - more updates later.

Holy crap - this thing is possible

Sometimes, someone will say something, or you will inadvertently say something about the trip. peoples eyes light up and they hang on every word about the trip. they offer advice, tips, resources and they totally believe that we're going on this trip. It astounds me, because I think I'm only 40% convinced that this will eventuate, yet everyone is convinced this is going to happen. It's nice.

Just last week, I was at a workshop to learn how to work in indigenous communities. As usual with any workshop, they have a 'get to know one another' activity which has you revealing details of your life to strangers in an effort to have them know something about you. Example questions include "What sport do you play and or follow", "What is your ultimate travel destination", "What is the name of your favourite pet?" etc.

Well, my response individually was telling them about the trip I have planned - their eyes always lit up with interest. After this activity, we regrouped to share what we had learnt about one another. Someone volunteered my travel plans, and again everyone was excited and staggered at the enormity of it.

Cassie today dropped in conversation something about Russia, and her friend piped up, and said "what trip? what are you talking about?" Cassie had just said in conversation that we will be going through Russia. I'm not sure why, but the more people that know about this, the more it feels possible. Everyone just accepts that this is what's happening.

The flip-side of this, is that I now have to go, because everyone knows! d'oh!

Cassie raised an interesting idea of donating the car once we reach our destination - that way it won't feel so bad leaving it behind.

OK Fuel gauge

The fuel gauge linearity research may all have been a waste of time. A few nights ago, I most certainly filled the tank yet it failed to read full. Even after much jiggling and pounding the dash. It would only read 80%.
Even the next day after driving for about two hours did it read up to the full mark. Convinced this was just a 'dirty connector' causing too much resistance in the circuit to the tank sender unit, I removed the connector and earthed it out - sure enough, read full in just about a minute. Also tested the low fuel light - working fine.
I took the sender out of the tank and tried to somehow breath life into it, testing it's movement, making sure the float wasn't punctured etc. Gave it a few taps and re-installed. Oddly enough, it was reading higher after all this. Perhaps from now on I will conduct the tests again. I'm sure it's never going to be perfect, but not showing full isn't a good start.

Starter Motor
Finally after trying to fix my old one, it still was exhibiting the same symptoms. Out of interest I checked eBay for prices to gauge how much a potential repair was going to hurt. To my surprise, $180 delivered. It was a slam-dunk. New one arrived, replaced, works perfect. It's all about the confidence a repair gives you that is worth the money. That little place in your mind, where you store uncertainty about your car, has had a tiny clean out.

Roof Rack
Every time you consult someone for advice, you need to take it with a grain of salt. I have had this approach early on in the trip planning, because I didn't want anyone talking me out of it. On Sunday, I was standing with Tom looking at different ways to store the things we want to carry on the trip. Jerry cans, hi-lift jack, Maxxtrax, tables and chairs are by far the bulkiest items. Thankfully, they are low value items, and could easily be placed on a roof rack, freeing up the interior for keeping the important things safe and dry. This certainly opens up possibilities when it comes to using the space that was reserved for this gear. Another tip from Tom was to lay out everything you want to take on the ground, everything from socks and undies, to fridges, food, tools, fluids, water, fuel, bags, camera gear, laptop etc. Only then, will you have perspective on your storage needs and the optimum location for these items.