Journey Narrative
It’s arrived – the TX-6 Camprite lands
The beautifully made Camprite TX-6 arrived today, with the NSW rep, Colin giving us the introduction, and showing us how everything works. We’re very happy. Given it is squeezed into the front yard it’s a bit tricky to get good photos but here are a few. A few people have already dropped in to check it out.
It took us about 15-20 minutes to put up once Colin had gone, and we’ll be practising many more times before we go. The logo stickers are now on the car so with 7 days to go things are falling into place. The next few days we’ll be packing then the fun will begin when we drive out of Sydney and start heading south.
Trip Planning
My trusty Australian Geographic Map of Australia (for Travellers & Dreamers) is undergoing serious scrutiny at the moment. Even the kids are getting into it putting their suggestions on coloured post-it notes (one of Hannah’s suggestions – “Perth – lots of swans”)
Map of Australia for Travellers & Dreamers – to keep us focused.
We have 3 weeks planned in Tasmania from mid Nov, Christmas booked in Kangaroo Island, so we’re filling in the gaps between departure and January. We’ll be starting the adventure in Green Patch, then a practice climb up Pigeon house mountain, before we make an assault on Mt Kosciuszko a couple of days later. That’s our first challenge, so if you have any others please send them in and we’ll consider them. Just remember we have 3 kids 6,7, and 8 and the challenge has to be done by all as a team.
From The Snowy Mountains we’ll be making our way to Wilson’s Promontory to do Challenge # 2 – to visit the most southerly point of the Mainland at South Point (guess what 3 other related challenges are?). That one might be a bit challenging getting the kids to hike 16km.
We then will head up the Great Ocean drive, through the Coorong, towards KI, with a few stops no doubt in the Coonawarra, for refreshments of the Cabernet variety.
2 weeks left to pack up the house!
Here’s a picture of a fraction of our material belongings being stacked meticulously(?) into storage. It is a great opportunity to get rid of stuff that has been lying around for a while too. The flip side is trying to work out the minimum amount to take to last 12 months on the road. We’ve got to the stage where we think we have everything we need so can continue storage without the worry that we may have to go back in to retrieve something later.
The Camprite trailer arrives in the next few days when the focus will turn to packing whatever we can into it. Then we’ll have the “Oh heck” moment when we have to halve what we can take. I’m looking forward to the interesting discussions and justification surrounding what we have to take (I’ve already prepared mine).
Storage begins
Five of us will be living in a car and 4.5m trailer for the next 12 months together and I figure if we can survive the first month it should all get easier, but that could be the view through my rose-coloured specs!
It’s on its way – the camper trailer leaves the factory!
Here’s our first glimpse of the finished Camprite TX-6 camper trailer leaving the factory in West Australia. Very happy with the colour and looking forward to taking delivery early next week. That gives us one weekend to pack it before we leave – gulp!
Leaving the factory in WA, bound for Sydney!
The Car set-up
Ok a couple of pictures of the car with new suspension lift, the pre-filter snorkel fitted, awning and cage fitted, together with the trusty old pod with a little added security. The awning is excellent – an Aldi special, really easy to put up (not so easy to install though). Next major thing is to change the wheels – going for Falken 17inch Wild Peaks, hopefully they are up to the challenge. Then an Anderson plug installation is required and we’re almost ready to go.
Fifty Toes start stretching!
The map has been dusted off and stuck to the wall. The individually labelled post-it stickers are out of the drawer and slowly being added as we get recommendations or read of some beautiful place that must be visited. Even the kids have started participating.
We’re preparing for the “big trip”, a marathon, rather than a sprint, to see as much as we can of the beautiful country that is Australia. Novices off-road but we plan to get off the bitumen whenever we can. Lots of reading has already been done and still plenty to do. The pile of gear is adding to the checklist and already we’re wondering where everything is going to go.
Two months out and the focus is on the vehicle and how to escape the house.
Finally dusting off the trailer again
Took the kids on a practice run to Forster for NY2012 to see Nanna Jude
Rehearsal time
We needed to get some experience with our new mobile home set-up so it was time to give it a go. Packing a bare minimum we prepared to head out to the cousin’s 3 acre property where we figured we could get some serious practice putting things up, testing the annex and getting the kids used to the camper trailer.
The first trial was having to perform a tyre change before we even got the trailer off the garden. A slow leak caused by a screw in the tread caused a delay while we scrambled to assemble sufficient tools to perform the change. All done the car towed very efficiently and we got there and assembled everything before dark.
Fifty Toes Walkabout 
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