I ended up paying the $7.50 for the wikicamps app over the weekend. Was worth the money. I had the free trial, but didn't really need it since that ran out.
We headed to albany with mum & dad's second caravan on friday, but got there too late. We were headed to cosy corner, a free campsite on the beach, but it was dinner time, & too dark to play park the caravan. And still had 30 kms to go.
So I downloaded wiki, found a drive through rest area just off the main road & we stayed there the first night.
Headed to cosy the next morning. Got there & the grey nomads had taken over, there was no where, so good old wiki showed us Torbay Inlet. 5 kms back towards town & no one else there. Wasn't on the beach, but was still an awesome spot.
My first caravanning adventure & we survived. Even got the fridge running on gas by myself unhooked & hooked it up again for my trip to town.
Feeling like I can take on the world lol. But I'm not a fan of towing that big thing around all the time. Good for space, not much good for driving through a city :/
Kids are with mum and dad at Wye River - having a great time apparently - I was there for the weekend - was great but got bitten alot - anyone any good ideas for keeping away biting insects - as DH and I are back there for Christmas on Sat. One on my palm is so itchy and has a great long red trail going down my wrist for about 12cm.
We have Bushmans, don't know it is anygood yet, but it is one we see a lot on the 4wd shows DH watches.
Some friends swear by the clicky thing that use on the bite. We still have to get one to see how it works.
You will probably find though it want be so bad the next trip as those bites won't be 'new' to your body and your body will handle them better. Well that is my experience.
Trying to decide where to go after Christmas. Not easy. Would have been great to travel with some friends, but they are going the week after we have planned. Might head in a direction where we get to catch up with some old friends as a bonus.
We used bush mans in the past but I make my own now as dd2 comes out in huge welts from mozzies snd I don't like using it all the time. It's made with essential oils, chamomile, geranium, lavender and tea tree oil in sorbelene has worked really well for us.
We caravanned it down to the south coast for Christmas. 6 nights at Millers Point, Bremer Bay, WA. Was amazing, other than our little dog finding a still alive, run over tiger snake on Christmas morning
We had the generator, so was awesome to be able to run the fridges & have music & lights at night. Fridge in the van I'm using is gas & I was taking it on our next trip just for that reason, but it's playing up, even on power, so don't think there's much point lugging the van around, using almost twice the fuel to not be able to run the fridge. Back to the tent & esky's I think. I'm not a fan of towing it anyway.
But I do have a question for those of you who are in the know with caravan's etc? The van needs a 15amp cord & plug. I have a 20m 10amp for my tent, which I've used at caravan parks. Mum & dad have been carting caravans around for years, but dad's at work, so can't ask him. Can you get a cord with a 15amp one end, 10amp the other? Or are caravan parks set up for 15amp? I was loaned a 15amp to plug in & test out the fridge, but I can't plug it into my outside plug on the house.
We plugged our van in at other peoples houses & sheds quite a bit when we were kids, I'm assuming they didn't all have 15amp points on the ready? It's possible dad changed the end of the cord of course, but can you buy them that way? I'm not about to go playing with power cords.
We're off to Margaret River, a well known winery region in WA. Staying on a camp ground at a working shearing farm, 10kms from MR. I might pack all the camping gear in the trailer & take it. I like to have space in the car. And I'm thinking it wouldn't hurt to see if I can pick up a second hand bar fridge somewhere to use... One day I will afford an engel
Not in the know - but we had the exact issue with the power with mum and dad's camper trailer and were totally unaware of it until we came to try plug it in at a house. It needs a 15amp but our friend only has 10amps as most houses do (most caravan places are set up for 15 amp). You can not legally amend the cord but people do, do it. We didn't do that because at a friends house and wouldn't want to risk it. Some people have 15amp sockets put in their houses. In the end we ended up buying a device called Ampfibian which is a way to convert from 10 to 15 - it was a bit expensive ($250) but they have released a smaller one recently that is less pricey and can use indoors - whereas the one we have is weatherproof etc.
Dad was annoyed as no one had mentioned this issue when he bought the camper trailer they said just plug it in.
~clover~ we had someone we knew who was handy electrically convert a regular extension cord (that plugged into the house) into a dual ended cord. The parts can be bought at Bunnings I think.
Mum will talk to dad about it, he can change my cord if it's safe enough. I've seen him change a few as a kid for whatever reason. Good to know parks are set up that way though. I guessed they would be. It's good to know that about camper trailers too, I was wondering as I plan to get one in the future.
Have the fridge plugged in on its own to my cord. Will see how it's going in the morning & weather it's actually worth taking the van. Best check with the park too I guess. I'm booked for a tent, best see if I even can change to a van site if the plugs are different
Yep, your dad should be able to do it no probs.
My hubby just made a duel ended extension, that is only about 1 mtr long. That way we plug it onto the end of our regular extension if and when we need it.
Clover, with gas fridges, there are a couple of things I have found that improve them greatly.
1. Make sure the fridge (and therefore your van) is level.
2. Make sure that the vent for the exhaust is clear and that nothing is leaning against it. I have actually taken the external cover off ours. Also our van door opens and folds back over then vent, so I just make sure that the door isn't hooked back over the vent all day.
3. They struggle to cool a lot of stuff at once. So don't get to where you are going and then go buy a heap of groceries and put them all in. I try and buy a couple of days worth of meat before we go and pre freeze it at home, and I try not to buy bottles of warm drink and put them in.
4. We use an esky with ice for drinks/snacks that the kids need to access constantly. I just put the days allocated snacks in there. It's keeps them out of the van during the day and I know that all of my "good" food doesn't warm up.
Gas fridges can be great, but they do take a little bit of pre planning.
We are now in Daylesford in Victoria. My sister lives here and we are in her backyard.
We arrived in Yarawonga and camped by the Murray the Tuesday before Xmas and stayed there for a week, but with the predicted high temps today and Tomoz, we headed for the hills for a drop in temp (just hope we don't get any fires!)
Then on Sunday, we are off to the melb zoo and then down to the morning ton peninsula to visit some friends for a few days. We head back to Qld later nxt week.
Not looking forward to going back to the heat :/ it has been lovely down here.
We had our first camping trip 28-31s Dec at a Caravan park in Bendigo, was an amazing caravan park so clean and well maintained, staff all friendly! We went with another family and had side by side camp sites, we had 1 day of severe wind which actually broke a pole in front of our tent :-( we all made decision to take down the eating shelter that friends had as it was at risk of blowing away!
Had a fun time, thank goodness not away now with feral hot weather!
No plugging in with our camper trailer. Have a battery bank that charges as we drives, plus solar panels for when we stop. Have an Evekool fridge that runs off the batteries. Can be plugged into a power point if need be. We have also started to take an extra esky (like Livinthedream) for drinks and snacks we want quick access to when we are set-up.
Our camping was called short, thought we would change our plans for the last two nights before heading home. Found zero accommodation, so ended up at home after a very long drive. Would have loved to have stayed where we were camping near Dargo, but had to drop a friend back home. If we thought about it, DH would have dropped her home and come back.
Mm will have to try the Thursday plantation - I am not convinced they were mozzies they might have been sandflies. We got a device you plug in for the camper trailer and didn't have many more problems but we also avoided the top of the river at the beach as I suspect that might have been where we were getting bitten also.
What a pain Astrid you couldn't find anywhere. We were at Wye River foreshore till the Sat after Christmas (excellent spot) but that day was the day it was getting really busy all along the Great Ocean Road (driving home there were 4km queues into Lorne and busy around Aireys Inlet etc too). I would definitely go again but would go for before and including Christmas again before it gets really busy (a benefit of having no family here is we get to do what we please at Christmas). I must put in the calendar the dates it is open for bookings for next year. I loved being right next to the beach, and we didn't do alot apart from stuff on the beach and hang out at the camp site, the kids made a few friends. I would buy myself a wetsuit for next time though, the kids had them which meant their staying power in the water was far better than mine.
Do you never plug in your camper trailer Astrid - even during periods of no use? Mum and Dad's can go ok with no power providing enough sun and/or is towed for a while every few weeks (as it recharges from the car) - but they were recommended to plug it in where possible when not in use to maintain the battery. Due to the pain in the neck of living in a body corporate unit - it currently isn't plugged in but for a few months there will definately be enough sun (mum and dad are back in the UK so I have to check it every week that is still at 100% or thereabouts) - apparently the problem is if it goes below 50% it sulphates and won't fully recover. It all depends on the type of battery apparently. When they didn't use for 8 weeks before it was mid winter so Dad very concerned that the solar panels wouldn't be enough, so that is when we got the Ampfibian device so could charge at a friends. I have to say I am not convinced it wouldn't be ok on solar only as I tried to find storage at a few places and most don't have power availability and said solar should be fine.
Mum and Dad might be selling theirs, mum says she is over travelling - dad definitely isn't - will see how she feels after six months back in the UK. I am ok if they sell it - we don't want to do our trip for a good few years yet and I don't think they will be able to keep it for all that time. DH can't go anywhere till end of April due to work, so at the moment I am not planning on taking it anywhere as for 1 or 2 day trips is not worth it (only if you want to be constantly on the move but short trips out of Melbourne I think a tent better).
Going camping at Indented Head for a couple of days with a friend and her two in a couple of weeks, which will be fun - the DH's aren't coming (doesn't bother me as DH is not really a 'useful' camper anyway - but she is more of a worrier than me) - not sure what I will do about tent yet - mum and dad left one that they used as a shade tent which can use - or will borrow one.
Can't plug it in, just they way they are built, it is an off road model which could be why. (Ours is the Johnno's Off Road tourer if you want to look it up. We swapped the kitchen for the one on the Evolution.)
The fridge itself can be plugged in. The batteries just run the fridge and LED lights. We can also charge phones, tablets etc. I power needs are quite low. All the cooking is on gas. We also have a secondary battery in the 4wd if need be. This is isolated so we don't drain the main battery.
I did see you can now get sleepout/tent attachments for shade tents. Looked really interesting. If we did not have the camper trailer, it is something we would consider for camping.
It's been ages since i posted in here. Since then we sold our jayco swan & purchased a 2nd hand offroad windsor rapid poptop in preparation for a 6 week trip to the Kimberleys in May.
We are getting to the final preparations & Im getting excited but also nervous this being our longest road trip & most remote. We have hooked up rooftop solar, new battery system so can go totally off grid & self sufficient.
Has anyone done this trip before? We are going via Tanami Road to Broome & then via Gibb River Rd to Kununurra before heading back home to Adelaide
Awesome! We met a couple in Katherine who had just finished that trip sort of. They loved it. They said it was much less hard than they imagined. However, as we noticed when we were doing the OTT and when we did parts of the NT, that the track mostly just depended on whether it had been graded and what the weather had been doing.
They also said it was much busier than they expected. Not crazy busy but more than they thought. They were rooftop tenting.
Have you tested out the solar? We have found that we used a lot less than we thought and we just use the rooftop panels are rarely get the portable solar out anymore.
I am very jealous. You will have a fantastic time!
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Re: The Camping Thread #2
unhooked & hooked it up again for my trip to town.
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