Around Australia 2011 – Page 6

Life in a caravan – Chapter 3, unfounded fears

Published on October 14, 2011October 21, 2018 by 8itchyfeetLeave a comment

Before we embarked on this trip I had two concerns. Well three if you include my totally irrational fear that Amy and or Oliver would be consumed by a salt water crocodile, somewhere in the top end, while I wasn’t watching. The first was that the car simply wouldn’t make it and that we would be stranded somewhere, dying of thirst on the side of a desert highway while feebly trying to wave down passing road trains whose eyes simply were not open to the needs of those pesky caravans that slow them up all the time. The second was just how we would all go living on top of each other 24 hours a day seven days a week for five months! Numerous well meaning friends and colleagues had warned me about the dangers of committing to life in a caravan. Continue reading “Life in a caravan – Chapter 3, unfounded fears” →

Day 95-97 Tingle tingle

Published on October 11, 2011October 21, 2018 by 8itchyfeetLeave a comment

Intellectually I know. I know you just can’t grow a tree to a girth of twenty five odd metres or a height of seventy or more without water. So at some point, in the south west of WA, it has to rain. One of those points was the 8th of October. Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain.

Of course the Tingle trees were delighted. Isn’t that a great name. Tingle trees. I’d never heard of them before we hit Walpole. The kids had. They’d been in the back seat of the car listening to ‘The Giraffe, the Pelly and Me’ by Roald Dahl which as chance would have it features the rare purple flowered ‘tingle tingle tree’. This did of course lead to some confusion upon our visits to the real Tingle forests with both Amy and Oliver inquiring where the purple flowers were. Continue reading “Day 95-97 Tingle tingle” →

Day 92-94 ‘Karri on!’

Published on October 8, 2011October 21, 2018 by 8itchyfeetLeave a comment

We almost didn’t stop in Pemberton. We wanted to. It was on the itinerary. But the caravan brakes decided to pack it in so stopping in the rain in the most contoured country we have thus far traversed was tricky.

We did of course manage to wrestle the van to a halt and I would just like to take this chance to say a big thank you to the very helpful mechanic at BP Pemberton upon whom I imposed myself with my break problem late of an afternoon. He was running around his garage like a headless Chopin (thank you iPad auto correct that was supposed to be a headless chook) but still managed to rewire our burnt out trailer cable connection in less than an hour and all for 33 bucks! You just don’t get that kind of service… anywhere. Continue reading “Day 92-94 ‘Karri on!’” →