August 28^th, 2024

We had a quick lunch of cereal at John & Pam’s around 12:30 and by 1:30 we figured we were good to leave.  We had to return an item to a hardware store and then wanted to go grocery shopping and we went back to that first mall we went to on arriving in Adelaide as Fran had bubbles in her new silicone screen protector and there was a seven day warranty on installation.  She went over to the shop while Doug tried to get a key cut that we needed and we met in the Woolworth’s where after over $300 we had completed our shopping – keep in mind we were starting from nothing – we needed items like salt, oil, TP, garbage bags and the list went on and on.

We did notice a big difference in the sound of the vehicle since the muffler has been repaired.  It’s still a diesel engine so not quiet at all, but much more like Minou in volume.

It was already after 4pm by the time we finished shopping and we just wanted to get out of the city and arrive before dark.  Fran had found a spot on the Aussie app “Wikicamps” about two hours away but for our rig, two hours is more like 2.5…..

On iOverlander, she found a spot half that distance away in the coastal town of Parham and it was suggested to book ahead online which she did.  It cost $15 AUD for an unpowered site with water and dumping of both black and grey.  It would have been $5 more for power but we want to see how Tassie fairs using just the solar we have.  There is an abolition block with toilets and pay showers as well as a covered outdoor kitchen area with BBQ’s, sinks, tables, counters and an electric kettle which can be plugged into one of two power sockets.  Not bad at all for just over $10 USD!  We understand that there are several of these around – they remind us of the aires in Europe.

We took a short stroll in the strong wind to check out the beach which has a great deal of sea weed on it and the tide was quite far out.  The sun was beginning to drop into the ocean:

We had dinner pretty much right after getting settled.   One thing that is different on rigs here is that there is no actual grey tank.  You just have a hose that connects to a spot in a campsite (if available) or it just dumps onto the ground……it was draining slowly at John’s so we have bought some drain cleaner and we’ll see how it goes in the morning after we shower.  We had a quiet night and managed to both stay up until ten pm and we slept well for our first night “on the road”.

It was quite cool when we got up (6C / 43F) but warmed up quickly as the sun rose.  We did our morning exercise, showered, had tea and spent some time online – we’re not sure how often we’ll get cell reception as we head out into the outback!

We put some Drano down the kitchen sink (twice) with no luck.  Next thing to try will be a plunger but of course, we don’t have one as yet.

We spent a bit of time sorting out which direction we should head; we had two options or maybe three….Pam had suggested taking the south coast to Western Australia to see the wild flowers in bloom; another friend suggested heading into the outback before it gets hot and within that plan we threw in stopping at Mungo National Park in NSW and Broken Hill before Alice Springs.  We decided on the outback and it made sense to hit the spots in western NSW first so that’s what we’ll do.

Travelling to the places we hope to see in this country is season dependent so we have to plan accordingly to avoid intense heat and rainy seasons.

We hit the road just before 1pm after dumping and filling and stopped in Gawler to pick up a few more items we needed and to get some beer/cider.  We made it to Waikerie in the “The Riverlands” region by 4ish.   We have been monitoring the mileage on Tassie, and she seems to be averaging 17mpg so we’re pretty happy.  Just wish she had a bit more power for hills and when in a headwind.

It is now late winter in Australia and everything is quite green leading into spring.  We saw lots of grape vines heading east and fields just beginning to grow crops.

We passed through small cities after Gawler and then began to see signs for “quarantine areas” regarding fruit and veggies not passing into certain regions.  What?  We had no idea about this and had just bought fruit and veggies yesterday.  Apparently checks are random and so we’ll play dumb if stopped and give it all up if necessary….

We saw signs for kangaroo crossings but only saw dead ones on the road side (they are kind of like deer in North America). Australia has no native deer but apparently some were brought over by Europeans and there are a few in the forests of NSW.

We also passed by a field with several emus in it but they were a distance away and we were going too fast on the highway.  We are now on the Sturt Highway (A20) heading east into New South Wales via the north corner of the state of Victoria.  We did spot several pairs later and managed to get closer:

The emu is a species of flightless bird endemic to Australia, where it is the tallest native bird. It is the the third-tallest living bird after its African relatives, the common ostrich and Somali ostrich. The emu’s native ranges cover most of the Australian mainland.

Emus have soft, brown feathers with long necks and legs, and can reach up to 1.9 m / 6’ 3” in height. They are robust bipedal runners that can travel great distances, and when necessary can sprint at 48 km/h / 30 mph. They are omnivorous and forage on a variety of plants and insects, and can go for weeks without eating. They drink infrequently, but take in copious amounts of fresh water when the opportunity arises.

Breeding takes place in May and June, and fighting among females for a mate is common. Females can mate several times and lay several clutches of eggs in one season. The male does the incubation; during this process he hardly eats or drinks and loses a significant amount of weight. The eggs hatch after around eight weeks, and the young are nurtured by their fathers. They reach full size after around six months, but can remain as a family unit until the next breeding season.

The emu is an important cultural icon of Australia, appearing on the coat of arms and various coinages. The bird features prominently in Indigenous Australian mythologies.

We camped at a bush camp on the Murray River and saw several Australian pelicans in the river:

Sidebar:  Here in Australia we see travel trailers (caravans) pulled by cars again like in Europe. 

That night we were inundated with midges!  We have screens on the windows (a few holes that need patching) but obviously they get in anyway.  Our zapper from Turkey (which flew all the way here with us) was put to good use!

Friday morning, we spent some time trying to get some issues dealt with in the rig.  The water is no longer entering the toilet when it flushes, the flusher is not working properly and the value to open and close the toilet is having issues.  We saw again that bringing fruit across the state line to Victoria from South Australia was going to be an issue but we could bring fresh fruit salad….? So we made containers of mandarins, strawberries and apples and ate two bananas and two apples each for a mid-morning brekkie.  Before crossing the state line, we stopped and each ate another of each of them at the “disposal bin” only throwing the peels/pits out.  We never got stopped or inspected; however, we did see an inspection booth in the other direction.

We noticed today that the truck sounded very loud again. Doug got underneath and the hole that John attempted to seal with JB weld had broken!  No wonder so we’ll look for a muffler shop in the city ahead.  We also want to hit an RV parts store in the hopes of getting a new gasket for the toilet cassette to make the valve open and close and we need a longer grey water hose and a sink plug for the bathroom.

We arrived in the city of Mildura on the border with the state of New South Wales and went to an RV place They had the three things we were looking for – hurray! We asked if they could advise where we could get muffler work and they recommended CarLine in town.  We headed straight over there and lucked out; although it was 2pm and they normally close by 3 on Friday, the guy said he could help and to come back in 2 hours and he’d be done!  Cool.

We left Tassie in his capable hands and walked over to a mall to look for a phone accessories shop as now Doug’s screen protector was causing issues:  it wouldn’t stay on.

The shop we’d found on Google was closed so instead we went over to the Coles grocery store to pick up two things (came out with like, ten!) and then as we walked back in the direction of the garage looking for a place to get a bite to eat, we found another shop and they were able to laser cut him a protector like they did for Fran in Adelaide but for $20 less!

We found a bakery and had a sandwich before returning to CarLine a bit early.  We waited about 25 minutes and the muffler was on and sounded SO much better.

We left there, stopped at Bunnings, the big home/hardware shop (no Home Depot or Lowes here) to get a few more hardware items.  We found a free dumping station where Doug dumped the cassette and installed the new seal and it worked – we’re two for two today:  muffler and toilet repaired!

Sidebar:  we are getting some buyer’s remorse with Tassie; TOO many things are going wrong or no working.  We have reached out to the sellers and hope to sort something out. 

We found another free river campsite outside the city and had a quiet cooler night than the warm night in Waikerie.  We set up the zapper on its stand and the midges that did come (far, far fewer) were attracted to the black light and committed suicide.

Fran went out after dark and the night sky was amazing – the Milky Way was on full display – these are photos that her new phone took:

Doug went for his long run on Saturday; Fran set up her yoga mat outside by the riverside and did some Pilates.  We left the spot around 10 and made our way towards Mungo National Park in New South Wales.  This was about 120 km / 75 mi of which 80 km / 50 mi of unpaved road; some pretty good, some rather rough.  The rig was quite rattled and we kept stopping to see how to reduce it without too much success.  It is an old camper and things are worn out and somewhat loose.  It reminded us of driving Tigger on 4×4 roads back in the day.

We arrived at the park around 1:30 after stopping to make breakfast and at the visitor’s centre we asked about camping and were told we had to “book ahead and here’s the number”.  However, Fran knew of another nearby place through the app Wikicamps and she called and arranged for a spot there for slightly cheaper – neither place had much in the way of amenities anyway.

We spent a couple of hours in the park; the highlight of this park is “The Walls of China” lunette.

The Mungo Lunette that preserves thousands of “snapshots” of indigenous life of the Aboriginal peoples that have lived here over more than 45,000 years.  These precious insights were preserved here because of where Lake Mungo sits in the landscape and as a direct result of changes to the climate and environment over thousands and thousands of years.  The lunette is made up of layers of sand and clay that have been blown up from the fluctuating lake – sand off the beach when the lake was full, and clay from the lakebed when it was drying and salty.  The crescent shape stands pu to 30 m / 98.5’ high in some places and is the park’s most striking feature.  It measures 33 km / 21 m in length. 

The deposition of these layers not only buried the debris of human activity, but also ensured that remains could be dated by their surrounding sediments. 

We went to one of the two wall viewpoints and took the boardwalk out to what was described as the best views:

We’d seen amazing pictures of them online but apparently you have to go a guided sunset tour to get those views.

pretty purple flowers by the boardwalk

Anyway, it was interesting.  We started to do the remainder of the 70 km / 45 mi scenic drive.  We stopped at Red Top Lookout which was cool:

We set out on remaining scenic route which was all one way and after 3 km gave up and illegally turned around because the corrugated road was just too bad – we were being shaken to death!

We saw this shingle back lizard on the drive out of the park:

The rig could probably use another leaf spring or better yet air bags, but when we inquired back in Mildura yesterday, they quoted $1300 and they couldn’t do it till December!

We then drove to the sheep farm camp Fran booked and got settled.  Tom’s ranch is huge and he has set out a half dozen circles of camping quite a distance apart that he charges $10 a person to use.  There are no services except a fire ring but you feel quite remote and if you wanted, 20 rigs could have fit in our site!

Doug worked on a few of the many remaining small issues; got one sorted; three not and discovered another – one of the spot lights on the kangaroo bar on the front was loose; a nut was missing so we spent a half hour trying to sort that out without the correct size nut and eventually just had to unwire it and remove it until we get the right nut.

More and more issues began to arise:  the passenger door no longer unlocks with the key and the window winder is quite stiff to raise the window.  Many of the cupboard latches were not staying closed while driving, the over the cab vent won’t stay closed, not all the windows open, and the microwaves moves around when driving. It was all beginning to add up to real “buyer’s remorse”.

Fran got a couple of things done inside and then we got online.  Our computers have been running agonizingly slow lately and we are getting frustrated.  Maybe they need to be reformatted?  We are getting the “slow green bar across the explorer windows” so we’ll look into that as well.

The farm owner dropped by and we met Tom and paid him for the night and chatted a bit.  We’d seen two kangaroos hoping around when we drove in, two more while sitting in the rig, and three more came by while we chatted with Tom.  Couldn’t get any photos we’re afraid to say cause they won’t stay still and pose!

As we were far from civilization we again, we went out after dark and enjoyed the night sky views.

Next morning Fran went out and did yoga outdoors and want to ask you all:  “how many of you have done yoga outdoors with kangaroos hopping by in the distance”?  It was pretty cool.

As we left the sheep property we saw some kangaroos that actually stood and posed for photos:

For lots more photos click here.

We left the campground and headed northwest towards Broken Hill.  It was a good distance away and after 60 km / 40 mi of bad dirt road we hit pavement and continued as far as the small town of Menindee where we went to the tourist office that has bathrooms and free hot showers which we took advantage of before getting to a wild camp by the Darling River.  It was very quiet and continues to sunny in the low 20’s C / mid 70’s F.  There is the constant breeze so it’s quite comfortable and again we had a starry night.

Today we heard from John and Pam regarding the continuing issues we’ve been having.  They are feeling quite bad for us about how many things have gone wrong and continued to happen.  Like us, they have not been sleeping well.  They offered us a refund of some money a couple of days ago and we were trying to sort out how to get that money.  Today they suggested that we return to Adelaide, they’d help us fix and sell the rig and we could buy something better; a great plan so we are on our way back there by mid-week and all of us are looking at other buying options.

The midges that night were something awful – we could not believe how many we saw once we got ready for bed.  The zapper actually died right before bed so the timing was good.

We left Menindee around 8 am, dumped our cassette in town and continued north to Broken Hill.  Here we wanted to see the Royal Flying Doctors Museum but it was under renovation!  Darn.  We stopped for a few things at the hardware store and continued on to Silverton, a mining ghost town which was not very big and had the smallest offerings of a ghost town we’ve ever seen.   It was, however, exploiting how it was a major shooting location for Mad Max II.

 

Just past it was the Mundi Mundi Lookout where you get views of the expanse of the Great Australian Desert:

We strolled the ghost town (not much really) and had lunch at the famous Silverton Hotel.  While at the Mundi Mundi Lookout, we chatted with a fellow and he and his wife joined us at lunch time.  Rob and Marie are from Queensland on a short road trip.

We stopped before returning to Broken Hill to get online as we read there was no cell signal at the park we are booked to spend the night at.

Today to top things all off:  a emu committed suicide against Tassie!  It ran right out in the highway and hit Tassie in the passenger door.  It bent the mirror arms so the door wouldn’t open and made a hole in the bottom corner of the camper.

We pulled over and Doug was able to unbend the mirror’s arm and we continued on our way.

We had both responded to an ad for a rig yesterday and had not really heard back so Doug called and we made a deal on price and set a date to come look at.  It was one we’d looked at back in June but the price was a bit higher than we wanted to spend ($62K).  We offered $45K and countered at $50K when he said $55K (we thought).  We made a plan to come see it (south of Adelaide) on Thursday.

Fran had booked us a site in the local state park: Living Desert that gave us hot showers, water, dumping and limited cell service.  The attraction here is not only being in the desert but the sunsets are supposed to be fantastic especially if you head up the hill to what is called “the living sculptures”.  We got settled and, of course, tried to fix a few things on the rig as the toilet valve was again not working! It seems it’s a flusher problem; it can be opened manually from underneath where the cassette is stored by not by the flusher handle.

Being here in the desert it’s definitely colder at night but there is a positive side to this:  no midges!

We went to the sunset viewing area nearby around 5:45 and it was okay – not great.

We returned to the rig, had dinner and stayed inside the rest of the night.

Tuesday morning, we took advantage of the free hot showers (it was a bit chilly getting out as it dropped into the low single digits C /  38F!), packed up after Doug worked on some cupboard latch issues and drove into the park further to visit the living sculptures.

This is a list of things we fixed to this point before returning to Adelaide:

• Muffler, very noisy – hole repair didn’t hold; we had it replaced – so much quieter!
• Kitchen sink drain issue – between Drano and a plunger we got it unplugged
• Fridge latch – Doug repaired with a locking washer
• LPG door didn’t close but Doug fixed with some effort and a new grinding drill bit
• Grey water hose too short – bought a new longer one
• Battery not secured – put in some brackets to hold it and the inverter better
• Speaker cover fell off – Doug managed to get it back on

Before driving over to the sculpture, we received a message from the seller of the rig we thought we had made a deal with only to be told that he must have had a “brain fart” on the price and would not go lower than $55K.  He tried to tell us it was originally listed at $78K but we could prove we saw the $62K back in early June.  He said his partner did not want to go below $55K and they were not interested in budging.

In the meantime, John and Pam had found two other ones that might work and we reached out to that seller with a few questions.

In 1993, artist Lawrence Beck organized and directed a successful sculpture symposium on this majestic hilltop (within the centre of the reserve) by artists from around the world. The stunning result – 12 giant sandstone sculptures highlight the outback skyline, each with a story to tell. 

It was a pleasant stroll and some sculptures we enjoyed more than others.

For pictures of this leg of the journey, click here.

We left the park and began the drive back to Adelaide.  Enroute we decided to reach out to another seller who had a decent one for sale (Pam found this one) – it had a bit of a weird configuration but we can probably make it work especially cause pickings are slim with what we want in this state.  We set up an appointment to see it this afternoon around 4.  John had already gone to see it the day before (we found this out when we told them what we were doing) and he said it was in very good shape and we could probably get it for $28-30K – they are asking $34K.

So we drove the nearly 500km / 300 mi to the small city of Nurioopta in one go with a couple of quick stops.  One of those stops was a fruit inspection booth; we had just eaten our last two bananas, Doug ate the tomatoes we had left and we both polished off an apple each.

The fellow took our banana peels and asked for a quick look in the fridge – it was very cursory so not sure he could see much; he asked if we had any honey (we did have a container of creamed honey) and we said no as he didn’t ask to look in the cupboards.  What a waste of time!

Before getting to place to see the RV we stopped for cash so we had a deposit to give them if we decided to make an offer and we met Sheila and Tony at the end of a dead end road.  This rig is also built on a Nissan Navara but is a 2005.  The camper part was originally a slide in but was affixed to the chassis.  It has a queen over the cab as usual, portable 80w solar, one battery, 4 burner stove with grill, a 3 way fridge, a shower/toilet, kitchen sink, AC and a fair amount of cupboards.  It’s been well maintained and was very clean and shiny.  It only has 160,000 km on the 3L turbo engine so more power than Tassie has and it’s got power windows, a CB and a centre console (all of which Tassie does not).   It doesn’t have the extra bed for Fran but we decided to try the sleeping in the east west bed and doing the crawling over thing or we could figure something out.  As pickings are slim for what we want, and it’s only for 1-2 years, we’ll manage.  It does not have a gennie but John has said we can have the one in Tassie – after all, it’s still technically our camper.

After a run through, a test drive and a private chat, we offered them $28K and they countered at $29K and we had a deal.  We gave them the $1K we had in cash, signed an agreement and we advised we’d wire the balance to be in their bank account by week’s end.   We are feeling pretty good.  We are SO fortunate to have found another rig and even more fortunate to have had original sellers like John & Pam who are being so helpful, understanding and hospitable.

It was now nearly 5pm and we didn’t want to go much further nor drive in the dark.  Fran found a camp area in the park in the nearby town of Greenock about 7km / 4 mi away.  Sheila had mentioned there was a pub near there with good food so we parked and walked over – it was about 5 minutes away.

The food was good – we had their special house pizza with a few cold ones before going back.

Wednesday morning we were back at John & Pam’s before noon and Doug and John began working on the “list of issues” we’d come up with:

• Toilet: doesn’t flush or hold water and can’t add water – fixed the first and third – needs new seal – that still didn’t work so Doug took it apart and jerry rigged with a hose clamp when the JB weld they used didn’t hold
• Passenger door can’t be unlocked by key – not sure if this can be fixed
• Cupboard don’t work well, open while driving – we’ll leave this
• Bathroom vent won’t open – can’t fix
• Over cab bed vent not well affixed so potential leak area and won’t open easily  but it appears not to leak after a 10mm rain one night
• Not all windows can open – can’t fix
• Holy screens allow lots of bugs in – just needs to be patched
• Shower connections leaks – not going to worry about it as it only leaks while using
• Microwave moves around and stopped working – replaced by John with a new one
• Fuel backsplashes – can’t fix
• Poor suspension – could use another leaf – we’ll leave this
• Spare tires hard to get down – not going to worry
• Spot light came loose – fixed
• Passenger door mirror bolt fell out – then emu hit it and bent it – got it straightened when it happened and at John’s got it connected back up
• Cab ceiling loose – John fixed
• Coach door will no longer lock from inside – John fixed
• Latch on kitchen cupboards fell off – put in new screws
• Bigger Gas bottle doesn’t fit properly – but door is able to close – not going to worry

We spent the next week transferring our belongings, fixing stuff on Tassie, adding solar panels, new batteries, an inverter and a solar controller, sorting and organizing our new rig which we are naming “Matilda“.

We did do our exercise every morning, had tea, midday brekkie, and ran errands.  We helped out with cooking dinners, paying for groceries, gas, washing dishes, etc. in the house.

We did have a Netflix movie night one evening where we used our hot air popper so we could all enjoy some while watching.  John and Pam have been SO generous with their time and home – we cannot thank them enough.

The weather has been cooler, barely reaching 17C / 62F most days but that’s been good for working outside and not feeling like we’re missing great weather.  It rained a little one day but not too much.

As Matilda came with a portable folding solar panel that we don’t need, Fran has listed on FB Marketplace – it had a lot of interest, a lot of no show’s but finally it sold.

Doug, with John’s help, continued to work through Tassie’s issues and by Tuesday, things were back in working order and it’s ready to put up for sale.  We’ve composed an ad, gathered photos and suggested where it should be posted.  We’ve given them an authorization to sell it on our behalf, signed the transfer document and were able to open an Australian bank account for the money to be transferred into.  This will enable us to receive the refund cheque from the Service SA office for cancelling the extended registration on Tassie – for some reason they cannot just credit our account.

Opening an account was very easy, copy of our passport, an address and our foreign tax identity number and we were given a 55+ account with no fees and didn’t even need to put money in the account!

Tuesday, Fran did a bit more shopping for a few items, got keys cut (we only  had one set for Matilda) and Doug continued working on improving Matilda; the last items needed for the solar system arrived that day mid-afternoon and Doug took care of that until there was a little fire in the wiring near the hot water tank!  John called an electrician recommended by his mechanic and was told Doug come bring Matilda over right at 9am.

They then began working on rearview camera but it never worked at the back of the vehicle; in fine print it says “metal will interfere with signal”!!!!  WTH?  So that has to go back.

So Doug headed over to the electrician on Wednesday morning, and while waiting he walked over and returned the camera.  The problem was apparently a wire touching some metal so it’s now sorted.  Phew!

He then went to a place outside the city to get a proper rearview camera installed and they couldn’t do it for a week but he found a different electronics shop to buy a better one and also an rv accessories shop to find a new water cap but turns out it was hooked on differently so that too must go back.

Thursday, we hoped this would be our last day here but when we tested the vehicle connected to shore power the entire driver’s side had no power!  That side is where AC unit is installed and as well four outlets; this was not good.  Doug saw where the wires went – into the closet and then taped off!

Fran called the seller and asked about this and they said they never used shore power in the short time they had it so were not aware it didn’t work and that when they purchased it, they too were told everything work.

So between Doug and John, they found an old extension cord and wired up the closed off wires across the ceiling and found power.  Yeah!  Now the plugs and the AC have 240v power.

Next was the new rearview camera – took way longer than anticipated and they had to resort to Gorilla tape to hide the wiring as it was wired into and 7 pin harness under the truck – that’s a long way.

John had already placed for sale ads for Tassie and someone was scheduled to come tonight at 5 so we did not head out as John had family plans and we agreed to meet up with this potential buyer.  Well it turned out he didn’t show so at 5:45 we went out to Matilda, turned on the electric heater (as we are plugged in) and had dinner.  As we had figured we’d leave today, we had stripped the bed and cleaned upon the bathroom we had used in the house and did not want to bother setting it all up again for one night, so Fran made up the bed and we’ll spend our first night in it and leave in the morning.

It’s too bad Tassie didn’t work out cause it’s well designed, had all we needed with lots of storage and it was quite retro looking but sadly we will not be that sad to see her go; as Fran said “they’ll be no touching eulogy”.

The photo at the top is of what are called “striped treasure” flowers.  They come in yellow and orange.

and here’s a desert sweet pea: