Travelling Australia

Getting Ready

Since returning home mid-October 2012 after six months travelling Europe, apart from catching up with family and friends, we have been busy setting up and preparing for our travels around Australia.  

On the day we touched down we picked up our new Nissan Pathfinder Ti550 4wd.  Driving it out of the showroom we headed straight to the supermarket to get food and other supplies as our apartment had been empty for six months.

The Pathfinder, as well as most Nissan', has a habit of dropping their bum when loaded.  I did a bit of research and decided to install some airbags in the rear coil springs.  The first ones leaked (installers name withheld) so I had them removed (installer's attitude and professionalism withheld) and with identical ones installed by TJM they are now working perfectly and have improved the load balancing of the vehicle quite a lot when the van is attached.

Other accessories added to the Pathfinder were:

• bull bar
• board racks
• rear reversing sensors
• large rubber mat/tray for rear storage compartment

Next was the caravan.  Nine months earlier, after much research, we chose and ordered our Roadstar Safari Tamer off-road caravan.  Although the standard caravan is well appointed, we had the specs increased a little to meet our needs.  Our intent is to spend most of our travels in national and state forest parks, bush camping and the more remote areas of Australia.  We will be staying in caravan parks from time to time but we are after a set up that gives us a lot of self sufficient capability.

Additions included:

• a total of 300 litres in tank water under the van - 100 litres dedicated drinking water and 200 litres for kitchen, shower and washing
• Cruisemaster independent suspension for maximum off-road capability
• larger window in kitchen
• additional 2 x 12v outlets
• external driver-side light
• additional 240v outlets
• total 3 x 100 amp batteries
• 2 x 150w solar panels
• 2 kva Yamaha generator

The van is 19'6" long with a queen size bed, separate shower and toilet, washing machine, 240 litre 12v compressor fridge, microwave, 3 burner gas and 1 electric element stove, grill, oven, hot-water system (gas and 240v), aircon, colour TV (inside and external mounting points), 2 pumps (one for filtered drinking water and the other for shower and kitchen) plus many other features.  Apart from the washing machine, microwave and aircon everything in the van runs on 12v.  The solar panels, car and 240v all charge the batteries and everything runs off the batteries.

We just love our van.

So that's the starting setup for our trip which we are sure will continue to evolve as we travel.  It should allow us to go anywhere we want, stay as long as we want and be comfortable doing it.

SHAKEDOWN TRIPS

Bigriggen - Nov 2012

We picked the van up on the 8 November 2012 and headed straight to Bigriggen Campground near Rathdowney for four nights bush camping. 

Camping at Bigriggen - Nov 2012

This time was spent working out where the front door was, reading the myriad of manuals on how to use everything and generally enjoying camping on our own with our new van and car.  The place was very quiet and we didn't have any close neighbours to observe our trial and errors.

We were visited by the local friendly kookaburras who made sure we didn't leave our food unguarded at any time.

Girraween - November 2012

After being home for a week to get a few more things for the van and car, we set off again for Girraween National Park for four nights on another shakedown trip.  We set up in Castle Rock Camping Area ....

Girraween NP - Nov 2012

... a lovely spot. To the front we had views over a tree-studded paddock with kangaroos and rabbits hopping around.  To the rear we had views over a tree-studded paddock with 39 eleven year old school kids  and their teachers hopping around.  In fact the school kids were great entertainment. They played well together.  The teachers took them on hikes in the morning and swimming in the afternoon, all successfully designed to wear them out so they went to bed early and stayed there all night.  They did leave a couple days before us so we had some empty paddocks to enjoy for a while.

We met some great fellow travellers here:

• Allan travelling by himself in a caravan and being on the final three days of his three month trip he had planned to take with his late wife who passed away four months earlier.
• Another couple who were also heading home after a couple of months away.  They had designed and built their own caravan from the ground up.  What a great caravan it was too - tough as nails with many clever design features including levelling air-bag suspension, gas-lift nose-cone at the front providing a large storage area and a sophisticated electronics system.  Even the whole suspension could be moved  400 mm forward or back to allow for load handling.

While here we did Sphinx and Turtle Rock walk, the Junction walk and the Bald Rock Creek circuit.  Having completed these walks means Jeff has finally completed all walks in Girraween National Park.  We also visited Pyramid Wines and a few other places to pick up things to weigh the caravan down a bit more.  

Again both the car and caravan performed well.  The van developed a problem with its 12v power - it had none at all.  Very strange as we went to bed one night and everything was working perfectly only to wake up to no power at all.  I was able to get it working by pushing a little green box in the electrical area.  I initially kept the pushing going by using some baked bean tins.  This was later replaced by a carefully selected and lengthened tree branch.  A call to the caravan supplier obtained approval to have it fixed under warranty by a local auto electrician where we have the van stored.  All is now working perfectly.  We stayed for the planned four days before heading home.

It was on this trip that I decided to try towing the van with the Pathfinder in sports mode - and what a difference it made.  Fuel consumption improved as did the engine breaking when going down hills.  The Pathfinder has a 7-speed gearbox which I found is better suited for towing the van in sports mode as it uses only five gears and changes up and down at just the right times.  Interestingly when going downhill eg Cunningham's Gap, with a slight touch of the breaks the Pathfinder automatically drops one or two gears to bring the revs up to around 3000 rpm providing good engine breaking and significantly reducing the need to use the breaks.  

Lake Ainsworth - Lennox Head - Dec - 2012

This trip was designed to test the van when connected to 240v and mains water.  We could now run the air-conditioning, washing machine and microwave in addition to everything else.  Lake Ainsworth is a great van park on a dune lake with nearby golden beaches and pretty headland.  Lennox Head has small supermarkets, fuel and car repairs.

Lennox Head - looking north towards Byron Bay

A pair of Brahminy Kites

Again we met some lovely people camped nearby and had some relaxing happy hours each day.  Storms hit one afternoon - all a good test of our rig.

Lake Ainsworth

With the van fully tested we packed it away for the Christmas holidays.  We are now all ready for our first big trip starting on Monday.  We plan to be away for seven weeks returning around Easter heading south.