Usual bad sleep, woke up early and then down to Lakes Entrance to have a look around.
Parked in the shade to make sure the cat was OK, it was a glorious day again; we’ve been really lucky with the weather, only 1 overcast day and 1 day with very light rain for a couple of hours. Almost every day has been sunny.
Had a wander, took some photos and a guy asked if we wanted him to take one of us. Well, I say a guy, it was the Chapter leader of the Newcastle branch of The Longriders Motorcycle Club, a huge guy with several piercings in his face and ears. I wasn’t going to say no thanks, and thought I can always buy Song another Iphone when he decides he wants to keep it.
He was actually a nice bloke, had a little chat about where they sleep, where they were going and what’s the going price for a murder these days.
Looked them up when we were a safe distance away, they are actually called The Longriders Christian Motorcycle club. So there you go, don’t judge a book by it’s piercings.
Crossed over the bridge and to the main beach, stopped to chat to a couple of blokes fishing – country people are very friendly.
The main beach was spectacular, the sea quite rough but the beach is the longest I’ve ever seen, it went miles in both directions.
Walked back to the van, cat was fine. We debated whether to stop and stay the night at Warragul on the way home since we didn’t have to return the van till Saturday, but in the end decided it wasn’t worth it so would just get home to leave us plenty of time to clean and tidy the van.
Drove to Bairnsdale and put some diesel in – we’d paid $139 so that we didn’t have to return the van full, or the gas bottle either, so it was a calculation to see if we could drop it back with as little fuel as possible, but we over-compensated. Still, it saved us having to fill it up.
Stopped off at Sale for a walk around a lake, then again at Traralgon to stretch the legs, have a coffee and do a bit of shopping.
The road turned into 4 lanes from Traralgon and was straight most of the way, so it was easy driving after the twists and turns and forests of the previous few days. Cruise control on and just stay in the lane.
Hit some road works on the way back, but not too much of a delay and arived back home at just after 19:00.
Spent the next hour and a half unloading all our gear – I couldn’t believe how much stuff we took, and a lot of it not used.
So that was our first experience in a Motorhome – it was certainly an experience and we learnt a lot.
We stayed one night at most places, but the everyone else books into a site for a week or two. In our case the main point of the trip was to see if we liked the #vanlife – which we did for the most part. We had never intended to stop for too long at any one place, we didn’t have the time, plus we don’t do that when we travel, we tend to stay in a place for a day or two then move on. We might have to change that if we get a van.
Driving it at first was very daunting and nerve-wracking, worrying about the size, was I going to clip the wing mirrors again, will it tip over (there were a couple of scary moments going around corners on a slope, even though I slowed to a crawl). But by the end I was more confident and relaxed about it, although it did take a lot of concentration.
We made a long list of things that we would put into any van we buy – and we’re going to the motorhome show next month to check out ideas. We probably won’t buy one in Aus, but wait till we go to Europe in a couple of years.
So things we learnt – don’t park on the grass, park on the slab or the astroturf. Plug in the power, water and waste pipe when you arrive. Get to the park when the staff are on site. Remember where you put stuff; the amount of time we spent looking in all the cupboards for something was ridiculous. Don’t drive at night. Don’t leave your toiletries in the shower block. Check everything before you leave – it didn’t happen to us, but it would be easy to drive off with something plugged in or not locked.
Our next trip is probably a weekend in Canberra, then this year we might go to Queensland and hopefully Europe in October or over Christmas.
