Remember nudity when choosing a caravan

The layouts of most standard Australian caravans have the external door situated either between the bathroom and kitchen or bedroom and kitchen. Husbands have a bad habit of opening the caravan door when wives are naked. Let me explain. You’ve just jumped out of the shower and you decide to spread out a bit as the bathroom isn’t big enough to swing a cat let alone your aging boobs. You’re drying yourself, arms and legs akimbo half in the bathroom and half in front of the fridge, when hubby flings the door open as wide as it will go, sticks … Continue reading Remember nudity when choosing a caravan

Mulambin Mumblings – Destocking

Aug 2019, Mulambin, Capricorn Coast, Qld With all of the recent talk of crackdowns on overweight caravans – Woody woke in the middle of the night and declared that the van should be destocked. “The rice cooker can go” he says “and the spare set of sheets.” This from the man who stores beer in the ‘cellar’ under the settee, in the car fridge, under the bed and in his undie drawer! At last count (or is that stocktake?) there were 70 bottles of the frothy stuff! A man’s not a camel though is he? Continue reading Mulambin Mumblings – Destocking

Mulambin Mumblings – To Netflix with love

Aug 2019, Mulambin, Capricorn Coast, Qld We drive into Rockhampton to do some shopping, lots of bits and pieces in fact, which has us darting back and forth across town following the dulcet tones of Google Maps. Booze, bread, coffee beans, craft twine*, fruit and vegies from the fruit barn and a new hairdryer as ours has burnt out. Then in a rush of excitement in the electrical store (perhaps we’ve been in the bush too long) we buy a Google Chromecast dongle thingy. Why Chromecast? Well we’re getting old and soft and watching more TV these days and have … Continue reading Mulambin Mumblings – To Netflix with love

Rest in the rubbish bin trusty Shimanos

My Shimano beach sandals have died and I’m quite sure that most of our friends will cheer. I bought these trusty rock hopping, floatable sandals at BCF Mt Isa in 2014. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the area, Mt Isa is about 500kms from the sea. These trusty shoes have travelled tens of thousands of kilometres, trudged beaches of the Pacific, Indian and Southern oceans and kept me afloat in a murky river on a hot day. They’ve even stayed sitting in the stepwell when the caravan door was flapping down the Bruce Highway a few years … Continue reading Rest in the rubbish bin trusty Shimanos

Up the Guts – Getting down to the nitty gritty

Planning a caravanning trip is exciting, where to go, what to see, how far to drive each day without doing yourself in and then there’s the really important stuff: “Where can we empty the toilet?” Or “How many days can we go without emptying the toilet? Oh shit!” Then there’s, “Where can we fill the water tanks?” And “Where is the next supermarket?” Or even “Do they have supermarkets out there?” At least Wikicamps makes finding dump points easy. All of the above depends on whether there are towns where you are going. Then there are the grog shops to … Continue reading Up the Guts – Getting down to the nitty gritty

All hail the humble chook!

Are you absolutely stuffed after a long day of driving? Then why not pick up a chook. Costing somewhere between $7 and $10 there’s nothing better than a hot roast chook picked up from a supermarket as you’re passing through town. It serves as an easy dinner on a day of long driving and hopefully with enough left over for a quick sandwich for next day’s lunch. Toss a bag of coleslaw into your trolley and dinner’s done. Yep, that’ll make hubby reckon that he’s married the kitchen goddess of the scrub. Continue reading All hail the humble chook!

The Heavenly Warmth of Diesel Heat

Last winter we had our coldest ever night on the road at Stanthorpe in Queensland. Which was probably our own fault for staying inland and a thousand metres above sea level in a town that is notorious for cold nights. But at least it prompted us to finally make the decision to fit a diesel heater in the van. We returned home had the heater fitted and like idiots set off into to foul, yes foul weather, with head colds. The diesel heater paid for itself that week, it gave us sensuous enveloping warmth without thinking about it. (Note to … Continue reading The Heavenly Warmth of Diesel Heat

They’re Just Shit Suitcases

Caravan toilets have come a long way and many have wheels on the cassettes that make it easy to take them to the dump point for emptying. We were in Stockton, NSW and things were quite busy with blokes wheeling toilet cassettes back and forth. We even saw a van that had three of them, either those people have a serious medical issue or perhaps they’re just forward planners. Woody who can’t help himself says “Oh look they’re wheeling shit around in a suitcase.” Continue reading They’re Just Shit Suitcases

A smaller eco footprint

It’s only when we come home from a trip that I realise how little we lived with on the road. No dishwasher and just a tiny sink in which the dishes must be washed really fast, as the sink plug sometimes leaks. A 9kg gas bottle seems to last us 3 to 4 months for all our cooking and when free camping our hot water as well. We tend to cook lighter faster meals on the road and eat healthier. Whereas at home in the cold weather we do tend to cook hearty casseroles and cakes. To conserve water, showers … Continue reading A smaller eco footprint