Tag: Travel

WildlifeLeave a comment

Ants in Our Pants

Itching for Hitching

We’re in Normanton, gulf country. It’s hot, dusty and dry. A million microscopic brown ants have taken roost in our van. I clean the caravan from top to bottom. Down on my knees scrubbing and throwing ant bodies into the rubbish bin and cursing. When all is done and everything is bright and sparkling again I turn on the coffee machine for a well earned break. There they are again waving tiny brown antennae at me…..we’re back! Just like the crocodiles they’ll be on this earth longer than us. Continue reading Ants in Our Pants

Qld, The Pubs2 Comments

The Royal Hotel, Bouldercombe

Itching for Hitching

We haven’t tried pub camping so just shy of Rockhampton in Qld we turn off towards Mount Morgan and 15 minutes later we are in the little town of Bouldercombe. We pull up outside the Royal Hotel and Tracey the publican bounds down the beer garden steps to meet us. Yes, we can park out the back on the wide mowed paddock along with the other campers. “A beer in the bar would be appreciated, thanks and there are $10 meals”. What a lovely spot, it is sunny, warm and dry and peaceful. The other campers are a chatty bunch … Continue reading The Royal Hotel, Bouldercombe

Vic, When Things Just Go WrongLeave a comment

Winter in Victoria is Cold

Itching for Hitching

We’re camping with friends Steve and Margot in Glen Cromie Park near Noojee in Victoria. Up in the hills of west Gippsland it is not unusual to be cold at night in the winter. And true to form overnight the temperature dropped below freezing. Fortunately we’re on a powered site and we can flick on the heater. But not so for Steve and Margot and they soon realise that they’ve left their heater at home. The morning is cold and brisk but beautiful so we drive into Warragul for a bit of shopping and a new heater. We return via … Continue reading Winter in Victoria is Cold

The Characters You MeetLeave a comment

They’ll be fuming

Itching for Hitching

It’s a hot evening in Broken Hill and before dinner we have a drink with our near neighbours from down Geelong way, who have a classic old Millard van that they are towing with a Ford falcon. They are planning on taking it up to Darwin and back down the East coast. With one small snag, the Falcon doesn’t have a large enough petrol tank to make it between petrol stations on the Stuart Highway, so our new mate is airing out an old varnish can under the van, which he intends to fill with extra petrol, hmmm. Continue reading They’ll be fuming

Qld, The Characters You MeetLeave a comment

Customer service

Itching for Hitching

We’re in Georgetown on the Savannah Way it’s hot and remote and we’ve stopped for supplies. While we’re in the supermarket a young local woman is at the counter and they’re having problems with the EFTPOS. “You in a hurry?” says the owner. “Yes” says the young woman (she’s got a long drive to Cairns ahead of her, close to 400kms). “Too bad, so sad” says the owner “I’ve pulled the plug out you’ll just have to wait.” And wait we did. Continue reading Customer service

UpgradingLeave a comment

Upgrading the Van

Itching for Hitching

We have quickly learnt that weekends mean little these days and school holidays are quite a nuisance really. All of our planning in relation to finding the right car and caravan combination was good experience but we soon found that we liked caravanning so much that we wanted to do more of it. Especially the free camping. After eighteen months we sold our beloved pop top and bought a nineteen foot caravan with an ensuite. After two short trips we realised that the Ford Territory also had to go so we traded it in on a second hand Jeep Commander … Continue reading Upgrading the Van

When Things Just Go WrongLeave a comment

Fridges

Itching for Hitching

The fridge that we had in our pop top had a habit of freezing the tucker rather than chilling it. Our cold rissoles were a little frozen as the fridge had once more been working overtime. At least they were edible and Brian thought that the mashed potato tasted more like potato icy poles. I guess it would have been worse if the fridge was under performing. The fridge in our caravan doesn’t like strong wind blowing on the fridge side of the van. Thus when we are free camping and running on gas it blows out, about every ten … Continue reading Fridges

Caravanning HintsLeave a comment

DVD’s

Itching for Hitching

Since becoming caravanners we have developed a love of tucking up in the warm and watching DVD’s on the nights when we don’t have TV reception. So much so, that we have trouble containing our exuberance when we can’t get a signal. It started with Midsomer Murders during a downpour beside the trotting track at Sebastian, out the back of Bendigo, one cold winter afternoon. We then started working our way through the Downton Abbey series one through four. One night in Yallingup we were cooking a roast in the oven and were so engrossed in the TV show that … Continue reading DVD’s

Caravanning HintsLeave a comment

Men’s Health

Itching for Hitching

During our caravan club’s Traralgon muster we were made painfully aware of the importance of ball weights. I can tell you first hand that a heavy ball weight can cause undue stress to the individual and can cause him to make many unscheduled trips to the local car yards. In fact I’ve seen the said sufferer of this condition slumped over his computer muttering incoherently about towing capacities. I very much doubt that the cost of remedying this problem will be covered by BUPA, Medibank or any other health insurer so the pain will shortly move to his hip (pocket). Continue reading Men’s Health

In the BeginningLeave a comment

Lessons Learnt On Our First trip

Itching for Hitching

We’re both amazed at how well and how long we both sleep in the caravan. Some people complain about the noise others make hitching up, nothing wakes us, we look around and wonder where they’ve all gone. A vacuum pump would be handy, so that we can pack more food from home in the freezer, we only had room for one meal in a plastic container, if it was packed in bags we could carry more thus varying the diet with some ‘slow cooked’ food. One needn’t live on BBQ’s alone. We really need more camping type clothes, track pants … Continue reading Lessons Learnt On Our First trip