Dan in a Van – my first real road trip in the caravan

Well, that is it, I am officially a grey (or blonde) nomad! I am hooked. Caravanning is the life for me! On the 17th January I packed up and headed off in the van with 2 of my children – Harry & Clancy. Well, someone had to stay back and work didn’t they??? So, Mr Chardy and Tom opted out – turns out they are not super sexy caravanning people like me! ha ha ha ha.

Look, I’m not going to lie, I was not in a great place over the December/January period. It was just our family and Stretch here on the station – so: me and 5 blokes. This is not an ideal position to be in over the festive period because blokes don’t really give a toss about Christmas carols and lavish Christmas lunches. Mr Chardy always gets a little down when our crew leave over the wet season. He loves having his people here and is an extrovert. I was actually starting to think I was becoming an introvert but it turns out I also like to have our crew here. We don’t really know how to just be a family of 5. We have never been “just us”. From when I met Mr Chardy we have lived on stations with lots of people around. Our whole married and family life has been “the whole station” as our “family” and it seems I really do miss them when they go.

I miss cooking for them, feeding the people and serving others. I thrive on this. So with only a few on the station it was really quite lonely. I found myself getting really sad and upset on quite a few occasions. Bursting into tears for no good reason. In the end Mr Chardy suggested I head down to NSW to see my family – given the borders had finally opened. I had not seen my Mum and Dad for over 2 years and it had been over a year since I had seen my sister and her family. That was all I needed as my push, 5 seconds later I was planning my trip. Oh, and I was definitely taking the van!

The next move was to figure out how the boys and I would get into Camooweal. You see, my car and caravan were in at Rocklands Station – about 7km out of Camooweal. Of course our fabulous neighbour, Steve, came to the rescue. On the 17th January he flew into the station, collected us and dropped us at Rocklands.

I was beside myself with excitement – about to head off on my first real road trip in my caravan. You can read all about my caravan and how it came about HERE. Let’s just say… the universe was speaking to me! Never mind the fact that I didn’t have many towing hours behind me… I was totally doing this. Baby steps, no rush, one km at a time.

So we hooked up in Camooweal and off we went… bound for NSW – just a quick 4 day trip. I was beyond excited to be back in my car with my little house on behind.

My sister gave me this cool little thing that you sit in your drink holder in the car to stop it wabbling around….

Aint that the truth! Life really does rock when your home rolls! I just love life as a grey nomad. First stop: Mt Isa to get a few things. I really had to plan this out in my head, because: not experienced at towing a van (details, details) and especially not experienced in towing it all around a town. I needed to fuel up the car, get a gas tank refilled and go to the supermarket. I had it all planned where I would go and where I could park. I went to BCF to get the gas bottle refilled and ended up parking down in a dead end. Harry said to me “Mum, how are you going to get out of here”… I had a mild panic attack and figured we would be ok. So I had to back the old girl up (give me strength) but it was all good, I backed that baby like a boss and off we went. Next stop: Coles.

My New Years resolution was to become a tight arse, so this was going to be the “tight arse tour to NSW” (we won’t discuss the $2,000 it cost me in diesel though). I brought a lot of stuff from home and even frozen meals but I needed to get a few things from the supermarket. I decided to challenge myself – the only things I would spend money on on the way down would be diesel (and god knows I was going to have to sell a kidney to pay for that alone) and powered sites – it was definitely too hot to free camp. We spent our first night at the Kynuna Roadhouse (I wouldn’t normally recommend stopping at said roadhouse but all I needed was somewhere to plug into power and water, tick!). When we pulled into Kynuna at around 6pm it was 42 degrees! The van was that hot it wasn’t funny.

I reckon it took a solid 3 hours for the van to cool down with the Ibis 4 air conditioner on turbo! It was just disgusting but we were ok and happy because it was our first night on the road. A chance to get everything set up and then have dinner. I even did a quick vacuum and mop of the floor – DD would have been so proud.

Check out our sexy rig! Seriously – I just love it all. Who even am I? I’m a super sexy caravanning lady… that’s who!!!

Between Harry and I we found our groove pretty quickly with set up and pack down, he is such a great little van buddy! From pulling up to being all set up only takes about 15 minutes, it is so quick and easy. Clancy also had a few inside jobs. Of a morning we didn’t really need to do much, just get dressed and get going… the boys aren’t big breakfast eaters and I am an intermittent faster so nobody needed feeding that early in the morning – quite convenient really. The only important thing I really needed to do was fire up the coffee machine and fill my Yeti coffee cup with black coffee for the road. From get up to get going was only about 1 hour, maybe less. I would wake the boys up just before we needed to get going.

The next day we thought we would just play it by ear, I was still new to this towing business so cruising along pretty slowly. I wasn’t in any rush. We ended up getting to Tambo and stayed at the lovely Tambo Mill Motel and Caravan Park. I highly recommend this place. The managers were so helpful and really nice. We parked on a lovely shady site right near the pool, so Clancy managed to fit in a swim before dinner.

That night we even had a bit of a storm and it was so beautiful to hear rain on the roof. This also meant it was much cooler than our previous morning. I enjoyed a cup of coffee outside in my dressing gown… oh yes – this is the life for me!!!!

Pack, drive repeat… off we went again. This time we thought we might make it to Bourke but by the time we got to the border at Barringun and with the time difference (lost 1 hour) it was already 5pm and still another hour and a half at least to Bourke.

I called ahead to a caravan park to see if we would be able to pay for a site and just drive in (I mean they were hardly busy) but the lady was most unhelpful and said “well, it’s 5 now so …. no”. Oh and she wanted to charge me 70 bucks for a site – that’s a no from me and my tight arse tour lady! I was parked outside the Bushtucker Inn at Barringun – a shonky looking little roadhouse on the border.

I found their number on Wikicamps (of course I did) and the lady was so lovely (turns out looks can be deceiving) and helpful. 20 bucks for a powered site and we were good to go – on point with the tight arse tour. Oh I also thought I was going to run out of fuel as the sign out of Cunnamulla said “no fuel until Bourke” and we had a major headwind which meant my fuel gauge was going down before my very eyes. But, alas, there was a massive self serve and pay diesel tank right out the front of the Bushtucker Inn. What a relief – it was meant to be! My angels were definitely looking after me!

The weather was also absolutely glorious… so cool… about 24 degrees. A little different to our night at Kynuna!

Ok, next day we were off and racing… this was going to be the day I would finally see my family. I had not seen my Mum and Dad for 2 years and it had been a year since I had seen my sister and her family. My sister, Toni, and her husband, Justin, and their two boys – Will and Mitchie, live on a farm about 30km out of Gilgandra. That was where I was heading. Mum and Dad were going to be there too. I was so excited. We had another great day of driving. Travelling along the boys would ask when lunch was… so I would find a great spot to pull over, we would head into the van, fire up the gas stove and make Clancy a quick hot dog and Harry would have some noodles. It was just so convenient, not to mention the fact that I never have to use a public toilet again. It was all just so easy!

We headed in through Warren, Collie and Gilgandra and arrived just in time for wine time! Tones even handed me a glass of wine on arrival.

I was so happy to see them all and their farm looked amazing after lots of rain. It was such a contrast to the last time I was there. Check out my FREE caravan site at their place – tick “tight arse tour”…

I did it – I drove myself, my van and my 2 boys all the way from Camooweal QLD to Gilgandra NSW! What a great feeling – I don’t need to rely on anyone, I can do it all myself! Gosh it was good to see my family, I was just so happy to be down there with my little house. I also took on the role as head chef and whipped up some delicious meals.

We had a lovely few days and then left the van there while we headed over to Mum and Dad’s place in Mudgee for a few nights. It was so great to finally be back in my home town and catch up with Aunty Theresie, John and Uncle Terry & Aunty Annie. We also managed to catch up with Georgie (our head stockman) because her Mum and Dad now live in Mudgee too. So we had a lovely dinner with them. It was a pretty quick trip but fantastic.

We headed back to Toni’s place for one last night there as we had the van booked in for her first service at Jayco Dubbo on the Friday as we headed back. That also meant killing time in Dubbo while it was serviced. The van was finally ready for collection at about 3pm so we decided to head to Nyngan that night. Found a fabulous caravan park right on the Bogan River.

The next morning we were up and at it pretty early to get going, we managed to make it all the way to Tambo that day and stayed at the beautiful Tambo Mill Motel and Caravan Park again. The next day we got to Cloncurry and stayed at the Oasis Caravan Park. Then it was onto Mt Isa where we unhooked the caravan and left it at a friends house and headed to Camooweal. Oh how the mighty had fallen …. we had to stay in a motel room excuse me! I was so sad to say goodbye to the van but we had had a LOT of rain at home while we were gone so there was no way we were driving back in. The plane was coming for us first thing the next morning, so we stayed at the pub. I missed my bed in the van.

So that was it my friends – our impromptu trip to NSW. The flight back into the station was in stark contrast to the flight when we left. There was water everywhere, it was so lovely to see. Although I must say – all these months later it disappeared and didn’t do a whole lot in places. After that rain it was just so hot with no follow up. Anyway, we made it home safely and my cup was full.

We had our little adventure and we got to see my family. Tick! I absolutely loved our road trip with the van, it was such fun and Clancy and Harry were a pleasure to have as my co-pilots. Now to plan my next trip. My van is still in Mt Isa and I can’t wait to get in there again.

So tell me – have you got a fun caravanning story for me? I would love to hear it, now that I am a super sexy caravanning lady.

PS: I started writing this post about 2 months ago… better late than never as I always say!!!!