All posts by Alex

Mathematician, Chess Player, IT Nerd, Navigator
New South Wales

A Million Paw Walk

Today was the RSPCA “Million Paw Walk” fundraiser. One of my neighbours mentioned it to me while fussing over Pip a couple of days ago. (Caravan neighbours talk much more than house neighbours – perhaps because they know they won’t have to put up with you much longer!) I thought – why not. So we reached Victoria Park, Goulburn this morning and found an old bowling green filled with dogs

Pip and Ash in the top right corner
Pip and Ash in the top right corner

After a free vet check and purchasing a suitable bandanna, we all headed off for a 1 km tour of the park.

A thousand paws taking a thousand steps
A thousand paws taking a thousand steps

I don’t really know if much money was raised for the amount of marshals we had, but Pip had a great time!

Pippi

New South Wales

Goulburn Morning

Good morning from Grosvenor Hill Caravan Park, Goulburn, home of the Singing Ants!

Singing Ants of Goulburn
Singing Ants of Goulburn

These ants have a predeliction for country music but also do a bit of instrumental, but nothing so unclassy as to have been composed this century.

I am beginning to suspect that caravan parks have themes. Grosvenor Hill Park, despite its small size (it seems to cater to the overnight traveller), has three themes. No only does it have the singing ants, it also has an awesome model train set up

The train emerging from the tunnel
The train emerging from the tunnel
...while the other passes a windmill.
…while the other passes a windmill.

and two aviaries.

A Norwegian Blue?
A Norwegian Blue?

Behind the caravan park is  bit of scrub leading off to the Goulburn Tip (I didn’t realise until I got close). Lots of wild life there. We ran into several mobs of kangaroos, but only one let me get a shot. Pip went beserk when it began hopping.

Lone Kangaroo
Lone Kangaroo

Around the tip I saw a wild dog and I think a feral cat, but they did not want to get near me. There were lots of bullants too, but very hard to photograph on all the litter they use for their hives.

Travel

Kit

Image
Caravan showing pop out sleeping, solar panels. (Annex folded up)
Caravan showing pop out sleeping, solar panels. (Annex folded up)
Contents ready to load. (Kitchen sink out of picture.)
Contents ready to load. (Kitchen sink out of picture.)
Dog included
Dog included
Travel

Certified and certifiable

1 Comment

On Monday Carmel and I did our towing course. Towing a caravan requires to to forget almost everything you ever knew about driving a car. When you turn, you wait until the rear wheel of the 4WD is level with the curb (or witch’s hat if your are lucky, or petrol bowser if unlucky) before you begin to turn. Your brain is screaming that you are out to far but when you look back, the van only just makes it.

After a brief how to connect and disconnect your van, the first tricky exercise was to do a doughnut (a tight circle ending up where you started) with the van attached. Except for the fact I was fully focused on mastering the skill, I should have taken a video of the car park with 5 vans all reversing in circles. Anyway, once you get a feel for it, it is quite straightforward. Now I know what to do when the Apaches attack and ride around us in a anti-clockwise direction (or is the clockwise in the southern hemisphere). But the purpose is to know how to hold the van in a smooth motion and it is used when reversing into a van spot.

Note to self.

  1. To move the rear of the van to the right, turn the wheel to the right.
  2. To reverse into a lot, mark up a pivot point of two steps out and three steps in the car direction of the corner of the caravan
    1. Drive the car straight so the first “a” of Expanda is level and arm distance from this pivot point
    2. Full lock minus a half in the wrong direction.
    3. Reverse until you see the second penguin
    4. Stop and go full lock minus a half in the right direction
    5. Reverse keeping the second penguin aligned with the edge of the car.