DAY 40 - FINDING OUT THE CARAVAN'S LIMITATIONS

When we were deciding which caravan to buy at first we were attracted to the 4WD ones to go off road and camp rough. But then the thought of a newborn in a cramped caravan with no bathroom in the middle of the Aussie bush put us off. Plus Steffi wanted an office which she could shut off from us rabble. So eventually we found this Jayco Sterling van with room to manoeuvre inside but as we found out, not so easy to manoeuvre around!(did you know there seem to be 4 ways to spell manoeuvre? Odd) So Monday we finally left Perth and headed south to the pretty forest of Lane Poole reserve with the Murray river winding it's way through it. The only campground out of quite a few of them in the park that would take caravans was Nanga Mill. After having our caravan fixed up on the way at the dealers we bought it from we arrived quite late and so we didn't have much choice to not stay as the girls were tired and hungry. I walked around the sites amongst the trees looking in vain for a large flat spot and eventually decided on a spot up a steep dirt track. Well the car struggled pulling almost 3 tonnes up this bumpy track the gearbox smoking and the caravan swaying and squeaking! Must have been a sight! At the top after lots of driving forward and reversing the only area we thought was OK left the van at a ridiculous angle like a yacht when the tide goes out stuck on the sand. So we gave up on that, somehow turned the van around and picked another spot we hadn't really noticed with a slope that was livable for one night but the smell of a smoking gearbox lingered! So now we have found out our caravan's limitations and are resigned to the idea of safe campgrounds and large flat parking areas.

The girls checking out the locals.

Spot the face.