MONDAY 11 OCTOBER     HEALESVILLE

We needed a fairly early start this morning, because we had to hitch up the van and take it to Trakmaster for a service. Obviously, the outside furniture, awning  and the like didn’t need to go too, and we were lucky to be able to move them to the new site we would occupy from this afternoon.

We stayed with the van at Trakmaster. They are very busy with orders through to next June. We like the sound of there being ongoing demand for the brand. They do seem to be developing a solid reputation. We chatted to a couple of prospective customers, while we were waiting.

I added our black lines to the wall map they keep on display in the office, showing where their vans have been taken. It is getting to be quite an impressive display, especially of unsealed road travels.

The original plastic cupboard catches in the van were all replaced with metal ones, at no cost to us, because there has been a lot of the originals breaking.

We collected the seat covers and sleeping bag from the dry cleaners. The wool seat covers look like new – all the dust from remote regions has gone! The sleeping bag smells strongly of chemicals.

Back at Healesville, our new site is an en-suite one. We opted for this, in view of John’s coming travails, and because we had the van mobile today, anyway. It is pleasant to have the convenience of the en suite; now we are paying $22 a night.

Set the van back up again. It was an effort for John because he was feeling most unwell.