Landrover Defender | This Adventurous Age

April 25, 2022
by wendyviney Leave a comment

2012 Travels September to December 2012

THE REST OF 2012

In September, friend M departed for two months in Italy, France, England, returning via New York. Her travelling companion was a long time friend whose wife – a great friend of M’s – had last year suddenly died.

Each to her own – I was not at all envious of M’s overseas travel, but took great interest in her emailed bulletins.

John spent a lot of September detailing Truck preparatory to selling it. My contribution was to wash – by hand – the sheepskin seat covers. God, those things are heavy when wet. If I’d thought there were dust remnants of our far-flung travels in the crevices of the van, there were even more in those seat covers. It took a heap of soaking, and about ten changes of the water in the trough to clean them. I could measure the depth of sludge left behind, at the start, with a ruler!

That damned ulcer on my leg kept on being hard to heal, and at times was extremely painful too. Twice weekly trips to our doctor’s practice nurse became times to dread, because of the pain caused by her dressing changes. Eventually, after a few different anti-biotic courses, there was improvement and healing. I even tried applying very expensive manuka honey to the wound – and, boy, did that sting. Much pain for no gain though.

I had researched, online, to try to get an idea of the value of our 1996, well-travelled Defender. John had thought he’d get maybe $7000 for it. He was amazed when I told him to double that! It did have a lot of extras fitted to it, and apparently there was a bit of a cult following for them. Our model was particularly valued because people didn’t want the later version with more complex electronic systems, that could and did go wrong. That really was a pleasant surprise. Also, it seemed that Landrover would soon stop selling Defenders in Australia because their design and structure did not allow them to meet the new safety standards.

**Our sixteen year old Defender all spruced up ready to sell**

We had nibbles on Truck as soon as I advertised it, in early October, and within a short time our (mostly) trusty old vehicle was on its way to a farm in Tasmania! As with the van, I was sad to see it go. It had taken us to so many wonderful and out-of-the-way places, over the years.

Since coming home from our first Bus trip, I had been researching and considering options that would give us greater mobility when parked up with bus.

In the past, John and I had been rather scathing when we saw motorhomes towing cars behind them – on trailers or their own wheels. We’d made comments along the lines that such travellers might just as well have become caravanners! How wrong was I?

My first thought had been that my little old Holden Barina might be suitable to take away with us. But John did not like my car – it was too low for him and he battled, these days, to get out of it. We had to have a higher car, he said.

We had rejected outright the idea of towing a trailer with a car on – that would have been too much like caravan towing. I did not like the idea of driving on and off a trailer, and could also see parking the trailer in some caravan parks as problematic.

That left what, in motor homing parlance , was called flat towing. And, boy, was that a complex topic to get my head around. To begin, basically the vehicle would have to have manual transmission, for some complicated issue to do with transmission workings in automatics. I took the word of the experts, but John took some convincing, loving automatics as he did.

Then, I discovered the issue of weights and ratios. Sounds complicated? It is. Essentially there are rules to ensure the motor home is not towing a vehicle that is too heavy for proper control, with the gross weights of both vehicles being key. Eventually I got my head around the rules and the maths of it all – not my strongest ability – and discovered that we would be looking for a car no heavier than 1500kg. When I thought about the towing combinations we had seen on the road, it seemed that a lot of motor homers were well outside the legal limits.

The field was limited. Very limited! I’d been secretly thinking that I might get a lovely brand new diesel Grand Vitara out of all this. Not to be – they weighed about 2 tonnes.

Eventually I decided that a Daihatsu Terios was the way to go. Light enough. High enough off the ground for John. Reviews had extolled a surprising capacity for handling challenging roads and terrain, having some sort of differential switch that almost approximated 4 wheel drive. The only catch was that importation of the Terios cars ceased in 2006. So, we would be looking for a used one.

I was then to find that they were a very popular car for flat towing, and thus in considerable demand for a superseded brand.

There were a few advertised for sale. But too many of these had done upwards of 200,000kms. John was also browsing the car sales sites, and liked the description of one he found: 2004 model, only done 45,000kms. Sounded too good to be true. But then, my 1986 Barina had only done 60,000kms in the 25 years that my father and then I had owned it.

There was a catch: the Terios was in Adelaide. Undeterred, John flew there, was very impressed by what he saw; next day had the car checked by an independent mechanic, and bought it.

He then set out to drive it home. By the time all the checking and paper work had been completed, it was into the afternoon before he set off. Via phone, he told me he’d overnight at Keith and hope to get home the next day. But there was no accommodation to be had in Keith. By the time he reached Bordertown and found a motel room, the night time driving qualities of the Terios had been well tested.

The Terios and John reached home the next afternoon. John raved about how lovely it was to drive and insisted that we go straight back out again so I could have a drive of it. He was right – it felt great, but having a narrow wheelbase and being quite tall, it did take some getting used to cornering.

Even better, from John’s viewpoint, it had air conditioning.

We had to get a Victorian roadworthy certificate done – no problems – and then take it to be registered in Victoria. So the little white Terios gained a nice new set of number plates.

It had, apparently, come from Port Augusta, where it had been a town run around for an elderly lady. That location could possibly also help explain its one obvious flaw – someone had keyed along the driver’s side. I’d read somewhere of that being a problem in car parks there.

My Barina was detailed by John – it was not as hard as Truck had been. I did not need to wash its lambswool seat covers because they were put in the Terios. When we turned up at the mechanic’s for the third roadworthy inspection in two months, I think he suspected we were running a used car business on the sly. The car was old, but looked pretty good, and had that low kms reading. It sold and I was happy with the price.

The next complexity in all this was what A-frame hitch would we use to tow the Terios behind Bus? There were two main brands available. I was attracted to the one that was Australian made, initially, but the experience of some users suggested they could be more difficult to use. So, eventually, we bought a Ready Brute. This had the advantage of folding up at the back of the towing vehicle, when parked up – thus being out of the way of being tripped over. Anecdotally, it was easier to hitch up on uneven ground, or if vehicles were not quite exactly aligned – a big plus. There was an accredited fitter fairly locally – another definite plus. He was able to order the hitch for us from the importer, plus whatever bits and pieces would be needed to make it all operational.

The existing tow bar on Bus proved to be too light and was fitted to Terios by the hitch fitter. So the cost of a new tow bar for Bus was added to the already considerable cost of the hitch. There was a base plate specific to the Terios to be fitted, that the hitch fittings would then go on. A brake system cable was part of the kit – operated by inertia somehow, when the towing vehicle slowed down, not directly by the driver. A little red light was fitted on Bus dashboard – this would light up when the Terios brakes were applied while it was being towed – a bit of a fail safe against them locking on.

Something else we hadn’t known when we embarked on all this was that some electrical works were needed to make the 24volt Coaster compatible with the Terios.

At different times, both Bus and Terios went to the hitch fitter for all this work. When all was done, we went in Terios to pick up Bus – and get a hands on demo of how to hitch the two together. It didn’t look too hard. I hoped that wasn’t a famous last thought……

The hitch and associated works ended up costing us nearly as much as the Terios itself.

Another issue loomed – we would have to find a place that could carry out servicing and any works on the Coaster. I had assumed that a Toyota dealer would do this – but found out that not all service centres have heavy duty hoists, needed for a vehicle of this size. Our local one did not. But Bus had been serviced just before we bought it, so that problem could wait a while.

By December we were back to having two cars in the carport and one Bus in the parking bay – i.e. normal. The travelling rig was all ready to go again. We did an occasional local drive, to places like Warburton or Healesville, for the sake of giving the bus a run.

Of course, it seemed that, these days, we could not get through the year without things medical and surgical popping up again. Late in November, John had a shoulder reconstruction, not because of an abrupt injury such as had caused mine, but just age-related wear and tear. That necessitated two nights in hospital – a city hospital of course. It couldn’t be the slightly more convenient Epworth Eastern. So I battled the commuter and city traffic for three days. Driving in Melbourne had become such a pain!

Couey fretted for the two nights that John was gone. Guess dogs do not have a “coming back” concept. Of course, she was rapturous when he reappeared.

A few days after this surgery, John woke up and found it hard to breathe. There was pain in his “bad” leg, so his immediate thought was of blood clots – yet again. Because his breathing was so laboured, I called an ambulance and he was taken to Box Hill Hospital. I joined him there and we waited in Emergency – and waited – and waited. Eventually all that showed up was an old hardened area of blood clot behind the knee. At 8pm we left to go home. Not a great day! Episodes of troubled breathing continued and an overnight stay in another city hospital ensued – more commuting for me! No definite diagnosis could be reached, except that maybe the symptoms were due to anxiety about getting blood clots again.

I became the sole household driver again, while John’s shoulder healed. This was hard on us both, particularly because he was never a good passenger. I didn’t take kindly to the constant flow of instructions – turn indicator on, change gear, don’t brake so hard, don’t turn the corner so sharply…..and so on. It would be early January before he started physio.

And so ended 2012…..

November 6, 2021
by wendyviney 3 Comments

2010 Travels Before April

BEFORE APRIL…..

Late in 2009, John underwent the much needed second hip replacement. The other hip had been replaced in 1997 and was followed by major blood clotting events that, at the time, threatened to derail our plans for retirement and long-term travel, and maybe even kill him.

Obviously, with that history, this time lots of precautions were taken – directed by a specialist “blood” professor. The operation went as planned and John’s recovery seemed speedy, compared to 1997, when exercise with the new hip was precluded by being in a hospital bed for a month. For a month after this surgery, he had to inject himself daily with Clexane, an anti-clotting drug.

All was well, for over two months. The man had even resumed bowls! On a morning in mid-February, John collapsed. He’d gone out to do something at the pool, quite normal and routine. I heard what sounded like a faint call, and found him collapsed, face down, on the ground, in a little pool of blood. Ambulance – off to Emergency at Box Hill Hospital with suspected complications of his type 2 diabetes. No – he was found to have blood clots in his lungs and assorted veins, including a solid clot from ankle to abdomen in the operated-upon leg. The fall onto the slate pavers had removed amounts of skin from his face, broken his nose, and his glasses, which had also cut the face – hence the pool of blood.

John was transferred across to Epworth Eastern Hospital and into the care of assorted specialists. Initially, he was not a pretty picture, but that was the least of the worries. The verdict was that he would have ongoing issues with poor circulation in the affected leg, and this time, his lungs would not fully recover. No one could explain why this had occurred, so long after the hip replacement, and with the anti-clotting precautions that had been taken.

I commenced a routine where a goodly part of each day was taken up with driving to Box Hill, visiting John, driving home again, avoiding the morning and afternoon traffic peaks. The Eastern Freeway certainly made it easier, but it could take half an hour to get onto the freeway, from home, depending on traffic. However, it was a breeze, compared to my daily visiting when John was in the private inner suburban surgical hospital, with the hip operation. No freeways to get there – and – hard to believe – no parking provided. The surrounding streets were not very parking friendly, either.

Whilst undergoing treatment at Epworth, John agreed to become part of a clinical trial of a new anti-clotting drug. This had already been approved for use overseas, but was going through the processes required in this country. It would be a vast improvement on the standard Warfarin treatment, with its frequent blood tests, seesawing INR readings, and dose adjustments – all very constraining of a normal life, as we knew from prior experience. John was a prime target for the trial, with his prior history.

After several weeks in hospital, and on the trial drug, John progressed from the initial daily blood tests, to weekly ones. All was going well, and he went onto monthly blood tests and checks. This would continue until the trial ended in late August. Unfortunately, it would then be back onto Warfarin with all its hassles and limitations. As it happened, by year’s end, he was – courtesy of a special arrangement with our lovely GP – back on the new drug, approved for use for a different condition, but not yet for anti-clotting.

All of the above severely limited our travel options, and John’s abilities to do so, through 2010.

Sadly, we cancelled our wonderful house sitters, who had been booked for a five month stay. They had no problems finding a replacement sit – someone else’s good fortune.

On a much more optimistic note, whilst John was in hospital, the prolonged Millenium Drought that had lasted for some thirteen years, finally broke, with massive storms hitting Melbourne. I knew, because I’d been driving the hospital run at the time of the first storms. Quite scary storms….

We had, last year, received some money back related to last year’s botched work on Truck and broken parts. Courtesy of a Land Rover owners’ forum, we’d also found a new mechanic – a Land Rover devotee of many years – who worked not too far away.

This had been precipitated sooner than intended, in January. John had been out somewhere, thought he smelled something strange in the vehicle, but was in a hurry to get home and get to bowls, so did not stop to investigate. When he pulled up into the car port at home, smoke erupted out from under the bonnet. Fortunately, son was visiting at the time, grabbed an appropriate fire extinguisher and put out the fire in the engine. Something had broken and brake fluid had ignited from the hot engine. All quite dramatic at the time, but it meant that a mechanic was rather urgently needed.

Over about three months – and at considerable cost – he re-did the botched work of a year previous, plus a lot more. Truck had done 350,000kms, some of it over challenging terrain, and over 100,000kms of it towing the van. It was in need of a major overhaul.

With John feeling more like himself, and with a month-long window of opportunity between drug trial checks, our thoughts turned to a trip away. Not too ambitious, but still a break from things medical. It would have to be a bit provisional, dependent on how John coped….

Friend M was at a loose end. We cast our eyes towards SA – the Gawler Ranges and Eyre Peninsula. Not too far away for the time available, and destinations where M had not yet visited.

The van had been off for its annual check up at Trakmaster and was back and packed. We hoped Truck was well readied, considering the multiple thousands of dollars outlaid upon it. M and her Troopy were ready……

October 30, 2021
by wendyviney 3 Comments

2009 Travels August 25

TUESDAY 25 AUGUST RUBYVALE TO CHARLEVILLE 520kms

We were up early and away just after 7am, wanting to finish driving, if we could, before the worst heat of the afternoon.

Drove back south, leaving the Tropics, through Sapphire, to meet the Capricorn Highway at Anakie, where we turned west. Before long, we were passing through ranges where the road was quite hilly. It was rather dramatic. I’d forgotten all about this, although we must have driven this route at least once before.

Refuelled at Alpha, then took the Tambo road to the south. This would save us some 170kms compared to the alternative of going via Barcaldine.

The sealed road soon turned to gravel. Some sections were quite stony, and some parts were corrugated. There were occasional sealed sections again, especially on the floodways.

As was our usual practice, as soon as we left the sealed road, we stopped and removed the weight distribution bars. We’d been told to do that, right back when we started caravanning, by the people at Hayman Reece.

We came upon one floodway very suddenly, with a big dip in the middle of a raised area, and bottomed out a bit. Then John heard a tyre going down rapidly. It was the driver’s side rear one on Truck. John spent some time fiddling around with the ordinary jack, trying to get it to fit under the lowered side. He wasn’t happy that this would hold, so we ended up using the awkward, slow, wind up one that belonged to Truck, as well.

**The floodway ambush in the background**

When the wheel had been taken off, I was inspecting the tyre to try to find the cause of the flat – and found a nine inch split in the steel wheel rim, in the centre of the wheel. I thought it must have spread when we bottomed in the floodway, and then pinched the tube inside, because I couldn’t find any tyre damage. Later on, a close inspection revealed what looked like an old split, about four inches long and a bit rusted inside, and new splits on each end of that – presumably from the floodway. We had no idea when we made the older split. My guess would be possibly on the really rough and rocky crossing of the flooded river on the way into the Bungles in 2007.

When changing the wheel, John also found an oil seal leak in the rear left side. Again!

After that, we were relieved to reach sealed road again, at the corner with the Dawson Development Road, with no further mishaps. The last part of this road, through to Tambo, was really scenic – the western tail off of the Carnarvon Ranges. But we were both a bit too tense to really enjoy it. Along the way, a topic of conversation had been about whether we should buy a new Defender, after this trip!

Had our packed lunch at the lovely rest area at Tambo. Then continued, through a hot afternoon, to Charleville, where we got fuel. Then back tracked a bit, to drive out to the Evening Star Caravan Park, to the NW of the town.

This caravan park, on a cattle property, was fairly new. It was 9kms from Charleville, on the Adavale road. Our powered site cost $24.

We thought this was going to be a really nice caravan park ,when the new tree plantings grew a bit higher. All the sites were drive through style, with a good separation between them. The bathrooms were unisex style. They had a very pleasant communal compfire area.

We got talking to the people on the next site, travelling in a converted bus. Very interesting. She was a writer. Both had done a lot of living on boats, and travelling around. They lived in Tasmania, near Stanley, and knew our friends S and M, who had the Post Office there. We swapped details, and invited them to stay at our place, if they wished, when they next passed through Melbourne.

Decided we would have two nights here. It was very pleasant to be in the bush. It was the sort of place we’d stay at for a week or more. if we were not on a deadline.

**Yes, a rookie error, but embarrassment overcome in order to show the nature of sites at Evening Star, in the early days….**

I made tandoori chicken for tea.

The night was very pleasantly warm – not always the case, inland.

We were now into the last week of this trip.

October 15, 2021
by wendyviney Leave a comment

2009 Travels July 20 to 23

MONDAY 20 TO THURSDAY 23 JULY TOWNSVILLE

John had to be at the Land Rover man at 9am.

It was a cloudy day, with a strong breeze. I wondered if it would rain. Took a chance, anyway, and washed the bedding, then sent some emails.

John was back before too long. The man didn’t have the part Truck was found to need, but would have it in tomorrow.

Townsville was so well served, compared to many other places we’d been. The old saying that we got used to, during our time in the NT, came to mind – the NT: not today, not tomorrow, not Tuesday, not Thursday, next train, next truck…..very true it was too.

After lunch, drove to the Aitkenvale shops, where I’d discovered there was a bowls shop. There was also a sewing supplies shop nearby, which provided me with good browsing, whilst John was making decisions in the bowls shop. Not that I had any ulterior motive for directing him to this one…..

I bought some threads for my Hardanger sewing. John ordered himself a set of bowls. Not a cheap exercise! He wanted them colour yellow, so they had to be freighted up and should arrive on Thursday or Friday. I decided that, when he was picking them up, I would go back to the sewing shop and indulge some more, having shown great restraint today.

John’s thinking was that yellow bowls would make it easy for him to see where his efforts were, from the other end of the green. I had two thoughts – neither of which I shared with him: that they would be an easy target, and, the way he’d been bowling lately, they could stand out as an embarrassment. Sometimes, I really did need to censor myself!

We had a quick look at merchandise in the Rivers clearance centre, but were not tempted.

John went to the bank and withdrew $500 cash to pay for Truck repairs. There was a big dent in the bank account, after today.

I extended our stay here, for Thursday night. Cost $31.50.

Cooked the continental sausages bought on Saturday, for tea, with mashed potato, bacon and eggs. Later, they gave me fearsome indigestion.

TUESDAY : John was off to the Land Rover man for 9am.

It was another cloudy but windy day. I did our clothes washing, and sewed some quilt blocks.

**Our other Townsville site….don’t ask me why it was so hard to back in here!**

John returned with Truck fixed – I hoped! A new vacuum pump had been fitted, with double gaskets this time. It had an oil change and some other oddments fixed too. All up – $520 for repairs.

John phoned the bad mechanic back in Melbourne. After some discussion, he was told that the warranty on the pump that had been installed just three months ago, would be honoured. I would believe that when we actually saw the money, I’m afraid.

After lunch, drove to the Strand again and did a fair walk. Then it was to the Castletown shops, so I could buy a small but good chef’s knife, to replace my good one that the handle had broken off, yesterday. That cost $50.

Grandson phoned to tell us that he’d read the fifty books for the Read-a-thon. Not bad for a six year old. So we would now have to send his $10 donation, plus the surprise Sodor train wash set.

We need to go back to the bush – haemorrhaging money in Townsville!

WEDNESDAY: We had a quiet start to a day that was not as cloudy, but was more humid, strangely enough.

Walked to the local shops and spent up big on postage. Sent postcards to various family and friends, a Hinchinbrook Island brochure to each of the sets of grandchildren, telling the story of our day there, and despatched the train wash and $10 to grandson. Australia Post was $25 richer.

**It used real water……not sure if his mum knew that!**

John phoned his cousin M, who was still in Cairns. It might be another couple of weeks before they began to head south again. I was now quite certain that we were not going to get that far north, this trip. It was going to be an accomplishment just to get away from Townsville!

Son phoned me about a new job he’d taken. Sounded very exciting: in a new field for him, traffic management, but doing the familiar role of business development. Bit of a growth industry, that.

Friend M phoned – from Halls Creek. The trip up the Canning Stock Route had gone well, and she’d had a great time. Only had one flat tyre on the Troopy, and that was just as she was driving into Billiluna Community, not on the CSR proper. Yet again, the Dunlop Roadgripper tyres that we swear by, but others look down on, proved they can really handle the rough stuff well.

She reported that they’d had no rain over the three weeks. The fuel drums they’d ordered from the Capricorn Roadhouse were at the drop point, as arranged, and hadn’t been raided by other travellers. The couple she was tagging with had no vehicle issues, either. So she reckoned that she was now an experienced sand dune driver!

The diary I’d requested she keep for me was more a book than notes, apparently. She would mail it to home. The plans were now to go to the Bungles again – the other couple had not been there before, then on to Kununurra.

I was so happy that the adventure had gone well for her. But given the events of this year, I was so thankful we hadn’t tried it too.

THURSDAY: A quiet morning, followed by early lunch. Then we hit the shops – what’s new?

At Aitkenvale, John collected his new bowls. They were the ordered bright yellow – and the symbol on each featured a smirking crocodile. Very satisfied looking it was, too. (Every set of bowls has to have a unique symbol). This one couldn’t have been better than if he’d specifically chosen it! Yellow crocs…..

At the sewing shop, I bought a metre of my special embroidery fabric and some patchwork quilt pieces, for future projects.

To the Fish Co-op to stock up on barra and threadfin salmon.

There was a nasty accident at the corner where the V8 track had been. A truck and a 4WD ute had collided. Flashing emergency lights and vehicles galore.

Grocery shop at Castletown and at the butcher.

Getting all the meats and fish into the little freezebox was a real exercise in fitting things in gaps. The real challenge would come when just one frozen portion had to be extracted again, from the mass. The fridge ran for ages after all the additions, making me think all sorts of worrying thoughts.

I phoned Forrest Beach and booked us into the caravan park there, for three nights. John wanted to play in a big bowls tournament that was on in Ingham over the time, and had listed himself as an emergency, in case someone dropped out. If he was not called up, he could go fishing.

September 10, 2021
by wendyviney Leave a comment

2009 Travels June 16

TUESDAY 16 JUNE TOWNSVILLE

Today, I became an old-age pensioner! Well, an old-age part-pensioner. Did I feel old? No – but I remembered a time when people I knew who were pensioners, seemed old!

Off John and Truck went. I did some more washing. They were back by 11.30 – all fixed. The Landrover man had quickly identified that the brake booster unit – a big, round, thing just under the bonnet – had a couple of almost microscopic cracks in it – metal fatigue. He had one in stock, so it had been quick to replace. All up, cost $360. John was very pleased. He said the brakes felt excellent.

Now that the Truck issues were resolved, I phoned the caravan park at Rollingstone, to book us in there for a week, after our time here was up. We had not been there before, and it seemed like it would be a good base to explore the surrounding country. Also, not too much further on, in case there did turn out to be more issues with Truck. I’d kind of lost some faith, this trip.

After lunch, went for a drive, with the aim of visiting Townsville’s northern beaches. We diverted off to look at Bushland Beach, a site of new sub-divisions, where we were attracted to tour a display home that was open. Chatted with the salesman about building methods up here, land subdivision, and Townsville’s development and spread in general. The salesman estimated that, to build that sort of house, put in a shed for John and a pool – essential in this sort of climate in summer – we’d need about a 750 square metre block, and we’d be up for northwards of $500,000. Yikes! Keeping our Melbourne base. where we had all the above except the warmer weather, still looked the better option. We had a bigger garden at home, as well, to grow our summer vegies.

Whilst in the area, went to have a look at the beach. Thought it looked pretty ordinary, with mangrove stands at each end. To me, mangroves equal sandflies, which equal undesirable place to be. It made a pretty photo, though.

**Bushland Beach at low tide – mangroves in the distance**

Drove back to town, where we parked at Kissing Point – great name! Later research indicated it was named for a similarly called place in Sydney. Nothing romantic: the NSW version was the furthest point up the Parramatta River that boats could reach before their keels kissed the bottom. I preferred the romantic connotations my imagination had come up with.

From there, we walked along the Strand – Townsville’s wonderfully attractive parklands and path along the waterfront – as far as the Fishing Jetty. This was not much distance. John was very slow today, and needed rests along the way.

Whilst walking we gazed at the assorted beach front apartments, and played the game of saying which one we’d buy, if we won a lottery. A winter holiday apartment…… with seriously magic views over the Strand and out to Magnetic Island and the other islands. But then decided that, if we had that sort of money, we would just rent, short-term, and thus not be tied to any one place. Dream on!

**The Strand – and apartments with a great view**

The Council had done an excellent job of developing and landscaping the Strand area and making it a wonderful resource for people of all ages. At intervals, there were metal sculptures of sea creatures – convenient resting places for the slow one. The wild weather earlier in the year had done some damage along the beachfront that was still being repaired.

Even though Townsville did not have the image of a tourist town, there was really quite a lot here to see and do. I found it a very pleasant place.

Back to the van then, and the making of fried rice for tea.

There was an unexpected phone call. from A, a lady from our home bowls club. She and her husband spent some of each winter here, as did quite a few bowlers from our club. She’d picked up from someone from Sunday’s bowls, that we were here. She asked me to play bowls on Thursday, at the Jubilee Club. I assumed it was mixed, and agreed. Then, it became clear it was a women’s only afternoon. Blindsided! John was very amused. He said he’d find a game for himself somewhere else.

June 29, 2021
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2009 Travels April 22

WEDNESDAY 22 APRIL BENDIGO

A 6am knocking on the van door was grandson, come to wake us up – a task at which he excelled. Well, Grandad did need an early start!

Truck and driver departed at 7.30 and, via the newly opened Calder Freeway and Eastlink, arrived at the mechanic at Lilydale at 10am.

I remained in Bendigo and spent the morning working on my laptop computer. As I used a desktop set up at home, it took me some time to update the laptop with things like current Bookmarks. I had at least updated my share trading programs before leaving home – downloading the price data for several months took a long time! Murphy was still hovering around, though, because I lost a couple of programs I was trying to set up.

About 1.30, I was astounded to hear the unmistakeable Truck burble. I had been so sure that repairs would be major and take days, not to mention lots more dollars. After all that, when John had gotten there, after a cursory look, mechanic said there wasn’t much he could do. I was less than impressed, to put it mildly. Suspected that “not much he can do” translated into something like being too busy, or couldn’t be bothered to properly look for the problem with the work he’d already done. He suggested seeing a brake specialist in Bendigo – talk about passing the buck. John wasn’t keen on that idea – so many car people do not like playing with Landrovers!

So, the brakes issue was not really resolved. Didn’t know where we would go for future work on Truck, but it wouldn’t be back to that incompetent clown.

**Our 1996 Defender was getting on in years…..**

This morning, I’d arranged with daughter that I would collect grandson from school and walk home with him. Daughter assured me that it “wasn’t far” and that the Preppie would really enjoy this, instead of the usual after-school care.

John and I left at 2.30, walked briskly, and just got there at 3.15. John’s “good” hip (the unreplaced one) hurt badly, but he pressed on. Grandson was happily surprised to see grandad too. John got the grand tour of “my classroom” and met “my teacher”. The former primary school Principal was most impressed with the facilities.

The walk back seemed never-ending. Grandson took us on a short cut that involved a big hill. I was carrying his backpack: how on earth can a Prep kid have a pack that weighs a ton? By the time we got back from this expedition we were hot and tired and my feet hurt.

After some grandparent recovery time and refuel for junior, we were off again, in Truck this time, to go watch the weekly swimming lesson. Then, grandson’s day was really made because, for once, he could get changed in the boys’ room, with grandad to supervise, rather than in the girls’ with mum.

Over dinner, I challenged daughter’s sense of distance. Turned out she had never walked the school route, just driven it, and it “didn’t seem all that far”. (A couple of days later she texted me to say that she had measured it – 3kms each way. So we walked 6kms!)

Whilst he had been back in the vicinity John had called back in to home – to the surprise of the house sitters – and collected some forgotten items: the sheepskin bed underlay he needed for the deteriorating hip, and my sleeper earrings. There is always something forgotten…..

After all of today’s activities we needed a VERY early night.

February 5, 2021
by wendyviney Leave a comment

2007 Travels August 10

FRIDAY 10 AUGUST HOME VALLEY

The river here was very tidal!

**High tide in the Pentecost River at Home Valley**

As the water receded and muddy banks were exposed, lots of crocodiles became evident, sunning themselves on the mud. They were of varied sizes, including some rather large ones.

**Tide going out – two large sun baking salties**

After seeing what lives in this river, here, there is no way I would ever be camping anywhere down near the river level. I knew that some travellers, intent on getting a free camp, pitched camp beside the Pentecost, just a bit upstream from here, near the Gibb River Road ford. I don’t reckon they would be doing so if they came here first, and saw what we can see, every day!

The cattle that appeared and grazed by the river did not appear to be alert for crocs.

**I wondered if any of these cows ever ended up as croc dinner?**

It was a hot day.

John fired up his laptop and checked the Defender manual he had on a CD. Very useful that. He was almost certain he could do the repairs here.

M drove John back to the homestead so he could phone the Landrover people, to arrange for the parts we needed. They told him that component “never comes out”. Well, we had news for them. It was not a very helpful comment. They would courier the parts to son’s workplace at Tullamarine.

After all that was sorted, John tried some fishing – keeping a very careful eye out around him!

M and I did some washing. heated water on the campfire, washed the clothes in our plastic basin, then trudged up to the amenities block to use the sink there and the cold water tap to rinse same. We hung them on a line strung across between the uprights of the shelter.

Then I sat in the shade from a tree, admiring the views and the sunbaking salties, and doing some sewing.

Today was our wedding anniversary. We decided to live dangerously and drink the last of our beer – two cans each! M had bought a block of chocolate up at the homestead, while John was phoning, and presented it to us, so we had something to celebrate with! Chocolate was a real luxury in the context of our rather basic catering of the past few weeks.

Sunset on the Range was glorious!

August 25, 2020
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2007 Travels May 3

THURSDAY 3 MAY BROKEN HILL

Today we drove out to Silverton, 25kms to the NW. We had been here before, but it was new territory for M. Much of this trip was going to be about introducing her to new places.

Silverton began, as the name suggests, with a silver mining rush in the late 1800’s. However, it was soon eclipsed by the richer finds in Broken Hill. Most of the population left – often moving their houses to Broken Hill, too. But Silverton refused to totally become a ghost town, and in recent times has been rejuvenated by becoming a base for some notable artists, and the setting for films.

**Looking to central Silverton! Hotel to left.**

Today, there’s a handful of permanent residents, one hotel, and it is one of the go-to destinations of the region. It has also been used as a film location – the hotel is associated forever with Mad Max! We came here first – separately – in the late 1960’s. It remains a quirky, favourite place.

Apart from some old buildings – in various stages of repair – there is superb arid country scenery around the area.

When here last, in 2005, I took a heap of photos of the old Broken Hill-Silverton railway alignment and siding “station”. The place is a photographer’s dream.

We visited the usual – for us – galleries: Peter Browne’s and the Horizon Gallery, which was my absolute favourite of all the ones on offer in Broken Hill and Silverton.

**Sculpture on the wall of the Coin Carvery**

John was attracted to the coin-carver’s unusual gallery. Essentially, the “background” sections of older coins were cut out, leaving the rim (frame) and the featured centrepiece. This was then gold or silver dipped. The man needed a special permit to destroy currency!

John bought his daughter a birthday present – a coin that had been cut out and gold plated. It was really nice.

Silverton was a very “arty”, quirky place. Maybe the aridity and vast vistas of this area somehow feed the creativity of the people who live here?

Up on the hill, at the Browne Gallery, we ran the gauntlet of some strange critters.

Bought some cute postcards to send to the grandchildren, and a tin VW with an emu painted on it, for the coming first birthday of grandson. It could maybe be a collectors piece for him, rather than a toy?

I was very tempted to buy a wire “sculpture” of a chook, and a wire and metal cat sculpture – but resisted. It took a great effort, I might add!

John bought a set of large, old, door keys, that he thought he could mount on some turned wood and turn into an unusual decoration for an outside wall.

The Browne Gallery was in a rather lovely old house, up on a rise, overlooking the township. It was worth the trek up there just for the outlook alone.

We then proceeded to spend too long at the Horizon Gallery. Here, I could not be strong, and bought a framed Bronwyn Stanley Woodroffe print. It was of the Pinnacles peaks, near Broken Hill, with an eagle soaring in the foreground. It would be shipped to us in October, when we were home to receive it. That would make two of her works we now had, and two of her husband’s. Magic works, they all are.

The gallery still had several other works that I could easily buy! I purchased eight picture cards, with the idea that these could be framed – singly or as sets – for us, or for gifts. Or else, I could just use them to write notes to people.

While browsing and making decisions, we got talking travel with Bronwyn and the subject of house sitters came up. I ended up telling her we would consider house sitting for her, up here, for short spells, in the future. We could enjoy some time spent in this region.

Drove out to the north of Silverton for about 10kms, and ate lunch at the Umberumberka Reservoir, built in the early 1900’s to supply water to Broken Hill. It had water in it – an unusual sight in this dry country.

Stopped at the Lookout over the Mundi Mundi Plain where the vast plains stretched in all directions. Perhaps for someone new to outback travel, this outlook would be impressive, but we had seen a lot of vast country in our travels.

Back in Silverton, we went walking along the dry Umberumberka Creek bed, which was lined with majestic old river red gums.

**Debris piled up behind trees shows that the creek does sometimes flood**

There were lots of hollows in these ancient trees, to be homes to birds and critters.

In a part of the creek that had been the most recent to dry up, there was a large patch of red mud curls – very artistic looking. From a distance, they resembled leaf litter.

Back in Broken Hill, we went to the Post Office and sent off the birthday presents bought today, and postcards to the grandchildren. Checked at the mail centre there – the package with the fridge thermostat had not arrived yet. Since the fridge now appeared to be working perfectly after its regassing, I did a redirection notice to have it sent on to home.

We shopped for food supplies, to last for some time. We had a bit of a dilemma. In theory, we should not take fresh produce into SA. But we were planning to turn off the highway at Yunta, and head north to Arkaroola. There were no shops along that way. We would be taking the purchased fruit and veg a long way distant from the crucial agricultural areas of SA.

Refuelled Truck – $1.30cpl.

John discovered that the other side back indicator on Truck had no globe in it, either! I was not sure how I had missed its non-functioning, in our checks – my reputation was tarnished, somewhat. He was incensed enough to phone the dealer’s service centre to complain. They were very apologetic and gave him the usual spiel about apprentices ! Hey – isn’t the work of these supposed to be supervised?

Yet again, we wondered what else had been missed, or done sub-standard.

August 24, 2020
by wendyviney Leave a comment

2007 Travels April 30

MONDAY 30 APRIL HOME TO BENDIGO 225kms

After the usual flurry of last minute organizing and packing, we managed to leave home about 12.20pm. I might add that the usual last-minute flurry was not mine!

Our house sitters considerately kept out of our way while the last bursts of packing were done. We had done the “handover” yesterday, after their arrival. I had every confidence in this couple, T and A, who had been full time housesitters for several years, and who were solidly booked up a couple of years in advance.

It was really convenient to have sufficient rooms in the house for them to have their own area, whilst here. However, we did have to evict M for last night, as they would be occupying “her” bedroom, with its double bed. She slept in her Troopy, parked up on the lawn area in front of the house – getting into practice again, she said.

I’d thought, over the last couple of days, as I was packing the van, that the fridge was not working properly, that it was running too much. Perhaps the thermostat needed replacing again? John found and phoned someone who could supply a thermostat; it would be mailed to us c/o Broken Hill Post Office.

Part of the setting out ritual, every day that we were towing the van, was to check that all the exterior lights were working. This could really only be done after Truck and van were connected up and manoeuvred out onto the flat ground of the road in front. This time, they weren’t! Naturally. We did not have too many trips where there was not some setting-out drama.

John’s investigation showed that there was no globe where there should have been one, in the tail light of the Truck. And this after last week’s service by a proper Land Rover dealer! It really filled us with confidence that the vehicle had been properly prepared for the remote areas to come – NOT! In theory, having Truck serviced by accredited Land Rover dealers should provide us with confidence that tradesmen who know what they are doing, work on our vehicle. Over the years, we had received some great service from various interstate service centres, but the ones in Melbourne had proved distinctly lacking, unfortunately. And we had tried most of them, at some stage.

John was able to put in a globe, from the stock of spare fuses and globes he carried, so we were not too delayed. Even that did not work at first, but he applied RP40, liberally to the area, and that fixed it.

Through all this mini drama, M waited patiently with her Troopy, parked a bit further up the street.

We stopped for lunch at Yarra Glen, parking up a side road from the main street, and walking to an excellent bakery.

After that, it was the usual run to Bendigo. Up and over the Range and down to Yea, then the picturesque but winding stretch to Seymour – where we inevitably finished up with a tailback of several vehicles behind us, but with nowhere to pull over and let them past. Minor road to Tooborac and then good highway for the last stretch, through Heathcote to Bendigo.

The roadside gum trees were looking really stressed, much more sparsely foliaged than normal. The effects of the last few drought years were really showing up.

I navigated us across town, to daughter’s. Over the years of visiting here, I’d come to know a route that avoided the centre of the city, with its heavier traffic, trams and traffic lights. But it was a route one needed to know, rather than a signposted one, so I just hoped that M was able to keep us in sight. Back in the gold rush years of the later 1800’s, Bendigo had developed in a somewhat ad hoc manner, dictated by the locations of reefs and mines, which now meant roads at strange angles and an illogical layout.

We set up in daughter’s driveway. Backed Truck and van down the slope, as close to the back yard fence and gates as we could get – and heavily chocked behind the van wheels! M was then able – just – to fit the Troopy in front of us. Staying hitched up meant that we had to put up with sleeping in a van that was distinctly higher in front than at the back – and we had a crossways bed! At least M had her head pointing uphill.

**This driveway is a lot steeper than it apppears in the photo!**

We enjoyed a pleasant evening with the family – dinner and lots of chat. I collected early Mothers Day gifts. Grandson was, of course, pleased to see us again, even though it was less than two weeks since we’d hosted a family get together for daughter’s 35th birthday. We talked with him about the trip we were doing, explained why we wouldn’t be seeing him for five months, and promised him lots of postcards from interesting places. He had – with some discreet help – kept a collection of every postcard we had sent him, to date. He went through it, very proudly, with us.

It was a chilly night – got down to about 7 degrees. Well, this was what I’d longed for, a few months ago!

In my occasional wakeful periods through the night, decided the fridge was definitely running too much, given the chill of the environment. What a pest.

May 12, 2020
by wendyviney Leave a comment

2006 Travels August 2 – 7

WEDNESDAY 2 TO MONDAY 7 AUGUST LITCHFIELD

Well, my grand solution for the cafe did not work out so well. H had resigned!

I came on duty on Monday morning, to find all hell had broken loose. Yesterday, Boss 1 was in one of his worse moods, and had prowled around the kitchen, being negative and difficult. Showing his true colours, for the first time, to H.

This morning, H started at 7.30. Boss was checking everything out. He found a little – almost microscopic – piece of slimy capsicum, in prepared salad, and promptly threw the whole large container of same in the bin. With words. That was the last straw for H, who had not had a comfortable day yesterday. She said she would serve out a week’s notice, but would not work with boss 1, only with me or boss 2, or on her own.

I had lasted months – she did not even manage a few days! The nice man she thought she knew was not the reality.

I think the three of us probably did not do anyone a service, by putting up with the crap dished out by the boss. Just led him to think everyone would be as immune to him as we were. Not everyone could just find him pathetic and rather amusing, and not take him personally, the way we did. Several times, John had challenged some of his more outrageous instructions, and stood up to him, saying if boss didn’t like it, he could sack him – and of course, that did not happen.

Boss now had to try to smooth things over, because he really wanted D to do the building work. It looked like D would stay long enough to do that, and H would just veg out at their camper, once her week’s notice was up.

I just hoped this would not affect Boss 2’s holiday plans. But not to the extent that I was prepared to reverse our decision to leave!

About 8.30am on Wednesday morning, in the aftermath of all that, H was in the kitchen with me, in tears over the issues with boss. He had been in such a bad mood that he’d stormed out of the kitchen and promptly had a confrontation with B. So she was in the office corner of the cafe, sobbing her heart out. I was slicing up a particularly strong batch of onions, so had tears streaming down my face. A customer came into the cafe. Despite my tears, I was the only non-upset person around, so I went out to serve him. He could hear two sobbing ladies, and there was I with eyes streaming. He looked very alarmed. I said “It’s OK, it’s only onions!”. Not sure what he really thought, but he ordered his coffee and went and sat outside, away from the drama. I made the coffee, wiped my eyes and took it out to him.

So things were a bit strained. I did not even try to talk H around – because boss 1 really was horrible to work for – and she was less tolerant of idiots than I was. Anyway, the problem was not of my making!

Thursday was M’s last day. She finished with no fanfare. Friday, she packed up camp and headed off to Darwin, to stay with her friend there. She took our mail to post there.

Eventually, things got lighter, because on Friday, Boss 1 and B headed off to Darwin as usual, for the weekend. That left John and Boss 2 to run the bus group lunch area, and H and me in the kitchen. I was grateful that H was working out her notice. Being solo in the kitchen through the busy weekend lunch period was not something I would have enjoyed!

D, whose original trade was as a mechanic, and who knew Landrovers really well, reckoned our ongoing clutch problem was with the master cylinder. He gave John the name of a good place in Brisbane to source Landrover parts.

When there was time, we had to do all the necessary paperwork arrangements with boss 2, for pay finalization, group certificate issue, and the like.

On Monday, the afternoon was fairly quiet. With H still on deck, boss 2 said we could finish at 3pm and do some packing up of our camp. Much appreciated.

I was quite looking forward to a change of scene, and going back to being tourists. Our three months here had been – well, interesting would be one way of putting it. And I had loved our camp by the creek.

Resize of 06-14-2006 86 Wangi track June 2

This Adventurous Age

Adventures travelling and working around Australia.

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