November 2016
Big moons, big boats, and a big Healey !
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| A big moon over Benowa |
Still working around the house a lot of the
time, cutting hedges, (someone else does the lawns !), weeding pathways, and
generally catching up on all the other things that need doing. Also spending quite a lot of time working on
Troopie trying to do some of the things that I found that I wanted to change
after the trip – nothing major – Just trying to make things better.
On Nov 14th we had what was
supposed to be the biggest moon for a long time – caused by it being closer to
earth than usual. It certainly was quite
big, but it still just looked like the normal moon we have all the rest of the
time !! Apparently it won’t be this
“big” again in our lifetime, so I thought we had better take a photo of it to
prove we were here !!
On Troopie, I was getting a side awning
made up to replace the one I had. The
original was stored inside, and to fit it one had to
unpack it from inside, get
poles, guy ropes and tent pegs out, and erect it. Too much hassle for an overnight stop, so it
never got used, and if it was a bit wet, we had to cook inside. Since I have the pop top roof, the new awning
had to be designed around the clips and other limitations I have, while the
brackets to attach the awning to the car needed to be specially made to fit
underneath the pop top. (Awnings are
usually attached to a roof rack, but as I have a pop top, I can’t have a roof
rack). I used Polaris Innovations again
as the rear unit of theirs had worked faultlessly for the 2 ½ years on the
road, and Ross Mann, the owner, was again happy to design a unit to fit my
one-off requirements. This was
eventually made up and fitted, and will make the use of the side kitchen a lot
easier, especially in bad weather.
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| Trooper asleep with his own big poodle |
I also decided to change the side kitchen
that is a big slide out. I have always
felt that it took up a lot of space, and since we also carry a cooker for
inside, why did we need two ? So I
pulled out the side cooker and sink, and fabricated a system where our internal
stove could be stored in the slide out, (so it could still be used inside or
out), and the stainless steel sink was replaced with a plastic bowl that could also
be used away from the van if needed.
This then freed up some additional storage space inside the big slide
out drawer. I would then get a chance to
try it all out when I drove over to Perth in December.
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| Jos & Tony's new caravan |
Jos & Tony, our friends in
Yackandandah, have recently acquired a caravan, and when I was visiting them
recently they said they wanted to go on a trip to try it out. At the time we agreed that we both wanted to
go up to the Kimberley region of north Western Australia, so we set a target
date of June or July 2017. There are a
couple of areas of Australia I would still like to visit in a 4WD – One was the
Kimberley, and the other is Cape York, in northern Queensland. Because Troopie still seems to be running
well despite now have 420,000 kms on the clock, it seems logical to hang on to
her to do these couple of trips where a 4WD really is necessary, and then sell
her once I have done them. If I want to
do any more trips in Aus after that, I guess I will just have to stick to the
black top !! But if we look at Cape York in 2018, that should fit in nicely.
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| Lindsey gets Janet a drink |
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| Drinks on the pop deck ! |
While Janet and I were busy with all these
chores at home, good friend Lindsey invited us out on his boat. When I say “boat”, it is not your normal 16
ft putter – But a 90 foot cruiser that can be taken round the world ! Very nice, and we had a very pleasant and
comfortable day sitting out on the Broadwater with everyone, and enjoying a
champagne and beer or two. Really
appreciate being taken care of like this occasionally !!
Lindsey also has a couple of cars, one of
which I was very interested in – A 1955 Austin-Healey 100M. This is a special edition version of the
100/4 that Ashton and I are planning to take on the Peking to Paris, and the
“M” stands for Le Mans, for which this special edition was created. I wanted to check out some things on it as I
prepare to start work on our own car, and it was lovely to see such a special
car – And with only 5600 miles on it too !!
S
oon after we had been out on Lindsey’s
boat, Janet had to fly back to Perth again for babysitting duties, and I was
starting to prepare to drive over to Perth in mid December. The puzzle for me was how to fit Trooper in
Troopie ! As mentioned previously,
because of his back legs I had to make a special staircase for him to get in
the back, and then once he is in the back, his big mattress fits on top of
everything and takes up 60% of the room in the back that is normally used for
storage and bed cushions/mattresses etc.
No problem, I worked out a way to fit everything in, and leave room for
Troop to be able to stand up and move around a bit, but the trouble was going
to be when we came back from Perth, when Janet would also be travelling in the
car ! If Trooper had to sleep inside because
of bad weather, his bed was where Janet normally slept ! The only solution was for her to also sleep
“upstairs” in the double bed where I normally sleep – But Janet also has bad
knees and can’t climb up there, so I had to also make a special ladder so Janet
could climb up ! I now carry two
ladders to get everyone into the van !!
Anyway, I eventually got everything sorted, stocked the van up with food
(mostly Trooper’s food !), and got ready to head off across the Nullarbor – Yet
again !
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| Trooper all set up in his bed in the back of Troopie ! |
More pics of our fun around Surfers here :- https://goo.gl/photos/pukUSiqkC4FmMJNcA
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