Gippsland to NSW South Coast

It was pretty much chaos as we prepared the van for travel and animals to be boarded in Gippsland at Mum and Dads. The 2 cats and 2 dogs were housed in their new pens and we left on Tuesday the 15th. It was as if we were in our comfort zone, on the road again, even though we are only about 6 weeks in, living in the van. The first night was only about 200 odd kms up the road but after spending considerable time finalising kayak rack changes on the Touareg, this was quite enough for the day. We stayed at a rest stop at Thurra River just before Genoa.

The next morning after a walk in the Drummer Forest we left for a short drive to Mallacoota. Having not been there since a child I was extremely keen to rediscover this child holiday haunt and as it turned out I was not to be disappointed. After a quick look around I started fishing, Rachel and Rachel's parents tagged along having a go as well. It was a lovely afternoon we spent but it wasn't until mid way through our fishing adventure that the grand catch was made of a 40cm flathead by me (yay).

At this stage I haven't filled you in on Graham's (by father inlaw) troubles. First it was the night we arrived at Thurra River and Graham's generator was not going to go, so I lent him ours to keep his engel going. After checking the obvious fuel lines, filters, etc.. we gave up and Graham slept on it. In the morning while the girls and I went on the walk Graham worked out the fault. It was an act of nature, a wasp had created a nest in the exhaust and stopped the engine ticking over. This solved it was to the next problem, number two. Whilst fishing at Mallacoota, Graham realised he had locked his caravan keys in the front tunnel boot of his caravan and the spare was in the van itself. After he ran around Mallacoota looking for a locksmith he got lucky with a tow guy who opened it with a screwdriver. The spooky thing though was that when they tried it again, it would not repeat the open.

The third event (isn't there always a third) happened today after we left Yellow Pinch Dam (another rest stop) we headed north to Batemans Bay before turning left up to Braidwood. This road is over the range and quite steep. Well the Volkswagen Touareg has no problems but Graham's Ford Falcon had some difficulty near the top when the Gearbox overheating lamp came on. This forced him to pull over only about a km from the top and wait for it to cool. Meanwhile we waited up top for them to come up before heading on to Canberra. The Ford struggled a bit up there compared to the Touareg but there is quite a difference in type of vehicle so this is not a fair comparison.

We arrived safely in Canberra tonight and caught up on the cricket. This blog was my next priority. The website is close to release so a link to this blog will be added.
Well, it is a tour of the war memorial and the national Art gallery tomorrow before heading on down to Tarcutta to visit Rachel's aunty.

Grassvale Farms

Grassvale Farms is the name of the farm that I grew up on. Mum & Dad (Lyn and Ken) have built this beautiful farm up on the Mitchell Valley flats amongst some of the most fertile vegetable growing country in Australia. It is just that they stock cattle and improve their pasture constantly that makes them different to the surrounding vegie farms. My daughter Haylee came to stay with us here, now 13 years old, we see each other 2 or maybe 3 times year, something we hope to change as we travel around more so in the next couple of years. Christmas was fabulous, spending it with family you don't often see is very pleasurable, catching up is even better. I started nearly immediately constructing the dog pen the size of the MCG (or so it seemed) to house our two dogs, Cheyenne and Indie that we will be leaving at mum and dads as we travel over the next little while. As well we tried out the metal detector at the beach, finding 3 rings was the highlight plus $10 of change for icecream at Lakes Entrance. My daughter,niece and nephew really enjoyed the different emotion of discovery. The Volkswagen Touareg has really proven itself to me with its adaptability to onroad and offroad environments. We decided to venture into the high plains above Dargo where our ancestors first settled when venturing out from Somerset, England. This country is extremely rugged and I was pleasantly surprised that the 4wd in this German made vehicle is genuine in every way, auto difflockers cut in at the right time and the standard road tyres faired well considering the conditions. The diesel version that we get in Sydney will be better for this type of travel but the petrol version did handle extremely well. Hats off to Volkswagen, they do know how to build a solid 4wd for our conditions. Well that brings you pretty much up to date. On the 15th of January we head off towards Sydney via Mallacoota, Merrimbula and Narooma. We then take a detour to Tarcutta before heading back to Sydney where we swap over to the new 2008 Volkswagen Touareg V6 TDI 3.0L vehicle. The XK660 is bound to get some great looks from passers by on the coast so if you see Rachel and I on our travels, say gidday!

Adelaide - New dealer

Well Adelaide was a pretty full on time. We stayed at Windsor Gardens caravan Park and ventured around the city and out to Barossa Valley from here. It was great to catch up with other Geist Owners pulling their Geist with a Volkswagen Touareg, like us. We were in an unfortunate position in having to appoint a new Geist dealer for SA as Stefan's wife is unwell and Stefan has decided to give up the yard. Although we didn't want Stefan to leave it was appropriate for me to pursue the best replacement we could. I did this by approaching the most respected caravan yards in SA and Australia. Noels Caravans who also stock the 30 year old brand name Island Star saw great value in the Geist brand and could see it differed from the Island Star in its purpose, looks and style. Noel gave me my start in the industry and I feel privileged that he saw genuine value in the product I now represent. So all our SA customers are asked to make contact with Noels Caravans for their yearly service. From Adelaide we went through the Great Ocean road again to show the inlaws this great region. We had little luck at Fitzroy river near Portland fishing but enjoyed putting the Viking Tempo tandem kayak in at Peterborough. I was all ready to fly over the 12 Apostles in a chopper when the weather turned very hazy, with my ex flight test photographer career in the Airforce telling me it would be a waste of time for photos I quickly abandoned this trip. We followed on up to Colac to miss some huge thunderstorms in and around Melbourne before the next day traveling through to East Gippsland for our Christmas break at Wuk Wuk, Lindenow. My parents have been there since day dot and i spent 20 years growing up in around the area.