Streaky Bay(half way)

We left Blanchetown with a smile, a lovely oasis on the Murray river, it was a great little town that we got to know well in a few days. We argued with Tom Tom (the GPS) and went via Morgan which took us on the ferry over the Murray and then on towards Port Augusta. We turned onto the coastal highway to Port Augusta and got rocketed by the wind against, you guessed it, the kayak. It actually held up really well and we stopped to check it but couldn't tightened it any more so continued on at a slower 95km per hour on the 110km stretch. When we got into Port Augusta it was a welcome relief as the wind was getting up to 25-30 knots with gusts well above that. We set up at the local Big 4 park that we thought should be good. Well we found a roughie, the park was clean but the service was ordinary and the park is on a slant(what the?). It is hard for over nighters to level her up so we did what most others do, leave her on the best level ramp and say (oh well). We got a huge wind storm that night and left asap for Streaky Bay, we were going to go to Port Lincoln but that changed due to the wind direction. As it was, the wind was still pretty strong for most of the time. We arrived in Streaky Bay at lunch and settled in to get some work done, we figured we could get more done over the afternoon and the next day than going to Port Lincoln and back up again. We also figured we can travel the Nullabour over the weekend when we don't need the Next G for internet access. Well after today (Friday) I figured I had a fair bit done and the website is nearly done now so I popped down to the beach for a quick fish and got tea for tonight, four garfish. The good thing was though, the guy next door who had a J***o, we wont blame him for that, he gave us some fish before he left today and it complimented my small contribution. No photos today, have spent most of it on the computer and Rachel is also flat out with Treasure Studios work. I did manage to talk to most of the park when they bombarded us yesterday when we arrived. We had a look at a R****t van which had just been delivered. The owner was not impressed and commented how great the cupboards and general finish was on the Geist in comparison to their van.

Tomorrow we are off towards WA. We will stop at our favourite Bunda Cliffs, if the wind is not too bad then on to 10 mile creek stop before Norseman on Sunday. We will get into Bremer Bay on Monday afternoon. This way we will be off line as little as possible. Three nights there and then to Bunbury, on Friday the 7th we arrive in Perth. On this day I turn 38 and intend to enjoy a lovely dinner somewhere watching the sunset over the ocean. Pray for our safe passage to WA and we will post next on Tuesday I would say.

Some rest on the river

Saturday we left Pimpinio at around 4:30pm and travelled back towards Adelaide, arriving at a rest area right on the Vic/SA border. We cheekily setup the caravan so we had dinner in Victoria and slept in South Australia Saturday night. The next day we got away on sunrise and set our course for Blanchetown. Noel from Noels caravans owns the BIG 4 caravan park at Blanchetown and so we arranged to meet Rachel's brother and family there, as well as Noel. We arrived by 10:30am and were greeted with a wonderful setting right on the river overlooking Lock no. 1 on the Murray river. A beach stretched out in front of us and a pontoon was inviting the kayak to moor there. We quickly setup whilst Sean, Naomi and the kids arrived. Noel was already there sorting out some new fly screens for his house he has in the park, right on the beach front. Sean and Naomi stayed in the house with Noel (Naomi is Noels daughter) and we all got together that night for a few drinks. Noel was off early on Monday morning but for the rest of us it was a chance to unwind for a day. We took the kayak out and found time out to sleep for a bit. for Rachel and I this was the first break in three weeks and we really needed it. Rachel and I organised for Sean and Naomi to take a sunset cruise in the viking kayak and it was as we heard a very pleasant experience. We finished off the day with a lounging dinner of Tacos and dips. This was a true peaceful day and a caravan park we very much recommend. It has 4 pelicans as its star rating but there are far more than 4 pelicans living around the park. A true bird watchers paradise with Rachel claiming we even saw some Rock Parrots, heaps of wood ducks and a Dusky Moorhen. This place is a true relaxing sanctuary.

Pimpinio - A caravan mecca

Pimpinio, not the most recognised town in Australia. It lies approximately 17kms from Horsham on the west side. It has probably less than 100 permanent residents, if you blink you could miss it but it has one of the best Geist dealerships you could find. The owners, Andy and Sue Legge, recently came out from England and could not believe the state of the local caravan industry. Being avid caravaners themselves for some 20 years, it was an easy decision for them to make to get a quality product such as Geist into their new yard. They had looked at the Geist before getting out to Australia and even talked to Geist Australia's business partner in England. As you will see in the photos, they put as many vans as possible into the huge shed in their yard. This cuts down on washing and presents the product a lot better.
On Saturday we were pleasantly surprised when we arrived at the yard about an hour earlier to find a couple waiting to speak with Rachel and I about our caravan, this couple have been looking forward to our meeting for some time and just wanted to confirm some facts before purchasing their own XK660. Before long we had a huge crowd, Andys advertising in the local rag obviously had paid off and Rachel and I were the talk of the district with the brightly graphical caravan, distinct Volkswagen Touareg and neatly crafted Viking kayak. Before long the yard arm had crossed 3:00pm and finally the crowd had dispersed, but not before committing to two new caravans to be ordered over the next few months. This fantastic result could only be accredited to a very dedicated and persistent dealer, as well as some facts from us to help them on their way.
We drove away from Pimpinio with a complete new appreciation for small towns and with some lovely new friends to boot. Even the neighbours, Trevor and Liz deserve some mention as they treated us with crayfish and great hospitality on Friday night. We look forward to coming back to Pimpinio, if you are traveling past, say Gidday and bamboozle Andy with some of our Aussie slang, like we did! No, their not too bad for a couple of Poms.

Mad week - post show

This week has been really tough for getting things done, including this blog. Sorry to the people checking out our movements daily. It must be said that sometimes there really isn't enough hours in the day but, we're getting there. After the vans finally got all back to the yard on Tuesday it was a time then to start training Noels staff in the finer aspects of the Geist product. You have to remember that they are used to selling the Australian manufactured van and the Geist is definitely a lot different to those. This grew into a longer process than first thought but with time I managed to finalise the training by Thursday mid afternoon. This gave Rachel and I a slim window of opportunity to get everything organised for our trip to Horsham on Friday for the next promotion. The other thing I haven't told you is that during this training period I have come down with a cold and can hardly talk. This is proving to be very difficult to keep going and with no break for 3 weeks we are looking forward to a short one at Blanchetown from Sunday to Monday.

The latest on the website is that we had some programming issues which appear to be now fixed and I am loading content when possible between everything else. In a perfect world the site should be up mid next week, reality though, we are probably a week and a half away.

If you look back on the blog you should find some photos of the Adelaide show, I am going to upload them now.

Moving Monday

What more can I say, today was a day of moving vans back to the yard, about a 1.5hr round trip, I managed to get 5 vans back to Noels today, three more to go tomorrow. Gee I love the Touareg, it was 39 degrees today and I didn't know it, the Touareg kept me at 20 degrees and pulled those vans with ease. The comfort it gives just makes pulling such a breeze, not to mention the great towability of the Geist van.

Just to let you know, the Geist Owners club is getting close to being launched and I am loading content on the Geist Direct site for launch within a week (I hope).

Last day of the Show

The last day of the show brought lots of people, not sure of sundays turnout yet but here are the attendance figures for the other 4 days. On Wednesday 4682, Thursday 4809, Friday 5450, Saturday 11,835. We had a great walk through rate at the show and great interest in the new XK 559, Grant Denyer special and the old favourite, XK 535 which is just a great versatile roomy layout. No more new owners today but lots more interest and acceptance than last year. We had a fast pack up Sunday after the show and a very social night with the whole crew. Well done to everyone and to Rachel who got 14 lots of clothing for $10 each, a saving of hundreds of dollars at Rays Outdoors stand at the show. We'll see Adelaide next year.

Day 3 & 4 of Adelaide show

This a catch up of the last couple of days, with all the functions after the show and me(Peter) being the main writer a little exhausted when finally getting home, the blog just has not got done. We are getting great feedback from everyone regarding the blog though so I do appologise for not keeping you up to speed until now. The show itself is quite large and I am finding it tricky to see much of it in between showing potential new Geist owners through their new vans. Friday was a little disappointing for everyone because there were lots of people falling in love with the van but no new owners. This is not a reflection of the product but that Geist is still a prestige product that is affordable to just a small market. Rachel came in for a look around and enjoyed the half day she spent there. Some biscuits she made from our special biscuit dough given to us at Christmas, was very well received by everyone working on the stand, even though she could do just 6 at a time in the toaster oven we cart around with us. Yesterday was a lot busier with more children being involved. I yanked (I mean persuaded :) ) two that they should return to their parents when I found them practicing the paddling skills in the Viking Tempo II kayak. Later in the day though it turned and I had two new owners announce themselves by making healthy deposits towards a new Geist. It sometimes hard when you know the product is great (because you live in it) and it does not matter what you say to endorse that, the potential owner can't get past thinking I am just trying to sell them something like you would expect with a car, or TV, why can't they approach it like you were choosing a pet for the first time. You get what you see with a Geist, no hidden things to go wrong like in engines of a car or electronics of TV. The Geist caravan is based on basic asthetic principles with the nil maintenance BPW independent rubber torsion suspension system. Anyway, two people saw the light yesterday and joined the Geist family.
Today is another day and the people being putting it off should arrive today to finalise their purchase. We are quite happy with the Adelaide show this year and look forward to our next one in Perth on the 13 March.

Day 2 at Adelaide show

Today was a great day to hear great compliments on the Geist caravans and motorhomes currently on the road. We had a number of owners come in just to say how much they loved their Geist. No more new owners today but quite a few who will be by the weeks end. As it is Valentines day and even though we don't believe in Valentines day, Rachel and I went down to see the sun set over the water on the beach. This was a lovely relaxing time after a long day on the feet. Tomorrow is going to be another big day talking to lots of new and interesting people. Promise some photos soon.

Let the show begin

What a day yesterday was, setting up the last of the vans and cleaning the Touareg ready for Wednesdays opening day. It was a constant day but we were still able to get away to see family for dinner that night. Today though was the opening day of the Adelaide Caravan and Camping Show, this day would be a gauge for shows to come and the general thoughts of the consumer. I must admit to be a bit apprehensive as to whether the general public were going to buy caravans this year as much as last year, but I shouldn't have worried, you have all voted with your feet and today we have two new Geist owners, one who loved our Xk660 they saw on the Caravan & Motorhome magazine DVD that much that they had to have one themselves (I agree it is my favourite layout) and my friend Doug sold the new Grant Denyer special XK 630 caravan to a lovely couple as well. These are our premium vans and we know now that our customers really want our prestige vans. Thanks to all who attended and we'll see if we have some more owners tomorrow.

It all comes together

A caravan show is a big undertaking by anyone, but to undertake it for a company which prides itself on quality is even harder. Yesterday and today focussed our attention on making sure the vans were very clean and presentable. This to most would seem straight forward but we have to remember that the average caravan takes three times the length of time to clean as a car. It is white which shows any insect splodges quite well and it is joined together by a product called sikaflex (used in most vans) which is black and tends to blead its dye when it is new. Yesterday we washed the vans were we could but today was a day of waterless washing using a fantastic product called "Rip Off". This product should be used watered down but in some circumstances it can be used neat. Today we cleaned and waxed 8 vans ready for the show as well as put up our two entrance steel arches. The hard work is now done, tomorrow we have the light work to do. Wednesday we do what we really like to do, talk to customers. I'll take some photos when we have it set up and post them for you.

S.A. caravan show preparation

Today was a long day moving caravans from Noels Caravans to the Wayville showground ready for the caravan show starting Wednesday. We were able to move 5 in all today with just three to move on Monday. It was an all day process with the managing director arriving with two vans on his Hino truck and another truck with two more. Unfortunately we had to cancel a night with family as tonight I have a real headache, not enough water I suspect. I also didn't get back until about 6:15pm which didn't help much with Rachel trying to go out to the movies with her sister inlaw and friends on the other side of town by 7:15pm. So we are having a quiet night tonight. Guess what, we go again tomorrow, this time changing some a-frames on a couple of vans. A shorter day we hope but it all has to be done. The show must go on.

Wash away the grime

Washing caravans is never a great job but it is part of what we do to present them the best way for the customer. It is when the truck that carrys the vans travels at night that we have issues some times. Removing insects splattered has never been my favourite past time but I found a product that did it quite well and left a wax shine on it afterwards. A simple bug and grime remover available in Bunnings did the job well. If you need the details let me know. I got three vans washed, only 5 more to go. We'll start again tomorrow.

Broken Hill to Adelaide

We got away well today and trundled down the road. It is funny to see the changes in our country being so pronounced within just 1,000 kms. It was noticbly drier now, the South Australian state has received considerably less rain than the other parts of Australia. The winds are much stronger here and the plains are larger and more barren. The hills are smoothed with the constant winds and the grass close to the road is fused at a constant arch. The wildlife is much more on the move at present, a frilled neck lizard passed in front of us at the wrong time, swerving would have mean't a risk of an accident so we took his life with a "bump". Of course Rachel cringed but understood why his little life was no longer. Another lizard, not sure of his type, ran halfway and turned in time for a spritely escape. He had a white blaze halfway up his tail, and about the same size as a frilled neck, maybe longer and skinnier. There are some beautiful old house ruins near Burra and I keep wanting to photograph them but we are on them before we know it and once again we failed to stop so next time through we will make a point of photographing them against the outback red and vibrant blue sky. We made it through to Adelaide without stopping at Clare (very tempted) and pulled into Noels caravans to sort out the show next week and organise washing of the vans. After giving our van a quick wash we ventured down to the Adelaide Shores Caravan Park and checked in to a temporary site until the next day when we would need to move to our site for the next two weeks. A 4 1/2 star site that is very nice indeed. great for kids but also great access to the beach. With Big 4 discount and weekly tariff it worked out to be $29 a night. Very good value considering the quality of the park. Big rigs put in at the fence near the road though. A bit noisy. we were there just the one night though. We ventured for our first meal out for little while. The Glenelg precinct is close by so we had to visit the restaurants overlooking the boats and beach. "The Wharf" restaraunt was our choice and we had a very good meal there. Friday will involve washing vans for the show.

Warren to Broken Hill

Usually one of the driest runs across to Adelaide, this time it was a pleasant bright green most of the way. The rain chased us again this morning when we left at around 7:00am for our bigger than normal trek of 660 kms. We got to Nyngan where the river was breaking the banks and shortly after the road was running over with local water. Lightening was cracking right next to us as we forged through the wet and finally after Cobar it cleared up. We stopped and photographed the van and Touareg together for the new promotion banner to be displayed at the caravan shows. Finally though we arrived in Broken Hill at the Broken Hill City caravan park. This is a well presented park that is a genuine 4 star.

Dash out West

It has been a bit of a dash for some sun today. We got away quite early, 7:30am or so after packing up in the rain, once again. It seems the rain is following us wherever we go, then again we do have a history of that. We met up with a gentleman last night who was intrigued by the enormous long kayak on the roof of the Touareg. The Viking kayak is of course a 4.7m tandem kayak that is ocean going. It is fitted with the option of an electric motor, in our case a 28lb thrust one that the crew at Viking Kayak put together for us to demonstrate. This rig will be setup at each show we attend including next weeks Adelaide show. Whilst at Maryborough last week Cameron (Geist's gun serviceman) and Peter went down the creek below which comes off the Mary river where they pulled 2 lovely sized Bass from the water into the kayak. The only problem was that Peter's was accidentally released by Cameron when it came up to his side of the kayak. That's ok, Cameron gave Peter his Bass to try and we had a lovely feed of fish that night. Peter's was of course a bigger fish (ha,ha). Back to the gentleman interested in the kayak, well he went away very happy with a brochure and a website to check out what he could buy for himself, just part of the friendly service.
We ventured into the 110km zones today and with the whole rig settled in at the correct heights and the kayak sitting very well now, we should not have been surprised at the way it all hugged the road. Our biggest gain is on the hills, as other vans and trucks are left behind we maintain speed up the hills comfortably. I think we used a little more fuel today at this faster speed but we were able to keep with traffic and spent most of the day traveling on our own. Please don't be alarmed, there were some areas of the road we did slow down for as the area of road between Gilgandra and Warren is quite ordinary and still it shows a 110km zone. The rain shadowed us all day and as we got into Warren at lunch time the heavens opened up once again. A storm hit us this afternoon and we were glad we were off the road. The Macquarie Caravan Park here at Warren is a good little park, a few permanents but the owners are quite nice and the amenities very clean. We stayed here on the way down to Adelaide before Christmas and found it great then too. It is 3 1/2 stars but should probably be around 2 1/2 to 3.

Rain changes direction

A break in Evans Head had us sitting cosily in our XK660 caravan waiting for rain to subside. A days break on Sunday was more of a chance to catch up on some web browsing. Evans Head would have been delightful with some good weather but unfortunately we will have to return at a later date to enjoy that. We decided today that we would go a slightly longer route due to the large rainfall along the coast. Ballina just up the road had over 250mm before we had left and it continued to rain today. The weather was slipping down along the coast so the obvious option of treking across Grafton was really not on, so we headed back up slightly to Casino, across to Tenterfield and down through Armidale to Tamworth. We passed Captain Thunderbolts cave, statue and grave but didn't stop in, maybe another day. The Volkswagen Touareg really showed its grunt today cruising at the speed limit up and down hills. We got some funny looks from other caravaners and trucks when we passed them on the uphill overtaking lanes. Oh well, it is an education period for most, with many not understanding the real ease of towing with this van and motor vehicle. We are currently at Paradise Big 4 caravan park in Tamworth, a very comfortable and above the 3 1/2 star rating in our opinion. The country music festival is over now and everyone looks a bit tired.

Evans Head

We traveled from Forest Glen on the Sunshine Coast through to Evans Head today, just south of Ballina. A suggested stop from David and Margy, our very good friends, Evans Head is as David describes a sleepy town with one of everything in it. He's pretty right and Rachel and I really like this place. It has not gone too commercial yet but still has a lot of people staying here, even though school has gone back, it is the weekend though. It is very muggy and raining, we haven't been able to unload the Viking Kayak for a paddle as yet but hope to tomorrow. It is a pity we couldn't drop in to see the Viking Kayak crew when on the coast. Again the weekend made it difficult to catch up. The Silver Sands park that we are staying at has over 500 sites and seems to be a genuine 3 1/2 stars. We will rest here for Sunday before heading further south towards Adelaide. Not sure which way we will go yet but will post our route when we do. Watching the weather in case of heavy storms with hail out west.

Geist Dealers Conference

We arrived on the 28th of January at Maryborough ready for the 3 day conference with our dealers. It was important to discuss many issues from pricing through to warranty and of course new product. Unfortunately not all 12 dealers could attend but not to be deterred we got ready for a busy few days. The first day involved mostly arrival of dealers and finished with a BBQ that night. Due to confidence clauses I can't discuss the content of the next two days but it involved some exciting pricing changes, new product and future direction, not to mention the Geist Direct website to be launched very soon.

Volkswagen Touareg 2008 handover

It is a wonderful time, an opportunity to drive one of the best 4wds currently available, right around Australia over the next 12 months. The 3.0 litre V6 Turbo diesel 2008 model was picked up from Volkswagen in Sydney on the 21st January. Our journey really begins soon with our trip now heading north to Maryborough for the annual Geist dealers conference.