Geist Runner

Blog Moved

2009-06-20T10:25:00.002+10:00

I have moved this blog to www.geistowners.com, the new home for Geist Owners worldwide.

Regards

GR

On the road again

2009-06-13T00:13:00.003+10:00

We headed off on Sunday over to Ansu Leisure to fix up our awning that we bent at Streaky Bay last year. It was good to catch up with Andy and Sue. They are still going strong and the knowledge Andy has in the Euro vans never ceases to amaze me. He is right up to date with everything. It was a quick stop and we headed towards Sydney on Wednesday. A roadside stop near Wodonga and then in to Sydney Thursday Arvo has us here for a week. Rachel and I are doing an internet marketing course to brush up on some ideas that have been running around in our heads. This time we have brought our 2 dogs and 2 cats with us. The dogs love being in the Isabella Annex and the cats the expanse of the XK660 van. Love being on the road again. Wish I had my VW Touareg though, this time we have had to settle for a Nissan Pathfinder ST-L, still pulls well though. E-newsletter is nearly finished. Should be out this week.

Catch you on the track

GR

Geist in Australia

2009-04-02T12:46:00.002+10:00

Hi Everyone in Geist land. It has been a roller coaster ride with the Geist promo van lately. I became a bit inactive on the blog, hence the last post still in WA. My appologises to those following me on the road. We did come down the West coast to Perth, then down to Bremer Bay again, we picked up my parents in Perth and took them back with us to the east coast. On the way we caught up with the Flints, fixed their battery problem. We then dropped into Streaky Bay and then across to Adelaide for the get together in the Barossa Valley. That was December last year. We then had some time off over Christmas before heading back to our Southern base near Bairnsdale Victoria. From there the bad things started to happen. The news coming out of the media was doom and gloom with the downturn and then the boss rings me and after some discussing I suggest I take a holiday until things sort themselves out. Unfortunately about 6 weeks later they go into receivership. This has left Rachel and I on the outer a bit but we are still determined to keep the Geist brand going in Australia. We still have our XK660 and intend to keep the owners club going. We are planning some trips again soon but until then the forum is the best place to catch up with me or Geist info, the link is http://www.phpbb88.com/geist/portal.php?mforum=geist With 600 posts about Geist, it is a hive of information. We plan to have an international feel to the forum soon so UK and Euro owners, you too can ask the questions and maybe answer some too!

But until I get on the road again, maybe June, the same applies as all ways.

Catch you on the track!

GR

Kalbarri

2008-12-17T08:40:00.005+10:00

Kalbarri, what can I say about this place, if you could get your favourite seaside town (I am thinking Lakes Entrance, Vic) and turn back the development, silly bylaws, hustle and bustle by 30 years, you would have a pretty good idea of what Kalbarri is like. It is quaint, beautiful, nostalgic, relaxing and just plain great to be holidaying in. We really loved it and would have only passed by except that John and Joy Hogarth we staying there with their XK 630 which I had sold to them just a month or so earlier. We were able to catch up on some more work but also stop for the weekend and soak up the atmosphere this place releases on a daily basis. The Viking kayak came off the roof and I had a quick fish, the Profish 45 really does work well, the breeze came up in the afternoon and whisked across the river but I was still able to get the kayak in without too many problems. John and Joy were spending some time there, becoming practically locals I think! The favourite visit though was to the Rainbow Jungle Bird enclosure on the way out of Kalbarri. This place soaked up a bit of time but wow it was fantastic. Over 50 different varieties of Parrot were all in this wonderfully kept aviary. The cleanliness, the condition of the birds, the interaction, the layout are all a credit to the owners of this fabulous establishment. We loved it that much we purchased some lovely metal art from there(spending too much) and took three hours to get through it all. I photographed every variety of bird and even got chummy with a couple of Macaws.

Monkey Mia

2008-12-17T08:17:00.004+10:00

Well after Coral Bay we kept moving south. The aim was to meet up with John and Joy Hogarth at Kalbarri but we had to drop in to Monkey Mia on the way for a look and catch up on some work online, a bit of a problem in around Coral Bay. We headed into the Monkey Mia park area and was allocated a spot there. The facilities are a little run down and the bays are quite small and undefined but we coped with that. We wanted to get our work caught up so did some long hours but also got up early to see the dolphins come in. This was a special experience for both of us and the photos don't do it all justice. On the way back to the van we decided to book onto the Shotover catamaran to see the Dugongs in the bay. We got the last two tickets and raced back to the van and worked our butts off to get our work done so we could get to the boat in time. The shotover turned out to be a great trip, I helped hoist the sails and we were off on this huge racing legend cat that had a number of items onboard for good luck that were from the Australia II yacht. What they were they wouldn't tell us for security issues. We managed to see some Dugongs and their calves feeding on the sea grass as well as dolphins and long neck turtles. It was good fun and I enjoyed being the spotter up the front, directing the crew and passengers to the faint brown shapes of Dugongs in the water. Monkey Mia is worth going to even though the park needs some attention, the bar is good though.

Karratha to Coral Bay

2008-12-17T08:01:00.002+10:00

Playing a bit of catch up here but here goes.

We headed away from the very warm Karratha region in search of a little cooler area to relax. It was coming up to the weekend and we desperately wanted to stop. If we stop at a free camp spot in the 42 degree heat, would we have a good weekend or should we push further south to the coast again and hope for a 25 degree relaxing environment. Well the latter prevailed and we headed the long haul to Coral Bay, a popular spot for the Perth local to visit and right next to the Ningaloo reef. This spot was exactly what we were looking for, cool breezes of the water kept the temperature down to around the 25-27 degrees and the water was just right to snorkel in and generally have a great time in. The crowd wasn't ridiculously large but busy enough. We had to use our own water as the artesian water can't be put into the caravan tanks at all. They are very precious about their water. We had a great time there and enjoyed the fish feeding from the beach, the snorkeling and the metal detecting where we found enough money to pay for the snorkel gear hire.

We are still travelling

2008-11-25T19:25:00.000+10:00

Just a quick note to let you know that we are still travelling, we have heaps of images to download and go through. The last month has been pretty hectic and we are now at the "Shed" in Victoria. Photos are coming of that too plus heaps of other interesting things so stay tuned and in the next week or so it will all be up to date again.

144 members in the Geist Owners Club. Yippeeeee!!!!

Karratha

2008-10-23T14:19:00.002+10:00

After appointing over the phone a service agent in Broome we headed on to a rest stop down the road towards Karratha for the night. A beautiful warm night where we had the generator going all night to keep the airconditioner on. It would have been at least 28-29 overnight. The next day a little sleep weary we headed down past Port Hedland where there were heaps of mining happening. It was good to see the growth but I am worried the infrustructure is a little behind to support the fly in fly out crews. Anyway it was good to view and we kept heading south to Karratha where we popped into the BIG 4 there at a discounted $42 per night. We were lucky enough to still have an opportunity to see the Stairway to the moon again, the last night and the photos show the result. Karratha was also the place we were able to get another service agent which was great too!

Broome - Cable Beach

2008-10-23T13:50:00.003+10:00

We weren't quite sure on how to take Broome at first, it is in two obvious parts, the old Broome which is obviously quite run down in the back streets and new Broome which is effectively Cable Beach and the airport area. We grew to enjoy it pretty quick and stayed there for 5 nights working during the day and viewing the sunset at night. We went out for dinner one night which was pretty good but the sight we enjoyed the most was the sunset over Cable Beach. We were fortunate also to be there for the Stairway to the Moon but the cloud cover mucked that up for us a bit. The photos show the night sky.
Rachel found a friend who helped her hang out the washing or should I say guard it from all the backpackers. This little Spotted Military Dragon sat under the clothes line and occasionally ventured onto the hot stones but flicked his legs continuously as it was a bit hot at 39 degrees plus the extra heat from the stones. Rachel has heaps of photos of the little fella and since then we have seen a few of them either squashed on the road, me straddling them on the road or in the camp parks on the coast. Broome is good, very touristy and when we were there extremely hot, would be good in the dry season.

More Bungle Bungles and Argyle diamond mine

2008-10-23T13:45:00.002+10:00

These photos are just a selection of what we took, not to mention the video.

Kununurra

2008-10-23T13:26:00.002+10:00

A hive of activity, this very popular destination sits on the Ord river catchment area right next to Lake Argyle, a man made lake with the capacity in the wet season of 54 times Sydney Harbour. This massive dam supplies irrigation water to the growing Kununurra irrigation district. As we came away from Kununurra we heard on the radio that it won the tourism award for WA this year, well done! The new Australia film has used this area to film extensive footage, including the El Questro homestead. The tourism group in the area has just moved the homestead used for the movie to Kununurra to further enhance the tourism when the film comes out in November. Whilst we were there we could have done heaps of touristy things at quite a cost but opted to do a flight out to the Bungle Bungles over them all due to the work we both have on and the cost. As a place to visit, you can not beat the Bungle Bungles, this area discovered as a tourist attraction in 1987 is by far the most impressive mountainous structure in Australia. It beats Ulluru and the Snowy Mountains in way of expanse and beauty. We flew out at 6:00am and picked up some nice light from the morning sun and flew over the irrigation area, the Ord river and dam, over Lake Argyle's huge expanse, two cattle stations and arrived over the Bungle Bungles which is just on the edge of the Tanami Desert. As we banked unfortunately Rachel's stomach could not take it anymore but still we videoed and took still images of this spectacular place. The commentary was very good and we spent around 15 mins circling the Bungle Bungles before heading back towards Kununurra. Before getting there we passed over the Argyle diamond mind and skirted Lake Argyle back to the safety of the ground again. For me it was great to fly again, only wish we could have taken off the door of the 8 seater Cessna to get better photos. Rachel has decided to hang up here small aircraft flying boots for now though as she was quite ill for the rest of the day after the flight. We stayed an extra day for Rachel to recover and moved on to Broome. You must visit this area though, it is spectacular and one day we will spend more than 3 days there to really enjoy it.

Katherine Gorge to Kununurra

2008-10-19T19:29:00.004+10:00

A big push today through to Kununurra was pretty plain sailing, it took all day but the road wasn't too bad. Crossing the border was funny, the guy was more interested in the van than what we had in the cupboards. Oh well we still did the right thing and cleaned out all the vegies and fruit prior to arriving at the border. The Volkswagen Touareg is definitely a joy to drive with the outside temperature up around 40 degrees it still cruised at 100-105 kms all day without going past half on the temp guage. It never moves and the aircon goes all day keeping me at 21 degrees and Rachel at 18-19 degrees.

Darwin to Katherine Gorge

2008-10-19T18:20:00.004+10:00

The day started out pretty well, we were heading for Victoria River, a bit of a journey of around 550kms and not far out of Darwin Rachel's dad Graham rang us and suggested we go to Katherine Gorge as they loved it. Seeing it was not far off the track we decided to change plans and had a short trip of around 260kms to the gorge from Darwin. It was quite warm when we got there but then we were getting used to that. After unhooking and setting up we headed over to the visitor centre for some lunch and check out the tours, being there one night only and work on the go it was unlikely we could see much but luckily there was a sunset dinner cruise available for that night so we promptly booked that and raced back to get our work done before it left at 4:30pm. There wasn't a big group on board and we headed up the first gorge whilst the canoeists were coming back (no I didn't take the kayak off for a paddle, not enough time). Soon we were among towering cliffs and rocky outcrops. The informative cruise was excellent, we got to the second gorge and it got even better. We were supposed to turn around at the end of the second gorge but the guide was good enough to give us a freebie and we jumped onto a third boat for the third gorge cruise, how lucky were we. We arrived at the end of the third gorge and the view was fantastic. We soon turned around and went via another boat back to the first gorge where we jumped on board the dining boat ready for our meal. With a glass of champagne and flickering candles on sunset you could excuse yourself if you weren't stepping onto the set of and Australian tourist advert, with Aboriginal music and tables for two, seated watching the sunset drop through the gorge, changing the hue every second. We had a very enjoyable evening and were glad we didn't skip this wonderful place.

Darwin to Perth to Darwin

2008-09-30T12:29:00.003+10:00

This last week has been a bit of a whirlwind with arriving in Darwin, setting up the van and then jetting off to Perth for the working week and returning to Darwin again to continue the admin.

It has been a very successful and eventful week for Geist Direct with some long hours, happy moments and a sad one to finish off.

It started from our arrival into Darwin from Mataranka on Friday 19th when we found our ensuite green shady spot at Lee Point Caravan Resort just east of Darwin. This huge park is a bit empty at the moment but can cater for hundreds of vans and has a no booking policy. Having your own ensuite does have its ups I suppose although I must admit it only appealed as it was about the same price as one without an ensuite for this time of year. The XK660 has a great ensuite and Rachel and I still prefer to shower in our own bathroom. We setup next to Rachel's parents and spent the weekend settling in, putting up the Isabella and popping into the shops to get some supplies. We briefly visited the Mingal markets on that Sunday.

Monday was hectic as I rushed some emails through and jumped on a plain to Perth so I could deliver two vans to customers. Mr and Mrs Hogarth and Mr and Mrs Mateara who ordered a XK660 and XK630 Denyer respectively. Licensing proved a headache seeing we have no dealer at present in WA but Care-a-van are fantastic as a service agent and were able to accommodate me for the week which I really appreciate. Michelle's paperwork and tenacity proved to be the main driving force to getting the paperwork rubber stamped as well as a little help from me. All deliveries went smoothly in the end and everyone left happy. On Thursday our last Demo motorhome was sold in Perth too which topped the week off for me and the new owners. I'll be delivering the Phantom RG later in October when I get back around to Perth. Congratulations Mr and Mrs Green. Care-a-van will become our WA Geist Direct Centre, well done guys and girls.

Long days and nights wore me out a bit but I flew back to Darwin on Friday to some news that wasn't so good. A customer had some problems in Peterborough SA and had little help from the local dealer so I was able to talk the customer through the problems and get them home to Adelaide that afternoon after some discussions on the phone.

Over the weekend I was able to unwind a little and visited the B52 parked at the Aviation museum in Darwin. It is the only B52 on display in the Southern Hemisphere, well worth the $12 to see it. All the museum was absolutely fantastic as well as the Spitfire MKVIII replica, the Sabre and the Wessex helicopter which helped Darwin residents out during cyclone Tracy. My time as a photographer in the RAAF still gives me great memories of the various planes I have been so fortunate to fly in but the planes that graced our skies in the 40's through to the 70's are something else. On Sunday evening we returned to the Mingal markets to have dinner and watch the sunset over the bay. Seeing all those people around got me thinking about metal detecting again. At 5:30am Monday morning I headed down to the Mingal Markets site and metal detected the beach with a massive $6.70 find in coins and some cheap jewelery. But still it was good exercise and I helped clean up the beach a bit of cans and pull tabs before it got a bit hot and I had to get into some work.Better luck next time.

Yesterday (Monday) I had discussions with our Adelaide dealer, Noels Caravans about the servicing of the Geist Caravans after Fridays incident and it has been agreed between us that it is just not practical to continue on a relationship in selling and servicing the Geist product at their dealership. Their servicing centre is not up to the task in-conjunction with their other brands to give full service backup required by us. So with regret we have had to part company with Noels Caravans and so a new service agent will be appointed this week and the team at Geist Direct and I will service the Adelaide and regional market for future sales and accessories until a good dealer presents themselves or other avenues are looked at.

Banka Banka to Maturanka Springs

2008-09-18T20:47:00.003+10:00

We thought we would spend two nights here to catch up on work and that we have a bit today. Tomorrow we head north to Darwin. Maturanka springs is a 32 degree natural pool where relaxation is assured. We have only had a couple of dips each evening but it has been great. The bats have been very ordinary though with their droppings stinking us out when we step outside the van.

Cloncurry to Banka Banka

2008-09-18T20:42:00.002+10:00

It was a bit of a wait in Cloncurry as we could not get a spare tyre for the VW for a couple of days but finally on Tuesday morning we were able to leave to catch up with Rachel's parents who had gone on ahead. We drove a longish day, around 850kms to a rest stop just short of Banka Banka Station where we surprised Rachel'sparents with our arrival. It was Rachel's birthday that day and I wanted desperately for us all to be together. All went well and we sat on 100 -120km per hour in the 130km zone depending on the quality of the road most of the day. I always believe in traveling to the road conditions.

Karumba to Cloncurry

2008-09-15T07:32:00.002+10:00

Just a quick note before taking off again, we went from Karumba to Burke & Wills Roadhouse and took a right west to Gregory Downs. We thought we would spend the weekend there and visit Lawn Hill. The pub at Gregory Downs is really good, a bit pricey but good hospitlity. We opted to stay out the back of the pub where they provide water and loos for $7.50 a head (no power, can use generators) for two nights so we could leave the van there and shoot into Lawn Hill National Park for a squiz. Unfortunately on Saturday when we were half way there we got a flat and once I changed the tyre to a space saver one (standard with this model of Touareg) it was not smart to go on, so we turned around and headed back. I tried to get it fixed in Gregory Downs but none were keen to work on a hole as big as I had in the tyre. So Saturday was spent sitting doing nothing since we were paid up and I was over the driving thing for the day. Rachel caught up on some work and I chilled out playing a computer game in the aircon of our awesome little home the XK660. By the way it is going really well. It is up around 38,000kms now with no major problems. I have put a bit of sikaflex in the bathroom to add extra water tightness, put a couple of extra brackets under the microwave (go a little loose under there) but other than that she has been great!

We headed off Sunday to Cloncurry limping with the space saver tyre towing the van. We kept the speed under 80kms all the way as per the limits stamped on the rim and found it performed really well on mostly sealed road but sometimes we had to get off the road for oncoming cars and road trains. Well I am about to shoot into Cloncurry to get the tyre fixed, hope we can get it all fixed. By the way, we stayed at Wals camp at the back of Cloncurry last night, $8 for the two of us. Has water (not much in drought) and toilets, no power (can use generator though).

Mt Isa bound

2008-09-11T07:31:00.004+10:00

Today we head south towards Mt Isa. We will be taking a detour over the weekend to Lawn Hill whilst we are in the area and then getting into Mt Isa by Sunday night. When I say in Mt Isa, we'll probably free camp outside the city and then head through on Monday morning. Here are some photos of our time in Karumba though where we caught up on some computer work but enjoyed the surroundings afterwards. We will probably be offline for a week or so. From Mt Isa to Barkly Station, three ways and Banka Banka station by Tuesday (Rachel's birthday) hopefully we will have phone coverage there for family to ring. We head to Maturanka springs on Wednesday/Thursday and into Darwin on Friday. Talk to everyone real soon.

Ay Karumba

2008-09-08T09:12:00.004+10:00

What a little gem of a place for a fisherman like me, this fisherman's haven is one place you can be assured a catch, especially if you get a charter for half a day like I did on Fathers day. Well why not, if you are in the area on a special day why can't you spend a day doing some leisure activities. Sunday was great but it started when we got the good oil from other caravaners in Croyden, our overnight stop after Innot Springs. There are three caravan parks in Karumba they said, go to one of the two on the point to avoid the midgies. This pricked my ears as this little black duck does not like the old invisible assassin. I'd rather a tribe of mossies than one of those things. So we arrived early on Saturday to set up camp and we immediately went to the one closest to the point with the most breeze to keep those little varmits away. The Sunset caravan park was our choice and many others as we saw when we crawled past the main frontage of the park. Not deterred we found a park for the two rigs outside the park and wondered into try our luck. Funnily enough the fish must of been on the bite this day as a sign reading "Back after 2:00pm, find your own site, $26 unpowered, $29 powered." Interesting approach but obviously the crowds are beginning to head south so we drove in and by chance found two sites together. There wasn't many left after a few more came in that day so we think we were quite lucky. After setting up and having some lunch it was after 2:00pm and Graham (father inlaw) and I wondered down to the office to book in. Whilst standing there the signs were clear that a charter boat operator was available to be booked from the office. My fishing radar went up and thought, fathers day tomorrow, father inlaw with me, I'm a father, trip justified! "Two half day tickets thanks" was the request just as another couple from NZ as it turns out put their request in for the same afternoon. All of a sudden the fishing on the beach idea changed to a full blown charter and lots more enthusiasm was found. A Saturday night of catching up on recorded TV shows was had. Sunday morning started with the mandatory Bacon & Eggs without the bacon but instead some turkey spam left over from our Fraser Island camp trip. Yes it did taste a bit ordinary sizzled but it was the thought that counted. After a phone call home to my dad (who was working on the farm) and then a call from my daughter Haylee I was in the mood to catch some monster fish. Graham and I wondered down about lunch time and jumped in with 4 others and raced out to the favourite spot of Paul's (our guide). The Kerry D is a good sized rig with twin Yamahas on the back ready with the ability to take about 9 or 10 people with guide. It didn't take long to get onto some Threadfin salmon, the fish in season. This beautiful tasting fish when cooked is beautiful as we found out last night. The tally for me was 14 Threadfin plus a couple of catfish which were sent back to the waters with sore heads. Graham didn't fair quite so well with 6 good fish. there was more than enough for all when we got back and Graham and I walked back with 11 fish each to clean up. The photos will show the haul we ended up cleaning whilst relaxing with an ale. You will also notice a sea snake one of the anglers got onto. It swallowed the hook and it was safer to cut it loose than risk a bite from one of these very venomous reptiles.

The night finished with a few drinks with new friends Paul and Jill who came out with us, and a good feed of fish. Today it is back to work and tomorrow we head to Lawn Hill.

By the way, the Next G aerial I talked about further down in the post, is fabulous, we got coverage in places where with the phone, there were no bars at all. It is great, highly recommend it.

Smashing the dirt road theory

2008-09-08T07:58:00.003+10:00

If anyone ever suggests you can't go on a dirt road with a Geist again, I'll have to ask them to rethink their logic in a calm and friendly manner whilst getting really cranky inside. The XK660 has performed very well going over admittedly light dirt roads in-conjunction with good and bad sealed roads over the last 35,000 kms. This last stretch for the year across the top and down the west coast is full of rough and not so good sealed roads. We are picking our route around the rough bits admittedly but for many this would be a manner of course anyway. The looks we get when pulling up next to the Bushtrackers, Kedrons and lifted Aussie vans is a little of "how did they", "why have they" and maybe a little of "why did I bother spending the dough". Well sitting here now in Karumba on the bottom of the Gulf of Carpentaria I am surrounded by mostly big and high lifted vans and camper trailers in one of the three caravan parks in the area.

The trip across the top started just under a week ago on Tuesday 2nd Sep and already we have seen lots and appointed a new service agent for Cairns. We left Balgal Beach and headed north to Cairns but we pulled into a little rest area just west of Babinda called the Boulders. This little rest area takes just 5 campers and it is a line up to get in but luckily the two of us, that's right we have Rachel's parent following us to Darwin in their van, managed the last two spots. Two nights there whilst Rachel, her mum Beth and I went to Cairns. For the girls it was a day for shopping, for me it was working getting a new service agent appointed. Wednesday afternoon we had a new agent, Cairns Caravan repairs, Doug there with 30 years experience will be a great asset to our expanding agent role.

Thursday got us off to a good start heading a short way to Innot Hot Springs, a place you must stop at when traveling through. Fellow Geist owner John Cullen gave me the hot tip on this one and now hopefully more people will find this little secret. The pools of different temperature water is great to relax the body as Rachel and I found out. 5 main pools plus a standard pool lets you experience all temps right up to 45 degrees. In the undercover area three pools allows to have a very hot dip and then walk next door to a cold pool. This sudden change in temperature gets the blood vessels pumping and you soon end up with a red body, like you have been scolded. Don't worry though if you keep to short stints you will realise afterwards that you feel your body is floating with total relaxation and blood vessels that are now working properly again. The redness goes away quite quickly. We also met Mel and Bonnie with their second hand LV 485 that they have transformed to be a Footrot Flats cartoon on the back and one side. Quite a classic piece of artwork by Bonnie it lends well with their real companion, their dog which looks exactly like the dog from Footrot Flats but called Molly. Of course Rachel was taken with Molly and not having our animals with us is starting to saden us when we see other happy travelers with their pets.

PICS:

1. The Savannah Way. some of it is like this and worse but most is pretty good up to Normanton from the East Coast.

2. Not my best angle but showing the VW Touareg is really making it easy.

3. After a couple of days the white stone shield is caked in red clay.

4. The clearance lights before I cleaned them off.

5. The new Rocktamers are good at stopping the stones hitting the van and bouncing back into the rear windscreen but the mud splatters higher. I'll have to talk to Dave about how to maybe fix this.

Next G aerial

2008-08-22T15:09:00.003+10:00

We have installed a new Next G aerial on the sail track of the Geist. It should be operational this weekend, waiting on a patch lead. The gutter mount system allows for easy application and the cable slips into through the seal on the fly screen and the window. Go to the forum to read more detail on this. The antenna is a 7.5 DBi one that should lift signal considerably when we go over the top. This will allow us to hook up for phone or for internet.

Sitting in Townsville

2008-08-22T15:01:00.003+10:00

We have been sitting in Townsville for a little while now so hence we haven't done much with the blog. We are heading off in about a week though so we will be updating more regularly again.Heres some photos of our set up with the new Isabella Annexe. Notice how I am out in the annexe, Rachel is inside!! Oh well I know my place. Not really, it works best that way so we can both spread out. Huge space outside though.

Forum Down

2008-07-28T22:27:00.003+10:00

The Geist Owners Club forum is currently down. I am working hard to correct this through the server in the US. Please bare with me as I endeavour to find out what is wrong.

Regards

Geistrunner

Maryborough to Townsville

2008-07-28T09:43:00.003+10:00

Tuesday last week we finally were able to get away back on the road, we had been back from Fraser Island for a little over two weeks and still not caught up on half we wanted to but we needed to get down the road again to keep to schedule. We headed off last Tuesday and went through to Rockhampton in the pouring rain, from there we headed further up but was forced to stop in Marlborough just 100kms up from Rockhampton. The reason being was quite bizarre, we needed some fuel as we left Rockhampton but knowing there was a BP up the road (we have a BP card) at Marlborough I thought we would be fine to there. On arrival to the BP in Marlborough we were greeted with a no power sign but at that stage I had just 40 kms in the tank, the other caltex down the road was the same so we returned to the BP and waited for the power to be restored. This was at around 10:00am and we were in for a long wait. Whilst waiting we were surprised by the arrival of the Wilsons with their Geist being towed by a Touareg (good taste), they were on their way down the coast and in fact today they are booked in for a service at Maryborough. It was great to see 3 Geists on the road that day. At around 4:30 pm we were able to fill up and head down the road and Clareview was our new target, revised from Mackay. Arriving during a storm we settled down next to a motorhome at the rest stop and had a restless night waiting for a branch to come down on top of us. In the morning all was fine and we headed through to Townsville without incident. One thing to note is that Home Hill has now a very good comfort stop off behind the main street. Many people are starting to use it now, it even has showers. Farrys IGA has good meat there, we bought some Yearling Rump and thoroughly enjoyed it the other night. The skies had cleared and Thursday afternoon saw us arriving safely into Townsville after a rough 48 hours. We quickly set up the van and caught up with Rachel's parents whom we had left in Maryborough to return to Townsville in late January. We have set up at their place for a about a month to catch up on video editing, Honeycombes, our dealer and website development. Friday was quite hectic on the phone with another XK 630 sold into WA. That night I went to the local AFL football match, Thuringowa Bulldogs v's West Tigers and it was a good game and the Bulldogs won. We have been supporting the local team this year, I helped the marketing into their new 10,000 seat stadium. My partner Steve has been looking after it since so this was the first game I could attend in the season. Rachel's father has been doing the time keeping, an expert in the field it was interesting to see the process from the top box. On Saturday Rachel's father Graham suggested a fish down the local beach, so the four of us headed down that afternoon to try our luck, of course I caught the first 5 fish, then promptly threw them back as they were way under size. At this stage is was 5 fish to 0 but for some reason everything turned and I caught 0 and Graham caught 3 reasonable fish. What the!! We returned for a BBQ.
Sunday was a chance to catch up with the man upstairs and ask for forgiveness of all the things I shouldn't have done over the last 6 months. A good mate Pastor Matt Thiele is leaving Townsville to go to another church in Buderim soon and it was the last opportunity to worship with him. It was great and we surprised a lot of people. The afternoon was spent buying a couple of things at Anaconda and catching up on sleep. That brings me to today, catching up on the blog (done) and seeing an owner Mr Cullen and visiting the crew at Honeycombes Caravans and Motorhomes.

Fraser Island Holiday

2008-07-28T08:57:00.002+10:00

Straight after the Brisbane show it was a race to get up to Maryborough to get ready for our long awaited Fraser fishing trip which included Rachel and I, Haylee (my daughter) and niece Leah. But then there were more coming along too, or should I say we were coming along with them. A great mate David and his Family, and Margy's (Davids wife) parents. So in all there were 6 adults and 6 kids. The preparation had ben going on for months with emails flying backwards and forwards, favourite fishing rigs and lures, ways of fetching water, even how many toilets to take.

Of course we couldn't take the Geist over to Fraser, an all sand island that bogs many a 4wd every year so we made arrangements with our Maryborough Geist dealer, Johnos Camper trailers to borrow a trailer in return of having our big XK 660 on their yard. So we loaded up the trailer with half of BI LO it seemed and headed to Gympie which was our meeting point. We left the trailer there and went into Brisbane airport to get the kids and returned ready to go early the next morning over to Fraser. All started well as we headed off in convoy, three vehicles travelling at 4:00am in the morning to the barge at Inskip point. All went well and before the sun got above the horizon we were on the island heading up to our camping spot above Waddy point. On the way we were all towing trailers and David became a bit stuck but no worries I snatched him out easily with the old Toyota Hilux (I keep this at Maryborough for rough 4wding, didn't think Volkswagen would appreciate me taking the Touareg, even though it would comfortably travel there) and we were on our way again. Fishing was the reason we were there (well it was for the guys) and fun was had by all, the Viking kayak preformed well in the surf and the kids had 2 weeks of huge fun jumping off the sand dunes, making forts in the sand, swimming, fishing and reading their favourite books.

State of Origin 3 was great to watch with Queensland coming through (as expected). This we watched rugged up in the cold at the Orchid Beach shop. Other than that no TV was had and ipods and electronic games were banned. Good wholesome fun for the kids.

Catch up post!!!

2008-07-28T08:50:00.002+10:00

It has been quite a while since I have posted to the blog for a few reasons, one was we went on holidays to Fraser Island, two, I could not get on the blog for a little while and three, it was flat out when I got back from holidays. Now that I have given you all the excuses I'll get you up to date on our position and plans.

After Brisbane

2008-06-18T09:44:00.003+10:00

I've told you about the Brisbane show but not afterwards. Once we had everything cleaned up I managed to visit a few people that I really needed to, one in particular was Wendy at Viking Kayaks as we had never personally met. The whole process of taking the Viking Kayak around Australia to all the shows was done via email and Geist staff. Well finally we met and I was very impressed with the factory setup and the professionalism of this whole outfit. The kayak we have been carrying has started to look a bit tired, mainly because of the conditions I have put it through and an unfortunate accident with the kayak coming off the roof. With the new kayak, a Profish 45, the kayak is set up for what I really love, FISHING!!! It is a single kayak so Rachel will have to do solo voyages but it is even better in its features, full kill well, live bait well, sounder casings and heaps of rod holders. Of course you can still put on the motor(which I have) and troll for the perfect skippy, bass, or Barra.
Made from Polyethelene it is a rigid but flexible kayak that I know takes extreme conditions very well. Michael was working on a big 7 metre cat mold when I was there, to be made from the same materials as the kayak. This should be light and fast!! Go to vikingkayak.com.au for more info on the 11 models on the market.

I also caught up with Gary from Prestige Caravan Repairs on the Sunshine coast, Gary and I first met at the Sydney show and he is a top guy. Very honest and particular on the quality of van he services. I have been meaning to recruit him as a service agent for some time but had to view his set up and tick some boxes first to qualify him for the agency. Well I can confirm he is now a Geist Agent so if you are in the Sunshine Coast area or Brisbane for that matter then pop into see Gary at Forest Glen. He's in the phone book and also has the agency for Dometic and Thetford.

From there on Rachel and I headed north to Rainbow beach where we had a break for the weekend, having not had a break for some time. Rainbow beach is our step off point for our big trip this coming week and I wanted to test my fishing skills and catch up on some R&R before this last week of hectic cleaning up prior to our 2 week break away on Fraser Island. Rachel came with me for a fish and I got her some live worm to help out a bit whilst I tried some frozen pilchards on my new big rod to test my tailor ability. Well it was clear pretty quickly that live worm was the thought of the day for 3 dart and two whiting that cruised past whilst the tailor must of been full of Pilchards already as I failed to get a bite. The following day Rachel retired to read more of "the Stockmen" by Rachael Treasure whilst I tried the last of the live worm, alas today the whiting and dart were full too! So for the weekend Rachel caught the fish I wanted to and read a great book whilst I tried too hard to get my fish runs on the board and suffered with a sore back all weekend. I did get a massage on Saturday though which made the pain more bearable. Today I am feeling a bit better but need to be on my toes this coming week when the competition heats up with my best mate David and his father inlaw when we hit the beaches of Fraser Island for two weeks, starting Saturday.

whilst we are at Head office in Maryborough we are catching up on paperwork and obviously this blog but I have had some problem getting on to edit the blog this last week or so but seem to have fixed it. It helps when you change a password to remember what it is, apparently.

I'll try and update whilst on Fraser, all enquiries for Geist should be directed to 1300 1 GEIST or call Dougie, my Geist Direct partner in NSW on 0413 180744 who offers great service too!

I'll be back after the 7th of July, with many fishy tales to tell, no doubt.

Brisbane Show

2008-06-18T09:19:00.003+10:00

With a "blast" is one way to describe the start and finish of the Brisbane caravan and camping show in the heart of Brisbane, at the RNA showgrounds. With ten vans and two motorhomes set up for all to see the response was incredible. It is clear to see that weight and fuel economy is the prime thought in peoples minds at the moment. Honeycombes Caravans and Motorhomes in Townsville, Johnnos Camper trailers in Maryborough and Geist Direct teamed up to put on a fantastic crew to show the huge 80,000 plus crowd that arrived over the 7 days. We also had the continuous crowd puller, the Volkswagen Touareg and Viking kayak. In no time flat we had good sales coming out of the Brisbane show, in fact Australia wide over the last two weeks we have had record sales for Geist caravans and motorhomes. Mostly attributed to Geist Direct's online presence and of course the Brisbane show. Whilst at the show Tania Kernaghan was performing so I took Rachel's new books in from Rachael Treasure and had Tania sign them. It was great to meet Tania and have a quick chat on the quality of the books Rachael is putting out and my Rachel is thoroughly enjoying (reading the Stockmen at the moment). Also caught up with David and Judy Muller who own an XK 630. These people have a great new invention for packing your hoses away when travelling in your caravan. Go to www.thehosebag.com.au to see more on this great little invention. David and Judy gave me a ride to the show each day whilst the Volkswagen was on the stand. Also caught up with David and Di who are nearly at the point of buying a Geist. I first caught up with them in Melbourne and really enjoy there company.

Well all the big shows are over for the year and Brisbane and Sydney were the best shows for Geist. There are some regional ones in NSW but the next one you will see me at will be in August for the Mini Adelaide show over three days 1,2 & 3rd of August.

Maitland to Brisbane

2008-06-03T21:47:00.003+10:00

As we headed north we found the warmth return to our bodies, it was beautiful to feel the special Winter warmth of Queensland as we crossed the border. It was a shock to our system then when it bucketed down with rain on Wednesday, Thursday in Noosa and Friday, Saturday, broke briefly on Sunday and then dropped everything it could on us on Monday whilst in Brisbane. So the sun was welcome today on Tuesday. It still feels good to be back in Queensland though, we have enjoyed Tassie, NSW and Vic over the last 2 weeks, yes we have travelled four states in two weeks. Our only day off in that time was spent inside keeping out of the weather. Highlights over the last week or so is meeting with Mark and Carmen who bought a Geist Phantom RB motorhome off me on Wednesday and had it delivered on Friday, fantastic effort from our service guys Cameron and Lindsay in Maryborough who added all the extras in just one day, I hope I can at least share the carton of beer I owe you Cameron now I have given you a plug on the blog. Also well done to Pat and Janet who flew down to Brisbane to go through an AK560 and decided it was for them on Saturday. I am sure your big trip will be just one bit better with this great Geist family model. Saturday night was a fun night when the four of us went out for a few drinks to celebrate down at Southbank. The days in between were spent getting the Brisbane show ready to roll tomorrow. Cleaning 10 caravans was quite a task for myself and Wayne, but it was good to have them finished by Monday night. Today was spent putting up signs and finalising the whole look of the stand. Tomorrow we are ready to see all the Queenslanders, so if you are in the area, please drop in and say hello. The show is at the RNA showgrounds in Brisbane from the 4th to the 10th of June.

Heading north

2008-05-28T18:12:00.004+10:00

It was a fond farewell from the Tassie Isle as we popped into Mum and Dads in Gippsland for the weekend and I was lucky enough to spend some time with my daughter Haylee. Rachel spent time with her much loved Burmese cats and little Indie, our Tenterfield Terrior,or they spent time in our bed!Cheyenne our Lab is now able to run around a bit outside her pen without taking off, which is fabulous. After seeing Haylees rehearsal for the school play on Sunday it was preparation time for the haul north to Maitland where we had another show booked for the following weekend.
We headed up to a little rest stop just north of Cooma to start with and camped there the night, yep it was cold, by 9:00am whilst traveling through Canberra it topped just 3.5 degrees outside. We were of course toasty warm in the Touareg with the seat heaters on about 4, nothing was going to get cold in that vehicle. The XK660 of course sat comfortably behind us the whole way. We had a bit of squeeking in the hitch, easy fixed with a clean of the friction pads underneath. We pushed through on the Hume to Sydney and stopped in at the Parklea Tourist Park overnight. From there we headed straight into Raymond Terrace where we stayed with a good friend, Doug Meyers and his wife Sylvia. They gave us some power and water and we set up camp on their front lawn. Doug is another expert on the whole Geist range and is our National Sales agent. Doug mainly works in NSW but you will see him at all the big shows Australia wide and smaller NSW shows. We get on really well and enjoy too much red wine together when we catch up. Besides this though, we had a show to do at Maitland and it was fabulous to catch up with a few owners whilst we were there, especially Larry who did an amazing job helping us out on the stand. Larry owns an AK560 and was happy to give prospective buyers an honest opinion on the van. This year at Maitland we had the Worlds Best Drinking Furniture which was a great hit with the locals. Simon who makes them was there to show them off. We sold many sets of these, if you would like to order some, let me know for a special price, go to www.drumfurniture.com.au to see the photos but don't forget to come back to me for the special price.

Tassie tour comes to an end

2008-05-14T21:05:00.002+10:00

Tonight is the last night we have to spend on this fabulous island state, Tasmania. Yesterday after checking out the Port Arthur site and camp park we moved on to New Norfolk where we were going to move on from today to the west coast. Of course first intentions don't always turn out to be the end path and we have spent another day here. The New Norfolk park is quite nice, it is an older park but the amenities are quite clean. Rachel and I are trying to catch up on paper work, especially Rachel, she has loads of Graphic Design work and to go on today would have been not fair on her. We will miss the western side of Tassie as part of our reconnaissance trip for the Geist rally next year but I am sure John from Getabout will have it under control.

A Treasure Connection

2008-05-12T20:57:00.005+10:00

Have you ever wondered how a friend or relative that you enjoyed the company with as a child was fairing much later in life? Well I did. In fact I stumbled onto the existance of an old Treasure mate from the days when my uncle Jim as I knew him (not really an uncle but my fathers cousin) had his grandchildren around who were similar age. John and Ben spent a bit of time at their grandfathers place just up the road from me so it was straight forward that the events of childhood should involve these two lads. It must of been at least 20 years or more ago that I had come across John and I had heard he lived in Tassie via my father. I was soon to learn also that there were a couple of commonalities between the two of us, in fact we both had chased by namesake the same girl. We both have wives named Rachel or in John's case Rachael, and our wives have a small dog Indie or in Johns case Indi.

This aside we arranged a time Monday to meet up for the first time in over 20 years at their home. I am sure they didn't know what was coming when they say the Geist juggernaut coming down their drive. John and Rachael run a lovely little farm in the hills up past Hobart with around 900 sheep (droughts keeping the numbers down) and a successful Kelpie and Waler horse breeding business. Always a community minded couple, John and Rachael with their two children work tirelessly together to grow their family unit and share their spoils with family and friends. Rachael is a well known author of books you may have seen on the book stands with titles of "Jillaroo", "the Stockmen" and "the Rouseabout", a creative inspirationist, she talked effortlessly about the joys of motherhood, community values and family whilst modestly talking down her writing achievements thus far. We all know that together they will be very successful.

We really enjoyed John and Rachael's company and talked about the time we will meet again to discuss more of our similarities in business and social antics.

Onwards south we headed to Port Arthur where we are now camped on a point in a caravan park where water is abundant, not like the last couple nights of bird baths, I long for a long hot shower after completing this blog. I walked down to the water before dark and felt the nostalgic senses overwhelming me of the convicts whom walked the same steps in less than pleasant times. Tomorrow is another day where we head North to discover more of this pristine state I am proud to call a part of Australia.

Pics above: Rachael and Rachel Treasure with Indi, both animal lovers, both creative, both humble achievers.

John and I share a photo, its great to catch up with another Treasure.

Visit www.rachaeltreasure.com for more info on Rachael's books and Johns Kelpies and Waler horses.

Mothers Day hospitality

2008-05-12T20:21:00.006+10:00

After a few reds with Alan the evening before we got as far as Gordon, a little settlement down past Snug where there is a great Free camp spot to pull up at. This little spot has etched its way into our memory, mainly for its English feel. So far wherever we have gone we get the beautiful sandy beaches but here in the lower reaches of Tassie the beaches are stones and the air is cool and crisp. We came in at night and really didn't know where we were camped until the next morning when the yellow hue of light shone down through the huge European hatch over our bed. The towering gums above bore its texture through the glass to reveal a classic Australian morning reminiscent of the Murray river or Aussie outback. The funny thing was that the outside temperature was around 6 or 7 degrees and we were at one of our most southern areas in Australia. Safe to say it was a gorgeous morning to lay in until around 8:30am before getting ourselves up and off to visit Craig and Juliet who were just 11kms down the road.

We arrived at Craig and Juliets new found house sitting home and backed the 660 down the drive and were quickly greeted by wonderful hospitality and a spectacular view across the water to Bruny Island. After chatting a while we showed them a few tips for hitching their XK 535 onto the Citroen C5. Now, with the C5 there is an automatic leveler in the suspension system that you must be aware of when hitching and unhitching on steep or uneven ground. The mistake some people make is to release the jockey wheel in an attempt to boost the height, this usually results in the collapse of the front of the van down the shaft of the jockey wheel. If need be jack the front up with a ball jack or similar.

It quickly came time for lunch and we were treated to a lovely meal overlooking the water on the deck. Our new found friends delighted us with the sharing of their life experiences and hospitality. The afternoon came with a bottle of next doors 06 Pinot Noir (a great wine region)under our belts, we assembled the Isabella annexe that they had just purchased, with great delight everyone saw the ease in which it went up. Sadly though the day ended with night beating us at 5:00pm and we departed back down to our favourite little free camp spot at Gordon. See the photos for more on this great little spot.

Hobart delivers

2008-05-12T18:58:00.002+10:00

Hobart was a sleepy city until the Geist roadshow trundled into town. The looks on peoples faces showed it all, they haven't seen much like this before and the impact was evident. We settled in on Friday night after having a great run down the east coast of Tassie, due to work commitments we couldn't stop anywhere but then there is always March next year when we have the Geist Rally. I popped in to see Alan, our dealer in Hobart to discuss the next day. We stayed at Treasure Island Caravan Park and shocked the managers there when I mentioned my last name was Treasure. Of course we only stayed there for names sake, there are much better parks around, the best being out near the airport according to Alan & Kate from A&K Caravans and Motorhomes.

Saturday morning came and we arrived at Alan and Kates beautiful yard to setup, the day brought some great people through the yard, many enquiring but a few keen to make the next step as owners, we hope they come into our family in the future. We also caught up with Craig and Juliet and arranged to show them a few special tips as Geist owners on Sunday.

St Helens on sunset

2008-05-12T17:51:00.002+10:00

We headed from Devonport to the East coast of Tasmania, this fabulous little fishing town is in the Northern reaches of the state and offers much for the person looking for solitude. We originally anticipated an overnight stay but due to work commitments with Geist and Rachel's work we spent much of Thursday indoors either online or on the phone. That's fine though, that's what we are paid to do. I could think of some worse places to toil away on the computer, that's what lifestyle is all about. We achieved a lot for Geist and Treasure Studios that day so we decided to go for a walk and see the sunset over St Helens, boy, was it worth it or what!

Spirit of Tasmania

2008-05-08T07:00:00.002+10:00

We boarded the Spirit of Tasmania on Tuesday night ready to sail. There were a couple of things I wanted to let people know when towing a caravan over to the apple isle. Make sure your gas bottles are off, empty all jerry cans of fuel (petrol or diesel), discard all vegetables and fruit prior to boarding. If your caravan is over 3 metres high then watch where your GPS sends you as there is a low railway bridge on approach to the Station Pier after you come off the tollway. Geist caravans shouldn't have a problem as they are 2.75m with aircon but if you know someone with a high airconditioner or raised "offroad" van, they may come to grief here. To add to this it is not well sign posted and at night there are so many lights around you, you can easily miss the bridge near non existent lights. Arrive well in advance, we arrived 1 hour 15 mins before and because we were a long load we were one of the last on. We had to be allocated a spot that was adequate and coming late could be a bit stressful. Take cash if you don't run a credit card as a $50 maximum applies on the one ATM and once you leave port there is no accessible cash. The restaurant prices are quite reasonable and the food is very nice. It is a limited menu but covers most tastes. We found the twin single bed cabin with port hole was very comfortable. The gift shop prices are very good too! On departure be ready to race down to your garage deck as soon as they give the all clear, especially if you are in the front on departure otherwise you could hold others up. Remember your garage level before you head up the lift on arrival, this makes it easier to get to your level on departure. There are good businesses open for breakfast in Devonport if you are traveling overnight, don't feel you have to get up that bit earlier to catch the onboard breakfast (it still costs). I applied the hand brake on the Geist in case of rough seas but use your own discretion here. I hope this helps your travel to Tasmania one day or hopefully on the Geist tour in March next year.

Where to now?

2008-05-05T15:19:00.000+10:00

That brings me to this week(Tuesday night) where we head over to Tasmania for a visit with our Hobart dealer, A&K Caravans and Motorhomes. We will have our van on show at their yard on Saturday. Come join us for a sausage sizzle.

We will be researching the Geist Owners club trek whilst over in Tasmania, checking the best routes and places to go. Any ideas, please forward them on. If you would like to discuss upgrading your Geist or would like to experience a tow test then contact me as soon as possible.

Going Cuckoo in Melbourne

2008-05-05T15:02:00.006+10:00

Since the show finished on Monday night it has been pretty full on moving vans back to Gosford, this has meant me meeting our Geist truck in Euroa with vans from the show and bringing back a XK630 for a customer to go over to Tasmania. I had a little trouble with a short in the wiring of the van (now corrected) that caused me to stay overnight in Euroa on Wednesday night. Thursday was spent delivering the van and cleaning up the car. Friday was full on again getting some small issues sorted from past shows and getting some merchandise sorted. On Saturday and Sunday both Rachel and I were exhausted as I have been working pretty hard on the road this last few weeks without a break. Imagine how it has been for the guys at Geist who have been away from their loved ones for similar times, at least Rachel is with me each day.

So a cold Saturday in Melbourne was spent walking the famous Dandenong Markets and Plaza, we are limited to what we can carry so essentials like socks etc… was all we purchased. On Sunday we decided to look at our plans for Tasmania this week and Fraser Island late June and discovered we needed a few more things to keep us warm so off to Rays Outdoors and Anaconda to get the “essentials” for warmth. Rachel feels the cold pretty much all the time and so winter woollies came to her attention. The rule is though she must replace clothing not add to it, so she now has a task of bagging some old clothes for the Salvos (if we were in Townsville we could take them to the St Paul’s Lutheran Church clothing store). We returned later in the day and decided to go out for tea at “Cuckoo” Bavarian restaurant in the Dandenong Ranges(www.cuckoorestaurant.com.au). Just 40 minutes up the road we set off to arrive to a lovely atmosphere with a Smorgasboard that filled me up to the hilt! We were going to stay on for more of the floor show later but decided to head home whilst we could still walk. Thanks to Manfred and Pam who have an LV485 staying in the park with us, who gave us the tip on this one.

Melbourne Caravan Show

2008-05-05T14:43:00.002+10:00

Well it has been a big couple of weeks for us, with the Melbourne show and moving of caravans, coupled with the preparation of some great new merchandise, Rachel getting more and more work coming in, we needed a break on the weekend. Sorry to all those who have been waiting for the blog updates.

Where do I start? The Melbourne show is always a big show, not quite as big as Sydney, this year 6 days but going from 9:30am to 6:00pm which in my view was a complete waste of time. Most people went home from 4:00pm to try and beat peak hour traffic. We twiddled our thumbs for the last couple of hours each day. We were also down the back corner this year, which dropped the volume of people through our stand. We did have more serious Geist people coming through however which was great to see. Our stand couldn’t have been to bad though as we won the Best Caravan, Camper and 5th wheeler stand of the show award. That’s two big shows we have won now. See how we go in Brisbane.

It was also great to catch up with Paddy (our UK Geist owner) and Urlie(hope spelling is right) from our LMC factory in Sassenburg Germany. Their input to our product is critical to its success and some vigorous discussions were held with them to improve our product and sales even more. Your suggestions are welcome for further talks later in the year.

Congratulations also go to Peter and Helen who purchased a XK630 from me at the show, hopefully Peter can have a wonderful birthday present on the 10th of May if the boys at EuroRV can get their new van ready in time.

Overall a good show, again thanks to our sponsors Volkswagen and Viking Kayaks for supplying wonderful products which undoubtedly helped us win best stand again.

East Gippsland Field Days

2008-05-05T14:17:00.003+10:00

One small town that is very close to my heart is Lindenow. This quiet rural area produces a large portion of our countries vegetables and has some wonderful characters that are synonymous with the area. As you go through the main street of Lindenow you will see an anvil(blacksmiths shoe shaping tool) with an inscription "success forged on the anvil of time" placed on it (I think). This anvil was opened by my grandfather ,Charles Langford Treasure and remains an historic part of the town. Lindenow like many towns and citys around Australia has a service club, the Lions club is the service club in Lindenow and is very proactive in helping its community. Part of the fund raising is a field days that has grown to be one of the most respected field days on the country calendar. These field days are more than just a rural get together they draw over 5,000 people from a relatively small community and beyond, to showcase the best new products and equipment available to the rural region.
We decided to squeeze in this opportunity to showcase the Geist promo caravan at the field days with great success. We had a wonderful time showing the region something different to what the local Jayco dealer had to offer. The rural hospitality is always so warm, even if there was a mix up in the sites (thanks Liz). We weren't worried though, everyone found us that wanted to and the interest extended down to Melbourne with a few keen buyers venturing on to see us at the big show. Here are some photos (above) showing the stand and crowd. The Volkswagen Touareg and Viking Kayak were a great hit too! Those wanting to find out more about these products should go to Mossaro motors in Morwell or vikingkayak.com.au

Sydney to Gippsland via the Snowys

2008-04-21T21:57:00.004+10:00

Have you ever wondered what it is like to travel over the Great Snowy mountain region towing a caravan measuring 27'10" from tip to tip? Well I did and for good reason, this is where we are going to take our Geist owners in December and this was the best opportunity to test the Geist, just to make sure it could do the job. Of course I shouldn't have worried as it lapped it up and we had a ball coming through some of the most picturesque country in all of Australia. It never ceases to amaze me how different the country can look from corner to corner, mountain to hill, and escarpment to plateaus. We saw a changing weather pattern and the mix of man made and nature intertwined to create a near perfect picture of years of toiling, success and failure.
This pocket of Australia is one that hides its failures and projects its beauty, it is one place I will always feel a part of and share with family and friends.

So it is that we ventured through this place of balance with sense of belonging and a yearn to conquer, we did this with our Geist and our Touareg blending into the environment like peas in a pod. Of course the German bred team is made for these conditions, it thrives on the cool air, winding turns and steep ascents. Our course started really in Canberra after we took the Hinkleys for a tow test, we could have gone the straight direction down through Cooma and over to Cann river into Orbost then Bairnsdale in about 5 hours, but then we did need to test the track for the rally later in the year so we took the 2 day route and turned right at Cooma and then onto Jindabyne. It was from here we headed up to Thredbo and then down into Corryong and more precisely Toowong (remember two wongs don't make a wight) where we camped on the edge of the Murray river, right up near the top of the feeder creeks. This was spectacular camping near the running water that was crystal clear overnight, we could have stayed a lot longer. We also stopped at a place called Dead Horse Gap up on Thredbo, I'll be putting a video up on this spot in the near future.

The next day we took our time expecting to see lots of the beautiful country layed out in front of us as we travelled the Kiewa Valley, Mt Beauty, Bright and Harrietville but was disappointed by the fact that burning off was in progress and the whole area was blanketed by a solid smoke haze which kept visability down to a minimum. Despite this we were able to get into Bright for a snack at the Bright Bakery owned by my cousin Melissa and Dale. A quick catch up and we headed up to Hotham where the mountains turned on the changes again by smothering us in the most dense fog that we were literally crawling across the top at 30kms and hour. With the safety poles and yellow lines in place we remained safe and of course the German team of car and van kept us trusty safe and toasty warm with the Touareg seat heaters turned up to 4 and 5 (top setting) whilst traversing the summit of Hotham at just 7 degrees at midday.

Quickly as we were in the fog but we were out of it too and headed down past Cobungra station, Omeo , Swifts Creek and into Bairnsdale where we went on to set up at my parents place for a little while to get ready for the East Gippsland Field days. I'll continue that story later.

Where can you take your Geist?

2008-04-15T21:22:00.004+10:00

Here is a video I produced today but was shot over Easter. We had lots of people around waiting for us to fail, you be the judge. Video by Rachel in a frantic attempt to keep up.

Photos from Sydney

2008-04-10T10:44:00.006+10:00

Trevor from Geist Caravans and Motorhomes in Gosford is caught attending the toilet in one of the AK595's at the Sydney Show.
The new release Mypod was on show at the Sydney show, it created great interest, 10'6" which is either single bed or queen.

We WON!! for the Best Caravan Display at the show.

Thank you Sydney

2008-04-09T06:43:00.003+10:00

Its nice to say thank you and as we have just one more day here I would like to say thank you to all our new Geist owners from the Sydney area out there. With sales reaching well over double figures this year it is definitely a city that is embracing the change in caravaning in Australia. Much of last week was discussing with management future plans as well as talking to thousands of people at the show on just how they can get into a Geist. The Volkswagen Touareg was a huge success with many existing and new owners making themselves known to me. Talking to Volkswagen this week has them very happy with the current sales of Touareg and we hope we have contributed to the products advancement because I really do believe the Touareg is one of the best 4wds I have ever driven (and I have driven a few). We have had a great response on the Geist Owners Club, if you wish to put in your expression of interest then please download the PDF document at the Geistdirect website. I am still loading content into the website and we still need people to talk on the forum (I can't write all the topics). Merchandise is next on the agenda and expect to see exclusive Geist items pop up for sale on the website over the coming months. The pack up for Sydney went very well with all vans back home in bed at Gosford by Monday morning. It was a late night Sunday though but with everyones help it proceeded without incident. Another couple I would like to congratulate on their purchase is Graham and Roslyn who made the decision on an AK 595 on the final bell to make a great saving on their van. Talking of new vans I believe John and Suzanne from Townsville have their new XK630 now and I hope they are very happy with it, John and Suzanne upgraded from their older XK630 to a new one. By the way John and Suzanne, your old one sold again Monday, just goes to show how little time a second hand Geist caravan stays in the yard. It has hardly stopped raining since Sunday in Sydney but we hope it will ease a little tomorrow when we head south. Yesterday though we borrowed the keys to a another new Touareg from Volkswagen and handed back our other vehicle which had done nearly 16,000kms in just over 2 months. It performed fantastically and I would imagine this new one with just 64kms on the clock will do the same. Thanks to Nadine for doing a fantastic job in sourcing one for us as the one ordered with ride height suspension had not arrived as yet.
Today we are getting Rhino at Rydlemere to fit a boat loader to overcome some issues in getting the Viking Kayak on and off the vehicle. Basically we also need a more secure platform for securing the kayak when traveling too, so why not get the experts to fit it at Rhino whilst in Sydney. Tomorrow we are getting rearvision cameras fitted to the van and Touareg in Gosford by Precision Vision, one of new sponsors before heading off south to Canberra. We are giving Frank and Monica a tow test on Friday morning, just so they can feel the ease of towing a Geist caravan. If you are serious about a Geist caravan but would like a tow test whilst we are in your area then email me on sales@geistdirect.com.au or call me on 0427 878 645.
Also a big thankyou to Gill Schott from Caravan and Motorhome magazine for getting us out of a jam with photos for another advertisement. Gill is always happy to help us out so please support him and his team by subscribing to Caravan and Motorhome magazine, the best and most widely read mag for caravaning on the market.

Sydneys Alive!!

2008-03-31T06:20:00.005+10:00

Its been absolutely flat chat this week but I'm loving it, and Rachel is catching up with some of here work too. Wednesday was a day off before the big set up. Rachel and I tidied up some around the van and did some shopping but the highlight was that night when we went and saw a musical grand opeining night at the Capitol Theatre in the heart of Sydney, having never experiencing such a wonderful event it was eye opening to see the talent we have in Australia. We were fortunate enough to get tickets to "Billy Elliott" some of you may have seen the movie but seeing it at the theatre was tremendous. Rachel, who loves ballet was able to really relax and enjoy this whole experience too. Thursday came with a rush and we were all frantic to get al the vans into place at Rosehill Gardens Racecourse as soon as possible. By the end of Thursday we had 4 left to go in and Friday was spent setting the stand up. We were all under the pump with a bigger crew than Perth. By 11:30pm it was over for me at least with just the new release "Mypod" to come onto the stand which happened at around 12:30am Saturday morning.
Saturday launched with huge numbers of people surging through the stand. It was a great day with some more Geist owners walking away at the end of it. Sunday was a surprise day when we learned that we had won the best stand at the show for 2008. This was a fantastic effort by all involved. Again, more Geist owners walked away from the show and some special people who will sure to be owners soon were Barry & Barbara and Kerry & Joy. Congrats to Fritz and Christa who bought their XK595 finally!!! Got to get ready for Monday and travel the peak hour traffic.

Perth to Sydney in 5 days

2008-03-25T06:52:00.003+10:00

It sounds crazy I know, 3,900 kms in 5 days isn't a healthy way to spend Easter but when you break those 5 days up with a stop at Perlubie beach in the middle for two days, its not that bad. We set off from Perth on Wednesday after a hectic Tuesday appointing a new service agent for our WA owners, Care-a-van, in Canning Vale, Perth (let me know if you can't find them, they open up officially in April). This is another great moment for Geist as we improve on our service points around the country to make it easier for your 12 monthly service(this is needed to keep your 5 year warranty on water leakage into the van). On Wednesday we headed East for around 1000 kms to the west end of Australia's longest straight road (90 miles long), number 20 in the camps book under the WA section. There we had around 9 vans around us, one of the most crowded rest stops we had been to until Thursday when we travelled 1065kms to one of our favourite rest stops near Streaky Bay called Perlubie beach. At Perlubie beach we arrived on dark and could just make out a cleared section amongst the 20-30 odd vans down around to our left. I quickly turned the Touareg and Geist round and slowly went down the sandy beach track towards the last space. Sensing the soft sand I popped the Touareg into 4wd or so I thought and kept going to quickly find myself spinning in the sand, what I failed to do was stop and place the transmission into neutral to enact 4wd and the diff lockers which would have been fine but now I had lost momentum and was sitting on the sand spinning. No worries I thought, time to test my knowledge and my retrieval skills. I quickly stopped the spinning and proceeded to reduce the air pressure in the tyres but I could feel the eyes staring at me from within the dark and soon had a crowd of 10 or so campers offering their support and making some jovial comments about the lack of clearance on the vehicle,van and so on, blah,blah,blah. Well after dropping the pressure I moved backwards and forwards but it was evident that I was going to have to move on to the next step of the air jack to bring me up so I could stack timber under the tyres, but before moving onto that step two gentleman stepped forward and presented themselves as saviours by offering a snatchem strap and tow out with a rodeo ute. Now I knew that the next day Rachel and I would be remembering another saviour who died for our sins on a cross and I was hoping by excepting the tow from these guys I would not be placing these guys in a position of their vehicle breaking or any unfortunate mishap occuring. So we set up the strap and my nervous thoughts were dispersed quickly when the Touareg effortlessly followed the Rodeo with very little grunt required from the tow vehicle. Derek, our tow vehicle driver moved us onto some solid sand and from there I popped the Touareg into 4wd and we moved the van into its new position for 2 days and quickly retired for the night.
The next day gave way to the enormity of the sand bog we went through and found out that many had been pulled out before us. We quickly made friends with Derek and his wife Katie and Katie's parents Brian and Pat. They are traveling around the country for an indefinite period (probably 3 years) with their 2 children, but I think a third isn't too far off their minds and Derek, a civil engineer and Katie a teacher have the right attitude to put their minds to whatever they like and are obviously enjoying teaching their two young children about the outdoors. Brian, a builder and Pat a wonderful knitter and good hearted person are living the Grey nomad life, seeking to be around family and enjoying the no pressure lifestyle.
Derek and I decide to test out his new tinnie that afternoon and after sometime getting the 3ohp Merc to fire we finally went out and caught a few Tommies and about 12 Razor fish that evening. I met a few others at happy hour (turning into evening) Friday night. Kerry and Andrew hosted the evening with many varieties of cooked Razor Fish being served up. Unfortunately I missed that and enjoyed a feed of Tommies that Rachel cooked up before going over for a few drinks into the night. Saturday was a small sleep in and a chance to catch up a little but I was soon out with the metal detector combing the beach when Rachel and I came accross a local who suggested searching for some coin around the old bar for the Picnic races. We went over to the spot and proceeded to find the normal pull tabs when Rachel came across a faint but definite signal which I thought could have been an old coin and sure enough it was, a Florin was brought up which later turned out to be around 1912 and two threepences and 2 sixpences. we also found a $2 coin but the Florin was our big find. We cleaned them up the best we could and went back down to the beach and showed the locals. We couldn't explore the whole site so we will be back in the future to find the rest. That afternoon was going to be a kayak cruise and fish but the wind came up so it turned into a siesta for me. That evening we spent with Derek and Brian and their family having a few drinks before retiring for another big drive on Sunday.
Sunday morning came and we were greeted by a couple of easter eggs on some cotton wool outside our door, a wonderful gesture made by our new friends to all in the camp area. We said our goodbyes and with video cameras aimed squarely on us we ascended out of the sand basin to solid ground without a chance of any wheel spin or anything, this was the harder approach too! The Touareg redeemed itself and I have to admit to my slopiness when going in there in the first place, not putting her in 4wd first but I do call on my long day at the wheel in my defence. Anyway we got away finally at about 10:00am and made tracks to Broken hill where we arrived at about 7:00pm local time, another 800kms. We arrived just after a downpour in the city and quickly crawled into bed. By this time I was getting pretty weary on it and Rachel had a drive for an hour to give me a rest. On Easter Monday we left Broken Hill and headed for Dubbo and by Cobar I was getting pretty tired, after lunch there I had a kip for 25 mins before jumping into the seat for the rest of the trip through. The Mitchell Highway between Cobar and Dubbo is very ordinary and it was a fight with the rolling bumps and poor road all the way but of course the Geist was fine and we arrived solid at about 4:00pm. This was our shortest day so far on the stretch from Perth to Sydney at just 750kms. Today I meet with another potential service agent in Dubbo before heading onto Sydney this afternoon, just 400kms. We will be staying at the Lane Cove National Park for a couple of weeks. The Sydney show starts on Saturday but the setup starts on Thursday, tomorrow I have off. If in Sydney, pop into the show and say hello.

Perth Show

2008-03-18T21:49:00.002+10:00

It has been a great but exhausting week here in Perth. There are yet more Geist owners who have bought vans this week and the trend continues. We had 8 vans and a motorhome on the stand with an attendance of well over 40,ooo people the crowds should have been huge. The crowds on the stand were constant but not too crowded due to the wide expanse of the venue. I was privelaged to meet so many Geist owners who have traveled this country in their Geist and enjoyed every moment. I even had two sets of owners telling potential owners that they would be crazy not to buy one. Thank you everyone who had so many great things to say to me about their Geist. Tomorrow we head back to the east coast with two long days before a 2 day rest at one of our favourite places "Perlubie Beach" on the Eyre peninsula in SA. We then head through to Broken Hill, Dubbo and then Sydney. The Sydney show starts on the 29th March - 6 April so we need to be getting ready by the 27th, a little over a week away! We are heading for a point East of Norseman tomorrow. I'll put some photos on the blog from the Perth show soon. At the moment I need to get some sleep for the big drive tomorrow.

Perth Caravan & Camping Show

2008-03-13T20:18:00.003+10:00

Well I have been a little quiet this week, the usual drill of setting up under pressure arrived on time. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday was setting up the now famous Geist arches and bringing the last of the vans in. These arrived from Sydney, Tuesday and Wednesday and quickly went on the stand for cleaning. Thankfully in Perth we had professional cleaners come in (at least they seemed professional) and clean all the vans which took a lot of pressure off this show for me personally. This year the show is at Claremont showgrounds which is a lovely looking venue in the old classic suburb oval layout with lovely old grandstands and cloud billowing trees that shade the other side of the ground(darn it). Working in 36 degree heat for a couple of days makes you want to pick everything up and head for those trees. We do have a marque though which covers a quarter of the stand. All set by mid afternoon Wednesday it was time for me to wash the Touareg and kayak ready for Thursdays start. That was fine but I had to find the car wash clean it and return back to the caravan park, detail it and then start on the kayak whilst promising to be on the other side of town for tea with Rachel's cousin at 6:30pm. All fine except I didn't find the car wash until 4:00pm. Anyway all went well and with a little help from Rachel with detailing, we had it done ready to go out that night.
Today was a flying start with a motorhome on the stand this time and discounted dramatically to make way for new ones later on in the year (see website for pricing). Doug and I showed the motorhome to many people and we hope to have it sold tomorrow or Saturday. Overall it was a very positive day and we are pushed on by the great from exsisting owners who come and visit us on the stand. If you are in Perth this week, make sure you drop in and say hello.
We are also happy to announce that we hope to finalise arrangements to be at the East Gippsland field days in Bairnsdale,Victoria on the weekend prior to Melbourne show, I think the 18th and 19th April. This will be a rare opportunity to see in our van. Hope to see you there.

New video

2008-03-09T13:36:00.004+10:00

There is now a short video on the Crossing the Nullarbor post. Please be gentle, it is our first, there was no script, it was from the hip. Working on voiceover audio Paul, used a lapel mic with an Edirol to get rid of wind noise, redubbed the video audio with that file and used a snowball in the caravan for voiceover, might need some effects to dampen it a little, and yes, my grammar isn't quite right mum. Next one will be better.

What the hell, lets go to Perth!

2008-03-08T20:43:00.001+10:00

As we were heading out towards our next camp of Bunbury we started chatting to the owner of Bremer Bay Beaches Resort & Caravan Park (as you do). He of course wanted a photo of the van (as you do) and asked which direction we were heading, "well we were thinking of Bunbury" was the immediate reply. He suggested a route and then mentioned the "why go that way". Well that just stuffs you right up, why indeed you ask yourself. The shorter and better way is straight through to Perth, there's not much at Bunbury (well we know Bunbury is beautiful but he has a point). I shrugged and said well if that gives my birthday a softer load on Friday, why not. So we made a phone call and got into the Karrinyup (yeah an "up" suburb) Waters Caravan Park a day earlier. Off we went and marked Bremer Bay as a definite return point (you can even go 4wd beach driving, awesome!!). We proceeded through a multitude of "up" towns and on to Perth, getting in at a comfortable 4.30pm. The park is a lovely 4 star tourist park and matches its rating. We have a large concrete pad big enough to put the car, van and annex on comfortably. There is a lake (big dam) in the middle with willows (oh no chop them down) around them which offer lovely shade.
Friday came and Rachel treated me with a lovely dinner that evening but I had work to do before hand which took much of the day tripping around town. We went to Attivos at North beach and enjoyed a lovely meal and got wonderful phone calls and emails from family for my birthday. Later that night I texted Andy, our Horsham dealer who was born on the exact day as me, 7 March 1970 but in England, we discovered this when I visited back on the 22nd of Feb. Unfortunately his wife Sue wrote their Landrover Discovery off and they were a little down in the dumps but I am sure it will all work out fine for them.
Today Rachel and I went shopping for my birthday present and I got spoilt. A new pair of sunglasses that cost more money than I would normally ever spend on sunglasses but seeing I wear them all the time, especially when driving I needed a very good pair. I also was fortunate enough to score some more pants and shirt for Geist embroidering and a new cross for my necklace. The other thing we got which means nothing to most people but it means a lot to Rachel and I . That is, we finally found some polka dot sweetcorn that came from my parents farm, in Woolworths. We have been looking for so long, and finally we found it on the other side of the country to my parents. We will enjoy that very much, I am sure.
I have a few photos to post but will do it later on and I am putting a video together which I hope to post real soon. Talking of real soon, the website will be up on Monday, it has been approved and needs uploading, make sure you check it out at www.geistdirect.com.au

Bremer Bay

2008-03-04T18:54:00.005+10:00

If their was a place I could recommend for total seclusion in a caravan park environment, it would have to be the Bremer Bay Beaches Resort & Caravan Park. This sleepy little area is absolutely spectacular, it is cooler than most parts of the state and boasts beautiful white beaches and crystal clear seas. We arrived on the Labor Day holiday in WA and were lucky that the afternoon was clearing out of tourists. We are staying here until Thursday, one to recharge the batteries before getting into Perth and two, catch up on uploading for the website which by the way has been sent through to the IT department to be uploaded. We hope it will be up Friday.

This morning I did some metal detecting and caught a King George whiting before catching up on emails and sorting some work out, this afternoon was spent watching the cricket. Tomorrow will be more work on the computer, but at least we will be doing it in a beautiful environment. I promise some photos to prove it.

Photos as promised (8 March 08)

Crossing the Nullarbor

2008-03-04T18:31:00.005+10:00

We left Streaky Bay on Saturday for a long haul across the Nullarbor and settled in to a cruise speed of 110km per hour with a slight cross wind. We had a dream run really with not much to report other than the beautiful way the Geist tows still astounds me. The Touareg got a litre of oil at Streaky Bay before we left to bring it up to level and since we have been pulling the whole time, that's pretty good. We got into our favourite free camp site, no. 670 in your Camps 4 book at a comfortable 2.30pm local time. After about 700kms, that was enough and we got some great footage on video that I will post here as soon as I can. We fell asleep while watching the stars through the huge euro hatch over our bed in the Geist but not before making aquaintances with the new neighbours, an older couple were on their way to Miriam Vale in QLD to see family, living in their car on the way and another Argentinian couple who have been traveling since 2004 in their Winnebago. We were tricked the next morning getting up at 5:30 for an early start it was still dark and at after 7:00 am we finally got away for what turned out to be the longest stretch yet for us. We originally wanted to get into a spot about 70km short of Norseman but with everything traveling so well, and me feeling in the mood to drive we pushed on another 290kms to make an even 1000kms when arriving in Esperance, at a little after 5:00pm local time this worked out to be over 11 hours of travel with stops. You would think then we would be able to relax but no, we had a lovely couple chase us down the road in Esperance and visit us once we were set up to go through our Geist. It turns out they have been very keen to purchase a Geist and seeing ours I think has helped make their minds up. Hopefully Rhonda and Ron will be Geist owners very soon. Two more groups toured the Geist before we settled down for some dinner at 9:00pm local time. Oh well, it was a long day but worth it as yesterday was only about 500kms to our break point of Bremer Bay.

Streaky Bay(half way)

2008-02-29T21:24:00.005+10:00

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

2008-02-26T09:16:00.003+10:00

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

2008-02-26T08:08:00.004+10:00

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

2008-02-23T06:00:00.003+10:00

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

2008-02-18T18:36:00.002+10:00

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

2008-02-18T18:05:00.003+10:00

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

2008-02-17T06:54:00.003+10:00

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

2008-02-14T20:02:00.002+10:00

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

2008-02-13T19:01:00.003+10:00

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

2008-02-11T19:41:00.000+10:00

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

2008-02-09T18:57:00.000+10:00

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

2008-02-09T08:46:00.000+10:00

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

2008-02-09T08:28:00.001+10:00

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

2008-02-06T21:15:00.000+10:00

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

2008-02-05T14:04:00.000+10:00

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

2008-02-04T16:45:00.000+10:00

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

2008-02-02T14:41:00.000+10:00

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

2008-02-01T18:08:00.000+10:00

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

2008-02-01T17:52:00.000+10:00

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.

Gippsland to NSW South Coast

2008-01-17T20:00:00.000+10:00

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

2008-01-11T15:01:00.000+10:00

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

2008-01-11T14:44:00.000+10:00

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.

Townsville to Adelaide

2007-11-27T21:58:00.000+10:00

Hi all,

It has begun, the happy road to discover Australia's best assets, it's people and landscape. Rachel and I left Townsville committing totally to an 18 month journey to bring the Geist brand to all, Australia wide. We left a day late, November 25th but that's ok. We picked up Wayne's Ford Territory to take to Adelaide and are at Cruice Park at the moment at Woodford. Nice spot but still close to the road. A special hi to Derk and Marlene who we met today at Granite Creek. Hope the new van goes really well for you and we hope you enjoy Carmilla Beach and Balgal Beach on your drive north to Port Douglas. Hope to get just past Goondawindi tomorrow. In Adelaide by the 2nd of December and we take the fantastic Volkswagen Touareg by December 3. All for now, will post more soon.

GR

Stopping about 45kms south of Goondawindi at a rest stop we found comfort traveling with Graham and Beth (inlaws) as the lonely and solitary outback country there can send an unwelcome shiver through your spine. We were more comfortable when many trucks used it as a stop over through the night. A centipede about 20cms long ruined the outback outside relaxation when it ran past our feet with a couple of our dogs chasing close behind. We set off the next day for our first caravan park for the trip, the Warren caravan park. We arrived at a reasonable hour and set about washing clothes and restocking water tanks etc... A BBQ in the evening and we had a reasonably early night for an early start the next day. At 5:00am we were woken by a mass of birds starting the day bright and CHIRPY!!! It was off again heading for the border this time stopping at McCullochs range rest stop where it was a lovely stop over except for the millions of black ants trying to take us on every step we took. We then went through to the border and on to Yunta where we had our first breakdown. A flat tyre on the car held us up about an hour and when arriving in Yunta (8kms down the road) I had a new tyre put on for $330 and settled in for a night at the rest stop in the middle of town. Other than a couple of trains running past the door it was a pretty good night there too. Our last day the short haul to Adelaide was relatively simple other than the very ordinary road closer to Gawler. When we arrived it was the long process of setting up for a two week stay in Adelaide. Now we can stop for just a little while and enjoy the city of Churches.

GR

The Great Ocean Road

2007-10-29T14:42:00.000+10:00

Peter and the crew from Geist Caravans took three vans to the Great Ocean Road for a look, Caravan and Motorhome magazine came along for the ride and as you will see in the photos, all involved had a ball. Volkswagen supplied their world renowned Touareg for us to tow the XK660 Geist Direct Caravan and it towed it tremendously, of course the Toureg is rated to tow 3500kg's, more than 2 times the weight of the XK660.

The new XK660 Geist Promotional Caravan

2007-09-07T07:59:00.000+10:00

These are the first impressional images of the XK660 that we have created for traveling Australia over the next 2 years.