We REALLY needed to do that, as it became very apparent that we needed a rather large pair of "L Plates" for Bertha. Which is probably to be expected, as it was the first time we had taken her anywhere other than her parking spot and outside our house!
We thought we'd take advantage of the Melbourne Cup long weekend and booked into a powered site at a Caravan Park in Wonthaggi for 2 nights, and then intended to stay at a rest area for the last night. Of course, our plans changed, and that's not what ended up happening, but that's ok! TRUE preparation for our trip.
We started our little 'trip' with an hour or so in the parking facility while Dunc finished installing the tie-downs for the RAV4, but then we were off! And very quickly realised that in fact Sacha (Interior Payload Officer) has to lock the refrigerator door BEFORE the bus hits the road. Whoops! Luckily we didn't lose anything other than a couple of heartbeats when it made a rather large bang.
The rest of our first journey went smoothly. Then we got to the Caravan Park. The site they gave us was EXACTLY 19m long - which just happens to be the length of Big and Little Bertha combined.
It was a tight squeeze getting her in between a teeny tiny combi van and a huge shed over the pool, but we got there in the end.
We had a lovely couple of days pottering around and getting to know our new home and lifestyle. The kids swam in the pool and discovered that dishes do not do themselves. We shopped for essentials like the saucepans I forgot to pack from home - what a wonderful excuse for new cookware!!
We went to the Wonthaggi State Coal Mine and had an amazing underground tour, which was the highlight of our time there! We learnt so much and had a ball. And it even included a trip on the coal train to get out at the end...
After 2 lovely days it was time to try the 'free camping' side of life and our change of plans meant a 2hour drive to The Honeysuckles instead of a 20min trip to the Rest Area. All of which meant getting Bertha out of the Caravan Park, which proved to be no easy task! On our night time stroll around the caravan park (meeting all the locals and having lots of chats on the way) we had discovered a lovely huge turning area at the end of the 'street' we were parked in. Leaving would be "easy". Until we discovered that someone had parked smack bang in the middle of the road!! After 20 minutes of door knocking and meeting what felt like the whole neighbourhood, we decided to reverse the WHOLE way out. Imagine our surprise when halfway there the "bloody little bugger of a gold car" drove blissfully past us! I ran as fast as my little legs could go to make sure that no-one else would park there and Dunc leisurely followed with Bertha. Our little door-knocking stunt earlier meant that we now had the ENTIRE neighbourhood watching Dunc do his 3 point turn to get out and I'm sure those old dears are STILL talking about the time "that bloody big bus came to stay".
We had a wonderful drive to our lovely friend's Beach House at The Honeysuckles, where we were to try our "free camping".
Parking was MUCH easier with an entire bush block to ourselves...
Lovely views of the 90 Mile Beach, with all 90 miles completely to ourselves. The children had a ball swimming, while the grown-up sensibly avoided the icy water!
After a FAAAR too short time with friends it was back on the road to home. With a short pit-stop to try one more thing we hadn't done yet - emptying the black water tank (poop tank).
The road beckons. We can't wait to get out there and mix it with the big guns!
