Gilgandra-ing ...

We had already planned to stop at Gilgandra when a Moree camper recommended the Sporties Club.  

It was a free camp, although he rated the on-site Chinese restaurant as being the best ever!

We did some missions before departing Moree.  I went to one of the butchers and picked up groceries from the supermarket.  

Nick practised his harmonica playing, while waiting in the car with Bandit.  

There was a lot of pretty scenery between Moree and Gilgandra.  

We saw a couple of fully loaded trucks, carrying cotton.  Much later in the afternoon we were stopped for quite a while - cos traffic was impacted by a beer truck incident.

Our earliest camping was in the Watagan Forest.  Free camping in the Gilgandra Sporties parking area was quite different.  

And how was the Chinese takeaway?  Well, we still rate the huge meals at the Wilcannia Golf Club as our top favourites - but it was a cold night and I was pleased not to be cheffing! 

Day 3, Moree to Gilgandra - 328km

Moree ministrations ...

Our second day started very well.  Pack up was quite smooth.  We checked out on time and acquired some overlooked items before leaving town.

We enjoyed the changing scenery, helped a tortoise across the road - and then lunched at a lovely lookout, where many little birds flitted about in the bushes.

At some stage though, the car started to display a warning light and although the error didn't make any sense, there was understandable stress - mainly because the silly car threathened not to start again, if we turned it off.  Pfft!

We reached Moree late in the afternoon, where we made our way directly to the local Mahindra dealership. A very nice young fellow was able to verify no real issue, which was a great relief!

From there we drove to a helpful auto electrician and Zac was able to replace our smashed Anderson plug, about 30 mins before they were set to close for the weekend. Phew - two issues fairly easily sorted!

After all that excitement, I was very much in need of an hour-long soak in the thermal pool (while Nick and Mr Dog chilled back at our drive-through site).  And yes, our bed was far more comfortable that night (though temperatures were also warmer at Moree).

Day 2, Stanthorpe to Moree - 310km

Finally on the road!

We originally gave ourselves a week to finalise packing, from Nick's first day of annual leave to 1 September - due to my expected work commitments. 

When my shifts dwindled, departure was optimistically brought forward to Nick's second day of annual leave (after my skin cancer excision stitches were removed).  

There were several revised departure times but we finally left on the morning of his 4th leave day - still several days earlier than our initial plan.  

We left home at 9:55am  and once underway, we both felt a bit stunned that our biggest road-trip ever was actually happening!

Our first travel day was easy.  There was a lovely walk along Bracker Creek at Warwick, a later lunch at Stanthorpe before checking in to the same caravan park we visited in January.  Bandit and Nick stayed at camp while I did some grocery shopping in town for some dinner ingredients.  (Mr Dog was very excited to be on holidays and particularly pleased to have so many bunnies to watch)! 

Our first night highlighted some packing issues. It had been 30-something degrees at home, so several bedding layers were deemed unnecessary - which was a rash decision! Fortunately, we did have one sleeping bag and there was a Kmart hub in the town, so we acquired a summer-weight doona before leaving (along with a few extra utensils, a better dog lead and some insect repellent)!

Day 1, Home to Stanthorpe - 231km

Cool beans!

Packing for an extended adventure can be daunting, so I've started with essential stuff - tea, coffee and ice!  

As mentioned in my beverage case post, I generally travel with a small teapot (and a stock of preferred tea).  I have enough on-hand for our upcoming trip.  

Nick received a travel press for Christmas and likes using it. He needed more coffee and we sourced that from our local roastery.

As much as the thought of using Bandit's Blend appealed, Nick prefered a different option - so after some calculations, we bought two packs (and had them ground on-site).

We'll have limited fridge and freezer space while away, so the coffee will be stored in custom insulated bags, within an esky.  I might sew some extra bags because there are a few other essentials that would benefit from extra insulation.

Obviously a camper trailer is far less insulated than a house - so we used a couple of eskies for food storage while at Carnavon Gorge.  That practice worked well for items that would usually be kept in a pantry at home.  I'm thinking we'll try for a similar approach this trip.

Cool idea!

In semi-recent times we've done a couple of road-trips where we stayed in budget accommodation along the way.  

During our "Big Loop" trip we took silicone ice cube trays and a container to store formed ice cubes.  It was great to have ice for our drink bottles!

I thought to pack ice into our wide-mouthed thermoses for our Tin Can Bay trip earlier this year and have used the same approach since - as recently as our sunflower van adventure.

Our extended road trip will be in the Spacevan though, with limited freezer space available.  I spotted these ice-maker bottles via a targeted ad - and then sourced the best available price.

Two arrived last week and we've tested them in the freezer at home, standing upright.  According to the spiel, they are fully leak-proof, regardless of orientation (which seemed perfect for our purpose).  They each make 16 nifty cubes and those should fit easily into a wide-mouth thermos, if we are short of freezer space and require easier access when driving.  That's the theory, anyway!

Sunny celebrations ...

We did a round trip of 350km over the weekend, which was a marvelous mini-adventure!  

Saturday was splendidly scenic, following the "Falls Way" down to Warwick - and stopping at various lookouts en route.  

We picnicked at Queen Mary Falls, where we enjoyed the company of bowerbirds and currawongs right beside our table!

There was more lovely countryside after lunch and we arrived at our accommodation in the early evening. I'd booked "Sunny" the vintage van on Friday morning, preferring it over a more traditional cabin.  It was the right choice, so happy and cheerful!

Earlier in the year I'd upgraded our usual road-trip breakfast basket with a larger version.  The yellow floral fabric was a good match for the sunflower van.  

Dinner on Saturday night was cheffed using an electric frypan for herbed zucchini slices (cooked in foil), steaks with garlic butter (from a supermarket pre-pack) and fried onion.  

I used the microwave to cook the corn cob in it's husk - and steam the baby potato pack. 

Dessert was leftover birthday cake and we had some very flash bubbles bought locally - cos although I'd packed flutes, I'd left the intended sparkling wine at home. Der!

We managed a full game of Super Scrabble afterwards, though retreated indoors when the temperature dropped.  (As you can see, Nick won the game but it all other respects the day was quite perfect)!  Breakfast on Sunday morning was also taken inside, cos it was a bit cool out.  Pack-up was smooth and we departed just on 10:00am for some more sight-seeing on the way home.  Perfect!

Cleaning up ...

So much happened since my previous post.  Life has been very busy!

We've started more serious prepping for our big adventure.  

There was mould on the canvas, which I wanted to clean before departure.  

We remembered cleaning the D9 camper with a high-octane product and baulked at using the same this time round.  The product was effective but we didn't like it's fumes.

I'd read of Milton being used as an alternative solution and we opted to try that.  We purchased one bottle at the supermarket and then converted reward points to a $50 BigW voucher, which funded another four bottles.

There was some trial and error getting the ratio right but we settled on a 50/50 approach.  The five bottles were sufficient to treat all the walls and the underside of the front and back window awnings.  Some areas received a double treatment - and everything was thoroughly hosed down afterwards.

We only treated the outside, didn't bother with the roof (which only had a few light marks) and were really pleased with the end result.  It was far less fumey, so much easier to work with - and definitely cheaper, even if we hadn't used the voucher.