Sun safety ...

I've had a few skin cancer excisions and as much as I wasn't keen to have the latest on the day prior to my birthday - that was the best timing, to allow for post-op follow-ups etc, so we could depart as planned.

I've always burned easily. Sun safety when very young was a thick, white  zinc "butterfly"across my nose and cheeks. 

There weren't sunshirts, only ordinary t-shirts over swimmers. I hated the sun cos I'd regularly be so very burned. Sunscreen wasn't a thing till I was a bit older (and asked for some when I became aware of its existence). 

As an adult, I don't like how sunscreen leeches into my eyes - and generally prefer to cover up. 

Around 10 years ago I started wearing men's long-sleeved 100% cotton shirts (from the opshop) for extra coverage when in hotter areas. I used to wear them over a singlet top, until I discovered it was cooler to forego the under layer and button the shirt.

On past trips I've worn them as-is but I tailored some for better fit - thanks YouTube - before leaving home. 

My shortened shirts worked well - and I found a few extra in various opshops along the way. 

I saw lots of sunburned people while we away, particularly at Uluru and then Magnetic Island.  I only had light sunburn a couple of times.  

I had two reddish bands on my legs after our Uluru base walk - the only bits of me not covered!

Laundry bags ...

I intended to make these laundry bags for our first spacevan but life interrupted.  All are made with remnants of outdoor furnishing fabric.  

They worked well for our 8-week trip.  The two with handles were pretty easy to carry to the laundry and worked to hold the wet clothes also.

The larger bag wasn't part of my original plan but it used the leftover fabric - and might work for bigger items, like bedding.

I made a hanging peg bag, to save bending at the line - though don't have pics of it in use. 

I use stainless steel pegs at home but bought HEGS pegs for the Spacevan - cos they have extra hooks, for increased holding capacity. 

They grip strongly and I've been quite happy with them. The fact they hold extra items is great, given line space is often at a premium in van parks.

The peg bag, spare pegs, washing powder, soaking powder and a couple of laundry soaps are stored in a former lawn bowls bag.  

(You can see the lawndry bag in the bottom collage, to the left of Bandit).

Washing up ...

The pull-out kitchen has a small sink. It's a bit of a fiddle to use, so we generally cart our dishes to the camp kitchen (if there is one).

The big collapsible tub is something we picked up at Aldi.  It works well as a transit bucket - and has been used as a wash-up basin.

I think we inherited the dish drainer.  It might be donated!

Cooking with (and without) gas ...

We had a few unpowered nights, where the camper's gas stove was used for cooking.  It worked better than I had remembered, though conditions were fairly still on each occasion.

I bought a smaller thermal cooker a year ago and took it this trip.  It had some use, mostly as a rice cooker.  

(There are lots of thermal cooking posts on the Camp Cooking page).

Soon after buying this camper, we set up the exterior with a mini bench and magnetic laundry shelf.  Both were appreciated.

While on power, I generally used an electric frypan for cheffing - which had been my main cooking appliance, during our 18-month limbo stint between VIC and QLD.

The shakedown ...

An 8-week road-trip was our longest ever - and the first long adventure in our "new" Spacevan.  

We had two nights in Chinchilla in January, then four nights at Stanthorpe in February (when we were part way through installing the drawer units).

How did all our upgrades work?  We were very impressed with the 12-volt system - and flicking a switch for inside lights.  So flash!

The drawers were great!  Plenty of room for various food in one bottom drawer - with kettle, toaster, thermal cooker and similar bits in the other.

We shared one top drawer for our clothes, divided into clear-top canvas bags - and the other top drawer held some overflow.

You can see tables, chair etc on the bed for transit, with an Engel and other stuff wedged between the drawer units.  All that was a bit painful to shift on set-up / pack-up and a better system will be sorted before our next big adventure.

The infamous Pepsi Max stash was kept in an original storage cupboard.  Yep, that method needs some fine-tuning, also!  

Running repairs ...

Nick did a few repairs on the road.

The corner pieces of the rear metal bow had both creased - and one had a split in the metal.  Nick cut two short pieces of water hose and used those to shield the corner pieces.  Both corners were then bound with duct tape to further protect the canvas.  

The rear legs had become increasingly difficult to wind up, so were replaced when we got back on the coast.  BCF Cairns had two legs on special and Nick replaced them during our stay.

We took advantage of the sale to replace our caravan step, which had a problem leg.  The new step has a 300kg rating, whereas the previous one was 180kg.  We aren't planning to get fatter, just liked the extra strength!

Eight Weeks of Awesome!

We arrived home on 23 October - 56 days and 11,651km since leaving on 29 August. Eight weeks of awesome - what a trip! 

What's the going rate for awesome adventuring?  I kept detailed records of our spending and have just calculated a bit under a dollar a kilometre!

The main costs were accommodation, fuel and groceries.  While the overall cost of accommodation averaged $44.50 night, the weekly averages varied depending on where we chose to stay.  There was some free camping along the way but mainly we used paid sites.  Uluru was dearer, even though I used a discount rate when booking.  We splurged on the Coober Pedy underground apartment but that was a planned expense. 

It's worth noting that the Mahindra's fuel consumption was only a third of what Elmer would have used when towing, so that was a huge saving - and a key factor in our being able to travel such large distances, on our biggest ever road-trip! The fuel cost per kilometre was just $0.17.  

Just to emphasise the fuel savings - had we taken Elmer rather than the Mahindra, we would have spent around $6,400.00 on fuel rather than $1,980.00.  That's a massive difference!

There was a little dining out (mostly when Mr Dog was elsewhere, cos he's not really a cafe/pub hound) and some takeaway but we generally cheffed for ourselves, so buying groceries was a bigger spend - and grocery prices were higher in some areas, also.

Bandit's pet-minding and short stay accommodation cost a little under $670.00 - $330.00 at Uluru for day minding, about $150.00 for two nights at the Townsville pet resort and $190.00 for three nights at Hervey Bay.