Day 1

I had to pack the last minute things in the morning before we headed off. You know the ones, toiletries, pillows, set of dirty clothes each. Then there was the rest… stray toys, scooter, stray toys, “a bit of food” (1 laundry basket later – thanks mum!). Everywhere I turned there seemed to be more shit that I needed to find a place for. I felt like the pile was growing like a 5-year cryptocurrency graph – exponentially!

After we (I) finally got everything in Tom (my step dad) helped me do a final check of lights, etc. We checked out most things the day before. I was pleased to know that the liquid left in the toilet cassette was water and toilet chemical only and had no lumpy bit in it. The hot water was working – check; the fridge was working – check; aircon worked – checked; water pumped worked – check. I don’t remember checking the stove thought and I definitely didn’t pull out the awning. Old mate who I bought the van from gave a quick demo so I was happy with that.

Now I got to practice my reversing! It was at that moment I found out the wireless reversing camera reception was shit. It was pretty much $10 wasted (by mum) at SuperCheap Auto to get a cigarette lighter fitting to give power to the monitor. It cuts in and out and goes fuzzy constantly. More of a distraction than a help! So I reversed out (more for practice rather than not being able to drive out straight). I said that fence post will be my caravan site. Well, I would have went broke very quickly taking up 2 caravan sites every time.

Of course going down the rugged driveway rattled the cheapie strap/clip on towing mirrors so we had to stop before we got out of the driveway to fix those. It’s a bit of a tedious job fixing towing mirrors on both sides when there’s no one in the passenger seat to help you!

We set off (again). We pulled up at Wondai to fuel up. The poor truckie had to reverse to get out because there was no way this amateur was going to do the reversing (especially around fuel bowsers!). The drive to Yandina was ok. I had previously tackled my second biggest fear (the lights on the hills at Gympie) when I picked up the van so the confidence was fine going back through Gympie. I have literally had nightmares about hill starts at lights while towing the van ever since I decided to keep my car, which is a manual, rather than buying an auto. My next towing vehicle will definitely be an auto. The difference in price will very quickly be saved on the number of clutches I’m likely to go through!

I decided to stay at a caravan park as the first stop to let me work everything out and be a bit more comfortable while spending the Australia Day long weekend with my friends. I pulled into Yandina Caravan Park. I paid the lady, got the toilet key and the map and was all set. I got to the boomgate and turned right, just like she told me and my first reaction went something like “hoooooolly shit”. The area that she had put me looked like it was right in the middle of the permanents and let’s just say most of them carried the derogatory “trailer park trash” stereotype pretty well. I actually didn’t feel safe there. But that was soon forgotten when I saw the site. It was a standard-sized caravan site. That was fine. It was the width of the road I had to reverse the van on and manoeuvrer my car on that was the problem. Not to mention the number of cars parked outside the permanent vans that gave me even less room. But there was no way I was going to let that beat me. So I tried. And tried. And tried. I probably tried about 10 times before I finally got it and that was with my car about 10 centimetres from introducing myself to the neighbour over the road by driving my car through the annexe. During that time Emily kept telling me I’m going the wrong way, I should be going forwards and not backwards. I asked her not to talk while I was trying to do this because I needed to concentrate. Of course she wouldn’t listen because I kept going the wrong way. So ingeniously I pretended to cry and asked her to be patient because I was not very good at this. At least I think I “pretended”. Wow, I did it. Thank you for giving me the worst van site in history to have to do as the first one.

I went about setting everything up. I unhooked the car and started putting the stabilisers down. It was at about that time that the resident from over the narrow little road came and asked if I needed a hand. I had sweat pouring off my face (was about lunch time) and was still bright red from the little reversing stress. My response was something like, “yeah, about 1/2hr ago”. I’m sure he would have been sitting there sipping his beer with a great big smirk on his face while watching the reversing show.

My grey water hoses didn’t reach the drain. I couldn’t stabilise the van properly (the stabilisers were not on the practice list at mums house. I was yet to realise you needed to undo the bolts to let the legs down more!). The dude diagonally behind our van kept tripping the whole power box, which I didn’t realise at the time and thought it was something wrong with my van. And of course the first world problem, I couldn’t get tv reception!

Holy crap I learnt a lot on day 1! Lucky I’m a stubborn thing or there would have been every chance that I would have hooked the van back on and drove back to mums. There’s nothing better than being out of your comfort zone! Character building – what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.