About eight years ago I was in a minor dispute with the Tax Office and they requested bank statements for the previous five years.
Not a problem I tell the accountant, they’re in a box in the basement storeroom and I’ll send them to you by the end of the month.
It was not to be. A wild storm, a blocked drain, and the storeroom was flooded. By the time I realised what had happened, about three days later, the documents were a solid brick of sodden paper.
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When friends and family ask me why I am heading off next month, to live and travel on the road, I refer them to this quote by G.K. Chesterton:
The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.
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For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
At times I felt like I was living that nursery rhyme.
Take Madam Plush’s makeover, for example. It started with ripping out the existing carpet in the back lounge, a weary, stained excuse for a floorcovering.
As I lifted the first corner I noticed a big damp patch and had no clue as to its origin.
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In April 1861, the explorers Robert Burke and William Wills — sick, starving and desperate to survive — abandoned their surveying instruments and other ‘non-essential’ items in outback Queensland and continued south on their ill-fated journey.
Almost 150 years later, in a discovery being proclaimed as the holy grail for Burke and Wills enthusiasts, a Melbourne academic claims he has found some of the equipment buried in a creek bed hundreds of kilometres inland from Brisbane.
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Can’t win some days. The solar installers are still waiting for four 100Ah AGM batteries that were ordered from the “North Island’ nearly two weeks ago.
If they don’t arrive today they probably will not get here for another week thanks to the Easter break.
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There’s one month exactly to go for a rather special birthday, and that’s the day I plan to hit the road.
Today was a good one in terms of getting the bus ready for the big adventure … the solar panels are finally in place. Unfortunately, Easter gets in the way and the final wiring will only be done next week.
There are 420W of solar panels up there, and 150W are angled to get the early morning sun, an advantage of having the ‘penthouse’. Am almost tempted to add more to the penthouse pop-up … that should ensure a kickstart to any day.
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There’s something basic about cooking on a naked flame outdoors, and many years of camping has reinforced that primeval urge.
And that’s where I’ll be doing most of my cooking when I hit the road again.
Besides the sheer pleasure, there’s another valid reason — kitchen grease and grime.
Just last week, while checking out my ‘bricks and mortar’ kitchen and trying to decide what to take with me I thought I’d top up my rice and pasta containers.
As I took them down one by one, I saw how each of them was covered in a fine layer of grease — and that’s in a kitchen with a three-speed fan extractor with carbon filters directly over the stove!
Imagine the same scenario in the bus. As it came, there was no extractor, just a nearby window. I could see myself cooking there with a sidewind blowing straight at me, needing to close it and then watching a fine mist settle on everything inside.
Sure the weather is not always going to suit my outdoor endeavours, but neither will I be layered in grease.
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Bluey, my beloved 1973 Kombi, and home on wheels for a number of memorable trout fishing expeditions, photographic jaunts, and general road trips, is heading north to to Tasmania’s North Island — Australia.
Bluey has been sold via eBay to a friendly Queenslander called Ray who is planning a series of 2-3 day trips. “Can’t wait to hit the road,” he says, “and there’s something special about Kombis.”
I’m sure going to miss all the friendly waves from other Kombis on the open road …
However, replacing Bluey is my ‘new’ 1985 Coaster, as yet unnamed, which I soon found out gives me membership to another ‘family’ of fanatics. They’re a helpful bunch too, as I have discovered on various online forums.
Here’s the new rig as it was pictured on eBay. Its an unusual design and the interior is a weird mix of Japanese fine carpentry and ‘she’ll do’ Aussie inventiveness.
A good friend has nicknamed her Madam Plush, and when I post some photographs of the interior you’ll see why.
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