Warrnambool

We made it to Warrnambool for the trials. See photo of Tiffany starting one of her runs. The mechanics at OGR Nissan, Mt. Gambier, found the dump pipe was loose because nuts had fell off, allowing exhaust gasses to leak and make the noise. The dump pipe is the tube that takes the exhaust gasses from the turbocharger to the exhaust system. The work could only be done on a cold engine, so the Navara stayed in the workshop overnight then first thing in the morning the  dump pipe was removed, new gaskets fitted and the missing nuts replaced. OGR Nissan did a great job of customer service, giving me a lift back to the caravan park then picking me up again when the Navara was ready. They even chased up my extended warranty details and were able to do the repairs at no cost to me.
The Navara is running very well again, we were back home on Monday after a long drive from Warrnambool in time for Kathy to go to work on Tuesday.

Mount Gambier

Back on the road again in Mount Gambier in the South East of SA.
Dog trials again, with some success, check the dog blog from the link on the left.
We started out late as usual and got as far as Coonalpyn, about 180km from home, stayed the night  and got to Mt Gambier just after lunch time on Friday.
The Navara started making strange noises when the revs got above 3000, Still had lots of power and we got to the Mount OK. After the trials I took the Navara for a check up. The Nissan mechanic thinks the most probable cause is an air leak in the turbo charger but could not find it. The Navara is going in for a more thorough search tomorrow so we will be staying on for a couple of extra nights. Depending on the results from tomorrow, we will decide to continue on to Warrnambool for their trials next week end or to take the Navara home to be fixed.

Returned to Base

We are back home again, and straight back into the routines. Dog activities on the week end, training on Monday and Tuesday and Rotary tonight.

Several things have come up after the 12000km trip. There is a lot of work to do on the caravan, some of which will be expensive, some will be time consuming and some are just fixing poor design.

Good news is the van and Navara  drove very well for the entire trip returning a much better fuel consumption than we have ever had, thanks to Turbo Tune fixing the air flow monitor, and Complete Laser Alignment Service for getting the caravan wheels pointing the right way. Mt Isa to Alice Springs (1500km) did 16.5 litres per 100 km on this trip, on previous trips it was in the mid 20s.

Road rules about lane markings vary from state to state. In Queensland a single broken line means " Do not overtake", a solid line next to a broken line means "Overtake with caution" and a double solid line means "Overtake anytime as it is not possible for anything to be coming from the opposite direction". No wonder the Bruce Highway is considered one of the most dangerous roads in Australia. Not blaming all Queensland drivers, it is just that Queensland seems to have far more idiots with driving licences than the rest of Australia.

Next trip will be just a short one into Victoria for a couple of weeks, dog trials again.

Alice Springs Trials

We are in Alice Springs for a week with trials starting tonight. The pic shows a Frogmouth owl that perched outside our caravan at Tennant Creek. There were two of them, but the other one flew away before I could get the camera out.
Had a couple of lazy days at Alice, did a few tourist things, stocked up with the shopping and did some training with the Alice Springs dog club.
The van and the car got a much needed cleaning as the dust from the roads had started to make everything look reddish brown. They say there is a limit to how dirty a car can get because at a certain point the dirt falls off due to its own weight, well we were getting close to that point.
Planning to be home by about Wednesday or Thursday, depending on how we feel on the way home.

Tennant Creek

Lots of travelling since Atherton. We went to Townsville for the dog trials and met up with friends from Brisbane for a few nights. We got talking to a fellow traveller who sold us 5 metres of LED lights which I fitted to the van in place of the pathetic out side light we had. He even loaned me a soldering iron and some silicone glue so I could install them. It is brighter than daylight now and uses 20 mA per metre. See the dog blog for the trial results.
Had to start back towards Alice Springs and home after the trials. Charters Towers was the first stop where we went to the court house and voted. Next night was at Richmond, a nice town with a recreation lake round it. It was 1.2km round the lake not counting the unplanned swim. See the dog blog for details.
Kathy found the fridge would not work in the caravan, after a process of elimination I found a 3 amp glass tube fuse had blown. I had 150 fuses of all types for the car and van, except a 3 amp glass tube fuse. I fixed a spade fuse in place of the tube fuse which got the fridge working again.
At Mt Isa, Mick the Air-conditioning man came and fixed the air-conditioner in the van, a "broken" wire which looked like it had been cut most of the way through. He also had a 3 amp glass tube in his kit for the fridge.
We stopped at the Barkley Homestead for 1 night. Next morning I started the Navara to get the cab cool and turn the fridge to 12v. I shut the door, and some how the doors locked. Not supposed to be able to happen but it did. The engine is running and I am locked outside. Nissan could not help, RAA was sending a man from Tennant Creek to come out and help when I remembered Edwin the salesman telling me about a secret panel on the passenger door that can be removed to get access to a key hole. Found the key hole, used Kathy's keys to get in and get control of the car again. Even managed to stop the man coming from Tennant Creek before he got too far.
Got to Tennant Creek without incident and had a rest day/washing day/ touring day. The pic is the view from the lookout towards Tennant Creek. Ready to try for Alice Springs on Monday.

Atherton Table Lands

We have had a very relaxing couple of weeks at the Atherton Tablelands. Most of the time at Lakeside Caravan park at Yungaburra, with a few days at Mareeba and 2 nights at the Tableland Dog Obedience Club for trials.
Mareeba is the coffee growing centre so we had visits to the coffee rooms and also the Golden Drop Mango Winery.
There are lots of waterfalls here, the photo shows three of them on the Waterfall Tourist Drive from Malanda.
Yungaburra is a small town with lots of things to see. The Afghan Avenue of Honour, next to the caravan park, honours the servicemen that have lost their lives in Afghanistan and includes a memorial to the 5 Explosive Detection dogs that were killed in action.
We celebrated Kathy's Birthday a little early at the Vienna Inn Restaurant where they have a pet friendly terrace so the Tollers could join in the celebrations.
We had some good results in the dog trials too, have a look at the Dog Blog from the link on the left of the page.
Heading down to Townsville for their trials next week then we start the long drive home, via Alice Springs.

Cairns

Cairns dog club is holding 3 days of trials and we are camping in the Cairns showgrounds just behind the dog area, only a few meters to walk home.
The pic shows me recovering from an accident I had last night. I was taking Tiffany for a walk, went behind a shed that was not very well lit and hit my head on a steel tube used to support a cattle gate. I fell to the ground, twisting my ankle in the process and lay there trying to work out what had happened. The Cairns dog club people were quick to my aid, some of them were nurses and paramedics. After checking me out they got me back to a chair where they put ice packs on my head and ankle. One of the ladies lent me her 'Dog Hat' which held the ice on my head.
Kathy ran the dogs in Rally and did well with 2 firsts for Hannah and a second with Tiffany, all qualifying.
Recovered well this morning, just a bit of a headache and a swollen ankle. Not sure if I can run Tiffany in Agility this afternoon, probably get Kathy to do it.

100000 Km

The Navara has clocked up 100000 kilometres today. It happened 123 kilometres south of Charters Towers, while we were traveling from Clermont to Townsville. The pic records the moment, the inset shows the odometer at 100,000km, although it is a bit blurred because it was not a good place to stop.
To get to 100,000 we have been to the tip of Cape York, through Victoria, New South Wales and ACT, Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia. Not been to Tassie yet. Most of the kilometres were done with the caravan on tow.
We have been a little short on the blogs on this trip. Our internet access has been "shaped" because we went over our limit. Windows was set to auto update, so it burned up 500 meg in updates before I realised what was going on. Should be back to normal when the next billing period starts on Saturday.
Hannah did well at Rockhampton Trials, with passes in JDX, SDX and the Intolerables were 0.84 seconds over time in the SPX. Tiffany had a couple of clear rounds but was over time. The Obedience was a disaster with both of them having big problems with the heelwork. Not sure why, but they were very unsettled and continually looking outside the ring. Hopefully they will improve for Cairns.

Kalbar

At last we reach some warm weather. Not all that warm, but I did take off my jacket and spent most of the afternoon in a T shirt. We are at Kalbar Showgrounds, about 50 k from Ipswich so we have a nice easy run tomorrow, starting late and finishing early. We should be able to set up the van at the Ipswich Showgrounds tomorrow where we will stay for several days. The photo shows the  van parked near the Inglewood bowls club which was next door to a big park where we took the dogs for their lunch time walk.
The drive from Broken Hill to Moree was a good run with a long break at Bourke. We filled up the Navara at Moree and got 17 litres per hundred kilometres on that run, which is about 6 litres per hundred k better that we used to get. The Turbo Tune was worth every cent. Even with the strong head wind and rain from Home to Burra we still managed to get below 20l/100k.

Broken Hill

We are in Broken Hill at the start of our 10 weeks away. Last night was at Burra showgrounds, a good place to walk the dogs, and we found a sheltered spot behind a building that protected us from some wild and windy weather. The wind turned and was blowing us to Broken Hill for most of today. Much calmer now, we had a walk round the cemetery with the dogs which was a pleasant break after the drive. It is a huge cemetery, with one of the sad parts being the number of children that were buried here, particularly in the early part of the 19th century. It must have been a tough life in those days.
For the next 2 days we will be judging trials and then we will move off towards Ipswich QLD for next weekend.

Crystal Brook

After repairs to the bumper bar we got the spare wheel re-attached but the old cover had been damaged beyond repair. We got a new cover featuring the dogs. See the photo for the end result. There is no mistake which dogs own this caravan.
We are on the way to Whyalla for trials for the weekend, and stopped at Crystal Brook for an overnight stay. It is only a couple of hours from home but it is a pleasant park and we met up with friends for a Happy Hour. Moving on to Whyalla tomorrow.

Mildura

Here we are at Red Cliffs, near Mildura in Victoria for the dog trials on the week end.
From the pic, you can see the back of the van has a slight modification. Look carefully at the high lit area at the bottom of the van and you will see three bits of steel tube sticking out. That was where the rear bumper bar and spare wheel were attached, until we went over a level crossing, which was not so level, and the jolt caused the weld to break, allowing the bumper bar and spare wheel to fall on the ground and get dragged behind us. We ripped the bar off, stuck it in the back of the ute and continued on to the caravan park.
I used the singular form "weld" deliberately, because of the three tubes holding the bumper bar together, only one actually had a genuine weld, the rest were just ornamental. It is amazing that the spare wheel and bumper bar had not fallen off thousands of kilometres ago.

Stuck in the Sand

We have been doing some 4 wheel drive training with Follow Me 4WD  Ricky Esser took us out in the sand dunes to teach us how to drive on bush tracks. We were doing really well with both of us tackling steep and sandy tracks and getting the Navara into places where we would never have thought of going, until the long wheelbase of the Navara prevented us from getting over the top of a dune. Front left wheel and rear right wheel in the air so we went nowhere. We then got a lesson in using a snatch strap and we were on our way. Next day was dirt and rock tracks, steep tracks and creek crossing. At the end of the two days we were worn out but a lot more confidant about bush tracks. Thanks Ricky

PS Added a video of the Navara doing a steep descent with Kathy at the wheel. See Links, 4WD Training

Home for a While

A caravan with its covers on is a sad sight, but ours will be like that for a while. We do not normally travel much during January because
a) it is too hot,
b) school holidays mean the parks are full of kids on bikes,
c) the prices go up,
d) many parks ban dogs in the peak season,
e) bush fires are all over the country.
This year the break will be a bit longer as we have several commitments at home so we will not be getting away much in the first few months of the year.