THE GREAT DEPARTURE

Finally at 12.20pm on Wednesday 25 June 2008, we departed Alexandra. The last week or so had been very draining and emotional. The worst part was leaving the kids. Even though they have both left home and have their own lives, we felt like we were deserting them. So when we finally left Alexandra it was somewhat of a relief just to get on the road.

We got as far as Pirron Yallock (just past Colac) on Wednesday without any dramas seeming to occur and camped at a roadside stop.


THURSDAY 26TH JUNE 2008

Before we got started this morning, Steve thought he would do the right thing and check the oil. Unbelievable, he pulled the dip stick out and only half came out. It had come apart where the spring starts. Luckily, we could see the spring and were able to get it out. That was the omen for a day full of things to come. We were going to try and make it to Portland today but things didn't go as planned. As we were approaching Warrnambool, the stereo, UHF and rear vision camera died. Obviously, something was not right. We reached Warrnambool and starting looking for an Auto Elec. After talking to a couple of “not so co-operative” ones, we found one that was really helpful. He fixed the problem for us while we went and sorted out Telstra and our internet connection. The problem was caused because the old codger we bought the bus from had disconnected the charger for the house batteries so they wouldn't charge while we were driving. Therefore, the fridge drained everything. This was Lesson No. 1 of probably many lessons to come.

Needless to say, after it was all sorted we decided to head out of town to find a campsite for the night. Looking in the Camps4 book while Steve was driving, I found what sounded nice, a campsite 400m off the road along side the Fitzroy River near Tyrendarra. The book said Dogs, Phone and Big Rig were allowed so off we went. We finally arrived and drove down the track, in the dark, to find that the ground was too soft off the track so we went to the end of the track where there was, (no surprises), a gate. So we had to unhook the car to turn the bus around. Imagine 40ft of bus in 30ft of space. Steve told me to take the UHF and watched the back to make sure the wheels weren’t going to sink in and proceeded to do a 10 point turn. On about point 4, there was a large crack and crunching sound. NOT GOOD. We both realised at the same time but it was too late. We now had a three inch thick branch being very inimate with our bus roof. Lesson No. 2. As the front and rear sections of the bus roof are fibreglass, this action caused a snug three inch hole. After a few choice words, out came the chainsaw to remove the offending appendage and we got the bus turned around OK and got out of there. Sorry, I was too preoccupied with stressing to think about getting the camera out. We continued on the road towards Portland and spent the night at a viewing point overlooking the town. We did some make shift repairs with some cloth tape.