Well I was vindicated today, in that even using our unmolested, shop bought, heavy duty caravan power lead, the power continued to fail overnight. So, it wasn’t my handiwork that had caused the problems after all. It went out just as I was about to climb into bed, and we awoke this morning to find that the van was hot and stuffy, the cold air having given up again at some unknown point in time while we slept. I did notice one interesting fact however, in that the power meter hadn’t moved since we first plugged in yesterday, so I’m starting to think that it might have something to do with the meter. Even when we do have power being supplied to the van, the meter is decisively inactive which is a good thing for us. It will be hard to charge us for power if it appears as though we haven’t used any.

In any case, I was still furious and ready to wring someones neck as I stomped down to the office to voice my complaint. I barely kept a lid on my ire as I described our problem to the lady behind the desk. According to her, there ought to be no problem with the supply, and so it must be our fault for using too many appliances at the one time. I tried to explain to her that the electrical gear that we have running, I can run off of our generator, which provides a whole lot less power than ought to be supplied by the 15amp point to the van. She didn’t really want to listen, but sent one of her workers down to have a look. Not overly happy, but fearing that if I stayed I would say something that would at best, see me not being able to show my face back in the office, and at worst get us kicked out of the park, I headed back to the van.

The guy that came to have a look at it, had no idea, but was at least sympathetic with our quandary. In its present state, we can’t even go out for the day, for fear of the power going out and all of our food spoiling in the fridge. Not to mention the air conditioner switching off and the dogs overheating if we leave them behind. I was expecting to be told to move to an alternate site, a solution I was really not looking forward to, given how much time we had spent to set up our camp yesterday. The last thing I wanted was to have to go through all of that, all over again. Not to mention that despite not having a continuous supply of power, I am more than happy with the operation, or lack thereof, of the power meter.

Rather than packing up and moving to a new site, the suggested solution was to use our other dodgied up, home made power cable to plug into the outlet in the ensuite. Whilst this outlet is only rated to 10 amps, and not designed to provide the power required of a caravan, I’ll be happy enough if it works.

Plugging in to this point, did indeed provide power to the van, although it also caused the power meter to start spinning at an alarming rate, and begin counting how much power we were actually using. So that gives us a choice now. An unreliable, but unmetered source of power, or a metered and hopefully reliable source. We’ll just wait and see if this power point keeps shorting out or not first.

We then had another dilemma. We had been going to head into the centre of Darwin today for a look around, but we were now too concerned to leave the dogs behind for too long, worried that the power would fail again and leave them confined inside the stagnant heat of the van. Nor did we want to take them with us however, because then they would be stuck in the heat of the back of ‘The Beast’ anyway. It was a no win situation. After monitoring the power for an hour or so, and it running without further interruption, we decided we would leave the dogs, and go for a quick run into town.

As it turned out, being a public holiday, there was very little open anyway, so our planned look around Darwin will have to wait for another day. Instead, we headed straight for the central information centre, to see what brochures we could collect. As is the norm, we managed to pick up a nice bundle of information, before making a couple of stops to buy more food for dinner. Yep, as big an adventure we are undertaking, the mundane day to day tasks, such as grocery shopping, still need to be taken care of.

It was two hours after we left that we arrived back at the caravan, and were elated to find the airconditioner still pumping. The power had stayed on, so it was looking good.

Our latest strategy is to leave it running overnight, just to make sure. Then, while we are in residence, plug into the proper power supply, after which will naturally be obliged to run out to re-set the breaker occasionally. This is of course purely for the protection of the park, as we don’t want to damage their lower amperage circuits. The fact that the correct supply is not turning the meter is purely a bonus. When we do go out, and overnight, we will run off of the ensuite power, to ensure a reliable, continuous power supply. It’s been running successfully all day now, so I am hoping that our problem has been rectified.

With that sorted, we kicked back for the remainder of the day, trying to make a bit of an action plan for our time here in Darwin. There is so much to see and do, and we don’t want to leave any stone unturned.

Cooking with gas, in an effort to save power.

Until next time, stay safe, have fun and don’t forget to write.