After a night of way too little sleep, we had a mad rush this morning in readiness for a day of way too many kilometres on the road. We were up by the ungracious hour of 8:00AM, to get ready to hit the road by our planned start time of 10:00AM. There wasn’t a great deal to be done, just a few last little jobs, but we wanted to make sure that we had everything we would need for the next 5 weeks. No problem, and as we declared, what ever we didn’t have we would have to do without or purchase along the way.

So with the last of the chores crossed off of our ‘to do’ list, the van was, with just a touch of ceremony, mated up to the tail of ‘The Beast’. Then at just a couple of minutes past our 10:00AM deadline, like a wedding car leaving the church, we dragged the ‘tin can’, bouncing out of the drive way and down the street. There was no fanfare, no farewell throng, just, Bec, Alvin, Bethany and I excitedly getting underway.

With our plan calling for a stop in Adelaide tomorrow, we hoped to make it as far as possible today. I had mapped out a couple of campsites along the way, somewhere between Bordertown and Murray Bridge in South Australia, although it would remain to be seen as to how far we would actually make it.

Our first stop for the day came in the large country town of Horsham, stopping just to quickly stretch the tired old legs, while topping up the tanks of ‘The Beast’ as well as grab a bit of sustenance for ourselves. Terribly, first day on the road also saw us stopping for the first fast food for the trip. Not my preference for sure, but little else was available at short notice on a Sunday afternoon, nor had we made any arrangements for preparing some lunch on the go.

It was already 3:30PM by the time we reached the border, crossing from Victoria into South Australia, where my careful planning came into play. You see, today is the winter solstice, or the shortest day of the year. By crossing into South Australia, we made up a half an hour due to the time difference and effectively negated the whole shortest day thing. On top of that, since the days are now going to be getting incrementally longer, our whole trip will also be incrementally longer than it otherwise would have been!

Sadly, we had been eagerly watching the estimated time of arrival displayed on GPS getting nearer and nearer. Imagine our dismay when we realized that our already long day on the decrepit stretch of bitumen that passes for a road out this way was about to get a half an hour longer. ‘Shazza’ (that’s the GPS), being as smart as she is had calculated the estimated time of arrival in South Australia local time right from the outset. Therefore, while ‘Shazza’ had us arriving at a bit after 4:00PM, our watches still set for Melbourne time, saw us pulling into the first camp site at closer to 5:00PM.

With no thought given what so ever of striving for the next campsite, we pulled in and navigated towards a flat looking bit of ground to pitch our camp for the night. After just over 500Km, we were done. And all the happier for it, dogs included. They had been so well behaved, curled up on the back seat of ‘The Beast’ for the entirety of the day with hardly a whimper. Back again they were, into holiday mode I think. They were happy to jump out for a bit of a roam around the campground, a wide expanse of crushed rock, nestled between the noisy highway and a thus far silent train line.

Into the van it was for us all then, only to be greeted with the screeching of a never before heard alarm. A quick look around found the source of the hideous noise, the squealing being emitted from the control panel of the battery monitoring system, letting us know that our batteries were flat. An impossibility I declared, as the solar panel on the roof ought to have been keeping them topped up for the whole time we had been on the road. Not to mention that until just minutes before we had departed home, the van had been pugged into mains power, supplying a constant stream of power to the batteries. Curses were thrown as Bec decided wisely to calmly sit down and let me have a melt down. If I’d been able to harness the energy I was expending on cursing, I reckon I might just have been able to top them batteries up!

In short order, I was bunkered down in the confines beneath the bed, checking over the power management system. A few loose connections were uncovered, no doubt helped along by the jiggly ride we had unfortunately experienced today. Out came the toolbox, which I had hoped I would have no need for this trip, especially this early along, as I cinched everything up nice and tight. Thankfully the awful screeching abated, although the monitor was still giving me some strange readings, indicating that only by charging the batteries could we reset the unit.

Look, It’s Marcus, The Power Saver.

Since by now the sun was dipping below the tree line on the edge of the campground, ruling out further solar energy to provide the required charge, the only way I was going to be able to achieve the necessary charge, was to start the generator up. Thankfully we have the whole campsite to ourselves, so there was no one to be annoyed at the constant drone of the generator chugging away. Since the generator was running anyway, as Bec prepared pasta for dinner, I set about hooking up the satellite dish. If we are going to be roughing it, we may as well do it in luxury. That is, curled up under several kilograms of blankets to ward off the evening chill, with the dogs, while watching the television.

But What About Ours?

Dinner Is Served.

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