Tasting at the Tasty Cube. The d'Arenburg winery.

The Cube is stunning!

What an incredible feat of imagination not to mention construction and implementation.
Probably people told him he was crazy! Why bother? It doesn't suit...

But what a vision!
And you know what?

It works!

On average 1000 people visit every day.
It is open every day, and the weekends are understandably busy.
If I were you I'd go early on a Tuesday.

The cube was imagined by the winemaker at d'Arenburg winery - Chester Osborn.
Yeah, it's a funky Rubic's cube and inside is just as funky.

There's a room where you can smell all the aromas of wine.

The smells are in glass flasks attached to old bike handlebars operated with bike horns.

There is an art collection.

 You have to see the toilets!

 It's a bit hard to see but the circles are mirrors.

The tasting room is on the top floor.

It was very busy, but we felt well attended to.

The wine names are as quirky as you would expect.

There were a lot of these bright chairs. Love!

I can see your caravan from here!

You can buy a single version of this chair made out of old wine barrels.

You can find The Cube at the d'Arenburg Vineyard, Osborn Road, Mclaren Vale, South Australia.
It's open every day 10am - 5pm.
Costs $10 pp to get in including wine tasting.

Getting to Kangaroo Island.

Thursday. We left Lake Bonney, getting out through a short sandy patch OK and headed for Adelaide.
Stopped en route at to empty the toilet tank and had a nice view of the Murray River from a lookout in Waikerie.

Morning tea was at pretty Sedan, at a travellers rest stop in town near the 6-way intersection.

Then we climbed the steepest hill so far to get over the Adelaide Hills, and the landscape changed dramatically.

Much more vegetation on the west side of the hills.
Soon we were at Blackwood at the home of L and P who we met this time last year leaving Dubrovnik, and then againin Kotor, and unexpectedly in Theth in the Accursed Mountains in Albania.
They so kindly put us up for 2 nights and we had great chats and much food and drink.

On Friday, G and I went into Adelaide on the train. The station is 3 minutes walk from our friends'.
So convenient.
I don't remember much about Adelaide from 30 years ago, but I remember the market!
And this time it didn't disappoint.
But first we had coffee, chai and cake at Handsome and the Duchess, tucked away down an alley, we'd never have found it by ourselves.
Thanks goodness for Beanhunter!

I also managed to pick up a couple of books from the second hand book shops there.
It was a good job G carried my backpack as it was quickly filled.
We also had lunch in the market at a cafe at the side.

The G and I went our separate ways - I toddled off to the Jam Factory. Gorgeous art space.
And then at the other end of town, Have You Met Charlie, Relove and Urban Cow all with interesting handmade goodies.

G wandered through some of the fine old sandstone buildings, like the court house and such and the museum, where he caught up with the Australian Geographic photographic exhibition, the one A and I had seen in Sydney a few weeks back.

After a cuppa at Madam Hanoi next to the station we were fortified enough to take the train back into the hills.

Saturday morning was an early start, we left L and P's at 7am and made it to Cape Jervis in plenty of time to get the ferry to Kangaroo Island. In fact the previous ferry was still loading! So we had time to make a cuppa before we set sail - one of the advantages of having a kitchen on board

G wisely handed over the reversing of the caravan onto the ferry to the loading guys. He made it look easy!

But that was nothing compared to a B-double full of sheep reversing onto the boat.

And just like that - three quarters of an hour later we reach Kangaroo Island.

On the road to Kangaroo Island: part 2

Day 2.
It was soooo quiet in Gulgong.
After a shower and breakfast we hit the road. It takes us about 2 hours to get going, and we didn't even unhitch the caravan.

The road from Gulgong seems to follow the ranges through Wellington and onto Parkes. It's a bit of an up and down, winding road.
We caught up with friends Mick and Robyn in Parkes, people we knew from when we lived there 30 years ago.
An hour and a half later we continued.
Through Forbes and on to West Wyalong for lunch in a pretty park in town.

We have some not-very-good-memories of West Wyalong....when G was playing cricket for Parkes in WW he was fielding in close and, yep, got hit in the face by a cricket ball. It wasn't pretty and we spent the rest of the day in West Wyalong hospital.

Not such disasters this time.

A quick photo stop in Weethalle -

to admire the beautifully painted wheat silos.

We arrived in the cutesy little town of Goolgowi at 4.30.
A community-run campground with the cleanest showers. We hat to go to the services club to pay and get a key for the amenities.....so had to have a little pre-dinner drink too.

Distance: 469kms
Total time: 8hours 20 mins

On the Road to Kangaroo Island.

Day 1. 
Today was a bit of a long slog. First one of 3 long, for us, days. 
The intention is to cover a bit of ground quickly and get into South Australia soonish. 3 days. Towing the caravan we don't travel fast, between 80 and 90 kph. Yes, we are THOSE annoying people!
We left home a bit later than intended due to not being totally organised. What a surprise! 
In our defence we've had a busy few days. 
We left home at 8.40 First stop, as usual, The Greenhouse in Nabiac for coffee. That's about 1 and a half hours away. 
Lunch at the new(ish) rest area at Branxton on the Golden Highway that goes up through the Hunter Valley. 
Quick stop and change of drivers at Cassilis rest area. Last time we were here early last year it was just after a bushfire and the whole place was decimated. 
It looks better now as the picnic tables and toilets have been replaced but the bush is slow to recover. We pushed on to Gulgong, to the showground and our first campsite.

We love the showground camping and community campsites in these country towns. It's the next best thing after National Park and reserves.

Distance: 548kms
Total time: 7hours 50 minutes.
 

So you want to buy a caravan?....or whatever

...or a camper, or a mobile home, or a pop-up tent, or....
you just want something, but what?

So here I hope I can help you come to the right decision.

How to choose a "mobile" home.

By "mobile" I mean anything you travel with and sleep in -
tent
campervan
campertrailer
mobile home
caravan
pop-up
slide-on
roof-top tent
etc....

The choices out there are mind-boggling!
And you can ask as many people as you know and they will all give you different answers.
Our needs and preferences are as different as we are!
It's a good idea to look over your friends "mobi-home" of choice.
And to visit some camping and caravan shows, or camping and caravan shops

 But there are some questions you should ask yourself before you go shopping.

1. Budget. *
How much money have you got to spend on it?

2. How often will you use it?
It is for a once a year holiday at the beach, say in a caravan park?
Are you going to become nomads and take to the road for a long time....for ever?
Are you going to use it for lots on mini-breaks, weekends away?
Is it going to be a temporary home? a permanent home?

3. How long do you intend to keep it?
Forever?
Use it and sell it?
Update it regularly?

4. What sort of place will you stay in?
Caravan parks only?
Free camps?
National parks and informal campsites?

5. Will you be moving on every day? Or will you base yourself somewhere?

6. How many people need to fit in?

7. Are you travelling with pets?

8. What will you be towing with?
Or are you dead against towing something?

9. Will you need another vehicle apart from the tow vehicle, or motorhome?

10. Think about your own personal style.
Do you like luxurious, plush interiors? Or are you a "woody" person?
How about the modern black and white look?

11. What facilities do you need?
Ensuite bathroom?
Kitchen appliances? Fridge, cooker, oven, microwave?
Water heater? Solar panel?
TV?
Air conditioner?
Heater?
Washing machine?

12. Where will you store your mobi-home when you're not away?

13. Do you want to buy a new or used one?

OK?
Got thesee questions all answered?
...then off you go!!

If you are thinking of a caravan, there a million other questions...

What size caravan do you need?
Single of double axle?
Insulated or not?
Will you need anti-sway bars or load distribution hitch?
Do you want a full annex to go with that?
Do you want an off-road version?

It is soooo confusing, there are sooooo many choices.

Here is how we came to our decision.

We have been campers and bushwalkers for years, and have had 2-man tents, 4 man tents and a huge family tent that took one hour+ to erect.
So when we decided to take to the road for a while and especially when we realised it would be our home while we built a house (which turned out to be a year), we chose a caravan.
Also because we are campers, anything was an up-grade for us!
And because we love camping in natural places, national parks and such, an on-board toilet and shower seemed useful. We have a combo-style bathroom, which doesn't seem popular any more. But it is perfect for us.

We didn't want a pop-top van as I like the solidity of walls. And we didn't have to worry about storing it in a low carport or garage.
I wanted an oven as well as cooktop, a fridge, and comfortable seating.
Our caravan also came with a microwave which you need 240 volts to use, so we use it as storage.
Also it came with a great little TV/media player which we didn't think we wanted but have used a lot.
We forewent the airconditioner (not going to be pluggin in much) but got solar panels, which have been great.
Our hot water, the cooker and the fridge run on gas.

We didn't want a huge van, as I said any size was an improvement on camping!
So we got an 18 footer, which was the smallest one with the bathroom thingy.
It is a Coromal Elite 550, which is made in Western Australia.

Although we like getting off the beaten path we didn't go for the total off-road thing.
We got a slight up-grade, to a rural terrain package, which has slightly bigger wheels and a more solid frame.
We reasoned that if we wanted to go off-track, we'd un-hitch and take a tent for a few days.

Having a mobi-home is a good chance to down-size your life, de-clutter, and take only the important things with you.
It's tempting to buy a bigger rig than you actually need.

Our smaller van is more manouverable and will fit into a lot of camping spots.
It comes with an awning which is great in hot or wet weather. But we never felt the need for an annex, although it might have been useful the first Christmas we moved when we had 3 extra bodies and it poured with rain!

Times we have really appreciated having a caravan to shelter in -
when it's wet.
when it's windy.
when there are mozzies/flies.

Other pluses are -
caravan is easy to set up. Just park it and level it and if you are moving on the next day, you don't even need to unhitch.
Also easy to pack up and get on the road. No wet or dusty canvas to wrestle.

Minuses.
Towing.
We always travel more slowly, about 80 - 90 kph.
Fuel costs increase....a lot!

The caravan we chose has worked really well for us.
We travelled for 3 months and then lived on the land for another 9 months while the house was built.
We have been to Western Australia, up to Cairns, and roamed around Victoria for 2 months.

And we are still not sick of it!

* consider if you spend $50,000 on a caravan, say you could stay for 250 to 500 nights in cabin/hotel/motel
accommodation for that amount of money.
You would need to use your mobi-home for many years to get it to pay or itself, and that doesn't take into account
 increased fuel costs!

A Winter's Trip

On the road again - with our buddies P & D....this time we hit the road to get to Lightning Ridge.
Our first stop was Uralla, a decent enough day trip for us towing the caravan up the hill from Wauchope.
Uralla has many delights and deserves a blog post of its own as I took a barrel of photos.
It was cold: minus 1 in the caravan in the morning.
Sensibly we had a powered site in a cute little caravan park.

The next day we met our buddies in Guyra, stopped for lunch in Tingha,

* photo stolen from Diana Davey

 and ended up camping at Cranky Rocks Reserve near Warialda.
This is a great spot, very surprising as you just drive through a lot of farming country and then this outcrop of rocks appears.

A shortish drive took us to Collarenebri which is on the Barwon River and has a free camp.
What more could you ask for?!
The town is a bit sad and neglected which makes me sad : (
But I have some more photos somewhere!

Then onwards to Lightning Ridge.
When drove into town, on a Sunday....lo and behold there was a market happening!
What's more one of the stalls was selling Holy Goat coffee! Win!!

Lightning Ridge is an opal mining town.
And it has a pretty typical mining town vibe.
Dusty streets, ramshackle buildings, piles of mining debris everywhere....but I kindof like it. It's different.
One of the very best things about this part of the world is that there is deep, hot, subterranean water....and that means hot baths!
The ones here are free and open 24/7.

We camped just out of town on Lorne station.....this isn't it!
But it was  good place for us to stay as we could bush camp and there were toilets and hot showers and a camp kitchen and you could have a fire, if you could find enough wood.

Then we parted ways (just for now) with out buddies and we toddled over to the Pilliga forest, between Coonabarrabran and Narrabri and Barradine.
On the first night we were the only people camped at this campsite in the national park.
It was bliss.

There was enough to see to keep us well-occupied for a day and I have more to blather on about....
so watch this space.

That is an abridged version of our winter trip to the outback of New South Wales.

The start of our new life and how we got here.

It was hard work, exhausting, stressful and totally crazy - but we did it!
Despite a few doubting thomases who saw our disorder and thought we'd never get away.
We packed everything up, trucked our worldly goods nearly 500kms, shoved them into storage, set up our caravan on our land and are now planning stages 2 and 3.

We so couldn't have done it without the best neighbours in the world and beautiful friends who packed, wrapped, chucked, sorted and most importantly brought coffee sometimes with cookies and muffins.
Thankyou all so so much.

Also to our favorite son who valiantly came with us to Kempsey, shared the driving, helped pack the storage unit and then drove the rental van back to Sydney. I think after that we are even for the time we helped you move into Darlinghurst in the rain! Mwah!

Big hugs to our favorite son and our favorite girlfriend of that son who have taken on our aged furbaby. I hope you all survive in your shoebox....um, I mean apartment!

An honourable mention to our favorite daughter who is babysitting the CDs and is dealing with our mail.

We also really appreciate that our mountains home will become the home of some good friends of ours and hope they will be as happy there as we have been. Thanks for helping to make the move less painful.

Having bitten the bullet and booked the rental truck and above-mentioned favorite son we were committed to the move, but as I said we had so much stuff still to sort, pack, recycle, ditch.
After many many trips to the op shop, a trip to the tip and 2 council pick-ups we filled the removal truck, the car, and most of the caravan. On moving eve we worked until about midnight and it was still not done. It became blatantly obvious that we couldn't all leave as planned at 5 am the next morning.
So a hastily hatched plan B was enacted - G and D would leave as planned and I would follow in the caravan when I was ready. Once again the best-neighbours-in-the-world came to the rescue with a supporting cast of friend-with-trailer and friend-dropping-by-and-bringing-coffee.

But finally the house was empty and I left at 1 o'clock with a little trepidation to drive the caravan all by myself up to Kempsey. I was really stressed about driving the Sydney bit along the dreaded Pennant Hills Road, not a pleasant drive at the best of times but with a seriously loaded car and van I was careful as careful could be.
I was driving mainly at 80 kph and a lot less going up hill! Mostly the drive is dual carriageway but one section closer to my destination is only one lane each way and when there was an overtaking lane no less than 3 big trucks overtook me - ooops, sorry for the hold-up guys.
I was reunited with my men at quarter to eight that evening.

It was with some relief that I settled in the handily-located motel room with dinner from the motel restaurant reheated in the specially-provided microwave. (A half decent vegetarian lasagne)

5 days later and we are nearly sorted - having taken 3 more bags of stuff to the op shop and crammed more stuff into the storage unit - it will be bursting at the seams.
We can almost utilise all parts of the caravan....just need to locate the seating.

So far so good.

We get our next (little) home.

We waited and we waited.
I thought the caravan was due for delivery at the end of January, but, no!
Eventually the first day of March, on a rainy Saturday morning we met our new home.

It took several hours to be shown all the workings and features.
I wish i had taken notes as there was so much we couldn't remember that the guy told us and isn't in any of the booklets that accompany our new home.

Here it is now comfortably (or mayne not so comfortably, as it's on a bit of a slope) in our driveway.
It has a lovely new home smell.

It's very cute.
One of the best things is the TV!
It was the thing we thought we didn't need but the van came with it anyway. We're not big TV watchers....but....
But it is awesome!
It is a media- thingy.
A digital TV, DVD player and a you can plug your USB thingy in too.....and the picture is clear and sharp.

Our new home cam with doona and cover, but I got rid of that and installed one of our own.

It's been a learning curve.....

We took our new home up to our land a week later and there were some teething problems.....

As we were only away for a week we didn't have much stuff, but where to put it?
I know that heavy stuff goes down low near the wheels, and lighter stuff up high.
Also you need to store thing IN something as you don't want your eggs rolling around the place.
Coming from a camping heritage we are used to taking big boxes and bags of gear, but it is apparent that you need small, light containers to fit in the dinky little cupboards.

I do like it, despite all the little teething issues.
I think it will be a very happy little home for us.

A bit more of a plan

Another part of our plans is to travel - yep, do the grey nomad thing.

So, as longtime campers we decided to upgrade and invest in a caravan.

Off to the camping and caravan show we went! (that was in April)

We had an idea of what we wanted/needed.
And this is what we have ended up with.

A Coromal Element 18ft (why are caravans not metric?)

We chose the cafe style table rather than the L-shaped one.

It has an oven as well as cook-top and grill.
Hopefully I'll be inspired to do some backing!

It has a 3-way fridge.

It has a little bathroom (shower toilet combo)

A queen size bed.

And a microwave.

 And a bazillon other features.

This is the layout- the top one -

Cool hey?

We get to pick it up in January as they are made to order and we don't need it until next year.
I'm excited!
We'll also need a vehicle to pull it....but more of that later.