Australia Day weekend

 

This weekend we got away for two days taking the "pod", to forest edge. Located between Neerim South and Noojee. West Gippsland.

We meet up with old friends of ours who have a Johnno Camper trailer franchise. (You can check out his blog here) Scott (yes same name as me) had an amazing little burner which he was testing. A biolitie cooker which runs off twigs and has the capacity of turning heat energy into electricity for charging USB devices. It looked pretty good with heat regulated with a fan which helped the fire combust more efficiently. I was amazed at how little smoke there was (except when the twigs were wet)

 

Flinders Ranges, and 4wd's (Part 3)

It seemed to me that on the trip the most numerous were those who owned whopping big four wheel drives. It was great listening to them, as you chatted around a camp kitchen or they set up camp next to yourself. The stories which they spoke about were often dirt tracks and magnificent views. Escaping a normal life for a few month or years.

What amused me was when I asked what sort of mileage they get. It was anything from 14 to 20 litres per 100km depending on what they towed. I'd say the benchmark for 4wd's was the toyota prada, then followed by the mitsubishi triton. Its pretty staggering when you think that fuel is a lot dearer away from capital cities. If you went around australia you would be up for thousands of dollars.

I felt very happy with our little set up. The volkswagen golf managed 5.7 litres per 100km towing our podtrailer. Very good. for our tip of about 3200km we only filled up three times.

I came to the conclusion that if I wanted anything a bit more rougher, I would do what a couple of New Zealanders were doing. Cycling with the paniers on the sides and trailer on the back. It looked a much kinder and respectful to the environment. It looked as you'd see more. That the type of camping involved would be closer to land you were exploring. As opposed to a lot of 4 and caravans which look as if they have as many creature comforts as they left behind with a permenant home.

Preliminary Trip == Shoreham Foreshore

 

This weekend we took off for a preliminary trip to the the Shoreham Foreshore Park, on Westernport. We did the trip to just to iron out any bugs we might have prior to our big trip to the Flinders Ranges in April.

All up the park was pretty basic. The amenities looked like they could do with a good refresh. No powered sites. Yet there was a charm. It was reminiscent for me of Wilsons Prom. Heaps of bird life, Koalas above us in the trees. The sites were not on top of each other as you would get in a normal caravan park. Yep I'd go back. It seems as if the park itself is still a bit of a secret!

Rate it: 7/10

 

The Volkswagen Bluemotion so far has performed pretty well, its fuel usage even pulling the podtrailer is still 5.6 literes/100km, very good really. I expect on even longer distances to be better. I actually think the computer in the Golf actually over estimates the fuel usage so I'm going to calcuate this manually on the big trip.

The other thing I was worried about was the towing and braking. I had a horrid experience with my Ford Falcon towing a small pop-up caravan which had no brakes. The podtrailer with electric brakes is really good. I don't really feel anything behind me even with sharpish braking.