Yes Elle piccys please, you must be so excited, hope you don't find too many things wrong but that is what this trip is about i suppose, have a great time.......

Hey guys - I've got a few pics on my mobile and will try to put them on the computer. I am off to my solo course this morning. Geez we get spoilt these days. I bet most of you lot never had your collective hands held like me. In a few minutes I will pull the poptop down, disconnect the gas and water and probably drive off with the jockey wheel still on the ground and the speaker still in the window..... oooops this is not a drive in movie show, am showing my age.

In the meantime the maggies are singing and it is a beaut morning.

cheers all

Yes well done ellen Many more trips to come and every one will be will be better then the first ..till you wont be able to remember why u worried at all .....

And I hope you have many more happy nights in your van. I'm sure there will be a solution to the pop top problem. Until you figure it out then you will, no doubt, meet lots of helpful travellers who are willing to lend a hand. Happy travels!

like this?

http://www.rvairlifters.com.au/About-Us-pg7292.html

-- Edited by milo on Saturday 5th of November 2011 09:00:59 PM

Talking on the phone tonight to Ellen, she is currently in Gingin (wa) on her caravan learning curve with tutor. Ellen will drop into Karrinyup C/P tomorrow. I will check out the lifting problem tomorrow to see what assistance I can pass on.
cheers
blaze

That's them Milo and Elle, job well done Milo, maybe I'm not going silly after all. DOUG.

Hi Elle,

I was supposed to be off today but delayed until tomorrow. I was looking a spending my first night at the SDA Caravan Camp at Maida Vale (near High Wycombe) and noticed on their site they stored caravans or cars, you were asking about places that did this earlier. See this link;

http://adventpark.adventist.org.au/  

Blaze, If you're talking to Ellie could you pass this on please,

Thanks, Vic

-- Edited by Vic on Monday 7th of November 2011 11:04:56 PM

Hey all

thanks for your suggestions and well wishes. Beth someone else mentioned spray so I will do that asap. I can manage to get it up by myself with huge effort and a few burst blood vessels but also I found a caravan place who will install gassed struts for $65 each plus labour and also keep the van for the week I am away so all is excellent. As I wll be lubricating the springs I will only need fairly light struts as I don't want the same problem pulling the poptop down.

There's definitely no leaks in the van as it has been raining a lot during the past few days.

I went out and bought a high density foam mattress today so am looking forward to a good sleep minus aching hips and dented pelvis.

The training course was great and I'm now a lot more confident at reversing. However on the two occasions i got very smug about it a couple of incidents brought me back a peg or two. Too embarrasing to go into detail but needless to say I will be very humble in future.

Hey Vic - I stayed in the SDA camp on my first night. They store cars and vans for $2 per night per vehicle which is excellent. They also have cabin accommodation available from $22 -$30 per night.

Finally our training group spent the night at Willowbrook CP at Gin Gin. What a fantastic place. It's managed by a family of travellers and they are soooo friendly and welcoming. They have BBQ facilities on their private front verandah and come out evry night to chat and share a meal. Annnnd - best of all they lay on scones and jam and cream every sunday. I should put a post in the recommendations section but mentioned it here as the climax to an excellent caravan training course.

On leaving there I wnet straight to Karrinyup Waters which is a very busy CP with tight parking and had no trouble at all with pulling up in the classical parking angle and whipping it in to position in one go. The sparkling vaneer of competence and experience was somewhat dented when I could not get the jockey wheel to work after much effort and I had to get someone to assist. It was soon discovered that I had been winding it the wrong way.

Anyway sorry about a very long post. I will add pics when I figure out how to get them off my phone. Thanks all for your good wishes.

I'm off to SDA in the morning, the manager there told me that you can smoke and drink INSIDE your van but nowhere outside.  I told him I neither smoked or drank and didn't take non prescribed drugs and he was happy with that they have a strict no drugs policy too. 

$30 a night two people and no discount for singles, I forgot to ask him about whether they give seniors or pensioner discounts but I don't think so, will find out tomorrow.

I have been to Willow Brook Farm (Gin Gin WA) a couple of times and it is great and a very popular place with caravan groups. 

Happy Travels in the new van,

Vic

 

So if you cannot drink outside, does that mean, no happy hours, I do drink and smoke and for $30 a night I think I would be giving that place a wide berth, just my opinion, it may suit others..........

-- Edited by pauline on Tuesday 8th of November 2011 07:48:49 AM

Oh well it is a religious place and they state their rules up front so gotta respect that. The other thing is that they don't allow pets so that cuts me out for future stays. But you can't beat their storage rates.

milo wrote:

---

that caravan course sounds like a good idea Elle,
how much are they ? and how long is the course for?

---

 Hey Milo

the course was run by a well known organisation who are based in WA and probably may be considered a bit expensive by some but I was very happy with it.

It ran for a weekend, involved a morning of theory by highly experienced teachers, then lots of practice manouvering your caravan and reversing, then a 100 km convoy to a great country CP, and another day of reversing practice.

The value of being able to travel with other novices and having an experienced person on hand to show you how to put your awning up and down, and the basic operations of your van was really worth it.

cheers

 

course sounds good elle,