Spent a great day at the above meet assisting in the parking of a few hundred caravans, motorhomes and tents for the RAS where I volunteer. Boy oh boy!...there are many interesting sights out there. Some really amazing caravans be they restored, home-made or craftsman built.
Two in particular that took my fancy - one was a teardrop van, made by a gent called Frank from Grafton who made it ground up in 3 months for $5500 at the "Mens Shed" in Grafton. He was so proud of it and rightly so. It wasn't snazzy or smart - not even pretty, but it just has 'presence' for the want of a better word. Parked alongside were $250,000 Winnebagos etc but Franks teardrop attracted genuine attention from everybody who walked by and they all loved it.
The second van of note was an old style van, about 14ft and rounded. Owned by a couple from Brisbane (Laurie and Jill??), it appeared as being made completely from aluminium panels pop rivetted together with rust stains from the rivets. Over the spare wheel on the drawbar was a cover in silver with a "shaker" on top and a chromed 4 pipe exhaust manifold on the side. Spiders were apparent under the wheel wells. It was a total illusion!....was actually smooth fibreglass with the panels/rivets/rust/spider webs etc painted on. Absolutely amazing. The inside was all solid timber and a work of art. Towed by a white VE Valiant wagon .
The best bit was that when I passed on what I felt of their van, they both said a genuine 'thank you' for the compliment. They genuinely appreciated the enjoyment others received from their work.
Overall - the whole mob were courteous, friendly, obliging and considerate of eachother.
