Well, supply and demand has made Lambie and I return to the GN's tell all of our highs and lows of our trip to the West Coast of WA. Living in our 3 room cabin tent tent for 3 months.
( Never to be repeated. Our Van is the only way to go, Full Stop.) sleeping on 2 Euro Queen beds, one on top of the other. / in what we can only describe as living nightmare.
Glad to be home, to dump the tent and reload the van to whit, is now as it should have been in the first place.
Im buggered after drivng 5387 km in 9 days straight to get in the only bed, my body knows best.
I will post under travel blog section in a few days / week after recovering.
Good to see you back Jim and I must check your travel blog when it's up. I still enjoy camping 'rough' a few times every year when my 2 boys and I head way out west to shoot drink and generally be loose.
Good to see you are back. Whilst we have "technically" given up camping, the secret is to make sure you get the correct equipment to make life enjoyable. 2 things that are most important for us was:
1. A comfortable bed. Blow up mattresses are no good as they are too low to the ground. And one on top of the other(??) just asking for trouble (slip and slide). We use a queen size blow up bed which is on a collapsable frame, (oztent make one) and then put on top of that a queen size self inflating mattress. This smooths out the air pockets and also stops the cold coming up from underneath. Good thing is these mattresses are at sit down height so easy to get in and out of bed.
2. A porta loo. Not so much for me but for those midnight runs that SWMBO often has. That stops me having to "escort" her to the ablution block during the night.
I gave up using a tent as they are a pain to put up and down. Instead we use a tent that clips to our side awning on the car and use a fold away gazeebo for sitting and cooking if it rains. Set up time is a lot less than a tent, and I use the tyre compressor with a screw on fitting to pump the bed up while i do the other things. Pack up is a breeze as the tent part of the awning folds up with no poles, ropes, or pegs to worry about, and its light in weight. And it is usually dry as it clips under the awning.
So you may ask why have I gone and bought a caravan if I find camping OK? Having to do EVERYTHING including the driving, it just got to me that there must be a better way. And the caravan is certainly that. Pull up, unhitch, press a button to set the level legs down, press a button to slide out the steps, and I am set up, in basic form. How easy is that.
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David Irvine
Tugs: 2016 Discovery 4./2017 Toyota 76 GLX Auto Wagon. Van: New Age Manta Ray Deluxe
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