It wasn’t until a very good friend phoned to ask if I was OK that I realised time had gotten away on me and it had been a week since the last blog post. It’s not a case of nothing happening or me being lazy but I’ve just been so busy attempting to finish the house and preparing for the outback trip.
The new timber floor is now down in the lounge room. This is the last of the new flooring for the near future.
Only a couple of minor jobs left in the kitchen and it will be done.
Our eldest grandson and his girlfriend arrived on Wednesday and we’ve been spending much of the time preparing the trailer for the big trip.
We’ve been into central Perth to collect the rental satellite phone. There is no plan to make calls on it (expensive) but rather use it should an emergency arise (snake bite, vehicle breakdown, hit a camel, etc)
Our camper trailer has just reached the port and is waiting customs clearance so we accepted the dealer’s offer of a loan trailer. That bought its own problems because we need to fit equipment into the trailer but obviously this won’t be permanent. It also means no drilling holes, etc.
Carlin and I have made a temporary frame to hold the Engle freezer in the large bin on the trailer drawbar. It needed to be secured as we are anticipating the trailer will be bouncing and vibrating for three weeks.
The temporary mounting takes up all of the bin. I think I can recover some of this lost space when I fit the freezer into our trailer. More thinking required.
The roof top tend and awning needed to be seasoned and then dried. We also needed to check it for damage.
Carlin and Monique will sleep in the roof top tent whilst I will sleep in my stretcher tent under the awning. The ‘Batwing’ awning wraps around the opposite side of the trailer and the rear.
Much of today was spent manufacturing temporary framing to secure the 2nd spare wheel inside the trailer tub. I’m already thinking this 2nd spare will fit under our own trailer. I’ll also need to modify the trailer rear door as it is currently only designed to open 90deg. I’ll need at least 150deg.
Tomorrow we will do a test pack with a planned departure date of Sunday 12 August. I’m aiming for Sunday as that is the day we are least likely to encounter ‘road trains’.
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