Well, we are back safe and sound from our first trip in the motorhome! It was a good trip and we had a great time, but unfortunately I can’t say everything went perfectly. Yep, we had some drama! Don’t worry, we made it home by 5:30pm Sun! Btw, this post was getting too long, so you’ll have to read two of them to get the full story….  🙂

I wanted the give the motorhome a good run to check everything was going/working OK, which meant going far enough to get several hours driving time under the belt. We’ve never been to the Bunya Mountains, an estimated 3 hours from home, so decided to have a look.

So at around 6pm Fri 14/3, we departed home to an unknown destination for the night. That’s right, unknown destination! We didn’t plan on driving all the way to the Bunya Mountains in the dark, but intended on getting out of the city and into the country, stop for the night, and then resume the drive when we could actually see the scenery!

 
At around 7pm as it was getting dark, and we were a little out past Ipswich (having just turned onto the Brisbane Valley Hwy), so we pulled off onto a side road looking for a spot to stay the night. About a km further on a little dirt no through road appeared, so we followed that for about 500m to the end where there was a nice flatish area next to the road and we stopped. Pretty simple I thought – nice farmyards around (though a bit dark to tell for sure!), quiet no through road, and no camping fees.

A couple dogs from a nearby farmhouse barked for a bit, but then settled down. We thought we were all ready for the night, then a vehicle drove up, and stopped right beside the motorhome, idling there for a while! Great….. We were all closed up, blinds drawn, so I figured I’d better go out and see what was up. Fortunately it wasn’t a wild country madman, or a cop, but a local landowner who was wondering what we were up to. After a quick chat he was OK and we we were on our own for the night!

 
Our first night in the motorhome, and the first of hopefully many impromptu overnight camps was successful! Setting up for the night was certainly quick and easy – move one table to turn into a bed and that’s it! The boys were pretty excited so it took them a while to go to sleep. We all had a good sleep, but being up high above the cab I noticed I could feel all the movements the boys made. Didn’t seem to worry Nicole, and I might get used to it, but to be safe and ensure future uninterrupted sleeps, I think I’ll look into some simple/basic stabilisers.

 
The next morning we went up the Brisbane Valley Way; though Fernvale, Esk, Toogoolawah. It’s pretty dry and brown along there at the moment! There is a noticeable difference between the overgrazed areas and those that aren’t – with there still being some green in the better managed pasture. We filled with fuel at Fernvale, and I learnt my lesson about filling the transit from a high flow diesel pump – slow the rate down before its full if you want to avoid spraying diesel everywhere……

We had a look at a little country market at Moore. Nicole bought a hand towel, but didn’t seem interested in the jewelery stand that I thought had some nice stuff for very cheap prices. Oh well, I’m not going to complain about cash staying in my wallet!! We also managed to resist Daniels pleading for sweets from the cookie and cake stall, which is no mean feat!

The towns of Blackbutt and Yarraman where quite nice, neat and tidy places. Seemed a bit greener too. A quick check at the info centre confirmed our route to the Bunya Mountains.

As we were getting closer we passed a large warning sign advising motorists of steep roads ahead, that were unsuitable for trucks, buses and caravans. That of course got a reaction from Nicole (just as it would have from her mother and grandmother!) but we soldiered on despite protests (to be fair they were only minor). Besides, as i told her, we weren’t in a truck, bus or caravan! The GVM of our motorhome is less than that of a Landcruiser. Turns out there were some steep gradient ahead, but the diesel lugged us up the steepest easily in 3rd gear! (also noted later that there plenty of caravans to be found up on the mountain)

The cab of the transit was turning out to be very spacious. Lots of general room around the seats, and it’s pockets, nooks and crannies easily swallowed all our gear. In the Forester half of it would be stuffed at Nicoles feet – water bottles, tablet, laptop, chargers, inverter etc etc…. It was also noticeable that Nicole and I were further apart, and with that and the large cavernous space behind us it seems we had to talk slightly louder to hear each other. Now that has its advantages and disadvantages! I’m sure I’ll be able to take great advantage of it at times. Sorry Darl, I didn’t hear you earlier…. but it also means it won’t be as easy to hold her hand or caress that beautiful leg of hers! OK, OK, sorry, this is a family blog so I promise to not go any further!

Two problems were discovered that morning, the first being that the fridge wasn’t as cold as it could be (actually found this one before leaving our impromptu campsite). Turns out the motorhome battery was flat! 100Ahr’s should not disappear over 1 night, so it looks like an old/dead battery that won’t hold charge. Will have to test out the motorhome warranty with that one! Also explains why whenever I saw it at the dealers it was always plugged in, and the Ctek charger was on ‘recondition’ setting. No need to worry about starting the Transit though – the motorhome battery is separate to the vehicle battery (or so I thought…). The second issue is that the air inlet vents seem to be letting in air that is warmed a bit (like the heater is on). Only a little, and turning the heater knob up makes it hotter. Not sure what is going on – will have to look into it. Air con works fine (though perhaps it also is being warmed by heater), but it wasn’t a hot day so we just drove with the windows down.

We encountered a few km’s of dirt roads, which were no problem for the motorhome. There were only minor corrugations, but I was surprised how quiet and well handled it stayed. I had expected a lot more noise from everything – our ‘stuff’, doors, cabinets, windows etc vibrating around, but it wasn’t that bad at all. The front suspension is modern independent coil over shockies arrangement, giving a very smooth ride, though the rear is a more traditional leaf spring design. She’s well and truly lost the dealers ‘spit and polish’ now!

 
Ah yeah, the Bunya Mountains, yep we finally made it there!  Hopefully you managed to read through all the above more quickly than it took us to get there!

This post is getting a bit long, so might have to leave the rest for another. Don’t worry, this is the first trip – I’m sure by the 5th or 6th month of travelling the blog posts will look something like: “Perth nice. Nullabor boring. Met some people in Adelaide and then drove home”!