After securing the caravan by paying the deposit, we were able to head  to New Zealand for a Christmas holiday with all our family.

We flew to NZ accompanied by our 3 Grandkids who live round the corner from us, Their mum, Leanne, still was at work and only joined us a few week later.

We were having a great time on the farmlet until we all come down with Covid just before Christmas which was a bit of a downer. By this time Leanne had joined us and as she had not contracted Covid at that time it was a case of masks and isolation!!

We all recovered well and then made our way south in convoy – Sports car + SUV with trailer load of  “toys” (Quadbikes, blowcart, etc) and supplies, and truck with 5th wheeler for the rest of our holiday in Twizel.

The rest of our holiday including New Year Celebrations passed pleasantly and, all too soon, we were winging our way back to Oz.

So, I saw this van on the caravan sales website and the layout immediately attracted me even though it was a bit bigger that I had been looking at. I had been looking at 20-22′ caravans as conventional wisdom stated that it was difficult to get sites in caravan parks for bigger vans. on further inspection, it seemed that this was not really true especially when travelling out of holiday periods. So, the 24′ van seemed a good buy.

The only problem that the van was in Mackay, a town about 1000km north of us!!

Well, I contacted the owners and after a few exchanges, I decided to fly up for the day to inspect it. Which I did just before we were due to leave to a family holiday in New Zealand.

I spent the morning inspecting the caravan inside and out, top to bottom and could find no major faults. There were a few issues though – the tires, while in great condition were 14 years old, the water heater showed sigh’s of rust and would likely need to be replaced and that was all.

Taking this into account, I made an offer and left the owners to think about it. Not long after I got a counter offer which I accepted and paid the deposit with the arrangement that they would store the van for me till I was able to collect it later in January.

Wow, I can’t believe its been that long!! Where has the time gone? in the work of John Lennon “Life is what happens when you are making other plans!!”

Well some things have changed, not amongst the least of them has been the Covid Pandemic which shut down the world for a while!!

So, some significant things have happened:

• We have a new granddaughter, a Covid baby, now almost 2 years old.
• 3 of our grandchildren are in high school
• My oldest grandson, now 14 1/2, towers over me at 190cm
• I have retired – going on 18 months now
• Mary chooses to continue to work and been promoted to a General Manager!
• I have continued my search for a caravan and seen the prices escalating due to the pandemic
• I have finally found a caravan to suit 🙂

Our “Van”

It’s a 24′ 2008 model Jayco Sterling.

More to follow when I can  figure out out to resize the other photos for uploading!!

Well, almost!!

It started well. Saw a great deal for a caravan that had everything we were looking for and then some. Great price too – and a bit of a bargain you might say. Checked out the photos and looked like there was some damage to 2 of the corners but other views did not show this. See the top right corner in picture on the first photo and compare to the next one:

Emailed the  vendor. Given another email address to enable more photos and info but noting about the apparent damage on the photos. He sent some more photos as well as a PPSR certificate. All seemed good apart from the unanswered question about the damage.

“Thank you for your interest in my caravan. It got left to me in my uncle’s will 2 months ago. I am selling it because to be honest I have no use for it as I live in Germany for the past few years now, and only came back to bury my uncle and found out he left me this caravan.

So I emailed again asking whether I could inspect the van which was in Brisbane and got this interesting email back:

“ The caravan is at Autobytel Australia (http://www.autobytelonline.com), with all the original documents. They have the power of attorney to make the transaction on my behalf, they will transfer the ownership to your name as well.

 
Alarm bells!!! A probable scam!!!

Check the evidence:

• Ebay seller with zero feedback
• Nice sob story
• Lured away from the Ebay communications system  PPSR to a private email
• Ebay advertisement removed – long before expiry date
• Question about discrepancy in photos avoided
• Viewing of van pre-purchase avoided
• Website autobytelonline.com looks legitimate but only 28 days old and all domain contact details hidden.

Finally, no answer to my email that arrangements were unacceptable.

S  C  A  M

Just like a leaf, wafting on the wind, changing direction, so too, do our plans follow a similar pattern!

The plan was to do the Great Loop – a year long boat trip in the USA. For various reasons we have again changed our plans for our next adventure in a few years time. No longer a boat trip. No longer in the USA!!

No, currently the thinking is to do a caravan trip around Australia!! Of course, we know nothing about caravanning! Our whole life has revolved around boats and boating. But hey, it must be easier that boating.

I mean, in the caravan you don’t have to worry about anchoring, or the weather (to a large degree), repairs in remote, exotic often deserted areas (to some degree). No wind or waves. No anchor watch through the night. No worrying about unknown anchorages or marina berthing in cross tide and wind conditions! No currents to push you here or there. No tides to worry about depth of water under the keel. No risk of running aground. No thoughts of engine failure while maneuvering in close quarters among  multi-million dollar yachts.

No, none of those stresses! Simply drive up, get van in position and enjoy a sun-downer.

Methinks, it could be a simple lifestyle compare the the boating lifestyle!

I recently joined a good friend who is starting out on his round the world adventure, for on of the legs.

Michael started from Auckland, NZ, and i joined him in Cocos Keeling island for the leg to the Maldives abourd his 52′ Seahorse motor vessel.

Here is the link to a PDF chronicling my sojourn on his boat