Bringing Betty Home...

Maleny - Jervis Bay, NSW Return (2,400kms in 3 days!)

The 1963 Sunliner I bought six months ago has been sitting in storage in NSW and with a quote of $4,000 to have it transported back to Queensland, and a rusted out chassis, an alternative means of bringing her home was needed.

Funny how often what I am doing with my vans echoes the restoration tips in Vintage Caravan Magazine lately! (The last one was on transporting your vintage caravan - Thanks for the great advice Richard)

So, with the loan of a car trailer and blankets and pillows piled into the back of the Commodore, we set off from Maleny at about 2pm on Monday.  I did the first half of the drive and Noddy took over from there doing the long hard stretch through Sydney into the wee hours of the morning.

We arrived at Jervis Bay at 4am local time (3am QLD time - why oh why don't we have daylight savings time here too???) and pulled up in the carpark right on the bay overlooking the ocean and crashed out for some well-earned zzzz's.

We awoke at 9am and admired our prime real estate position (wow, did we really sleep that long in a public carpark taking up around 6 bays with the car trailer without anyone moving us on? Awesome!) 

Some locals turned up and told us that 30 whales had been spotted coming into Jervis Bay so I grabbed the camera and we walked down the rocks to check it out.  There was no sign of the whales, but there were dolphins swimming around and I was trying very hard to take photos of them when I took one step too many and ended up tumbling 3 metres down a rock wall and straight into the ocean and oyster laden rocks, ouch!!!!  The ambulances were called and it was all very dramatic but I was, apart from plenty of nasty bruises and cuts, surprisingly relatively injury free - I have always been quite convinced I am unbreakable! 

Here is a blurry photo of one of the dolphins that I managed to get off the memory card.  The camera and my i-phone that was in my pocket were destroyed in the fall unfortunately.

And a few nice pics of Jervis Bay that I took at the same time:

The pic I took just before I fell showing what I tumbled down and into!

Once it had been determined that my painfully bruised and swollen leg was not broken, we set off to pick up the Sunliner from Ray's Hot Rod workshop in Huskisson and the caravan was forklifted onto the car trailer backwards as the extended draw bar was very heavy and the boys decided it would be better going on the back of the trailer instead of at the front.

Some gruesome shots of my oyster cut hands taken with Noddy's phone while I watched them loading the van:

Van all loaded, we hit the road again with Noddy taking the first half while I iced my leg and bemoaned my injuries and Sydney traffic.  We stopped at a rest stop along the way and met a lovely couple Cheryl and Andy who were free camping on their way to Tasmania who loved the Sunliner and so I gave them a copy of the magazine to enjoy on their travels. After he had done around 7 hours straight driving, we stopped for some dinner in Kempsey and I took over the wheel from there to Nigel and Linda's Glen Villa Resort caravan park in Byron Bay.  We arrived there at 2am and didn't want to wake them so we slept outside and surprised them in the morning and had a bite to eat with them at the very funky Bay leaf Cafe (mmmmm.. lots of vegetables and real fruit juice was much appreciated after a couple of days of service station pies!)

Then it was off again back home to Maleny, dropping the newly christened "Betty Page Turner" (a name that is the result of combining two pinup goddesses; Bettie Page and Lana Turner that seemed appropriate for a portable magazine office!) down at Beerwah where she will be getting a makeover in time for the next big trip to Victoria in 3 weeks for her debut at the Camperdown Cruise Rockabilly Festival... fingers crossed!

We made it!

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New additions to the VCM family

The Vintage Caravan Family keeps growing...

Two new additions recently joined the Vintage Caravan Magazine stable.  Both in need of restoration, I thought I'd introduce them here so you can see the "before" shots!

Firstly let me introduce the as yet un-named 1963 Sunliner:

She is about to undergo a complete chassis and drawbar rebuild as she had quite a bit of rust underneath and the tow coupling had been completely cut off. I'm still brain-storming on ideas for colours and styles for her, I think it will come to me when we get to spend a bit more time with her...

Love the cool quilted ceiling - reminds me of the inside of those old prams!

Then there's Rosie, we picked this little cutie up from the Salvation Army in Reno

Can you believe it? They sell cars there! It was sitting in the lot across the road from the Hot August Nights swap meet and as we left, I spotted her instantly.  Initially I just wanted to get a photo of her, but she proved to be so irresistible that  I couldn't bear the thought of letting anyone else get her. So now we have a Reno baby as well!

Lisa Loves Rosie!

She had been towed in that morning but her tyres were very perished and cracked, so we put some brand new tyres and wheels on her, drove her down to the DMV to get her inspected and walked out with brand new Nevada plates to put on her.
Rosie is a 1949 Crown trailer made expressly for Al Rose the Trailer King (according to her her ID badge near the door)
These types of aluminium caravans (or trailers as they call them in the U.S.) are commonly known as "Canned Hams" due to their rounded shape. Rosie is 12-foot long and surprisingly roomy and high inside.

She's a bit shabby inside and has some water damage to the interior walls, so a lot of them will need to be replaced, but we're lucky that all the internal fittings and fixtures are still there, so it shouldn't be too hard to fix her up again.

She even has all her original light fittings, very retro cool!

And look what we found inside!

A cool old kerosene lamp

And a canned ham! Really!

On the road again...Direction: South

Tuncurry, NSW Tuesday 13th April 2010 9am


Like that old song says...
Back on the road again.


Mad road trip number two: Maleny to Tuncurry, NSW (750kms).

There was no point stopping on this one – Once I had decided to hit the road again, I was off. I had one last job to finish up before I could send an invoice off and get back on the road; that place where my thoughts seem to take a somewhat more linear tack, kind of like the road ahead, you just keep going somehow.

I am really upset at Bas’ decision to not come home to his Mum this time. He’s decided to live with his dad. I spent a full 24 hours crying before I realised that moping about in the house was not going to make the pain go away. I keep having flash backs of the awesome caravanning road trip we shared only two weeks ago. I will treasure that experience and those memories we made more than ever now.
So, back to the road it was, and where Bas and I were last happy together is where I wanted to be. Overcoming my natural urge to want to ask one of my kids if they'd share this one with me, I hesitated - there was this lingering fear of being made to feel ludicrous somehow - the worry of not being who or what they expect a mother to be. I decided I needed it to be OK to be me right now and so instead I phoned a friend.
"Road trip?" I asked.
"Sure!" was his reply. (Thanks Trent - you're a legend mate!)
So now I had back-up should the saddies hit too hard and to help ward of any potential tragic events such as unexpected mishaps and breakdowns (to both the car or myself!).
I picked Trent up from Brisbane at 6pm and we then hit the road straight away.

Having just done the Northern Queensland run, this time I was heading South. Driving at night is great, there’s less traffic on the road and time and landmark towns seem to slip by so much quicker. As the halfway point came and then went, it seemed another 100ks was too easy to do. So I pushed on through until 2am when I finally arrived at my destination; Tuncurry - to take delivery of the sweetest little 1965 Viscount Duravan, the latest addition to my caravan family and an irresistable bargain. A quick phone call to Tuncurry Beach Caravan Park earlier int he day had made me aware that they were definitely not open to taking late check in, so I parked on the beach for the night and we slept in the car.

I woke up this morning at sunrise as I seem to do when I'm on the road. I love the feeling of waking up somewhere completely new. I went for a quick wander to snap a few pics only to discover this sleepy little lakeside town a buzz with senior activity; bather-clad grannies were already swimming laps in the rock pool while other oldies were walking their fluffy little dogs around the edge of the lake in the early sunrise glow. Yachts and fishing boats moored along the shore and Norfolk Pines thrust their arms out to embrace the new day. What a gorgeous spot!

I just made us breakfast on the beach and we are about to pick up the caravan - then it's off to Byron Bay for a night before heading back home on Wednesday.

Still missing Bas terribly, I find myself going over and over what could have been done or said to make it all better.
Fill those anguished moments with new memories and adventures - that's all I know how to do...

Mega Road trip!

Sunshine Coast – Townsville (approx. 1600kms) Wednesday 24th - Friday 26th March 2010

For QLD Little Athletics State Championships 27-28th march

What a mission! On the morning of the day of our scheduled departure I had the car at the mechanics doing last minute repairs to the sway bar pin kit to eliminate an annoying clunking sound and was still running around trying to find the exact type of wheel and tyre to use as a spare for the 40-year old caravan. Finally, all set to go and my pay still hadn’t come through... panic!

Not able to postpone any longer with over 1,500 km ahead of me to get Bas to State athletics on Saturday, I hit the road at 4pm with assurances that my pay would be coming through that night.

DAY ONE: Sunshine Coast – Bundaberg (about 300km)
A relatively easy drive and my excitement at finally having got it all happening fuelled me for this, the relatively easy first leg of the journey. I found myself chuckling all the way up the Bruce Highway. I can’t believe it. I’ve been dreaming about this for so long; about getting an old caravan, doing her up and taking long road trips to discover more of the real Australia. Having seen so much of the world this way with my parents when I was young and having fond memories of those crazy adventures with my dad across Europe and Morocco, the gypsy urge runs deep and sometimes staying still for too long starts to feel like entrapment.

I phone ahead at our chosen caravan park at Bargara Beach Caravan Park just east of Bundaberg in the morning before we leave home. I’ve planned to head coastward off the Bruce Highway each night to make the tip a bit more fun for Bas who loves the beach and the surf. Bargara is right next to Mon Repos Beach turtle hatching grounds and I’ve booked us in to view the baby turtles start their 150-year lives on this very beach. Turtle season ends at the end of March. Unfortunately due to pay-waiting delays we don’t get in to Bargara until after 8pm and so we just missed the turtle tour, but we will definitely schedule that one in for next year...Bargara Beach Caravan Park was just perfect for us. I woke up to watch the sun rise over the beach while surfers caught the early morning waves just across from our camp. There is also a great little skate park next to the beach not 50 metres from our camp and I feel so excited for Bas who is yet to wake up and see all this.
When he does wake up at around 8am he goes straight to the skate park with his BMX while I prepare us a porridge and LSA mix breakfast. We have breakfast by the beach and then hit the surf with the boogie board for a couple of hours before packing up and leaving Bundaberg for the mega drive of the trip to Mackay.

DAY TWO: Bundaberg – Mackay (about 800km)
The initial excitement starts to wear off sometime during this drive – there’s a whole lot of nothing on the Bruce Highway between these towns and I start to regret my decision to push through so far in one hit. We pass though Gin Gin and straight through to Queensland’s cattle town Rockhampton. I have to stop and refuel three times during this leg of the journey and even cruising at 100 kph it seems to take forever and there’s not much to look at along the way. The stretch between Rockie and Mackay is so dull that the only thing interesting about it is the yellow reflective road signs that say: “Are we there yet?”, “Still a long way to go kids” and “How much longer dad? (and Mum)” and the squashed kangaroos on the road.
We veer off the Bruce Highway again to head out to Bucasia Beach caravan Park which is still very much suffering from the effects of last weekend’s cyclone. With coconut palms and a secluded beach it has a real tropical castaway island feel to it.
The Bucasia Beach caravan Park isn’t much to write about and for the price ($35 compared to $26-$30 a night for a powered site for the two of us everywhere else), the facilities were a tad under par. It pelted down rain that night and the new waterproofing job I’d only just had done on the caravan roof days before we left was put to the ultimate test. It passed with flying colours – the van stayed dry and the extra thick polyurethane coating doubles as a bonus sound muffler dulling the sound of rain on tin nicely.

DAY THREE: Mackay – Townsville (about 500km)
Despite intermittent rain bas and I hit the beach in the morning with the boogie board for a couple of hours – Bas swam over to his very own a sand island while I collected shells and driftwood along the beach.
We packed up and gave the caravan a good scrubbing to get rid of all the bugs we had collected from the night before’s drive and hit the road at around 11am again – destination Townsville.We made a quick detour off the highway around half way to see the famed Airlie beach and have a quick swim and discovered that Airlie Beach isn’t a beach at all but a bay, full of boats, yachts and with a string of pretty green island in the distance and lots of quaint-looking shops and eateries and kind of like Noosa with lots and lots of tourists. Bas and I agreed that it was not our cup of tea at all, made a quick U-turn and decided to push on through to Townsville.

We get to Bowen and take the compulsory photo of the van in front of the big mango – and set off once more. We arrived at Rowes bay Caravan Park in Townsville last night at 6pm and it’s beautiful. The facilities make the last park look like a slum. Immaculate toilet blocks, well-uquipped camp kitchen with fridges, stoves, toasters and kettles supplied. It has lots and lots of trees, palms and greenery and a real homely feel to it. It reminds me of my old caravan park, the Village Caravan Park in Park Ridge, Brisbane. Once again, we are right across the road from the beach but alas there are no waves. Bas declares that a beach without surf is not a beach at all in his opinion and I agree that they should call them bays or harbours instead. But we are also two minutes drive to the city, the strand and the sporting complex, and that, after all, is the real reason we came on this trip at all.


Bas competed in Long Jump today and came a very respectable fifth with a jump of 5.16m. Tomorrow he has Triple Jump. We are happily ensconced in our caravan and loving the road-tripping life.

The bonus for me with this trip is being able to share it with my son. Not having travelled as much as me, he did not initially share my excitement for this trip. He’d have rather flown up. I couldn’t afford the fares so it wasn’t a choice. “It’ll be fun”, I cajoled. I knew he’d soon discover that it is. And he has. We arrived in Townsville yesterday after three days driving and two awesome coastal detour stop-overs. Now he’s hassling me to take an extra day and keep going up to Cairns and I must admit I’m tempted...