Our Touring Past

Well folks
I cant believe it.....Just over 8 months since my first post on this topic...
Its finally time to hit the road and get touring. The car and van are both packed.. i'm out of here 6.00am tomorrow .. Monday.. sorta hoping to avoid any log jams getting across Sydney.
The weather is great at the moment, but they reckon there could be snow and destructive winds coming through the high country around mid week...
Not real concerned about that .. if the road up through Tumbarumbah gets closed , we can always double back out to the highway and come in to Jingellic from the southern side of the ranges.
I seriously doubt that will be the case !!!

Anyway.. Just wanna wish everyone a safe trip and see you all either at Gunning or .. we catch up with a few of the early starters at Tumut on wednesday..

Until then.... Happy Trails
Reddo

G'day redo and fellow gold fever tours we are at dunedoo looking at a fire pot thinking will I cook tea or go to pub and get nice juicey country steak stay the night at Moree hot pools great camp park here might be at gunning Monday or may be Bathurst depends on how many pie shops at Mudgee an second hand shops for Stacey
Looking forward to seeing everyone
Cheers brendo, stace n daddy'o

Reddo I'm in Batlow at the moment at wildbrumby's and the weather is beautiful. See you at Alby's garage in Batlow on Thursday morning with your umbrellas and gumboots

Well... thats another tour done and dusted folks...
The weathewr tried to dampen our spirits a few times on Monday at Gunning ... but we being the resiliant lot we are made the best of things..
6 vans in camp on Monday night..
Me, Jennison, Humpty, Strugglebrooks, and gary and fran..and i think Phill and Veronica showed up as well??... have to forgive me if i got this wrong... a week in the life of a drunk can be a long time !!!
Intermittent showers could not stop us from having a camp fire and enjoying each others company..



Day 2.. Anzac day dawned cold and wet... A few of us ventured up to the 11.00am ceremony. Jennison marched with the rest of the returned servicemen and woman. Later in the day we saw the arrival of..
Brendon and stacey and staceys dad Graham, , John and Julie, Don and shirley, Smiles , Richard and young josh, as well as he Tickos. ..
Rain came and went a few times but we again had a campfire ...



Well thats a start... better post this before the computer as another wobble..
Reddo

Part 2.
Day 3 dawned cool wet and windy with the threat of more to come.
Everyone was up and on the road by about 9.00am heading for Tumut.
Most of us drove through torrential rain before Yass. There was wind gusts strong enough at one stage to pick up the panelvan and caravan and shift me approx 3 feet sideways on the highway... luckily everything stayed right side up and i made it to Yass for fuel.
Jennison heard onthe CB that a late model van had been flipped upside down into the nature strip in the middle of the road... not very pleasant driving conditions at all..
Turned left onto Gocup road at Gundagai and on over to tumut.
The Sutcacs and Kaybees where already there ... along with a couple that had hooked up with the sutcacs while they where travelling around S.A and VIC.
Barry the Butcher and his wife had made up 2 huge pots of rice and curried chicken .. while Barb and Clyde had a large pot of Pea and Ham soup for us all to hoe into that evening.
Here is a few shots from around the Tumut van park..

Barry big rig pulling out of camp on thursday morning.

Smiles castle

Strugglebrooks Hunter Minor

Johnm and Julie Expanda Van

Don and Shirleys Olympic

Tickos

Phillmac.. Phill and Veronica

Yours truely and the Kaybees ( does my bum look big in this?)

Our backyard for the evening.. The tumut river.


The Sutcacs
Note.. i missed getting a shot of the Humptys in the morning.. they had to shoot off home early. also.. i had taken a photo of gary and frans van .. but i have lost it somewhere along the way on pbucket.

From tumut we headed up the mountain to Batlow and caught up with " wildbrumby" who took us around to Albys shed for a look around... lotsa cool stuff being built in his shed as well as a nice 1940 ford pick up.

Back on the road to Tumbarumba..


Where we caught up with Aquamum and the EJ ute.
A very picturesq run over to Jingellic reserve for a free camp over night behind the pub..
I will let the pictures tell the story..

Brendo and stacey





More soon ... Reddo

by late arvo we had everyone into camp and set up.



And the Murray just bubbling on by....


Its just one of those places ya could just sit and do bugger all for days.. and not feel guilty about doing that.. !!




.. a roaring fire going .. and a heap of ashes starting to form for the big campovenathon.

Pesided over by Clyde and Barb , and a heap of helpers..





So... me realising early that there was just too many cooks i went here....

and found a few others that couldnt handle the heat in the kitchen..



Yup... that is 5 and 10 dollar notes all over the ceiling...

The food and the evening turned out to be perfect and one of the most memorable nights i can remember having with the vintage van mob..
Thanks to everyone who put the hard yards in on prepping everything for the cookathon and ensuing eating frenzy. !!!

Late start next morning. i got the imp[ression that no one was in a hurry to get back on the road.
But eventually we uncoiled the circle of vanms and head to Yackandandah via Tallangatta , Ganya forest . arriving around noonish.
Yackandandah van park is a great little van park slotted away just off the end of the main street and bounded on 2 sides by running creeks.
Has a great camp kitchen with a large fireplace at one end... neeedless to say it become the social hub for the next 3 days..


This is the first chance most of us had to set up with an annexe ...
Just a few shots from around the camp..














Oh yeah... nearly forgot.. we where delighted to have the company of Don Ricardo and his lovely wife Glynnis.. pretty elusive but.. it seemed that everytime i went down to get a happy snap of them .. they where doing the same thing as me.. out and about..


















There is a few more to go... will post more later.

Reddo

Ok .. as promised here is a few more shots of life at the Yack..


We took a cruise over to Beechworth... nice town but starting to get overun with trendy boutiques...a few antique shops but nothing to get excited about..
Did get excited at the RACV depot..

Worth breaking down to just get a ride on the back of that one aye..
Or maybe you would rather get a visit from the patrolman in thisun..


or if ya like something later model..

Back to camp on saturday arvo for the paper aeroplane contest.. fair dinkum there was some unusual ideas as to what represented and aeroplane..
Garry took out the championship.
Saturday night was presentation night in the camp kitchen as well as fancy dress hillbilly theme.. sorry i didnt get any pix .. i was a bit crook that night and in bed early..
Results are..
Most inventive idea for a tour... Jeff Jennison with generator... nikname now is Jenn-erator
Longest distance travelled - Clyde and Barb.. Sutcacs.. been on the road for 3 months
Hard luck story.. Rob and Cath - Smiles.. for making a great effort to get to the tour after Cyclone Debbie smashed all the roads and bridges into their property.
2nd Hard luck.. Pam Strugglebrook for having to put up with her lesser half John for a week in close confinement..

I would like to than John and Pam, Col and Kris for donating all the prizes /awards... much appreciated and made a fun night funnier.
A lot of time was spent up the main street of yack.. just gawking around the shops.. i found a nice dinning table for Trish.. 16ft long.. X .. 8ft wide.. X .. 4 inches thick .. solid redgum on 2 big redgum stumps.. $46,200 ... no room on the roof racks so had to leave it where it was. The Gumtree Bakery recieved a 5 out of 5 from pie expert Brendo... best he .. or anyone else had ever tasted.
Nice meal at the Bottom Hotel. Owner is a car buff and enjoys a yarn.
Sunday came and went.. up early Monday and on over to Yarrawonga..
More later..
Reddo

Monday dawned bright and sunny …. But cool. We said goodbye to John and Julie & Don and Shirley…. Heading north to Batemans Bay.
Rob and Cath.. heading up to Hill end and then onto Nundle before heading home.
The Wildbrumbys.. Paul and Annalise.. just up the road to Manus
Richard and Glynnis.. back down home in Vic
We all headed off in different directions but where aiming for the same destination.. Yarrawonga. I headed over to Chiltern .. but arrived there to find none of the antique shops open…I was about to drive off when the sutcacs arrived.. and as if prearranged .. all thye shops opened and we went goody hunting. A bit of morning tea and then Brendo, Stacey and Graham turned up.

We arrived at Yarrawonga to find the kaybees, strugglebrook, Aquamum, Fran and Garry and Phillmac already onsite.
The park is huge and it felt like I was driving into a new housing estate.. very modern ammenties, Tennis courts, AFL ground, huge camp kitchen and playground for the kids….. bit flash after Yackandandah !!
Everyone unhitched and took off up the main drag for a look about..
I spotted this on the banks of the river..

Jennison had spoken to the caretaker and we where allowed a campfire .. so we quickly got that up and flaming.. The woman had been busy in SKR again and had made a big pot of Pumpkin soup for the evening meal… bloody beautiful… and good enough to go back for seconds.
Last night around the fire.. Veronica must have the worlds biggest oven in that little alloy van.. there was a seemingly endless supply of cakes and slices coming out the door every evening… thanks heaps again Veronica.
Also like to thank everyone that cooked up huge ammounts of tucker in the camp ovens, in particular Barb and Clyde, The Strugglebrooks, Tickos, Cath and Rob., Col and Kris. and everyone else. I think I used 2 slices of toast with Jam in the 8 days I was on the road… thanks heaps guys
An enjoyable evening chating with everyone about what a great time we have had… and “where to next year”.. Nothing decided as yet !!. Off to bed … a big days drive tomorrow.

Everyone was up early..some lingering on for a day or 2 more.. some heading home.. everyone said their goodbyes and agreed that vintage van touring is the best thing you can do with the old vans.. Travelling with great mates, rolling through little towns exploring the sites and scenery, camping at night and enjoying each others company over a few beers , having a laugh. Life is too short… get out and do it while you are still physically capable of doing it .
I drove straight through to Newcastle… 10 ½ hours.
In closing I would like to thank Richard Potter for making the effort to come over to Gunning with his son Josh for the evening and drop off the t shirts and stickers. Very much appreciated mate and everyone agreed the T shirts look great. Unfortunately they couldn’t tag along with us as Richard had work commitments .
I hope I wasn’t the only one with a camera and someone else will overcome the login issues and throw in their account of the tour with some more photos.

Until next time..
Keep them wheels rollin
Reddo

gday reddo . great rundown and photos but being there was gold . thanks everyone for making it memorable but the funniest thing for
me happened on the way home with a certain white wagon who we should christen casper . when we pulled into our sites in yass
casper drove in as he always did . i patted him on the back and told him this would be the first time i ever seen him reverse as he would
have to to get out again. anyway old casper had other ideas and tried tried to slip out under the cover of darkness at 5.30 the next morning
with the coughing wagon waking everyone within ear shot .anyway with panic setting in he drove forward down two layers of tiered sites ,
under the clothes lines ,around the septic pit and across the managers backyard, never to be seen again. needless to say ,being with him
i thought i better get out quick with all the lights coming on and it was a mad rush to get in and follow. all i can say is well well done john
ooooops i mean casper , and your none reversing tactic still stand , a job well done

Thanks for the pics Reddo, you have captured the relaxed communal feel of the Tour, nothing beats wandering around our great country with old and new friends, so well done again.
We arrived home on Tuesday around lunch time, an easy trip for us, but as it turned we were lucky to make it, it seems that the Chev had only one more start in it
Col had been concerned enough at Tumut about it's slow starting that he bought a new battery, but that made no difference, every morning it was so slow to turn over that we held our breath until it fired, whereas at home it always stared first go , no problem at all.
Wednesday morning it would hardly turn over, no amount of battery helped, so out with the starter and down to the Auto Elec, in the meantime Col fitted our spare starter, still no go, he even burnt out that starter, nothing worked.So, he looked up Trouble Shooting slow starts on LPG and found a mention of the possibility that the gas had altered the oil to a glue like consistency, when he pulled the dipstick out that was what had happened, really sticky, enough to nearly stick his fingers together.He had to use the heat gun on the sump to get it to drain out, it took hours.
Engine has now had two new lots of oil and filters, first lot was run for a short time and then dumped, all good now, back to normal.This probably wouldn't have happened if we had been planning on using the Chev on the Tour, Col had spent some time the week before prepping the other truck, servicing it, fitting new tyres, and polishing it, but it developed a major wobble so we had to change plans, the Chev had an oil top up but not an oil change.
And the misbehaving Poo truck, that developed bad vibrations after having new tyres, which caused a lot of extra wheel balancing attempts , it seems as though coincidentally a rear uni had somehow spat out some rollers, fingers crossed that it proves to be the problem.
I love cars, but not all the time

GladtomakeithomeKris.