Belly Up – The Blackmores

And in the blink of an eye things can go belly up…

Week Three

Let’s see. The week started out planning a few activities and looking into moving on from Gunnedah to our next destination. We did a trip to Warrabah National Park which was beautiful. Col flicked a lure (no luck of course) and the kids played around the rocks looking for fish and any other signs of life.

We decided that we would head off to Dubbo treat the kids to the zoo then head to Oberon for the Jenolan Caves and possibly a snow encounter somewhere that way. Finished off the prep, booked a caravan site in Dubbo, got the final grocery shop, came back to pack the van only to find a serious problem.

The van had a leak in the ceiling and water was dripping onto our bed. Col decided it best to park undercover in one of the farm sheds. Let’s just say it was very muddy and MaxTrax were required. Next day we got onto Jayco Newcastle which is where the van was purchased and they were very helpful but we needed to take it in for assessment and repair. So it was one quick pack up and on the road to Newcastle about a 4 1/2 hr drive.

We looked into accommodation whilst on the road and booked into a hotel that told us the van could be parked out the front, arrived to a narrow, one-way road with no parks WTF.

Back on the phone to cancel that accommodation and driving around town on the phone to other places with the kids delirious in the back, Col seriously pissed off up the front and daylight long gone. Found our way to Stockton Beach Caravan Park to the reprieve of a cabin, hot shower and warm bed, not cheap but at that point we didn’t care.

Wake up to a new day and it’s off to Jayco to assess the damage and come up with a plan of attack. The service manager had a look and said that they could pull off the solar panel (where they thought the leak was) silicone it again and hope for the best otherwise they would need to completely dismantle the roof to look inside and that would take months. So option A it was and we picked up the van that afternoon. On the advice of the service manager Col also bought another couple of tubes of silicone and plans on re-sealing every possible leak point on the roof.

So now we’re looking to head to Kiama and away from any rain having learned a couple of things, one being it’s best not to book and pay for things too far in advance given you can’t plan for the unexpected and two, common sense would say that there will never be space to park a caravan in any city.

What’s Next?

Find more stories from our travel bloggers here!