Monday May 13th - Let the Gypsy journey begin
Well D-Day has arrived. After re-working the travel plans it looks like we'll only get to Townsville for late July to be able to fly back to the Coast for August. This will give us time to travel slowly and 'smell the roses'. We plan to leave about midday and head to Clontarf for the first few nights. The weather is over cast and drizzly rain. Not heavy but just enough to be annoying. Travel distance is only 109km but we sat on 80km/h on the freeway and arrived at Bells Caravan Park just before 2pm. This a pleasant compact small caravan park and there are no jumping castles, pool, games room or any of the modern entertainment ideas one expects from today's 'Holiday Parks'. This to me is a caravan park of old. It's well maintained and clean and tidy. We will be here for two nights. A kind neighbour came over to ask if this was the first time I'd put up an awning. Yes I replied - I'm a virgin at this game. He gave me some advice as I'd put it up too high so there was no slope on the roof for the rain to fall off. He also explained about the anti-flap bars you can get and gave me details of where to get them which was close by. I thanked him for his help and advice and said that I will take any hints and tips along the way, as I'm always keen to learn. Rookie mistake number 1 dusted. Where has the day gone ? The last time I towed a caravan on holidays was when we borrowed Mary and Jude's van. This would have been the mid to late 80's. It had no mod cons like today's van. The microwave was taken from the kitchen and travelled on the van floor. There was no on-board water, toilet or anything like that. Just a basic van with a kitchen and beds. Maybe they were the simple days?