In case you haven't heard the news, as of 11 December 2012 our permanent home will be "THE BUS". Yes you read it right we have taken the plunge and will officially be of no fixed address :)
Of course there are still many things we would like to do with the bus but we sat down last week and worked out that if we didn't pick a date we would be just finishing a few things in a year's time ...
We have now installed the filtering system,water and waste tanks and have cold running water, photos are on the Picassa link. Weather permitting this week will see the gas and hot water system installed and then it's pack up time. So what more could we need, hot & cold water and cooking facilities and a bed ...
Paul has also replaced the exhaust/muffler system after we found a few large holes ... Dash mats are now in, splashback for the cooktop is nearly finished and a myriad of other items have been finished. Oh yes, the last of the entry steps will be in by the end of the week, so we will post more photos when we have moved in.
But as most of you are all waiting for ... a little story about our trial trip on the September/October long weekend :)
We headed down to Jalbarragup on the Friday morning, the trip was fairly pleasant and the bus performed well on all the hills. We were going to sit at about 80km/hour but Paul got weary of that pretty soon and had the bus flat out at 90k's at some points ... cruise control will be installed for fuel consumption !!!
We arrived at Andrew's block at about 3pm, he had kindly arranged for a nice flat area for us to park :) so the extent of our unpacking was to set up the coffee machine for the morning, pull out the camp chairs and table and get the camp fire started and settle in for a few quiet drinks.
Saturday saw the tours of the bus with the crew from West Coast Car Club and everyone seemed quite impressed.
After the boat race on Monday we decided to make an overnight stop halfway between Jalbarragup and home to avoid all the long weekend traffic.
So we weaved our way inland and looked at a few places until we decided on Wellington Dam. After checking out the site and deciding that the campground was suitable we started entered the camp area ...
Unfortunately the hard ground was an illusion and just as we were about to drive the bus forward to the camp site, the surface let go and down we went ...
After a while of digging and some choice words 2 local couples on there way to a BBQ further down the track came to offer help. We tried to pull the bus out with our Pajero and a Prado but alas only dug it in further ...
To make matters worse the fuel pump was running dry because the pickup line is on the passenger side. After a few hours it was decided there was no way the bus was moving out that night so we headed into Collie with the car to find a bed and make some phone calls, there was no way to sleep in the bus with the anlge it was on. After a very sleepless night Paul managed to arrange a Franna Crane from Bunbury to assist. After a few hours of lifting the front and back of the bus and shifting sideways the crane managed to get the bus on solid ground.
After priming to fuel pump again let's start on the task of getting back up the hill ... The idea was to have the crane driver assist by towing us up the hill. But first we have to get him unbogged !!
Finally after a short while we were all out and heading up the hill ...
Luckily we did not have too much damage, although the exhaust pipe did fall down on the South West Hwy and we had a few minor leaks and a lot of mud. Upside all of our cupboard latches and strapping for the chairs and fridges held in place :)
Yes it was a very expensive lesson, yes we now have plans in place for checking a site's solidness before camping on it and yes of course you can see more photos on the Picassa link on the top right of this page :)
Anyway that's all for now and we shall put some more photos up when we have moved into it ...
