Entry 1 for 2017 - Our 2017 Activities

Home for January - February

2017 started out as time dedicated for attention to our house and vehicle maintenance requirements which also at our stage of life include those personal medical assessments. 

During this period we experienced the added bonus of some extra family gatherings, celebrating our youngest sons engagement, the Christmas day get together with a day full of taste bud delights from those once a year tantalising foods, another day where all of our present Adelaide family members got together for mums birthday and then there was another celebration for our nephews engagement.

First there was Mary's birthday and did she stretch it out.

It was a great turnout of family and friends for Ashley & Lauren's engagement celebration.

The engaged couple with their parents

As always we so enjoy Christmas with the family get together and some glorious food.

We do enjoy those sweets

We managed to fit in time to catch up with some personal friends and even meet up with some new travel friends.

Shane & Jodie - Queenslanders we meet 2011

Mary enjoying the food catching up with fellow travellers

Fellow travellers from 2014 & 2016

It is wonderful meeting many happy like minded fellow travellers. We are so enjoying this time in our lives.

Mary insisted on Steve having a hearing test, resulting with an interesting outcome. Steve is tone deficient at the decibel levels of a female’s voice. And the audiologist was female! 

Early February we managed to get away in the caravan for five nights, staying at our nearby Deep Creek Conservation Park which was a good body well being reset in a great bush setting away from modern day technology. Unfortunately our caravan fridge expired on our Deep Creek trip with the added discovery of our caravan brakes not acting as required.

Deep Creek with a view of Kangaroo Island in the back ground

Great walking trails around Deep Creek

It was nice to be greeted by a pod of dolphins after a long walk

Room with a view at Deep Creek Conservation Park

Our brake diagnostic investigations resulted with the replacement of a faulty tow tugs caravan brake controller. We booked the tow tug in for a simple 2 hour service, (so we thought) but we didn’t get it back for another 8 days due to the need to replace the fuel injectors. Just another one of those unexpected $6000 expenses which we attributed to wear and tear from all our Australian travels with our tow tug being worked to its potential towing our caravan. 

On the caravan we ended up sourcing a replacement fridge from Queensland that fitted the existing cabinetry with minimal alterations. Though it still took about a week’s work to fit due to a different size and shape from the old fridge. The timing of fitting the new fridge was compounded without the use of a vehicle during this period where we measured up the size of a wish list of material for fitment of the fridge, then walking the 2 kilometres to our local hardware store assessing the different types of material available. It was back home to reassess what material would be appropriate before walking back to the hardware store, returning home with material balanced on our shoulders. 

In the lead up for the commencement of our 2017 travels our caravan did receive some extra attention above the normal maintenance requirements with the fitment of a new fridge, new brakes and bearings.

Out with the old

In with the new

Over the last few years we had prioritised our time for indulging in our personal pleasure, aimed at the happiness provided by travel, taking off in our caravan exploring the great outdoors. 2017 other issues on our home front started to emerge revealing we had been neglecting our duties as a home owner to maintain a good level of maintenance. We started with some of that upkeep on one section of the house which seemed to quickly get out of control expanding to many other areas requiring attention around our home. Painting a room soon showed the need to freshen up the paint work in other areas, establishing easier access to our property widening the driveway expanded to the need of more paving which in turn changed the presentation of our yard.

We continued with our enjoyment of walking whenever we could including the circuit down to our local beach for a scenery fix. 

In between pleasurable activities we continued with house maintenance chores painting the ceiling above the pantry as one example.

It was a tight squeeze

We managed to spend time attending some different functions including the Monster Truck Event.

It became apparent 2017 would be a mixed bag for us with home front maintenance requirements taking priority over our love of time spent travelling.