USE IT ALL PART 2
Last week’s article was about using all your seafood for a bouillabaisse soup, which incidentally a few people have emailed me for the full recipe. This weeks’ article is about using all your camping and outdoor gear, which proved critical for us on the start of our trip north.
After a week in the eastern states to sort out my late mum’s estate in Crescent Head and then organising a joint 80th birthday in Sydney for Viv’s folks, when we returned home we had only three days to get sorted for Northern Sojourn 2016. Fortunately, the couple minding our home while we are away, Chris and Des, had already spent a week at the place, so were fully acquainted with the lay of the land. It is very comforting to know that we have sourced quality people and for anyone thinking of doing likewise, the Mindahome website is a great starting point.
So all I had to do was pack the truck, slide on camper, boat, teaching gear, camping equipment, fishing gear, dog ( joking, haven’t got one of them ) and wife ( yes, got a good one there ). Every trip north really starts once you are out of Perth, but on the way we had to pick up marine carpet and a new Waeco fridge lid in Bunbury and then drop off a mates’ business sign in the Swan Valley. By the time we got on the Brand Highway, we felt like we had driven to Karratha already. Still, the feeling of release hit us big time and there is no better time to chat then when you are on the road. Sometime soon after, however, it all got a bit much, I realised that driving any further was just plain silly, so at 230pm found a road just before Regan’s Ford that suited us perfectly to pull over for the night.
I’m sure you can picture it. Isolation, release, tired for sure, but adrenalin coursing through my veins and to be honest somewhat overwhelmed given the last few crazy months of our lives. So what do you do in these moments? Pull out the deck chair, crack a corona and smell the roses. By the third corona I was starting to speak Swahili and it was only 5pm, so it was a quick meal and in the cot by 6pm. At 430am I was ‘fizzing’, so got up and started the day. Immediately I realised I had not followed my normal routine at the end of the day’s driving. This year I was packing both a Chescold and Waeco fridge in the back of the truck, plugged into the truck batteries. The plan was to shut the Chescold off at night, as it was only holding drinks and plug the Waeco into the camper, which was on solar. But of course I had done neither the night before and the Mitsubishi truck batteries were both now flat. There were a few options to get us started and I always prefer to sort out my own problems before calling for help. For the first time in seven trips like this, I had packed the Honda 1kva generator and heavy duty C-Tek battery charger, which unbelievably were easily accessible. As I cranked the gennie up at 5am, Viv sleepily asked, ‘Is everything OK darling?’, and I reassured her that I was just checking all the equipment was working properly. Within half an hour we were on our way and although we were only one day out from home, we had already started to use it all!
To answer last week’s question, Boullibaisse originated in France. This week’s question is, ‘Why is it important to dispose of old vehicle and boat batteries properly?’
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