COMMER VAN OZ TOUR : March 2013

March Update,

3 Months and 6350 Miles since leaving home and the Commer is still going strong!.

During March we traveled north through central NSW, stopping at many beautiful and interesting places.

One place of interest was Dubbo, famous for its open range ZOO. You can either hire a safari buggy or drive around the Zoo in you own vehicle. As the entry ticket gave you two days admission we did both and it was fantastic you would swear you were on the Savannah and we got some great shots of the animals and the Commer on Safari.

Commer on Safari,

The crew enjoying the wildlife.

On an early morning walk on the edge of town i passed through an abandoned Drive in Theater. These Theaters were extremely popular in the 60/70's and almost every city in Australia had at least one, Today unfortunately very few still operate. Dubbo's West View Drive in could park 550 cars and had snack bar and playground and must have been a wonderful place to spend a hot summers night with the family.

Closed for 30 years now and destined to become a shopping center, i was amazed by the condition of the facility. The buildings were open and as left 30 years ago. Luckily very little vandalism had taken place and dust covered session schedules still sat on the snack bar counter. The last screening was the Poseidon Adventure. This really was a fantastic place and i felt so sad to see it left unused and soon to be demolished.

Abandoned Drive In, closed for 30 years, Speakers still on posts.

Session schedules still on counter.

Check out the menu board prices.

Children's playground complete with mary go around

Session Schedule

After leaving Dubbo we visited yet another Radio Telescope array near Narabri, This facility had six huge dishes on a rail network and can detect signals from space of less than one/one hundredth of a millionth of a Watt---WOW!--. That explains one reason why these facility's are in such remote areas as even a mobile phone can cause chaos with such sensitive equipment. My interest in Radio Astronomy has been sparked by our visits to these facility's and perhaps i can see a home brew mobile receiver station strapped to the top of a Commer?? Maybe not, But will give it some thought, Stay tuned..

2 of 6 Rail mounted Radio Telescopes near Narabri NSW.

Next we moved on to one of the most iconic-ally Australian places in the country, Lightning Ridge.

Lightning Ridge is a small town built amongst and to support hundreds of small privately owned Opal Mine claims.

Piles of dirt mask the landscape and one has to step carefully as mine shafts are scattered everywhere in a kind of confusing chaos as to who owns which claim. Dusty miners can be seen working their claims or driving old trucks around town. Its an extremely hard life but for those successful in their search the Australian Opal is a highly prized gem and even a small find can be highly rewarding.

Of course we had to give it a go, so it was out with the pans and pics and of to do some fossicing.

At the end of a days hard work in the hot sun we retreated to our camp with just a small vial of opal chips of almost no value at all, but a great souvenir all the same.

Wheres the Opals Dad?

Exploring Mines

An Opal field Pub.

All this hunting for Opals had put us in the mood to seek out more of Australia's valuable minerals so a few hundred miles later and we camped in a very picturesque spot on the banks of a creek near Inverell and the hunt for Sapphires, Ruby's and Diamonds was on.

Again two days later we departed with just a few tiny specs to add to our souvenir cabinet but what a beautiful place it was to spend a couple of days working the creek.

No one around for miles, just us, and the hunt for those elusive gem stones.

Baxter's Mini Mining Co

Not quite the mother load,, but pretty just the same.

We are ending March on the Gold Coast visiting the theme parks and enjoying the vibrant atmosphere,
Amelia was so excited during our visit to Movie World and she even got to meet her heros Shaggy and Scooby Doo as well as Dora the explorer at Sea World . We all enjoyed them so much that we went to both parks twice. Amanda had a surprise morning install for me at a shooting academy where i even got to play with "and shoot " 44 Magnum hand guns, All great noisy fun.

Amelia meeting her heros

A major highlight of our time on the Gold Coast was finally meeting another Commer and his owners Kane and Dani who had been following this blog and had invited us to visit them once we arrived on the Gold Coast. Humphrey "the Commer" had just finished being restored and he looks totally fantastic a testament to his owners hard work. Humphrey had also toured Europe before finally being imported into Australia a great camper and it was awesome to meet him and his owners.

Humphrey a 68 Wanderer Conversion.

Don't they just make a lovely couple?

Have a safe and happy Easter everyone!!

DSLH 6350 Miles
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FEBRUARY UPDATE!!

DSLH 3970 Miles

With the end of February we find ourselves now in Central NSW.

After leaving Victor Harbor we continued along the coast and crossed the boarder into Victoria visiting all the beautiful coastal towns along the way. We camped in the Glenelg National park and launched our small boat to explore the spectacular Glenelg river.

Amanda even caught a couple of Brim from the bank by our campsite. I would strongly recommend the south coast of SA/VIC to anybody looking to plan their next holiday, it is a very picturesque coastline dotted with beautiful towns with attractive names like, Port fairy, Nelson, Portland and Apollo Bay. We followed the Great Ocean road around past the Twelve Apostles and then headed north visiting Colac and onto Geelong. We also caught up with Nanna & Pop "Amandas parents" who are also on tour in Victoria at the time. It was great to see them and see some sights together, hopefully we will catch up again down the track.

We continued north over the next few weeks camping in forests and reserves as much as possible and enjoying the scenery and wildlife that we encountered each day. Being a bit of a Military enthusiast, we paid a visit to Puckapunyal Army Base and after gaining the necessary passes at the gate we visited the amazing collection of Tanks and armored vehicles on display at the base.

The collection boasts to be the largest in the southern hemisphere including a WW1 Wallowing Willy, photos of some of the Tanks are below. We camped for two nights at Major creek at one end of the Military firing range and i was reminded of nights at my Grandparents house near Salisbury Plain laying in bed listening to the sound of artillery pounding away in the distance.

Some more time was spent camping on the mighty Murray River before crossing the next boarder into NSW.

Again the Commer has performed admirably with no major problems, although not without a few challenges to keep me busy with the tools. We had a hill that she did not want to climb and after reversing the Commer and trailer half a mile back down "twice!!". On the third attempt with a long run up, engine screaming and Amanda walking and the water tanks emptied to lighten the load, she finally chugged over the peak. It also appears that Rootes painted the inside of the fuel tank with a protective film which is now being stripped off by additives in modern fuels and is blocking up the fuel system. This took some diagnosing, at first i thought the fuel filter was blocked so changed it with a spare. Then i thought maybe the new electric fuel pump had packed in, so reconnected the original AC Delco pump. I was able to temporarily get us going again by blowing compressed air down the fuel line to clear the blockages . Finally at our campsite i removed the fuel tank and cleaned it out best i could. This is only a temporary fix as much of the decaying liner is still in the tank and is going to need to be removed.

On the next morning after cleaning out the tank we ran into a bog miles from anywhere and the Commer sunk in. Luckily i had equipped us for such an occasion and we got the recovery gear dirty for the first time. After some time digging and pushing it was out with two sections of roll out track and a 4.5 Ton hand winch,, The tracks sank in the clay but finally the winch slowly pulled her out.

Great team work by Amanda and I and all part of the adventure in a 43 year old English Bus.