Commer Van Australian tour May update

May Update

Passed the 10000 Mile mark

DSLH-10450 Miles

Parliament House in the background,

unfortunately the excessive security presence prevented Amanda from taking a photo of the Commer any closer than this.

The travelling pace slowed considerably during late April and into May as we explored Canberra and central Victoria.

Canberra is the country's capital and is truly a beautiful and well organised city. We attended the ANZAC day ceremony and parade at the Australian War Memorial.  This is a very moving tribute to service and ex servicemen and women of the Australian and New Zealand defence force and we were very lucky to obtain seating in the main arena. 

Anzac parade at National War Memorial.

During our time in Canberra we also visited the NASA deep space tracking station approx 38klm from the city.  The tracking station is one of three world wide and responsible for communicating with astronauts on the Space Station as well as deep space exploration vehicles such as Voyager l & 2 and the Mars Rovers.

On the way back to town we watched the moon rise from the top of Mount Stromlo Observatory an optical telescope facility.  Needless to say these were pretty interesting places and i would recommend a visit if you are in Canberra.

Tony wondering where Julia is, she was supposed to be at the parade as well!.

Rolling out the Tanks

  

Fly over

<Entrance to NASA Deep Space Tracking Station near Canberra.

Communication Dish.>

REAL MOON ROCK

<New Commer drivers safety suit/uniform.

From Canberra we headed back into Victoria to Bendigo and Ballarat.  We had heard of some large Gold nuggets being found near by and decided to try our luck at prospecting between the two towns.  So after a tour of the Bendigo town and equipping ourselves with the necessary maps and a Miners Right "Prospecting licence"  we headed into the forest for a week or two of camping out hunting for the elusive yellow.

Tram depot Bendigo

                                                               

Beautiful Bendigo, full of ornate buildings, statues and Oak trees.

First prospecting camp established.

In between reading comics the hunt for gold is on!

A four year old metal detecting,,,,,don't see that everyday!. 

A week later and no Gold,  so we packed up and moved closer to Ballarat to explore some of the abandoned Gold mines and the forests in the area.  The landscape is littered with shafts "diggings", you need to be careful where you step, especially in the long grass although most shafts are shallow some are 200+ft deep and not fenced or covered.  Tailing's piles are usually a good warning of how deep the mines are in the area.  Its hard to believe that during the Gold rush in the 1880's people where just picking up large nuggets of the surface and panning massive amounts out of creeks,  now it is extremely hard to find any at all and people spend many thousands of dollars on sophisticated metal detectors to increase their chances of success.  We have little chance with our antiquated equipment but we have found an enormous assortment of Relics/junk to keep us interested.

Ruins of the once extremely successful Jubillee Gold Mine near Ballarat.  

                    

   Light at the end of the tunnel

Exploring abandoned tunnels 

Yet another bush camp

Some pics of the scenic places we prospected.

Typical assortment of articraps found on a gold field.

Our pitifull Gold haul from detecting and panning.
Maybe we will do better in Tasmania.

Most of the main tracks around the goldfields are well used and in reasonable condition but many of the tracks to the abandoned mines are unmaintained and a 4WD vehicle is an advantage.

Slowly and carefully we were able to navigate many of the not to steep tracks but unfortunately the bumps, washouts and rough roads finally took there toll on the Commer and we had our first serious breakdown.

After another 4 days of prospecting we headed into Ballarat to see the attractions, rest and recharge.   As we navigated the old Commer over the wash outs and large rocks in the track that led out of the area we had been camping in, we heard a loud thump and the front left hand wheel took on a precarious 45deg lean.  We limped a further mile or two to a more reasonable gravel road where i was able to remove the front wheel to find the wishbone suspension mounting had snapped.  It was time to try out our RAC Ultimate brake down cover and 15 minutes later a yellow recovery vehicle that just happened to be on a nearby motorway came to our rescue.  The Commer was towed to Ballarat and the RAC provided us with a hire car and accommodation for a week while the repairs were carried out.  New parts were ordered from Mr Martin Maltas at Yorkshire Classic Campers in the UK and arrived in just 3 days.  Unfortunately we had to wait a further 6 days for the garage to fit them.  We learned that the suspension pin broke mainly due to lack of grease and metal fatigue.  The Commer has 19 grease nipples on the suspension/steering alone which need greasing every 3000Miles.  RAC ultimate cover is a lot more expensive than standard roadside assist but the entitlements are excellent and i strongly urge anyone considering a trip like this to have it, even if travelling in a modern vehicle.  We have seen many modern cars and 4wd vehicles breakdown,  The owner of an new ISUZU 4wd we met down the track told us how his car had only 4000klm on the clock and had to be recovered froma remote location due to an unidentified electrical fault.

All in all we were very lucky to break down here and not out in the remote outback.  Ballarat is a great city packed with history, beautiful buildings and plenty to see and do.  A true highlight of our trip so far.

Botanical gardens Ballarat

Sovereign Hill re-created historic mining town, filled with period shops, steam powered industrial workshops, real mine tours.  Its just incredible to see.    .

                                                                                                       

Kryal Castle also just brilliant 'a must see'

 Knights fighting and Jousting, The sword fight starts out harmless enough but then becomes quite unexpectedly violent.  Although trained actors one Knight received a nasty cut to his face which made the display surprisingly, very realistic. 

Sturt St.  Ballarat.

Double Decker buses, steam trains.  Pioneer towns and a massive theme part Castle just some of the attractions we witnessed while 'broken down in Ballarat'.  

With the Commer now repaired we headed straight for Melbourne and onto the ferry, The Spirit of Tasmania.

The ferry will take 12 hours to reach Tasmania, an island in the southern ocean and Australia's southern most state..  Parts of Tasmania are untouched by mining or deforestation and remain today beautiful wilderness.  We will spend the next 2-3 months exploring Tasmania.

 

 Tasmanian Ferry

Commer, snug in the hold  

Onward! to Tasmania!!

Click for the Commers current location.

Commer Van Australia Tour April Update.

DSLH - 8600Miles

4 Months on the road and loving every moment,,

Leaving Queensland behind us, we headed back into New South Wales, this time we followed the coastal Pacific hwy south to Maitland visiting Coffs Harbour, Port Maquarie and the Great Lakes, along the way.  Then headed inland again  to Wellington, Lake Burrendong, Bathurst and Cowra.

Relaxing at camp site for 3 nights at Coffs Harbor,
a beautiful spot near the harbor mouth.

Easter long weekend and we found this scenic forest camp site in the mountains.  A great place to hide from the Easter holiday chaos.   No one around for miles.
Managed to do some much needed servicing while here.  Changed oil, filters, plugs and points rotated tires and adjusted brakes. Plus some other minor repairs.  The Easter bunny still managed to find us here and we awoke on Easter morning to lovely chocky eggs.

This camp site was a highlight of the month.  Lake Burrendong.  4 days of putting around the pristine waters in our little boat.  The lake holds 3 times the amount of water than Sydney Harbor and is currently only half full. Again no one around but us and some nosy Cows.

 
                                                             

The Fish were jumping and taunting us but unfortunately were not on the menu during our stay.



   

Commer receiving a well deserved hug.

 WATCH THE VIDEO TO SEE OUR "SPEEDY" LAP OF 

MOUNT PANORAMA RACING CIRCUIT. 

             

After bathurst we headed inland for a quiet few days camping and set up camp in yet another spectacular spot at Bakers park.

We spent four nights at this amazing spot and had the place to ourselves most of the time. 

 Our on-board wildlife photographer strikes again with this great shot of an Echidna.

Ruins of Cowra POW camp

Another town visited in April was Cowra and the ruins of the WWII P.O.W camp there. 

At 2am on August 5 1944 preferring death to the shame of capture, more than 500 Japanese prisoners attempted a mass break out,  What resulted was a tragic loss of life and the largest wartime casualty's of enemy soldiers on the Australian mainland during WWII.  231 Japanese soldiers were killed and 140 wounded,  4 Australian soldiers also lost their lives. 

  

Balloon landing to say G.Day!

On a brighter and more positive note our next stop was at Canowindra for the 18th national hot air balloon championships,  We were treated to a fantastic opening ceremony night with many balloons being inflated   to provide spectators with a beautiful display of light and balloon design.

At sunrise the following morning we awoke to the sound of burners blasting away above our camp.

Lucky for us the wind was carrying all the balloons directly over our peaceful camp site two miles from town.

One balloon even landed near by to say G,day and then took off once more.  All the Balloons made a beautiful scene that we wont forget in a hurry.  Very pleased we stopped by.

Click below to see the Balloon's

We are ending April in Canberra where we will view the sights and attend the ANZAC day ceremonies before moving on south.  Finally we have turned on the Commer's heaters as the weather cools and night time temperatures now are starting to drop as low as 0'C.

Distance since leaving home,  8600 Miles 

Click to view current location.

Update for 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

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.

 VIC Boarder

 Sink Hole

 The boat is finally off the trailer, up the right way and in the water!!!

London Bridge, Great Ocean Road 

 12 Apostles, G,O,R

 Fun day out with Nanna & Pop!, 

 The Mighty Matilda,  still fancy that name for the Commer!!

 The Russian Beasts of war.

Camp site, Murray River

 Bush Mechanic at work, Cleaning out blocked / gummed up fuel tank.

 Stuck in  the mud after rain softens track.

Almost out!,

 Digging, pushing, & Max Tracks have failed, time to abandon trailer and winch her out.

The Big Strawberry, Cobram NSW

Famous Parkes Radio Telescope. NSW

Distance since leaving home  3970 MILES

Click to see current location.

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JANUARY UPDATE

Our Commer WINS TROPHY!! in South Australian Car Show.

After crossing into South Australia we spent the rest of January exploring some of the states beautiful towns and we met many fantastic and some very interesting people along the way.

From Ceduna we moved down to Streaky Bay then onto Whyalla,  again the thermometer soared into the high thirties so we decided to head south once more back to cooler weather.
On the way to Adelaide we stopped for a couple of days at Port Pirie which has the worlds largest Lead smelter and quite an attractive town "apart from the smelter of course."
From there we moved onto Adelaide and spent the next 4 days taking in the sights.  During a bush walk in the hills east of Adelaide Amanda, our wildlife photographer, took some great shots of Koalas in their natural environment.  We also visited the National Motor Museum and were given privileged parking on the forecourt.
With the Australia day long weekend now upon us we had to leave Adelaide as all caravan parks were pre booked out and the holiday rush had set in.
So we moved on to Waitinga beach on the south coast and set up a camp in the bush to spend a further 4 days and "wait" out the holiday peak time.  This lull in our travelling gave me some time for some maintenance and the Commer got a well needed oil and filter change and her many nipples greased.

We ended the month in Victor Harbor, a very pretty town and popular tourist destination with steam trains, horse drawn tram and paddle steamers nearby just to mention a few of the towns attractions.
It is a beautiful place to visit, so we stayed a week.  During our stay the Historical Vehicle Club of  SA was holding a Classic/Vintage car show and a Vintage Auto Jumble.  So, after a good clean up and a trip to the Auto Parts store for some polish we decided to enter the Commer and see what the locals would think of her.
There were many beautifully restored and unique vehicles on display and i didn't expect to win any of the categories with such a high quality display of vehicles present.  However interest from the locals had kept me busy answering questions and showing people over her.
Whilst drinking a coffee in the canteen area i was very surprised to hear the PA announce that the "owner of the Commer Bus from WA" was required at the winners tent.  It was a very proud moment to receive the trophy from the president of the HVCSA and from the boys at Shannons classic car insurance. We won "Best Commercial Vehicle" an unexpected victory especially with some of the older and very unique vans and light trucks on display.
A great way to end our stay at Victor Harbor.
.

The only Commer on show here!

Well spotted Amanda.

Vintage Tram, Victor Harbor

The proud winners!!!

At the show.

Distance since leaving home 2765 Miles
No major mechanical problems as yet. The 1724cc Rootes motor is chugging & tapping away happily. "TOUCH WOOD!"

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