A Good end to a Sticky Situation

The 'treeless' part of the Nullabor

So, we are currently stuck at Nundroo Roadhouse, with no spares and a broken rim. After making plenty of phone calls, and asking a lot of questions, we were finally able to get two tyres overnight to Ceduna. We spent the day waiting for Ceduna sequestered in our caravan, as the wind howled. We had found a new sleeping arrangement, to sleep the two boy in the car, and Chloe and I spent the day relaxing on the boys beds in the car. That night some of those gusts really got us a 'rocking!!

After picking up our two tyres, we fitted them and drove out of Nundroo headed for our next stop. We were all sort of on the edges of our seats, our ears straining for the unmistakable sound that let us know we had popped a tyre. When we did blow one, it was a bit of an oh-no situation as we changed it. We hopped back in the car and played the waiting game.

It had gotten dark by the last time we had our last tyre pop. Yes, we were once again a tyre down with no way to tow the caravan. Luckily, there was a very convenient shoulder right there, where we pulled up and faced the enormity of the situation:

2 tyres in 200km.

Total cost: $300 to travel 200km in tyres alone.

Reversing the caravan into a bit of cleared ground to give us some privacy, we went to bed exhausted and not knowing what to do.

When we woke up in the morning, Mum and Dad drove into Ceduna to see what they could do. We now knew that we couldn't keep the caravan. If it kept on going like this the dollars and time would add up, and we still needed to get it registered. Our first thought was that maybe we could get a car trailer, load the caravan on that, and tow home the caravan on the car trailer.

We did actually find a car trailer down at Whyalla, yet is was only 2 metres wide and our caravan was 2.3m. With that plan down the drain, Mum and Dad drove back to Ceduna to see if we could get anything like a trailer and caravan for not that much.

We went to a cheap caravan park (literally $10/n) and used the power there to look on the computers.

 While we were there, we went to the Ag shop to see if they knew anybody that was selling a trailer or anything.

Amazingly, the owner of the shop was thinking of selling a trailer, and would sell it to us for $100 and the caravan. We could then load all our stuff into the trailer and they would take the caravan off our hands. Dad said yes, and they went into the library to research more options.

After searching for hours, Mum and Dad did find a 1982 Statesman Streamline pop-top. It was down in Adelaide, and if we loaded everything into the trailer and drove down there we could get it for $5500

With that all sorted out, we arranged with the buyer of our Millard to drop off the trailer, which we would then load up, and they would then drive off our caravan.

WE then began the MOMENTOUS task of unloading our caravan. If any one of you happened to drive past at that time, I am surprised you didn't have a crash as your jaws dropped at the serious amount of stuff everywhere!! I didn't get any photos, but boy was it a task.

the doorway of the car, Joel and I sat in the
front two seats you can see. 

WE even had the police drop by to ask us if we were alright. We reassured them that we were fine, and they drove off (probably laughing). After we had unloaded, we then loaded the car. Even though we had purged  a whole trailers worth of stuff, there was still an impressive amount. And we thought we didn't have that much stuff!!

By the time we had finished packing, the whole back of the car had disappeared. We couldn't even see the little girls in their seats. Their voices just sort of floated forwards to the front.

Looking back from the second row of seats.

We spent the next two nights at Wirrulla in our now sold caravan, very kindly offered to us by the new owner. The next day we did another 'sort', fixing up what we had just thrown in previously. Just to prove that it wasn't the weight of the caravan popping the tyres, one tyre blew ( for the new owner) on the way in to Wirrulla, an odd 60km drive. Luckily the new owner had picked up one spare, which took him to Wirrulla.

When we got the  new (for us) caravan, we planned to trade in our trailer for some money to be discounted from the caravan. However, due to some problem with the rego, we agreed that we would take the trailer to Adelaide for the owner of our Millard, and they would give us our $100 back. It saved us a great lot of problems with the rego.

The 4 bunks of the Millard, down the back.

We drove off from Wirrulla leaving our faithful Millard caravan behind. On a spur of the moment decision, I had written a poem across the Nullarbor to the Millard, and it will soon appear on this blog as a tribute to our faithful Millard which nearly made a complete lap of Australia (okay, so maybe the Nullarbor was a bit boring if I found writing a poem fun).

The Parents bed in the Millard

We drove that day to Port Pirie where we stayed in a motel! What absolute luxury, especially when we had 3 separate rooms between us. What utter luxury...........

The next day we arrived in Adelaide and inspected our new caravan. It was just perfect for us, as it had 3 bunks and a double bed. It was an 18 footer, so we were downsizing, but it was perfect for us. It weighed in at 980kg, unloaded, which was a good weight. It also had normal size tyres, which was the Achilles heel of the millard.

Our Millard's Lounge

Also, it had a full 4 burner stove and oven. What a luxury. See link for more photos on the selling agent.

We did manage to bargain down a bit, and at the end we got our caravan for $5250. All in all, it was a bargain buy for it's condition and age. (The caravan was a 1982, older than our Millard which was 1984).

We then had the lengthy process of sorting out our caravan and packing it. We got to bed at 10 that night, and slept pretty well. Mum said we were never buying a different caravan again, as it was too exhausting, and we all agreed with her, but for a different reason. Our reasoning went like this:

A taster of our new caravan.

If we never have to change caravans again, that means that our caravan wouldn't have broken down.

So tommorrow, I will give you a tour of our new statesman. I hope you enjoy it!