Where Have You Been In Your Van Today?

Lovely......another trip documented by @AussieMick

How is your friend's Hiace holding up. Those vans were regarded as "bomb proof" when they were popular here. (They also became popular with the "transitory workforce" and so fell out of fashion!!!)
 
The high ace is still going strong and they do seem to be bulletproof, there are more high ace camper vans than vw vans here in Australia.
Also the most common trades van due to reliability.
 
Headed inland from the coast about 140kms and are spending a few days at a winery camping.
It used to be a sheep property from the 1850s, now they have a few campsites available.
There is a camp kitchen and shower/toilet block available for use.
Weather has been quite hot 39c during the day but luckily cooler overnight 16c.

We will ride our bikes to a few other wineries in the area today early to try and beat the heat during the afternoon.

Pictures of camping area and kitchen block and of Robe which is a fishing town. 20220112_055221.jpg20220112_054912.jpg20220111_110932.jpg
 
AussieMick said:
Headed inland from the coast about 140kms and are spending a few days at a winery camping.
It used to be a sheep property from the 1850s, now they have a few campsites available.
There is a camp kitchen and shower/toilet block available for use.
Weather has been quite hot 39c during the day but luckily cooler overnight 16c.

We will ride our bikes to a few other wineries in the area today early to try and beat the heat during the afternoon.

Pictures of camping area and kitchen block and of Robe which is a fishing town. View attachment 141207View attachment 141208View attachment 141209
Click to expand...
But what is their wine like?!!
 
This area called the Coonawarra specializes in full body Reds.
Limestone soils and all that stuff.
They were good . They have a few whites also but we prefer their reds.
Cooked a few steaks last night on the bbq at the camp kitchen and opened a nice red.
If you see any Australian red wines from the Coonawarra in South Australia give one a try, it should be pretty good.
 
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AussieMick said:
This area called the Coonawarra specializes in full body Reds.
Limestone soils and all that stuff.
They were good . They have a few whites also but we prefer their reds.
Cooked a few steaks last night on the bbq at the camp kitchen and opened a nice red.
If you see any Australian red wines from the Coonawarra in South Australia give one a try, it should be pretty good.
Click to expand...
Found one kicking around in the garage:

BF0891FF-A273-41A4-95D4-85CA042E1CF0.png
 
Just to PF Jones for them to have a look at my Erberspacher heater that packed up last week. I left there £250 out of pocket. It looks like the person who installed it had the air intake pipe facing forwards, contrary to installation instructions. Despite it being behind plastic, it allowed water ingress into the heater from puddles or water thrown up from the front wheel. It was a right mess inside which they cleaned up and then serviced and refitted with the air intake pipe facing the rear.

Now to try and get a refund from the converter.
 
After 2 nights camped at the winery drove back to the coast yesterday, camped the night at a bush camp right behind the beach sand dunes.

Today we are camped at Carpenter Rocks in a large open space with toilets, cost is only a $5 donation. This is as far south as we will go as we are near the Victorian border and due to covid19 we want to stay in our own state even though the covid numbers are huge I'm afraid. Quite a few ships came to grief on the many shoals offshore in the 1800s around here.

Temperatures were really hot when we were inland but are cool on the coast so don't feel like swimming as much, pity it wasn't the other way around.

Tomorrow we slowly will head towards home taking a few days. Van has been going well (touch wood) and getting good mpg. I feel replacing the air filter was well worth it as motor running smoothly and using less fuel.

Pics of winery cooking area, old sheep shearing pens. Also a few coastal pics.Jetty is very long but was once nearly twice the length.20220112_055000.jpg20220112_061001.jpg20220113_130630.jpg20220113_130732.jpg
 
Tonight is the last day of our little trip, heading home tomorrow , about 350km.
Camped tonight at a large grassy area behind the sand dunes of a beach.
The farmer who owns the land has added a toilet and shower block and its $10 pp a night .
Its big enough to keep away from fellow campers. There is a few powered sites near the toilet building but as I have adequate solar and a lifepo4 battery we don't need 240v so can camp anywhere we like.
The van will have done about 1300km this last week and has gone well . They are ideally suited to this type of travel, pull up and you have everything you need . A couple of pictures to end this post. Rugged coast and tonights camp.20220115_131943.jpg20220115_131549.jpg20220115_185107.jpg20220115_185039.jpg
Social distance cause of covid 2 nights ago
Resized_20220114_163554_404564259246401.jpeg
 
Last edited:
AussieMick said:
Tonight is the last day of our little trip, heading home tomorrow , about 350km.
Camped tonight at a large grassy area behind the sand dunes of a beach.
The farmer who owns the land has added a toilet and shower block and its $10 pp a night .
Its big enough to keep away from fellow campers. There is a few powered sites near the toilet building but as I have adequate solar and a lifepo4 battery we don't need 240v so can camp anywhere we like.
The van will have done about 1300km this last week and has gone well . They are ideally suited to this type of travel, pull up and you have everything you need . A couple of pictures to end this post. Rugged coast and tonights camp.View attachment 141804View attachment 141805View attachment 141806View attachment 141807
Social distance cause of covid 2 nights ago
View attachment 141810
Click to expand...
Stunning coast. I see your friend’s van held up well too
 
Picked the van up from the storage yard (less than a mile away), and drove it home to charge the battery on the drive. Towed the neighbour’s car to the local garage (less than 1/2 a mile away) as it had snapped its aux belt and was completely dead.
Drove it back to the yard in the evening.

Living the VW dream :)

Pete
 
@Pete C. Keep smiling old chap - at least yours ain't sitting on the drive awaiting parts and a visit to the bodyshop!
 
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