Testing, one, two....

The first overnighter for the camper trailer was up to Gidgegannup for a night (15th Feb) - the kids slept in it with no power because the lights fuse blew when more than two were turned on!


The real test was taking it down to Hamelin Bay for a long weekend. (29th Feb - 3rd March) It all worked like a dream, apart from arriving v late and having to get Mum to do the reversing into our allotted site. Even putting up the awnings wasn't too much of a drama considering we'd never got them out of their bags before!


It was lucky we'd gone with friends - we needed Glen's mallet for the tent pegs holding up the awnings and Mum's tent (a hammer really didn't cut it!) and we borrowed Dave and Jude's gas bottle to cook on our stove when the only spanner we had on board was too small to undo the caravan's gas bottle. Oh, and we had no sharp knives 'cos I'd forgotten to take the one from home.
We were delighted with our matting that greatly reduced the amount of sand that found its way into the camper.

We put Mum in her own tent due to snoring issues (at one stage I had Paul in one ear, Mum in the other and Glen competing in the background - I dread to think what it was like once I went to sleep!) but she could have fitted into the van easily. There seemed to be so much room in there when it was opened up.

The girls played a lot in the playground and both of them made new friends (Katie's friend had a tv in her cabin!). We bumped into Sally and Clinton who had come down to check out the surf/fishing.

We had our first go at 4WD following Dave onto Hamelin Bay - we didn't swim cos it was a bit chilly but Holly and Katie had fun sitting on my knee to steer through the sand. Deflating the tyres took no time at all but we were sitting around for ages while putting the air back in.

We did well on our bbqs and Mands made some great salads but we also really enjoyed our vist to Watershed for some excellent lunchtime fare.

Packing up didn't take too long - except for the awnings - that is not going to be a fun part of the trip - even with three of us we struggled to squeeze them back into their seemingly shrunken bags! The rest was straightforward and we had an easy trip back listening to The Thief Lord (Cornelia Funke) which Holly, Mum and I really enjoyed (Katie was watching Cat in a Hat several times over!).

When we got back and were unhitching I was a bit alarmed by the heat in the electrical connection - so hot that some of the plastic had melted - will need to investigate that.