New member from down under

[diesel99]

G'day you lot,
I am a retired diesel mechanic and my wife and I are very much into caravanning here in the land of Oz. Our tug is a Toyota Landcruiser Troopy and the van is a 16'6" Royal Flair Van Royce off roader.
We live in central Queensland at a place called Sapphire and oddly enough we mine sapphires. We do this for around 6 months of the year and then take off to anywhere that takes our fancy for the other 6 months, usually fishing or gold prospecting.
If any members are planning a trip down here, feel free to contact me for any info you might require.
cheers

diesel99

 

[Parksy]

Hiya Diesel
I envy your lifestyle, it sounds great!
Welcome to Practical Caravan forum, we will look forward to getting to know more about your adventures.

 

[Soozeeg]

My word, that's a bit of a different lifestyle to the more usual driving/office/supermarket work broken up with the occasional few days away that we normally have over here!!

G'day to you too and welcome.

 

[diesel99]

Thanks Parksy and Sue for the welcome. Reading some of the topics on the forum have been a bit of an eye opener to the way you mob do things.
cheers
diesel99

 

[joeby]

Hi diesel99 welcome aboard our forum , i am in Oz at the moment , staying in Coffs Harbour NSW , the Oz vans seem really tough to our flimsy vans , and so they should be they are double the price , luv the roo with the glass of beer and the caption at the bottom

 

[diesel99]

G'day Joe,
Thanks for the welcome to the forum and welcome to Australia. Is this your first trip down under and how long are you here for?
As you say, our vans are a bit pricey and most would be sturdier compared to European vans, but you only have to look at our outback roads to understand why they have to be pretty tough. We do a lot of our travelling in out of the way places where roads are sometimes no more than a couple of wheel ruts through the bush for up to 100 kms to get us to our favourite fishing spot or a patch of alluvial gold. To be able to handle this sort of travelling it is paramount that both the tug and the van are built for it as a breakdown in some remote locations could mean a costly recovery.
So you are in Coffs Harbour - a nice place from what I remember. Haven't been there in around 30 years I would say - we tend to steer clear of the touristy areas as much as we can. Enjoy your stay in Oz.
cheers
diesel99

 

[thursdays child]

Big hello Diesel,like most folks we have relatives in OZ.What a different slant you put on the caravanning life style.I envy you your weather BUT not the creepy crawlies that come with it!! By the way Sapphires are my favouritest stone so if you have a nice big one to spare I will give it a good home!!!!!
Welcome to the forum.
Thursdays Child

 

[Collin]

On another part of this Forum, someone asked: Are caravanners different from other people? (now forbidden territory, but I'm not about to get controversial!). I think they are and people like Diesel show it - welcome sir! Caravanners have a spirit of adventure and usually ooze outgoing personalities. They're out and about and making the most of their lives, and find pleasure in simple things. Too many snobby types seem to want to denigrate the way of life of caravan enthusiasts - as if it is in some way beneath them. People like Diesel show that the opposite is true - indeed that there is an enviable way of life out there, and the spirit of comradeship reaches right across the world.

 

[diesel99]

Thanks for the welcome Thursdays Child and Collin.
We've got quite a few creepy crawlies here in Oz - not too far north of us is saltie (crocodile) country and it is not uncommon to see some pretty nasty venomous snakes around our place, but you get so used to them that you rarely give them a second glance.
I would not have thought that caravanning was looked down upon by snobbish people over there - the snobs here in Oz don't even know that us caravanners exist. We meet people from all walks of life out there on the open road and I've always had the opinion that the caravanning lifestyle is one of life's great equalizers - you don't really give a damn what the other bloke does or did for a living, nor do you care how much money he has and he usually has the same attitude towards you.
Most of our caravanning community is made up by the "grey nomads" - people who have retired out of the workforce and doing what is referred to as "a trip around the block". That is a trip around Australia - some do it on a shoestring budget and elect to free camp as much as they can and others just hop from caravan park to caravan park.
cheers
diesel

 

[diesel99]

Not sure if this will work, but I'll see if I can post an image of our rig.

diesel

 

[Soozeeg]

Nice outfit........and beautiful setting.

 

[TheTravellingRooster]

Hi Sue,it's me from the Other!!!,Welcome to An Other Input Forum into our Hobby/Interest/and for some poor souls their temporary homes & shelters.

 

[Soozeeg]

Hi Sue,it's me from the Other!!!

Pardon? Do I know you from somewhere else?

 

[TheTravellingRooster]

Hi Sue,No only this site.Sorry mistaken ID. Specsavers appointment booked and special request for Posh Magnifying Glass on a Silver Chain.

 

[Soozeeg]

Ah! Oh well, we know each other now......sort of, lol. May I ask whether you're a cockerel or a hen rooster?

 

[TheTravellingRooster]

Hi Sue.Yep, I'm the real thing. The genuine farmyard WAKEY WAKEY merchant. In deed recently a female Rooster friend of mine 8days younger insisted on a photograph of me standing with the Huge Cockerel at the Blaenau Ffestiniog Railway Station shopping area. I,
I'm 4'10&1/2" tall,it is taller than me. I was game for climbing on its back,but could not find a mounting stool.

 

[Soozeeg]

Let's see the photo then, now you've wetted our appetites!!!

(so to speak)

Erm, Diesel, apologies for hijacking your introductory thread, seems to happen quite by accident (of course!) quite often on here

 

[TheTravellingRooster]

Hi Sue & the rest of you clever lot!!. How can I get images from my PC,either from My Documents,My Pictures,Picasa,Picnik or Photobucket ?. I have tried photobucket by putting the address into the URL strip and the image title into the appropriate strip on the upload page that appears when the Insert/edit image tab is opened up. What is the max' size kb's,Pixels or mm dimensions that I can upload ?.

 

[diesel99]

Erm, Diesel, apologies for hijacking your introductory thread, seems to happen quite by accident (of course!) quite often on here

No worries Sue - it happens all the time on our forums in Oz as well. I would be one of the worst offenders, but I figured I should behave myself here - don't want to get a bad name for us colonials.
cheers
diesel

 

[joeby]

Hi diesel99 , i had my first Kangaroo steak today , and very nice it was too tasted just like beef steak but it alleged its a lot more healthier , i will be having it again ,i dont know if its available in the UK

 

[Parksy]

Hi diesel99 , i had my first Kangaroo steak today , and very nice it was too tasted just like beef steak but it alleged its a lot more healthier , i will be having it again ,i dont know if its available in the UK

It's possible to buy Kangaroo meat online in the UK Joeby

http://www.shop.osgrowonline.co.uk/

Hi Sue & the rest of you clever lot!!. How can I get images from my PC,either from My Documents,My Pictures,Picasa,Picnik or Photobucket ?. I have tried photobucket by putting the address into the URL strip and the image title into the appropriate strip on the upload page that appears when the Insert/edit image tab is opened up. What is the max' size kb's,Pixels or mm dimensions that I can upload ?.

Julian Prokaza has written instructions for uploading pictures to PCv forum on his blog T.R.

http://www.practicalcaravan.com/blog/how-include-image-practical-caravan-forum-post

 

[diesel99]

Hi diesel99 , i had my first Kangaroo steak today , and very nice it was too tasted just like beef steak but it alleged its a lot more healthier , i will be having it again ,i dont know if its available in the UK

G'day Joe,
I've tried roo meat a few times, but never aquired a taste for it - I would much prefer wallaby or wombat, they are not as "gamey" as roo meat. I am rather partial to camel meat though, but it is rarely sold in our supermarkets if ever, yet we have a thriving camel export industry to the middle east. Apparently our wild camels that originated in the middle east are now regarded as the purest breed of camels on the planet.
Are you still in Coffs Harbour? I think I read on our Aussie forum that you are flying back to "old blighty" on Monday and if that is the case, I have a lot of sympathy for you having to go home to all that snow and cold. I've only ever seen snow once in my life and that was from a distance of about 20 kilometres - I figured that was close enough. I can't handle the cold much.
cheers
diesel

 

[Robtel]

. I've only ever seen snow once in my life and that was from a distance of about 20 kilometres - I figured that was close enough. I can't handle the cold much.
cheers
diesel

In the interests on International Relations with our Australian friends would you like to have some snow sent over? We've got plenty to spare up here in Scotland and would be glad to share it with you.

Any more photos you would like to post diesel? liked the one I've seen so far with the waterside pitch. If you've got any interior shots, that might be interesting too. Enjoying your posts, good insight into an entirely different aspect of caravanning.
Robert

 

[diesel99]

G'day Robert,
Thanks for the offer of the snow mate, but no thanks. I had been led to believe that you Scots never gave anything away

.
Here's a couple of pics of the interior of our van - being a functional off-road van it lacks some of the creature comforts of the larger highway style caravans, but it serves the purpose for what it was built for.

cheers
diesel

 

[Robtel]

Hi diesel,
Looks light, airy and comfortable inside. On the other photo of the outside of the van I can't remember if I saw any fresh water containers on the outside, do you have onboard tanks perhaps due to the likelihood of critters getting into the external tank?

Re the offer of snow, there would of course be a "small" charge for post, packaging and inconvenience

Robert