Progress in Preparing for the Bushtracker

This wait while having the caravan built can only be called ‘frustrating’. It isn’t Bushtracker’s fault in terms of building delays, although having all of my emails to anyone in the company vetted and passed on certainly cuts the level of communication between the client and those doing the work.

My van is now up to the production stage, but I don’t know where production itself is up to. During the design stage, I had frequent and fruitful email exchanges with Philip to clarify points and make decisions. Since then, although I’ve sent emails off to find out when would be a suitable time to visit and to ask for progress photos that I believe Bushtracker take, I have had no real contact. I did ask Matt for reassurance about an issue of rotting floorboards that was raised on the BOG forum and got a quick and satisfactory reply from Steve, most of which I posted as part of the BOG discussion. In the end a phone call to Matt indicated where the van was up to and when would be a suitable time to visit. Obviously phone contact is preferable at times.

The various Bushtracker associated websites  are a wealth of information, allowing you to interact with other like minded people. I find the BOG website less intimidating than the forum. Some of the replies from the company on matters raised in the forum are a little less than diplomatic, often impacting people who are inexperienced and simply ask for advice. However, the technical discussions on both the forum and the BOG site are great. I tend to log in daily and either follow BOG posts in which I’ve become involved, as well as new posts, or I view all posts since my last visit to the forum and read everything that has been posted recently.

Trawling through back posts on both sites has been fascinating and very worthwhile. This morning, after reading posts and getting in touch with Sun Buster as recommended in one post, I received a ‘caravan weight machine’ to measure both LC and caravan gross weights.  Not essential, but certainly reassuring when so much discussion revolves around avoiding being overloaded in either van or LC. I was chased off what I thought was a public weighbridge the other day when I was attempting to measure the LC weight. The new machine will avoid such embarrassment.

I’ve read about batteries and their maintenance, although with lithium batteries there is less information on the forums and I still feel ill informed. I’ve read members’ experiences with air conditioners that caused me to change my mind from Dometic to Air Command Cormorant. I’ve sought and received advice on where to camp around the Sunshine Coast when we pick up the van, prior to the first service. As a result of information on the BOG site, I’m currently researching CGear products related to shade cloth and their ‘multimat’ that keeps sand and dust below the mat when parked up for a while.

In addition, Allison and I have been through all of our caravan gear and decided what will be taken up to the van and what wont. The gear all sits in the garage blocking space for the LC to be put away. We will make a visit to the Bushtracker factory sometime in the production process, hopefully mid December, both to review and fine-tune anything if necessary and to take one load up to the Sunshine Coast for storage until we pick up the van.

This will mean we will have a fair bit of space in the LC when we travel in January to pick the van up. However, I have ordered a set of Drifter drawers with a fridge slide that will take up some of the space. While somewhat more cumbersome than the clear rear area of the LC, the drawers will organise and tie down the LC storage. They also will make sure things don’t damage the back of the seats as happened on the Arkaroola trip.  I’ll have to pull the extra rear seats out prior to fitting the drawers but, as the kids are coming for Christmas, this can wait.

All this is filling in time while we wait for the van. I know it will be the best.  I know it will open up a new world of exploration. And, like the kid at heart I am, I can’t wait to get going. It will be a great after Christmas present for both of us, won’t it?

A visit to Arkaroola in the Flinders Ranges SA

As we don't yet have our Bushtracker caravan, we decided to take up a Travel Auction and bid for a few days at Arkaroola in the northern Flinders Ranges of SA. After a six hour trip from Adelaide through Burra and Orroroo, including a beer at the Parachilna pub with Jane and a night at Copley caravan park, we headed for Arkaroola on the dirt. Great road and well graded at the time. Very easy for a van if we had one - even an on-road van.

Arkaroola Village has all styles of accommodation, including caravan park and camping. We stayed in a basic motel suite for three nights at $90 per night including continental breaky. Great value - half price from the travel auction.  Dining room for dinner was very good and general facilities more than you would expect in an isolated area.  Backpacker and regular staff quite friendly, informative and committed. Fuel and supplies available.

The Ridge Top tour ($120 each) was excellent, showing us the full range of scenery, geology, plants and animals with an expert commentary by a geologist who was passionate about the area. The marvellous rock formations, the folding, faulting, volcanic activity and metamorphosis over millions of years and the long term wearing down of the rocks were all out there for us to see in one short 4 wheel drive trip. One stone the guide picked up was formed over four kilometers below the surface. Lots of long term erosion had revealed it on the surface. Another formation was formerly like Rotorua with its steaming mud, but was now a barren hill of fissures eroding in the sun. Great four wheel drive challenges in a few spots, including up Skennars lookout to a view across Lake Frome and beyond.

The landscape is amazing. A geosyncline from Gondwana times, the area was filled in over time with kilometers of sea floor detritus, building up to such a weight that it forced down the area around it to below current sea level. Large surrounding salt lakes like Lake Frome remain as evidence of internal drainage patterns. Fossils of the earliest life on earth were found by Reg Sprigg, the original owner of the conservation park, forcing geologists to change their description of geological time lines involving life.

Following sedimentation, the area was subject to the most amazing geological forces of uplift, tilt, volcanic intrusions, glaciers, heat and weight so that almost every type of geological outcome is evident in the rocks. After subsequent millions of years of erosion, what is left is a kaleidoscope of landforms, all within sight and readily accessible by bushwalking or 4 wheel drive track.

'Dry as' at the present, - probably going into the next four years of drought. But over the last few years it has been relatively wet - more than the usual glass of rain for the year - and there is a lot of new vegetation with a green tinge that is a little unusual. On our 4 wheel drive tracks we spotted bush banana, orange, curry plant and lots of new acacias and calliteris pines. Rock sida was growing to a meter when it normally stays as a little bush. Desert rose is in flower. White mullas have been flowering for several months and don't look like dying off.

Animals aplenty. Old man emus with their chicks. Euros in abundance along the creeks and the occasional skittish Yellow Footed Rock Wallabies, especially around the waterholes and by the camp at night. Big reds further out on the high open flat lands of the nearby national park. Very few reptiles, but lots of goats near the national park - a cause for some concern in the conservation area. Some flights of Port Lincoln parrot and plenty of smaller bush birds.

 
The area is privately owned but the bulk has been handed to a foundation to protect its future. Mining has been proscribed by law although the area has a long modern history of mineral exploration and some marginal exploitation. Mining tracks abound in the southern section, although the north is only accessible by foot.  Originally 'no man's land' between various marginal sheep stations, it was indeed fortunate that Reg Sprigg was able to buy up the unwanted land and conserve it for present visitors.

Well worth the visit to see some of the most unique landscapes in this unique and ancient continent. It is amazing that more people don't realise the wealth, beauty and tourism riches that are for all to enjoy in Arkaroola. We will certainly take the van back there when we have the chance.