Day 284 - Monday 9 October - Heading to Western Sydney

Day 284

Monday –

9 October 2017  - Began Jodi Picoult’s “House Rules” I expect this be written in a similar manner to the others I have read of hers, character driven with some sort of medical drama.

Toowoon Bay - Vineyard

What a glorious day we woke to, after a rainy end to yesterday. After reading our books we were up at 8am and ready to get going. Breakfast, shower and pack up complete and we were on the road for 9am. Thankfully the general commuters were at work and the roads were easy to navigate.

After stopping for fuel we were on the M1 and following yesterday’s route south back over the Hawkesbury before heading West. What was plain sailing however became a little more treacherous, as I noticed one of the van tyres low on pressure. We usually run them at 80psi, but the right rear was reading at 57 and was slowly dropping.

We pulled into a servo and attempted to fill it with air, however it would only fill to 60psi and once on the road the tyre pressure guage was now telling me we were at 51psi and continuing to fall. Damn it.

We were still 25km from our park, so it was a nervous drive keeping close eyes on the pressure and the distance remaining. Thankfully we made it to the Ingenia Holiday Park in Vineyard, checked in and proceeded to our spot. It wasn’t a particularly favourable one, on quite a slope and somewhat boggy, but we got the van in and set up.

Paul then wen about changing the tyre, first step lower the spare, umm not happening. He was using the tool but it was just spinning in the socket. With no success, he reverted to calling roadside assist instead.

In the meantime I had set up inside and collected the internet code. Happy days though it didn’t last with only 150mb, it was used in the first 5min! Thankfully I could buy a 10gb pack for the week and once that was sorted I was in business for real and loading things to my hearts content.

The road assist guy arrived, tried his best, but he couldn’t budge the tyre either. Paul went to get the jack so the tyre could be removed only to find that the winding arm on it was broken in two. Thank gawd we didn’t need to use it in the middle of nowhere.

So with the spare inaccessible and unable to jack up the van, the road assist guy directed us to a tyre centre instead. He filled the tyre with air, as it was now at 37psi and we unhooked everything, stowed everything inside and took off in the van.

 The tyre centre was 10m away and was easy to find, however when we got there they weren’t able to help us as they couldn’t fix our large tyres, they did however point us in the direction of a truck tyre centre a short distance away and thankfully they could help us out.

We were intending to have the tyre patched, but when it came off it was clear it needed replacing and when the back left was checked we were suddenly up for two new tyres. We just thanked our lucky stars we were able to get them changed before a disaster occurred.

With new tyres on, we returned to the park and set up for real and happily sat back in the van taking stock. I loaded things onto the net before doing some looking around at breweries in the area.

It was quite warm, they were expecting a thunderstorm and in the meantime the clouds wee building making it muggy. We decided to head to the pool, braving the noisy kids to hang out in the spa which was not running and Paul let the office know he wasn’t happy about it. We just sat in the cool water before returning to the van and then doing a walk around the park.

There is a lake attached to the property and we walked to it to check it out. They advertise that you can fish it, but the pictures with in the cleaning station show people with carp, so we weren’t sure if there was anything worth throwing a line in for.

We returned to the van to take it easy once again. I researched places we would be heading to, mostly breweries, over the next week and figuring out a plan of attack. We are booked in til Monday next week, but we may need to extend for a couple of days.

Paul sorted dinner and we ate soon after. As it had been a super lazy day on the walking front, I insisted we head out for a walk. We ventured down the street, which is mainly lined by small acreage properties, many with little yappie dogs. 

We watched the storm clouds brew over the Blue Mountains, the setting sun sending a brilliant fiery colour across the sky.  However, as it darkened we could see that we could be in for a shower, so we back tracked and returned to the van.

Paul settled in with his book, while I finished off the computer bits before we both retreated to bed for the evening.