NIK `N` OFF

3 Night Escape

2026-01-15T20:44:00.000+08:00

We had a small window of opportunity to give the Chev & Van a run down to Donnybrook WA and visit family on their beautiful property. It was also a chance to fit the new rear vision camera that will replace the one that’s been hidden by the Smart Cap canopy. Video instructions showed it being a fairly simple job but that didn’t take into account a couple of old blokes doing it. After stuffing up by running the cable wrong with the connections at the wrong ends, sorted that and after getting the factory plugs disconnected and new cable connected and fighting with a rubber grommet that proved difficult getting back into place we refitted all the plastic interior panels back in place. We then connected the new camera only to find it didn’t work ! Arrgh !! We rechecked the original camera worked, tested the new cable and came to the conclusion the new camera was the culprit ….luckily it was a EBay PayPal purchase and after sending a message to the seller I received a full refund. I then did what I should have at the start and that was order a new genuine Chev Silverado camera from Rock Auto in USA. This company is great to deal with and an extremely quick delivery. My last purchase of a Furl Control Module and some filters arrived in 4 days !! Unbelievable ! Here in West Australia it’s not unusual to wait 2-3 weeks to get things from the East Coadt of Australia.

So now I wait until the camera arrives before I get to fit it and hopefully we have some success.

Oh and Chev goes in next week for a service and hopefully fix the drivers side window that refuses to go down or up. And it’s not a fuse .. the other 3 work fine.

Such a beautiful entrance to the property

Bored so we got some lights connected

2025-11-23T14:35:00.005+08:00

Recently we had Kade & Shania from Boss Builds & Mechanical do a reconnect of lights on our Chev Silverado 2500 that GMSV don’t bother with when doing the LHD / RHD conversion.

We now have indicators in the side mirrors and front and rear facing lights in the mirrors, Tub lights and a light in the tailgate plus some other stuff connected.

We can recommend these folks, their work is excellent and utmost care was taken.

Home SWEET Home

2025-06-10T09:50:00.002+08:00

HOME SWEET HOME 🥴🤣 And it’s raining heavy … 🫤 Seriously we do love getting home after a trip, we quickly fall back into our home life with seperate lounges and seperate TV’s 😂🤣 … As we do , we were kept busy stripping out everything not needed or used on our recent trip, we still make the mistake of taking far to many clothes and the Chev was chock full with everything we did take, plus the electric roller cover and drawers I removed so a Smart Cap canopy and full set of Decked Drawers fitted.

They were not intended changes when we left home but seeing as how we were close by and saved heaps on freight costs we decided to inconvenience ourselves for a while and create a lot of work. 🥴🙄🫤 Now we’re home and everything is cleaned and emptied we can start reorganising ‘stuff’ to go back in. New tyres fitted to the Chev, wow these round black things are expensive!! Probably be the 1st and only set I fit 🙄🤔 Yokohama Geolander X AT 285/65/20 on the factory rims. I had to source a 5th 20” alloy rim as the factory spare is a 18” steel with different profile tyre so it’s not compatible with the new sizes. At some stage a portable power station and some internal lights in the canopy to get fitted.

Madura Pass

2025-06-03T09:48:00.006+08:00

Stayed the night in the bush at Madura Pass, had a lovely evening chatting with Tom and Katy, a couple from Sydney off on their Big Lap of Oz in a Mercedes Sprinter motor home 4WD. Wake up to another stunning Sunrise, life is good.

Walgett - Peterborough

2025-05-31T09:40:00.001+08:00

We have left Bingara after 3 nights, rain was coming down quite steady and we didn’t feel like a day in the van so we headed off to Moree with the intention of visiting the Tilpa Hotel … We stayed a night at Walgett where we have stayed before, very busy with other vans but we scored a spot someone had recently left.

The next day we drove through Bourke following the Apple Map where we stayed the night in a pleasant bush setting at Louth near a river that appeared to be flowing mud .. certainly not the clear water of the Gwydir we had been camped next to.

Leaving Louth we followed the blue line on the Apple Maps 🙄🤔 and the Nelyambo Bridge Road turned into dirt, or more like stone and rocks .. this continued for 50/70klms and we came upon an intersection with the road to Tilpa having a ROAD CLOSED sign 😳 We had a choice of turning left to Cobar or continuing on .. another 250k of dirt road. We came across a Mazda BT50 looking very sad as it had rolled over and sat on its roof, it looked a recent crash so we stopped to check no one was inside, fortunately for them they weren’t but the amount of damage and squashed roof it didn’t look good for the occupants.

Driving on the dirt road was quite good but the fine powder grey dust kicked up for hundreds of metres behind us, we had turned the 12v Dust ‘blower’ on in the van and all was good inside when we stopped. Eventually the dirt turned to bitumen and we arrived at Willcania, fueled up and moved on. We have stopped the night at Peterborough and a sunny afternoon certainly changed to a cold night, it was zero degrees outside and 1.1 degrees by the time we got out of bed. Glad we have the Truma Gas Heater, it works a treat. The Horse is heading for home so it’s another drive, we expect to reach Kimba this afternoon.

Bingara - Walgett - Again

2025-05-27T09:37:00.004+08:00

We left Bingara this morning after 3 nights stay, the rain was falling consistently during the night and looked to be settling in for the day so a decision was made to move on.

It rained until we got to Moree and the sun started to break through the clouds. We have stopped for the night at Walgett, this is the 3rd time we have stayed here and it’s the busiest we’ve seen, luckily for us we moved into a site that had just recently been vacated. Tomorrow we head further South West to Broken Hill if we get that far.

Inverell - Bingara AGAIN

2025-05-24T21:55:00.000+08:00

We had good reason to call in at Inverell again as our new Honda Generator woukd mot start, the mob we bought it off 'Motor Mecca' spun us the story that the carburettor was dirty, which it could well have been as it had not been used once since we bought it off them last July. $90 to 'clean" the Carby and when i phoned them a few days later to tell them it still wouldnt stsrt they gave me another story the fuel pump is faulty and they had no parts and gave it back to me as we 'needed it' what a load of BS !!! It wasnt until we got home and had it looked at by another Honda dealer who took photos and showed me proof that Motor Mecca did NOT clean the carby, also an O ring was missing and the float bowl was bent ANOTHER $173 to get it working. A call to Honda Customer Care has produced no results ... Anyhow here we are back at Bingara and life surely can’t get any better than this now 😁😁 … we are again at the Gwydir River after a hectic few days getting the Smart Cap canopy and Decked Drawers fitted around the Gold Coast. ( ORI Electric Tub Cover & a set of ARB drawers for sale ) DECKED Australia RSi SmartCap Australia

Kilcoy - Burleigh Heads

2025-05-23T21:35:00.011+08:00

We left our mates at Nanango and the ‘plan’ was to base ourselves at Woodford Showground so I could take the Chev into PID diesel Engineering at Kunda Park but a phone call to the Showgrounds told us they were closed due to flooding. So our next choice was Kilcoy Showground, this was open and at $19 per night for power & water it is good value, only criticism at all was the lush green grass was long and needed a good mow, but we understood its not the easiest when everything is wet.

We chilled for a few days, drove to Woodford for some shopping and on Monday I took the Chev into Heath at PID. Jodi drove me to the Sunshine Plaza where I had a riveting exciting time walking around the many glitzy shops … Goord I dislike Shopping centres 🙄😣

3 Hours later Jodi picked me up and the Chev was ready to go, everything done and checked over for a very reasonable price. I would not hesitate to use PID again. Back to Kilcoy and the next day it was a move to Burleigh Heads where ‘SHOCK HORROR’ we were booked in at the BH Tourist Park. Have I mentioned I dislike Van Parks !!! To be fair the location was perfect, directly opposite the Beach with some surfers enjoying the waves but the sites are cramped and not the easiest to reverse the van and Chev into our site. But we succeeded and we were only there for two nights so we could get some DECKED Drawers installed and a RSI Smart Cap Canopy fitted. Both companies were excellent to deal with and were fitted on the Wednesday and apart from the huge effort on my part in removing the electric tub cover, and everything else we had in the Ute and then having to put it all back in my spine had given up and was giving me extreme grief … even the ‘good’ drugs didn’t help … worse when laying down so keep moving and it’s tolerable.

A quick visit to Vickie’s Brother Frapper and Curls at Banora Point that night and Thursday we were thankfully back on the road getting away from the Gold Coast …Yuk !!!! With a destination of Bingara again we headed up through Grafton and Glenn Innes, the road took us up into the Gibraltar Range, a very steep, windy road with spectacular views, some of the rivers we either went over or saw were flowing very wide and fast due to all the recent floods closer to the NSW Coast. We came the closest to running out of fuel on this drive, we made it to Inverell and filled the 130lt tank with 132 litres, fuel consumption was 19lph which is excellent considering the Hills we had just driven up plus the extra weight of the drawers and canopy plus all the stuff we were also carrying. We have stopped a couple of nights at the Inverell Showgrounds, mainly to get the Honda Generator we bought from here last year checked over as it won’t start, the mechanic tells me the carb and fuel bowl is dirty, it’s never been used apart from the initial start when sold to us. 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️ ORI Electric Roller Shutter to be sold along with a set of Outback Accessories Roller drawers when we get home. 😁

Nanango

2025-05-14T21:31:00.002+08:00

Visited friends at Nanango QLD for a couple of nights, Rob & Marg we have known for an eternity and it’s always lovely to catch up. They have a gorgeous 5 acre property with a lovely home and a massive shed Rob has built. Lots of trees, green grass & natural gardens along with dozens of different varieties of birds. It also gave me time to remove the electric tub cover from the Ute in preparation for having a RSI Smart Cap canopy fitted, something I should have done from the beginning.

Texas

2025-05-10T21:29:00.004+08:00

I’m in need of a little manscaping 😂 This is what you get when you try to get an escaped cow back into its paddock.

It’s called Farmer's Friend," also known as Cobbler's Pegs or Bidens pilosa, is a common weed in gardens, parks, and roadsides. It's identifiable by its small, yellow flowers, and the spiky, hooked seed heads that readily stick to clothing. The weed is a herbaceous plant that can grow up to 1.8 meters tall, with square stems and toothed leaves.

Grenfell - Bingara

2025-05-03T21:23:00.011+08:00

Catch up time : After leaving Grenfell we made our way to Forbes and then onto Tottenham and Nyngan where we saw more painted silos though Nyngan wasn’t finished it would be lovely when completed.

We stayed a night at Walgett at the free camp, dump point and water tap provided, thanks Walgett. Lightning Ridge was on the visitor list, we have been there before but it’s always worth revisiting places. Vickie bought two opal pieces from a pop up stall at a good price compared to what some shops were asking. With many Northern roads closed we decided to drive back to Walgett and stay another night.

We had thoughts of going to Moree but the lure of Bingara won out. We have been here many times before and love the town and the camping along the Gwydir River. The river camps were all full when we arrived but after two nights a lot of vans had left, we think the voting kept them here until today as we managed to get our favourite place beside the river. Water levels are down compared to other visits but the bird life is still prolific.

A drive up to the Batterham Lookout for Sunset drink for my Mother whose Birthday is today and where her ashes are scattered at the top along with her husband Neil.

Blowering Dam - Grenfell

2025-04-26T21:16:00.014+08:00

What stunning Countryside Victoria & NSW have! I grew up in Victoria but I haven’t visited many of the places we have recently seen and those that I have, well it’s been over 50 years ago … Corryong, Tumut, The Blowering Dam were all lovely recent places we have visited. We stayed at Blowering Dam for two nights the 2nd was our 49th Wedding Anniversary and we celebrated it with a camp oven roast which was superb. We even had a Kangaroo bound past us as we were watching the Sunset.

We stopped at Coonabarabran for morning tea next to a park that had the Captains Walk, im not a lover of Cricket but its a lovely park with all the bronze busts of the Australian Cricket Captains, Sir Don Bradman was born in Cootamundra and also lived at Bowral as a young boy.

We stayed a night at Stockinbingal at their local reserve, here they have power & water for a Donation. To say we were surprised is an understatement, camping was basically anywhere around the oval but if you wanted water and power it was mainly at one side. With no one else here we had the pick of choices, our Lithium batteries were getting down to around 45% in the mornings and with very little sun about they were only getting to around 70% late afternoon so it was great we could charge them up fully plus Vickie did a load of washing.

We are purposely finding the quieter back roads so we can visit the smaller older townsites along the way. We stopped at a parking bay at Milvale where there was some metal art statues plus a Koala up a tree, we are loving seeing the very old houses and buildings along the way.

Presently camped at Grenfell NSW thanks to the RV Friendly town .. they have some beautiful painted silos plus a very interesting town centre we will check out tomorrow.

Lighthouse Crossing - Tumut

2025-04-23T21:09:00.002+08:00

We had an excellent 5 nights camped along the Murray at Towong Lighthouse Crossing though the weather could have been a lot better, very overcast and occasional showers.

The day drive up to Thredbo was an experience, a 6 hour trip to drive 220k and Thredbo was a huge disappointment with hundreds of cars and people everywhere ! Get me out of there !!! Stayed a night at Batlow Showgrounds, moving on to Tumut and the Blowering Dam today. 😁😁😁

Need some ☀️ Sun .. Batteries at 48% this morning, .. she’ll be right 😂😂

Lighthouse Crossing - Corryong

2025-04-21T20:54:00.009+08:00

Another drive into Corryong to check out the shops and tourist info centre to ask about a drive up into the hills with some lookouts, we were given a map and will go for a drive tomorrow, we also went into Bacash Emporium, a mixed business that had just about everything plus an area upstairs full of older ‘stuff’ … very interesting.

Later that day a wind and sand storm swirled up around us and a shower of rain, At night we joined two other caravanning couples for a few drinks and chat 🫣🥳🥴 Today we awoke to overcast sky and threatening to rain, we planned on driving up to the lookouts high above Towong and Corryong. First stop was Farrons Lookout and then on to Ranch Road which took us approximately 15klms along a well formed dirt road. The further we drove the steeper it got and before we knew it we had arrived at Embery’s Lookout. This was my favourite out of the three. Southern Lookout and the Summit were both nice though and worth the drive and short walk.

We leave Towong & Corryong tomorrow, we won’t be travelling far as there are a few camp areas along the route.

Nariel Creek - Thredbo

2025-04-19T20:47:00.004+08:00

We found a lovely camp before Corryong alongside Nariel creek for a night, it was beautiful with running water flowing by just metres beside us, we would have stayed longer but an image I saw of Lighthouse Crossing had me keen to visit it.

Only 13k on the Eastern Side of Corryong was Lighthouse Crossing, we have a prime spot on a bend in the river with green grass. The area is popular and most of the good places are taken, but we were lucky to slot in as another caravan left, apparently there is to be a Wedding here over the weekend.

Saturday we took a drive up the Alpine Way, initially we were only going to Khancoban but the road was so interesting with its twists and turns and steep up’s & downs we continued onto Thredbo … we’re glad we did but equally as disappointed in the amount of tourists around, the place was packed with people and cars and we couldn’t get out of the place quick enough.

So back down the mountain we drove, the number of cars we came across coming around tight bends in the middle of the road was a bit of a concern plus two motorcyclists cornering too wide had them change direction quickly. We stopped for a late lunch at Khancoban, called in at the Visitor Info Centre and then back to camp. Around 207k driven and 6 hours

Maffra - Bright

2025-04-15T20:41:00.009+08:00

We left Maffra Monday morning and headed towards Bairnsdale, with the School Holidays upon us and Easter looming, we chose to stay away from the Coast and headed up the Great Alpine Way towards Bright, the views were stunningly scenic but very few places along the road to camp overnight. It wasn’t until we got past Omeo that we came across a great spot that was a lookout towards Mt Kosciusko, later in the day another Caravan pulled in and we enjoyed a camp fire and each others company for a few hours. The Clouds came down so low we were engulfed in the mist, a light rain shower had us all saying good night and going inside.

The next day was Tuesday and we were blown away by the spectacular views on the way to Mt Hotham, Dinner Plain and Bright. The Big Chev cruised up the steep grades and the exhaust brakes were working great going down the steep hills. It truly is a Towing Beast, effortlessly towing our Caravan.

Arriving in Bright we were amazed at how busy the town is, tourists and cars everywhere. We parked the rig a couple of streets away from the Main townsite area and walked in to have lunch and a look around. We knew Vickie’s niece and family were on holiday in Bright but didn’t expect to see them, as it turned out they saw our rig and gave us a call. We met up and went to a cafe together for a catch up chat.

Bright was looking spectacular with majority of the trees changing colours with their leaves but way to busy for us to consider staying at a Van Park. I found a camp along a river in WikiCamps and headed for that but unfortunately it wasn’t that suitable for a large Van & Chev with a steep entry so we chose to head on to Wodonga where we have stayed a night at the Showgrounds.

Marysville - Maffra

2025-04-13T20:33:00.016+08:00

Before we left Marysville we drove up to Stevenson Falls, it was as pretty as you would expect 😁

We spent the next two days visiting friends at Langwarrin where we left the Van and a night with Vickie’s Sister & Hubby and a visit to my Brother. Always good catching up and they all live in a lovely part of Victoria.

Leaving we headed East and towards Gippsland and stopped at Korumburra at the Showground for two nights to catch up with the washing, $25 a night for power and water is a bargain these days.

With the washing under control , Happy Wife Happy Life we moved onto to Yarram, this wasn’t what we expected at 1st but we found ourselves a nice spot to park for the night away from others.

Another day and we ventured on, this time we had Maffra as our destination, I had read there was a Classic Car Display at the Maffra Shed Collection and we .. well to be honest I was not disappointed… A wonderful collection of the cars I grew up with and motorcycles perhaps a few years older A great ‘free’ camp at the Motor ‘museum’, Awesome Cars & Motorcycles, green grass, lovely shade trees and a Dump Point ! How good can it get !!!

Marysville continues

2025-04-07T20:29:00.004+08:00

Continuing on with Marysville, we have walked into town each day and today we gave the local Fish & Chip Business a go .. and very pleased we did ! I have always said no one can cook F&C as well as the Victorians ! Our local shops back home don’t come close to what we had today. We chilled out in the van for a few hours and then went in at checked out Bruno’s Sculpture Garden, it was amazing ! I’ll put the link to the web site below. A very talented guy, he has what could be described as a fantasy garden with winding trails and gardens that was once burnt out in the 2009 bushfires. I took many photos but I’ll only include a few here as there are simply to many. https://brunosart.com

Marysville Victoria

2025-04-06T20:24:00.011+08:00

February 12th 2009 will go down in Australian History as Black Saturday when the horrific fires destroyed Marysville Victoria .. and tragically 34 fatalities 😢… I remember us driving through a Bush Fire area a few weeks after the fires and seeing the devastation, I could not bring myself to take a photo then as I would feel like a ghoul …

Fast forward to 2025 and we have ‘camped’ at the Marysville RV area, the town has bounced back and looks amazingly beautiful! Surrounded by beautiful tall trees in all their colourful splendour.

A Mecca for the Mountain Bike Riders and Bush Walkers, we have walked into town twice and yesterday I thought I’d walk up to Stevenson Falls, but after 1.2klm of steep walking and realising it was 3.7k one way .. I turned around. Still I was happy with what I did but I’m sure the body will feel it tomorrow.

Goorambat - Skipworth Reserve

2025-04-03T20:16:00.001+08:00

Before leaving Goorambat we visited the Church to see the mural of Sophia, another wonderful art work in the lovely small town. We back tracked to Devenish and St James to view the painted Silos and glad we did. Superb !!! They really make the trip interesting seeing the painted Silos and reading about the History of them. We had no idea Coles originated from St James 🥴

We are heading South with the intention of driving through the Victorian High Country. We stopped at Mansfield and gave a Big 👍 to the Bakery! We do enjoy a good pie or pastie and these were good enough to buy 4 for meals later in the week.

Presently camped along the Goulburn River at a free camp called Skipworth Reserve, a very pleasant bush setting off the road.

Goorambat

2025-04-02T20:14:00.005+08:00

Time to try out a Country Pub and Goorambat did not disappoint. Another beautiful painted silo, free camping behind the Hotel and huge meals … Finish the evening with another stunning sunset.

Koonoomoo- Gregory’s Bend

2025-04-01T20:11:00.007+08:00

After leaving Deniliquin we stayed a night along the Murray at Koonoomoo where I bent the spare wheel bracket on a steep up & over getting into a camp called Gregory’s Bend , in hindsight I should have increased the Airbag pressure - lesson learnt but it was always my intention to raise the spare up a bit anyway.

2nd night we moved on around 20k East of Cobram to Bourke Beach 1 and found another spot on the river, this is nicer than the previous night. Track in is good but could be ‘fun’ meeting another caravan coming the opposite way. Lots of Bird life & hopefully more Koalas 🐨

Deniliquin Masterpiece Gathering

2025-03-28T20:05:00.001+08:00

Settled in at the BIG4 Caravan Park 🫣😱😱 (shock ) 😂 Not something we usually do but I must say this would be the nicest van park we’ve ever stayed at and lots of trees, awesome pool etc etc. Big turn out of Masterpiece Caravans and their owners to celebrate Masterpiece Caravans 10th Anniversary. I took a few photos of the Sunset & Sunrise and some of the rigs set up here.

Sandy Point Reserve

2025-03-26T20:02:00.001+08:00

Last year we visited Sandy Point Reserve at Hay it was closed due to flood damage and we stayed at the Hay Bowling Club. This visit it was open and exactly as we remembered it. A few others but there is so much space no one is crowded. A swim in the River was lovely as it was still a warm 34 degrees. One more short drive and a camp overnight and we roll into Deniliquin to attend the 10 year Anniversary of the Masterpiece Caravan company. 🍻🥂🍾🥃🥳🥳🥳

Hogwash - Mildura

2025-03-22T19:51:00.003+08:00

We left Hogwash and went onto Waikerie and checked out the painted silos and moved onto Holders Bend Reserve, this was nice but not as nice as Hogwash in our view.

Leaving Holders Bend after a night we went on to Barmera, here we did an Oops and got set up before making an on line booking only to find out that Vista Reserve was closed until Easter.

So onto Martin’s Bend Reserve near Berri. This was a lovely place, though we could not park close to the river it was nice to see lush green grass and a camp ground well maintained and all for $5 a night !! We stayed here two nights and went into Berri to do some shopping on the 2nd day.

Two days are about our limit at present, we are timing ourselves to arrive at Deniliquin on Thursday to attend the Masterpiece Caravan gathering for a few days. After Martin’s Bend we went looking for some River Camping places, after two fails and around 100k trip we gave up and headed for Mildura and arriving later than we would normally we found the prime river spots taken. A drive up and down some tracks and eventually we found a spot close to the river but also close to the dirt road. We we entertained by some local lads drifting around the track sending up gravel and dust … we think the same group entertained us on the river in their tinnies yahooing …

Eventually things quieted down and we had a nice evening, next day was a short drive into The Palms Van Park, here we were greeted by a very pleasant lady who looked after us with a large grassy site. Vickie has been catching up with the washing and I gave the Van & Chev a wash.