Somebody Had an Oops...

Recently we took Little FJ and Retro Van on a 3 night adventure at Eungella Dam. The dam is approximately 3 hours drive south west of Airlie Beach, and situated over 560m above sea level. It truly was a beautiful place to stay, and with only a handful of other campers at any one time it seemed like we had the place to ourselves. However sometimes that isn't always a good thing...

It was Monday afternoon, on a dry, hot day by the dam. We'd had some lunch and were looking for something to do to pass the time. Dan had scouted out a sandy part of the dam, and decided that it was solid enough to take Little FJ down with our chairs and some afternoon snacks. We rolled out the awning, set up our chairs and a table so that we had our feet cooling in the water and spent around an hour chilling off. The dogs had followed us down and were frolicking around in the water.

About three beers later we thought we'd better pack up and head back to camp. Fires are allowed at the dam and we'd found a pit already set up, including part of a 44 gallon drum that was being used as a windbreak. That morning we'd hunted around for some firewood, and had brought with us a whole chicken and our camp oven. It was time to get the fire going for some coals and a roasted chicken for dinner. However things don't always go to plan, do they? We packed up, jumped in Little FJ and headed off the sand. We managed to travel about 6 feet forwards, started to turn up the bank, and then -thwup- down we went. Hard.

Oops.

Not much better from this angle, either.

Yes, that's water at the door line.

No dramas. We've got a winch. We'll get out of this. However, the closest tree was at least 50 metres away and roughly a 45 degree angle from Little FJ. We gave it a go, though. To no avail. We had a tree trunk protector around the tree, then attached to it was a winch extension strap and finally the winch. We didn't move. We were stuck. So we tried adding a snatch strap to the winch extension strap to get a double line pull off the winch (the winch cable ran up to the snatch strap and then doubled back and attached to the recovery point on Litlle FJ). Uhm, nope.

The winch is attached to the larger tree on the right.

It was about this point that some frustration was released by Dan, in the form of some very colourful language. I started to get a bit worried that we wouldn't get out. As we were giving it another go, a family of four turned up in a *cough mumble Ford Ranger* and gave us a hand. We used the snatch strap and the Ranger to try and pull Little FJ out. First from the front - no luck. Then from the back - still no luck. Then back to the front - success! Well...we managed to move forward about 2 inches. By this time, the sand further up the bank was starting to give way and it was becoming unsafe to try and snatch out anymore. The Ranger would have ended up stuck as well! We had let the tyre pressure down on the two tyres we had access to. We were digging the sand out from around the tyres, and it would fall back in again. The driver of the Ranger had gone to find a nearby farmer and organised him to come down with his tractor to pull us out.

Sink, Sank, Sunk.

It was like quicksand. The belly of Little FJ had touched the sandy base of the dam and it was acting like a suction cup. The driver's side tyres had spun themselves into the sand as well. We were close to abandoning ship and leaving Little FJ to soak. It had been in the same spot for nearly 2 1/2 hours. But Dan was determined. As soon as he'd moved forward those few inches, he went hell for leather. He continued to dig out some of the sand from around the tyres and the underbelly, and attached the winch to the tree again. Finally, he was able to break the suction, get enough power and purchase and pop up out of the quicksand. What a mission! Not the best time to leave the Maxx Traxx at home. We profusely thanked the family in the Ranger for stopping to help, and limped back to camp. It was too late to start our coals for dinner so our roast chicken got pushed back to the next night. At least we all came home intact! 

It's just a little bit of mud.

We were very fortunate this time. I don't want to imagine what would have happened if we didn't get some extra help. It's led to a new rule for the rest of our trip - no parking in any dams! I don't think either of us are too keen to go through that again. At least there was still some cold beers at the end of it.

Retro Van Gets Some Lovin'!

What an exciting day here! We've spent the morning taking most of our stuff out of Retro Van and we've sent her off to the fabricators to have some work done.
Now that we've been living in the Whitsundays for a few months, a lot of the items we travelled with have already been taken out of Retro Van. We did take her up to Eungella Dam recently so we had the basics with us, plus anything else not needed in the house gets stored in there. This is now our living room:

Not even half of what we originally brought with us.

I'm sure we'll spend the afternoon packing it all neatly away :D

I took some pics of the before and we both can't wait to see the after! Hopefully within a fortnight it should all be finished.

The original Retro Van

A comparison between old and new.

The midget drawbar. We can't fully open the back door with this set up.

The mess that is our drawbar. Eventually we'll have a storage box on here :D

The plans are to completely redo the structure underneath, so we're looking at:

- 50mm x 100mm RHS drawbar and chassis, running the full length of the van
- drop down legs
- off-road coupling
- 6 stud electric brakes
- 45mm axle
- 17 x 7 FJ Cruiser alloy rims
- Bridgestone Dueller AT tyres

Phew! I have demanded a step to get into Retro Van once this is finished. My poor little legs won't be able to stretch that far up! Once this is all finished (and our bank account has recovered) we'll look into how we're going to mount the two spare tyres and potentially two mountain bikes. At this stage we're looking at the back of Retro Van, although we're not sure of the set up yet.

Keep your eyes peeled for the finished thing. I can't wait to see it!

What's the Plan?

Dan, Lizzy, Jax and I are on an adventure! We took off in a bit of a rush last June, to say the least. At the time we had only one thing in our minds - get to Airlie Beach.  The reasoning behind this was that Dan used to live and work in Airlie Beach, many moons ago. With his connections we knew he'd be able to get a job back on the boats, on the water, in a place that holds some great memories for him.

Fast-forward to nearly three months after we left (ohmygosh, that long already?) and we are both fortunate enough to have jobs that are here as long as the tourists are. Whilst work is definitely going to be a major factor in what happens from here, we do have a rough plan of what we'd like to happen.

Little FJ and The Retro Van

There's whispers of a hoard of travelling gypsies descending on Cape York sometime in the midst of next year, and that sounds like something we want to be a part of. With that in mind, we are keen to hold out in the stunning Whitsundays until said trip happens, likely around the end of June. This gives us time to get stuck into work during the tourist season, stuck into savings to upgrade Little FJ and The Retro Van (something we were planning when life abruptly changed a few months ago), and stuck into the life of the Tropics. Dan has a friend here who sums it up perfectly - steady, steady, four knots. It also means that we plan to be around the area for a certain Mrs' milestone birthday early next June. Just sayin'.

For now we're renting a lovely little two bedroom unit underneath a Queenslander style house on a large yard, with some chickens and an upstairs neighbour who affectionately calls it his swamp and is away more than he is home. The dogs are happy, Dan and I are happy, we are getting ready for the next part of our trip, enjoying the local area when we can, and eagerly awaiting visits from friends and family! :)

Home, Sweet Swamp

My Favourite Pastime AKA Food Budgeting

I love to budget. I love mathematical equations. I love Microsoft Excel. So of course I have eleventeen different spreadsheets saved for every aspect of our finances. I have an Airlie Beach budget, an October 2015 budget, an Upgrades budget (for Little FJ and The Retro Van), Fuel/Accommodation budgets for whilst we're travelling, and the start of a Cape York Trip budget. Just because.

For the last few months both Dan and I have both been working and saving. We've been quite liberal with our spending and although I know we have purchased some big ticket items that we will use on our trip, I feel that it's time to reign the finances in for the time being. Most of our bills are fixed, i.e. rent, car payments, phones, health insurance, however there is one weekly expense that can fluctuate hugely. It happens to be one of my other passions - food. Mmmm.

If I love to budget, then I am obsessed with food. Combine the both and I am in own little world of glee. I could (ahem, already do) happily scour the internet for hours, looking for tips to save on grocery budgets, how to eat frugally, ways to stretch meals, healthy meal plans...I could go on. I truly do enjoy the process of putting together a collection of ideas for the week, creating a basic shopping list then therapeutically hitting the shops to search for specials then collect everything we need. Truly.

As of our next grocery shop, I aim to spend no more than $100/week for both of us. I still want to make fresh, healthy food with plenty of variety and I feel confident that we can achieve that on this amount. I'd love to cover the rest of our household needs within this amount, such as cleaners and toiletries, as well as fresh food for the dogs. I have been making a batch of dog food once a week, and it averages out to $10/week for their dinners. We also feed them a small amount of kibble in the morning, to ensure they get plenty of nutrients. This is a purchase from the local pet store so won't count towards our grocery budget.

I don't know when my first weekly shop will be, as I'm trying to use up a lot of the food I have hoarded away already before restocking. It will definitely be sometime this week though, and I'm looking forward to sticking within my $100 budget! I'll share it with you guys after I'm all finished.

Don't be silly, Chicken's don't budget. 

Little Australie Moves!

Over the last few days I've been trying to access the Little Australie blog, with much frustration. For some reason, the blog host's website has been very uncooperative and it has resulted in a lot of choice words that I won't be sharing with you guys today. So I've made the decision to try a new host, and hope that I can make it a better experience for all of us :)
In the coming days I'll try to get some content up, and figure out the layout and all that fun stuff. For now it'll be a bit of bare bones, so I appreciate your patience!