Day 112-118 (May 22-28) - Wamuran to Woodgate

Our last weekend at Wamuran was fairly uneventful according to the kids, eventful (!!), and most of it was dominated by me doing things on the car. We had tentatively intended to move on Thursday or Friday last week but while some things weren't done yet, I figured it'd be easier to get the jobs done here where I had lighting, a shed and decent facilities than at a caravan park!



I'd done a full service on the Pajero before we left, and since then we'd done just over 10,000km. So we weren't due for an oil change for another 5,000km, but I got that out the way first, as well as a coolant change and flush. I'm pretty sure the old coolant was original and probably diluted, so got some nice fresh stuff in it.

Before

I also wanted to clean out the inlet manifold. Turbo diesel vehicles with direct injection such as ours are prone to getting the inlet manifold clogged with a mixture of oil fumes and diesel exhaust soot. So after doing lots of reading and trying a canned cleaning product, I spent all Saturday pulling the manifold off and giving it a thorough clean. In terms of reduction in area, it was about 40% blocked which is a pretty significant blockage!

After

Before

After

I can't say it's made any perceptible difference in power or economy in our one drive up here, but I will continue to monitor it.


The kids continued to all enjoy various games together. On Saturday the others went for a creek walk while I was working on the car.

During Saturday evening, Wilson ecclesia had a concert night via Zoom which the others all went in and watched. Each family had prepared a short presentation (skit, musical performance, tutorials etc) which was a great way to all stay in touch while isolating.

Over the last several days the kids also made a shack from bits of wood and old corrugated iron. They did a pretty good job and they even all had tea in it one night, during the rain, and it kept them dry! Great work all round kids!


On our last evening we shared tea and the readings which was lovely as always.

Monday afternoon Bek and I went into Morayfield to do some shopping for Mim's birthday, and the evening before was spent surreptitiously trying to get the card written in by all three kids and the presents wrapped. When you're all in a caravan together you don't tend to realise how hard it can be to get some quiet / private time to do things like this! So it was a bit harder to manage than I had hoped, and they had to finish it off Tuesday morning.


Tuesday morning was the big day for Mim! She got some lip gloss, a box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates and a smartphone sport armband to carry her phone when running. After this the other left for the day, so we said our farewells and then packed up the van and headed off around lunchtime.

First stop was the Bellmere Bakery for lunch. We'd been recommended to go here for their delicious donuts, so we had a birthday lunch for Mim of pies and donuts! After this we briefly considered whether to stay somewhere close to Fraser Island so we could spend a day on the island. The caravan parks we tried weren't too helpful so we decided to come back to Woodgate and then commute back to Hervey Bay or Rainbow Beach to visit Fraser Island once we'd made our arrangements.

We got to Woodgate about 8pm on Tuesday night and straight back in our old spot! It was good and bad coming back - of course it's a lovely spot but we also didn't necessarily want to overwrite the memories of our previous lovely stay here. Anyway the good thing about Woodgate is that it's nice and central and will make it easier for us to move up the coast a bit further. But more on that later.


The weather is still on the cool side so we've only been down to the water a couple of times, but last night there were some kangaroos on the beach which was quite a novelty! And we had a lovely sunset to top it all off!

 The kids also had a bit of fun making some 'invisible car' videos animated .gifs!

Today, Barber Bek had her first go at cutting us lads' hair! We all ended up with #5 crew cuts but the boys couldn't resist having a bit of fun while the long hair was coming off. Matt ended up (briefly!) with a mohawk while Jude got a mullet! Suffice to say they only kept these cuts for about 10 minutes before it was all taken back to a sensible look! Hmm yes very serious and sensible.

What's next?

At the moment, word on the ground is that LOTS of people are getting ready to flood to camping areas and caravan parks the moment the restrictions lift. Queensland is planning to open caravan parks and campgrounds at 11:59pm on June 12 (thanks for not specifying midnight like they did with the border closures and the ensuing confusion about exactly which day that meant!). Woodgate Caravan Park at this stage has about 60 people booked in for when they reopen, and when we were staying with Luke and Tammy, Luke, who is an auto electrician, said most of his jobs were fitting caravan electric brakes, Anderson plugs (to take 12V from the car to the caravan) and solar systems to caravans, in preparation for going away.

So this all being the case, we are wanting to get as far from Brisbane as possible by June 12. Woodgate is a good starting point because it's a good way up the coast and we'd already been cleared by the managers to come back here, so if we want to move up further we are already fairly close to where we move to. Of course there will be people all over Qld going camping so this isn't going to avoid the crowds completely, but it will at least move us away from the most populated area in the state.

-- Greg