Yandilla Farmstay

The start of the school holidays provided another opportunity to hit the road again. We kept the kids home on the last day and took off to Yandilla Farmstay (near Kilcoy).

Yandilla Farmstay

The Hut - Easter 2014

"The Hut" is a private property (owned by the missus Grandfather). It's situated on the banks of the Clarence River approx 15klm west of Bonalbo (as the crow flies). It's rough riding getting in and suitable only for 4wd's with some decent clearance.

The Hut

Stinson Park

We'd taken a day trip to the Scenic Rim in January to scope out potential camping areas. We came home with a few choice selections in the hip-pocket and chose Stinson Park as the first one to tick off the list.

Christmas Creek

Lake Dyer - Bill Gunn Dam

Lake Dyer / Bill Gunn dam is situated only about an hour away from home and is a gem of a spot for a weekend getaway. So much so, I'm a little reluctant to tell any more people about it! (so feel free to skip this post and move onto the next one)

Beautiful Lake Dyer

Yamba - Big 4 Saltwater

School was out in Qld (but not in NSW) so we thought we'd take advantage of this by crossing the border for 5 days at the Big 4 Saltwater @ Yamba. Big 4 Saltwater is situated 10 minutes outside of Yamba on the NSW north coast. Visit their website for more info.

My mouth's been watering thinking of the fresh tasty prawns we're going to get in Yamba, so you can imagine my excitement when we reached the northern rivers area and I was presented with this...

You want prawn? You got PRAWN

Sandy Creek Campin'

A pupil free day gave us the next opportunity to use the van. The destination of choice was Sandy Creek Campin'. What particularly swayed us to this location was the flat rate for two nights of camping ($65) plus the allowance of fires and pets.

Tree swings were a nice touch

Fraser Island 2013

This is the trip we've been looking forward to for the last 12 months. We decided to buy the van after a 7 day camping trip at Central Station in 2012. At that stage a camper trailer was our weapon of choice, and while it did the job we were looking for something where we spent less time setting up and more time enjoying our location. One of the reasons we chose the Expanda was we were comfortable it would be up to a trip to Fraser.

The Maheno

Levuka

The June long weekend was coming up so it was time to get the van out again and try a bit of winter camping. We teamed up with a couple of other families and headed for a weekend off the grid, camping at Levuka.

Levuka

Drifters Holiday Village - Kingscliffe

We were heading to Kingscliffe for the sister in-law's wedding so decided to make a weekend of it. The destination for our camp was Drifters Holiday Village.

Entrance to the CP

Murphy's Creek Escape

It's been longer than we would have liked, however the Easter school holidays have been the prompter for our next camping trip and the venue chosen was Murphy's Creek Escape. It's only an hour and half from our front door, yet from all reports, secluded enough to get away from it all.

A few of the locals

Bargara Beach Caravan Park

This almost feels like our first real use of the van. What I mean by that is the motivation for the previous couple of trips was "we have this van, we better use it". However this trip has been motivated by the desire to get away coupled with the ability to do so.

View to beach from northern end of park

James Sharp Memorial Park

It was time to head out on another trip with the van, so I knocked off early on Friday and we had the kids out of school by lunch time. We needed to detour via Coomera to collect the daughter from her break-up day at Dreamworld, then it was full steam ahead to Sharp Park.

Splish splashin'

The First Adventure - Big4 Tweed

We were ultra keen to get out in the Expanda at the first available opportunity. So even though two of the family were a little under the weather, and the weather itself was forecast to be a shocker - we weren't going to be stopped! We left Ipswich around 10am with the rain bucketing down and for the rest of the day it fluctuated between light drizzle to heavy downpour.

Bucketing down on the way out of Brissie

The First Mod

Tonight I picked up some LEDs for the van. That makes it officially the first mod! The type of LEDs used can be found here.

They were a little dearer than some of the alternatives on eBay, however the quality looks better and these guys were local so I could easily drop around for pickup. The light's a little brighter (not too bright) but I much prefer the whiter light.

Stace has been busy cleaning, so it's almost ready for packing for our night away this weekend...

Before & After Lighting

Bulbs slip straight into current T10 sockets

the van is in the house

We bought the van home on Wednesday evening. Eventually got it nestled into a spot in front of the garage - which was no easy feat. Big thanks to CH for helping to man-handle it into place!

Now time to start thinking about it's first night out which will hopefully be next weekend.

un-expanded

expanded (and buddy-fied)

Sunday Night

It's Sunday night, which means the pick up of the van is only a few days away. Exciting and nervous times. Exciting because the prospect of more regular & quality family time is the driving factor behind this purchase. On the other hand it's a significant investment, so we better use it!!

Here's a pic of the van - no it doesn't come with a HUGE satellite! That's on the roof behind van :)

pic from Trading Post advert