My plan when Princess, Bailey and I left Melbourne at 8:14pm was to drive through till midnight, then sleep and wake up nice and early to keep the journey to Sydney going.
My plan didn’t include kilometres of roadworks with 40km/h speed limits where it was normally 100km/h!
When Google Maps told me “traffic is getting worse, 3hrs and 40minutes added to your journey” I decided to pull over and sleep instead!
Parked in the Grass Tree road stop outside Seymour, Victoria, I was pleasantly greeted with a normal flush toilet and toilet paper and decided that outside the toilet block, under the lights was the safest place to sleep for the night.
Most people including me, avoid sleeping in lit up areas as the light filters through the curtains. I didn’t on this occasion because I knew I had the roll of Permisheild insulation still in the back which I was saving to insulate the roof. I cut a piece off that fitted over the front cab and on the back window and I was happily in pitch darkness!
My wishful thinking 800w solar set up with a 400A battery system and 3000w pure sine wave inverter was still in creation land, therefore power on this trip was simple. My $2 AA battery LED globes from Kmart were perfect as lights. I bought 12 of them, some rechargeable batteries and hooked them through the roof ribs. I worked out one charge would last 100 days if they were used for 4 hours a day! I was impressed!
While I certainly didn’t have to worry about the car battery going flat overnight. I was using my 95L Fridgemate fridge as an esky with ice instead of running it from the battery which felt like a crime! I had hoped atleast a dual battery set up would be ready for the trip but... it wasn’t to be.
I shared my location with my best friend just in case we went missing, exchanged a few messages, then triple checked all the doors were locked! I peaked outside to make sure there wasn’t someone lurking around, then managed to fall asleep.
It’s safe to say I was a little bit on the paranoid side which turned out it was all for nothing. I slept fine. My wall and floor insulation kept out the highway traffic noise however I woke up a few times. The first time I woke, I forgot I was in the van, realised I was in a strange bed, momentarily worried about creepers and then fell back asleep.
A low of 9 degrees Celsius was reached outside, however inside wasn’t cold, or hot for that manner. I was warm on my 150mm high density foam mattress and snuggled in with my woolen doona. I also had Bailey and Princess wriggling around to change up the temp every now and again! Most of the time letting the warm air escape!
At 7:30am we woke up, had cereal for breakfast, drove to Glenrowan McDonalds in country Victoria for coffee, then made it to Bondi Beach, New South Wales in time to see the sunset!
I made pasta for dinner (in the van!), Princess and I had a warm shower (in the van!), played Jenga (in the van!), then got ready for bed (in the van!) Can you tell that I am seriously in love with this van!!
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