A Clayton's Camp

There was an ad on TV a few years ago for Clayton's - the drink you have when you're not having a drink. This week I took the  boys on a Clayton's camp - the camp you have when you're not having a camp.

Timothy has been down from Mackay for about a fortnight and I thought he should have an overnight in the van while he was here. I couldn't leave Cory and Hudson so I took all three of them for an exciting evening at Pelican Park at Clontarf, a good fifteen minutes from home. We had intended to set off mid afternoon but I discovered that Krista had cooked chicken and roast veges. A crispy-skinned roast potato is one of the foods which can change my plans in an instant. We had dinner before we left and arrived on the Redcliffe Peninsula in the cool of the early evening.

I learned a lot from taking Cory, Hudson and Cooper to Goombungee. Even though Tim is older (11) and I wasn't expecting too much nonsense, I knew that attempting to settle the boys too early was not a good idea. Pelican Park is not really a camping area. There is a very busy boat ramp and large parking bays which now seem to be overnight spots for up to a dozen travellers. With the Information Centre, boat ramp, picnic area and children's playground, there have to be good facilities so we did what good campers do and used the toilets, showers, and barbecue as though we weren't a mere 15km from home.

We had a bit of a wander around, checking on the tide (going out), the boats (a couple of tinnies tied up), and making sure that our van was a reasonable distance from others.. But I couldn't put bedtime off forever. After the Goombungee weekend, I had decided that three people could be comfortable and four was a squeeze. So, with four of us, I was prepared for yet another squeeze. What I wasn't prepared for was a night of musical beds. Tim stayed on the floor but moved his head from one end of the mattress to the other a few times. Hudson started in the double bed but complained that he was hot. Cory was happy to swap with him as he had decided that his bed was too narrow. Cory and I experimented with making the double bed work. We tried both heads at the same end and then top to tail. We slept across the width of the van and then tried sideways on the bed, which suited him but left me with either head or feet overflowing onto the bench.

However, eventually we all slept - and got up early, for cereal in the barbecue area and a half hour in the playground. By then we had reached 6.30am, far to early to go home. You can't call it even a Clayton's camp if it is less that twelve hours. For more than forty years, our kids have gone to the Cotton Tree Forest at Scarborough, also known as the climbing trees. That's where we went next, knowing that they could fill in quite a bit of time. Of course, this was followed by a visit to the Shields Street cafe and my first coffee of the day, before arriving home at about 11.30.

Each time I go out in the van, I find something else that I would like to change. I will definitely have to do something about the single bed as the boys are all growing tall and need a full length bed. I have bought a folding solar panel and will find out a bit more about it soon. I am not in a hurry to do anything as I plan to spend a few weeks travelling by myself before I make any modifications. But in the meantime I am slowly preparing for the next big adventure.

Introducing Angel

I am ready to travel again. I am so excited to finally have a motorhome. I have been looking for most of the year. After checking all sorts and all sizes of vehicle, I decided that the Mercedes Sprinter was definitely what I wanted but everything I could afford had huge mileage, Then, by a stroke of luck I checked Search Queensland instead of Search Brisbane and there, at Trinity Bay,was exactly what I wanted. By a further stroke of fortune, my son Greg was going to Cairns on business. He checked it out, recommended it and voila! I had a motorhome.

Truly, I landed on my feet - or on my wheels! The van was previously an ambulance and had been done up by Paul and Belinda. They couldn't do enough to make life easy for me, taking it to Cairns for Greg to check, taking it again for a RACQ master check, fixing the one thing that needed attention and then, very kindly, replacing tyres even though they were legal. I'm sure they realised that I would love the van and travel with joy, which I certainly plan to do.

My brother in law John flew to Cairns and drove it back over a few days, stopping with relatives in Mackay, Rockhampton and Tinana. Angel had been checked out by lots of family before she arrived in my driveway. Until I go away at the end of January, the van is there to be used. I had the long weekend (G20 in Brisbane) visiting my sister Cecily in Goombungee on the Darling Downs where the weather is generally very mild. The temperature reached 41c. Praise the lord for good air conditioning! This weekend Greg and Nikki have taken Cooper and Mia to the Gold Coast, in rain and storms - but nothing like the golf-ball sized hailstones which battered the poor van last week.

When the little boys first saw the van, they noticed the shadow of the paramedic logo and asked, 'Why are there angel wings on the windows?' Deciding that the protection of angel wings would be the most reassuring way to go, I have christened her Angel so I will be travelling with an Angel. Actually, I will have two angels as my GPS Kerry has been my guardian angel in former travels - what could be safer. (And if the worst were to happen, I'd have two angels to take me straight to heaven. Not that I am planning for that but I believe that when your time is up, the best way to go is when you are doing something you love.)

My Angel.
In a certain light you can see the angel wings on the windows -
 and also the word Ambulance with the 000 emergency number.

All the comforts of home, sink fridge, microwave,
double bed at the back, single bed on the side,
seats for 4, as well as porta potti and shower.
The colour scheme will eventually be shades of blue.

Looking in the back, bed and extra mattress,
 single bed partly underneath, storage in the rear
and the hot water tank.

My three Brisbane grandsons (Cooper, Hudson and Cory) the day Angel arrived.

First trip away, a weekend in downtown Goombungee
Cooper asleep on double bed, Cory on the single,
Hudson on the mattress on the floor;