After collecting our rig, we knew the first step was to do a practice camp in it to learn about how everything works. We organised a weekend away with friends, Michelle and Richard, who had just bought an MDC15 hybrid. Our plan was to meet at 2pm in Perenjori and go out bush to camp for two nights. We were all really looking forward to the weekend.

Thank goodness it was a practice camp! The first thing that went wrong was that John had organised for a small, one hour job to be done on the car. It ended up taking six hours! I rang Richard to tell him we would be late. That was fine because he was also running late. This was his first attempt at towing a caravan but he said it was all going smoothly and he was feeling relaxed. It was four o’clock before we even left home but we thought we would arrive before dark and hopefully miss the kangaroos at dusk.

We were quite shocked at the devastation all the way inland from Cyclone Seroja four weeks previously. There were trees and fences down everywhere. This was my excuse for getting lost. I was driving and John fell asleep. The large sign to Morawa had blown down in the cyclone, so I drove straight passed the turn off. About ten minutes further on, I realised I had gone the wrong way but, with the caravan behind me, I could not turn around. The GPS told me to turn left and so I followed instructions but found myself on a gravel road at dusk with kangaroos hopping all around me and trees uprooted along the road. What a stressful detour it turned out to be. We finally reached Michelle and Richard close to seven o’clock.

Unbeknown to us, Richard had only just arrived himself – minus his caravan! While travelling along at 95kms per hour, the caravan wheel had sheared right off and he ended up in a paddock! Luckily he was unhurt and the van could be fixed. A few of the locals helped him find the wheel and get the van back to town. This was not the start to the weekend we had hoped for! However, we didn’t let it get us down and, instead, decided that John and I would camp on their driveway, we would have the campfire in the back yard, and do a day trip to where we could have camped.

Not to be beaten, Richard built the best campfire!

The next day, we went to explore the local area including Camel Soak, Experimental Farm, John Forrest Lookout and Rothsay. We had a picnic at the lookout and had a great day.