Day 1 of our Big Caravan Trip

There’s not much more startling to someone sound asleep than the sound of their alarm, especially at 5:00! Anyway that was the sound that kicked off the first day of our ‘Big Caravan Trip’. Karen and I were soon up, showered, breakfasted and packing the last few things into our Hilux and the caravan. By 6:00 we were on the Mornington Peninsula freeway and making our way towards Melbourne with lots of early rising commuters. The trip was pretty smooth apart from merging traffic at regular points. Anyway, by about 7:40 we were crossing the Westgate Bridge and heading out of the heavy traffic. Just after Bacchus Marsh we swapped over and Karen took a turn at driving. The trip was pretty good apart from the inevitable roadworks along the way. We stopped for toilet breaks and snacks a couple of times along the way. In what seemed no time at all it was nearly 14:00 and we were near Dimboola so we stopped at a wayside picnic area for lunch.

This was followed by an afternoon nap to catch up on some of the sleep we had missed last night before resuming. About 15:00 we realised that we had done enough driving and decided we would stop at Nhill for the night. We checked into the caravan park, even scoring a Seniors discount rate! Karen was pleased we could secure a drive through spot so we didn’t have to put her backing skills to the test as she was in the driver’s seat.

Once parked we set up the van then took a walk into the town to buy a few food items plus a couple of other things we realised we had left at home. Our walk back to the caravan park saw us pass the ubiquitous CWA restroom building, an iconic feature of any Australian country towns.

Back at the van we tested out the showers in the amenities block – really good. They even had heater globes. We heated up one of the pre-cooked meals I had prepared back at home for dinner. After checking our emails and reading up about the next leg of our journey we hit the sack for a well earned long sleep. The new topper we had custom made for our caravan bed made sleep even better.