During our weekend at Burrinjuck we opened the rear window for the first and encountered our second build fault in the van. Thankfully it was only minor. Whilst winding the window open their was some resistance and we discovered that the rubber window seal had been pinched on both sides under the braces that hold the window open.

Winding the window open caused the window seal to snap on one side and be pulled out of the frame on the other side. It’s an unfortunate build mistake but not the end of the world. A warranty repair request has been sent to Supreme and hopefully we’ll get it fixed in the near future assuming we can still take the van in for the repair.

We’ve been trying to catch up with friends from Sydney, who also own a caravan, and not having any luck finding a weekend that we can both get away. That weekend came on the 21st and 22nd March (as did the first hint of the COVID-19 restrictions).

We decided to meet each other at Burrinjuck Waters Caravan Park. Our drive took us via Yass then turning off on Burrinjuck road to the caravan park. The last ten kilometres were quite narrow and twisty with steep drop-offs, which provided some excellent towing experience both in and out. Luckily we met no traffic coming in the other direction either time. There are a number of spots where passing would be impossible and would require one vehicle to back up to a place where passing is possible.

When we arrived at the park reception, our friends were were at the entry gate and there was a backup of cars and boats. Our friends had gone a bit too close to the raised boom gate and a raised concrete pressure pad had leaned their van in towards the gate and they were effectively trapped not being able to move forward or backwards without damaging their van and/or the gate.

The park’s maintenance guy was busy removing the signs from the raised gate and following that, the tires were deflated on one side of the van and a group of us helped to push the van away from the gate as they managed to just get through with only a minor scratch to the heat venting plates as they went through. This was a great lesson in what can go innocently go wrong and also how you can solve the problem.

Social distancing was a feature of the weekend as COVID-19 was beginning to take a hold on people’s behaviour. Since we were largely disconnected for the weekend it was very interesting to see how much the world and our way of life had changed between lunchtime on Friday, 20th and the afternoon of Sunday 22nd.

The Burrinjuck Waters Caravan Park is a sprawling affair and we opted to go un-powered and have a view of the water from a terraced site on the hillside. The site was large enough to accommodate both our vans and was reasonably level although it did provide an opportunity for us to get the leveling ramps out and get some practice using them.

From then on it was a very relaxing weekend catching up with good friends and enjoying their company. Although the lake was only 38% full at the time it was still quite picturesque and well worth the tricky drive in and out to get there.

The van was very comfortable and going un-powered for the first time gave us a chance to try the gas hot water heater and use the fridge on gas mode. Both worked beautifully although we learned a lesson about the gas fridge. Being new the gas lines into the fridge were empty and when going to gas mode it kept reporting and error. We learned, from our friends, that you need to turn the fridge off and on two or three time before the gas lines get filled thereby enabling the fridge to run on gas. Another good ‘newbie’ lesson learnt.

The weekend passed all to quickly and no sooner did we return home than COVID-19 restricitons starting kicking and it looks like there’ll be no more caravanning for us for the foreseeable future. Hugely disappointing since we were planning to go to Tumut the following weekend. Hopefully things will get better sooner rather than later…