Following our weekend at Buckanderra we copped a fair bit of steady rain at home. This provided our first real opportunity to check for leaks.

Anybody who buys a caravan and thinks it will be perfect clearly has not done any research. So we fully expected that, at the very least, something would go wrong with our new van. The rain proved us right.

At home our van is parked in front of our garage and has a slight lean towards the right hand side, which actually proved to be a beneficial thing. Gravity caused the rain to run down the leading edge on the right hand side and that exposed a couple of gaps in the external silicon seal. This allowed water to get in under the exterior cladding and end up in the bedside corner.   After an email to Supreme they provided us with their warranty service form so that we could have the leak fixed under warranty at no cost.

Post Update: Justin from Capital Caravan Service Centre fixed this leak at no cost as part of our first 3 month / 1500km service. I cannot recommend Capital Caravan Service Centre highly enough. Justin is very easy to deal with, explains the work and is just simply a good, honest bloke who knows his stuff.

Our first chance to get away and ‘field test’ our new van came a few weeks after we towed it back from the Supreme Dealership in Melbourne. Friends of ours have a permanent cabin at Buckanderra Holiday Park so after catching up with them at breakfast we decided to book a powered site there and spend a weekend with them.

Buckanderra Holiday Park is an easy two drive from home that provided an opportunity to get a bit of towing experience without too much of a challenge for that first trip away.

The holiday park itself is set on a large parcel of land on the south-western end of Lake Eucumbene. It is very picturesque even when the water level is low with low rolling hills surrounding it. The night sky is magnificent and sitting under the stars with cracking fire (in a fire tub), with good friends and a glass of red, is very good for the soul.

The van towed beautifully and the landcruiser didn’t miss a beat although it you really do notice the extra effort required when heading up a long hill. The fuel consumption is a real eye-opener but that’s the price you pay when towing a van and you’re not being realistic if you don’t expect that.

All in all it was a perfect first trip with the van. We had a very pleasant and relaxing time with our friends, tested many of the van’s features and got our first taste of hitching up, towing, setting up, living in, tearing down, towing and un-hitching. Looking forward to our next trip.

After picking up ournew van from the Supreme dealership in Melbourne we headed off on our first tow to Holbrook. Holbrook is exactly half-way home from Melbourne and is a postcard country town famous for the the submarine that is centrally located on the main street.

Thanks to the Country Pub Camping website we discovered The Riverina Hotel in Holbrook. Instead of staying in the Holbrook caravan park we stayed for free (unpowered) in the large grassy area behind the pub. As good guests do, we had dinner that night at the pub and it was exceptionally good. The Riverina Hotel in Holbrook also allows campers to use their toilets and showers at no extra cost, which was particularly useful to us since our van’s toilet was not set up to use at that point. We can’t recommend the The Riverina Hotel in Holbrook highly enough… flat level camping area, friendly staff, excellent food, cold beer/wine and good country atmosphere. A perfect place for our first night in our new van.