Shake Down Trip

So… COVID-19 put a massive dent in our plans for the Grand Tour… We were originally planning to head off in September 2020. We postponed that to January 2021 but COVID-19 and all the uncertainty of border closures throughout 2020 caused us to push that back to August 2021.

As borders and travel gradually eased during 2020 we managed to get in a number of weekend trips to get used to hitching, towing, parking and all the necessary skills. As of February 2021 the borders are still a bit ‘iffy’ so we decided to take a five week shakedown trip out to Lake Mungo following the Murrumbidgee River via:

The return trip is via Victoria (mostly) along the Murray River (mostly) through:

We were originally intending to spend Easter in Echuca but it was impossible to get a booking hence we dropped south to Rochester on the Campaspe River.

By coming back through Victoria this trip provides us the opportunity to drop down to the Supreme Service Center in Craigieburn (Melbourne) and get a few warranty fixes done to the van.

Our final night will be a stopover at The Plough Inn in Tarrawingee. The Plough Inn is one of the numerous pubs around the country that permit caravans and campers to park (generally at no cost) for a night or two in return for having a meal and drink in the pub. These pubs can be found on a website called Country Pub Camping, which is a no cost website updated by members as they find these pubs.

This trip gives us a chance to live in the van and fully test it over a lengthy series of towing legs and stopovers. We should encounter a range of road conditions from dual lane freeway to country roads and some corrugated dirt roads. Hopefully this will set us up with enough experience to confidently attempt the Grand Tour later in the year.