Today is Saturday the 22nd of September, our second official day on the road.

So much has happened since settling the house...the day after settlement, bank cheque in hand, Andrew flew to Brisbane to pick up our Toyota Workmate that we had paid to have inspected (inspection report with a brilliant result) and had put a deposit on, through a company called Queensland Wholesale Cars at Southport. Long and short of it, not even 50 kms down the road the car was blowing so much smoke that cars were winding their windows up and high beaming Andrew. He pulled over, called RACQ, they towed the car to Diesel Australia and the next morning they examined it. We were told that it could cost up to $30,000 to have it fixed, as it could be anything from the injectors needing replacing up to the engine needing to be striped and refitted!!!

Needless to say, the car was returned and our cheque given back to us.

We continued to search for a secondhand car and thankfully the people we were buying the van off of were happy to wait for us. We found another car, this time a private sale in Brisbane, so off we headed from the Coconut in Cairns to hopefully pick up the car. On the way to Townsville, we were waiting to hear from RACQ as they were doing an inspection on it for us and the report came in about an hour before we arrived at Townsville. It wasn't 100%, which we expected for a secondhand car, but what needed repairing was going to cost too much. Again, the long and short of it, when we got to Townsville we bought a 2012 Nissan Patrol ST, as they gave us a good deal (saving $11,000).

Buying a new car has put a huge strain on our budget though and we have had to reassess a few things, but it has been worth it to know that we are safe and the whole set up runs so smoothly.

With car and caravan we stayed at Dad and Mum's in South Johstone for a week and a half to sort out our gear. They have been so good to us by storing our items and assisting in any way they could. Yesterday was our first official day on the road where we went from Dad and Mum's to Paronella Park, ~10kms down the road! Paronella Park is a must, we had a fantastic tour in the morning, the kids bought a souvenir each, we relaxed around the van, the kids spotted a bandicoot under the van and at 8:30pm we went on a night tour, with the tour guide being the owner (Mark). Just brilliant.

Today we've come through to Bluewater Park, a freecamp about 30kms north of Townsville. So quiet, with a great playground for the kids and walking tracks to enjoy.

Stay turned, goodness knows what we'll get up to next....