It is not often that we travel on a Sunday but after Church on 18 January we left Granville heading to Travelhome in Cardiff. The traffic going north was quite good and we travelled well and were able to park in their front car park and set up off grid for the night. We were back there for some planned work on the lounge slide room and also having a diesel heater installed.
On Monday morning we had a visit from Bryn (original builder) who advised that we move into the shed for investigative work on the slide. After exploring the issue and taking the workings apart it was found that one of the cogs had two broken teeth so a replacement was ordered (arrived the next day) and installed; still no joy. Early Friday morning Jim K (original Summer Life owner) visited and investigated the issue and suggested another idea to try to solve the issue which meant more parts to be ordered; hopefully they arrive on Tuesday.
After googling for activities occurring in Newcastle over the Australia Day weekend we booked tickets on an Adrenalin cruise for Saturday morning. On a lovely sunny day we climbed on board the boat and sat at the front (supposedly the thrill seeker seats) and for the next two hours enjoyed cruising south along the coast just past Caves Beach. We saw some of the magnificent coastline, beaches, desalination platform (under construction), caves and many pods of dolphins; it was great.
A second week of work by the Travelhome guys was somewhat frustrating—although we did discover quite a few things that *weren’t* the problem😉 We had a day-trip back to Sydney (Villawood) to collect some parts from the distributor and snuck in an early dinner with some of the grandkids.
It did mean yet another weekend at Cardiff, so we took advantage of the Newcastle Caravan Camping Lifestyle Expo and had a morning out looking around at what is new and trending. We must be getting old, ‘cos we “ran out of steam” well before we ran out of exhibition!
Another week in the Travelhome shed and still more parts that didn’t really solve the issue—this time handed over via a chain of friends/family and another day-trip; this time to Wollongong for the funeral of a former pastor.
Into our fourth week at Cardiff and a final lot of parts (by mail this time): we seem at last to be making real progress (which is a really good thing, as we’re pretty much out of parts to replace!)
Celebrations all ’round as the slide mechanism goes back together and works perfectly! At last we’re out of the shed and into the driveway and then the front carpark for finalisation of the trim fixing—and testing the new heater (bet you forgot that this was installed a few weeks back 😀).
All is good and we head off back to Granville on Thursday 12 February after nearly a month in beautiful downtown Cardiff!
