The Bassett family site
Sometime after our original Puss passed away, we felt that we needed another cat to console us, and found a little mostly black playful bundle at a local vet. We named her Mischief.
Sadly, after only a very short period with us, she was snatched out of Reen’s arms by the somewhat psychotic blue cattle dog that lived next door. Despite rushing her to the vet she was unable to be saved. 😧
We have been blessed with seven grandchildren: (in age order)
All are strong, healthy, exuberant and loving and we love the time—in greater or smaller amounts—that we are able to spend with them.
Charlie is:
Despite all of this she still not completely sure what she wants to be when she grows up 😏
We were blessed by a lovely gift (each) for our birthdays this year―two hand-drawn pictures from Charlie, (one of) our extremely talented granddaughter(s).
I like them so much that as well as posting them on our fridge 😊 I’ve scanned and combined them into the image above. We’re going to use this as the logo for the site from now on. [I must say that I’m not totally convinced that they work as well as I’d like for that, but let’s give it some time and we’ll see.]
We’ve named the puppy “Charles” (he looks too formal to be a Charlie!) and the kitty “Xena” ‘cos she looks just like our Xena the TC.
Hope you like them too.
Reen suggested we try adding a relevant Scripture verse to our panoramas, not sure how it will work out…
This one’s for Reen so I did her two options to choose from; first one…
…and the second one.
When our truck was built (see Truck build progress) one of the things they added was a “house” battery, primarily to run the fridge.
It’s a 100Ah LiFePO4 unit with a Redarc DC-DC charger so that it’s charged from the truck battery while driving, but cannot drain the truck while stopped.
The basic config of the two batteries and the controller is as below:
Truck Battery --> FUSE --> Redarc --> FUSE --> House Battery
The two fuses used were both in-line blade fuse holders, of the style commonly available in all sorts of places, with 60A fuses (see typical pic below, Fig 1).
Now, merely three years on, we’ve had to replace both of the fuse holders; not because the fuses blew but because the holders themselves have failed catastrophically.
The first one, between the truck battery and controller failed about twelve months ago; signified by a cloud of evil-smelling black smoke coming out from the battery compartment beside the passenger seat. Fortunately we could pull over quickly and extinguish the flames with an old cloth without any damage to the truck battery, wiring or compartment.
Just within the last couple of weeks the second one—between the controller and house battery—also failed, although not so spectacularly as the first (which we’re quite thankful for as it was located under the rear seat!). Picture of that failed holder below as Fig 2. The fuse element itself is still intact, with end-to-end continuity.
Our (myself and my good mate Richard’s1) considered opinion is that the “robust” ride of the truck led to a reduction in contact between the holder and blade fuse itself, with a commensurate increase in resistance and hence heat at that join point; to such a degree that the holder and body of the fuse itself have melted.
So, where to from here?
Having had my suspicions about exactly this—without necessarily the direct objective evidence—after the first fuse failed, I replaced it with a rather more robust style. The MIDI fuse is a compact bolt-down format that eliminates possible contact weakening, see Fig 3 for a typical unit and Fig 4 for one installed. I have now replaced the second failed blade fuse with a MIDI one also.
I can only conclude that it is very hard to recommend blade fuses in such a situation. They obviously can and do exist and work successfully in motor vehicles, as the vast majority of vehicle fuses are of the blade type, albeit in mini or micro form-factors. Perhaps the combination of the larger, heavier blade AND not having the holder firmly affixed to the vehicle chassis has contributed to the failures. I guess we can’t know for sure; but I will certainly think very carefully about using them in future.
We’re trying something new! We’ve been trying to work out what to put in a couple of blank spaces on the CARDIS walls, and have hit on the idea of printing out a couple of our nicer (in our eyes) photos as panoramic prints.
In the next few weeks we’ll try one of them, and if it works then at least one more. They’re not super expensive to print—somewhere around the $150 mark for the one meter by 300mm size—so we can afford to experiment a little. And if we get tired of one, we can donate it and do another.
Anyhow, the first two that we’re thinking of doing are just below. If, after some time, there’s still only those two here, then this obviously didn’t work out quite like we’d planned. If it does work out, we’ll put up a few more as we process them; hope you enjoy 😇
BONUS EXTRA: Reen suggested adding a relevant Scripture verse to each one…
This one is for Nyssa, and is a different aspect ration to the others.
** and no Scripture verse for this one either…
This was a beautifully preserved historic private chapel just out of Uralla, in the NSW Northern Tablelands.
This list is (hopefully) arranged alphabetically by town, with the site we’ve stayed at, when we stayed and some relevant commentary about that site. Note that we would rarely comment on amenity blocks as we almost never use them!
Almost all sites are power/water equipped—while technically we can free-camp we almost never do as we generally don’t carry water (pending finalisation of our weight concerns 🤨).
Showground | 202605
Well laid out, choose your own site, some slope a bit
Gold Nugget Tourist Park, Epsom (just a little north of Bendigo itself) | 202509
Not too bad, they made a good effort to accommodate our large rig
Broken Hill Outback View Holiday Park | 202511
Weirdest caravan park we’ve ever been to, didn’t see anyone at the office the whole time we were there. Site was OK, with plenty of room and the park wasn’t particularly busy
Showground |202606
Big area, busy over weekends but quieter during the week. Gave us a double site which was good. Gets slippery/boggy quickly if it rains
<<private property>>
Not generally available
Cassilis Bowling Club | 202511, 202508
Not a huge number of power/water sites and some fairly small. Generally not too busy though, and we love it 🥰
Cobar Caravan Park | 202511, 202408
About the only power/water option in town. Had a concrete pad site the first time, which was pretty good, but a non-clearly-marked “expansion” (i.e pretty much just red dirt!) site the second stay was was less so
Showground | 202509, 202312
Very friendly and accommodating, second time there the show was setting up but they let us stay anyhow (they’d mixed up dates on facebook)
Showground | 202508
Nice grassy sites, some big enough for us to drive-through.
Showground | 202509
Adequate, right beside the train line. Quite busy, probably because of the proximity to the Spirit of Tasmania docks
Showground | 202511
Lots of space, choose your own site. Was pretty dry when we were there but that would vary.
<<private property>>
Not generally available
Shiloh Hills Park | 202509
Well set-up for camping of all descriptions, plenty of space and a variety of sites. Fantastic bushland setting, although getting there needs careful thought (owners can recommend a reasonable route).
Showground | 202509
Beaut little country showground, didn’t seem to be a huge number of sites but neither was it very busy.
Showground | 202508, 202310
Fairly well set-up with gate security. Van area is mostly barren so is dusty when dry and boggy when wet. Sites are not very large so can be a little cramped. It is, however, about the closest showground to Sydney (heading north).
Showground | 202509
Fairly contained area for camping, some sites are quite small but caretaker generally allocates larger sites as needed. Was quite busy the whole time we were there.
Showground | 202606, 202410
Some undercover sites, although limited ones for larger/higher vans. Seems to have a separate area for longer-term stays (perhaps mine workers?)
Peterborough Caravan Park | 202511
Not a huge park, but a fair number of larger sites, and managers happy to allocate two if needed.
Discovery Parks Port Augusta | 202509
Fairly busy park and not terrific access for a large rig. Sites variable in quality and little monitoring by management (the one we were originally allocated had a “squatter” when we arrived and we ended up on a rather more sloped one!)
Port Campbell Recreation Reserve | 202509
Great location with a mix of grassy and bushland, large and smaller sites. Some slope a bit or are a fair distance from power/water. No onsite staff.
Quorn Caravan Park | 202510
Only power/water site option in town, but plenty of sites available and most seem quite large.
Rawnsley Park Station Campground | 202510
Fabulous location in the heart of the Flinders Ranges. Plenty of sites and huge variety. Staff very accommodating of large rigs.
Showground | 202605
Large grounds with plenty of sites of varying sizes/ground coverage (mostly grassy)
<<private property>>
Not generally available
Showground | 202606
Huge showground with several distinct camping areas.
Tumby Bay Caravan Park | 202510
Fairly busy, even in shoulder season. Not a huge number of large sites, but staff helpful
Showground | 202606
Large area, plenty of grassy sites, some slope a bit. Not at all busy when we were there—but it was winter!
Discovery Foreshore Caravan Park | 202510
Sites along the foreshore itself are lovely, but crowded a bit by some bit trees and fairly narrow. Looked to be some permanents/long-termers up the other end.
I must admit that I wasn’t originally planning to do any more “annual review” type posts past the original two already posted (The first 12 months and 2 years; and still on the road), but Reen convinced 🍳me that I should!! Here we go…
Reen’s overall summary of her year is that she’s generally started to actually feel well as she continues to recover/heal, and consequently has really begun to enjoy life on the road more than she had been.
For me, I think that my overall impression is that we’ve seemed to travel more this last year than in either of the first two. Reen noted as we were thinking about this review that all of the “trips” this last year had been centred around visiting family, and of course we still had quite some time in Sydney with our grand/kids 😉
As we continue to adapt to living in our mobile luxury unit, we find little things to make life easier and more comfortable. This last year these additions include:
Diesel heater: after the trip along the Great Ocean Road in winter, we came back and decided to have a diesel heater installed (in summer!!) Haven’t used it “for real” yet, but we certainly will (I’m writing this at Stanthorpe, in June, and it’s rather chilly 🥶).
Bedroom fan: as a counterpoint to the above, we’ve also added a 12v wall-mounted fan to the bedroom.
12v Kitchen Outlet: somewhere along the track we picked up a 12v sandwich press, so needed an Anderson Plug outlet in a convenient location in the kitchen for it. It works really well and is remarkably versatile; does a good job with sausages, for example.
UV water filter: reasonably early on Reen discovered that she wasn’t dealing very well with the changes in drinking water as we moved around. We did buy a distiller, which worked well and sorted the problem, but was a bit of an impost to use continually. We fell back to using bottled water, again solved the issue but the cost does add up and it does still add a layer of inconvenience. We’d looked at a filter setup including a UV steriliser at the Rosehill RV show in 2025 but hadn’t bought it; we took advantage of some “downtime” in Newcastle to go to the RV show there in January and buy it.
Starlink: we’ve had a standing offer from Joel to use his (old v2) Starlink dish on the table, but have always previously been concerned about the plan pricing. When we received an offer from SpaceX for a 50G per month (since upped to 100G) plan at half-price for two years, we decided to take it up. With assistance from Richard, we ran a network lead from the router to the kerb-side rear external hatch and installed a 240v GPO in there to run the power/connection brick. I added a careful notch to the bottom of the door for the cable and fixed rubber feet to the legs of the the dish. Putting it up/down each stop is a little painful—ideally I’d like to swap to a “mini” but Starlink have tied the discount plan to the old hardware 😒. Even so, it works really well as is!
Perch for Xena: Xena, our younger TC, loves looking out of the 5R and seeing what’s going on around us. She would often sit on the back of Reen’s lounge, but if *anything* interesting was happening she could not stop swishing her tail, slapping Reen in the process 🤣. To give her another option, we installed a shelf above the towel rail across the end window of the slide-out. Added a carpet off-cut and she’s one happy little kitty 🐱
Folding clothes drier: one of the perennial life-on-the-road problems is drying your washing. We have a portable fold-up line for outside, and a line we can put onto the awning arms, but sometimes stuff is best inside… Somewhere along the track (maybe a Bunnings magazine??) we found a folding airer. It fits perfectly in our shower and opens out to provide about 4m of rails for washing. It’s occasionally annoying to have to move stuff to shower in the morning, but a very small inconvenience overall compared to the added value.
… with a little commentary against each one as appropriate.
I was planning to write quite a bit more but this is pretty long already , so we’ll close off with some final thoughts summarising how we feel.
This year I’m really enjoying:
For me, this year—especially our long trip—re-affirmed that I love life on the road. No lawns to mow (unless I’m helping out somewhere), no house (as such) to maintain/extend2, and a constantly changing environment to see and explore and enjoy—including my absolute favourite, small country towns 🤩