But that time has hurried right past, thanks to Delta. Mellow now. ATGANI, with us inside, coulda been making tracks into SA’s top right corner and QLD’s bottom left corner about now. (Had we actually been on the road, I’m sure we would have bolted across the QLD border soon after the maskless limo driver surfaced.) Instead, our “finished” van is proudly displayed in a sales yard at Erina, or is more probably languishing in the muddy paddock out the…
Can we ever leave? NSW has just extended its current lockdown for a further 2 weeks – until Friday, July 30 – and even that seems optimistic to us. Delta strain and forgetting to stay-at-home are taking their toll. No great surprise because we don’t want to stay-at-home either! There must be a silver lining! Good news – there are at least two silver linings coming our way. The first is that we have not yet let the flat. That…
At least they will, until we get an awning for ATGANI. Our position in the you’ve-never-seen demand-like-this awning queue is exactly the same as the nation’s position in the vaccine queue: “right at the front” – and we know how well that’s gone! I’m going to have to strangle the next person who says “unprecedented times”. It turns out that there’s a world-wide shortage of caravan equipment which includes those awning thingies that you hang off the side and extend…
Thursday June 17 was a red letter day for us. The mighty (we hope) ATGANI was finally taken out of its container cocoon, processed through customs and then towed to Erina for the fit-out completion. Impressively, it was attached to a 4×4, the wires were plugged in and the brakes and lights worked – it’s first real life adventure. Even better, customs found no drugs! Two days later, Saturday weather was foul but we went to see it anyway. It…
When we left our heroes last time, it was mid-May and our ship was still a mystery. But then we found it – the Maersk Semakau, and so we started tracking it by way of free apps. It wandered, seemingly aimlessly, certainly slowly, around Qingdao, Yokahama, Shanghai, Hong Kong and eventually turned south, destination Botany (Sydney) to arrive around May 30. Maersk then rescheduled it so that meant Sydney June 5. But, finally moving closer. It’s made it to Australian…
ATGANI is on the water – at least that’s what they say! An incorrect window fitting had to be re-installed and that has caused further delay. At first, it was estimated at three days but the reality has turned into three weeks. Nonetheless, it (allegedly) shipped on the 10th of May and is heading for Sydney. Name of the ship? We don’t yet know. So we cannot track it to see whether it disappears somewhere in the South China Sea….
It’s early May and your intrepid travellers, Lesley & Trevor, are about 8 weeks away from setting off around Australia in our caravan called ATGANI. This name comes from the ancient languages and roughly translates as “wildly enthusiastic”. Over time, we aspire to reach the higher and more mindful state of ATGASI which retains the enthusiasm, tempered with a modicum of wisdom. ATGANI has not yet been delivered, but we have a well-accessorised tug to pull it and endless equipment…