Wednesday 19 September 2018

So today we pick up the van.  We arrive at the Sydney depot 30 minutes early and are attended to immediately.  Our first assignment is to watch a video which clearly shows us how everything in the van works.  So clearly that it makes no sense to us at all, but we’re not defeated because we have Garry and Di on the road with us and they are old hands at this campervan business.  The lovely Brigette, our French check in person, having first established that we have not only viewed the video but made perfect sense of it then starts a second video which explains that in Australia we are to drive on the left hand side of the road.  In our best Shady Gully accents we quickly advise her that this video is wasted on us and so we move up the ladder to the check in process.  She delights in telling us that we have been upgraded, at no cost to us, and we now have a very new van, with only 8000kms on the clock, which is shorter, higher and with more storage space.  Viva La France!

The paperwork takes about an hour, during which time we dream of beyond this trip.

Eventually we are allowed outside to view our home for the next month.  We paid for this

but instead have got this

She’s a beauty.  And no trouble at all to get to know. Or work.  But, hey, she’s new so there are always teething troubles, right?  The bed just electrically drops from the ceiling.  But first the table must be lowered.  How does that happen again?  Uh oh, Brigette thought she knew, but she can’t remember.  Or perhaps she never knew.  Cherrie suggests that perhaps the big black button on the floor might hold the cue, but Brigette knows that’s not it.  Hang on, she’ll go and ask.  A little (well not too little) time later she returns with a colleague in alarming dreadlocks who depresses the big black button on the floor which lowers the bed.  He smiles and departs.  She presses the bed lowering button.  Nothing happens.  Again and again.  Never mind, we’ll continue the tour and the bed will magically work next time.  “See that switch there?  Don’t touch that.  It doesn’t do anything”.  Memories of the Canal du Midi boat tour…but that’s another story.  Let’s check out the simple control panel, as explained in before mentioned video

Those eagle eyed amongst you may note that I have had a haircut.  The primary reason for our visit to Perth is to attend a wedding in 4 1/2 weeks time and I don’t want to risk anyone cutting my hair except the man who has been doing so for 40+ years.  So today he style-shaved my head so that it would look glorious by the wedding day.  I trust him.  Thousands might not, seeing this photo.

We are shown the gas bottle, the BBQ, the waste water tank, the other waste tank, etc etc.  The bed still doesn’t descend, so Brigette heads off to find dreadlocks while we explore the rest.  We noted that the crockery/cutlery allocation was 2 of everything.  2 knives, 2 forks, 2 plates etc.  Our implores of ‘more please’ bore fruit and so now we have an extravagance of 3 of everything.

Dreadlox returns to show us how to lower the bed.  But he can’t make it work either

Perhaps a closer look will throw some light on the problem

But it’s not to be.  In some desperation Brigette pushes her biro into the reset hole and voila!  The bed lowers.

Dreadlox departs with slightly less smile this time and Brigette heads off to top up the crockery cutlery.  We take this opportunity to make the bed before it descends into the heavens again

 

 

Still no one has returned and so I decide to wind out the awning, which proves simple enough until it doesn’t stop and the mechanism ends up on the ground.

Dreadlox and a mate spend 30 minutes fixing it

 

Eventually, we are signed off and we drive off.

We arrive home shortly after 3pm and spend the next 3 hours loading the van, finding the right hidey holes for everything and generally settling in.  Without actually being in.  We will sleep in our own bed tonight and take off tomorrow.  Who knows, the bed might not descend, the awning might bite the dust, the table might not move.  Let the adventure begin!