Back when Val and I had only known each other a couple of weeks, we went off on a camping trip with our friends. It all went disastrously wrong, and I wrote about it on a website that I had at the time.
I no longer use that old website, but thought the story was worth recounting (with the pictures) here on our new site.
So here it is… The Camping Trip From Hell.
Here are some pictures of Knibby, Adam, Me, Val, Katie and the other Simon, getting into a bit of trouble when Simon and Katie’s van broke down last weekend (03.01.04).
We were on are way to a friends property near to the Hunter Valley and the Wollimi National park. Those of you that have been there with me know it’s worth the journey. Friends of mine, Simon and Katie, may now disagree with you. We were originally going to have 3 tents and the camper van for 6 of us to sleep in. Plenty of room. But we ended up setting out with only 1 tent and the van (after some unplanned errors). Enough room though still, 3 in the tent, 3 in the van. Sorted. Off we go.
The van gave up about a 3rd of the way down a 12 km dirt track that is best only taken by 4WD vehicles. I pulled up at the side of the road, so that we could push the van and try and get it started.
We started to push (it’s worth noting that the road is not only very rough but also a series of steep slopes and it was 42 degrees C that day. Hard work.) We couldn’t do it.
Plan B. Get the van moving by towing it with my car and then jump-start it. Now this is where the real fun started. As Simon tried to start the van there was a massive backfire. Val and Katie, who where behind the van at the time went deaf for 5 minutes afterwards. We learned the next day that fuel had collected in the exhaust and when the engine fired it blew the muffler into tiny bits. We didn’t know this yet.
Simon sitting in the front of the van and hearing the explosion lifted the engine cover, which in this model of van, is between the driver seat, and the front passenger seat. Seeing that the engine appeared to still be in one piece he jumped out of the van to see if everyone else was ok. As he did this, he took off his shirt, and threw it through the driver side window. Can you guess what happened next kids…
The engine cover was still up and his shirt got sucked into the motor fan. Rapped itself round the fan and the alternator and managed to make the fan belt fall off. The Van was now well and truly Buggered!
We gave up on the van because there was only about an hour and a half of day light left and we needed to get at least the one tent set up. So I drove Val, Knibby and Adam down the rest of the road to my friend Julia’s house, (who’s property we were on) to tell her what had happened and see what we could do.
We went down to one of the valleys and Knibby and Adam set up camp, while Val and I went back for Simon and Katie. We’d been gone for and hour and a half so they were pretty pissed off. Simon seemed quite disturbed when I told him Julia had given us some pressure bandages encase one of us got bitten by a snake. “A SNAKE! You didn’t say there would be any snakes!”
We settled in for the night. 2 in the car, 4 in the 3 man tent. 
The Fly’s were so bad the next morning. I know now why we have two nostrils. While your trying to dislodge a fly from one you can still breath out of the other. Opening your mouth is a definite no no.
We got a guy from the local town to fix the van the next day.Have you ever seen the movie Deliverance? Oh,
doesn’t matter.The van moved about 300 yards AFTER HE’D DRIVEN OFF.Note: mobile phones don’t work out there.So we were back to square one. We had to get the Van back to the main road (in Australia this means one with tarmac on it) before the
NRMA, the Australian AA, would even look at it.
We got the van back by towing it to the tops of the hills and rolling it down to the bottom. This took about 2.5 hour and would have been quite amusing for you to see. Adam, Knibby and I running after the van as it sped off down the hills.
The NRMA came in the end and Fixed the van although Simon and Katie had to drive it all the way back to Sydney with no muffler, so it sounded like a tractor.
I don’t think Simon and Katie will be going back. But as those of you that have braved the journey (Knibby, Ash, Sam, Anny, Tim, Mum and Carlton) know, it’s well worth the effort once you get there and spend some time. Miles from any other human beings. The snake bites are worth risking.
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Val and Ella went to the cinema during the week to see Ocean’s 13.
