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To buy, or not to buy

Since arriving in Melbourne I have been spending quite a bit of time in McDonald's. Not because I like their food (on very rare occasions do I eat a McDonald's meal), but because they were the most convenient place for free internet access. Well, free together with a small purchase. So I have been enjoying quite a few McDonald's Chocolate Sundaes and Cappuccinos… And to be honest, they make a reasonable cappuccino, so it wasn't all bad.

My main reason for hanging out where I could get internet was so I could check out gumtree. I had started out planning this trip thinking I would buy a camper and then sell it at the end of my stay. Reading up on what would be required I thought better of it and decided to just rent. Also, the idea of not being able to sell it at the end weighed heavily.

But somewhere on the way I came upon another site that basically said, "you're crazy if you rent". So I reconsidered. And studied some more. And found a workable solution. That solution is to only look at Western Australia registered campers. The information online is sometimes contradictory, but about WA rego they all agree: easy, cheap, doable.

So, by the time I got to Melbourne, I was back to thinking I'd buy. Ergo, my many visits to the McD.

Before the weekend I had sent out a number of mails and texts (using my pre–paid, local mobile number) and had managed to make a viewing appointment for a camper van that looked promising.

So, the viewing appointment was Monday, 1 pm. Turned out Candy from gumtree was Candice and her boyfriend, two nice and friendly young people that were selling the van because they were being kicked out of the parking garage where they had stashed it. They were open and forthright about the van, showing me the engine, the papers, how to setup the sleeping area. It was looking good.

And, of course, I asked for a test–drive. No problem, was expected. So out we went. I let the guy drive out of the garage (they had let out a little air to be able to fit through and even then, at the exit we scraped the roof with the back of the van a little) and to a little less busy part of Melbourne before taking over.

This was the first time since the previous summer that I drove in a RHD vehicle on the left side (last time was a short visit to England for the trashhh in 2014 where I drove to the location in a rental car) and Melbourne has some weird crossings for right turns, so I was a bit nervous driving. And because the wheels were a bit flat, turning was pretty heavy, especially going slow.

But all in all, it felt okay. It's an old vehicle with a lot of kilometres already on it, and that was apparent in the way it drove, but nothing stood out that was telling me this was a lemon. So, after asking if I could think about it a little, I went my own way to meet up with Sam. He said he had another viewer directly after me, so he asked me to come back with an answer quickly.

While Sam and I were enjoying a cappuccino and a cheese cake I was thinking if I should do it. It took me a while, but after asking through SMS if we could do the sale on Wednesday (I had a little cash flow problem with one bank not letting me get money from the ATM and the other limiting the amount per day) and if he could sweeten the price a little (yes, he could drop $200), I was just on the verge of texting him "yes" when I got a text from him saying sorry, the next viewer had bought it.

Crap.

He texted me he thought I might be relieved by that news, because I had been nervous. Well, yes, I'd been nervous, but that was from the traffic and the left–hand driving right off the bat in an old not–mine vehicle that was heavy on the steering…

But, oh well. Nothing to do about it. I immediately fell back to my old plan, renting, because by now it was too late to setup other potential camper van sellers. We had to get to Brisbane by Sunday, so we had to leave Tuesday or maybe Wednesday at the latest to have a stress–free journey.

I called Jucy campers, and luckily they had enough campers in Melbourne for us to pick one up the next day.

And so…

Going somewhere

Last post: 2011. Way to keep up the blog, man…

You'll have to have patience to see and read about the rest of the 2011 summer trip in Albania. Maybe forever. Depends if I can remember enough to write it up in a way that will be interesting. And on me keeping up this blog thing from now on.

So, to just completely start off with new stuff, here's another plan.

In short: a long flight from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, to Melbourne, Australia, via Dubai, United Arab Emirates. A weekend of racing, watching the Formula One 2015 opening race in Melbourne. Then to Brisbane, for the 2015 trashhh, which will be somewhere around those parts. And then probably a rental camper or a second–hand camper for a road trip up the coast, heading to Cairns.

I'm still pretty flexible. The only fixed things are the flights there and back, the F1 race and the trashhh weekend (which will not be in the weekend, but mid–week). The rest will sort out itself, I reckon. ;)

If you have ideas or suggestions, feel free to drop me a line…

The Plan

This year the annual trashhh reunion is being held in Albania. The trashhh organisers insist that it's a wonderful country to spend some time in. So I decided, what the hell, I've been to nearly every trashhh weekend since the very start, so I should be there in Albania, too.

So the plan is to drive down there from Amsterdam. That's about 2.200 kilometres. And Google Maps tels me I can do it in about a day.

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But that's not the plan. The plan is to load up my car with (mostly) old camping gear and see if I still remember how to set up a tent. I have exactly a week (Friday to Friday) to get to my destination, so that should be more than enough to take it fairly easy.

I was thinking of aiming for south Germany for the first day of driving, probably somewhere south of Augsburg. Then the next day push through to the vicinity of Trieste, Italy.

From Trieste to Albania is more than 14 hours driving according to Google Maps, but part of that is probably because it's sending me on a detour with a ferry. Google hasn't gotten round to mapping Bosnia and Herzegovina for some reason, apparently, as it's unable to route through there. Which is the reason, I assume, it sends me on a detour with a ferry to stay in Croatia, instead of through Bosnia and Herzegovina. So I'm guessing the real time to get from Trieste to Albania is a bit less than 14 hours. Still, not something to do in 1 day, so say we split that distance in two and do about 7 hours both days.

That comes down to 4 days of driving, with three days of about 7 hours driving and one of about 5. But I have 7 days to get there. So I'll probably drive the two days to get to Trieste back to back and then spread out the rest of the trip over the remaining 5 days. I just need to find the places I want to camp at between Trieste and Albania. Any suggestions?

I haven't implemented comments on this site (and probably won't), so feel free to send any suggestions, tips, warnings, to my twitter account: @thijso. I will really appreciate anything you send to me. And if you know me, and therefore know my e-mail, feel free to send it there!

Road trip to Albania

Plans for this summer: road trip to Albania!