Current Newsletter

Happy New Year everyone. We start out eighth year of Newsletters with, in actual fact, quite some news.

I received an email from John & Greta Honeyman. They have opened up their Grampians property to totally self-contained caravanners and motorhomers. I've added their email below as it sounds like something some of us may take up.

Hi,
I was wanting to know if I can advertise with you or get our caravan and mortorhome stay known to your club as a possible holiday destination for your members.

We are starting out and we think we have a good place to offer fully self sufficient caravan people and a very reasonable rate. I will include a description of what we offer and you can also check us out on our website www.grampiansoldmanemustay.com.au

We are offering a quiet and peaceful 100 acres for fully self sufficient caravan and motorhomers to relax and enjoy the beautiful bushland and scenic views with the Grampians to the west and Blackranges to the east.

You are welcome to wander around and watch the native animals, such as Kangaroos, Emus, Deer, birds and other wild life, also the White Suffolk Sheep Stud that are on the property. We are offering unpowered sites near a large dam with camp fire areas and shade trees (wood supplied).

We are catering for the fully self sufficient caravan and motorhomers that have their own, power, water, showers and toilets.

The surrounding area is growing fast and offering great services in Halls Gap and the Grampian's region. In our immediate area there is a winery and zoo only1 km away. Entertainment such as festivals, art and flower shows, the Halls Gap and Pomonal markets that are on during the year. With many more wineries and attractions in the area such as lake Fyans and Lonsdale (boating) and Bellfield for fishing, swimming also rock climbing, hiking, bush walking, mini golf or just relaxing . Horse riding instructor available by appointment.

Only 10 minutes for Halls Gap offering Ambulance, Police and Fire service, it also has a good shopping centre. A Chemist on duty 6 days a week, a choice of restaurants, cafes and a bakery. Pomonal is 5 minutes away with a Fire service, local general store and a Hotel. We are 25 minutes from Stawell, 35 minutes from Ararat, both offering a wide range of services, shopping also laundries are available in Stawell at 21 Main St and Ararat at 38 High St . We are just 2 1/2 hours from Melbourne and well worth the drive. The price is $15.00 per night for the first 4 people and then $2.00 per person after that.

Our website is www.grampainsoldmanemustay.com.au

Thank you for taking the time to read my email, I hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Safe and Happy New Year
Kind Regards
John & Greta Honeyman

JB also sent around an email about meeting at a "free-camp" close to and before Maryborough. There is a nominal charge as JB outlined to us. If you didn't get his email and want to know more, email JB (jbooth3042@optusnet.com.au) or me (webmaster@cccov.net). Thanks JB.

Elyse Peverell from the Caravan Super Center in Campbellfield, also emailed with a potential proposition. I believe Secretary Neville has it in hand and will let us know what transpires.

Australian Campsites has developed a new website http://www.australiancampsites.com.au/
I quote from it:
"Our site has been created to identify camping locations around Australia. From Victoria (VIC) to New South Wales (NSW) to South Australia (SA), we provide in-depth information regarding these camping spots, along with some useful information to assist in preparing for that perfect camping trip". Have a look, it's well worth it.

The Woolman Family Group of Holiday Parks have locations we may be interested in visiting as a club: Hopkins River near Warrnambool on the Great Ocean Road, Halls Gap in the Grampians, Yarrawonga on Lake Mulwala and Bowen in the Whitsundays. They say "Stay 5 consecutive nights at any of our parks, on any site, and we'll give you an extra night FREE so you can enjoy more time to relax or explore. (That's 6 nights for the price of 5). Plus you'll enjoy FREE use of the meeting rooms, complimentary nibbles for a Happy Hour for your club and late checkout until noon. Worth knowing for future Rally planning.

President Brett again has not disappointed members as he's the first with a "Members Article" for 2015. Read about satellite receivers, and his regular President's Report, of course.

Visiting our website as a guest? Own a Coromal or a Windsor caravan? Want to join our Club? Now you can. Complete the "Contact Us" form on this website and let your desire known to our Committee or email Secretary Neville directly on secretary@cccov.net.

Hint for January: Got a flat tyre? Unable to get a jack under the van's axle? "With a tandem, depending which tyre is flat, you place the spare either behind or in front leaning a solid jack support board against it, then simply drive the van onto the spare wheel. This lifts it high enough to set up the jack & when raised one simply pulls the spare clear to replace the flat."
Hint courtesy Alan's Caravan and Holiday Survival Tips.

Quote for this month: Advice from the ocean: "Be shore of yourself. Come out of your shell. Take time to coast. Avoid pier pressure. Sea Life's beauty. Don't get tide down. Make waves."
Quote courtesy http://www.pinterest.com.

And, with that, it's all I have for this month.
See you in Maryborough.
Travel safe, tow steady.
Alan A

Now that Christmas and the New Year are behind us we can look forward to getting together again at the rallies planned for 2015.

With the next rally at Maryborough on the weekend of 16 -19 January the weather should be great for caravanning. I don’t think we have been to Maryborough before so this should be an interesting weekend for us.

Being part of a club does encourage you to get out and about to areas that you would not probably think about if you were just doing a short trip for a weekend. The friendly company of members when at the rally is also a great feature of being part of a club.

After some recent travels on dirt roads I found, when inspecting the caravan for the next trip some damage done by stones.

Apart from the obvious ‘peppering’ of the metal components under the van there was also two broken feet (plastic ones) on my stabilizer jacks as well as a broken cap on the front storage tube and damage to the conduit for the wiring for the additional Anderson plug and other cables. All in all not too bad but these items will need to be fixed and the general wear and tear from gravel roads monitored as time goes along.

I have previously mentioned to some members that I added some thin insulation around our fridge to help in keeping it cool on hot days. Terry has been trying to source the insulation and has had some success after a lot of trying. I have been able to source a few metres of this product and will be bringing it to the January rally if anyone wants to install it in their van.

The installation is relatively easy once you work out how to slip the fridge forward. This usually requires a number of screws around the frame to be removed and then the rest is easy!!!

The insulation can be cut to size and slipped in beside the fridge and held in place with tape; all too easy.

Looking forward to catching up with everyone at Maryborough in January and please, if you are coming do let the Events Coordinator know.

Living in a rural area we have had access to the Foxtel satellite system for a few years now. As part of travels with our camper trailer and now with the caravan we have been able to take our Foxtel box with us and through a standard dish receiver been able to ‘enjoy’ having access to the full 268 channels provided by Foxtel.

To make this happen I had to provide a mounting bracket for the 80cm dish and install twin antenna cables to the Foxtel box in the van as well as providing a 240v (300 watt) inverter to power the Foxtel system.

I also had to make a shelf for the box to be safely secured while travelling and also to be easily accessible for channel surfing and general maintenance.

Firstly I seconded my son (an electrician) to run the cabling for the antenna as well as the inverter which was going well until he bumped his head under the van and then tended to lose interest after that little event! After some gentle encouragement the install was finished and all tested correct.

The dish was mounted on the rear spare tyre holder by my brother who is quite good with things metal and welding etc. The tripod and cables are all stored in a carry bag which makes for easy setup but only if you remember to take the bag with you!!!

Tuning the dish is a bit of ‘hit and miss’ but with a compass, inline tuner and an app from Wiki camps it is not too hard after you have a few tries. Trees can be a nuisance as well as mountains that get in the way of a direct signal from the satellite which ‘hovers’ some 35,000kms above New Guinea.

Set up takes about 15 minutes and once a signal is established there is no more work required other than to watch your favourite show such as a repeat of Top Gear or other similar ‘educational’ programme. (Ed. Excellent choice of preferred programme Brett.)

The Foxtel receiver is setup for your residential location and will always receive programmes (State news service) for that area. You might choose to use the ‘free to air’ systems that now operate Australia wide and are very similar to the Foxtel to setup. You will need a licence to operate these units which is free but does require to be registered each 6 months for those who are travelling to different locations across the country.

A typical satellite dish and receiver setup (without Foxtel) is around $5-600 for a complete system. These are readily available from a number of retailers both online and over the counter. Generally there are two sized dishes available, a 60cm and 80cm. It seems that the larger dish is more suited to areas where there is a weak satellite signal such as far WA though different forums seem to indicate that there is not a significant difference in the reception capability of the two sized dishes.

The year of 2014 has not seen that 1 big win that we all dream about, as a matter of fact we haven't seen much at all for the year. We had $468.80 in prize winnings which was and is being re-invested as a big draw comes up. As of 02/01/2015 we have $14.80 in the account after last nights win of $14.05.

We still have Saturday 03/01/2015 night draw to go so here’s hoping we can improve our financial standings for the rest of the year; don’t go out and order that new tow vehicle and caravan just yet.

As the same as last year, all tickets will be purchased using an online account and details emailed to you prior to the draw, and winnings, if any, will also be emailed to you. Doing it this way everything can easily be accounted for, and as Sheena and I will not be at quite a few rallies this year I can still put the tattslotto on via the web account.

I must point out once again the syndicate is in no way connected to the Coromal Caravan Owners Club of Victoria.
Late note: Saturday 3 Jan night’s prize (we were only missing 2 numbers) will be re-invested prior to the Maryborough rally.