We arrived on Tuesday and found 4 other Geist vans here. It was great to catch up and now two days later we have 18 Geist vans here. Tomorrow we have another 21 vans coming in giving us a total of 39 Geist caravans plus one ring in Aussie van. This is turning into the best get together to be held with Geist caravans in the world!!. Having just chatted to Geist UK, we seem to be on the money with this.
For those that couldn’t make it this time, we hope to do it again next year.
If you’re not a member though, you are really missing out as we keep getting great reports of new friendships, loads of fun being had and just great mateship.
We’ll have a new announcement on Saturday about where Geist UK come in to the mix with helping out Aussie Geist owners.
We’ll have the next newsletter out after this GG.
Catch you on the track.
Peter Treasure (Geist Runner)
Just over 24 hours since everyone left the gathering from the weekend, I am still trying to come back down to earth. It was a great success with Geist vans inundating the small town of Lindenow South in Victoria. Everyone joined in to hear the latest of what is happening and meet many new friends. We also had the great opportunity to put faces to the names we hadn’t previously met and were excited by the positive comments coming out of the weekend. A full wrap up of the weekend will be sent out to everyone once we finish collating it. The newsletter for this month will encompass the GG in full. Thank you to all that attended and we hope to have an even bigger GG in September. The time and place is still to be decided with much controversy within members as to where is the best place to have the GG, it will be a hard decision to make, but more info in the newsletter.
Catch you on the track.
GR
For anyone wanting to catch up with me this weekend, I will be at the auction of Geist Caravans at Devlan Auctions 68 Industrial Avenue, Wacol QLD on Saturday morning. I will also be inspecting the vans Friday afternoon to check for missing items etc.. anyone wanting to buy a Geist should really consider being there and talk to me on what they require. Existing owners should be happy that these vans are finally being sold as this will clean the market of any cheaper stock once and for all. I will be promoting the benefits of owning a Geist to all that will listen on the day. Hope to see you there.
Catch you on the track.
Geist Runner
A break in Evans Head had us sitting cosily in our XK660 caravan waiting for rain to subside. A days break on Sunday was more of a chance to catch up on some web browsing. Evans Head would have been delightful with some good weather but unfortunately we will have to return at a later date to enjoy that. We decided today that we would go a slightly longer route due to the large rainfall along the coast. Ballina just up the road had over 250mm before we had left and it continued to rain today. The weather was slipping down along the coast so the obvious option of treking across Grafton was really not on, so we headed back up slightly to Casino, across to Tenterfield and down through Armidale to Tamworth. We passed Captain Thunderbolts cave, statue and grave but didn’t stop in, maybe another day. The Volkswagen Touareg really showed its grunt today cruising at the speed limit up and down hills. We got some funny looks from other caravaners and trucks when we passed them on the uphill overtaking lanes. Oh well, it is an education period for most, with many not understanding the real ease of towing with this van and motor vehicle. We are currently at Paradise Big 4 caravan park in Tamworth, a very comfortable and above the 3 1/2 star rating in our opinion. The country music festival is over now and everyone looks a bit tired.
It was pretty much chaos as we prepared the van for travel and animals to be boarded in Gippsland at Mum and Dads. The 2 cats and 2 dogs were housed in their new pens and we left on Tuesday the 15th. It was as if we were in our comfort zone, on the road again, even though we are only about 6 weeks in, living in the van. The first night was only about 200 odd kms up the road but after spending considerable time finalising kayak rack changes on the Touareg, this was quite enough for the day. We stayed at a rest stop at Thurra River just before Genoa.
The next morning after a walk in the Drummer Forest we left for a short drive to Mallacoota. Having not been there since a child I was extremely keen to rediscover this child holiday haunt and as it turned out I was not to be disappointed. After a quick look around I started fishing, Rachel and Rachel’s parents tagged along having a go as well. It was a lovely afternoon we spent but it wasn’t until mid way through our fishing adventure that the grand catch was made of a 40cm flathead by me (yay).
At this stage I haven’t filled you in on Graham’s (by father inlaw) troubles. First it was the night we arrived at Thurra River and Graham’s generator was not going to go, so I lent him ours to keep his engel going. After checking the obvious fuel lines, filters, etc.. we gave up and Graham slept on it. In the morning while the girls and I went on the walk Graham worked out the fault. It was an act of nature, a wasp had created a nest in the exhaust and stopped the engine ticking over. This solved it was to the next problem, number two. Whilst fishing at Mallacoota, Graham realised he had locked his caravan keys in the front tunnel boot of his caravan and the spare was in the van itself. After he ran around Mallacoota looking for a locksmith he got lucky with a tow guy who opened it with a screwdriver. The spooky thing though was that when they tried it again, it would not repeat the open.
The third event (isn’t there always a third) happened today after we left Yellow Pinch Dam (another rest stop) we headed north to Batemans Bay before turning left up to Braidwood. This road is over the range and quite steep. Well the Volkswagen Touareg has no problems but Graham’s Ford Falcon had some difficulty near the top when the Gearbox overheating lamp came on. This forced him to pull over only about a km from the top and wait for it to cool. Meanwhile we waited up top for them to come up before heading on to Canberra. The Ford struggled a bit up there compared to the Touareg but there is quite a difference in type of vehicle so this is not a fair comparison.
We arrived safely in Canberra tonight and caught up on the cricket. This blog was my next priority. The website is close to release so a link to this blog will be added.
Well, it is a tour of the war memorial and the national Art gallery tomorrow before heading on down to Tarcutta to visit Rachel’s aunty.
These are the first impressional images of the XK660 that we have created for traveling Australia over the next 2 years.
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