Ian and Sue

Hi Russ and Sue - sorry to read that you have left Birdsville. You could always come back to Karratha it has been unseasonally wet up here and the rivers are all flowing fast OK maybe not, LOL. Wishing you both all the best with whatever you do next and looking forward to running into you both out there somewhere. Sue & Ian

That's our kinda travelling, get up in the morning and see where the day takes you!

Hi Chris and Val - good to read you had a great trip across. Welcome to WA! Where are you heading next on your adventure?

Whoops forgot to add a link for the GRR - current conditions are here mrwa.wa.gov.au - there has been a lot of out of season rain through the Pilbara and Kimberley over this past month so worth checking first, I am pretty sure all the rain was south of Broome though. Last week or maybe the week before both Karratha (our old home town) and Broome had really coid days, not quite record cold but had my friends up there calling up and asking for jumpers.

Hi Colin - How long are you guys in Kalbarri for? We live just down the road in Geraldton and might get a chance to pop up and say hello if you are there for a few days.

Hi again Bondi and Jenny From the sound of the kilometres you are doing on your around circuit to pick up your Keddy you must live up near us somewhere. We have three 120 panels on our van and live in it for extended periods, we free camp (or low cost no power) for about 90%, we also carry a 2kva honda as a back up AND because I need two cups of coffee from my Nespresso Pixie machine a day and the 12v will not run that. So the Genie runs for around 3 minutes while the machine works and wouldn't be making any real difference to our batteries charge. If I wasn't addicted to coffee we are OK running on the solar and rarely have to crank it up to charge the batteries. In WA the sun shines most of the time and we don't seem to have been caught in extended cloudy periods as we were when we were over east last year, having said that we were down at Cosy Corner near Albany a month back and it was cloudy for three days straight and we still didn't need to run the generator to recharge. I aren't into the technicalities of the solar side of our caravan but do know that since we met up with all the other KOGGERS at Goomeri last year and Ian found out that he needed to change some wiring all of our old solar problems have been fixed. Another ramble from the West Aussie blonde! Time for a coffee.

Great photo - I always wondered what the collective noun was for a group of Kedrons' and now I know - a gaggle eh? Hmmm...now Ian would be saying the gaggle is the wives for the group.

Hi Bondi and Jenny - Welcome to the forum. Tonys' suggestion is a great one, if you have a plan in mind post it here and then everyone will have some idea of where to start. We all have little ideas (some not so little perhaps) of ways to made you wonderful new Kedron even better and it is always good to have some input from people who have owned one and used it. Please let us know more about yourselves too, do you own a caravan at present or will this be your first one? If you already have one you must already have an idea of what you do and do not want. We are a friendly mob here and only too happy to offer ideas so ask away. Cheers Sue

Great to hear from you Colin, love your unbias point of view too Seriously, how could anyone on the trip not be having the best time ever on such a well thought out trip with so many wonderful people and their great Kedron caravans. I am soooo envious and hate being stuck here, I want to move to the east so that we can join in. Post photos soon please, I can't wait to see.

Hi all - Just want to wish you all happy and safe travels and will be looking forward to reading all about your wonderful trip. We have just arrived back home after a failed attempt to reach Mt Augustus through our station country, rain stopped play as the dirt roads turned to rivers. Great for the graziers not for us as they shut the roads, wasn't far for us to go so will go again soon. Cheers Sue

We are sending all of our positive thoughts your way. I used to hate when people would say to me "behind every cloud there is a silver lining" but it does seem to work that way. The best thing you can do at the moment (other than to keep your chin up) is to unload on us here! We are all happy to listen and share the load with you. All the best Sue & Ian

Sounds like a really good trip Chris, looking forward to reading more about your latest adventure and wishing we were on the road again. I hope you find lots of geocaches too. On a side note are you going to attended the SA Mega as it is in your home state next year? Happy travels. Sue

We (read I) have been after one for many moons, Ian isn't so keen. He has a concern that if there is a vent in the emptying tube/spout of the cassette then the contents of the cassette must surely leak out. As it is I who performs the Kenny duties I have told him that is then my problem just buy me a SOG!

And now I am really envious of you guys. Hope you find them all Chris.

We replaced ours with an LED which was a similar shape - they were pretty expensive but sorry right now I can't remember exactly how much they were. I think we got them in a caravan shop on the Albany Hwy down in Cannington/Beckenham. Sue

Hi all and thanks for your replies - I will go back and read the recommended thread, I started reading it sometime back and stopped as I was getting too depressed that we couldn't join in! :-) We seriously need to move to the east coast! Les and Eric - retirement ekkkk.... there seems to be a bit of a recurring pattern happening with us. We or rather I thought we were safe from going back this time as the contract mob had changed when we left and there was massive change going on with Woodside BUT..... last week, phone rings and guess what? :-( This time after a bit of discussion we will be staying put in our home in Geraldton but who knows what will happen next. My only stipulation is that we are ready to leave for SA for Easter 2014, actually I think I put my request in as being able to do the south of the eastern states during next summer so we / I would be wanting to leave at Christmas 2013. Our home is Geraldton although I have yet to change our location on the profile, I don't want to jinx our being here for a while - my thoughts re a trip where that quite often I hear you guys coming over for our wildflower season and was thinking a trip out through one of our wildflower areas in the northern Wheatbelt - ie up the Mullewa stockroute from Mullewa stopping at a station out there then going on to London Bridge, across to Murchison and then either Gladstone or back down the NW Coastal Highway. The stock route is an easy dirt drive for those wondering. Thinking perhaps August / September time. At the moment just throwing the idea in and will work on it some more but this is something to start with. Cheers all Sue

Phew.... I had been waiting in anticipation for the next episode. I thought you guys must have gotten lost somewhere, or was just having too much fun Ian has just made me a coffee so it is off for a read right now!

Thought I might ask firstly if you are planning on doing WA this tourist season and if so where you are going to be and approximately when? Not to much to ask eh? I am thinking if I can get a general idea of who will be around I might be able to organise an event since we will not be over in the east during this year. Next year is a whole different story though :-)

Ian has a mountain bike 29" wheels - he takes the wheel off and it fits in between the rear seat and the Engel in our LC200 - my birdy folding bike fits under the bed really easily so both are well protected from damage and easy to have them out and on the road when required.

Hi Chanty and welcome to the forum. I was about to write about Llyodd Jones Weir and the Long Waterhole but see Sue has already answered with those two spots. :-) As Sue said Llyod Jones Weir gets very busy with quite a few looking like they are their for the long term. The Long Waterhole outside of Winton has heaps of space we were able to take our pick when there last June. I am sure there are many other members who can give advice on the other places you mention as we have yet to go out there. Cheers Sue

Thinking of all of our friends in the flood affected areas and hoping that you and your families and friends are all safe. It is hard to imagine all that rain when it is so dry over here in the West. Sue

Loved reading your Blogg and now are hanging out for episode 2. Completely agree with your Alcatraz reference - we had been hanging out for our release too and shot out of Karratha at 4am on Dec 21st - didn't even hang around to see if you guys were going to catch us for a coffee! Sorry we just had to get away. :-) All the best and happy travels - hopefully catch up with you when you return. Sue

Come on Tony am I really like that? Thinking - and then the was the time........

We had our aircon running all day every day for the last couple of weeks before Christmas whilst we / I packed the caravan with all our gear from our Karratha unit as I didn't want my treasured possessions getting overheated on the 40+c days. The unit was turned off as the sunset although the temperatures remained in the 30's I without the sun on the roof I was happy everything would be ok. We left Karratha two days before Christmas, dropped all our possessions off at our Geraldton home and then pushed on down to Perth to have Christmas with our families. Perth turned on the heat so we decided to run the aircondioner and all was well the first day, THEN.... after a night with it switched off we turned it on again when we returned from a cycle the next morning and guess what???? it had stopped worked! Pumped out air but no cool, ekkkkk..... It was Christmas and nobody would be open to do what we thought would be a regas. Ah well, we are north-westers so we thought we would grin and bear it. Fortunately later that day I was sweating it out lying on the bed when I looked up at the now quite unit and my eyes could just make out where the switch was set. Ian had turned the dial to pump out maximum air or so he told me but what he had actually done was to switch the unit to air only so the cooling wasn't even turned on. You can only imagine how happy we were! Cheers all Sue

I am going to step outside of the Keddy right now and take a GOOD look at our chassis because after living in the Pilbara for most of its' life and having been towed around the Savannah Way and GRR during this last year I can't say I have noticed that it is covered in red dust. Hmmmm.... I am thinking that after living up here for so long I might be becoming oblivious to it! Will my attitude change once we finally settle down in Geraldton? Cheers all Sue