The south end of the beach at Hua Hin, Thailand.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Hua Hin, Thailand.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Maldives on March 23rd.

Monday, May 27, 2019

Finally... arrived in Australia!

Bali airport has got to be the busiest airport we have ever been in. The problem of course is that it's simply too busy for the size of the airport. So they've got all of these flights arriving and departing at all hours of the day and night.

Our flight from Bali to Adelaide, Australia was scheduled for 12:05am... at a gate that had three other flights scheduled to depart within a hour or so time frame. There were people sprawled everywhere.

And the communication was terrible. Our incoming plane was twenty minutes late arriving, so it ended up we were half an hour or so late departing. You should have seen the circus of people trying to get through the gate to two different airplanes. We've never seen anything like it!

Anyhow, we got ourselves settled and ready to sleep. Which we actually did pretty well. Until they came through with our free meal at 2:00am. It was trash. Ruth ate hers, but in my opinion they really shouldn't have bothered.

Back to sleep.

An hour and a half time change and a four and a half hour flight and we arrived at about 7:10am.

Through our facebook page and this blog, Aussies Louise and Pat had offered to pick us up at Adelaide airport and bring us to pick up our new to us camper. Even better, they offered to let us park up at their place south of Adelaide so that we can get the new camper organized to our way of travel.

Home for the next 10 weeks!
Bundy (the truck) and Joyce (the camper).

Bundy's engine battery was dead and he needed a boost. He had been sitting for almost three months. The left rear tire was only about half full. Overall, not bad. A bit dusty inside from sitting in a gravel parking lot.

Now for the fun! Driving on the other side of the road!

We had done this in Namibia and South Africa back in 2013-2014 during our four month trip there, so we knew that I get used to the driving fairly quickly. Of course as soon as I went to put my turn signal on, the wipers came on! That is the hardest thing to get used to. 

It's a standard transmission. So you're sitting in the right seat and have to shift with your left hand. But thankfully the foot pedals are all in the right place... clutch on the left, brake in the middle, and gas pedal on the right. The only other difference is the turn signal is on the right side of the column, with the wipers switch on the left. It's so difficult to remember that!

Me, driving Bundy for the first time!

Following our new friends Pat and Louise.

Scenery along the way.

Here in Adelaide, it's the beginning of winter. But winter here means high temperatures of about 15C (60F) and lows of about 10C (50F). Not bad at all.

Watch for kangaroos!

Oh... there's one now!

Almost arrived at Aldinga Beach.

We stopped at an Aldi grocery store and picked a few things up. Our first impression of grocery store prices is that it is cheaper here than in Canada. Of course a full month's expenses in June will tell the tale. But I don't think it's going to be nearly as bad as what some people had told us.

We got ourselves parked up beside Louise and Pat's house, but they offered us their spare room while we get Joyce in livable condition. And we are taking advantage of that. It was quite dusty inside, plus there had been a roof leak from a vent that had made a bit of a mess of the kitchen table. There is actually quite a lot we need to do to get it in the shape we want. 

I'll tell you more about the camper with photos in tomorrow's blog post.

Louise and Pat are spoiling us, and we're going to enjoy it. Again, can't thank them enough for their hospitality. We expect to be here for two to three days as we get the RV ready.

Louise, Pat, and Kevin.

Gotta go, about to hop in their hot tub for a soak!

Lots of work ahead the next two days getting the RV ready... photos to come!

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And in Canada...





22 comments:

  1. Welcome to Australia .What a lovely couple to take you in for the start of your adventure .Looking forward to your photos .Travel safe !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for the welcome. :-)

      Yes, Louise and Pat and been wonderful and what a great way to start off our time in Australia. We can't thank them enough for everything they are doing for us.

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  2. Exited to travel with you through your wonderful blog postings,and it is a tremendous help to us since we are planning a trip to Ausie land in 2 years

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    1. We are so happy to hear that you will be following along on the blog. I hope that we can give you lots of helpful information for planning your trip here in a couple of years time. Don't ever hesitate to ask us any questions, we will do our best to answer them for you.

      Delete
  3. Nice that you finally have arrived, now get your rv ready to travel and away you go.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, we are happy to finally have arrived. It will take us a few days to work on getting things sorted out and getting Bundy and Joyce ready for our journey, but we are excited to even be doing that. :-)

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  4. Glad you finally made it to Australia and hoping you are soon on your way seeing the wonderful sights.
    Be Safe and Enjoy!

    It's about time.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Thank you! It will take a few days yet to get things sorted out and to assess what we have in the unit and what we will need to make our journey even better and of course to clean both Bundy and Joyce up. We are so excited to get this show on the road though. :-)

      Delete
  5. Finally - mission accomplished. And kangaroos on your first day! You are very lucky to have so many great blog readers offering up their assistance, very kind of them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, at least part of the mission is accomplished, we have made it to Australia. :-)

      We are very lucky to have blog readers helping us out, and we really appreciate it. It has definitely been an amazing welcome to Australia.

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  6. Excellent news you landed safely and the camper is in good condition! Can't wait to see how things play out going forward!!

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    1. Thank you Karyn-Lee, we are happy that everything is working out well. We do have some work to do on Bundy and Joyce, one is having a look at a leak on the roof and seeing how bad it is and then of course getting it fixed but it should all be stuff that Kevin can do himself. And, of course the other is figuring out what is in Bundy and Joyce and getting them both cleaned up and then buying anything else that we think we will need to make our trip as enjoyable as possible. Lots of things to do, so we should be fairly busy for the next few days.

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  7. I'm curious -- what did your nasty airline meal consist of?

    I flew on Bulgarian airlines in college days...the food wasn't so bad (your standard deli-type stuff), but the cup of 'apple cider' caught me completely off-guard -- it was beer!

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    Replies
    1. Well, to start off with, we didn't even realize that we were going to get a meal on this flight so there was no booking of any special meal plans such as gluten free. They gave us two choices, one was chicken and pasta which didn't look too bad but of course we couldn't have it because of the pasta, and the other choice was vegetarian with consisted of rice, a piece of broccoli and some type of mock meat (a soy substitute?) which was totally tasteless, and that was it plus a glass of water.

      Kevin would have loved the "apple cider", lol!

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  8. Replies
    1. That's Chris. It won't be long before this show is on the road. :-)

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  9. Hurray all around! Safe travels!

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  10. Bravo to you all for the team work to get your new home all spruced up to enjoy and comfort you ! I look forward to the adventures beginning NOW!
    Beth Montana

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you beth! It will take us a couple of days to get ourselves sorted out with Bundy and Joyce, both paperwork wise as well as mechanically and aesthetically. And today will be the day to start on all of this. Once we get that done, we will be hitting the road and looking for adventure. :-)

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  11. So nice to have some friends to crash with at the outset! Makes for a relaxing entry.

    The windshield wiper was the one thing that took us forever to get used to! So many turns were signaled with the wipers lol

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, it is very nice to have a place to crash while we get ourselves set up. Louise and Pat and been wonderful hosts and we appreciate everything that they have done for us.

      Kevin says the same thing, it is really difficult to get the brain to remember that, lol!

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