CAMPSITE # 79 - We're not in Kansas anymore, TomTom

Reality finally set in... time to vacuum pack the UGG boots, jumpers and doona - we were officially in desert country.

What gave it away?

Just the combination of the stinking heat, scorching rays of the sun, salt lakes and desert shrubs. I found a site in our Camps 5  book that I thought would be ideal for our next destination. The name had me intrigued "Coorong Wilderness Lodge". In my head, I pictured a pebble driveway leading towards rustic cabins surrounded by an abundance of wildlife and man-made activities. The impressive stone wall entrance played with my emotions even more. We drove along the rock hard limestone driveway to be led to an open field with what I assumed to be a few dozen power outlet monstrosities protruding from the ground. I quickly reminded myself that, contrary to the vast amounts of tourist destinations on the East Coast, this part of Australia is just a little bit more... shall we say... rural?

We fled off in search for something more homely & welcoming. I recall just having a quiet chuckle to myself "this is awesome", no longer will everything be sugar coated and tailor made solely around capitalising on the tourism industry. If anything, tourists weren't fussed over and massaged to their every liking. Instead, they just stood out like a sore thumb.

In search for something a little more impressive, we headed straight towards the next closest caravan park. This is how we found...

Site : Coonalpyn Caravan Park

Rating : 6 / 20

Facilities : What I assume to be the empty block of council land next to the public swimming pool that was converted into a 'caravan park'. Nothing flash but well laid out with free hot showers & cheap laundry - $3 for a big washing load and free dryer.

As it was so stinking hot, it gave us a great excuse to go to the pub for a jug of SA's local brew "West End". Sorry SA, it's got nothing on Boag's or Cascade's... probably why I'd never heard of it before. N.B. you're lucky to find 3 cars anywhere in the rest of town...

Since we left on the trip, we never found the opportunity to weigh the Troopie. We guessed we were around the 3.5 tonne mark but could never really be sure. After doing some investigating, Tom learnt that the maximum recommended load capacity for a HJ75 Troopcarrier was 3.5 tonne. We desperately didn't want to ever go over that. If we did, our fuel consumption would just about go through the roof. So, 5 months later, we finally found a weighbridge...

With one tank of diesel full (80 litres), 50 litres of water and a very full Tom & Amy (we had just had breakkie) Charlie Troopcarrier can now enter himself into the middleweight category as he weighed in at... 3.08 tonnes... wow wee!! We were so chuffed! It all hit home to me why Tom was always so anal about what we could & couldn't take on the trip (but I drew the line at my hair straightener). We were more than 400 kilos UNDER the benchmark.

Having weighed the Troopie, it got me thinking about our fuel consumption and whether it was also under the recommended 12L per 100kms (for a 20 year old 4 litre diesel 4WD).

As of 6 weeks ago, we started recording every single $$$ we spend, that's from camping to diesel to toothpaste to loads of washing and all of the way to goon. When we first arrived in Tasmania, we celebrated Charlie's 360,000th kilometre birthday. 6000kms later, 5 weeks have past, $887 has been spent on 697 litres of diesel. Which works out to be an average of 11.6 litres of diesel per 100kms.

So... providing I don't start eating 4 Sausage rolls, 3 Big Macs and a supersized chocolate thickshake for breakfast, lunch and dinner, our weight (and therefore our fuel consumption) should remain lower than average for the entire course of the trip. 

So, I got my calculator out and did some sums..

Say we travel 50,000 kms at 11.6L per 100km, we're looking at a total diesel consumption of 5,800 litres by an estimated fuel average of $1.50 per litre... we would spend $8700 on diesel.

Same again at 14L per 100km by 50,000kms at an average of $1.50 per litre.. we'd be up for 7000 litres of diesel at a total cost of $10,500.

Effectively, for weighing less and using less fuel, we are leaving an estimated $1800 in our back pocket.

Did you know that it is said you use less fuel if you turn the air conditioning off and leave the windows down when you are travelling up to 80km/hr?

BUT, any speed in excess of 80 and you're best off putting the windows up and turning the air conditioning on due to drag!

I say : "Woohoo get to crank the A/C!!"

Tom says : "Well then, we won't go over 80"

I go to all of this effort to calculate all of the weight and fuel consumption crap and finally I find a good reason why we can now turn the A/C on and yet still no success. Looks like I might need to do a little more persuading. ;)