Frist Trip In The New Van (2010)

After the 1 year wait for the delivery of the van the big day came on 30th of June . The main plan was to do  Cape York and then casually head home to Geraldton.
The first few nights were spent at Ceder Grove campground near Gympie to get to know the van and how it all worked. Then it was decided to stay around the Brisbane area and do a 1000ks and go back for the first service so it was of to Emerald where we stayed at a beautiful place call Higher Ground on a private property own by the most friendliest people . While in the area we fossicked for sapphires and Vickie found one worth getting set into a necklace. Heading down to Springsure and then on to Carnarvon National park, what a really breath taking place although it takes a lot of hiking up to 20ks to some spots but well worth the effort.

After a few days to recovery it was to Roma, Miles Chinchilla and Kingaroy so our first two weeks where done, it was back for the service. We had a few small problems to fix but after picking the van up from the factory I made the the decision that I will do all the servicing myself in the future.
We had a planed stop back at Cedar Grove were we met some other bushtracker owners for a beer or two all was good till the morning when do my checks i noticed the tow bar on a funny angle on a close inspection it had a bad crack on the welds so much so we where not going any where with the van.

It was of to Gympie to the Toyota dealer where I found it was service with a smile and had not only a replacement but a lot better built than the first .One can only imagine what could have happen if it was not checked.