First Days

After months of being without a caravan we have finally picked up our new Bushtracker. It is only 15 foot long (plus the drawbar) but it has heaps of features. We spent most of the first day being shown how things work before towing it to the Rivershore Resort only a few kilometres from the Bushtracker factory at the Sunshine Coast. Resort staff helped us back the van into our site as they are used to having new Bushtracker owners stay at this park on their first night. Unfortunately for us it was school holidays and the park was very busy.

The hardest thing the next morning was lining up the Jeep with the Hitchmaster off road towing hitch. The eye in the hitch is only about the size of a 20 cent coin and the tow pin on the Jeep has to be positioned exactly below the eye. Even with a reversing camera on the Jeep this is challenging as there is no scope for giving the van a bit of a nudge as we could with our old Eco Tourer to get it onto the traditional tow ball. The benefit of the Hitchmaster is that it articulates in all directions allowing a greater range of angles between the tow vehicle and the caravan. 

We drove 400kms to a camping ground at Seventeen Seventy where we fortunately have a drive through site. This park is not as picturesque as the nearby Agnes Water caravan park, but the benefit is that it is not crowded. We followed directions given by the Jeep's satellite navigation system which took us off the Bruce Hwy north of Childers. It was an intersting drive especially crossing the Burnett River which was still in flood, but the water level had dropped below the one lane bridge and all roads were open. We stopped for lunch at Sharon Gorge but didn't have time to walk to view the gorge so that is on our list for next time. 

Over the next few days we will learn how to operate all of the appliances and equipment on the van. It goes back to Bushtracker in a few days for the 1000kms service so we want to identify anything that is not quite right.


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