I am so amazed when I look at Rose and see how much David has managed to change, build, fix or even add. I actually came across a vlog today that I did not even know that existed. David made this vlog Before he started the renovations – actually it was just after we brought Rose that he decided to make a “Before and After Renovations” vlog 
Here is a very short vlog of Before Renovations.
How was Life On The Road going to continue with our rusty old Bedford motorhome? Was the first thing that Lisa asked when I told her that I wanted to fix it up to tour Australia instead of sell it.
Was it a look of surprise and joy that we were going to travel as originally planed? Or was it a look of horror that I may have finally flipped my lid? That I could see on Lisa’s face when I told her that we were keeping the bus . I think it may have been surprise. But there are many moments where I think Lisa might have been right if she was thinking that I had flipped my lid. Continue reading
Was life on the road going to continue with our 40 year old Bedford motorhome? Or was a quick fix up and resale the best option so that we could look for something that was a little bit more trouble free?
Having seen most of the problems that came with our forty year old motorhome it was time to weigh up all the information and come to a decision. Was our old bus worth saving? Or would it be better to do a little bit of work to make it usable again and sell it for whatever profit we could get?
The points in favor of us keeping it were:
The morning after my first taste of life on the road ended we returned to our new motorhome to have a really good look at what we had bought. Had we bought a bus or rust bucket?
What had we bought? All that we new about our new motorhome was what the EBay listing and the vendor had told me as well as what I had discovered on the journey home.
After reading all the records dating back to 2002 that came with the bus and a lot of research on the web, I discovered that we had bought a 1970 model Bedford Comair VAM 70 bus with the original Bedford 466 motor and four speed gearbox still installed. It had gone through a professional bus conversion to a motorhome some time before 2002 by persons unknown. Continue reading
Life on the road was looking good. We had achieved my goal of being north of Sydney before the morning rush and our new motorhome was running well despite it being forty years old.
I wasn’t sure about Geoff but I was starting to feel the effects of the days activities and 4am start. It was now approaching 11pm and the coffee at the last stop was not doing much to keep me awake. The decision to find somewhere to park and get a bit of sleep was an easy one though. The bus made it for us.
We had been traveling up the Sydney-Newcastle Freeway for approximately half an hour when the rain started up again. When Geoff turned on the windscreen wipers there was a flash and the fuse had blown again. Luckily I had bought extras. We went through two more before we found a rest area to pull into at the Ourimbah exit. It is a large rest area with plenty of room so it was easy to find a place to park. Definitley a place to remember when we are touring Australia. As soon as the engine was off we had the sleeping bags out on the lounges and were asleep in minutes. I was beginning to realise how good life on the road was going to be when finding somewhere to sleep was as simple as finding somewhere to park when you are driving a motorhome. Continue reading
My first taste of life on the road was providing me with a good understanding of our new motorhomes capabilities and shortcomings. We were about to see how well the engine and cooling system stacked up.
We were at the base of Mount Ousley which is the easiest way up to the top of the Illawarra Escarpment and then on to Sydney. It is the least steep of all the mountain passes and duel carriageway all the way to the top, but it is a 6km long climb and enough to test any cooling system. I moved into the left lane as soon as we reached the foot of the pass and slowed down changing into second gear. It was then just a matter of keeping the bus at a constant speed and wait.
I was impressed. We not only got to the top without any rise in engine temperature or mechanical problems, we did it with ease. Once I had the bus set up at its optimum speed the constant grade allowed us to cruise easily to the top. We even had to overtake some trucks to keep our speed constant.
Mount Ousley
At this stage we were quiet hungry. we had been on the road for a few hours and had been on the lookout for somewhere to eat but had not found anything along our travels that was open. I had decided to take us around the southern outskirts of Sydney and up the M7 to get us heading north again, so I knew that we would be able to find a place to get a hot meal twenty minutes up the road at Appin. How did I know this? We were on a trip down memory lane as life on the road was taking us straight towards the area that I grew up in. Continue reading
Welcome back to New Life On The Road. We were finally ready to depart. All the required insurance and temporary registration had been obtained. We had checked and adjusted the tire pressures, fuel, oil and radiator coolant. I had also replaced the windscreen wiper rubbers. Nothing could go wrong now. Or could it?
We departed from the south side of Batemans Bay with Geoff driving. To say I was excited was a bit of an understatement. I was as excited as a dog at a cat show. We were finally on the road, It was one of those warm clear days that you get at the start of winter and we were about to drive up through the South Coast of New South Wales where I had spent many holidays and long weekends in my younger years. Continue reading
My first glimpse of what is to become our home whilst living our life on the road came at 10am on the morning that Geoff and I flew down to pick up the bus as we entered the street that the bus was parked in.
I was both excited and a little apprehensive about what I was going to find. Was it going to be in as good a condition as the EBay listing and the vendor had told me, or was I about to pick up a bucket of rust that would not even make it to Queensland.I was about to find out. Continue reading
Our life on the road began on a quiet morning in May with coffee on the patio.
My wife Lisa was looking at motor homes on EBay (dreaming of touring Australia in a motor home) when she casually asked me what I thought a converted bus was worth that’s auction was ending in a couple of hours.
Taking a quick look and as I wandered off to do some reading I replied “$20,000 at the most unless I had it checked by a mechanic”.
Fast forward a couple of hours I was checking my emails when I heard Lisa yelling from the lounge room “I’ve won it, I’ve won it”.
Half worried that Lisa had done something crazy and impulsive as she does every now and again, I went to the lounge room and with some trepidation said “you have won what”? Continue reading
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