It’s All A Learning Curve

It’s almost a month since I updated you all on my gypsy wanderings, so here I am to do so.

Anyone following my travels will remember that when I last wrote, I was camped at Helidon Spa, at the bottom of the Toowoomba Range.

I ended up staying there for three weeks to heal my torn chest muscle, the one I’d torn for the second time in a month. I needed to let it heal and not continually aggravate the injury. Those three weeks at Helidon Spa did the trick.

I was a little lost in which direction to go next because it was a little tricky finding a vacancy, what with Christmas / New Year and school holidays. Plenty of places to stay if I wanted to tow my caravan up the Toowoomba Range, but I wasn’t even going to attempt that. I firmly believed I wasn’t capable of such a trek, as that range is an eye opener, let me tell you. It would be terrifying to say the least.

So, I backtracked a little and ended up at the Laidley Showgrounds for a week. A great little camping spot with an awesome caretaker, who imparted some wise words on travelling, caravan maintenance and our beautiful country. A goldmine of information.

Laidley was a nice place to base myself while I checked out the surrounding countryside and I spent the week delighting in the cuisine, mainly for breakfast. As I had the week off work, I quite enjoyed heading out for breakfast each morning.

From Laidley, I ventured some of the backroads and found a little town called Kalbar. Again I snagged a great level piece of grass to set up on at the Kalbar Showgrounds.

It was here, as I went to unhitch my caravan, that I found I’d screwed up royally and boy, didn’t I give myself a hard time for my rookie mistake!

I wasn’t going to mention it here, for the world to read, as I’m terribly ashamed, because I know better! But, if I’m going to write about my adventure I figured I should be real, and give you the good, the bad and the ugly.

So, what did I do wrong, you ask?

As I went to unhitch the caravan and pull on my handbrake, I discovered that I’d forgotten to release the handbrake before pulling out at Laidley.

Yes, I screwed that up!

I had just towed my caravan for 69 kilometres with the caravan’s handbrake on the entire way.

The end result was crucifying myself and lots of tears for my stupidity, but then I pulled my big girl panties back up and did what I needed to do to resolve the situation.

This meant staying at Kalbar for two weeks, while I organised a mobile caravan mechanic to come out and service my caravan. I needed to know the damage I had done.

Had I cooked my wheel bearings? Had I boiled the bearing grease? Had I warped the brake drums or worn the brake pads down to nothing?

I needed to know. Plus my caravan was due a service in four months. May as well kill two birds with one stone.

Thankfully, it turned out I’d not done any serious damage. Worn my brake pads down some but not enough to warrant replacing them and I had peace of mind that everything was running as it should after the service.

I promise I won’t make that mistake again!

Whilst I spent the two weeks in Kalbar, I explored the town of Boonah, visited the markets there and met some wonderful people. I also went a little further a field and explored Beaudesert, a town I’d always wanted to visit.

As we were drenched with a lot of rain and some huge storms during my stay in Kalbar, I found some minor flooding on the roads to Beaudesert. Not that I let that stop me as my car drove through the floodwater with ease. I was a little concerned with how fast the water was flowing but she got me through without any issues, and of course, cruised through the water on our return journey.

Back to my rookie mistake, I soon found that if anything, it may have been the best thing I ever did to be honest.

How so, I hear you ask?

Yesterday I moved on from the Kalbar Showgrounds. I was incredibly nervous when I did so, but I triple checked everything before I pulled out.

What I did find, was that the caravan seemed to tow so much nicer than my other trips and as a result, I wasn’t anywhere near as terrified during my journey.

I was a lot more relaxed than I have been on any other towing trip to date and as the van felt much nicer to tow, I found I was more confident navigating throughout the entire trip.

Now, I’m well aware that the van wasn’t towing any smoother than my previous trips, except of course, the trip from Laidley whilst the handbrake was on. That trip was difficult as the van was fighting me every step of the way. Of course it was!

You’d think I’d have known something was wrong but unfortunately, due to my lack of experience, and the fact I was driving some country roads, I blamed the road conditions for the way the van felt towing.

Again, I won’t make that mistake next time!

So, where am I now? I know you’re wondering.

Sorry, you’ll have to wait for my next update to find the answer to that question.

I have come to understand though, it’s all a learning curve, and I didn’t need to crucify myself for making such a rookie mistake.

Yes, I still feel the shame for my stupidity but I’m also proud of myself, because I got in and organised what I needed to organise to rectified the damage I had done.

It was obviously a lesson I needed to learn!

Until next time, thank you for joining me on my journey.