THE FRONT BOOT
LIONEL ’ S LIFE JOURNEY
We ’ re willing to bet that few Australian RVers have lead quite as interesting a life as our very own columnist , Lionel Mussell .
Lionel has spent a lifetime travelling Australia and has had all manner of ups and downs as he wrestled with his nemesis , Murphy .
He has recently written about his adventures and you can read all about them in his new book , Memories of an Adventurous Life .
It will be available soon as a printed book and even as a downloadable PDF from his Facebook group page .
To receive a printed book , email Lionel at lionelmussell7 @ gmail . com . The price is $ 10 for the book and $ 5 for postage .
I came to a stop , facing uphill with the van jackknifed hard against the car . I ’ d left one of those unaccountable skid marks that you sometimes see on the road and wonder how in the world they were made . Now I know !
Apart from a dented left rear panel of the car there was no other damage although quite a few things inside the van had changed places !
The cause of all this mayhem ? It was a single axle van , and one brake had a faulty connection , so when I applied the van brakes , I only braked one wheel - and that had caused the frightening swaying episode !
From then on , I always applied the van brakes every morning as I got to about 10kph . It was surprising how many times during a lifetime of caravanning that I found brake trouble and fixed it .
I was working in Western Australia , when Vi came back to Australia and joined me doing school photography . We covered a lot of the West and saw the beautiful WA wildflower season a couple of times .
We were about to drive back to Victoria for the Christmas holidays and I was checking the car before the Nullarbor crossing when I discovered the towbar was cracked on both sides .
When I took it to a tow bar place , the man said it wasn ’ t possible to get a new towbar before Christmas but if we went around the corner to a coffee shop and came back in half an hour it would be fixed . I ’ d expected that he would have welded the cracks - but was surprised to find he ’ d welded the towbar to the chassis !
It did the job fine - but when I traded the vehicle in a bit later and they put it on the lot for sale , the salesman was surprised when I told him about the tow bar and was equally surprised when I told him the spare wheel was cracked . Although the studs were the same , the left-hand rear wheel that I ’ d bought from a wrecker in WA was from a different model .
School Photography was great – the actual picture taking wasn ’ t particularly exciting but the travel to places we would never have otherwise seen , the paid school holidays - and the people we met along the way made it special .
Round the World Trip I was very active in Apex back then and while I was Zone 12 President , I did a world trip with a mate by the name of Ernie Butler . That took us to Hawaii , San Francisco , Vancouver , and Toronto before reaching the UK .
We had enough time off during the summer holidays to manage the RACV Caravan Club ’ s caravan park at Sorrento and that was an enjoyable way to spend the summer . When we left the job , we joined Division Three of the RACV Caravan Club and enjoyed quite a few years with them .
Our World Council meeting was in Edinburgh , and I ’ d hired a car to get around in and after the week-long event we left Scotland for London with Ghiti Sing ( or something like that !)
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Ghiti was an Indian from Delhi , and his turban was hard against the headlining ! As a reward for the lift , he invited us to lunch at an Indian mate ’ s cafe where
Hi Jinks at Walkamin
I ’ ve been back to the Walkamin Caravan Park most years since 2006 and activities in the ‘ Shed ’ never cease to amaze me .
There ’ s always Christmas in July although because of the Virus it was Christmas in August this year . Most recent event this August was when we had a 140 years birthday celebration - Dallas was 50 back in June and I ’ ll be 90 in November so we counted forward from Dallas ’ s birthday and back from mine and had a wonderful day celebrating . There was scrumptious food , games , music and dancing !
Owners Mark and Dallas ( above ) are very generous and supported the printing of this book .
Thank you both !
I was running a Directors ’ Meeting of the Australian Caravan Club and as the lavender cutter passed by the perfume was intoxicating . I was chairing the meeting in France , the Treasurer was in Dubai , the Secretary was in Western Australia and the other Board Members were in other parts of the entree was so spicy hot that I accused them of ruining my taste buds for life ! The main course curry was a cool relief .
Leaving Heathrow airport after a pleasant stay with my London cousins , we headed for South Africa where our Round Table friends gave us a great time - including a visit to a nature reserve where we were up close to native animals .
I made another overseas trip sometime later , but that time I bought a little Peugeot motorhome in England on the Internet on a Buy Back scheme – in other words , they would buy it back for an agreed price after you finished using it . It was a lovely little unit and I used it for two months in the UK and for a monthlong circular tour of France .
Australia . Even back then the Internet was an extremely useful tool .
The little Peugeot was great in many respects , but the bed was a bit of a nuisance . You had to slide the driver ’ s seat forward as far as it would go , get the cushions from a locker over the cab and then make the bed .
In the morning before you could move off you had to stow the bedding . I decided that if I bought a motorhome back in Australia it would have a permanent bed .
Arriving home , I bought an ex-ambulance Mercedes Sprinter and number one
In France I stayed for most of the time in free camps – there is an organisation called “ France Passion ” and they put out a directory of places to stay - like farms , chateaus , pubs , etc and they were great . You didn ’ t have to buy anything , but I bought quite a bit of wine that I later shared with my Yorkshire rellies . My opening remark when meeting someone in France was : “ Bonjour Madame , Messieur or Mademoiselle , Je job was building a permanent single bed !
I was helped with the fit-out by my daughter Sue and her hubby Shaun , and that vehicle look me on many journeys . Its number plate was YEM 240 and so he became known as “ Yemmy .”
When Yemmy collided with the trailer of a semi-trailer and was written off by the insurance company , I bought another Sprinter but this time it had been converted into a motorhome – unfortunately I didn ’ t get to see it before buying non comprend pas le Francais tres bien – mais un peu .” It meant , “ I don ’ t understand French very well – but a little .” They usually became very friendly as I was trying to talk their language . Of course , I told them I was an Australian and didn ’ t mention my English birthplace as they don ’ t get on with Poms !
I remember one weekend when it was the local Lavender Festival and the machine cutting the lavender kept coming past my site – we had lavender on three it as I had a broken leg and couldn ’ t drive .
My Sprinter guru mate Eric checked it out mechanically , he wasn ’ t an RVer , and so the many stupid things in the fit-out didn ’ t show up until I started using it .
YEMMY 2 has done many kilometres since then , and has developed a liking for riding on the back of breakdown trucks - with one disastrous occasion when the differential ran out of oil , due to incorrect jacking when tyres were changed . The damage meant a secondhand diff had to be fitted . sides of the camping area - 31 -
Unfortunately , the clowns at the Mareeba RACQ Depot knowingly fitted a diff with the wrong ratio , so Yemmy would only run in limp-home mode .
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