On The Road

We've finally hit the road as of just over two weeks ago. However, it was bloody painful trying to pick-up the van as Gem's credit card was refused when we tried to use it for the $2000 bond!

We headed for the garage and arrived at 10am. We signed a few things and decided not to take out extra insurance but we did take out windscreen and tyre cover. However, when we tried to put the bond on Gem's card, it was declined, like I said above. The guy serving us said it happens a lot (though they don't seem to have done anything to combat this on their side...) and said to call the card company. However, they were closed till 3pm our time, which was a bit late for us. So we headed back to Joondalup thoroughly demoralised and pissed off. Very pissed off. Along the way though, Gem thought that if we take out the extra insurance, we will only have to put $250 on Gem's card. So we did a bit of shopping at Woolworths and then gave the rental company a call, however, they were engaged so we spent ages trying to get through and then headed across the road for some nourishment in the form of a tasty pie each. Delicious!

By this time, I'd not had any caffeine and was beginning to feel a headache coming on... We tried the number again and managed to secure the bond for $250 so we rushed off to Perth again and picked up the van after paying the insurance and doing a check of the van.

We ducked off to Joondalup, picked up some more stuff and pulled up outside our home where we spent the next hour filling the damn van. I thought there wouldn't be enough room but we managed to get everything in and left Joondalup at 5pm with a coffee each from Aroma! However, this meant driving for the first time during dusk when the kangaroos are out and then night time along a badly lit, winding road. Very happy, indeed we were.

I drove for the next three hours and we finally arrived in Jurien Bay, parked up, got out and had some soup while we tried to put stuff away. We were glad to get to bed after a stressful day where we thought we'd not be able to get the van or that we'd get it a day late, which we hadn't planned for!