Exploring Australia - 2014: 13 December 2014

We did not know quite what to do in Adelaide as we felt a little intimidated by a large city after the small villages of Tasmania. We decided to go to the zoo as this is the only place in Australia you can get to see Giant Pandas. The weather was forecast to be 34 so a hot day was on the cards. We drove to the zoo and was in time to have a talk on the Pandas. There are two Pandas, Wang Wang and Funi, with Funi being active because of a phantom pregnancy and she was eating everything in sight! We took many photos and videos. We strolled around the zoo in increasing temperatures which topped 38. We also finally saw the Gouldian Finch which we have been wanting to see for so many years. We had a snack lunch and drove home via the city to see what the 'city of churches' was all about. On the way we stopped at Port Adelaide before retiring t the caravan for a nap with the aircon going to help keep us cool.

We thought we would share some details of our caravan and car setup for navigation and general driving. There is a 180 degree photo attached to this blog entry showing the inside of our caravan taken from the doorway. The caravan is 14 foot long with (from left to right) the double bed at the front with storage space underneath, kitchen along the right side, shower and toilet at the right rear, microwave & cupboards at the rear, and finally the table and benches on the left. We have a gas hot water system and reverse-cycle air-conditioner under the bed. The caravan is an off-road model with independant suspension, 160 litres of water and two 9 kilo bottles of gas. We are very well setup with 12 volt battery power and solar panels for a few days of camping without external power or water.

The car has had airbags fitted to the rear suspension to help take the weight of the caravan. We have a UHF radio to communicate with truckies and pilot vehicles on the road. We also have a tyre pressure monitoring system to monitor all tyres for pressure and temperature which will warn of flat tyres. We have a trip-computer connected to the car's computer to provide a huge amount of info about the running of the car. Built into the dash is the radio with DVD, CD and SD card support for all sorts of media. The radio also has an old satnav as well as OziExplorer and Hema maps for moving map display. Finally we have a 7.7 inch Android tablet with Wikicamps for finding caravan parks and camp sites, electronic road maps, a more updated satnav for navigation through towns and cities, and finally all our music which is played via bluetooth to the in-dash radio. The photo of the inside of the car has all these items labelled. If you are wondering what the box is that is located in the footwell on the right under the steering wheel - it is the electronic brake controller for the caravan.