Pepina

Today was all about getting the camper van. Dan rang up the guy to check the arrangements but he was French and, although his English was good, he didn’t understand everything. Thomas didn’t go to work and Hannah stayed off from school so we all went to Cairns. On the way we stopped at the bank to get $5000 out in cash. We got $100 bills as we hadn’t had one before. We arrived at the place we were meeting them at 11.15am. We had arranged to meet at 12 so we had to wait for a little while as they were dropping friends off at the airport. Dan was feeling a little bit unwell and sick but soon perked up after some chicken nuggets! Hannah was having a good time too. We got a phone call and the people we were meeitng saw us as we were just next to them. The French guy, Alex, had a friend with him. She was from Luxembourg but spoke French and English perfectly so she translated some things for Alex. We walked across the road to the car park and we saw the camper.

Sh e was called Pepina as her reg plate was PEP555. She had her top popped up and looked brilliant. We checked out the back of the van and it had eveything we could ever dream of. It had a fridge with ice box. Massive amounts of storage. 2 ring gas stove. A sink with water. A table and seats which converted into a really big bed. We fell in love with it. Realistically we should have looked at the driving bit first! It is nearly as old as me so it only had 4 gears which were on a stalk. It even had a choke which I had no idea what to do with. Dan helped me but it was very unfamiliar. We took it for a test drive around the car park. Although I stalled it a lot it wasn’t too bad and figured we’d get used to it.

They had it advertised at $4900 but we made them an offer of $4500 and they took it. Thomas took Hannah home and we went back with the others to their campsite so they could clear everything out. The gave us loads more extra things, like a tent, 4 fold away chairs, a fold up table, plates, cups, cutley, the list could go on and on and on! We paid for it and filled in the necessary paperwork and said goodbye.

I decided to drive as I thought Dan might still be over the limit from drinking. I stalled it time and time again just getting out the campsite and then drove the wrong way. I pulled over and coulc’ve cried it was so hard to change gears. I pulled myself together and got better at it. We had some scary moments but I managed to get us to a shopping centre. We drove around the car park to find a space where we didn’t have to reverse. We went into Coles and got some food for lunch and then went to Kmart to get some bedding. We bought a quilt type blanket, a sheet and some pillows. We spent $80 so we got a voucher for $40 off petrol to use later.

After eating Dan was a lot more with it. He drove as I didn’t fancy doing the windy road back. Dan had a bit of trouble but was generally much better than I was. On the open road Pepina is ok. She pulls a bit to the left but not bad for an old van. We got back to Port Douglas and filled up with petrol. We filled her right up, 45l. We’ll see how long that lasts. We gotback to Thomas’ and we showed him the van properly. Some girls were looking at it too and were impressed. We decided to move the van from round the back by the swimming pool to the next door neighbours drive as they left this morning. I hadn’t reversed before and we got stuck. It was revving so much I thought it’d blow up! Dan sorted her out and drove her round to the front.

Thomas went out to pick Jackie up from work and Dan had a sleep. When Jackie got home I showed her Pepina. She was impressed with it. Thomas is jealous that we are going off travelling and wants to do it too. Now we’re just going to have Timpani for dinner :-)