Bunnings

Up early to get down to the department for transport to register Bertha in our name. Again, very painless, but not as painless as the UK system of doing it online. Having said that, how easy is it for a foreigner to buy and register a vehicle in UK?

We came home and I picked up the bunch of keys and sorted them. While we have 4 or 5 copies of some keys, we only have 1 copy of our main deadlock for Bertha. One of the door locks could probably be opened using a wooden lolly stick! We then washed everything we had collected the day before, sorted into what we would keep and what to send to the charity shop.

With loads of stuff and lots of places to put it, we decided to go to the enormous DIY/trade store called Bunnings. As I’ve said befor, it has everything and makes a large B&Q look a bit insignificant. The plan was simple, park in their car park, start packing the stuff away and if we had a problem to go into Bunings and find a solution.

In reality the plan worked well except they didn’t have something I wanted that I felt sure I would find in B&Q. Sometimes the language barrier is too high and I can’t make myself understood; never mind.

The evening was spent continuing to pack and squirrel everything away. Now we just need to put our clothes in, buy some food and be on our way.

First stop will be Bribie Island, a staggering 40 miles away north of Brisbane. “Bribie Island is the smallest and most northerly of three major sand islands forming the coastline sheltering the northern part of Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia. The others are Moreton Island and North Stradbroke Island. Bribie Island is 34 kilometres long, and 8 kilometres at its widest”. The island was connected to the mainland by a bridge in 1963. It is believed that the name of the island came from a corruption of a mainland word for it; “Boorabee” meaning 'koala bear'.

We are meeting a friend who now lives on the island. Hopefully this will give us a chance to see how well Bertha travels full of crockery etc. Earlier today we went over a sleeping policeman and it sounded like everything smashed in the back! It will also be our first night camping!Read more