Prepping Bertha for sale

While we thought that buying a vehicle in Australia was rather tedious, selling one in Victoria that is registered in Queensland may be even worse. Never mind, all part of the adventure. She is advertised in a couple of places and we have had a couple of enquiries. We need to fix a couple of things, give her a good clean (red dust still appears everywhere) and she needs an oil change and replacement oil and air filters which is many times more expensive here than the UK.

We managed to find a second rose to match the one we planted last week.

The main issue is selling Bertha, but this is followed by the need of a “roadworthy certificate} (RWC), similar to our MOT except the cost - $350 rather than £39. The RWC that we have from when we bought Bertha in November, was issued in Queensland, so not valid here in Victoria and a vehicle must have a current RWC before it can be sold. The other problem is that a RWC is only valid for 4 weeks when selling the vehicle! Mind, it’s only valid for 2 weeks in QLD.

While Bertha was having an oil change, I was given a Mercedes A class as a courtesy car. It was a manual car, but without a clutch! I sat in the drivers seat rather confused, a gearstick of a manual car but only two pedals of an automatic car. Very weird.

Today has been the first bit of real sunshine for almost a week during which time we have felt quite cold on many occasions, we never packed for such low temperatures. We have been preparing to get back on the road, washing, tidying etc. We took the opportunity to have a cuppa in the sun and then walk up to the camel’s hump to see what the view is when it’s not in cloud.

Tomorrow we are off to the Great Ocean Road ....Read more