Heat Wave @ Herbert Park

Well we have had some more upgrades to do before setting off. Still at Herbert Park on the banks of the Yule River which is dry sand. 

Gay-Maree has a new T shirt she likes for camping.

Yes we have only started into the spring season and we are experiencing a heat wave, 42°c yesterday sitting in the truck air-conditioning. 

The southern part of Australia is freezing. Currently while writing it is 36°c, expecting 38°c today already very hot. 

The portable airconditioning Zero Breeze has been keeping us comfortable, even though room temperature is 28.7°c when going to bed. 

Well we have a big 2.6kw air conditioner but went to start the Gentrax 3.5kw generator not even 12 month old which has died on me, it will start but keeps throwing the overload switch, and cutting out even though nothing connected. 

A faulty switch on a Chinese geno not surprised, but has been unreliable since we bought it. 

We feel it is not worth throwing anymore money at it to get repaired. The warranty is only on parts no to repair and shipping cost is owner responsibility.

So we have bought a new Yamaha generator EF2400IS, it has very good reviews, and a 4 years warranty, "peace of mind", but you are paying for the extras in the cost of the geno, which is 3 times the cost of the one we bought. 

"So I guest you get what you pay for". 

Our cheap geno cost was actually a lemon price, and we got a lemon of a geno. The old saying " if it is too good to be true, it usually isn't" 

The new geno weight 32kg but the old one is already 28kg but to help i bought a trolley to move it around the campsite to save my back aching.

As it is so hot in these areas, we have also been looking at water storage issues. 

Down south we get a lot more rain than in the north this time of year, so we can not capture rain water as it is not raining, and yes a lot of the rivers are dry, so I can not pump water from the rivers, so that leaves collecting water from town supplies. 

The issues has been storaging the empty water containers. These take up allot of the packing space when they are empty. 

So we looked at the water bladder idea, but did not have empty spaces on the truck to set up the water bladder.

I was nearly giving up on the idea when I thought, why not empty an area in the canopy to house the water bladder, collect the water, transfer the water into the camper trailer water tanks, then foldup the water bladder and repack the canopy. 

Well it seems like a lot of work, but a lot less than packing the camper trailer up to collect the water. 

We bought a 200L water bladder and this option seem to be working well, we fill the water tanks and have water for washing as well. I have filled the bladder twice now no lifting to fill or transferring the water to camper trailer.

Now my wife says she can do all the washing she wants. Gay-Maree said she was sceptical about the water bladder at first thinking it would be too much effort, but now loves this idea of collecting water.

I have also written a blog on managing climate change from the campsite. I stated keeping cool in the extreme heatwaves event is harder off grid than warming. 

We use 12v fans and water evaporation fans to keep cool up to the high 30s but useless in the 40s. 

I have viewed on you tube people trying to make air conditioners out of ice chest but fail to cool at the extreme temperature end. 

Some air conditioners will not function in the 40s and that goes for Geno's as well. 

The existing Gentrax 3.5kw geno we currently have, will only keep running over 40°c if a 12v fan can cool it under that temp. 

This is also a problem for the Honda 2kw geno has the same problem as well.? 

So this is why it is so hard knowing, what equipment will run in these extreme temperatures. 

The weather for Australia is predicting to be hot and dry for this summer as weather patterns are changing according to the weather bureau. 

They are also expecting an El nino to form late in 2018.

Well back to fixing things, the canvas and screen doors on the camper trailer, the zipper sliders broke an the other dislodged off the track. I found on you tube how to replace and fix broken zip sliders without replacing the whole zip. Well following their directions the zips are now back to new condition and working well.

Tent zips have been a big issue over the time we have been camping, but learning how to replace and manage them will make camping a lot easier.

Well we are still waiting for the new geno to arrive, hopefully packing up the end of next week and moving north to Broome and onto Lake Argle.