Tuesday 19th December – Another relocation, leaving Melbourne and surviving a sudden storm

We took an Uber to Let’s Go Motorhomes to pick up yet another relocation vehicle. This time we have only two days to safely reach Sydney!  We weren’t too impressed when we had to wait over an hour for someone to start showing us around our motor home. But then we got excited – it was brand new!  There was only 25km on the clock, the RV having just been imported and needing moving to Sydney for its first paying customers.  It was very flashy inside with a large bathroom and lots of LED lighting and switches.  A big responsibility for us.  Even though it’s so new, we still managed to find a couple of chips on the body with our practised eyes… we weren’t taking any chances.

Despite being in the North of Melbourne where we could easily head east towards Sydney we had other plans – to drive back into the City to visit Albert Park, the home of Australia’s F1 circuit (of course!).  Now we had wheels we could drive the entire circuit whilst enjoying nice views of the City.

Panoramic view of Albert Park Lake with the City in the distance

View of the start/finish straight and the pits at Albert Park

Some legends of F1 (on the left and right of Simon)

Next stop – Ramsey Street!  Or as it’s known in reality, Pin Oak Court!  This is the main hub of activity for the famous Australian soap, Neighbours, but you probably know that.   

Our flashy new RV parked in Ramsey Street

There was a security guard on duty. Filming had stopped for Christmas so there was no chance of us spotting any stars but the normal residents are happy for people to take photos as long as you don’t step onto private property.  Even though we both haven’t watched Neighbours for many years we still recognised the houses and were tested on ‘who’s house is who’s’ by the security guard!

Us in front of the Robinson's house on the left and the Kennedy's on the right

Leaving Melbourne was incredibly slow and rainy.  Our aim was to make as much ground towards Canberra as possible in daylight so that we would have a shorter drive the next day.  There were some ominous looking clouds about, in fact I think I’d just mentioned that one looked red when the wind suddenly picked up.  ‘Getting windy?’ I asked Simon who was driving at the time.  Suddenly the force of the wind was incredible and the entire RV was shifted from lane one into lane two whilst bits of branch and debris started pummelling the left side of the van.  Si put the hazards on and carefully pulled onto the hard-shoulder.  How lucky was it that there was no vehicle in the outside lane? We would have been blown straight into them!  Some other drivers had also pulled up behind us as the high winds continued.  Had we driven into a tornado or hurricane?  It was that sudden and unexpected.  Si had stopped next to some trees for protection, but I was worried that one of them would soon be joining us inside the RV!  I started taking some video footage.  I hope this video works for you because it really shows the force of the wind blowing horizontally across the road in front of us and you'll note the lack of any other traffic:  

Let’s Go had only entrusted us with this brand new RV a few hours previously and now it was potentially getting pebble-dashed down one side.  We needed evidence that any damage caused was entirely unavoidable due to an act of nature.  I’m not sure if our insurance policy covered that?!

We waited a few minutes until the wind seemed to ease off a little but it was still incredibly blustery.  We had just passed a rest area before the incident, wanting to push on, so I found the next one on my app and Simon started driving cautiously towards it.  That was enough driving for one day!  We took the next exit off, though the back road was littered with tree debris: 

This was the conditions on the main highway

I had to jump out to move a couple of branches to avoid any damage to the undercarriage of the RV.  There were trees and branches down everywhere. Eventually we saw the green glow of a BP petrol station ahead and chose to pull into the truck area between a couple of large lorries that might offer us some protection if the winds returned. 

 

We checked the outside for any damage.  Despite the RV now looking spotted due to being covered in bits of leaves, on initial inspection we couldn’t find any dents or scratches on the bodywork.  

A bit of leaf material was thankfully the only evidence of what had just happened

Unbelievable in the circumstances.  We were very lucky.  I was imagining the whole thing and us being tipped over at one point, so we were so relieved to find no damage.  That was enough to put us off driving for the rest of the day.  Time to batten down the hatches and hope for a more peaceful night….