More Autumn colours, battery problems.

We travelled today from Asahikawa towards Saporro. Beie is known for its flowers and although they are past their peak they still were remarkable. 

We continued on towards Saporro. The trip was uneventful except for the autumn colours which adorn all of the places where it was green in the past. The hillsides, river vallies, cliffs. The best way to describe it is to show you photos. 

We camped on an abandoned bridge. There are so many abandoned roads, bridges, hotels, car parks, that finding a camp site is usually not difficult. And often we find spots with great views. 

 42.77121N,   141.764S this area has closed roads and bridges because of a new dam being built. So these are expected to be inundated. 

We are having battery problems at present. The house batteries experienced a severe over- charging episode (or perhaps multiple such episodes before the problem was discovered) very early on after we took delivery of the vehicle. The factory settings for the regulator were wrong. With instructions from Mark at Earthcruiser Joe managed to reset it correctly. Joe thought at the time that this would severely effect the life of the batteries, and we were reassured by Mark that should they fail he will replace them. 

So it seems that they have failed now. It is not because of anything that happened while we're away. The car was parked in the sun, with nothing running, and the batteries were fully charged when we returned. But now the house batteries will not hold enough power to start the stove or the heater in the evenings. Joe runs the vehicle engine while I start the stove or the heater. The heater will not run all night. It starts flashing a code which means "inadequate power". We now realise that this may explain why we had difficulty starting the stove in the last fortnight before we left last time. We thought it was air in the fuel line. 

Yesterday in Saporro we had the start batteries tested and the result was "unstable batteries". However the young man doing the testing didn't seem to understand what he was doing so we don't have a lot of confidence in the result. He couldn't test the house batteries either because they are AGM (absorbed gel matt) and his testing device couldn't test them. He said they do not exist in Japan! That could make things difficult for us! We'll try to get a better answer elsewhere. Maybe marine shops have AGM batteries. 

Typhoon Vongfong is heading up this way but is not predicted to effect most of Hokkaido. We are in the south west and hoping to avoid it. However it raining today, only lightly, probably not related to the storm. We do have to do a ferry crossing to HONSHU in the next few days, so we are hoping that the 9m waves experienced further south are not also seen here! So wish us luck! 

Mountains, camping sites, Japan Alps -so much beauty!

11/5/2014

For the last few days we have been wandering around in the Japanese Alps. There is SO much stunning beauty -gorges, snow topped mountains, wild (controlled) rivers. Here are some shots of the views as we went.

This one is for Lynette -so you think you have deer? 

Today we stopped at a road-side cafe 

because I saw an interesting bonsai in front of the shop. We met two lovely people who were very excited about our car! They had a good look and we managed to communicate quite well. Unfortunately we didn't get their names, but we got a photo.

They offered us coffee (and refused payment) and some fern fronds which had been boiled and salted and were delicious.

The edible part is the curled young frond. It is very similar to what I know as King Fern in Australia. It has a deep groove down the centre of the stem. 

The lady (?mother) is going to Australia next April to visit friends in the Yarra Valley! We hope she has great hospitality there as we have had in Japan! 

We have found a place to camp every night and have not once been disturbed or complained to. We have slept in small tracks where we could get off the road, 

vacant allotments a bit out of town, shrine parking areas on very quiet roads, 

and tonight in the parking area of a 5 star onsen hotel! It is raining so that onsen is a very welcome thought! The hotel is on a lake and appears to be a fishing resort. We have seen very cold looking fishermen coming up from the lake, so I guess they appreciate the hot tub too! 

 This time we asked permission to camp (being totally self sufficient helps!) and to use the onsen. (Yes that is snow on the ground). Yes to both questions. So when we felt cold we headed over to the hotel with our towels. And... Since I am the only woman here, we can have the onsen to ourselves (together)! And no charge for us tonight! 

And.... It is one of the nicest onsens we have found, with a stone fish-statue in the middle, and two aquariums featuring trout. We luxuriated in it for 45 minutes (in and out), and forgot the cold night outside! 

The Onsen is "Marunuma"  or "Kan Ko So". 

email: kankoso@marunuma.com

Www.marunuma.com

Tel. 0278-58-2002

The busy season is summer, and it is closed in winter. 

Highly recommended!

Waltzing Matilda with just the two of us!

After the young people left we were on our own! We planned to make our way slowly back up to Sydney camping in national parks and state forests. We were blown away by the tall gum forests of Victoria! Beautiful places!

We tended to alternate between the forests at higher elevations and the coastal areas.

Victoria has some quaint little towns with historic buildings and bridges. 

We enjoyed Bucchan Caves.

Everyone we met asked why we were in the cold southern states and not in warm Qld. After awhile I began to wonder myself!  Especially since the heater wasn't working in the Earthcruiser. You can tolerate the cold by cuddling up at night -but only until the novelty wears off! A camp fire certainly helps but even that is better if you have a warm bed to retreat to later. We especially felt this at Walhalla. We left our camp chairs outside overnight and woke to find a heavy frost.

So after criss-crossing the state of Victoria we crossed into NSW. We then decided to do a quick trip to Sydney to get the heater fixed, along with a few knobs and buttons which had fallen off the vehicle. Mark was onto it straight away and we were off towards Canberra less than 24 hours later! 

The war memorial was a great surprise. The exhibits were very interesting and the scope of the place amazing. We took a free tour with a guide -very well done and I would recommend it. We commented that this is a place all Aussie kids should see - both to know what sacrifices our service men and women made (and still make) and to demistify war. 

We also took a look at the Turner (no relation) exhibition at the National Gallery. I was hoping to see my ancestor (James Douglas) recognised -he "discovered" Turner and gave him his first canvas for his first oil painting (Rochester Castle). This painting stayed in our family for a number of generations. But there was no mention of James Douglas. Joe however enjoys paintings and Turner in particular so the visit was not wasted on him. 

Then it was off to the snow again. There had been significant snow falls since our first visit. I was anxious to test out the heater and hot water systems. We need to know how these perform before we end up in the northern hemisphere! 

We camped at Three Mile Dam (west) again. This is a lovelly site, right on the water. Check out the view through the bedroom window! 

There was a little snow around. There was even a short flurry of snow fall at about dusk. But we awoke in the morning to a blanket of snow on the surrounding landscape and on the car! Just what we wanted, and the heater had worked beautifully. 

And here is the place we camped on our first visit here with the young people - where Zef sat outside in the frost....

Next night we went to a different campsite which happened to be in a frosty pocket. When we arrived there was a little snow about, but over night the temp dropped to -5.4C. The mud around the campsite froze. And local wallabies looked decidedly chilled. 

But there was no water in any of our taps.... The pipes had frozen. The pump still worked though so that had not frozen. Now we need to know from Earthcruiser how to care for the system when freezing temperatures are expected. Apparently the "pipes" are actually hoses so freezing will not split them. But the pump could be a different matter. 

How we got here

We are a retired couple who like to travel and camp. We have a camper trailer and a Landcruiser and we have done a fair bit of outback and remote travel in our time. We have been to the red centre, NT including Kakadu, all of the Eastern states including Tasmania.

We hired a motor home in NZ twice. We have been to Birdsville and Eyre creek, including Big Red (the famous sand dune at the eastern start of the Simpson track.) Joe has driven to the tip of Cape York (I went by boat on that occasion).

The reason I mention all of this is to indicate that we are not complete 4wd novices. And we have done our fair share of roughing it in the bush.

Now we want to do a big trip. This time we will do it with some comfort. We have set our sights on Mongolia, the 'stans, and into Europe.

About a year ago we started to research what vehicle we would need for this trip. We considered taking our current setup. But a canvas tent in a blizzard? Nope! Towing a trailer across unknown streams? Not a great idea. And when we thought about human interference and then bears and Siberian tigers!-no way! 

Beryl Turner