Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink

Our first stop on the new phase of our journey was Swan Hill, a town on the Murray River with a great golf course. We arrived lateish in the afternoon, and took a bit longer than we used to to get set up - we had to make sure we hadn't forgotten the routine. Once the water hose was connected Wendy tried to refill our water bottles, but was surprised to find that no water was coming out of the kitchen tap. We fiddled and poked, but to no avail, we couldn't get more than a dribble coming through, despite the strong water pressure from the park tap.

We looked at each with dread, in fear that we would need to replace the entire undervan plumbing system. A couple of days before we set off, we had used some water tank cleaning tablets to flush out the water tank and plumbing system of the van. This had been quite a lengthy process, involving filling the water tank and flushing it through several times. It seemed like too much of a coincidence that a couple of days later the plumbing was no longer working.

By this stage it was not long before 5:00, so we rushed into the caravan shop in town to ask for help. We were almost their first customers, they were still building the office, and they said they would come out and have a look at it. Shortly afterwards a man in overalls arrived at our van and went through the same process we had - checking water was coming out of the park tap and getting through the hose alright, checking the pipe fitting the hose connected to, and turning the inside tap on and off in a vain attempt to make something happen. 'Hmm' he said 'that's odd' which wasn't really news to us. Eventually as it was getting dark it was agreed that he would have a talk to 'his mate the plumber' and come out again the following afternoon. Meanwhile we had to use a bucket to fetch hot water so we could wash the dinner dishes. The next morning we were up bright and early as we had booked to play golf at 9:15. We'd had breakfast and were just washing the dishes (using a bucket of water again) when the caravan man suddenly appeared, saying he'd spoken to his plumber mate who had suggested checking the filter on the end of the tap. 'There's a filter on the end of the tap?' we asked in surprise. Sure enough, the end of the tap screwed off to reveal a filter clogged up with gunk from the cleaning agent. A quick wipe out and hey presto, the tap gushed forth water. Who'd have guessed? Let's hope all our vanning issues are resolved so simply, and we thought the $30 charged very well spent.

We had a nice game of golf and went to bed that night anticipating the same the following day. However we were woken around 4:30 by rain drumming on the roof of the van. The downpour had reduced to constant drizzle by morning, and it stayed that way all day. The temperature managed to climb to a miserable 11 degrees, and that dizzy high probably only lasted for 10 minutes. We spent the entire day huddled inside the van with our little fan heater blasting out full bore, reading the paper and faffing about on the internet. Not the most exciting day of our trip, and hopefully the only one like it.