Replacing Solar Panel On Supreme Getaway With 240w Panel

We bought a 2000 Supreme Getaway about four weeks ago and were told it had a 160w solar panel on the roof and I figured that would probably do the job. Got it home and checked the output, only 3.1 amps in good sun.

Supreme Getaway Offroad Caravan Old Solar Panel Specs

It’s had a decent (if old) controller so I thought there must be something wrong with the solar panel so I removed it. Turns out it’s a top quality panel, however it was made in 1998 and has the princely max output of 64w.

Supreme Getaway Offroad Caravan Old Solar Panel Charge Controller Photostar 30 Photocomm Inc

New Panels

We had a good (read expensive) set of folding Kyocera cell 240w panels we’ve been using with the camper trailer for 3 years so I removed the folding legs and handles etc and joined them in to one long panel. $60 worth of aluminium angle and sikaflex plus about 4 hours work and we now have 9 amps showing on the multimeter late in the day with the sun low in the sky.

Supreme Getaway Offroad Caravan Solar Panels

Will be much better in full sun. Next up is to do something about the 12v wiring. It’s pretty awful, no breakers or fuses or anything. Tomorrow’s job that one. The old panel is going to be recycled. It’s going on top of the carport so it can keep the battery topped up while the van is under the carport and out of the sun. Just need a couple of Anderson plugs and a little 10amp regulator.

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Carnarvon Gorge National Park Walk Out To The Art Gallery

We headed off early for our walk in Carnarvon Gorge National Park. I really don’t know what to say about this walk other than wow! It was the best bushwalk I have ever done and I have done more than my fair share of them in a large range of places. The range of different features to stop and have a look at or walk out to off the main track is mind blowing.

Carnarvon Gorge National Park Walk Out To Art Gallery Moss Gallery

Carnarvon Gorge National Park Walk Out To Art Gallery – The Moss Gallery

Carnarvon Gorge National Park Walk Is Impressive

Usually when you go on a walk there is one standout feature that you are going to look at, if you are lucky there might be two. This walk has so many it’s not fair to all the other walks. Everything you look at is different to or more impressive than the last.

Carnarvon Gorge National Park Walk Out To Art Gallery Ladder To Ampitheatre

We Made It To The Art Gallery

We made it as far as the Art Gallery. On the way out to the Art Gallery we stooped and looked at the Moss Garden, the Amphitheatre and Wards Canyon. We would have loved to have gone further but Amanda’s knee was playing up massively and to be honest I was pretty well buggered myself! All up we did about 25 kilometres in total and given the heat and humidity it was enough. Keep in mind that it was in May, I wouldn’t want to be doing the walk in February as the heat and humidity would make the conditions overly oppressive.

Carnarvon Gorge National Park The Art Gallery

Something to keep in mind, make sure you carry PLENTY of drinking water with you. We had four litres each and it was only just enough. We’d take at least double that if doing the full Carnarvon Gorge walk out to Big Bend.

Carnarvon Gorge National Park Walk Out To Art Gallery Crossing Stream

Next time we go to Carnarvon Gorge we want to be a bit fitter so we can make it all the way to Big Bend. It’s an out and back walk so you have to be careful with how far you go out, as you always have to come back the same way. That or sleep in the bush, which would have been ok too!

We Drive From Moree To Lightning Ridge Via Walgett

We drive to Lightning Ridge via Moree and Walgett. Moree looked like a much nicer town than I had imagined it would be. We saw cotton plantations and huge bales of cotton in some paddocks, the paddocks and scale of everything out here is completely enormous.

Paddocks Stretch To The Horizon

Pack up was easy as we had no annexe to deal with today. Drove to Lightning Ridge via Moree and Walgett. Moree looked like a much nicer town than I had imagined it would be. We were very surprised, it goes to show that you should go and have a look at these places yourselves and not just listen to the rubbish people say about them. We saw cotton plantations and huge bales of cotton in some paddocks, the paddocks and scale of everything out here is completely enormous.

Welcome To Lightning Ridge

Paddocks stretch to the horizon. We saw emus on the side of the road when we got nearer to Lightning Ridge, neither Amanda or myself have ever seen emus in the wild before. They are massive birds, bigger than they seem to be in zoos. We arrived at Lightning Ridge and set up camp at the Black Opal caravan park. It’s unusual in that the surface of the entire park is some kind of pea gravel that is compacted so hard that the office lend you a huge hammer drill so you can drill holes for your pegs.

MARS Extremo Set Up @ The Opal Caravan Park Lightning Ridge

The camp has a couple of comedian/bush poets called Mel and Susie doing evening shows so we went and watched. They are both awesome. They are a couple of ladies who travel the country doing shows out of their travel bus. They are excellent > http://www.melandsusieontour.com.au/.

Mel and Susie

If you’re looking for ideas of things to do in Lightning Ridge thene check out this post 33 Things To Do In Lightning Ridge That We Enjoyed

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Goondiwindi & We Stop In At Texas Along the Way

Packed up early and got in the car and headed off to Goondiwindi.

Goondiwindi

On our way we stopped off at a little roadside diner to get a drink that I can’t remember the name of. There was a fellow wearing jeans and thongs buying a can of coke and he mentioned to the store owner that it was trying to rain and the owner said yeah been trying to do that for about a year. It is very very dry.

Bonshaw Store On The Way To Texas

We called in at Texas. It’s not a bad little town and it has some good camp sites down near the river so we’ll have to come back and check it out further.

Texas Memorial Hall – Texas QLD

We made it to Goondiwindi and set up the camper this time without the annexe. We stayed at the Goondiwindi Holiday Park and they have an artesian pool and we went for a swim and it was very nice. It’s a nice little caravan park.

We had dinner at a Chinese/Malay restaurant and enjoyed it a lot. After dinner we went across the road to the artesian bore baths. They are really awesome. The water is about 39* which doesn’t sound all that hot but it actually is. After sitting in there for an hour you feel really relaxed.

Dinner At The Chinese/Malay Restaurant

We Check Out Tenterfield & Have Lunch In Glen Innes

Went in to Tenterfield and it was a much bigger place than we thought it would be. Amanda wanted to see the pub where Peter Allen began singing but it turns out we were 150 k’s too far north and needed to be in Armidale for that. Visited the Tenterfield Saddler and it was cool. We liked it a lot.

The Tenterfield Saddler Made Famous In The Song By By Peter Allen

Amanda inside The Tenterfield Saddler

The Imperial Hotel

We then headed back to Glen Innes and had some superb pork chops for lunch at The Imperial Hotel. Amanda bought a really cool hat. Sort of a floppy Akubra kinda thing. Looks good. Visited the local museum in the old hospital and it was great. Heaps of old stuff to look at. We even scored a free cup of tea.

The Imperial Hotel

The Standing Stones At Glen Innes

Then we went looking for the standing stones and that turned out to be a lot more difficult than it should have been. Eventually we found them and had a look around. Had another fire back at Gunyah and cooked up some steak and snags, they were pretty good.

The Standing Stones At Glen Innes

Gunyah Deepwater River Camping Near Glen Innes

Gunyah Deepwater River Camping is an old property just out of the town of Deepwater near the northern NSW town of Deepwater. You can camp on the property. Deepwater is about 50 km north of Glen Innes. What a place!

Gunyah Its An Old Property Just Out Of The Town Of Deepwater

Captain Thunderbolt Bushranger Grave

We drove to Deepwater and set up camp. On the way we stopped off and visited Captain Thunderbolts grave. When getting out to the grave I had a moment with the trailer, banged the drawbar on the road going through a dip and smashed the Anderson Plug lead.

Captain Thunderbolts Grave

Gunyah Deepwater River Camping

We camped at Gunyah Deepwater River Camping – it’s an old property just out of the town of Deepwater. Deepwater is about 50 km north of Glen Innes. What a fantastic place. It’s bush camping and we had our pick of spots along about 2km of river frontage. We managed to get everything set up without too much arguing this time but according to Amanda I still picked a rubbish spot. It was about thirty feet from the one she picked out. We wouldn’t have been able to get the jockey wheel lowered in her spot without digging a hole but mine was still the rubbish one!

Set Up At Gunyah Near Deepwater NSW

Dinner Over The Fire

After getting set up we headed into town to get some lunch. The only thing we could get was chicko rolls and chips from the diner. It was after two in the afternoon so everywhere else was out of food or closed. It’s the way it is in the country so no complaints from us. On the way back we collected some firewood. We cooked dinner over an open fire – rissoles Amanda had made and they were delicious.

Cooking Dinner At Gunyah Station

Uno Dummy Spit

As we often do we played a game of Uno and Amanda had a massive dummy spit and threw chips and cards everywhere. We listened to the local radio station 2T something and it was a good fun night.

Another UNO Dummy Spit