It’s a Goa!

We spent a very stressful week preparing Bessie and ourselves for our epic roadtrip. Just before I left work, Frank, my boss at the garage and I had given Bessie a full service and fixed a few little niggly faults. Tace and I also had to make some improvements to the interior so we’d be nice and comfortable driving and living inside a small van for nine months.

The day after I finished at the garage I’d agreed to pick up Anne (our landlady at the shed) from the airport. It rained so hard it was ridiculous and we had a mad dash to get Anne and her luggage inside the van before both got totally soaked. On the road out of the airport, the windscreen wipers began making a whining noise. Then they started slowing down and eventually ground to a halt with a long and pitiful groan. No matter what I did, I couldn’t coax them back into life on the petrol station forecourt I’d pulled into, so I decided to try driving through the torrential rain without the use of windscreen wipers. This proved easier than expected and we got safely back to the shed.

I’d also agreed to collect Tace from the train station later on as she arrived home from work so I immediately set about trying to repair the windscreen wiper mechanism. To do this required me to dismantle and remove the whole dashboard! A bit of WD-40 and this amazing spray grease called Sabesto that Frank had given me freed up the windscreen wiper motor and mechanism nicely and I watched with glee as the whole thing slowly came to life, going faster and faster until the windscreen wipers were working better than ever! I even managed to get everything reassembled well enough afterward that I could pick Tace up from the train station on time.

The next day I went out shopping for tools (to use in case Bessie broke down) and new foam for the seat that converts into a bed. All was not well with Bessie; disturbing the numerous 33 year-old electrical connections behind the dashboard had caused a domino effect of electrical nightmares and with each one I solved, two others would appear. On top of this the weather was terrible with wind and rain making it very difficult to work outside and of course, the dampness was playing havoc with the already temperamental electrics. Fortunately Bessie had come with some workshop manuals containing very detailed electrical diagrams and my GCSE physics finally came in handy as I was able to understand the various symbols and colours well enough to relate the spaghetti of wires and connections with what was in the diagram. Progress was very slow but at least there was progress.

Another day closer to leaving Perth and I still had electrical nightmares to contend with but I needed to find some front seats to replace the very worn and uncomfortable pair that Bessie had come with. I had contacted a few local scrapyards and one told me that the front seats from a SAAB are an almost perfect fit for a Kombi so I headed over to the other side of Perth to check them out, knowing that SAAB have a reputation for fitting some of the most comfortable seats of any car manufacturer. On arrival I was shown around various SAABs in the scrapyard with seats in various colours and condition. However, right at the back of the compound I struck gold, another VW Kombi like Bessie, with an interior in fantastic condition! Even better, the manager of the scrapyard agreed to give me the seats for half the price of the SAAB seats, plus I could take any other bits and bobs I wanted.

With my brand new tools I began dismantling the poor old VW and scavenging all the parts I wanted for Bessie. Those seats were immaculate and the cushion foam looked almost brand new. I was thrilled. I was there for at least two hours. Even the bed was in perfect condition and I cursed the fact I’d just spent quite a lot of money on new foam. I couldn’t get the new seats to fit into Bessie straight away, which was a shame - it turned out that neither Bessie’s seats nor those of the donor Kombi were original VW items and that some modifications had been made to both vehicles to make them fit. I had to do some extra work so I paid for what I’d taken and went back to the shed.

The afternoon weather was at least dry but very windy. I set about making some (rather brutal and heavy handed) modifications to Bessie’s seating fitments while listening to my new Killers CD on the rather impressive in-van stereo system. That evening I’d agreed to meet Tace at Glenn & Lou’s house so we could have a few farewell drinks with Lou, who was heading off to Brisbane the next day and wouldn’t be around to see us off (Glenn was already on holiday in Italy). I’d just about got the seats fitted so it was possible and mostly safe to sit in them when it was time to go. Listening to the Killers for all that time had killed the battery! I thought no problem, Bessie has dual batteries so I can jumpstart the engine using the second battery. The second battery was also dead! Luckily, Anne turned up in her car and I could quickly jumpstart Bessie and get going.

The morning after a drunken Kath & Kim DVD marathon with Lou we’d promised to take her to the airport. Bessie’s battery was dead again (what is it with Bessie and airports?) so we had to take her in the ever-faithful Daisy. On the way back we picked up some battery fluid which was enough to coax the engine into life and we were able to drive Bessie back to the shed, feeling rather hungover. Tace busied herself with upholstering the new seat/bed and I tinkered about fitting a windscreen washer system (Bessie didn’t already have one!). When we needed to go out again, the battery was too flat to start the engine. Anne was out so we had to ask the elderly next door neighbour for a jump start but his car was too feeble for the job. He also tried lending us two battery chargers, which had no effect. We ended up getting a taxi to my old workplace and buying a new battery and it didn’t come cheap but at least we could reliably start Bessie up!

We spent the next couple of days ironing out the remaining electrical gremlins and fitting out the interior (all in the wind and the rain) and finally it was time to go. It was the first time I’d driven Bessie all loaded up with the roofrack full and the bikes attached to the bike rack and it felt very different. It was so windy and I found it hard to relax into driving, especially as all the stress of the past few days was still at the front of my mind. We only got as far as the Miami Bakehouse in Mandurah and Bessie conked out, with a loud double backfire. We stopped for a pie before trying to work out what was wrong. I couldn’t figure it out and the engine wouldn’t start, plus boring men kept interrupting me wanting to talk about old cars when I just wasn’t in the mood!

A stroke of luck meant that not only had we broken down in front of the famous Miami Bakehouse but behind the shop was a caravan park. A bunch of local lads helped push us into the park, where we could spend the night and look up a mechanic the next day (it was Sunday so everywhere was closed). We enjoyed a walk around the local area, taking in the estuary and the beach and watching the tail-end of an Austalian rules football game before enjoying some fish and chips. In the morning, I tried to start the engine and amazingly, it worked! We drove gingerly into Mandurah, trying several garages who were all booked up before finally arriving at Ultra Tune who could fit us in within the hour. We left Bessie in their capable hands while looking round the local charity shops. When we got back, the mechanic was just taking Bessie for a test drive and when he came back, he said she was running well. The reason she’d broken down was because when Frank and I had carried out the service, we’d used one of the three workshop manuals that Bessie came with to find out the correct settng for the engine’s timing. Only one of the three books had the correct setting for the Australian version of the engine and we’d used the setting for the American version! We also figured out that the reason the batteries had died were because the DVD screen had been left on since who-knows-when (flattening the second battery), plus I’d left the ignition switch on while listening to the Killers on the CD player, draining the main battery!

Happily, Ultra Tune didn’t charge us much for sorting Bessie out and we managed to reach Bridgetown just in time to catch last orders at the wonderful Cidery. Plus, we also had a great evening dropping in on our friends Dan & Simone who kindly gave us loads of tips, contacts, maps and stuff for travelling Australia plus a lovely warm bed for the night!

We’ve been on the road over three months now with (touch wood) no further vehicle-related hiccups. Bessie’s a good home, enjoyable to drive and looks great in photos plus we’re living our VW Kombi dream whilst visiting countless stunning natural wonders in the vast and fascinating country that is Australia.