Chowder

We’re not talking about clam chowder here, but “Chowder” a famous Australian cartoon and the name of our second Wicked campervan. We rented this beauty from Cairns and have 16 glorious days to spend in her. She is so unique that she deserves a blog all to herself. She’s a bit of a mutt with a Ford front end and a Mazda steering wheel and owners’ manual. Oh yeah, and also Econoline on one of her doors (which we believe is a Ford brand). She has rusty rims, squeaky doors, a stiff clutch and grinding gears. She has had more than a few paint jobs, with the odd one showing through her many dents and scratches. They happened to give us a three person van (because ours wasn’t ready 4 hours after we were supposed to pick it up), but we are firm believers in fate and we were meant to meet her and spend this quality time together.

The journey started out just as we had anticipated, with her 350,000 km we were puttin’ down the streets of Cairns. We were on our way….but only at 80 km/hr. She starts to shake uncontrollably at that speed and her engine can overheat if we work her any harder. It’s been a slow 2000 km so far, but just the way we like it. We cruise down the highway listening to “staticky” radio with our seat heaters on full blast. Did we mention that she comes with luxury? She has her very own seat warming system that is the engine underneath our bums. This is just what we were looking for in +35 degree heat and humidity! We have to give her a good rest before we pack it in for the night because it becomes hotter inside than out if we don’t.

So by now, you know that she is unique. She even comes with her own distinct scent. We couldn’t figure out where the powerful smell of a grown man’s body odour was coming from until we put two and two together and realized it was occurring every time we turned on the AC. The scent is so strong it’s enough to knock someone out. Needless to say, we prefer to use her manual ventilation system (i.e. windows down).

She’s not only a beaut on the outside but is a warm and inviting soul on the inside. She is so inviting in fact, that she welcomes large rodents in through her engine where they have free roam of our seats and have no problem leaving large turds all over the floor and around the gear shift. With her pink and red painted ceiling, graffitied walls by past renters, and her tin can feel she is every budget traveler’s dream. Her tailgate even wears the slogan “I make more money than you can spend”.

Speaking of her tailgate…she’s got quite the upper cut, making us duck and dodge every time we open her….until one day when she became stubborn and didn’t close at all anymore. After spending a couple hours in the parking lot at Rainbow Beach trying to fix her ourselves with none other than WD40 and a butter knife, Clem tied her shut and was off to the mechanic. A short hour later he was back with her and her rear end in mint condition. He had found a mechanic late on a Saturday afternoon in this small town’s industrial area and of course, nobody would turn her away.

So here we are enjoying our last four days with Chowder. She has been an absolute pleasure. We only hope that future travelers take good care of her. We’re leaving her in Brisbane on Thursday, April 6 but she’ll no doubt be with us for the rest of our journey.

(Pics to come, but we are out of internet time!)