Today it was time to shift camp to Byron Bay!

I’ve given you setting up info, so this time I’ll give you packing up info.

First, I start inside.  I wash up anything in the sink, then secure all the crockery and utensils.  I shut down my computer, and pack it and all the accessories away.  My electric toothbrush and clock go into a cupboard, my water jugs are tipped out and set away, I put the soap and sponges in the sink, which I then cover up.

I do a sweep of the caravan looking for anything not secured – or at least, anything not secured that needs to be.  My laundry basket, for example, is collapsible and made of fabric, so it can slide around on the floor all it wants.

The windows need to be securely latched, and the skylight closed and locked.  I collapse the little clothes line at the back of Turtle Shell, and secure it with a Velcro strap.  I close up the awning, and make sure the travel locks are engaged.  I ensure the gas cylinder is turned off.

Now it’s time to start detaching myself from the site facilities.  I turn the fridge onto the ‘DC’ setting, which means it’s now running off the caravan battery (in this state it can’t really cool down, it just maintains the temperature, so you can’t be opening and closing the fridge when it’s on this setting).  I unplug the power, wind up the cord and stow it away.  I detach the sullage hose and drinking water hose, and then go through various contortions as I try to coax the leftover water to run out of them.  Then I bundle them up and tuck them in a plastic bucket, just in case I haven’t got all the water out of them.

The next step is the stabilisers – the little legs on either side of the caravan.  I wind them all up, and take my little blocks of wood from underneath them.  I also remove the chocks from in front of the wheels.  The parking brake is still on at this point though, so Turtle Shell isn’t going anywhere.

Next step is actually attaching it to the car, so I remove the lock on the caravan hitch, use the jockey wheel to give it some height, and begin the exciting process of lining up car and caravan.  That ‘exciting’ bit is sarcasm, because this is the part that can be tricky, full of stops and checks and re-aligning.  But this time I was pretty good – I almost got it on the first go, but the tow hitch and tow ball were just a little too far apart.  So I went forward a little, adjusted my angle, and the second reverse lined up nicely.

I don’t have to line them up 100% perfectly, because once the parking brake is off the caravan there is a little flexibility in the alignment of the tow hitch, especially because my caravan is a single axle and so is easier to turn.  Today, I just had to put my leg against the side of the tow hitch and use a little of my bodyweight to make it lean over the tow ball.  At the same time, I was winding the jockey wheel down to drop the hitch on top of the ball.

Once Turtle Shell is hitched, it’s time to attach the chains.  These basically function as a safeguard for the hitch – if it breaks off, the chains will catch the hitch to keep it off the road, and keep the caravan attached to the car.  The anti-sway bars are next, and they take a bit of muscle to lift into place.  Now I attach the cords for the electric brake and caravan battery, and remove the jockey wheel.  Then it’s one last prowl around Turtle Shell, making sure everything’s ready to go.

The final step before departure is to make sure the caravan indicator and brake lights are working.  Then it’s off on the road!

All in all, packing up will take me about an hour, mainly because I spend a lot of time double and triple-checking everything.

It was only about an hour’s drive to Byron Bay, and that was with the caravan over some steep hills, so it’s probably even quicker when you’re just in a car.  I could drive straight into my site as well, because there was nothing in the lot behind me, so that was nice.

Then it was time to set everything up again.  There’s been one change to the routine though – instead of putting the cables for the electric brake and whatnot in a plastic bag, I just put a little plastic bucket upside-down over them.  I saw other people at the Lismore caravan site doing this, and it made more sense than the plastic bag.

The park I’m staying in is next to a beach.  Not directly in front of it, but there’s a little walking/cycling path down to it, so I’ll definitely be taking advantage of that at some point.