Now that the cloud cover had finally dispersed, our gasless van was allowed a bit of time to recharge in the sunshine.
During this time, the state of charge jumped to 55% in just one day! This was warmly welcomed after dropping to just over 23% during our last update.
The low level of charge back then was due to the van powering the electrical needs of three caravans for an extended period of time – no mean feat!
However, this meant that our team needed to make up some time recharging the van. So in order to occupy ourselves in the meantime, we tried our hand at some gold prospecting.
While the gold prospecting did not pan out for our crew, the leaseholder of the land found a huge 3.5-ounce nugget!
This was great for the leaseholder, not so great for us!
After that little adventure, our team moved on from Coolgardie to Kalgoorlie in order to pick up some supplies and get the Ranger serviced.
While in Kalgoorlie, we observed the ANZAC Day remembrances with some of the locals there.
Despite what lay ahead of us, we felt there was no reason to miss such an important occasion.
We have one funny story we need to share with you – as an extra feature, the team fitted motion sensor activated lights on the van, one on the rear of the van and one over the door.
This impressed everyone in the caravan park so much that they all rushed out to buy one and as a result, all the sensor-activated lights in town were sold out!
They sold out so quickly the shop didn’t even have a chance to order any replacements! We sure made an impact in more ways than one.
Anyway, one minor issue we had was when the decorative strip of aluminium along the side of the van, which covered the black Raptor coating to the composite wall, fell off while in the caravan park.
While servicing the van, John decided to get it cleaned it up so it could be re-attached with both glue and screws. Now it looks even better than before!
By the end of the week, the state of charge was a tad lower than we would’ve liked as the crew had been using a lot of power to run appliances and to wash clothing.
As a result, the state of charge on the van was at 63%. Hopefully, the sunny weather will continue and there will be opportunities to charge up as the team travels towards our next adventure.
Now that the Ranger has been serviced and the van fully repaired, our team will set off on the next leg of our journey.
For this leg, we will head further north to continue our prospecting at more remote goldfields. Perhaps we will have more luck in areas further afield.
Watch this space to see more about the Retreat team’s adventures in Western Australia.
Find out why you should go for our fully-electric Retreat caravan here.