Memories made in a van named Stanley: Another one bites the dust

Goodbye, our boy Stanley.

Stan is dead. No, wait, that was the start to another post that I genuinely thought I was going to have to write. It's been the fortnight of hell and certainly not one I wish to repeat again. Stan isn't dead, well not when we left him at least but we had to make the heart-wrenching decision to leave him behind.

As most of you will probably know, Stan had a problematic start to his time with us. He was getting on a bit and hadn't been looked after. We tried all we could to give him a full bill of health but it's been an arduous road with many things needing to be checked and fixed and after the transmission fiasco in Adelaide, we had grown tired of having to sort him out.

After being extremely excited to leave the farm and get going on our well-planned road trip back up the east coast, we were again faced with van issues. This time round, we were forced to pull up on the side of a free-way and call for roadside assistance; his oil cooler failed and oil flooded into the coolant, which for those in the know, know that that combination is not good. We originally feared a blown head gasket or something more pricey but in the process of trying to mend a less expensive component, something more expensive broke. We'd already spent a week trying to get him back on the road but it just wasn't meant to be.

In all honesty, our hearts broke a little. We made our van into our mobile home and we loved him. He'd been a constant irritation from the off though and probably if we'd actually used any common sense at all, we would (or at least should) have kept well away. Unfortunately, we didn't apply that common sense and after a string of issues, this was the final straw. After weighing up our options, we decided to focus on enjoying the rest of our time here and use our hard-earned dollar on experiencing as much of Australia as we can, rather than fix yet another thing and still have the possibility of more going wrong.

He took us through cities; kilometres of NSW outback; up crazily steep hills; along the stunning Ocean Road; back and fourth on dirt tracks for one job; managed to get us to another that helped secure our days for our second year visa application; and gave us an opportunity to visit a range of delightful garages all across Australia in bids to extend his life.

But his life doesn't end here. While we weren't in the position to get him driving again, we managed to sell him to someone who could afford to fix him and he'll live out his next adventure as a magnificent dirt bike chauffeur.

May you rack up many more kilometres, our boy Stanley.