So today we spent most of the afternoon preparing and packing for our departure tomorrow.  After family photos at the Homestead in the morning, we ran around sorting out some last minute things before getting stuck into getting organised.
A final cull of all the non-essential stuff was done, yielding a nice little pile of clothes, books and other crap that had been accumulating in the short time we’ve been in the van.  

A few friends dropped by to say farewell, including Miss A’s childcare teacher BreeBree who was so excited to see her! Miss A will really miss Bree whilst we’re away!

With everything packed and loaded and a final family dinner spent with the G-Fam, it was time to run the rig over the weigh-bridge! The day of reckoning was here and we would know whether or not we’d have to commence a major cull of our gear!

When we first picked up the van, we weighed it to double check that the Tare weight on the plate was accurate – unfortunately it was – at 2750kg – which was a lot heavier than we anticipated.   Plus, with recent modifications and extras added to the Colorado, the ute was definitely heavier than we expected as well so we have been particularly mindful of our weight whilst packing so we don’t exceed our combined weight limit of 6000kg.  The whole weight thing with the car and the van has been a very interesting learning curve – who would have known that I’d now know about things such as ATM (Aggregate Trailer Mass), GCM (Gross Combined Mass), Tare and Payload weights!

The topic of weight is always a hot topic on caravanning forums and pages with horror stories of accidents occurring where insurance companies won’t pay out, married with those who take a more blasé approach and don’t really care what and how much they are carrying. It wasn’t really rocket surgery to know that we needed to do all that we could do to keep the weight of our van and ute under the requirements. To the point that three weeks ago we were seriously contemplating buying a Landcruiser to ensure we had the capacity to do what we wanted to do.  In the end, we compromised and have left all the camping gear behind and bought a new alloy bulbar to replace our steel one (saving 35kg). Sadly (much to Corey’s dismay), we took the side steps and roof racks off the ute to save us an extra 40kg!

So to say that there was an air of anticipation as we rolled the car and then the van onto the pad was an understatement… but after a nervous pause, were relieved to see the total come in at 5960kg! Woohoo! We are under the weight limit! Unfortunately the light above the display kept throwing out the focus on the picture below, but it was a relief to see us on track and not starting out too heavy!The rest of the evening has been spent packing away meat into the freezer and doing one final pass through cupboards to see what else I could live without… a couple of torches, a few items of the girls’ clothing plus 2 more books have made it onto the discard pile – thank goodness for the kindle!

And now it’s time for sleep, for tomorrow we start our big adventure!

Did you know how complicated the whole weight thing was when it comes to towing a caravan? Can anyone guess where our first stop tomorrow will be?