BUYING OUR BUS

G'day folks! The search is on to get a van. The temperature has really soared, 30 degrees plus, just as we have left the beaches of Blaigowrie and have to trek around the sity streets of Melbourne. We spent the first few days searching hostels and internet cafes in downtown Melbourne and contacted several people. Many of which didn't turn up to meet us (bumholes) and the ones that did, their vans were worse than Dellboys reliant. Most vans for sale were in the St. Kilda area, south of Melbourne. Known for its backpackers, adult clubs and general seediness so we decided to catch the tram and continue our search here. We looked at several vans all of which were over priced and under cared for. As the day was drawing to a close we walked past a shop called "Y not rent a car" and looked at some of the for sale ads in the window. We went into the shop and got talking to the owner, Rob. He turned out to be a fab bloke. He gave us lots of advice and told us to come back the following day when he would take us to some auctions with him. We met bright and early at 11am. Rob took advantage of the fact that we are both drivers and after dropping off several vehicles to various garages we looked around 2 large car lots and then headed over to a garage that had 2 ex-laundry vans for sale. After driving both vans Rob said he was going to buy both and then we could choose which one we wanted. The guy in the garage wanted $4000 for each of them. Rob made a deal with the 2 vans and one other car, he put 4 new tyres, and new front brakes on our van. Then put it in the garage to have a road worthy certificate put on it (MOT). Once all this was sorted he let us have the van for $4000. I don't think he made much money, but he said he liked us both and wanted to see us right. The following day after handing the money over we went back to Robs yard, (he had vanished...only joking) he drove us to a timber merchant and showed us all the wood we would need to build ourselves a bed. He then spent the afternoon helping us build it, lending us all his tools, it's so nice when you meet someone like this, it definately restores faith in the human race. So we are now the proud owners of a 1994 Mitsubishi L300 van called Sheila, bring on those dusty ol' dirt roads...