Oh dear. No hot water. Had to have a very luke warm shower this morning. Now what’s wrong?

Like always, when something goes wrong on the motorhome it’s a process of elimination. Is it a power issue? Nope. Hot Water System (HWS) is plugged in and turned on. Is it the power point? No. Tried plugging in the battery charger and it worked.

Is it something to do with the town water? Unplugged the hose from the motorhome and turned the 12V pump on. Still no hot water.

It was working for the first couple of days when we were free camping so I turned the gas on to see if that worked. Waited 10 minutes and still no hot water. Weird!

Found the Truma HWS Manual to read the troubleshooting and couldn’t find anything at all helpful there.

Nothing for it but to resort to the professionals. A quick Google search found Ballarat City Caravans. I called them and the service manager was busy but would call me back. True to his word Rob called back and after I explained the problem he said the only way they can diagnose was to bring it in. So we packed up camp and drove the short distance to Ballarat City Caravans. Rob had told us to park around the back and we drove in the back entrance to their service area.

Rob introduced us to their ‘guru’ Grant and he quickly set about diagnosing the problem. About 10 minutes later he had determined it was our tempering valve that was faulty. The tempering valve is important in an RV as it adjusts the temperature coming from the HWS and mixes it with cold water so that the water that goes through the pipes and out the taps is not boiling. Luckily he could replace it straight away. Excellent!

Once that was done he asked if our water pump always sounded loud like that. When I responded yes, he then asked if I wanted it fixed. Yes, please! So now we have a new tempering Valve and the water pump is so quiet! $280 later and we were driving back to the NRMA Holiday Park.

Back at camp we tossed about what we would do that afternoon and it was decided to give the Wildlife Park a visit. Rob at Ballarat City Caravans had recommended it. What a lovely little park it is. Definitely recommend a visit if you are in Ballarat with children. Our three loved it.

We timed it right for the keeper talk at the Tasmanian Devils, tried to spot the two tigers hiding in their enclosure, patted kangaroos and emus, laughed at the antics of the koalas as the keepers gave them new leaves to eat, admired the huge Wedge-tail Eagle, watched the dingos, and marvelled at the huge tortoises. A favourite with the kids was the Reptile House with its snakes, lizards, alligators and crocodiles.

Crunch the 65 year old saltwater crocodile is a star of the park and he has his own habitat that he shares with his mate Bella. She is tiny compared to Crunch. They recently had two babies and they were also on display in their own aquarium.

It was a great couple of hours that the kids really enjoyed. We followed that up with a visit to an awesome adventure playground located near the Botanic Gardens and Lake Wendouree. What a great playground! Kids enjoyed running around their testing their skills and hiding.

It rained again when we arrived back at camp and was quite cold. We were all starting to get a bit sick of the rain and our mats were becoming very muddy. Oh well at least we know the boys swags are watertight!