Yes this week we have a blocked drain in our caravan, and the learning curve to fix the problem has been interesting. Blocked drains are an immediate problem as you cannot wash up, cannot wash clothes, cannot shower..etc. Do you race to u tube, as I do, and look up solutions? Or do you go an try and clear it? Or do you get a plumber? Being in a fairly non accessible place we thought we would try u tube first and get some advice.

So the blocked drain process was easy to clear…I just pulled off the grey water hose and put a screw driver up into the caravan waste pipe and it cleared. However the next problem that arose was the shower drain blocked..not as easy to fix.

Research told me to go and buy some baking soda and vinegar and put that down the pipe. 32 kilometres later we did that numerous times, adding hot water to that, and even trapped the bubbles. We even went hunting for a small plunger and when we finally found one it did not clear the drain! Yes that was an experience and a waste of time and another 60km drive…however nothing seemed to work.

But when I looked at the pipe under the caravan there seemed to be a non return valve to the shower which when disconnected at both ends did not seem to come out. I borrowed the plumber visiting the caravan park who promptly told me it was some sort of trap that had been installed tightly level to the bottom of the caravan so that it fitted nicely…but it was meant to be installed upright and that was probably why it had blocked. It had an O ring fall out while he was trying to force it apart and it was damaged. He then told us the shower pipe would leak from now on until that O ring was replaced….and it does!

The plumber suggested a small proper trap be installed which he did not have on him. Because we were on an island in the middle of a river in the process of leaving for a 3.5 hr drive to Brisbane we thought we would add this for our repairer to do ( AAG Automotive and Transport in Geebung ) when we got there. We have found we use this company a lot as it saves the wait…(rather than booking into some very busy caravan repair shops)…and AAG do an excellent service.

I was so surprised the whole process was so difficult. Friday we get a new different small trap and O ring to our drain and can finally use the shower, however it did get a good clean out last night when we accidentally left the roof vent open during the storm. As we are heading south for Tasmania after Christmas we needed to sort our all our problems before that date, so the list is growing as we near the end of the month.