Thursday 22nd December 2011

Well it is our 2nd last day on the road, we will leave Ballina tomorrow morning for the last 200kms back home, what an adventure!

Day 118 Sunny Corner (Lithgow)
Day 119 Blackheath
Days 120 & 121 Belmont (Blue Mountains)
Day 122 Wingham
Days 123 & 124 Port Macquarie
Days 125 to 127 Coffs Harbour
Days 128 to 130 Ballina

After leaving Queanbeyan, we drove through Paul's old town of Goulburn to have a quick look around and then the ''scenic'' back way to Bathurst. It has saved a lot of time using the GPS, but as said before, it does take you on some strange roads as it is the shortest route.  Well, we ended up and down hills, gravel road and at one stage I didn't want to know what was happening (I have a fear that the brakes are going to fail and a 2 tonne caravan is going to drag us down the mountain)  so promptly fell off to sleep!

We came into Bathurst and saw a sign to Mt Panorama where the famous race happens each year and were amazed that the circuit is actually a road with people living in the middle of the circuit and also a winery!  We decided to do a lap, of course with caravan in tow!

Next day we drove through Lithgow into the Blue Mountains. We were a bit excited that the dogs were going into a kennel for 24 hours which would enable us to see the beautiful scenery and to go out for dinner.

The weather was starting to change very rapidly and the rain came down. We just managed to go into the Skyrail to see the 3 sisters and then walked around the rainforest, which was beautiful and then caught the train back up to the top.  It was amazing how steep the train went back up the range, it seems it was on a 51degree gradient!

After all the excitement and being caught up in the hoards of chinese tourists that were there by the bus loads, we decided we needed some peace and quiet and went into the Carrington Hotel at Katoomba.  It was beautiful it stepped you back into a different era.  With the beautiful furnishings and rooms, it was very elegant. We decided to have devonshire tea at the Champagne Bar, we were lucky it was such a big serving of 2 scones and a pot of tea that it was big enough for 2 of us.

It carried on raining all afternoon and through the night, so the dogs were very excited to see us in the morning and then we headed down the range towards Sydney.  As the weather was pretty miserable, you couldn't see 2 cars in front of you, becuase you were actually driving in the cloud!  Once we started descending, it became clearer (thank heavens)

It seemed very strange driving on the Motorways on the Sydney outskirts (the closest we got was 44kms to Sydney). Everyone seemed to be in a hurry!  We started heading north through Gosford & up the Coast and stayed at Belmont South on Lake Macquarie, which was just beautiful.

Finally a change in the weather for the better and decided to take the dogs for a run on the beach, which they are quite getting accustomed to and a quick look around Newcastle, which was only 20kms away.

As we had only visited the Hunter Valley only April this year, we decided to do a quick detour in to stock up on a few supplies and not stay there. One of our favourite places is the deli at Tempus Two Winery as it has many different cheeses (to keep Paul happy) and many different flavours of gelati (to keep me happy) so it is a win win situation on both accounts, but this did stop us in our tracks........a mars bar cheesecake...thank goodness we shared it

We drove into Port Stephens, it was beautiful, so many different little bays in one area. We did go for a walk on a Headland and was surprised to see how quick the water was rushing from both directions, it looked quite dangerous, that it actually created a wave in the middle! (the photo doesn't do it any justice)

We ended up at a free campsite outside of Taree next to a river which was lovely until dusk and then we realised we were next to a Bat Colony and they started screeching!  It wasn't too bad, but I wouldn't want to live next to them, but it was amazing to see thousands of bats flying in 4 different directions for hours

Next 2 nights at Port Macquarie, which was nice. I thought I would give myself a treat and have some quiet time and off to the Beauty salon for a facial and pedicure. After 4 months on the road, it felt really strange to being so pampered and have lovely soft skin at the end, I felt like I was back in the land of the living again!!

As we are coming back the Coastline, there are ample opportunities to take the dogs to the Beach, which they absolutely love, we just have to drive around a bit to find the dog friendly beaches.

We made the decision to plan the last week as we are a week from Christmas and in School Holidays and that means two things...1. We can't just turn up at a Caravan Park in case they are booked out and 2. they double the price! We seemed a bit sad to know what our plans were going to be for the next week and that we knew what day we were going to be home. I rang Mum and Dad to say expect another two mouths to feed for Christmas Day, needless to say they were very happy at the decision.

A quick drive through Kempsey, but we did decide to stop at Fredrickton as they claim to have a famous bakery with 50 different pies. We stopped, but wished we hadn't as they were very mushy and not nice, but did have a huge variety.

We stayed 3 nights at Coffs Harbour and stayed at a lovely caravan park just north from Coffs and it was right on the beach. It was lovely going to sleep each night with the sound of the waves to put you to sleep.

We had some friendly neighbours, so they invited us for 5 o'clock drinks which was very nice, but needless to say that dinner was not made that night!  We even had the local fisho come past in his van, so we bought some lovely green prawns and crocodile tail (which tastes like a combination between chicken and fish)

I like staying in towns for the weekend as it means that I get to go to the local markets, which is fantastic. The quality of vegetables & bread is so much nicer than what you get in the Supermarkets. We have been addicted to free range eggs & rocket on this trip.

The last time we were at Coffs Harbour, we got a tip off about the Deep Sea Fishermans Club, that they have great food at reasonable prices and we had a huge Seafood platter. This time it was too pricey for our budget at $145 and decided on the individual ones, but they were still yummy and it was nice to have dinner out of the van

And of course we had to go to the Big Banana

On our way to Ballina, we decided to have a quick look at Grafton and Yamba. You can definately tell that it is School Holidays, the difference to the rest of our trip is that there are people everywhere along the coastline. We decided to come up the coast as we had seen the inland towns on our trip at April.

It is starting to rain again, so we decided to get out of the van and drive to Lismore, it was nice to see another town, but we decided to get out for a walk around town, but it was so busy with all the Christmas shoppers, oh well, back into the car and we had lunch at Ballina. The Caravan Park that we are at is on one side of the river to the Township, so we can catch a ferry across the river for the 5 minute journey, it was great to leave the hustle and bustle behind and come back to our little bit of quiet!

Today we went for a drive to Bangalow, which is a cute little town. We had a quick walk around as all of the shops seemed a bit expensive for my liking. I like looking in little curio shops, they seem to have lots of interesting things.  Then we drove to Byron Bay....mmm a bit of a mistake, again so many people that the middle of town was a traffic jam, a quick detour down to Lennox Heads which waslovely and quiet and a good walk along the beach

It is amazing to think that we have come all of this way and would do it again in a heartbeat....

Saturday 10th December 2011

Hi Everyone,

Christmas is starting to edge closer and I have started to feel a bit homesick.  Everytime we go into a town or caravan park there are lights and signs and it makes me feel a bit sad, so the solution is more free camping!

Since the last time:

Days 103 to 105  Stanley
Days 106 to 107  Echuca
Days 108 to 111  Mildura
Day 112 Broken Hill
Day 113  Cobar
Day 114  Nyngan
Day 115 Darbys Falls
Days 116 to 117 Queanbeyan

Finally after 3 days of rain at Stanley, the sunshine finally decided to come out. It was a good thing that we finally left Stanley after a week as we were getting addicted to Beechworth Bakery's eccles cakes, which was becoming a near daily habit, but so yummy.

We drove through some beautiful little towns heading along the Murray River, but decided to stop at Buller & Sons Winery at Rutherglen, to top up the supplies. The winemaker Andrew Buller was serving us, so Paul had a good chat to him and it seems that the family used to travel to Noosa while his father would sell wine/ports at the Brisbane Wine Show twenty years ago. I do remember going to one and buying a beutiful bottle of Tokay.

We decided to head to a free campsite just north of Moama and put the co-ordinates into the GPS. We were fine until it started taking us on a bush track, but the road looked like it had been used lately so we decided to keep going.  Then we hit problem #1 a big tree across the track and a small detour around the end of the tree, sure enough room for a car, but enough room for a 16ft caravan as well?? We were in the middel of nowhere.

Well by the time Paul got out circled the car 10 times, then back the other way he reckon we could make it! Between his excellent driving skills and me yelling back a bit, left a bit, right a bit we made it...phew!

Then came problem #2 Paul realised the bumper bar/bikes/spare tire was on a slight lean, yep the bumper bar had decided to disconnect on one side from the chassis!  We then had to put the bikes in the van and the spare tire on top of the car, so that it had no weight on the bumper. Then Paul did a great job in securing the bumper bar. This all took about an hour.

I decided to take the dogs for a walk around the bend as Floyd was chasing ducks! No further did we get around the bend I saw a car, what was a car doing out here in the middle of nowhere?? My mind started going into overdrive (as it does) could they be murderers/drug runners/bikies and we had to drive past them and we had no phone reception!!  For the first time in the trip, I got the satellite phone out and started waving about trying to get reception in case I had to ring police, much to Paul's amusement.  We finally get going and drive past the car and no one was in it, where were the occupants? So I wrote the rego number on my leg as I didn't have any paper handy.

They say things happen in threes, Problem #3, Just around the bend , we were a couple of kilometres from the campsite and we could see the campground, but there was a flooded creek inbetween us. I reckon the car owner got a lift with someone else across the water.

Bugger!  We came all this way to a dead end, but yet so close.  Then behind us pulled up Clint in his ute. He was a true blue fella, stubbies, thongs and singlet.  He claimed not to worry he had driven through it yesterday and proceeded to crack open a stubby (but he did leave his thongs at the edge of the water) and started to proceed into the water to walk it out to see how deep it was.

He was ok until he went up to his thighs but he still got into his ute and ploughed through. He made it, even through the middle when his car slowed down as the water came half way up his car. Well we turned around and made it back though the trees and finally made it into a campsite at Echuca at about 7.30pm....we were a bit tired!!!

The next day was a draining 37 deg, it was warm, but not too humid, but we found that the heat drained us pretty quickly. Echuca is a little tourist town and we decided to go on a Paddlesteamer as we were very surprised that they allowed dogs on the boat. It was a 30 minute trip on the Murray and was most pleasant, but the dogs were not so sure about the sound of the water coming from underneath the boards!

We stayed 4 nights at Mildura and the caravan park was right on the banks of the Murray and we managed to get a riverfront campsite which was lovely. Each day we would watch the paddlesteamers go past, toot their horns and watch the swans and the ducks. It was nice and relaxing.

Paul spent a day fixing the van and I went for a browse through the city centre, which was quite nice as it wasn't too busy!

We went for a trip to Wentworth, which is where the Darling & Murray rivers meet.  There was a  line in the river, of the muddy water from the Murray and the green like clay water from the Darling

Also nearly was the Perry Sand dunes, which constantly move, which was great to see and also gave us all a good bit of exercise.

Next a 4 hour drive North to Broken Hill. It is an amazing place, It is based all around mining.  The main street has about 6 pubs, I have never seen so many in one street. Also the famous Palace Hotel, which was filmed for Priscilla Queen of the Desert and has many murals painted on all the walls, but they don't let tourists inside only people who have paid for the rooms, it would have been fascinating to see.

We drove to Silverton as this was Mad Max was filmed and just outside of town are the wonderful Mundi Mundi Lookout which you can see the curvature of the earth and all the way to the Flinders Ranges in South Australia. I wonder if there is any burnt rubber marks on the road from Mad Max's car??

That night we drove about 10ks from town to the Living Desert and Sculpture Symposium. Perched on top of a hill with about a dozen other tourists watching the sunset surrounded by sculptures, which have been created by artists from around the world. For me it was one of the higlights of the trip, the sunset was magnificent.

Also a trip to Broken Hill's Favourite Son - Pro Hart. I don't know too much about his art except for the carpet ad..

But he had so many different styles

We drove thorugh Wilcannia very quickly as were told that the local folk had a bad habit of jumping in front of cars and trying to make you stop.  It had a very strange feel to it and the majority of town was boarded up as the windows were smashed!

Next stop Cobar which was interesting for the big stubby can, a pub with Australia's longest verandah and how could you go past the ice cream shop..,.within the local chemist...why of course!! Where all icecream shops should be!!

Up to Bourke and it seems so close to Queensland (it is only 136kms). It again didn't seem a too hospitable place to me, so Paul went into the Back of Bourke exhibition, which he totally enjoyed and I looked after the boys. Of course we then had to go into town to try the local award winning Back of Bourke Lamb Pie, which was pretty good.

On to Parkes to see "The Dish"and it was quite interesting and fascination to see it turn (due to the size of it)

(Can you see Paul getting his close up shot!)

We stayed at a free campsite at Darbys Falls next to a river and it was lovely. I had bought some lovely fresh free range eggs and decided we were having a cooked breakfast that morning.Happy faces all around!!

Next stop Canberra, there isn't any Caravan Parks, so we went to Queanbyan about 15kms away. It was great to see Parliament House and to think this is where the country is governed from

But I thought the old Parliament House looked more majestic

We had fun driving around the local suburbs as all the Government Embassies from all the different countries. We were like excited kids..ooh there is Canada, oh look France, then the creme de la Creme the huge house on the hill, with security guards, beautiful gardens, the biggest of them all..surprise, surprise...United States of America.

We then went to the Canberra Glassworks to have a look and it was amazing to see them blowing the glass

Also a trip up to Black Mountain to see the tower, we were trying to see if we could at least see a view from ground level (as we had the dogs and didn't want to leave them in the car) but it was all blocked off

And Lake Burley Griffin, I think Floyd was eyeing off the swans for lunch!

I also thoroughly enjoyed the National Portrait Gallery (which was also free). 450 portraits from 1770's through to Modern times, from paintings to caricatures to photographs. I would highly recommend it to anyone. It only took me 2 1/2 hours to get through them all.

Well we are now off on the road again and it is 10.24am and we need to leave the campsite for 10.30am so sorry if a bit rushed towards the end.

Take Care
xxx