Ashby, Yamba and Maclean - Saturday 29 June 2019
Rain in the night didn't wake us, and the sun was trying to peek through when I dropped the blind this morning to watch the pelicans before I got up to make coffee.
Coffee in bed and then because it is Saturday, home made bagels with smoked salmon for breakfast. I left Greg reading in bed with a second cup of tea while the salmon inspired me to try some fishing. I have never had much luck fishing and I was certainly rusty when I started this morning. I was having all sorts of trouble hooking my line in the tree while trying to cast, getting caught in the mangrove while trying to reel it in, but eventually I got into a rhythm and convinced myself the next cast would catch a lovely bream or flathead. Jude even made me a coffee while I was trying hard.
It got to twelve o'clock and unsurprisingly, I hadn't caught anything more than a stick so I got changed and we headed out for lunch. The rain was starting again so we headed to Yamba on the coast, and ended up at the Pacific Hotel, which had magnificient views of the ocean and a pretty good menu.
I enjoyed my fish for lunch - even if I hadn't caught it myself! Greg had the same and Neil and I even shared some oysters for entree. After lunch, we completed our tour of Yamba, headed back to Maclean to check out Neill's brother's house and the rest of Maclean before it was time to come back to camp and light the fire. I tried a bit more fishing - still unsuccessfully - before the sun set and it was time to sit in front of the fire for warmth. Although we're not too hungry, we continued the fish theme with a yummy salmon dinner cooked by Jude and emjoyed the warmth of our good campfire.
Ewingar to Ashby - Friday 28 June 2019
We have some specific criteria to determine the best campsite. These include ability to have a campfire, proximity to water, remoteness from others, and ambience (this includes the sounds of nature - wildlife, water, and not the sounds of people!). The campsite at Andrew's ticked all boxes except water. This new campsite ticks everything except remoteness, as we are across the river (although it is a big river!) from a town and we have a neighbour. But I can watch the pelicans on the river from my bed! Perhaps the criteria need some weighting.....!
As always on a travel day, we get up early (for us!), have a quick breakfast, and then undertake our pack up tasks. The aim was for a 9:30am departure and at 9:15am the dogs arrived followed by Andrew. We said our farewells, trekked out of our amazing remote campsite and hit the road. Fist stop was our favourite spot in Casino - the Showgrounds - for the dump point and water filling again. The beauty of this time was that it was warm and suuny so we enjoyed our elevenses in the sun while we did our housekeeping.
Down the Summerland Way to a fuel stop and lunch at Whiporie. A tiny one-stop shop so it was good to support small town business. On the road again after a particularly good burger, we thought we only had another 50km to go but it turns out we had to drive around and around in circles and even use a ferry because the river meanders through this part of the world. The ferry was pretty quick, although we didn't get on the same ferry as Neill and Jude (two caravans may have unbalanced it?!) so we had to wait.
We then had to drive into the town of Maclean, looking directly at our campsite across the river as it turns out, and then still drive 20km around until we reached this spot. This is another of our YouCamp sites, although this one I booked direct wih the owner on the phone (for cash!). So we are right on the river (it is not even 10 metres from the door of our van to the water), we got a roaring campfire going with the beautiful wood Andrew cut for us, we can hear the birds, the water lapping, the fish jumping and the bats but we can also hear the freeway in the distance and see the lights of Maclean - and we have a neighbour (but he sticks to himself). So all in all, a pretty good campsite.
We enjoyed a hot and hearty chow mein for dinner, until rain stopped play at tea time, before we could return to the fire just before bed.
Ewingar - Thursday 27 June 2019
Raindrops on the caravan roof during the night could have been the precursor to an ordinary day but by the time we emerged from our van (after finishing book, eating French toast for breakfast and showering), there was plenty of blue sky and sunshine.
Greg and Neill did some roof repairs on our van (very disappointing that it even need repair given it is only 3 years old), Jude and I did some housekeeping, and Andrew came down to start cutting some more firewood - not for today as we still had plenty but for us to take to our next campsite. Jude and I loaded that and then we all had lunch in the sun.
After lunch, Andrew took us to one of the larger trees he has felled to show us how he is milling the timber. With 125 acres of mostly bush - and timbered with good trees such as spotted gum and ironbark - he has invested in some implements that convert his big chainsaw to a lumber mill. While we watched, he milled a red ironbark sleeper about 3 metres long, a foot wide and over an inch thick. Fascinating to watch, and such a good idea. To date, Andrew has made most of his posts and rails for horse fences, his chicken enclosure and the vegetable garden.
We then walked up to the house to show Neill and Jude the gardens and the view, as they have only been there at nights. We sorted our next few nights camping while we had access to the internet, no mean feat with the start of NSW school holidays and a weekend. But we think we have found a nice place so we’ll head off in the morning.
Back to camp for some reading in front of the campfire, and a bit of packing up. We were just about to have pre dinner drinks when the rain started - just enough to halt our plans and send us inside. Good thing we’re having dinner up at the house with Andrew and Courtney! A lovely evening enjoying Courtney’s amazing cooking on our last evening here.
Ewingar (Tenterfield) - Wednesday 26 June 2019
Another lazy morning in our vans - my brother has learned not to come down to our campsite before 10:30am! The dogs arrive first anyway - they love having us here. By now they have their own water bowl behind the Patriot and have their sleeps on the Bushtracker’s mat. Over elevenses, we decided today is the day to go to Tenterfield. A few reasons for the trip - to see Tenterfield (made famous by Peter Allen’s song about his grandfather “the Tenterfield Saddler”), to do laundry, to do some shopping and to have a nice lunch out. Of course, it’s a fair drive, so an hour and a half of Neill’s driving Mighty Merlot (I do love every opportunity not to have to drive) we headed straight to the Commercial Hotel for lunch. It was a beautifully renovated pub, and the meals were excellent. A quick Google search to find a laundromat led us to a terrible laundromat under the same roofline as the BP service station with many broken machines. So we gave that a miss, decided to try a caravan park’s laundromat - which was also ordinary - so onto WikiCamps for the final caravan park in Tenterfield - and the best one as it turns out! Laundry on, some of us headed to Coles while others went to the hardware. We met up again to move the washing to the dryer then we went out for coffee. By the time we collected our dried washing, we are pretty sure we had seen most of Tenterfield and don’t necessarily need to return for awhile! Although Greg and I normally always stop here on our way to or home from Andrew’s for elevenses or to fill woth water or use the dump point.
It was almost 6pm before we got home so we quickly resurrected our fire and Neill and Jude cooked a yummy curried chicken for dinner before we went up to the house for tea and cake and to catch up with Courtney.
Ewingar - Tuesday 25 June 2019
The day dawned overcast on our little bush campsite. That warranted a campfire! Given we have an unlimited wood supply, why not have the campfire go all day?! So we got that going, before Neill, Jude and I went for a walk. Turns out it was a good walk, up and down hills, into the valley at the bottom of Andrew’s place where he tries to grow small crops when there is water, along the property boundary where we could hear a front end loader with its annoying reversing beeper, out onto the road and back. We got quite warm after that but enjoyed our elevenses which Andrew and the dogs joined us for.
The rest of the day passed quietly with reading, chasing the dogs when they decided to go exploring, some baking, and then I started preparations for our roast beef dinner on the campfire. With a lovely topside roast beef all the way from Bimbadeen in the camp oven, potato bake in Jude’s oven, vegies steaming away, Courtney and Andrew joined us for dinner. We had a lovely night in front of the large campfire.
Mullumbimby to Ewingar - Monday 24 June 2019
The clouds were dark and ominous as we packed up camp. Our sunshine has come to an end. But, the trip goes on - if we waited for the weather all the time, we’d never go anywhere.
We were on the road before the rain actually started, but it poured down as we drove down the Pacific Motorway, turned off at Ballina, and went through Lismore to Casino. We were making good time so planned to have elevenses in Casino but that town doesn’t cater for caravan parking so given we were heading for the showgrounds anyway to visit the dump point and top up with water, we decided to have our elevenses there. Particularly as we had left over scones - heaps better than any cafe! So Jude set about warming the scones and making coffee while Neill and I did our respective housekeeping tasks - in the rain. That just made morning tea even better and the rain eased as we hit the road, with the intention of having lunch in Tabulam. Greg and I have travelled this road often since my brother moved up here, but the Richmond Ranges always impress. I’ve never towed a caravan up them (we have come from different directions every other time) and the Landcruiser needed all of it’s V8 power but the view from the top is magic - rolling hills, meandering rivers, not so green valleys. As Andrew tells me, they haven’t had much rain up here.
We stopped in the little town of Tabulam for lunch. This is the town closest to Andrew and Greg and I are very familiar with it - we even stayed at the Tabulam Racecourse while we were homeless (in between moving to Tassie) as we had friends visiting with an on road caravan that would never get to Andrew’s place.
Aftre lunch, I messaged Andrew to give him 45 minutes notice and we began the climb. It’s fair to say these roads don’t see too many caravans! The cows grazing along the road clearly don’t either - they were not in a hurry to move off the road! We pulled into Andrew’s driveway and were met by Andrew - he wanted us to do a reconnaissance of his proposed campsite before we hauled the vans in there. He’s never had to accommodate two large vans before! But my little brother has done me proud - he had cleared a largeish area, prpeared a stack of firewood and the track in wasn’t too bad either. As I reported back to Neill, we’ve got into far worse!
So in we went, and after a bit of analysis of the best locations, did some digging to level the vans up. Not as easy as at Inskip Point - it’s shaly rock here! Still, we got our two vans level, awnings towards each other to provide coverage to combat the rain and it was beer o’clock.
When it got dark, we headed up to the house for a warm evening in front of the fire, with the dogs to entertain us and a lovely dinner provided by Courtney. It’s really nice to be back here with these special two members of my family.
Mullumbimby (Brunswick Heads, Byron Bay) - Sunday 23 June 2019
After a relaxing morning in the sun, including a breakfast fry up, we decided to explore further afield. We went first to Brunswick Heads, which is only a 15 minute drive away. TripAdvisor guided us towards a cafe although we had to do three blocks before we could find a carpark. We sat outside to people watch - let's face it, there are a lot of hippies up here. By the end of the day, I have rated our three towns visited by hippiness. But I'm jumping ahead. Most of us enjoyed our lunch, although Greg found his a bit ordinary. The clouds had come in so it got a bit cooler so we got back in the car to contninue our tour. We drove over the bridge of the inlet to the Heads themselves, and the surf beach further south of that. A nice enough beach but less spectacular without any sun so after a quick walk on the sand, we headed back. Deciding we had seen all that Brunswick Heads had to offer - and summarising that it didn't offer anything that would particularly make us want to come back - we set off for Byron Bay.
Byron Bay has certainly come along in recent years and is now very modern, upmarket and almost fancy. Hence, we really did smile at the old fibro cottage squashed in between two gigantic sets of apartments - this would have been the original Byron Bay. We did a tour of town - which was also very busy - looked out from the surf lifesaving club, and then drove to the more natural parts of town. Our first stop was The Pass, here the surfers were riding the waves parallel to the beach - quite a bizarre sight.
This good lookout afforded views both back over the bay that gives Byron Bay it's name and the open beach. However, we were in search of the lighthouse so we continued on our way. This bluff is quite hilly, with sharp little hills and hence one way roads. Great views though.
Given all the cars, and lack of parking, we decided to head back. A quick stop at the supermarket in Mullumbimby and then back to light the campfire, watch the lightening and enjoy a lovely dinner. We virtously decided on an acohol free day so I enjoyed this rosella soda I bought at the rosella farm the other day. Very refreshing - would be good in the heat.
Tomorrow we head to Andrew's so I'm looking forward to catching up with my brother. Before we leave Hippy-ville, our hippiness ratings. Mullumbimby tops it - the people in the supermarket on Saturday afternoon - oh my! Followed by Brunswick Heads and Byron Bay - the latter is bcoming way too trendy!!
Mullumbimby - Saturday 22 June 2019
A very quiet day - we literally just sat around in the sun in our shorts, read and ate. Nice to do, very relaxing but it sure didn’t help with my step count!
Toogoolawah to Mullumbimby - Friday 21 June 2019
There’s some great place names up here. Some of our party struggle with pronunciation of some of these names......but isn’t that half the fun of travel? To find new places you’ve never been and explore what they have to offer? And learn how to say them....
The Toogoolawah Showgrounds was good for an overnight camp - nice and quiet with only the lowing of cattle in the night. We had a nice quiet morning in the sun before we did some housekeeping and hit the road for our rendezvous with Neill and Jude. We had a 133km drive to our agreed meeting point and despite getting taken off track twice by the car’s satnav (think we need to get the maps upgraded), we arrive on time at the Yatala Pie Shop. One of Neill’s brothers met them there as well so the five of us had some baked goods and a good old chat. But before long, we were back on the motorway heading south. We crossed the NSW border and turned off not much further south. Our road then wended its way through some mountains - Greg said the Pacific Highway used to be like this before the motorway was built - until we arrived in the hippy village of Mullumbimby. Driving through town, we passed the Showgrounds that had nearly as many people camped there as were at Toogoolawah last night. Our destination was a You-camp, on private property just outside of town.
Upon arrival, the owners weren’t home so we sussed put where we should be, decided against the river flats spot we had booked as there was very little sun and a) we want to be able to sit and soak up the sun while we still can and b) we need sun for our solar panels. So we set ourselves up, collected firewood, and had the fire lit and dinner on the table before it got too cold.
Inskip Point to Toogoolawah - Thursday 20 June 2019
Our lovely sunny days came to an abrupt end with the sound of rain on the caravan roof this morning. Always a bummer when it's pack up morning, especially for a challenging site as this. The rain did ease after breakfast and there was only a light intermittent drizzle as we packed up. The challenge came with hitching of vehicles, and getting out of there. We went first and had a little bit of trouble but once on, I floored the car to get it out onto hard standing. But I still didn't hook everything up, in case I needed to unhitch to pull Neill and Jude out. We walked back to help fill in their holes and provide any assistance we could, including holding trees out of the way, directing and encouraging. But they got out with no dramas either so we were all on the road earlier than anticipated so aiming for Gympie, where we decided to have elevenses at a real cafe!
After this, we split up - they were heading to the caravan manufacturer for a few minor alterations and we headed to Greg's old stomping ground. First stop was the rosella farm, which we have driven past before but never stopped. Rosella is a type of fruit, a species of hibiscus so well suited to the more tropical climes up here.
We then headed to Blackbutt, where Greg has lived and worked. We were really hoping to catch up with a old mate of his, but he was busy so we stopped in town for Greg to revisit some of his old haunts.
Deciding to put a few more miles behind us, we headed onto Toogoolawah where the Showgrounds provide good camping and its well off the main highway so should be quiet. Ironically, we have backed into a spot near the cattle yards just to remind us of home.
Inskip Point - Wednesday 19 June 2019
A lovely warm sunny day, the birds were twittering while we had breakfast and the sun was getting warmer. After breakfast we went for a walk up the beach, towards the actual point, where the Fraser Island barge does trips across the short (couple of kms) section of the Sandy Straits to the south end of the island.
(our beach!)
A lot more rugged than the ferry/barge we used the other day, this one requires you to drive almost a kilometre out to the water’s edge on super soft sand in order to board the barge. There is a whole facebook page dedicated to mishaps here called “I got bogged at Inskip Point” and it’s easy to see why especially for the inexperienced or poorly set up vehicles. It was beautiful on the beach, very quiet and it wasn’t until we were walking back that we realised we look back towards the coloured sands cliffs of Rainbow Beach from our beach.
Back to the vans for morning tea then we headed in the car to Rainbow Beach to explore. One of the local points of interest was the Carlo Sandblow - a giant sand dune just on the edge of town. They call them sandblows because the wind keeps moving them, and they can engulf trees and houses. We walked out to the lookout which afforded amazing views both ways across the sand dune.
Then it was back into town for lunch - when on the beach, it has to be fish and chips doesn’t it?! A sneaky beer from Neill’s car fridge washed down the delicious fish and chips while my back got hotter and hotter from sitting in the sun - but I’m not complaining!
After lunch we drove to the barge at Inskip Point and walked out to watch the cars go on and come off. But nobody got bogged so we headed back to camp for a quiet afternoon reading in the sun. The fire was lit early to provide good coals for my camp oven beef stroganoff and another lovely night around the fire was had by all. Several of our evening cuppas have included lovely fruit cake courtesy of Michele at my work so if you're reading this, Michele - we have really enjoyed the last of your Christmas cake!!
Maryborough to Inskip Point - Tuesday 18 June 2019
This is the kind of camping we like - a challenge to get into (well, Neill likes the challenge!), off the beaten track, not a soul in sight, the sounds of the waves crashing on the beach just through the bushes and a roaring campfire to warm us.
We had planned to leave Maryborough after elevenses, but after filling the cars with diesel, doing some grocery shopping and Neill filling a gas bottle it was lunchtime! So we had lunch in the sunshine before we left for an easy 103km drive out towards Rainbow Beach. There’s only a caravan park in Rainbow Beach and although I had researched the five campsites up the spit of Inskip Point, it was difficult to ascertain which of those would be suitable to get our caravans into. Good old WikiCamps told me this one had accessible spots closer to the road so we thought we’d try here. It’s not that we can’t do off road (these vans were built for that!) it’s more the soft sand and what 3 tonnes of caravan can do in soft sand!!! Upon arrival, Jude went scouting for suitable spots on foot. Despite it being cool, not school holidays and mid week, there’s still plenty of people here. However, she found a great spot albeit with a few challenges - uneven ground, narrow entry but at least it had hard sand! So we backed in first, with Neill digging some holes for the high side van wheels even though we then also needed ramps for the low side. But we ended up perfectly level!! So we set up, and unhitched so I could get our car out of the way for Neill to back in. Their unevenness was more back to front so some more digging, especially for the jockey wheel and they ended up level too! And because of our keyhole shaped site, we can’t see anyone else else as we are surrounded by bush. Beers were cracked open, campfire started as we listened to the waves crash and watched the sun set, following by the moon rising over the ocean.
Fraser Island - Monday 17 June 2019
Fraser Island is a world heritage island for a reason - it is awe inspiring and rugged (if you ignore the resorts!), natural and different. We have visited a number of times, and done something different every time, but today was right up there - because we were in control of what we wanted to do.
It meant an early-ish start, as we wanted to be on the 9am ferry. so we were packing the car at 7:30am and on the road by 8am, for the drive towards Hervey Bay and the ferry terminal at River Heads. Our necessary permits in hand (even if the parks pass was being finalised online as the car was reversed onto the barge!), we went upstairs for the 45minute trip to Kingfisher Bay on Fraser Island. By 10am we were letting the air out of the tyres and having our elevenses before hitting the sand trails.
The resort set up and the rest of the island are totally incongruous. The resort has bitumen roads, comfortable multi storey buildings, swimming pools and facilities. But from the second you drive through the dingo fence on the edge of the resort, you are in another world. Towering forests of Blackbutt, Kauri Pine and various gums, thick undergrowth and sand paths. Yes, these are the roads. In many places, the "road" is so far below the natural ground level because decades of vehicles travelling on them have eroded and compacted the ground.
They are also single track, with the odd passout where an oncoming car can pull over to wait for the other vehicle. In most cases, you have to reverse up to one of those.
We took the track to Lake Wabby, thinking that woud be interesting to see. We hadn't been there before, and nor had Neill and Jude - it's nearly 30 years since they were last here. Its very rough - Jude and I described it as a Berlei track (the ladies will work out what I mean) but certainly natural - it is a sand island after all. We pulled up at Lake Wabby and walked the 500m to look out over the magnificent fresh water lake at the bottom of the sand dunes.
Back in the car for the last 10 kilometres to the eastern beach - which on Fraser Island is the "highway". We firstly decided to have lunch, but then all took it in turns to drive on the beach. So much fun, mostly flat and hard but with some bumps, rocks to navigate and of course, oncoming cars - and planes!. Although we have timed this trip perfectly - there was certainly not too many people around which will change drastically in school holidays and in summer.
You can drive most of the east coast of the Island, which is 123km long, but we only went up to the shipwreck of the Maheno. When we arrived, there was no-one else there but a couple of tour buses (yes, 4WD buses!) arrived just as we were leaving.
As we were heading back down the beach, I was staring out to sea, which was a magnificent turquoise colour in the sunshine, when I thought I saw a spurt of water. I posed the question that I thought it was too early for whales so Neill turned to where I was looking and sure enough, there were two whales frolicking in the water. So awesome - I really enjoyed my whale watching tour last year when we were up here but this was so spontaneous that we were all very impressed.
Our afternoon was passing us by so we headed inland again, with our final stop identified as Lake MacKenzie. We bumped our way along the rough track again (beach driving was very comfortable in comparison!) until we could park and walk through to the lake. It was still beautiful, and the water temperature quite lovely (although Jude and I weren't as game (on so many levels) as the nubile young girls already there frolicking in their bikinis) so we had a quick paddle, took some photos and hit the road again.
We needed to be back at Kingfisher Bay for 4:30pm, which we timed perfectly, even managing time to put air back in our tyres before boarding the ferry. It was well and truly dark before we arrved back on mainland Australia (they don't call it the north island here?!!!!) where we went and picked up Janne and took her with us to the Showgrounds for dinner. It was an awesome day, capped off with some lovely time spent with Greg's aunt.
A fellow blogger, also a traveller, writes the most eloquent and verbose stories of her travels. I had every intention of trying to emulate her, and fear this certainly doesn't do Fraser Island justice. Nor do the photos. Suffice to say, this is a magnificent part of the world.
Teebar to Maryborough - Sunday 16 June 2019
Good thing those cowboys don't need much sleep - after partying late into the evening, the first horse truck started it's engines at 5:30am, yep that was the big red one right in front of our car! We did manage to roll over and go back to sleep for a while, but it's fair to say the whole campsite was a hive of packing up activity early in the morning. Dropping the blinds to watch it all while having our morning cuppa in bed was entertaining. By 9ish, we headed over to Neill and Jude's van for our Sunday morning fry up and continued watching the campground empty out. By 10:30am there was only a handful of vans left. We did a bit of trip planning, had another coffee, had lunch and eventually headed off by 2pm for the huge drive (yep, all 47km) into Maryborough. We're camped at the Showgrounds this time so we got set up, collected our laundry and took off to Greg's aunt's place for a catch up, oh yes, and to do the washing! We met the new cat, had a cuppa and then brought Janne back to the Showgrounds to have dinner with all of us at camp. It was an entertaining evening!
Teebar Campdraft and Rodeo - Saturday 15 June 2019
Every second person here today was wearing the “uniform” of hat, checked shirt, blingy belt, studded jeans and cowboy boots. Most of those were also handling horses and cattle. It was a very eventful day under hot sunny skies - and we loved it!
The campdraft started at 6:30am so horses were moving around pretty early as the camp came to life. Our first check of Neill and Jude’s movements saw they had been on the road since 6am. We enjoyed our cuppa in bed as the sun rose and the PA announced new competitors.
Our first walk around the site highlighted the food vendors, the market stalls, the craft pavilion, the bar, the campdraft arena and the rodeo arena. We took seats here to watch bull riding, calf roping and kids riding poddy calves! One kid - he couldn’t have been more than 9 years old - lasted the requisite 6 seconds on the back, jumped off and then revved the crowd up to cheer for him! He was a real showman! The sun was getting quite hot so we went back to the van for hats and I did some reconnaissance for possible campsites for Neill and Jude. But it was very crowded in our section, as there apparently wasn’t enough room in the competitors section for them to camp so lots were in with us.
Meanwhile Neill and Jude had arrived and parked out on the road as they were told people would leave our area early enough so they would be able to come in here. So we met up for lunch, watched some campdrafting, checked out the craft pavilion (which included a category of painted cow skulls! They looked quite decorative but when someone tried to sell me one, I said I had plenty of blank canvas' at home!) and watched some more rodeo action. The horses and cattle were all all quite hot, as some of the steers slipped in the arena trying to avoid being rounded up. This was the only place it was dusty as the rest of the site had lots of green grass, which was quite a relief in the warmth. It got so hot that we all came back to our van for cold beers.
The competitions wound up at about 4pm which meant some of the horsey people left, making room for Neill and Jude to get their van in. As the sun set, we took our chairs up to the stage for some live music by a local country band. For dinner we chose the Hungarian langos which was actually pretty good. As it cooled off, we came back to our van for tea and showers but it may be some time before we get to sleep - there’s lots of mini parties happening around the place!!!
Moonie to Teebar - Friday 14 June 2019
I just went for a walk around our campground at the Teebar Campdraft and Rodeo - campfires, generators and horses everywhere! There’s 3 horses practically tethered to our car’s bullbar!! This could be quite the event!
When the four of us were doing trip planning months ago, we agreed it would be good to attend a local event. It seems we always arrive in a town the week before or week after a show/rodeo/concert/event so we did a search of what was on and so it turns out the Teebar Campdraft and Rodeo is on tomorrow. We planned to be here - which almost got thwarted by car trouble - but the four of us will be back together tomorrow, ready to enjoy the rodeo and music.
Greg and I woke early (for us) in Moonie this morning - to no power! Our batteries were dead flat which was quite concerning. Thankfully being in the caravan park meant we could plug into power to charge the batteries and a bit of investigation revealed the fault (we think! Fingers crossed) so it wasn’t until 10am that we hit the road. Elevenses in Dalby, and a trip to the liquor warehouse to stock up on beer and then we kept going. The road conditions varied greatly! Lunch and fuel in Kingaroy and we kept driving. At least there were fewer trucks on this part of the road.
We arrived into Teebar mid afternoon, a sea of campsites evident from way back down the road! It was probably perfect time when we arrived, the only downside being we couldn’t save a campsite for Neill and Jude. They hit the road this afternoon, keen to catchup to us. They are basically a day behind us, but they plan to hit the road very early tomorrow morning with a view to get here before lunch.
So tomorrow we will see what this is all about! There’s a friendly bunch of people around us, some cute dogs and maybe I’ll pat a horse before dinner - because I can!
Coonabarabran to Moonie - 13 June 2019
A great night at the Moonie pub - just sad that we did it by ourselves :-(
Today's plan, well the revised plan after car dramas, was that we would head off earlier to set up camp and get dinner on, so that Neill and Jude could arrive late, knowing they wouldn't be able to leave Coonabarabran until about lunchtime.
So we headed off up the Newell, with our first stop at Narrabri. Which was where we got the first message that there were potentially more problems with their car....... It was decided we may as well keep going, as we were already 125km up the road - and they would catch up.
Another 100 or so kilometres, Greg and I stopped for lunch at Moree and the update was that the next part needed had been ordered and would be installed tomorrow. So we kept driving, as the weather got warmer, and our book got more interesting the kilometres melted away. We crossed the border into Queensland and decided we didn't necessarily have to stop where we had planned as we were going to be by ourselves for two nights anyway. The sun was setting as we kept driving, which meant the roos were out. I'd forgotten how big they are here up north! We pulled in to Moonie just on dark. There is only a caravan park here, which isn't even a real caravan park, but it's fine for us. I paid for our bit of gravel at the pub, bought a six pack of beer as it was still over 20C at 6pm and then we decided to have dinner in the pub as well.
Hopefully Neill and Jude get on the road tomorrow and they can meet us at the Teebar Rodeo on Saturday!!!
Coonabarabran - 12 June 2019
Our forced stay in Coonabarabran took us to places we would never have otherwise seen! We've had a lovely day exploring, while car repairs are progressing - to the point where we hope to be back on the road tomorrow.
We had a quiet morning, waiting for the weather to warm up and for Neill to get some news from Toyota. Upon hearing the parts had been ordered, would arrive tomorrow but that work could start this afternoon, we knew we were here for at least another day so took the opportunity to explore the local area. That started with elevenses at a coffee shop in town, an explore of a couple of shops, and a check in to Toyota before we drove out towards the Warrumbungle National Park. First stop was the Siding Spring Observatory. Built in 1974 (and opened by Prince Charles), this giant telescope contains a 3.9m diameter mirror inside this dome.
We went up inside to see it, and learn about what it does, how it works and how they replace the mirror lining! At 1100m elevation, in a part of the world where there is very little light pollution, the physisists see some very interesting astronomical activity here. The visitor centre also gave more of an insight into activities here, including this old control panel from the telescope.
Next to the visitor centre was a small cafe which served a reasonable lunch, so we spent a pleasant and interesting few hours here.
Driving back down the hill, we then headed into the National Park. With hills and valleys reminiscent of the Flinders Ranges, we were fortunate it was a clear sunny day so we could enjoy the mountain ranges. We did a walk to one of the lookouts, which was pretty spectacular.
There's also some great campsites out here - but not convenient if you only have one car for two caravans! The most scenic route was a 140km loop road but given it was 3:30pm by this stage, we figured we had already seen more than we would ever have otherwise, so we headed back to camp. Afternoon tea, some planning for tomorrow's travel options assuming everything goes well with car reapirs, the lighting of the campfire as it is quite cool at night here, and then a delicious hot pork and prawn soup rounded out a pretty good day.
Dubbo to Coonabarabran - 11 June 2019
Well, we didn't expect to be camping in Coonabarabran tonight....parked up in one of the caravan parks with two caravans and one car - therein lies the problem.
We left Dubbo at a civilised hour, after I had been for a lovely walk through the vines.
Traffic on the Newell Highway wasn't too bad so it wasn't much later that we arrived in Gilgandra. It's a lovely RV friendly town so we stopped for morning tea and a quick trip to the supermarket. Back on the road again, we were aiming for tonight's camp in Bendemeer and lunch somewhere in between. Neill and Jude's car was not running perfectly, which was concerning as they had work done in the last week so a quick call back to the Toyota dealer who did the work told them to stop at the next Toyota dealer on our route to get it checked. Who knew that a town the size of Coonabarabran had a Toyota dealer but so they do! We had lunch while their car got looked at - and the news wasn't good. It needed urgent work so here we are. It was a pleasant afternoon sitting reading. Jude baked scones, we lit a campfire and it was a nice evening - albeit with some concerns about car repair timelines. We shall see what tomorrow brings before we make any decisions.
Hay to Dubbo - 10 June 2019
Such a perfect campsite - in a winery, where the owners cooked us dumplings for dinner!!! Does it get any better than this?
A big day’s driving, well over 500km with plenty of rain this morning. We set off early but the rain slowed us down - it was actually very heavy at times. Good for them, as we were driving through areas that normally don’t get much rain but did it have to be the morning we were on the road?! We stopped for morning tea (elevenses) in Goolgowi - where we camped one night last year - and had our coffee and banana muffins in Cafe Bushtracker as it was still raining. Then onto West Wyalong where we stopped for fuel and lunch. The road varied in condition en route as we drove on, stopping in Forbes for the all important dump point and then keeping on keeping on along the Newell, turning off before Dubbo to the Red Earth Winery.
A Chinese couple - Lin and Hilary bought this winery two years ago and now encourage camping out the back (we are parked within a metre of the grapes) and serve dumplings with wine tasting in the cellar door. So we arrived here at 5pm, set up, and headed straight in to the wine cellar for our dumplings. Lin served is for the next couple of hours, with plenty of stories and the most delicious dumplings. We rolled back out to van for an early night - much needed after not only a big day driving, but also the gas detector going off twice in the middle of last night!
Annual Escape the Winter caravan trip - June 2019
6-9 June 2019 - Launceston to Hay
We are on the road for our annual escape the Tasmanian winter caravan trip - and it's warming up already! Last Thursday I left work an hour or two early to go home, change clothes and cars and pick up Greg, and hit the road for Devonport. Our lovely housesitters Kevin and Lyn had arrived earlier in the afternoon to look after Slick and Tabitha et al although Slick was sad as we left. Within two hours, we were in our cabin on the Spirit of Tasmania. We then made arrangements to meet some people who own the same caravan as us for drinks, which turned into dinner. That was quite lovely so it was a good few hours later that we curled up in single beds on board, lulled to sleep by the gentle rocking of the ship.
At 5:45am, we were woken up onboard, and just after 6:30am, we were one of the first off. After a quick breakfast in Port Melbourne, we drove to Narre Warren North to pick up our van. A quick catch up cuppa with Marg before we hitched up and set off for Bendigo. The first 50km or so I am always a little anxious towing - because I don't do it very often. But as the kilometres melted away, my confidence returned. By the time we stopped for a toilet break in Gisbourne and phone catch up with our travelling companions, my mojo was back. We pulled into the caravan repair man's yard at 12:15pm, for him to service the diesel heater. Unhitching the van, we left them to it and headed into Bendigo for lunch and our grocery shop (the disadvantage of not having our van parked at home). That didn't take all afternoon so we went back to the yard just after 3pm and sat in the sun while they kept working. When he showed me all the gunk that came out of our disel heater, I'm glad we were getting it serviced! Just after 5pm, we were out of there and did a short drive up the Calder Highway to a campsite we have stayed at before. After such a big day and an early start, we were pretty tired so we had a quick dinner and went to bed early.
On Saturday morning we had a sleep in despite the 7C temperature inside our caravan. The diesel heater went on pretty quick as I have a little rule that I don't get out of bed until it is 15C inside the van! So at 15C, I get up and put the kettle and percolator on - very civilised! We spent the morning unpacking all the things we brought from Tassie, cleaning the van and getting set up while we waited for Neill and Jude to arrive. Just after lunch the mighty Bushtracker arrived and we made some quick decisions and headed off to Cohuna at a good campsite Neill and Jude use. By 4pm, we were set up with a roaring campfire on a tributary of the Murray River.
We had visitors for afternoon tea as Jude's niece lives just down the road and had Jude's sister staying so they all came for a cuppar around the campfire. The fire was roaring after Neill and I had gathered so much wood - it was just perfect for a cool night.
Next morning we resurrected the fire for a morning fry up. This is life on the road - we love it. It took us a while to hit the road and then we only travelled 25km before we stopped for morning tea to meet up with the niece and sister again. Then we actually did get a few kilometres down the road, stopping for lunch in Deniliquin sidestepping the booze bus at the same time!
On the road again, we drove through the very flat, very treeless Hay Plains of the Long Paddock for 120km before arriving in Hay where we set up in a free camp on the banks of the Murrumbidgee, lit a fire and had drinks and nibbles - as you do!
