Final days of trip 2011

After leaving Sofala it was onto Bathurst and a spin around the race track with the caravan, it was a real eye opener to experience the steepness and the bends of the track. Of course we were going much, much slower than the racing cars but our Gps’s warning went off to say we were speeding down Conrod Straight, it only has a 60klm speed limit normally.
We stopped that night at Junee then the next day it was down to Cobram to catch up with some friends before stopping for the night at Shepparton. The next day (Friday) we travelled through Melbourne where we passed a new caravan yard and thought we would have a look around. We saw a van we liked and put the pressure on the salesman to get the rego permit required and the van detailed as we needed to be on the boat Sunday night. Saturday was spent swapping our gear from the old van to the new one, did not realise we had so much stuff packed in it.
We are now parked along Marine Parade Port Melbourne waiting to board the Spirit of Tasmania for the final leg of this trip.

The old (right) and the new (left)

Nundle, Gulgong - Sofala

Next it was off to Nundle which is a historic gold mining town where there are quite a few campsites that you can stay at along the river while you try your hand at gold panning. We also visited the local Woollen Mill which had beautiful woollen products for sale. After spending a few dollars at Nundle we headed to Scone then onto Gulgong which is another 19th Century goldrush town thtat was also the home of Henry Lawson. The town of Gulgong is like stepping back 100yrs with old shop fronts and narrow streets which wind between quaint clapboard and iron buildings, you will also find the Henry Lawson Museum. We noticed as we drove into town that The Old Fella (Rodney Gregory) who was a contestant on Australia’s Got Talent was appearing at the Gulgong RSL. David and Alison made some enquires and found that the show had been booked out for weeks, but if we like to rock up we may stand a chance of getting in, if we didn’t mind standing at the back for the show. Not only did we get in to see the show we enjoyed a BBQ there at the RSL, and ended up with front row seats right in the middle of the stage only having to pay $12 each for the BBQ. A great night was had by all.
We left Gulgong this morning (Tuesday) passing through the town of Mudgee with it’s historic buildings. Then once again heading off the main road, passing through Rylstone and Kandos to the little town of Sofala, Australia’s oldest surviving gold town. We again experienced hilly climbs and steep descents to arrive at this very unique little town, with a narrow main street and very old dilapidated buildings only the nucleus of the town remains today.

Crescent Head to Woolomin

After leaving South West Rocks we travelled further south stopping at Frederickton to sample the Freddo Pies,they have about 50 different varieties to choose from. Then it was onto Crescent Head, passing through the town to a free campsite backing onto to a beautiful sandy surf beach. We made our camp there for two nights we had some lovely hot sunny days, allowing sunbaking and walks on the beach, we were also able to enjoy campfires of a night.

Heading further south we tuned West just before Port Macquarie travelling to Wauchope to once again stay at a free campsite at Ellenborough. The next day we crossed the Great Dividing Range which was a long steady winding climb sometimes needing to stop at road works as the road had been washed away, leaving only a single lane at times. We arrived at Walcha where we had our lunch then it was back on the road again this time heading south for about 50klm then it west again on a gravel road for awhile until we had to negotiate a pass which was very similar to Elephant Pass in Tassie. It was a long steady windy climb and then a slow steep descent where trucks and heavy vehicles are advised to use low gear, we were about 2klm from reaching the bottom when Bazza experienced serve brake fade ! The brakes on the Pajero were emitting a strong hot smell, so decided he had better adjust the brake controller up on the caravan brakes and locked the car into second gear, it was a great relief when we reach the floor of the valley safely. We are certainly experiencing some very challenging road conditions since we have been travelling with Alison and David as they prefer to travel on the minor roads instead of busy highways. We stayed that night at Woolomin once again free camping, many of these little inland towns welcome travellers & provide areas in or near their town to camp. Travelling the back roads through the mountain rangers allows you to enjoy the beautiful scenery, small towns and friendly people who love to have a chat.

Fee camp Crescent Heads

Taylors Arms - South West Rocks

After leaving Southport Friday morning it did not take long for us to cross the border into New South Wales, the weather was very overcast with some rain. It was good to turn off the Pacific Hwy that was very congested to travel south through Lismore, Casino and onto a free camp for the night that was 28klm south of Casino. The rain cleared by mid afternoon for us to enjoy a very pleasant evening, and surprisingly a good night’s sleep.

Saturday it was on the road again going further south and onto the Pacific Hwy at Grafton travelling through Coffs Harbour stopping for lunch at Sawtell then going inland at Macksville to Taylors Arms to the Pub with No Beer, that was made famous by Slim Dusty. We were able to free camp opposite the pub in a recreation area, so that afternoon it was just a short stroll for us to go and enjoy a drink and meal at the pub. In the pub there is a great deal of memorabilia relating to Gordon Parson’s who wrote the song, that Slim Dusty recorded. A local named Scott that had a few under his belt, came over for a chat and a laugh, he got us to feel the weight of his jacket after taking it off for a group photo, it was weighted down with a couple of litres of chainsaw oil. It was so heavy, he said it was keeping him real warm, oil had leaked into it when it was in his ute.

We are now at a seaside caravan park at South West Rocks, it was a beautiful day yesterday but today is not so good with a very chilly sea breeze. We are able to either walk or ride our bikes up to the coastal township that is nearby. The caravan is parked on the edge of a 50 foot drop, so had to make sure we had it well chocked, hanky panky is certainly out of the question DO NOT want to rock the van!

With our new friend Scott

Happy Hour South West Rocks

Scary Hilltop Parking

Gold Coast cont:

Forgot to mention in our last update that we also had shopping trips to Harbour Town & the Surf shop outlets. We had many trips around to the prawn trawlers to get fresh prawns caught the previous night and have enjoyed quiet a few kilos of them, will be popping around first thing in the morning to buy some more to enjoy with Alison & David tomorrow night after a hard day on the road.

wet T Shirt look !

Gold Coast

The family has returned to Tassie so now how the time and energy to write our blog !

We arrived here at Southport Sunday week ago after enduring a couple of days rain at Bribie Island. The weather since has been just beautiful, during the day it has been very warm and sunny, one night we had a thunder storm & lightening which was very specky. We have also had a couple of nights where it has rained rather heavy but nothing during the day, so Tania & Co were very lucky to have had such good weather all the time that they were here.

It has certainly been a busy time since the grandchildren arrived with something happening every day. Bazza & I enjoyed going to Dreamworld/White Water world & Movieworld with them but was totally spent by the time we left the theme parks glad to get back to our caravan to rest up for the next day. We babysat Cooper a couple of days while the bigger boys had more time at White Water World and Wet and Wild then it was time to visit Seaworld , Bazza decided he would have a day off and do his own thing. We all had the best time at Seaworld and thought that he should have been there. I just loved the Battle Ships at Pirate Bay, I ended up with very very wet clothes as could not help myself, if I saw someone still dry had to make sure they ended up drenched, sometimes I came off worse. Had a great time could have gone back again ! Another tourist thing that we enjoyed with the boys was the Super Duck, which is an amphibious vehicle. They were very impressed that the bus was able to go in the water like a boat.

We leave the Gold Coast tomorrow after 12 days here at Southport, and will travel down to New South Wales with our friends Alison & David and will enjoy some travelling company for a couple of weeks before we make a dash for the Spirit on the 25th.

Which one is the Walrus ???

Bribie Island

We left Bargara on Thursday to start travelling south to the Gold Coast as Tania, Greg and the boys are flying over for 10 days and arrive on Monday. Looking forward to seeing our little men, but I am sure we may need a holiday after they leave, as Tania has tickets to most of the Theme Parks and has planes to visit one every second day. Bazza and I will either be tagging along or looking after Cooper while they take Alex and Riley.

We spent Thursday night at Cooloola Cove as I wanted to go into Tin Can Bay by 8am on Friday morning to feed the dolphins. We waited until 9.15 but knowing our luck thought we were going to be disappointed, so we waited patiently and just starting thinking we would miss out when we saw a couple of fins appear out in the bay. The Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphins have been interacting with residents and visitors of Tin Can Bay for 30 years. It all started with “Scarry” nicknamed due to the numerous rough edges along her dorsal and tail fins. “Scarry” appeared with a young male dolphin, Mystique, believed to be her youngest surviving offspring. “Scarry” has not been seen since early 2003 but her son Mystique and girlfriend “Patch” still come in to the boat ramp to observe humans and be hand fed. I think this has been the highlight of our trip so far, it was a tremendous experience.

The last few days we spent at Bargara were very windy and Thursday night we started getting a few showers, so by the time we left Tin Can Bay the weather had certainly changed for the worse. We travelled down to Bribie Island in drizzly misty rain, and then it rained on and off all night. Today it has been raining constantly so we were suffering from cabin fever, decided to go to the local pub for a meal and there we were entertained by the locals with a Karaoke night.

Tomorrow we leave Bribie Island and travel to Southport where we are booked in at the Broadwater Caravan Park for 10 days, we should catch up with Maree and Brian as they are staying at the same park.

Air Show Wide Bay Budaberg

Bargara

Back on Blog again !
Since the last time we updated our Blog we have been home to Tassie to meet a dear little granddaughter Olivia. It was great being home to catch up with family and friends but we were certainly counting down the days until we went back to the warmer weather.
We returned to the Gold Coast on the 29th July spending that night with our friends Alison & David before heading off with them to the Sunshine Coast and back to Cooroy for a few days. While we were there we had a trip up to Maryborough to check out an RV friendly Retirement Village, it was a great set up with some very good facilities. If they had one like it in Tassie I am sure we would be very interested.
We left Cooroy last Thursday and headed further north again to Bargara Beach where we are staying for the next two weeks.
Since being here at Bargara we have had a couple of games of bowls, the rinks sure do take getting used to, as they are very fast ! We certainly do not get to take home any prizes for the most won ends! Hoping that the experience gained will help our game when we return home.
Last weekend was the Cane to Coal fun run that starts at Bundaburg and finishes here at Bargara, there were 500 entrants in the 15klm and 2,500 entrants in the 8klm so big influx of super fit sweaty people(Bazza sure did enjoy the Gym Bunnies), as the finish line was opposite the caravan park. I think Bazza is living a different dream !!
Yesterday we had a visit from Carleen and Rex they are staying at Hervey Bay which is about an 1 hour south of here. It was great to catch up with them and we may do again when we move further down the coast.
The Grey Nomads are easily entertained, as yesterday some tree fellers came into the park to drop a couple of trees that were a bit suspect, after the previous incident when we were last here. The poor guys had people bring their chairs and cameras and were centre of attention all day.
This afternoon we are off to Burnett Heads which is only about 10mins away to catch up with more Tassie people Sue & Mike who also live in our area.

CRIKEY !

THINGS GO WHOOSH IN THE NIGHT

I thought we had a new toilet installed without my knowledge as I flushed the toilet there was an almighty whoosh! Must have an air vacc flush !
NO! Only to look outside to see a tree had fallen near by. I sent Bazza out to inspect, as it was only 2.45am! There were some very lucky caravaner’s immerging from their vans, to find the only damage was the loss of an awning also a few dents & scratches. No injuries!
So scary to think there was no warning beforehand, and it was not as if we had bad weather conditions to contribute, only a little rain yesterday.

Bargara

We have been at Bargara for 9 days now and have settled in quite easily. First day we got stuck into washing all the dust off the car and the outside of the van, the night man duties and of course the washing. We then settled into relax mode, going to the beach, bike riding, short walks, bowls and dining out. We met another couple that had a slide on camper that was just behind us and they were from Bellerive, Graham and Gladys also play bowls for Rosny. We had a lot of acquaintances in common because of bowls, and the fact that Graham had been a Manager at Frogmore Creek and he used to do consultancy work for MyState (Islandstate), both of these places Denise once worked. They were very easy people to get along with and it was sad to see them leave, but that’s caravanning.

We had a short tip out to Woodgate Beach today on the recommendation of several fellow travellers, but it wasn’t what we expected and will not include it on our list of places we will stay at. As the weather today is overcast and a bit cool it probably did not do anything to give us a good impression of Woodgate, I am sure if we returned on a beautiful sunny day the beach would be very inviting.

Once again we have changed our minds! We will not be travelling to Seaforth after returning from our week in Tassie and have booked to come back here to Bargara for 3 weeks to continue where we left off with the RR. It will save us 4 days of travelling up and down the Bruce Hwy and probably 3 tanks of diesel.

We have one more day here before heading to Tin Can Bay for a night and then onto Cooroy where we will leave the van. We will then travel to the Gold Coast to Stay with Alison and David and will do some baby shopping at Harbour Town. We will also have our whooping cough vaccinations as suggested by some very protective parents.

Bargara Beach

Bargara Beach Caravan Park

Woodgate Beach

New Granddaughter Olivia

Olivia was born on the 2nd July a little earlier than anticipated,we will be flying home for a week to have a cuddle on the 23rd.

Theodore-Calliope-Bargara

We left Miles and headed for Theodore over the Great Dividing Range which is 400 metres above sealevel, according to our Tassie hills is not so great. We arrived at Theodore and set up at a free camp near the river there was a nice park opposite with shower and toilets. It was very crowded and we were lucky to get a spot, as some set up there for weeks. After settling in which wasn’t hard to do seeing that we had left the car and van hitched up, we rode our bikes 2klms into town for a look around, not a great deal to see. It was interesting to see how the town has recovered and cleaned up after the floods considering that most of the town was inundated with water. On our way back to the van we stopped off at the pub because we were hot and thirsty for a nice beer & shandy. We were able to view some photos of the flooding of the town, the barman explained to us how the pub was spared by only a few metres from being flooded. Outside the pub in the middle of the street there had been 2 light poles which had been removed to allow access for the 8 helicopters to evacuate the town, witches hats still remain upside down in the holes where they once stood.
We then moved onto Calliope where we spent the next 2 nights, then headed off to Bargara Beach Caravan Park for a week to enjoy the warm weather, beach and also to seek out a decent restaurant after being inland for all this time.

Miles

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Today we had a bit of a lay in and a casual breakfast, and after getting the morning report on our new granddaughter we set off for Miles at about 10.30 to look at the Heritage Village. The village is well laid out with the usual shops and buildings of the period with lots of machinery and many other items of a time gone by. It took us about two and half hours to look around and could have spent a lot more time there if we had wanted to. It is a well worth while attraction to see. We then fuelled the car and brought some lunch to have down by the river and then head back to the park for a sit and read in the sun.

Surat - Miles

Thursday night we went to the Big Rig Light show which described how they started off drilling for water and discovered gas and oil. It was about 35 minute show which was very informative and gave a good account of the history of Roma. Before leaving Roma we went to the cattle sales they are the largest in the southern hemisphere, again we had trouble understanding the auctioneer.
Thursday we were suppose to part company with Jack and Sharmon, they were heading south to Surat and we were heading east to Miles, but as usual we changed our minds and travelled to Surat and stayed at a free camp just across the Bridge at Surat with them. Surat is a nice little town, not really a lot to see except for a Cobb and Co changing station with a museum and a excellent replica Cobb and Co coach. We rode our bikes into and around town and had a look around the suburbs and rode along a walking track which was quiet well done with exercise equipment along the way. We were only going to stay one night, but again changed our minds and spent the second night.
Today we eventually parted company and headed to Miles where we are staying at a caravan park 19 klms out of town. It is out in the bush and was once an old ammunition storage for the RAFF in the Second World War and was part of the last line of defence if the Japanese invaded Australia. We rode our bike 3 and half klms around the hill where there are 23 bunkers recessed into the hillside. The park is nice and quiet and there is also going to be a happy hour around the fire pit this evening.
With the excitement of the news that we are again grandparents to a little girl Olivia Joanne this threw out our plans of going back into Miles to look around the Heritage Centre this afternoon, have now decided to stay 2 days and do it all tomorrow.