Yes, Ballina again – more caravan repairs. The water pump isn’t priming. They worked on this last time, so let’s hope that we have more luck today. There are fiddly little things as well, but they are happy to fix everything, so we think that we may as well get them attended to while we are here.
Wooli, as ideal it was with the setting, proved to be a bit of a nightmare. We were extensively bitten by sandflies on the first lunchtime and there were nights when we couldn’t sleep for the itch (especially Russ, who had an allergic reaction to them).
In addition, the caravan owners had tree fellers in and felled, grubbed and mulched 10 giant eucalypts! The noise was unbelievable for two and a half days and to add insult to injury, we were accosted by a staff member for turning on the TV in the camp kitchen!!
Our stay was saved by wonderful visits to the national park, having extended BBQ lunches. One day, while lunching in Wooli, we saw two yellow tailed cockatoos in a banksia, munching away, oblivious to passing people or traffic.
After the week, we moved into Illaroo Sth Camping area in the NP. Magnificent setting, overlooking the ocean. Peace, quiet, tranquility and wood fires! Firewood provided.
One day we took a track to Sandon River, which to say the least was interesting! At one spot, Russ had to strip down to his undies and wade through to check to depth. Sandon River was absolutely invaded by campers and not our cup of tea at all. Just as well we made the trip, because we would have had the caravan on, expecting a site.
So, here we are again, sitting in a park, homeless, waiting for that all elusive phone call from Kimberley!!
We are heading inland after this, so the blog should be more interesting (although most roads are still closed due to water). Hopefully everything will dry out over the next couple of weeks, so we can travel down the Darling.