Russ Travelling Australia

We arrived at the Saltwater Caravan Park, a few kilometres out of Yamba, last Thursday.  Pete and Barb have a great site, with a view of the river and some marshy land, where water birds can be found, most of the day.  We are camped next to them.  There are a lot of birds all day long and we have Butcher birds, Magpies, Fairy Martins around the camp, to name a few.

This is a photo of our caravans looking back from the river.

Every morning, Pete and Barb walk their kayaks down to the river and stay out for a couple of hours, fishing and enjoying the bird life.  Pete’s managed to catch a Flathead every day and today he caught a really good sized one.

It’s a lovely park, with good facilities, a magnificent pool and Pirate setup for the kids and the weather has been wonderful.  Coming up the extra 400 kilometres has made a difference to the temperature of at least 6 degrees warmer during the night and the day.  Today it is 23 degrees, with a North breeze.

We all went out for lunch today to a Seafood Co-op in Maclean.   As you drive in to Maclean, you notice that all the bottom metre or so of the lamp posts have had a different tartan (and the name), painted on them.  The town has a lot of character and you get the impression that the locals look after the town. Later, we went and collected wood for our fire tonight.  It does get cooler around 5pm, so we have been enjoying sitting around the fire at night.

Pete and Barb may have to leave in a few days, but we have booked an extra week.  You never get tired of the view from out camp.

A cold front came through after our last blog, so we had an opportunity to catch up on our housekeeping – washing, shopping, cleaning etc., meaning that we had a day home, but warm and feeling virtuous.

I noticed a hairdresser near the bakery that we go to, so I made an appointment to have my hair cut and it is very short, but it was probably the best cut I’ve ever had.

Russ picked me up afterwards and then we went for a short drive to Hawk’s Nest Lookout, where Russ had to walk 420 metres and about 1000 steps to see a wonderful view, then another 100 steps up the 3-tier tower.  Great views to the North, South and West, over the lakes.  I can’t do a walk like that now so I enjoy looking at Russ’s photos.  We enjoyed our first lot of Wallis Lake oysters for tea, tasty, fresh, and not too big.

Today we drove about 40 kms to the Northern end of Myall Lakes in Myall Lakes National Park and had lunch, but the wind off the lakes made the chill factor about -8 degrees, and even though it was a lovely place, I can’t say that it was enjoyable.  We weren’t there for long, but had a good look at the three different camp grounds there.  The gas BBQs smelled strongly of gas and didn’t heat the plate, so, fortunately, we had cooked the hamburgers beforehand, so just had cold burgers in bread.  The Kookaburras were not backward in coming forward and the largest landed on our table and gave us the evil eye!

We are moving to Yamba tomorrow, to meet up with Pete and Barb, so we packed up when we got home and we are all ready to go in the morning, making sure we take the remaining 2 dozen oysters with us!

After an easy 202 kms, we arrived at Forster (pronounced ‘Foster’), with the temperature of 18 degrees and the prospect of improved weather, we were allowed to choose the site we preferred, only one row from the water.  There are a lot of cabins and retirees here, but our site is very large and we can light our Oz Pig, as it is off the ground.

The park, Lani’s Holiday Island, is on the main road, but we are right down the back and there is a further 100 hundred acres of bush camping, beyond us.  we drove down to have a look and there is a ‘bush camp kitchen’, a toilet block and that’s about it, but if you don’t need power, it would be lovely.  There is loads of bird life and the ducks come up from the lake and – what do they do – they sit in a puddle on the road!

The next day, with a temperature of 21 degrees, we enjoyed yet another picnic at Booti Booti National Park and although we couldn’t see the sea, we were surrounded by coastal rainforest and a few other campers, surfers and walkers.  To get there you have to travel along a long Spit, with lakes one side and surf the other.  White sands, blue waters and we stopped at Elizabeth Beach, which was lovely.

Today we drove a little further, through the Spit and on to Coomba Park, an extremely peaceful little hamlet, with very friendly locals.  It is on the edge of Wallingat National Park on the shores of Wallis Lake, one of the Great Lakes, famous for its oysters, which we will buy tomorrow, after the locals told us where to buy them.

Everyone spoke to us, smiled or waved and while having our lunch, we watched people fishing, boating, pelicans resting, cormorants diving and drying off, all from the aspect of a recreation area that the locals maintain, which include tables, BBQs in a lawn and garden setting, and a children’s playground.  The road in is narrow and winding, but not dangerously so and it is evident that the locals know it very well, by the speed they do!

Another great day and we are feeling very relaxed.  We have been in touch with Pete and Barb, friends of ours from Melbourne, who are further North from us at the moment.  We would love to catch up, but we will stay here a little longer I think.

We had two lovely sunny days (whoopee).  The camp ground looks entirely different with the sun filtering through the melaleucas and she-oaks and the owner has been laying screenings over the road, so we shouldn’t have any problems getting out.

We visited Greenfield’s Beach in the Jervis Bay National Park a few days ago, when it was too wet to stay, so decided to enjoy the sunshine and return to this beautiful place, for another picnic.  We were accompanied by two lovely yellow breasted robins, a couple of Kookas as well as honey eaters.  There was a view through the she-oaks of the incredibly white sands and the blue bay, and we felt that, at last, our perseverance had paid off. We took photos of the robins, but they were always in the shade, so the pictures are not very good.

Our last day was sunny, and we decided to stay at camp, fire up the Oz Pig and enjoy lunch at the table on our site and soak in this lovely area.  There are yellow breasted robins here also, and a waddle? of ducks that wander through from time to time.  We made the most of this time by also packing up, hopefully meaning we will be able to get away quickly in the morning.

Next Day . . . 7 degrees and not such a quick getaway, with a few niggling problems, like no brake lights, difficulty disconnecting the antenna cable from the connectors, jockey wheel not lowering enough, but we set off for Mannering Park, 100kms north of Sydney on Lake MacQuarie at 9am.  We had our GPS directing us around Sydney, so, apart from the traffic and traffic lights, and road lanes that would be tight for a Mini, it wasn’t too bad really.  Arrived at 2pm, and booked in for an overnight stop.

Headed off last Monday week, having decided to go up the East Coast.  Lunch was at our usual stop, Rosedale, where we always buy one of the bakery’s famous pasties.

Our first camp stop was at Stratford, just out of Sale.  We stayed there for two days and found it to be very relaxing, with a view of the river.  We visited the MacAlister River Park at Maffra, for a picnic lunch.  We were very impressed with the park, which had been beautifully designed, with native plants, grasses, sculptures, a playground, picnic tables, toilets – the whole works.  We just had time to eat our lunch, before the rain came down again. The daytime and night time temperatures varied from cold to very, very cold!

We drove on to Merimbula Lakes Caravan Park, having fish and chips at Cann River.  The Caravan Park had a view of the lakes in the distance, but was nothing to write home about (except that I am), hardly any trees, so we headed for both eucalypts and set up camp.  We booked in for a week and on the 5th night we were hit with the Antarctic Vortex.   We had had rain most days, but it was constant.  It was freezing and the winds during the night were frightening, Russ had to roll in the awning in the dark and rain.  The next day we moved camp across the road to a place without trees!  When we were hitching up, the wind was so strong that I had to hang onto the stone guard of the van, so I didn’t lose my footing.

There were lots Lorikeets to brighten our day, another camper was feeding them every day.  So we gave them some stale bread one day.

We picnicked at Bournda National Park.  There wasn’t another camp or visitor there, which amazed us because it was the NSW school holidays.  We thought it was as lovely, if not more so, than we remembered it to be.  If the weather had been better, we would have camped there for sure.

Another day, we visited Ben Boyd National Park and found a picturesque picnic area at Long Beach.  It was absolutely beautiful.  The area was quite sheltered and we didn’t want to leave.  This was one day that we could enjoy some sunshine.

We moved further up the coast to Jervis Bay to Hidden Creek Caravan Park.  It is very shady, but the owner told us that it is very sheltered.  Hidden Creek, that borders the park, is more like a river, great for kayaking as it flows into Jervis Bay.  Another plus is that we can use our OzPig, which we have enjoyed between showers.  If you look carefully at the camp photo you can see me under the awning in front of the OzPig in the mist.  The second low has moved in and it is raining again, so much so that the owner has had to spread wood-chips over the edges of our site and stones over the driveway and road to the loo, because of mud and puddles everywhere.  We had constant rain overnight, between 2 and 3 inches we were told, and Russ had to fix a leak in the window over the bed, his side fortunately!!

We found a lovely shelter for lunch a couple of days ago, at Moona Moona Creek Reserve.  We had a BBQ and were able to stay there for an hour or so, until the cold  sent us home again.

I should mention that we have eaten 5 dozen oysters to date, sprinkled with tasty cheese and grilled.  We have another dozen to go, then I think we’ll have to buy some more.  Tough life, but someone’s got to do it!  I don’t want you to think we’re having it too easy – we are having to open them ourselves.

The weather has been bad and, yes, the van leaked again, but with it jacked up in the front, at least the bed doesn’t get wet.  To add insult to injury, our three day stay at Mudgee was at the Riverland Caravan and Tourist Park, which was at best, less than average.

We did get in a BBQ breakfast in at the Munghorn Gap Nature Reserve.  It started to rain as we set off, and on arrival, we quickly set up and had the quickest breakfast of bacon and eggs on toast (cooked on our gas stove), packed up and went for a short drive, during which the rain stopped, the sun came out.  It didn’t rain again for a couple of hours!

We packed up next morning in the rain and MUD – great.  The problems with the caravan have certainly put a dampener on our enthusiasm and we have decided to spend a couple of days in Rutherglen – a place we love.  We have pre-booked a hamper for Wednesday, from The Pickled Sisters.

Travelling to Rutherglen, the trip was quite scenic, with farms full of good crops.  The countryside has been very hilly and we were looking for a place where we could buy a couple of sandwiches for our lunch.  We came down a very steep hill into Sofala and found a little General Store, selling food.  Mrs Mac was the grumpiest little old lady I have ever come across.  After ordering two ham and salad sandwiches, she clicked her tongue when I asked for salt and pepper and when I said that $16.25 was quite expensive, she went on a tirade about the cost she has to incur because of EFTPOS.  She asked me if I wanted to see her telephone bill and see the charges.  Russ took a photo of the old Sofala Hotel on the main street, which is only wide enough for two cars to creep past each other.  The hill into Sofala from the north is the steepest we have encountered on a main road and is about 1.2 Km down all the way.

Our site in Rutherglen is facing the lake, where there are ducks, water birds, people fishing and walking.  The lake has been stocked with Yellow Belly and Redfin and yesterday someone caught a large Yellow Belly.  He said that had it been a Redfin, he would have kept it for a wonderful meal.

Today is picnic day and we collected our hampers.  This time we ordered two different ones – mine a vegetarian – with white bean and parmesan dip, a serve of asparagus, chevre and hazelnut, curried cauliflower with quinoa (or some other grain), pasta with chilli, mushroom, and tomato.  Dessert was an orange and almond cake, with syrup and double cream.  Russ’s order was trout dip, chicken and prune terrine, with peach chutney, a serve of olives and cheese, potato salad with capers, fillet steak with bearnaise sauce and a dessert of rich chocolate cake, chocolate sauce and double cream.  We also had a bread roll each.  All for $67!!

We picked  up a bottle of Rose from Pfeiffers, who packed the wine in an ice bag, as well as giving us a bottle of iced water.  We drove to the Chiltern -Mt Pilot National Park, where we set everything out and shared everything.  We have enough left over for tonight’s tea and tomorrow’s lunch!  After lunch we walked along the road and another track and found lots of orchids, very early for the Lady Fingers, but about right for the Nodding Greenhoods.

We arrived back to the caravan park, set up our chairs in the sun overlooking the lake and our feeling of wellbeing has been restored and all is right with the world!

Tomorrow we head for home after a trip of close to 9,500 Km, home for a holiday!!.

After travelling south for two long days, staying at St George the first night, then the second night at  Narrabri, we then headed for Coolah and booked in for two nights.  Coolah was a nice little park, with happy hour around a blazing fire, lit in a huge mining drum.  This meant we had a good break, as well as being able to spend a day in the Coolah Tops National Park, which was well worth the visit.  The temperatures are very low in these towns (4+ 17 degrees) and we are back in jeans, socks, boots and coats.  In the National Park the highest temperature for the day was 10 degrees!  Russ lit a fire and we had the most delicious steak sandwiches, with onion, lettuce, tomato, cheese and sauce.

Russ went for a walk to Norfolk Falls, not much water going over because of the dry weather.

The forest is full of tall, straight eucalypts and tussock grass and there are a number of well designed camping areas, all with toilets, fireplaces and tables.  In certain parts of the forest, there are stands of snow gums, much taller than in the Victorian high country.  We also visited Brackens Hut, which was an out station used during summer when sheep were grazed on the alpine grasses and herbs.  However in the 40s and 50s two families lived here, one family of five, the Brackens, spent 11 years in this 3 roomed hut.

We also went to the Pinnacles to see the wonderful views over the Warumbungle and Liverpool Ranges, but it was a bit misty in the distance.  It was a very enjoyable day and Coolah Tops National Park is well worth a visit.

We had a short drive today to Mudgee, where we will stay for three nights.  I was hoping to get my hair cut, but I wasn’t able to get in anywhere.  There are a lot of wineries here, a very large town with interesting restaurants and cafes and Munghorn Gap Nature Reserve.  Rain is forecast, so whether we BBQ there will be dependant on the weather.

We left Charters Towers, knowing we had a long day ahead of us, but after 6 hours on the road, we decided to stop at Capella, instead of Emerald, another 56 kms further on. After setting up and we were relaxing, Russ looked at me and said that he thought that it was just as well he stopped, because, in the car, I looked like I’d been alive for 150 years and wasn’t going to last much longer!!  He has a way with words, you’d have to say.  Capella was a small, but likeable town, with a nice little caravan park, where I refreshed my supply of parsley! The next day we finally arrived at Carnarvon Gorge, at the same time as Trish and Dave.  Our sites our on the edge of the park, near a beautiful creek, but there is dirt everywhere. There are lots of trees in the park, which is overlooked by the escarpment.  The last rain was on the 14^th June.  We have been used to paying $28 – $30 per night, but here it is $45 and to use the washing machine, it is $5 a load, instead of $3 – $4.  There is no 3G coverage here, but there is free WiFi near the office.

We spent the first afternoon catching up and having a champers of course.  The next day, Dave drove us into the Information Centre, where the walks up the gorge commence.  We walked down to the creek (which has to be crossed on stepping stones) and took in this magnificent place.

On the way back, we called in and did a short walk to The Rock Pool, an idyllic setting, where platypus can be found.  Not when we were there though.  We did have an echidna pointed out to us by a couple who had spotted him sleeping.

Trish, Dave, Russ and I have had lunch and dinner together every day and last night, Trish cooked a delicious rump steak and lentil dish for us, flavoured with grain mustard and spring onion, served accompanied by fresh tomatoes.  Delicious! Today they have all gone walking up the gorge, so I’m going to cook a roast tonight and I have a carrot cake cooking in the Cobb at the moment.  A lot of campers moved out today and it is very quiet without radio or TV, but as I’m typing, the new afternoon patrons are starting to move in.  This place is fully booked every day.

The walk up the gorge was terrific but very dusty and lots of steps.  We walked about 12 Km altogether, getting as far as Wards Canyon.  You have to climb about 300 steps to get to the canyon, but it is worth it.

This canyon has King ferns, which are a relic of a cooler period, and now only exist here and on Fraser Island.  They have 5 metre long fronds and the base of the fronds are about 50 mm diameter at the trunk of the feern.  Water pressure in the frond holds them up.  The canyon is very cool and has other ferns and tree ferns, plus a small running creek.

From here we walked back to the Amphitheatre, which is a crater in the rock accessed through a narrow split in the rock wall.  Access to the Amphitheatre is via a set of very steep see-through stairs.  The last time we visited in the 80’s it was a wobbly steel vertical ladder that you had to climb.  We had lunch here and a deserved breather.

The Amphitheatre is about 50 metres across with near vertical walls.

My next stop was the Moss Garden, Trish and Dave decided to head for home.  This was accessed by a 700-metre sidetrack with lots of steps.  The moss gardens are simply beautiful; my photos don’t do it justice.  The moss grows on the wall on a narrow gorge with water dripping and running on the rock.

A small waterfall and creek complete an idyllic scene.

That evening we hosted Trish and Dave to a delicious roast of rump bought from a country butcher, it did literally melt in your mouth.  This was served with roast vegetables, peas and mushroom gravy. The roast and vegetables were cooked in our Cobb.  Marg also cooked a carrot cake in the Cobb so that was our dessert.

Today we had a BBQ brunch in the gardens that surround the Information Centre.  Plenty of shade and a free gas BBQ, which we used to cook the eggs, tomatoes and bacon, plus we used a small stove to cook toast and boil the kettle.  This was a very restful start to the day after such a vigorous day yesterday.

Marg is cooking a pizza today for pre-dinners and we plan to take a glass of wine down to the platypus pool behind our camp at dusk  to see if we can spot any platypus.  We will be here tonight and tomorrow night and then start the long journey home.

After an enjoyable week we rather reluctantly left Cowley Beach.  We exchanged our respective name cards with our neighbours, Philip and Rosemary.  A wonderful couple, who have been on the road for 15 years and took us under their wing, making sure we didn’t miss a ‘Happy Hour”, and made sure that we hosted our own as well!  These “Happy Hours” were food free – just bring along your drink of choice.  Much better that way.

The last few days at Cowley Beach were very interesting, as we felt we were ‘settling in’, and were given a good sized Trevally that we thought we wo
uld have for lunch.  Things changed when a local crayfisher man came through the camp, selling large crays, caught off the reef for $10 a kilo.  $30 later, I had a massive raw cray to chop up.  The recommended way was to twist of the head, chop the tail and BBQ in garlic, chili butter.  Easier said than done, but eventually, with Russ’s help, we got in foil, and overcooked it!  Nevertheless, it was delicious.  3 minutes instead of 5 minutes is the go!  The Trevally was filleted and placed in the freezer.

Heavy rain overnight, but dry inside, because of sloping the van to the back.  Philip and Rosemary were there, despite the rain, to say a lovely goodbye.

I am typing this blog in Charters Town.  Less humidity but still warm and no sandflies!  I am sitting at a table in the ‘entertainment area’, with a student from the local high school singing, with guitar and amplification.  She is very good and the whole environment is very relaxing.  There is a screen for films, a pizza oven, tables and chairs, a large gas BBQ and a fire pit.  These country towns are fantastic.

We are heading to Carnarvon Gorge to meet up with Trish and Dave in a couple of days.  WOOPEE!!

We dropped down over 700 metres off the Atherton Tableland and we are now surrounded by sugar cane, palms and a lovely beach. Swimming is not allowed because of stingers and crocodiles, although no-one has seen either. We are in a nice park – people have quite large sites, which is quite different to a lot of parks on the coast.
We have Innisfail to our north and Tully (Australia’s wettest area) to the south. The second day we drove into Tully and bought fish and chips and sat in a park, which displays Tully’s symbol – a large gumboot! Inside the boot, you can walk to the top and look at an overview of the city and surrounding mountains.
We are here for a week and there is not a great deal to do, but we have been preoccupied with a major problem with the van.
It is leaking like a sieve. When we arrived, the bed was wet and as the day went on, water was coming in from the seams in the roof, around the air conditioner, as well as around the sky light in the bathroom. This started the night before and we were visiting the loo with our feet in puddles.
We were completely pissed off and both wanted to come home, then get it fixed and then maybe set off, but we are thousands of kilometres from home and we are meeting up with Trish and Dave on the 6th August, so we have to cope with the situation.
We went to Innisfail and bought a tarp, but we decided to lower the front of the van and let the water run off, as it seems that the water pools in a large dip in the roof. This worked well until the water started dripping through the pop rivets over the bed and we were drying out bedclothes again, drying the mattress with a heater, so option two came into play, by lowering the van at the back.
Last night we had a dry night, so fingers crossed.
Feeling more optimistic, we went out for lunch at a nearby beach, Kurrimine Beach. There are three caravan parks, a large pub, a beautiful stretch of beach and our time was very relaxing. Spanish Mackerel is the fish of the day up here and it is white, fleshy and delicious.

Yesterday our neighbour gave us some spotted emperor, which I had to fillet and crumb. I made some salad and tartare sauce and we had a lovely tea. Maybe things aren’t so bad after all!