29th April 2014-Golden Beach @ Caloundra

29th April 2014

We have settled into the Golden Beach Caravan Park, it is only a 2.5km walk from the centre of Caloundra.......but more importantly we are only 2km from the local Craft Centre. This is an amazing building that houses all of the local art and craft groups from the area. It has all of the facilities that all of the groups could need including a shed for the pottery kilns (though I am not doing pottery)  I am now a member of the Stitchers Group (you can do any sort of stitching you want including crochet and knitting) and the Lacemaking Group. I am in seventh heaven...the ladies are all so nice and friendly and having such an awesome facility as my fingertips is brilliant. The stitching group has a bus trip organised for later this month where we will go into the city to visit a craft shop, lunch and morning tea is organised, an then there is a tour of a building....I think it is the Brisbane Council Chambers....I will confirm that later.

Les has been to the Brendale R/C racing track to race his remote control cars. They race every second Sunday and I am his pit crew...Sam is the team mascot! The track is surrounded by lots of park area for little Sam to enjoy. And they have a canteen so that everyone is well fed!

LES IN THE PITS AREA (OF THE BRENDALE R/C TRACK) WORKING ON HIS CAR BEFORE THE NEXT RACE

The weather has been gorgeous and we have been bike riding most days, walking some days and swimming lots as well. The beaches here are very good but the caravan park has a pretty pool area which we prefer to use because you don't get sand on your feet....is that being lazy?

ME IN THE POOL.

Note that I am now a brunette. I had a hair appointment booked before we even arrived here thanks to the wonders of the internet. I certainly jagged a great salon. It was fabulously decorated in black, white and crystals and I was totally spoilt.

MY SNACKS AT THE HAIR SALON, I ALSO HAD A LATTE WITH CHOCY BISCUITS....Mmmm

The bike riding is very good here as it is nice and flat, and there are bike paths going everywhere. though we tend to stick to the coastal paths because the view is sooooo good.

ONE OF CALOUNDRAS BEACHES, OUR VIEW WHILST BIKE RIDING

 

SAM COMES BIKE RIDING TOO....So cute!!

Because the evenings are still nice and warm we can go for evening walks along the beach. There are a lot of water sports here - not surprisingly - and it is pleasant to sit and watch everybody. The big news is that soon we will be joining those water sports people as we have just bought a 2 man kayak :) Yes you read that correctly........we will soon be paddling along with the rest of them.....not sure how that will go and suspect that my arms could need to be eased into this new activity. I will keep you updated on our progress.....unless my arms are too cramped to type ha ha !

BABY CRABS RUNNING TO SAFETY

If we time our walks right we come cross these groups of little crabs that are on the move....each group has different sized crabs and when you get too close they quickly bury themselves into the sand. They are only about 4cms big, too small to eat :(

Between the craft groups, r/c racing and all of the outdoor sports we are finding ourselves quite busy. We are loving Caloundra and still have lots of the area to explore.

13th April 2014-The Great Gold Coast

13th April 2014

The Gold Coast was always going to be a stopping point for us, we were here 3 years ago and I wouldn't miss the opportunity to go to the theme parks again.

We stayed in Helensvale, they have a dog friendly caravan park which was far above our expectations. This caravan park went above and beyond the call of duty to make the dogs welcome. They had recently installed an off leash/play area for dogs and it was amazing!!! It was full of activities for dogs to enjoy as well as a drinking area, a shade area and lots of tennis balls and Frisbees. The dog owners had the choice of seating areas and trees have been planted to provide even more shade in the future.

THE HELENSVALE DOG PLAY AREA

Little Sam loved wandering around and checking out all of the new things even though she was too small to use most of them.

The Caravan Park had recently undergone extensive renovations which included a fabulous new swimming pool....it had a water slide that I made good use of when there weren't too may people/witnesses around, it was situated right next to the café/restaurant (which was also dog friendly) and it had plenty of lounge chairs and gazebos for our use. Oh and did I mention that the salt water pool was heated.....it was paradise!!!

Tuesday evening they always have a sausage sizzle and Sunday morning was Pancakes!!! Yep free and plentiful pancakes!!!!!

PANCAKE SUNDAY Yummmmmmmy

But lets not forget the theme parks. We were literally just across the road from Warner Bros Movie World which is our favourite theme park! We went there a few times to make sure we exhausted ourselves (I still have a sore hand from the new shooting ride Justice League 3D....) And we got totally saturated again and again on the Wild West Falls.

MY BRUSH WITH FAME....PORKY PIG. He kissed my hand when I turned to leave....sooooo cute!

And I don't care that I had to stand in a queue full of little kids to get this photo taken...no shame in that and totally worth it!

Twice a day they have a Stunt Drivers show. We made sure our timing was good on one of the days for us to attend.....I'm sometimes doubtful of shows like this...are they going to be worth the time or should we be hitting the rides while everyone else is at the Stunt Show?.....turns out this show was awesome!!!! There was stunt motorbikes, cars and drift utes. It was 30 mins of thrilling stunts and we all totally enjoyed ourselves.

We went on the Scooby Doo roller coaster,  (Translation-Les dragged me on whilst not listening to my protests) and I remembered why I hate that ride...it's very scary flying around in a tiny little roller coaster car...up high...in the dark!!!! I'm too old for that type of stuff!!!

The water parks are great fun and we chose the warmest days to go to them so it was always going to be a blast. I injured myself yet again because I kept wanting to see where I was going on the water slides so would do one big ab crunch the whole way down. By day 2 my stomach muscles really hated me, by day 3 I found it painful to even sit upright....but I soldiered on!!  Les came on lots of rides with me but did suffer a setback on the Mach 5 (Australia's fastest and steepest ride) I had been down it twice when Les decided that it looked simple enough and that he should give it a go. When we got to the top I said "I'll take the middle one"......"No" said Les "I want the middle one, you take an end one" So with no arguments from me, off we went. It was only after we hit the bottom that Les realised he had chosen the steepest slide of the three-tee he he, I did try to give him an easier one!

THE MACH 5-YOU CLIMB FIVE STORIES HIGH AND THEN SLIDE STRAIGHT DOWN..... VERY FAST!

Water slides are a great motivator to climb hundreds of steps over and over again, in fact my legs gave out before my enthusiasm did :(

We have now moved North to Golden Beach in Caloundra....the Sunshine Coast, and will settle here for a while.....it is paradise!!

21st March 2014-Down To The Coast

21st March 2014

We have moved down to the coast (circumnavigating Sydney for obvious reasons when towing a  caravan) and are heading north. Our first stop was at Taree...a nice little town and the caravan park was right on the river....spectacular!!!!

OUR TAREE RIVERSIDE CARAVAN PARK-We saw a dolphin going up the river and there was a fat goanna walking around...he was very suspicious of us

While here we went to the cinema and saw 12 Years a Slave....it was very good and I recommend it!

We also decided to drive the 140km round trip to visit the Ellenborough Waterfall....the second largest single drop waterfall in the southern hemisphere!!! And if that doesn't impress you then the drive there certainly will as the last 10km was narrow...winding AND unsealed!!!! And just for extra fun it turned out that following heavy rains, some sections of road had started to crumble away and had been temporarily repaired......hmmmm. Turns out a single drop waterfall isn't as interesting as a big splashy waterfall, yep...probably not worth the drive but we wouldn't have known that if we hadn't gone.

Next we moved to Sapphire Beach, this isn't really a town as there is only a caravan park, a café and some houses. But the beach was beautiful and there was a nice walking path through the bush. The big benefit was it is only 5kms from Coffs Harbour...........the home of the BIG BANANA!!!!!

We saw the big banana...
We ate a chocolate banana....
We bought a 'big banana' badge for my backpack........Yeah baby!!!!!

Sapphire Beach has sooooo many birds that you will be woken up at 6am unless you wear earplugs. I am an early riser so thought this was a fabulous way to wake up!!!!

COFFS HARBOUR AIR WALK LOOKOUT

We saw a sign for a Coffs Harbour lookout so headed up the hill. It was a 6km drive and wouldn't you know it......it was a narrow and winding road, but after the Ellenborough Falls road it was a piece of cake!! The lookout is a suspended bridge giving a massive panoramic view of Coffs Harbour and beyond!! It did sway a little if anyone moved too much which was a little spooky! Coffs Harbour was a great place for us to stock up on food and do a little shopping,  very enjoyable.

With Sapphire Beach and Coffs Harbour behind us we are now at Broadwater (still in NSW) Sugar cane area!!  We are at a bush site in the back of the caravan park so we feel very rugged when we look out of our windows and see bush, but unfortunately the other night we saw our first Cane Toad, and this morning little Sam the Chihuahua got bitten by a baby bull ant (she's all better now).  But you can't beat the view and the peace and quiet, and our little old neighbours are lovely!

BROADWATER SUGAR CANE FIELDS

We have driven to Evans Head (a beachside township 11km away) and been to Lismore for a look around (bought the most amazing Satay Chicken Schnitzels from a butcher!!) This afternoon we went to Ballina...had a walk around the town and ate a fantastic lunch.....mmmmmm I'm gonna remember that lunch for a long time.

EVANS HEAD LOOKOUT

We are here until Sunday when we will move to the Gold Coast in Queensland. Hellooooo theme parks!!!

8th March 2014 - Katoomba Rocks !!

8th March 2014

Katoomba was our destination after Bathurst. We decided to stay at Blackheath (a town 10km west of Katoomba) to avoid the bustle of a bigger population and it proved to be a wise choice. The caravan park here was small, quiet and walking distance to town.....all of the prerequisites for a good park!

As we were now at 1200mtrs elevation there was a lot more rain, but it is this rain that makes the rain forest that we were about to enjoy.

A KATOOMBA RAINFORREST WITH SOME OF THE BLUE MOUNTAINS IN THE BACKGROUND

Scenic World was a 'must see' destination and it has a huge amount of visitors every day. We had been advised to arrive early before it got busy so 9am we were there (in the queue) buying our tickets. I have to say this this was amazing value!! For $35 each you can stay all day and do as many of the rides as you want. Scenic world has three rides and plenty of  walkways that are all designed to show the view of the rainforest, the Blue Mountains and of the Three sisters (a famous rock formation)

We started with the Scenic Railway, this is the steepest passenger train in the world (it descends at 52 degrees) when you are on the train it feels almost straight down.....but the panoramic view was fantastic!!! Later that day we took the train back up which was very weird because you were going backwards-didn't like that sensation much!

THE SCENIC RAILWAY AS IT COMES OUT OF THE TUNNEL AND CONTINUES DOWN

When you depart the train at the bottom there are various walkways through the rain forest, we chose the longest walk which took us over 1 hour and ended at the base of the Scenic Cableway. This is a cable car that can hold 84 people and would take us back up the 545 metres to the main building. It was spooky being in a glass box gliding over the tree tops and past cliffs but we rode this one a second time to go back down again (going down was harder on the stomach!) Whilst we were waiting to board this ride a Lyre Bird ran out of the scrub, panicked, and disappeared again, it was too fast to grab a photo :(

THE SCENIC CABLEWAY ON ITS WAY DOWN, JUST PAST THE TREE TOPS IT DROPS MORE DRAMATICALLY INTO THE VALLEY

This is where I have to confess that whilst there was a third ride....we didn't go on it. The very very very good reason is that it is a Skyway - a glass box that goes directly across the valley to a cliff on the other side, but then of course you have to ride it back again! When I say glass box I literally mean that as it has a glass floor.....no way was I getting in that!!

Scenic world was a great place to visit and by the time we left all of the tourist coaches from Sydney had arrived and it was getting very busy....the advice to arrive early was good!

The other big attraction in the Blue Mountains is the Jenolan Caves! There is a large area of underground cave tunnels and you can go on a guided tour. There are 12 tours to choose from and we chose the Lucas Cave. This tour started at 11.30am and lasts for 1.5hours (the timing of this was important which I will explain later) so we arrived on time and spent 1.5hours seeing awe inspiring crystals and caverns!

ME IN FRONT OF THE 'BROKEN COLUMN'

SOME OF THE BEAUTIFUL CRYSTALS THAT HAD FORMED EVERYWHERE THROUGHOUT THE TUNNELS AND CAVES

This tour was also well worth it. The caves were a 65km drive from Blackheath and they advise it would take 1.25hours to get there.....I know this seems a little out of proportion for the distance but up this high the roads are steep, narrow and very bendy. There is also a length of 8km that is single lane....literally only one car wide.......and this is where the timing of our tour was important! From 11.15 to 1.15pm every day that 8km section becomes one way-IN only-this is so that tour buses can get in without coming head to head with a car trying to get out-stalemate! Our 11.30 tour meant that we would beat the Sydney tour buses and therefor have a quieter tour.....AND as our tour finished at 1pm we would be able to get out again only 15 minutes later---go Ralstons!!!!

By the time we were ready to leave a thunder storm had set in and we were driving the narrow, bendy, steep roads in heavy rain and lightening- and trying to do it fast to minimise our chances of finding someone coming the other way - not the thrill I was looking for. And in case you are wondering why they made that 8km length only one lane wide.........it is because the mountain side is soooooo steep that they could only manage to cut out one lane...this meant that I had a spectacular view down a cliff side!!!! (PS: their idea of a barrier rail is timber posts with chook wire nailed to it - and to be honest the posts looked pretty old!!!)

Katoomba is a great place to visit and it offered plenty to do. However we moved on today. We are currently at a very big caravan park on the side of the M1....pretty much in the middle of nowhere which now that I think of it would be a good setting for a horror movie...hmmmm. We will only stay here 1 night and head off tomorrow for prettier pastures!

Of note.....at Blackheath I wanted to do some laundry but was reluctant as the forecast was for 99% humidity and I didn't think it would dry....It turns out that I was correct about that because this is what 99% humidity looks like....it is a fog/mist soooo thick that you can feel it hit your face (and wearing glasses is useless!)

(PS: I ended up paying the $4 for a laundry dryer otherwise it would have taken all week to get my washing dry!)

1st March 2014-Bathurst-V8's and T-Rex!!

1st March 2014

We arrived in Bathurst after a short 100km drive from Cowra but now that we are so close to the Blue Mountains the roads are getting more hilly and more windy so it takes longer to cover the same distance.

Bathurst has only 1 caravan park even though it has a population of 40,000-weird! The council has had the foresight to provide the Show Grounds as a camping facility (this is fairly common in country towns) They include power and water and we were lucky enough to arrive on a trots night so got to watch the trots for free because we were already here!!

THE BEAUTIFUL BUILDINGS AT THE BATHURST SHOWGROUNDS

THEY ARE ALL LABELLED WITH THEIR YEAR  OF COMPLETION AND MOST OF THEM SEEM TO BE FROM THE 1870's

The nights have been warm and this day was no exception...he headed over to the stadium and settled in to watch some racing. The ambiance was lovely as the weather was still warm, combined with a thunder storm display in the distance AND when I looked to our left I could see Mount Panorama!!!!! It was a great night.

YOU CAN SEE MOUNT PANORAMA IN THE BACKGROUND! 

 

The next day we headed out to do some serious sightseeing!!! Mount Panorama was our first stop. The town is obviously very proud to have this facility as there are signs everywhere that point to Mount Panorama......you would have to be blind to miss it!!!

LES AT MOUNT PANORAMA!!

 

We drove 2 laps of the circuit-yay!!!!!..........errrrrrr, though at the legal speed of 60kms.........and we also had to stop for the lollypop lady because they were doing some roadwork (this track is a residential road for the rest of the year)......but it was great fun!!!!!

ME ACCEPTING MY WINNERS TROPHY FOR THE BATHURST 1000 - YAY TO ME!!!!

At the track is a motor racing museum, it is chock a block full of memorabilia and cars (plenty of V8's) that have been driven by famous people including Peter Brock and  Craig Lowndes. They also have a cinema showing the history of the Bathurst track. Driving this track and visiting the museum is definitely a highlight of our trip :)

Then with time to spare we headed to the Mineral and Fossil Museum. Every town has some sort of museum but this one was going to be special because it has a complete T-Rex skeleton!!!!!!! I was so focused on seeing the T-Rex that I was very surprised to find that the mineral display was equally impressive !! It was so well laid out and lit up that everything looked beautiful...except perhaps the dull looking uncut diamond....even uncut I expected this to look gorgeous....I was wrong :(

PART OF THE MINERAL DISPLAY-THERE WERE ROOMS OF THESE DISPLAYS AND INFO ABOUT HOW SOME OF THESE MINERALS ARE USED IN EVERYDAY LIFE SUCH AS IN TOOTHPASTE AND SUNSCREEN

THE T-REX !!!!!! IT WAS SOOOO TALL THAT THEY HAD IT DISPLAYED WITH A VIEWING BALCONY OTHERWISE WE WOULD HAVE ONLY BEEN LOOKING UP AT HIS RIBS.....IT WAS DIFFICULT TO FIT HIM ALL INTO A PHOTO 

 

Bathurst certainly provides a lot for the visitor. I still want to see their Japanese Gardens but the weather has turned wet so we will save that for tomorrow......and we all could do with a 'rest' day anyway......I have cooked a cake and will get some craft done, Les has the Adelaide Clipsal 500 to watch and Sam needs a quiet day because she went to the vet yesterday and had 2 more teeth pulled....the poor little thing.  Sitting around and eating cake today sounds very good to me!!!

26th February 2014-Cowra NSW

26th February 2014
Gundagai was a great town to stay but we have reluctantly moved on. Cowra was our next destination because they have a WW2 POW display there. The drive isn't very far but now that we are in mountain territory the going is slower. We did spend about 5kms wondering why there was so much cow poop all over the road...then we rounded a corner are were faced with a big herd of cows being mustered up the road......hmmmm think we found the source of the poop!

COWS DON'T CARE IF YOU ARE DRIVING A 4WD OR TOWING A VAN, THEY WILL STILL TAKE THEIR OWN SWEET TIME MOVING OUT OF THE WAY (THEY ARE A LESSON TO HUMANS IN PATIENCE)

We stayed in Cowra only 2 nights because despite it being a tourist town it didn't live up expectations.....not much worth doing and the town itself wasn't very attractive :(

Our van site was situated next to a river, lovely view. And we made friends with our neighbours as they were from Perth (shame about their Dockers number plates but we can't afford to be picky this far from WA!!)

Cowra's biggest asset is that it is the site where a POW camp was located during the 2nd world war, it held over 4000 prisoners at the time and it made history because in August 1944 there was a mass breakout staged by the Japenese prisoners with over 1000 attempting to escape or to die doing so, they are taught it is more honerable to die rather than be a prisoner, the British paid the cost of builing the war camp and feeding/ maintaining the prisoners.

The tourist bureau has a 10 minute hologram with a little lady (Roslyn Oades from Home and Away )who tells some of the story as it was known at the time (apparently the news was censored by the government during the war so Australians were unaware of the extent of the breakout until the war was over)

THE HOLOGRAM DISPLAY (THE GIRL DIDN'T PHOTOGRAPH AS WELL AS THE TWO SOLDIERS DID)

 

Then we headed to the actual site of the POW camp. They have done a really good job of giving a lot of information about it and made it very tourist friendly. At the site there is a reconstructed guard tower with audio information and photos strategically placed which helped to give us an idea of the layout of the camp, and the ruins that still remain were still recognisable for what their purpose was...especially the 'ablution block'

With nothing else to see we headed out of Cowra this morning and have arrived in Bathurst.....an Australian icon of motorsport! We will be here for a couple of days (4) as there is so much to see in this area.

23rd February 2014-We've Gone To Gundagai

23r February 2014
We have spent 4 nights in Gundagai because it is fabulous! The caravan park caught our attention because of it's lush green grass, (a rarity at this time of year) and it has sooooo much room, little Sam can walk around as much as she likes

GUNDAGAI CARAVAN PARK-LOTS OF GREEN GRASS!!!

THAT HILL IN THE BACKGROUND IS PART OF THE GREAT DIVIDING RANGE-IT GIVES YOU A COMPARISON OF HOW DRY THE REST OF THE AREA IS COMPARED TO THIS CARAVAN PARK

The town and surrounding area has so much to see that we have had to pace ourselves to see it all and we have had a great time doing so. We headed to the tourist info first and they were so friendly and helpful. We rented two sets of headphones to tour the old jail, the headphones gave us a running commentary about the running of the jail and of some of the inmates that stayed there, including the bushranger Captain Moonlight. When you travel you quickly realise that there is a jail in every town and they all start looking the same, the headphones made it a more in depth experience and brought it all to life.

GUNDAGAI JAIL-THIS IS THE DOUBLE STORY WARDENS RESIDENCE AND PART OF THE INMATES KITCHEN (INMATES HAD TO COOK FOR THEMSELVES)

Then we had some time left to visit a photograph display from the late 1800's to early 1900's. There was a town doctor who was a budding photographer, he took many photo's of the town and it's inhabitants resulting in a priceless collection that is a permanent reminder of how times were. There is another set of his photos kept at the Melbourne Museum.

The next day we had decided to visit the Gundagai Museum, this (like a lot of the heritage items in this town) is looked after by volunteers. This collection of local items proved to be a gem! They had sooooo many items relating to the history of the town and of Australia in general. Les and I both found things that we remembered from our childhoods.

PHAR LAP'S SADDLE CLOTH WAS AT THE MUSEUM

We then kept to schedule and headed to the local historic bridges. They were both built in the 1800's and are very long compared to today's standards let alone from so long ago. Neither are used anymore and there is a local volunteer group trying to keep them intact as a tourist opportunity but they are beginning to fall down and I suspect that the amount of money needed just to keep them standing would be incredibly high.

PRINCE ALFRED BRIDGE IN THE BACKGROUND, AND THE TIMBER RAILWAY BRIDGE IN THE FOREGROUND.

The most interesting thing about these bridges is that when you stand on the ground and look up you can see the whole tree trunks that were used to strengthen them, they weren't sawn into planks or anything, just  whacked in there wholus bolus! These bridges have also survived numerous floods in their lives as the span the Murrumbidgee River.

This morning we browsed around the Gundagai Railway station. It has been disused since the 1970's and had fallen into decay when a local group of volunteers raised an amazing amount of money(almost $500,000) and carefully restored this station.

THE RESTORED PLATFORM OF THE OLD GUNDAGAI RAILWAY STATION

Then we headed 5 miles up the road to the local icon 'The dog on the tuckerbox'!!!! I had been looking forward to this and was very excited to finally be here

WHERE THE DOG SITS ON THE TUCKERBOX!!

This fountain is now a wishing well and all funds go towards the Gundagai Hospital so that's a worthy cause for a wish.....especially if  my wish comes true :)

We are all hooked up and ready to leave tomorrow morning, we are heading to Cowra which is only 170km north but has a couple of things we want to have a look at :)