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 :)

22nd Febuary 2014-From Port Fairy to Glenrowan

22nd February 2014
On the 13th February we left Port Fairy and headed north-only went 84kms to arrive in Hamilton. the big attraction in Hamilton is their speedway track. There was racing on Saturday 15th with a big list of sprintcar nominations so how could we resist?!

HAMILTON SPEEDWAY - A BIG NIGHT OF RACING AND HOTDOGS!!

The Hamilton Caravan Park was a handy walking distance from town so we were able to head in anytime we wanted AND get some exercise. Hamilton isn't hugely set up as a tourist destination but Les and I each found something we enjoyed.

I headed into their art gallery and was able to browse a fantastic collection of glasswear, tapestries and a very large collection of watercolours!!

HAMILTON ART GALLERY-FULL OF BEAUTIFUL ITEMS EVERYWHERE I LOOKED!!

Les found the Ansett Museum. Apparently the Ansett company was first formed in Hamilton before it moved to Melbourne.

ANSETT MUSEUM

The Ansett display held an huge amount of items relating to Ansett and it's founder. They had a HUGH collections of those vinyl bags that everybody used to get when they flew, remember those?

We left Hamilton and headed for Bendigo to pick up our mail that had been sent on for us to collect (thanks Darren and Jen!!) but we didn't make it........the beauty of having no schedule is the ability to do exactly what ever you want. So there we were just chugging up the road, had only gone 80km, but due to a late start it was almost lunch time when we noticed a big lake and thought it might be a good place to stop to eat. When we drove down the side road we found ourselves at the edge of a beautiful lake and there were 2 other vans already there, they were settled in to spend the night so we thought that we might as well join them!

LAKE BUNINJON-WITH THE GRAMPIAN MOUNTAINS IN THE BACKGROUND

This camp site was a great place to spend the night, we could hear the birds tweeting to each other during the night.

The next day we tried again to get to Bendigo and this time we made it!!! We stayed at Marong which is a little town just 12kms west of Bendigo...this had the advantages of being close to shops/mail but the benefit of being in a quiet little town. It was a hot day so after a quick trip into the post office to grab the mail, we fueled up the car and grabbed some groceries, which gave us enough time for a good swim in the pool!!

We were in Bendigo 3 years ago and had already done all of the tourist things (we had visited the mine, seen the Chinese Museum, rode a tram and walked the main street) so we decided to move on to new things rather than repeating what we had already done.

We left Bendigo heading to Glenrowan-the scene of Ned Kelly's capture (again we had visited here 3 years ago but this is such a cute town that we couldn't resist visiting again!) We booked into the local caravan park and headed back into town to the Ned Kelly museum/cinema thingy (this museum is very hard to define but is very different to anything we have ever seen) this museum does have the actual timber bar that was in the pub where Ned and his gang had their final shoot out, AND it has a pistol that was found on his body when he was captured.....really cool stuff!!

BIG NED!!!

With the sightseeing all done and the caravan park not being the greatest, the next day we headed off toward Wagga Wagga. But again we had a dramatic change of plans, whilst cruising up the M31 we decided that Wagga would be too big/bustling for our tastes and so took the other fork in the road and ended up in Gundagai!!!! There is plenty to see and do here in Gundagai and we will be staying for a few days to fit it all in....see you next time!!

12th February 2014-Riding out the Heatwave!

12th February 2014

As happened in South Australia we seem to have found another heatwave. Our plans to move inland were set back when we realised that we would have had 40+ degrees to contend with so we did the only sensible thing and stayed right were we were.....at the beach!!!!

LES ENJOYING ONE OF THE FABULOUS BEACHES AT PORT FAIRY

We did have one day of wild winds that were rated as 'Near Gale' Fortunately we keep an eye on the weather predictions and brought the awning in before it hit and a very good thing that we did!. The wind was rocking our van so goodness knows how bad it would have been with our awning still out to catch the breeze and make it even worse....and we are very fortunate to be tucked away in a secluded corner of the caravan park so we only felt a portion of the real strength of the gale.

OUR DELIGHTFULLY SECLUDED POZY AT PORT FAIRY CARAVAN PARK

The weather is cooling down now and we are thinking about moving on in the next couple of days. We will be heading north straight to Hamilton Vic, a measly 83kms travel,  we will stay a few days as there is some speedway happening there on Saturday night, Les couldn't believe his luck at the quality of the divisions that will be racing! I am looking forward to visiting their Art Gallery which is apparently quite well stocked.

We have made good use of our time here by sightseeing more of the coastal area and also headed back across to Warrnambool to look at their Flagstaff Maritime Museum (and do some grocery shopping as Port Fairy is fairly limited)

THE CRAGS, A ROCK FORMATION NOT FAR AWAY THAT HAS A LOT OF HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE.....I THINK THIS MIGHT HAVE BEEN MORE IMPRESSIVE IF WE HADN'T ALREADY SEEN THE APOSTLES WHICH OUTSHONE THESE

FLAGSTAFF MARITIME MUSEUM, A PIONEER VILLAGE RECREATED AROUND THE MARITIME HISTORY OF THE WARRNAMBOOL AREA

We both really enjoyed the Flagstaff Museum, it is very well set out and every building was full of authentic items to reinforce the use of the business. They also had a separate museum with items that either related to or had been recovered from sunken ships....there was some very interesting pieces including a gold pocket watch in pristine condition and a fab diamond and gold ring.....it was a BIG diamond!!

It is tempting to just stay here and keep relaxing in this sea side town where we can walk to the bakers and the beach..... but new adventures beckon. Next time I blog it will be from some where new!