Fri, 2nd Dec - Home

We left the free camp near Orange and drove into Cowra for fuel.  We stopped briefly at Sofala and decided that we were close enough to home that we should keep going.

We stopped at Boorowa and had some lunch and then continued on to Tuross arriving at around 4pm.  Everything at home was fine and the garden looked great.

What a wonderful 9.5 months and 31,000kms!  We saw some fantastic scenery and had some magical experiences.  It won't be long and we'll be off again ... stay tuned!

The main street of Sofala

Home, sweet home

Thurs, 1st Dec - Bathurst

The rain had stopped by Thursday morning and we left Mudgee and headed to Bathurst.  We stopped in and visited a friend before driving to the top of Mount Panorama to have some lunch.

After lunch, Rick dropped me off in the main street to do some shopping while he visited the mechanics at Bathurst Nissan.  They are the guys who fixed our turbo sensor when it failed on our last trip.  Rick found out the part number so he could advise Nissan in Moruya what to order.

We left Bathurst and headed about 30kms to a free camp on the Orange Road.  We found a lovely, quiet spot next to a dam to spend the night.  Rick built a fire and cooked us a lovely meal.

More lovely scenery on the way to Bathurst

The start/finish line as we headed up the mountain

Driving down through the 'esses'

Conrod straight - where Rick spent time growing up

Our campsite not far from Orange

Tues, 29th and Wed, 30th Nov - Mudgee

We left our lovely free camp and headed into Scone past lots of coal mines.  The country around this area is so beautiful, especially after so much rain.  We were just heading out of Scone when the Navara decided to play up a bit.  We had a similar problem on our last trip ... driving uphill on a hot day when suddenly we would lose all power.  Rick had to turn the motor off and restart it on the move to clear the problem temporarily.  We limped on up the hill and went into the Nissan dealership when we arrived in Mudgee.  The service department there couldn't look at replacing the turbo water temperature sensor until the following week, but they were able to clear the computer error code enabling us to continue on our trip until we could have the repairs done. We checked into a nice, quiet caravan park in Mudgee and went for a cooling swim.

On the Wednesday, we woke to drizzly rain and a much cooler day.  We decided to drive 30kms to the historic town of Gulgong.  We went into a huge shop in an old building that was just like a rabbit warren.  The ceilings were so low and with the addition of plumbing pipes you had to duck you head whenever you walked through a doorway into another area.  The shop sold absolutely everything!!

We left Gulgong as the rain and wind started and headed back into Mudgee for lunch at a winery.  After lunch we visited the Robert Oatley Winery.  We came across Wild Oats wines in Broome and really enjoyed them so we had a look at where they are produced.  Of course, we couldn't leave without making a few purchases.  There were a lot of historic, interesting wine making displays so we spent quite a bit of time looking around.  In the afternoon we caught up with some of Rick's family members at a cafe in town, before having a fairly ordinary Italian meal for dinner in the evening.

A hug shed for some huge equipment

One of the many mines in the Scone area

Beautiful country

So green after all the rain

Looking down over Gulgong with the rain in the distance

The narrow main street of Gulgong

One of the many historic buildings in Gulgong

Another interesting building

A huge marble wine bottle at the entrance to the Robert Oatley Winery

Mon, 28th Nov - Broke

We slept in on Monday morning ... it has become a bit of a habit, haha.  We decided that we wanted to skirt around Newcastle and Sydney so we followed the coast as far south as Forster and then headed inland for 350kms to Singleton via Bulahdelah and Maitland.

We were amazed at the amount of mining that is going on around this area, mainly coal.  We decided we would book into a park in Singleton for the night.  The first one we saw didn't look very nice and it was located right on the highway, but Rick wanted to check it out.  The manager said he had one site left and it would be $40 per night!  No way!  We drove to the next park which was located between two highways.  This one at least looked a lot better.  The manageress advised she only had one site left and it was a site that they only really used for 'overnighters', but we could have it for $40.  No way!  She went on to explain that there was very little in the way of accommodation available in the area due to all the miners. 

We decided to drive about 25kms out of town to check out a free camp at the little township of Broke, called McNamara Park.  We were worried that it might be full too, but we were pleasantly surprised.  The park had a huge grassy area with BBQs, toilets and picnic tables and only had two other campers set up.  We fuelled up at the little service station down the road and then headed back to set up camp in the park for the night.  We walked down to a small river running through the park and it was obvious that it was also swollen after all the rain.  We were well and truly up on high ground so we weren't at all concerned about any further rain.

The bridge at Bulahdelah where we stopped for lunch

Crossing the main bridge at Forster

Another narrow and rickety old bridge

And yet another swollen river

A huge dump truck on the overpass on the way to Broke

Our campsite in McNamara Park

Sun, 27th Nov - North Haven

The sun finally came out on Sunday morning and it became really hot and steamy.  We packed up the van and headed about 80kms to a pretty little place on the coast called North Haven, passing through Port Macquarie along the way.  Port Macquarie is a large and very busy place so we didn't stop as it was too hard to find somewhere to park.

We were a bit concerned as we left Trial Bay that we might not be able to get very far due to all the rain.  We had been advised that the road had been cut by floodwaters near Kempsey to the north and we were travelling next to a very swollen river all the way back out to the highway.  We needn't have worried as it happened, but we weren't keen on spending another three days trapped in Trial Bay. By the time we arrived at North Haven it was really hot again, so we set up the van and headed down to the pretty beach area for a swim to cool off.   

We passed through several pretty little places such as Lake Cathie and Bonney Hills along the coast before arriving at North Haven.

The swollen river we followed back to the highway

Another swollen river crossing

The lovely North Haven Beach

Our campsite at North haven

The Beach at Bonney Hills

Wed, 23rd to Sat, 26th Nov - Trial Bay (Sth West Rocks)

On Wednesday afternoon, we checked into the Trial Bay Big 4 Caravan Park at South West Rocks on the coast.  It claims to be the best caravan park in NSW ... not sure why.  It is nestled in a nice bush setting but it is quite a long walk away from the beach and the township of South West Rocks. The facilities were quite old, and there was roo poo everywhere!  We were given a choice of several sites, most of which were too small for us.  The pick of the bunch put us right in the middle of a large group of caravanners who were there for their annual get-together and Christmas party.   We were also opposite to the amenities which meant we had people walking through night and day. Once settled in, we went for a bit of a drive around to get our bearings.  The rain that had been predicted started at dinner time and it rained all night long.

It rained all day on Thursday and was quite cool, so we had a quiet time reading and catching up with the blog.  In the evening we caught a taxi to the local Golf Club and had dinner.  The rain continued all through the night. When we went to make our breakfast coffee on Friday morning we discovered we had no power.  Rick checked, and our power lead had been pulled out of the power box.  We're not sure if it was one of the caravanners taking a short-cut to the loo or a visiting roo who tripped on the lead and pulled it out.  We chose to think the disconnection was accidental.   Friday was another wet day, making it hard to do much.  We drove up to the gaol and the lighthouse but it was too wet to get out and walk around and have a close look. 

By Saturday the rain was getting to be a bit annoying ... it rained all night and most of the day again.  We barely left the van, only venturing out to do some grocery shopping at the local Bi-Lo.  Then there was finally a bit of a break in the weather late in the afternoon.  We decided that if it was dry on Sunday morning we would head further south.  The other caravanners had their Christmas Party in the function room adjacent to the reception area in the evening.  This area was located up the bank behind us and quite close, so we had laughter and music for most of the night.

Our South West Rocks campsite after the rain

The Trial Bay Lighthouse (from a dry distance)

Mon, 21st to Tues, 22nd Nov - Moonee Beach

Reluctantly, we left the really nice park in Grafton.  e had to cross the Clarence River via a scarey bridge that is very narrow and has several bends in it.  We had to stop at one point to allow a tanker coming towards us to use part of our lane to negotiate one of the bends in the bridge.  The concrete walls are all scarred from vehicles hitting them as it is so narrow.

We drove about 50kms to a little town on the coast called Wooli but it didn't really appeal to us.  The park there was very exposed and windy so we continued to Woolgoolga which is about 30kms north of Coffs Harbour.  We had lunch in Woolgoolga before continuing another 20kms to Moonee Beach where we found a much more sheltered park with a pleasant outlook and checked in for two nights.

On Tuesday we drove 12kms into Coffs Harbour and had a look around.  We walked the jetty and watched some young volley-ballers on the beach.  We drove around a bit more, visited a lookout and admired some of the beautiful homes in the adjacent hills.  While driving around we clicked over 30,000kms of our trip.  On the way back to the van park we called in to Carobina Confectionery.  We were able to go into the kitchen there and watch as a fellow demonstrated how they make big slabs of honeycomb.  Of course we couldn't leave without tasting some of the products and making some purchases.  After lunch we booked into a park at South West Rocks which is about 90kms north of Port Macquarie for four days. In the afternoon we went for a swim in the warm shallows of a creek directly in front of the caravan park.  We waded across the creek and over to the beach but it was way too windy to stay for long.

Meeting a tanker on the narrow bridge out of Grafton

The beach at Woolgoolga

Our campsite at Moonee Beach

Volley-ballers on the beach

Looking back to the shore from the Coffs Harbour jetty

Looking down over Coffs Harbour

Thurs 17th to Sun, 20th Nov - Grafton

We left Ballina in the morning and travelled around 30kms to Evans Head.  We didn't like the look of the park at Evans Head so we continued another 60kms to a quaint little town called Iluka.  We had fish and chips for lunch overlooking the marina area and decided to head to Yamba which is located on the opposite side of the Clarence River.

We found one nice park in Yamba, right on the waterfront, however there weren't any sites available that were big enough for our van.  We had a look at two other parks ... one wasn't very nice and a long way out of town and the other was $40 per night.  We decided to head inland a bit and ended up at Grafton.  I used my new iPhone 4S to check on some park rates in Grafton and found one offering $33 for the first night, $23 for the second and $13 for the third, but to get the deal we had to book on line.  We did that when we were about 10mins away from the park and booked in for four nights.  The park is the nicest we have stayed in so far.  The gardens are beautiful, the sites have nice big concrete slabs and the amenities are almost new and extremely well appointed.

On Friday Rick kindly dropped me at the shopping centre to have a wander around while he went back to the park and washed the Navara.  When he came to pick me up we went to a lovely old hotel and had lunch on the balcony overlooking the Clarence River.  It was a pretty warm day so we headed back to the park and had a swim ... the water was cold but pleasant.


On Saturday Rick dropped me at the shops again for a while in the morning and in the afternoon we watched the car races and had another swim as it was another hot day. On Sunday morning, we returned to the old pub overlooking the Clarence River and had a really nice brunch.  It was another hot day so we had a swim before lunch and then watched the car races.  In the afternoon I caught up with washing the linen in preparation for moving on again the following morning.

Our lovely site at Grafton

Another view of the sites in the park

Looking down on the Clarence River from the Hotel deck

Tues, 15th to Wed, 16th Nov - Ballina

Leaving Somerset quite early, we drove for about 200kms through some of the most beautiful countryside to Ballina via Beaudesert and Lismore.  We left Beaudesert after re-fuelling and decided to head roughly 30kms to Rathdowney to have some lunch.  Well, somewhere along the line our Tom Tom had us turn off the main road and took us along a very narrow, winding road through the ranges.  Thanks to Tom we didn't end up going anywhere near Rathdowney so lunch didn't happen as we'd planned.  The road was quite treacherous, very hilly, single lane for a lot of the way and sprinkled with blind corners that unexpectedly dropped down onto single lane bridges.  One of these bridges had workmen on it and they had to breathe in and move their equipment to give us room to cross.

At one point we were going up a 19 degree hill for a distance of 1.3kms. By the time we reached the top we were in first gear and the poor old Navara was getting a bit hot.  We did make it OK, but it was becoming a bit worrying towards the top.  At one point Rick was thinking we might have to get a farmer to pull the van up the hill behind his tractor.  The last stretch of the road was called 'The Risk' and at the end of it, near the NSW border, there was a notice suggesting we might like to put a donation in the box to assist with upgrading the road.  The box was located on an uphill slope and there was no way we were going to stop to do that and lose our momentum.  We should have arrived at Ballina by mid afternoon, but due to the slow roads, didn't end up getting there until 5pm - we were glad to have arrived at all!!  We checked into a nice caravan park very close to the beach and had a well deserved beer and wine.

On Wednesday we decided to drive about 30kms north along the coast road to Byron Bay to have a look around. The beaches in this area are beautiful and more like what we thought we would see in Queensland.  Byron Bay was what we expected and we were glad we didn't bother trying to tow the van around there or find somewhere to stay.  We then headed inland a way to Bangalow.  The country was very pretty and lovely and green.  We couldn't get over how cheap real estate is around this area and earlier Rick had spotted a nice duplex in Tweed Heads for sale in a brochure.  We decided to drive up to Tweed Heads to have a look at it.  It backed onto an inlet but had a busy road at the front which didn't appeal to us. We headed back to Ballina where it had become very windy.  Thank goodness one of our neighbours had kindly put out awning away for us when the wind came up, so it didn't get damaged.

Move over guys ...

Beautiful countryside

Some of the scenery and roller coaster hills

Not likely ...

Our Ballina campsite

One of the beaches near Ballina

The beach close to Byron Bay town centre

An unusual tunnel on the way to Tweed Heads

Mon, 14th Nov - Somerset Dam

We left Coolum early and headed inland.  We thought we would get away from the hectic lifestyle and noise for a while.  We weren't sure where we would go but ended up driving about 120kms to a very pretty place called Somerset Dam.

Somerset Dam is a huge body of water and we had to drive around a good part of it before arriving at a $12/night camp site at the southern end. Going inland wasn't a really good idea however, as the temperature kept rising and ended up being close to 40 degrees by late in the afternoon.  We didn't have power for air conditioning and unfortunately we weren't able to get down to the dam to swim.  Some fellow campers told us it had been a similar temperature the day before and the prediction was for more hot weather on the way.  We made sure we kept as cool as possible during the afternoon and decided that we would head back toward the coast the following day.

Our campsite at Somerset Dam

Mon, 7th to Sun, 13th Nov - Coolum

On Monday we drove 100kms to a park at Noosa.  We decided we didn't like the location of the park and found Noosa to be very busy.  We continued on a bit further to Coolum and found a park right on the beach and across the road from restaurants and shops.  The beach here has nice sand and lovely clean waves so we booked in for a week. We found out pretty quickly that this park was pretty noisy during the night.  A couple of the shops across the road were being refurbished and the workmen started at 6:30am! Plus the McDonalds restaurant across the road is open 24 hours a day and it seemed that the supply trucks arrived early hours of the morning and left their motors idling for hours.

Next morning we went for a drive around Noosa Heads and Noosaville and couldn't get over how many high-rise apartments there are.  We had a nice lunch overlooking the water at Sunshine Beach, just a short distance out of Noosa and on our way back to the van.  When we got back to Coolum we drove around the hills just behind the beach area and looked at the beautiful (and very expensive) homes.  There is a lot real estate for sale, but this area is very exclusive. In the afternoon I walked the beach and Rick washed the Navara.

On Wednesday we went for a drive further south through Maroochydore and on to Caloundra.  We had a nice lunch while we were out and on our return I wandered through the shops.  Later in the day Rick had another swim while I walked along the beach.  In the evening we went out for a very enjoyable Italian meal just up the street. On Thursday we drove around the Hinterland and visited both the Ginger Factory and the Nut Factory at Yandina.  We couldn't help ourselves and bought some macadamias and had ginger scones for lunch.  Several places along the drive, we stopped at lookouts from which we could see for miles.

Friday was a quiet day.  I had a hair appointment in the morning, so Rick took the opportunity to drive to Maroochydore looking around the car dealerships.  Rick swam again in the afternoon after we had lunch at the local bakery.  In the evening we went down the street again for a nice Thai meal. Saturday was quite hot so we both had a swim in the morning.  We had a quiet afternoon while Rick watched the car races on TV.

Sunday was our family catch-up day.  We drove to Maloolaba and had an enjoyable lunch overlooking the water with close members of the family.

Noosa River

An overview of the layout of Noosa

The big pelican

Looking down over Coolum Beach and surrounds

One of the many beautiful lookouts

Boats at Maloolaba