Aussie Road Trippers

Searching Further North

2008-04-20T18:56:00.003+10:00

The week before last, Rosy had a cooking accident. Well, it wasn't so much about cooking, but seasoning a new wok I bought. The hot oil splattered over her left hand fingers and the pain was most intense. We went to the Emergency ward at the local hospital. Rosy had put her hand into some water for about an hour and then another hour at the ER, before they smothered it in a special burns cream and wrapping it up. They gave her some pain relief so that she would be able to get some sleep during the night. The bandages are off now and the skin is starting to heal. Rosy knows why it happened (there are no accidents) and has promised not to do it again.

On Friday we dropped Angel off at Doggie-Day-Care at a kennel located near Tumblegum called Home For The Paws. It's run by Susan and her husband and they look after the dogs really well. Angel loves going there and bossing the other dogs around. She reminds me a little of Lucy from Peanuts as she says "I'm the boss of you". Each dog has a separate lock up area, which opens up to a grassy area where all the dogs get to run around. It gives Rosy and I a break from Angel, and it helps with socialising. We decided last week to keep Angel there for the week that Rosy and I go to Norfolk Island on 14 May. We have also decided to stay at Murwillumbah until after our trip to NI, so it gives us a chance to scout further north for a place to go to next.

Heading north via the Gateway bridge at Brisbane was not difficult, but the number of semi-trailers is something to be seen to be believed. It took us just over 3 hours to go to the first caravan park at Landsborough. It's near Australia Zoo and about 20km from the coast. This is where the Glasshouse mountains are. One of them looks like Devils Tower from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". The driving was fine until we hit the mountain to get up to the park. It was about 2 km of 10 degree incline. The Landcruiser handled it OK, but we were both a bit concerned about pulling the 2 tonne caravan. When we got to the park we went to the office and the manageress was on the phone to a long distance caller. She didn't get off the phone and gave us a map of the park. Rosy and I had a look around and considered it too difficult to manoeuvre our rig into such tight spots and narrow roads. It had a great view, strong winds and was about $30 per night. We decided to look elsewhere.

Our next stop was Caloundra. Again the tariff was $30 per night, but it also had tight spots and high rises all around looking down on the grounds. It was more suited to small pop-top caravans. We went to the main street of Caloundra and had lunch at Gloria Jeans. Do you know, how hard it is to get a nice tasting GJ coffee in Queensland? We still haven't found one. Must be the water. Caloundra is quite busy and much bigger than our first visit about 20 years ago. I can't personally think why someone would want to vacation in such a place. It's not for us. Oh well, the search goes on.

Rosy and I share the driving so the ritual we go through is that before we leave the caravan a coin is tossed and the other person calls it. If they win the toss, then they get to pick whether to drive or navigate. Rosy called it and loss the toss, so I said that she could drive there and I will drive back. Boy did Rosy get the good deal this trip. On our return trip it took us an hour and a half more. There was a break-down on the Gateway bridge and the traffic queue was about 2 km long, inching along like a slug. And we had to pay $2.60 for the privilege. Absolutely hideous. Then after the tolls we had about a km of driving at 80kph and then back to a slug crawl again. Lanes merging and merging and merging and merging. They are actually building a second bridge to the Gateway to relieve the traffic chaos. Why the hell didn't they think about this when they built the Gateway Bridge? We left Caloundra at 2pm and we thought we would have missed the peak hour traffic, but oh no. By the time we got off the Gateway Bridge we had struck peak hour head on at 3:30pm. It then took another three hours to get back to the caravan (including a mini stop-off). It was dark and rainy and a most hideous experience. After this trip Rosy and I decided to head inland and start to explore the parks at our next opportunity. Probably Toowoomba.

Congratulations to Rosy for getting her first paying customer for some sewing mending jobs. I'm very proud of her.

It has been a bit wet here at Murwillumbah for the past few days. The park is awash...there is a new lake in the camping area and everything is damp. The sun came out today, so we went off to the beach at South Kingsliff. I think we were all getting a little cabin fever. The other thing about heading inland is that it is not so wet there.

I am constantly amazed at the scenery around here. It is never the same. Such beauty.

Shade, roller coasters and mountains...

2008-04-05T15:53:00.002+11:00

We're still here in Murwillumbah and have decided to stay put until the end of April when all the school holidays should be over.

Our new annex walls made of shade cloth are working out great. If you need anything made up of canvas or shadecloth, I recommend you contact Tony at ULTIMA Canvas & Vinyl Products, Lismore.

Last week we made it into Queensland, at last! We had a day riding the roller coasters at WB Movie World. If you are after a VERY fast , VERY smooth roller coaster, try out the Superman Escape ride. For $63 though, I think the park needs to offer a bit more as there didn’t seem to be that much there. Afterwards took a drive back down through Surfers Paradise and stopped off for a bit of shopping at Pacific Fair. Surfers hasn’t changed much except for a few more extremely tall buildings.

Yesterday , we took a drive up into the Boarder Ranges National Park. The view from Blackbutts Lookout is spectacular. The drive up there is a long, narrow, winding dirt road and unfortunately, it was a bit of a hazy day so I didn’t bother taking a photo. Hopefully, we’ll get up there again on a clear day.

While we were gallivanting around, Angel had a sleepover at the Home for the Paws kennel. It’s set on a cattle farm nestled on a hillside in a pretty place called Dulguigan. It’s run by a lovely couple who clearly love dogs. Angel was made very welcome and was given lots of play time with her neighbours, a pair of poodles. We've booked her in for one day a week for the next 3 weeks to give us some doggy free days.

Well, not much more to report for now. Take care all.

A word or two (or three) from Rosy

2008-03-22T18:26:00.002+11:00

It’s about time I did a post to the blog. It’s the Easter long weekend and there are quite a few people here at the Murwillumbah Caravan Park, but no where near the crowds that there would be closer to the coast. Murwillumbah is a pretty town with a historic township atmosphere and a long block of shops on the main street plus a small shopping centre with Coles. The Tweed River flows through the town and Mt Warning can be seen not far away. This whole area sits in a (well and hopefully truly extinct!) volcanic crater.

Our time at Sandalwood Caravan Park (Wardell) seemed to go quickly and it was sad to be leaving. Staying as long as we do in most places, we become nearly like locals and it‘s nice when friends we’ve made and even the managers give us a goodbye hug. In the caravan park, Stephen became known as the a computer guy so people would stop by to ask questions, sometimes bringing their laptop. I have been a bit slow hanging out my sewing shingle but now with my new Singer I have decided to hang it out while we are here in Murwillumbah to let people know that I'm open for business to do sewing, dressmaking and some alterations. This site is ideal for sewing as we are on a double concrete slab - no dirt!

We seem to set up the annex a little bit differently at each caravan park we visit, largely due to which direction we are facing and what the weather is like. Inside the annex it’s all about making it a doggy leash tangle-free environment. We quickly found we need to block Angel’s multiple access routes to underneath the caravan so that she only goes to and fro from one spot near the door.

As we’ve said before, everywhere we go, we pick up some new tips about caravanning and find out something we didn‘t know about our van. A couple we met in Wardell had their 3 annex walls made of shade cloth. They told us that in this climate they are better than using the canvas annex walls which are better in winter. The shade cloth walls give them much needed airflow plus shade and even keeps most of the rain out too. I know that often when the sun would hit our annex it was just too hot to be in there. Our annex doorways didn’t let much air through and the canvas seems to hold the heat. Now that we are here in Murwillumbah, we have only put up the long wall of the annex with the big window open so that the air will flow through each end. A canvas and shade cloth company in Lismore is making up 2 shade cloth side walls and a 4m long wall for us and they should will be ready at the end of the week. The 4m wall will go on the opposite side of the caravan to shade our fridge and Stephen‘s work area.

I had a short trip down to Sydney while we were at Wardell as it was in easy reach of Ballina airport. I stayed at the YHA for 4 nights which was an experience, but a good one. My main reason for the trip was to visit my podiatrist. They were able to do a small adjustment to my orthotic plus tell me that the shoes I was wearing were too flexible and not giving my foot enough support. Aaaagh!!!! So now with ANOTHER new pair of shoes (Brooks this time) and an adjusted orthotic, I’m determined to FIX THIS FOOT and wear them 100% of the time until the pain is gone. Wish me luck!!! While in Sydney, I also got to spend a day with my father and have lunch overlooking Narrabeen Beach. Well, that’s all I can write for now but will try to get some photos of the area and update them to the blog in the next few days.

Till next time….take care and have fun over Easter everyone.

It's Time to Move On

2008-03-18T16:16:00.003+11:00

Rosy decided to trade in her 15 year old sewing machine on a new model and to get one that is lighter than the one she has and does overlocking stitches. She did very well and was able to get one. Rosy made good friends with Lyn who with her husband look after Sandalwood's maintenance. Lyn was very impressed that Rosy had an overlocker and now that Rosy had her new machine, she didn't need the overlocker any more. So she gave it to Lyn and gave her a lesson on how to operate it. Rosy is going to start putting her shingle out to let people know in the parks that she will do sewing jobs. It's a great way to meet people in the park.

Last Friday, Rosy, Angel and I went on a scouting mission to find our next location. We drove up to Tweed Heads and then followed the coast down. There were only two caravan parks at Chinderah that allowed pets and they both sucked. They were right on the freeway and one of the receptionists was really cold and prickly. We then went to Kingsliff where they have a dog beach at the north of the town, but the two caravan parks don't allow pets. Even in the main street they don't allow you to eat alfresco with your pet. Bunch of "dog haters"! We resigned ourselves to having to find other locations. The highlight of the day was going through a little town called "Mooball". It's claim to fame is that the only shop, the telegraph poles and some large rocks are painted white with black dots, like the markings on cows. It makes us chuckle everytime we go through it.

We had to move spots at Sandalwood at Wardell last Monday as the families start arriving for Easter. My intuition was telling me not to move on the Monday, so I cleared it with the park owner to move on Tuesday. Meanwhile on Monday Rosy, Angel and I went scouting inland for a suitable spot. We went up to Murwillumbah and found a great location, which is about 15 minutes drive to the coast (for Angel's beach running exercise). We thought that seeing we had to pack up anyway to move spots at Sandalwood, we might as well move on to Murwillumbah. On the way back to Wardell we went via Nimbin. This is he place where all the young and old hippies from Byron Bay ended up after the price of Byron Bay got too exclusive. I must say I only got asked once on the street if I wanted some drugs. It's only a little town, but all the shopfronts are coloured in great detail. All rainbow colours. We had lunch there and the owner of the cafe allowed us to have Angel with us at the table. They even provide for dogs with a water bowl. All the older men all look the same. Long grey hair with a grey beard with cheesecloth material pants and tops, looking like they needed a good hearty meal. It was really an experience. We then headed back to Wardell via Lismore.

On the way back we bought a decent air compressor. We have been finding it difficult to find a service station big enough to check our tyres on the van. So with the gadget I hook it up to the car battery and it fills up the tyres with a minimum of fuss. I don't want to risk anything with the tyre pressure as they are the only things between us and the road at 90kph.

Just as an aside, we found out that if we stay at any caravan park in Australia for more than 27 days, the GST reduces by 50% on the 28th day to our departure. Not many people are aware of this and the parks generally pocket the difference, or build it into a discount price. But know we know what they get up to.

Today was a sad day as we made many friends of Sandalwood and they each wanted to say good bye and wish us well on our trip around Australia.

It took us and hour and a half to get to Murwillumbah from Wardell and the rest of the day to unpack and relax. I don't know how the grey nomads do it. Moving from one spot to the next. A Welsh couple we met at Sandalwood did Australia in 6 months! The wife said they drove it but they didn't see much of it.

Anyway, must go now. Things to do and not do.

Stephen

It's been a while...

2008-03-12T10:21:00.002+11:00

Rosy and I are still in Wardell and plan to stay here until after Easter. Most of the caravan parks up north are charging extra for the Easter break and the park we are staying at have agreed to only charge us the normal rate. Colin and Wendy who own the park are really nice people, so are the caretakers Lyn and William and not to mention Craig the groundskeeper. Then we have also met some very nice people, Michelle and Ron and Ernie and Betsy. It's just like one big happy family.

Anyway, we haven't updated the blog because we have been so busy. I flew down to Sydney to get our passports from storage for our impending trip to Norfolk Island to celebrate my youngest sisters birthday. I stayed at the Youth Hostel in Central and it proved to be quite good digs for the price. I stayed just long enough to get to the Southern Highlands to grab a few things, spend a little time with my friends William and Jonathan, get back to Sydney and fly back.

Then the flood of work hit. I have been basically sitting in front of my computer, being very creative and systematic with some big jobs. Rosy has even had to give me a hand to cope.

The next week Rosy flew down to Sydney to catch up with some of her friends in the city and her Dad, but the trip was really to attend to a few doctors appointments for her foot and other things. She was away for 5 days, but I was so busy that it seemed like she was only away for 2 days. I did manage to go to Lismore for a few hours to get out of the van. Rosy has had to take control of taking the dog to the beach, cause I just get away and I am a bit brain tired from all the thinking I have had to contend with.

One of the big projects finished yesterday and hence why the blog update.

The sun is finally out all day and the temperature is quite nice. The air conditioner comes in handy with the humidity, but we have only really used it once or twice in the past few weeks.

A few of my dreams has been pointing me towards having fun, so i got a collection of the old Carry On movies to give me a chuckle. They were such characters.

I have been also helping a neighbour (Michelle) with her new computer (Vista -Aghhhhh!!!) and her husband Ron is really into music. I can sometimes hear him playing his guitar as the sound is carried along by the wind. It's so relaxing and quite ethereal. Anyway, Ron told us about these neat gadgets that you can put on the car and caravan tyres to let you know when they need more air. They are called tyrecheckers and they come with a locking device to stop thieving. You buy the tyrechecker that is as close to the preferred pressure setting for the tyre. Having the caravan it's a bit harder to find air at a service station that can handle the size of the rig, so we are getting an air generator that keep our tyres at the right level. I don't like taking chances with tyres when they are the only thing between us and the ground.

The other thing we recently got, which took a bit of finding, is a book on TV Across Australia. It shows where all the TV antennas are in the area, what stations are available and whether they transmit in analogue or digital and whether polarity is vertical or horizontal. Generally it takes an hour or so to get the TV turned in to a new area. It gets a bit frustrating when you don't know what stations are available cause I don't know if the antenna is pointing in the right direction. This will help me no end.

We have done a little touring. Lismore is pretty much like Ballina and Casino really isn't worth the effort. It's still pretty green there so it looks like they got a fair bit of the rain. I must say though, I have discovered Wendy's Mango Smoothies. Just the thing for warm sultry days. The semi-trailers are a bit of a nuisance here and it is not a place we would like to stay for a prolonged period.

One thing I would like to comment on is Roadwork speed at 40kph. I was driving over the Wardell bridge the other week and there were some roadworks being undertaken on it. I was at the head of the queue, there were no signs to reduce the speed, but I was still doing 40 kilometres below the normal speed limit. One of the workers yelled at me to slow down and that made me think that roadwork speed is the same as school zones speed and the reason that school zones have such a slow speed is that children have not got fully developed brains. So what does this say about road workers?

That's enough from me.

View our web album of Sandalwood & Wardell

2008-02-15T11:08:00.006+11:00

Click on the changing photos to view the web album with some pics of Sandalwood caravan park and of the little town of Wardell. Hope you enjoy seeing the photos.

We're enjoying our stay here so far. As expected it's been raining off and on this week but last week was mainly sunny. There are quite a few markets operating in this region and last weekend we did the Lake Ainsworth markets just north of Lennox Head. Stalls line a long driveway into the carpark of the beach and it was packed with people. There was a good mix of crafts & produce but things were a bit expensive in my opinion for markets. I didn't really enjoy walking through the crowded, narrow market stalls with Angel as there were too many people. So we really didn't stop to look at much until it opened out at the end. Although Angel got to have a run along the beach, which is dog friendly from the end of the Lake Ainsworth Reserve, I really wouldn't recommend taking your dog to these markets. Live and learn.

Goodbye Iluka - Hello Wardell

2008-02-06T12:21:00.000+11:00

Our last few days at Iluka were spent mainly under umberellas and keeping out of the rain. Luckily on Saturday morning the it was fine so we finally caught the little ferry over to Yamba for morning tea and back. The trip across and down the Clarence River takes about 30 mins and is quite scenic. There were only 4 of us on the trip over but about 15 on the return trip. We even had a dolphin travelling with us for a bit of the trip across. Yamba is a much larger town than Iluka and it's an easy walk from the wharf into town to the shops. I highly recommend The Sound Cafe on Yamba Street for morning tea or breakfast. By the time we caught the ferry back the rain was starting and it stayed with us until Monday afternoon.

Despite all the rain, we enjoyed our stay in Iluka and the Clarence Head Caravan Park. While it is very basic and the amenities are old they were cleaned daily. The manager, Trevor is a nice guy too who was always happy to help, he even opened up the shop one afternoon for us just to buy a couple of ice creams.

We had planned to head off on Monday morning to our next stop at Wardell near Ballina but the rain was pouring down so we stayed put another day to see if it would clear up. Unfortunately, we in the middle of a rain system that stretches from Qld all the way down to Sydney. When the sun came out late on Monday afternoon we dashed out and pulled down our annex and packed up as much as we could ready to head off the next morning. So yesterday we hit the road again - in the rain. It was my turn to tow the caravan and although the road was very wet, we had a good trip thanks to the 4 new tyres we put on Herc last week and the fact there wasn't much traffic to speak of.

We're now settled in at the Sandalwood Van & Leisure Village in Wardell just 10kms south of Ballina. It's a very nice caravan park with a pool (hooray!) and good amenities. Plus the best thing is that the caravan sites are drive-through which made my job fairly easy. I just had a bit of trouble lining the caravan up to be straight alongside the concrete slab where the annex goes. But we're sort of straight and the annex is up - so life is good. Although the caravan park is technically it's not on the Pacific Highway, the highway is only across the other side of some horse paddocks (yes, people can come here with horses as well as dogs). You don't notice the traffic noise during the daytime but last night the sound of the distant trucks rumbling up and down the highway never stopped. Thank god for earplugs! That's all for now.

Scouting out our next stop

2008-01-29T18:41:00.000+11:00

I just had to write about the great day we had today scouting out the location of our next stop.
With sun shining and blue skies above, we all headed 90 kms up the Pacific Hwy to Ballina. It had been a few years since we had driven this stretch of road and it was great to see places like Broadwater and Woodbine along the Richmond River looking so good. We remember Woodbine as being windy so it's always been "windy Woodbine" to us but it certainly didn't apply today.

Ballina is much bigger than I remember but to be honest I've never really looked around the town before. It has a long main street of shops along Pacific Hwy but then there is also a shopping centre with Big W, Target & KMart, etc, etc a few streets away. (The first KMart we'd seen in a long time). As I had my breakfast REALLY early thanks to an ant biting my leg in bed (damn those ants) finding somewhere to eat was top of my "to do" list. We found a Starbucks where we could sit outside in the shade to have a lunch of pies and yummy cold iced mochas. It was a great spot for Angel and I to hang out while Stephen did a quick once around the shops. So with Angel spying on everyone going by from underneath the table I caught up on today's newspaper.

After hearing some dubious reports about caravan parks in Ballina we thought we should drive up here to check them out before we left Iluka. There are not many caravan parks in Ballina that take dogs. 2 of them are right on the Pacific Hwy near the town (yuck!) and the other 2 were on the other side of the river. We caught the vehicular ferry (insert "punt" for people like me) over to South Ballina where there were 2 possible caravan parks to see. It's only a short 4 mins trip which costs $3.50 per car but it's the only access to Ballina from that side of the river if you don't want to drive all the way back to Wardell (10kms). The South Ballina Caravan Park looked promising however the only caravan sites available were on top of ants nests and there wasn't much shade. Next, we went 10 kms south to Wardell to see the Sandalwood Van & Leisure Park. Dawn & Jim who are travelling with their dog, Mr Spock recommended it to us back at Moonee Beach and having a recommendation is a good sign. We liked it very much. It's a shady caravan park (with pool - yeh!) and a doggy friendly off-leash beach only 6 mins away (Patches Beach). So we booked in there from next Monday 4 Feb. I must say though that the drive from South Ballina to Wardell is VERY pretty as it runs alongside the Richmond River on one side and pretty sugar cane farms on the other.

Back on the Pacific Hwy again, we took the Evan's Head turn off to see what was down there. About 11 kms down the road is a little township, an estuary with a pretty harbour and marina. Sorry no pictures today as I left the camera behind. We'd like to get back there to put the canoe in. We had a fun trip back to Iluka singing along to lots of old Monkees songs.

Anyhow, we're here for one last week so will try to do some of the things we hadn't gotten around to like taking the ferry across the Clarence River from Iluka to Yamba. I've discovered a great little beach called Iluka Bluff Beach in the Bundjalung National Park. If your car survives the 1km of pot holes you'll find the carpark to the Iluka Bluff lookout and access to a pretty swimming/surfing beach which is patrolled in the peak season. Unfortunately, no dogs allowed. The water is clean, warm and the view from the beach in both directions looks out onto waves crashing against rocks (one of my favorite views). I'll try to get some photos updated tomorrow. Cheers, Rosy

A day out to Ulmarra and Maclean

2008-01-20T16:42:00.000+11:00

The other day we drove to Grafton via the westbank of the Clarence River through Tullymorgan and Lawrence rather than go via the Pacific Hwy. We came back via the Pacific Hwy to have lunch in the old historic riverport town of Ulmarra at the old Commercial Hotel and then went on to have a look around Maclean. We highly recommend the food at the hotel. Not far from the hotel is a park alongside the riverbank with a noticeboard full of great old photos of the town. There's one of them building the Pacific Hwy back in 1934 and the year the town was swamped by a flood.

I hope you enjoy seeing some photos of our day out in the attached slideshow (I'm trying out something new).

Mail Call

2008-01-17T11:56:00.000+11:00

I forgot to mention in my last post that the mailing house we are using (Landbase Aust) sent us all the mail they were holding from 15 Dec to 9 Jan while they were closed for their Christmas break. Thank you to everyone who sent us Christmas and birthday cards and even a few presents. It was like Christmas all over again.

Wet, Wet, Wet...

2008-01-16T09:56:00.000+11:00

We've been here at Iluka nearly 2 weeks and I think it's rained nearly every day. Our first few days here the weather was wet, windy and wild. The caravan park is fairly protected as it has a world heritage rainforest on 2 sides and we're about 2 streets back from the Clarence River. It's actually a great location. Just a short walk away at the river bank is a little white pub overlooking the river where you can sit outside to enjoy a drink or meal from their bistro. Also, a bit further up is the fisherman's co-op where you can get fresh or cooked seafood just caught by one of the trawlers that is docked nearby. The beach is then just another kilometer or so further up the road. There is a ferry you can catch to cross the river to get to Yamba (dogs allowed on the ferry, too!) which we haven't done yet. The shopping centre is small but has nearly everything you need plus 2 great bakeries. One did a great job decorating Stephen's chocolate sponge birthday cake. The other one does these great little caramel tarts ~ yum!

Although it rains most days it doesn't rain all day, thank goodness. It tends to rain at night and/or in the mornings then fines up for a sunny afternoon. At least our washing gets dry. The facilities here in this caravan park are clean but old and pretty basic. I've started washing by hand as the park only has 2 washing machines and one dryer which are in constant demand and in my opinion the machines are a bit scungy. This seems to be working out quite well as not only are we saving $3 each time we need to wash but I'm surprised how much cleaner the clothes are this way. Our clothes horse is always coming in and out of the annex depending on the weather but this beats running back and forth to the clothes lines to rescue the washing when it rains.

The day after we arrived, we took a drive 40 mins to Yamba to stock up on provisions. Yamba is also a fishing town but is much larger than Iluka. It is located directly opposite Iluka on the southern side of the mouth of the Clarence River. The Clarence River was on a "flood watch" alert and with one road leading into Iluka it was still OK. The road leading into Yamba runs alongside the river and flood waters had come quite close to either side of the road and had nearly surrounded a pretty B&B. The town has a lot more tourist shops and cafes plus a shopping mall of about 30 shops and Bi-Lo. The caravan park just near the Yamba shops looked like a tent city covered in tarps.

Unfortunately, all this bad weather put the fishing fleet into dock for quite a few weeks and they have only just started to go back out to sea. Fresh seafood which would normally be readily available and inexpensive is quite pricey at the moment. Also sea water brown and the beaches are full of foamy stuff that doesn't look very pleasant. I've been told that the beach a bit further around in the National Park isn't too bad but we can't take Angel there.

We took a drive to Grafton last week while Angel spent the day in Doggy Day Care at the Maclean Kennels. Grafton is about an hour and a half drive and follows the Clarence River most of the way. It's an impressive river when you see it from the Grafton bridge. Grafton reminded us a bit of Goulburn...same era. We had a walk around but not too far as my foot is still a problem. There is a bigger shopping centre with Big W and Woolworths there plus a Bunnings in south Grafton. In the afternoon we went to the movies at the Saraton Theatre built in 1927. It was one of those lovely big old cinemas with a dress circle upstairs and a section of red velvet seats (with detachable arms I found) and the rest of the seats are in that old brown leather. Full of atmosphere and old aroma. We saw National Treasure Book of Secrets and highly recommend it - plenty of action.

Aside from that we have been keeping close to camp. Stephen has had a lot of work on the last week so hasn't really been able to get out much. Our neighbours are here with their 15 yr old dog for 3 months from Darwin and they decided to come here to get away from their summer monsoon rains and have a summer at the beach for a change. Unfortunately, they've said the rain here has been much like what they get up there in N.T. but at least they can swim in the water here without worrying about crocodiles and stingers.

Anyway, that's all from me for now. Take care all.

We're on our way to Iluka

2008-01-06T19:49:00.001+11:00

Well, we have actually been at Iluka for 4 days now, but we have had 4 days of rain and wind and strong winds and strong rain and gale force winds and gale force rain and thunder, lightning and yet no flooding. There is a strong low off the coast and it is staying around for a while.

The drive up was pretty nerve wrecking. It was raining, but thankfully the traffic was less than normal. It took us 2 hours to get from Corindi to Iluka. The more people we meet up with the more horror stories we hear about and these all run through my head at one time or another as we are moving up the Pacific Highway. Even though we have electric brakes fitted it still takes a while to stop the train. I just drove at the speed I was comfortable going. rosy reckons I was doing pretty well. Thank goodness I could I could turn the radio up to take my mind off things.

Iluka Clarence Head Caravan Park is only small and is surrounded by the Iluka World Heritage Rainforest. It's pretty basic but the facilities are clean. One good thing is the Manager offered to back our caravan into its spot because it is really only big enough for a large pop-top caravan. We jumped at his offer. Even with his small tractor he only missed the other dwellings by inches. Anyway, he got it in the spot and when we checked out the levels it was perfectly flat both length ways and width ways. Wahoo!!

On the second day we knew the gale force winds were going to hit us, so we put up the annex to give extra strength to the awning. Then we sat and waited for it to happen. To tell you the truth, even though the wind gusts were to get up to 90kmh we were as snug as a bug in a rug. Everything was fine. The van and annex stood firmly in it's spot. It's been quite exciting, actually.

The beach is about 1km away from the park, so I tend to drive it as the beach is a 4km return trip.

Oh, speaking of the car, a friend of ours suggested we use a water spray to stop Angel kicking up a stink when we turn the engine off. She gets squirted at the first squeak of a noise and she has now got the message. Thanks Carol. Today I was just sitting with Angel on my lap, giving her ears a tickle and I said "A pat is better than a squirt in the face, isn't it?" Rosy and I both burst out laughing. I guess you had to be here. Oh, that's right. You're not! Ha. Ha.

A bit about our stay at Corindi Beach

2008-01-06T13:52:00.000+11:00

We've been a bit slack since Christmas and although we are now at Iluka, I'd like to tell you a little about our stay at Corindi Beach.

The weather was nice for the first few days until 30 Dec. but then the high winds, rain and big seas moved in. Corindi Beach has a long, long beach which we accessed from to the south end of the caravan park. At low tide you can walk right around the rocks, below the headland, to another little beach which seemed to be popular with fishermen. Dogs are allowed on both beaches but not beyond the end of the beach to the north as it is then National Park land.

We did a bit of exploring around the area, visiting Woolgoolga which is the closest town with supermarket, chemist, etc. On the day we were there the big seas were creating a spectacular view from the headland - pity I didn't have a camera with me. On the way to Woolgoolga we called in at a little coastal town called Mullaway to visit the Skee Kayak Centre. It's run from the backyard of a home but the owners are avid kayakers who seem to really know their kayaks. We were looking at a 2 man kayak plus roof racks but this was going to set us back $2,000 so we decided to think about it.

A few days later with Angel in doggy daycare, we had another day out together. We had been saving up things that we wanted to do before leaving the area as a little celebration for our birthdays. The day started out great. We bought ourselves an inflatable 2 man canoe. It suits us perfectly as it's light weight, packs up to transport easily without roof racks and it was under $1,000. Next stop was morning tea at The Clog Barn (or I should say Oma's Coffee House) who make those little dutch pancakes that I can't spell. Then it was off to the Coffs Jetty for some seafood from the Fisherman's Co-Op and finally we drove down to Sawtell to see The Golden Compass at their historic cinema. Sawtell is a lovely little town with a beautiful shady main street.

For New Years Eve, our neighbours invited us over for a drink so we popped next door at 8pm with a bottle of bubbly, dip and biccies that we were going to have to celebrate the NY. They were a first time camping family who had just turned up the previous day when the rain and wind started. So they had a good indoctrination to camping holidays. They quickly found out what we found out years ago - putting up a tent makes it rain. I feel the government should have issued tents for everyone living in the drought affected areas as I'm sure that rain would definitely follow.

Anyway, while we were enjoying a drink with our neighbours, Angel was roaming around us off leash enjoying all the pats from the kids. Someone in a neighbouring site then decided it was time to set off some fireworks. Mind you it was no where near midnight. Well, all I saw of Angel was her darting off into the dark towards the amenities block. Her dislike of fireworks is even more than her dislike of thunderstorms. Stephen and I headed grabbed our walkie talkies to go in search of her knowing that she could be hiding absolutely anywhere, under a car or a caravan. Unbeknown to us, our neighbours and their kids had also split up to look for Angel. Sometimes people are just in the right place at the right time...the 2 girls had been in the amenities block discussing which direction Angel would have gone, when the lady next to them asked if they were looking for a little white dog. What was the chance of that? Angel had run into the annex of their caravan at the other end of the caravan park to us. The girls brought her back just as I got back to the caravan to see if she had turned up. What a relief!!! So, an angel must have been looking after Angel that night.

Well, they are the highlights of our stay at Corindi Beach - the 8 days just flew by. Next stop Iluka which I'll let Stephen tell you about.

4 Sleeps Past Christmas

2007-12-30T10:29:00.000+11:00

Well, Christmas has come and gone for another year. We hope that you all had a good one and didn't increase the national debt too much. It was Stephen and my intention to forgo exchanging Christmas presents with each other this year and focus on having a lovely meal together with all our favourite Christmas foods (and drink!). I must confess that this was my suggestion but while out shopping for our Christmas fare on Christmas Eve, I felt very much like Ebenezer Scrooge. Perhaps it was the crowds of shoppers at Park Beach Plaza or the carols reminding me of the few minutes of happiness ripping open presents on Christmas morning brings, but whatever it was, I suddenly had the urge to go buy Stephen something that would be fun and relaxing. Nothing PRACTICAL!!! I found him the perfect presents....a hammock, a kite and a couple of movies. Next, I had to break the news to him that I'd changed my mind about the "no present" policy and send him out on Christmas Eve afternoon to find me something. He was not really surprised as he's always known I'm a bit fickle but wished I'd had this policy change a few days ago. He did a great job finding me something with the same fun/relaxation theme and I'm now the proud owner of an inflatable hot pink oval water lounger with a drink holder.

Christmas Day in the caravan park was spent BBQ'ing, eating and chatting with caravan neighbours Chris, Gill and family and the English family camped in front of us who were cooked their plum pudding all morning on their gas stove. Although the morning was grey and even rained a bit, the afternoon was lovely so we both got to try out our Christmas presents. We were able to hang Stephen's hammock between two trees near us just next to the tennis court. We nearly had to give out numbers as our neighbours wanted a try. The water lounge was christened in the creek and I let the current carry me along the "S" bends nearly all the way to the ocean. That's what I call going with the flow.

On Boxing Day we had to pack up the caravan and move to the Corindi Beach Caravan Park where we will be until 3 Jan. Luckily we started packing early so we were heading out as the hoards were starting to arrive. It was my turn to drive and tow the caravan (2nd time). The only part that I had been concerned about was having to pull out to make a right hand turn onto the Pacific Hwy in all the holiday traffic. The traffic all week had been very busy so I had expected Boxing Day to be the same. Thankfully, there wasn't much traffic so my slow right hand turn was easy to do. Reversing the caravan into the spot proved to be more difficult than I expected as it looked like such a straight forward site but I couldn't get the caravan far enough over to the right for the awning to go out. Finally, I got us onto the site from the rear thanks to the people beind us moving their car to allow us to drive through. I definitely need more practise at this. Corindi Beach Caravan Park is very different again to the other 2 we have been in. We're on a low headland overlooking the ocean and 2 beaches. Corindi Beach which is the one to the right, allows dogs off leash so this is where Stephen and Angel have been getting their daily exercise. Dogs are allowed on leash only on the beach to the left as it borders on the Yuraygir National Park. Corindi Beach has one general store with only the barest essentials, a post office come gift store and a motor mechanics. Our site is on the outer rim of a large grassy circle opposite the amenities block. Behind us is another ring of unpowered sites full of tents and camper trailers and a middle circle has thankfully been left empty so people can access their sites. There are some parts of the caravan park that look like a tent city but it's not too bad near us. Oh, by the way Boxing Day was my 50th birthday and it was spent just how I wanted - with no fuss, being in a new place, doing new things.

The nearest supermarket is about 10 kms away down in Woolgoolga. I took a trip to Woolgoolga the other day to buy a new front door step stool. We're higher up off the ground here than our last two spots. It's definitely a case of "watch that first step" as you get out of the caravan. Our little step stool which was only a cheapy, could only take one day of us both stepping on it before the top cracked. So I managed to have a good look around Woolgoolga before leaving but without a new step stool - they had been cleaned out by all the holiday makers. I ended up having to drive all the way back to Coffs Harbour to find one. But the one I found is great! It has a non-slip top and folds flat when it's not needed - perfect.

Anyway, that's lots to read for now. Have a look at the pictures opposite. We wish you all have a safe and happy New Year.

Two Sleeps till Christmas

2007-12-23T19:51:00.000+11:00

We had a full day of being, today. Our next van neighbours are Chris and Jill and they are a really nice couple who have bought a bock of land at Saphire just down the road from Moonee Beach, which they intend to build on. Anyway, when we got up this morning it was high tide in the estuary and Chris asked if Rosy and I would like to go out in the kayaks. It was a nice thought and we took him up on it. Chris and I went out first. It wasn't so bad heading out as the wind was blowing me along, but the kilometer we travelled coming back was an uphill battle. Although I did see about two stingrays flapping around on the sandy bottom.

We got back to shore and then it was Rosy's turn. She wanted to take Angel so that she could see how she handled being on top of water, rather than swimming in it. Rosy had a lot of treats so it wasn't to bad keeping Angel in the kayak.

Really, Rosy and I have been in a two-man canoe and we wanted to see the difference between that and a one-man kayak. We are planning on buying one or the other when we get to Yamba. The end result was that we think with our (lack of) experience level it is better to have the two-man canoe. I think that Rosy wants to be able to slack off.

In the middle of the day the place we are staying at held a park get-together for Christmas, so guests could meet up with each other. Sort of like a street party. They supplied a huge wheelbarrow full of king prawns and a choice of a mocha, or fruit pavlova. The lunch was free and they just asked anyone who turned up to bring a plate of something to contribute. It was a nice experience. Mind you Angel was kept in the van with a bone. She behaved herself and didn't mess up the van.

Angel and I went on our daily vigil along the beach. I am trying to teach her not to be frightened about dogs running towards her, so we both go running along the beach, splashing through the water, chasing seagulls and getting some rays. The walk is about 4km's long.

Then for dinner Rosy BBQ'd some pork chops. I don't think either of us have mentioned on the blog before that we bought a Weber Baby Q a few weeks ago. They say it is the hottest outdoor camping BBQ you can get. It runs on gas and it is better to cook the food with the lid down to keep the extra heat in. Well, the pork chops that Rosy cooked were the best I have ever eaten. They were hot, juicy, melt-in-your-mouth and very flavourful. The Baby Q is great for just the two of us and we see more and more of them around the park. I can't wait for the next culinary delight.

On my way back from the amenities block, I met up with a boy we met at the lunch today with his family. He remembered me and said that he found a rock on the beach and he thinks it is for me. It's a special rock made up of two colours - black and white. I've never been given a rock before. It was getting dark and he wanted to go and get the rock from the beach. I said that I was happy that he wanted to give me the rock, but that it was probably meant to stay on the beach for other people to enjoy. Ti's the season for giving after all.

It's a little after 8pm. Angel is asleep on the lounge, which Rosy is also sitting on. I don't know who has the most space. All is quiet. The sound of distant discussions and laughter. Children are asleep, the air is cool and it's nearly time for a cup of Joe. Life is good.

I added this next bit the following morning.

At about 7am we were woken be a slight tap, tap, tapping at our front door. Angel started barking to wake us up, just in case we hadn't heard the knocking. Rosy got up and went to the door. It was the little boy from yesterday and his sister. Their names are Timothy (8) and Rebecca (7). Timothy had gone down to the beach as soon as he got up so he could get the two coloured rock and had brought it up to give to me before they headed off this morning. I went back into the caravan while they were outside patting Angel. I was quickly scouring the place for something to give back to them. Then I remembered the free Christmas cartoon DVD we got in last Sundays paper. I gave it to Timothy and then Rebecca said "Where's mine?" To which I replied "It's for you both to watch".
"Ok then" - and with that they both rode off on their bikes back to their caravan.

What greater gift could there have been this Christmas. And then it clicked how the universe conspired. Timothy is Tiny Tim after he gets better. The sick child that was within and is now out and about exploring, being with other people and speading good cheer. I have to go now and dry my eyes.

Thank you Teva!

2007-12-19T17:32:00.000+11:00

I'm over the moon! Finally, I've made it across the creek and have been able to walk on the beach thanks to a pair of Teva sandals from Athlete's Foot. These sandals are designed to be worn in water and have a strong arch support. They also have a drainage system so water escapes though the soles of the shoe. Whilst they are not quite as good for my foot as wearing orthotics and joggers, I can wear them on a short walk without any ill effect (so far).

In a small way I have experienced the disappointment and frustration of not being able to go somewhere because of a physical injury and my deepest admiration goes out to those who have to experience this on a daily and permanent basis due to a physical disability. I know that my injury will heal EVENTUALLY however it did leave me feeling quite depressed at times.

Over the past 4 months since re injuring my foot, I had often thought that someone should invent shoes with arch support that can be worn on the beach and in the water. To my amazement, someone has. There is quite a range of "water shoes" available on the Internet available in the US. Thank you Teva for making shoes available in Australia! I'd love to hear if anyone has bought any other types of water shoes with arch support.

Now after boring you with stories of my footwear, onto something else.

We will be moving further up the coast on 26 Dec to the Corindi Beach Caravan Park. Although a site became available here so we could stay until 3 Jan, we have decided to move on to experience somewhere new. Weeks and weeks ago, we sent emails to a number of caravan parks to see if anyone had vacancies from 26 Dec but most came back with "Sorry, fully booked" or "Sorry, no dogs allowed during the peak period". However, the caravan park at Corindi sent us an email today to let us know they had a cancellation and asked if we were interested. "Which one were they again?" I thought to myself. But after a quick look on their website, they are a nice little caravan park right on the beach. So off we go again next week.

There was a bit of excitement in the caravan park here today. 2 horses had decided to go for a run down the road and as we are at the end of the road, decided to run around the caravan park for about an hour. They were finally caught on the grassy slope just behind us after their owner finally arrived. All the rest of us could do was watch them run about and get out of their way. One of the horses had a couple of cuts on it's legs but on the whole I think they had a good time visiting us.

Bye everyone, Rosy

Knowing who one is..

2007-12-16T08:39:00.000+11:00

The modern day media and pop psychologist have a lot to say about finding oneself. I used to think that it was about reminding yourself of who you were, before family, community and the government got involved with our individual lives. But I have discovered that it is not about that at all. It goes deeper than that. For me, it is about realizing what my role in life is and to honour it. It's not husband, brother, son, Manager, supervisor, web developer, marketer or any of the other jobs I had in corporate land. It actually came to me in a dream about a very early job I had in a bank - a 'teller'. In the land of symbols and metaphor I understand that as being a teller. Like a storyteller, or like Jessica Fletcher in Murder She, Wrote. Using my intuition I gather my observations on a situation, let them mull around in my head for a while and then a movie/fairytale/book that I have watched or read will pop into my head that provides the basic outline of the difficulty I or someone else is experiencing. This is what makes me whole as a person. I also understand now that it's not how I write something that is important, but what I am writing about. That is where the gem is. Storytelling is not just about grammar, but the emotions that let fly with the words. Just ask J K Rowling.

So there you have it. I don't have images to put up on the post, but I can tell you how I feel. Like Scrooge after meeting with the three spirits and like Tiny Tim after Scrooge decides to help this family. God bless everyone, and to all a Merry Christmas.

p.s. And just to think. I didn't need to buy anything to feel like this.

Tripping about

2007-12-11T14:24:00.000+11:00

We've been here at Moonee Beach for 2 weeks and I've got to say this is a great caravan park (which will now be abbreviated to c/pk as I'm sick of typing it out in full) especially if you have dogs. A few more caravans and campers are starting to turn up and I suspect this will increase as we head towards the busy Christmas holiday period. We're confirmed here until 26 Dec. but may have to move to another c/pk as this one is fully booked to fill the gap until we head to Iluka on 3 Jan. Fingers crossed there is another cancellation at Iluka and we can get in there earlier than 3 Jan. We had no idea just how booked up ahead these c/pks get during the Xmas school holidays.

Anyway, more about what we've been doing since you last heard from us.

Last Friday we put Angel into the local kennel for an overnight stay so that we could spend the day at South West Rocks to see Stephen's sister, Robyn sing at the local country club with her quartet Sharp Focus. The 4 girls sang up a storm with their barber shop harmonies of Christmas songs to an auditorium full of local senior citizens. They even managed to get 3 of the male seniors to dress up in drag as part of the act. The notion of prim and proper little old ladies definitely went out the window when they roared with laughter seeing the men strut their stuff on stage. As Robyn and girls had to make tracks back to Sydney immediately after the show, we explored the little village and had lunch at the local Seabreeze Hotel (across rd from C/pk and beach). I highly recommend their fish & chips - best I've had in ages.

The next day we took a drive to visit the Dorrigo National Park, which is another reason why we needed to have Angel doggy sat for the day. The Dorrigo Rainforest Centre has a spectacular skywalk going out above the rainforest treetops which I had been keen to see. We were not disappointed - the view was MAGnificent (see photos). We headed into Dorrigo to take a look around and stumbled across the Dangar Falls just a km or 2 out of town. The falls were definitely falling which probably is thanks a lot to the heavy rain which fell the previous day. While we were there a guy and his wife struck up a conversation with us. It turned out that Phil and Jan have been travelling around Oz for the last 8 mths in a caravan and were also staying at Coffs, so we stayed talking to them in the carpark for ages getting lots of good travelling tips. Really nice people.

On the local side, we've been exploring the shops up here (of course). Coffs Harbour has a CBD area just off the Pacific Hwy with a pedestrian friendly, flag lined shopping street. Then about 1km up the Pacific Hwy heading north you have the Park Beach Plaza, full of boutiques, shoe shops, Target, BigW and Woolworths. There is a Homebase shopping area just across from the Park Beach Plaza with all the furniture stores, auto parts, pet stores, etc. So everything is conveniently laid out. On the approach into Coffs there is a big Bunnings and all the auto mechanical places. I've also found quite a few recycled clothing shops which I love rummaging through.

Emerald Beach is the next headland just to the north of us. We took a drive up there the other day to take a look back at Moonee Beach. It was a fantastic view looking back but also looking out at one of the 5 Solitary Islands which has the white lighthouse. The headland area is called the Moonee Beach Nature Reserve (National Park) and we got to see 3 kangaroos who were grazing in bush just next to the car park, they seemed used to people being around as the surfers come up there all the time to access the beach. There is a paved walk around the headland which we'll do another day when the feet aren't so sore.

Nearly forgot, we couldn't resist calling in to the BIG Banana for a banana split each. Just as nice as I remember but not as cheap. There is a great puzzle shop there which had the largest jigsaw puzzle in the southern hemisphere on display 18,000 pieces. Sadly, it is now no longer the largest as someone has now put out a 24,000 piece puzzle. Anyone got nothing to do for a couple of years ???

Anyway, that's all for now. Bye, Rosy

Dog Walk/Swim

2007-12-01T17:41:00.000+11:00

I thought it was time that I added some content to the blog. Rosy can't have all the fun.

The big challenge of late has been getting Angel used to swimming so that I can take her for a walk along the long expanse of beach here at Moonee Beach. It's actually like getting back to nature keeping an eye on the tide, because we can only cross the river when it is low tide and even then Angel can't touch the bottom. She still has to swim across (I'm not going to pick her up as I have my hands full with thongs, doggie treats, doggie bags and sometimes a camera). Anyway, for the past few days, Angel has hesitantly got in the water and started the dog paddle. I have her on her lead as there is a strong current. It's quite funny as she starts on my left hand side, starts paddling and then crosses in front of me and has the lead extended all the way as the current drags her along. Poor little thing. She is almost out of breath when we get to the other side. although, yesterday, she went across the river before I could put the lead on. She sort of went diagonally, but nevertheless made it across.

The beach itself is about 4km long. Today was the first day that Angel and I made it all the way to the end. It's quite a dramatic coastline when you get up close to it. Angel continues to boss other dogs around, even German Shepherds, but they seem to just be curious about what this noisy little thing is that runs like the sugar just kicked in. She came across a puppy Jack Russell mix, today and they followed each other for quite a long time.

Due to her encounter with the tick, I have been trying to keep her out of the surrounding bushland. The message seems to have sunk in. She doesn't go into the bush and now returns to me without have to receive a command - just a treat. Now I can enjoy my walk as well, without having to be anxious about where she is.

Cheers
Stephen

Welcome to Moonee Beach

2007-11-29T08:45:00.000+11:00

This is a beautiful spot to spend a few nights or weeks. It's only 10 minutes drive from Coffs Harbour and we've only just started to explore. Moonee Beach Caravan Park is at the very end of the road opposite a large wide creek which flows to the beach and the only way to get across to the beach is to cross the creek at low tide. So there is no traffic passing by and we wake up to the sound of the birds. The caravan sites are all fairly level (hooray) and most come with a cement slab to put your outdoor chairs, annex, etc on. Nearly every site also seems to have it's own large timber table with benches each side. We've moved ours off the slab to give us room for our chairs & BBQ.

Here are few photos I took yesterday.

More later.

Downs and Ups...

2007-11-27T12:33:00.000+11:00

Sorry, it's been a while since our last update. This month has had it's share of ups and downs.

We drove down to Sydney on Nov 6 and were lucky enough to stay at Robyn and Garry's house at Caringbah for the whole 2 weeks we were there. Their backyard is fully fenced so Angel could stay too which was company by their lovely dog, Bella. Although Angel took over Bella's home, beds, backyard and food, I think Bella enjoyed having the company of another dog too.

Cathie and Joel's wedding was held on a beautiful Thursday afternoon at the Gunner's Tearooms, Mosman overlooking Sydney Harbour. It had been pouring with rain most of the morning so it was touch and go whether their wedding would be able be held outside. But the skies cleared up to a beautiful sunny afternoon and the wedding went ahead outside as planned. Everything was beautiful (especially the bride) and we all think she can go into the wedding planner business if she tires of legal work.

The rest of our stay in Sydney went very quickly catching up with family and friends for dinners or lunches, whatever we could arrange. While we were in Sydney, I was able to go along to the ING Direct dinner to celebrate people with 5, 10 (me) and 15 years service this year. There was 1 person with 15 years service, 8 of us celebrating with 10 years and 62 with 5 years. Quite a crowd. It was lovely to be invited as I am on a career break and luckily it coincided nicely with our trip to Sydney. Although it was a good night good to catch up with friends from work again. But don't get me wrong, I'm still not missing work!

We headed back up to Bonny Hills on Friday 16 Nov and made it back to our caravan at about 5pm. As we were planning to leave and head further north in 3 days we decided to leave the caravan on the site where we left it. Out of the blue the following day I received a phone call to say that my 86 year old father who had an existing heart condition, had been admitted to Mona Vale Hospital with chest pains and was waiting to be transferred to the San for an angiogram as soon as a bed opened up. I wanted to go back down in Sydney to be there in case I could do anything to help him. So the next day, I jumped on the XPT in Wauchope and was back down in Sydney by dinner time. Thankfully, tests showed that Dad's heart was not the cause of the chest pains and while we still do not know what caused the pains he is feeling much better now. Meanwhile, Stephen stayed with Angel back in the caravan and had to put up with the van being on a slope for a while longer.

I stayed 5 nights in my father's unit at the retirement village while he was in hospital. His retirement unit is set in lush rainforest with a duck pond at the bottom of the footpath below his unit. One morning while I was making my breakfast I a family of young ducks decided to come up the steps to the front door while mother duck stood patiently on the footpath below. They came right up to the wire door but as soon as I went to get my camera they all waddled back down the stairs again. However as soon as I returned and opened the door they headed back up the steps again long enough for me to take a few piccies.

After 5 days in hospital Dad was given the OK to go home and feeling like he had a new lease on life, decided to come back up to Bonny Hills with me to see our caravan and stay a few days with us. We arrived back up there last Friday and Dad stayed 3 nights in one of the fantastic cottages in the caravan park overlooking the ocean. He's now heading back down to Sydney staying at a night at few places along the way.

So, with all the visiting and being visited out of the way we finally left Bonny Hills yesterday and headed north. With Stephen behind the wheel, we towed the caravan up to a very hilly caravan park overlooking Nambucca Heads, but after seeing how steep the sites were decided to go further north to Coffs Harbour. We're now settled in a caravan park at Moonee Beach, about 12 kms north of Coffs Harbour. Moonee Beach has a small shopping centre with a Coles, pharmacy, newsagency, post office, bakers and a Best & Less opening this Thursday. Across the road from the caravan park is a wide tidal creek leading into the beach which is around the corner. It's nice to be in a level caravan park for a change after being on a hill for 8 weeks.

That's all for now. Cheers, Rosy

Angel Update and Getting Ready for Trip to Sydney

2007-11-04T17:08:00.000+11:00

Angel is doing well after the tick attack. Her breathing is still rhaspy and she is ever so eager to get out and do the beach walk again. I am under strict orders not to let her exercise too much and she is allowed only a very short walk out each day this week. I think she is past the danger period.

Bonny Hills Caravan Park has a facility that allows you to store your caravan for $5 a day for a period of up to 2 weeks. The van was in the forest area, which doesn't have many people around, so Rosy and I decided it would probably be better to move the van to the more popular open area. The Manager, suggested we put it in the lot that it next to their residence.

So this morning, we got the van ready for the move and headed out. There was a bit of a tight curve and some exposed tree roots that caused the van to jump. And jump it did. Right off the tow ball!! Luckily I had the chains on so it didn't run away from us. Also lucky for us, we decided to buy a bottle jack, just in case we needed to fix a spare tyre. We were able to get the van connection up high enough to get back on the tow ball. And then off we went to the other side of the park.

We got to our spot and drove onto it and amazingly the van wheel axil was level, which is the first thing you have to do. We were in exactly the right spot. Then the Manager comes over (Judy) and tells us that people who use this spot usually bring it side on, instead of facing down the slope. Remember I said the spot was near the residence? Well it sort of stops the drive through thing happening. So back and forth and back and forth I go, trying to get the van on the levelest part of the lot. Turning the wheel all the way. Back and forth and back and forth. Then....the steering wheel stops turning. I can't change the direction of the car. Shit!!!! We decide to leave the caravan where it is on a 5 degree lean from the left side of the van to the right, unhitch the caravan and try to move the Landcruiser. The power steering stopped working and it was like having to manually turn a semi trailer. Then I called the NRMA. Terrible thoughts were going through our minds as we were off to Sydney on Tuesday, or maybe not.

It was time for lunch, so Rosy cooked this great steak and we each had a glass of wine to calm our nerves.

An hour later the guy from the NRMA arrives and shows us what happened. All the manouvering of the van with putting the steering wheel in lock position (going all the way until it won't turn any more) caused one of the tubes to pop off. He said that the best thing to do, when manouvering a van is to not turn the wheel all the way and keep it there, but to turn it all the way and thing bring it back a little. He was a nice guy and it cost us $10 for the automatic transmission oil.

So the moral to this story is - follow your gut instinct and do what you are capable of doing. Irrespective of whether someone else comes along and tells you differently. Next time someone does that to me I am going to say "Thank you for the advice, but my experience level is only capable of doing this." I mean the caravan was initially in exactly the right spot. Why did I feel obliged to move it?

By the way the caravan is still leaning, but we are only going to be in it for two nights, so we will live with it.

Angel's visit to Doggie Hospital

2007-10-27T12:55:00.000+10:00

Rosy and I have had quite a few anxious days regarding Angel recently. It started 5 days ago when Angel stopped eating her normal meals. 3 days ago I took Angel out for her morning constitutional 6km run/walk. After Rosy had pointed out to me that Angel's hind legs were a bit wobbly. I started getting concerned when Angel would fall over herself while she was running around. She had been eating some strange things off the beach and the thought had crossed my mind that Angel had had some sort of food poisoning. I cut the walk short and brought Angel back to the van.

Rosy called the local vet and they said it sounded like a tick. And armed with that information Rosy started scouring Angels thick coat. Low and behold, underneath Angel's collar was a dirty big (5mm) grey tick - a paralysis tick to be precise. Rosy knew what to and she instructed me on how to extract the little bugger, which I was able to do without leaving some of it embedded in Angels neck.

Off to the vet we went, with Angel and tick. The vet was a nice guy called Dr Steve (nice name, I trusted him immediately). His main concern was whether we got the tick off in time. Apparently, the tick will cause a bacteria to progress through Angel's body, which will cause difficulty with her breathing and eating, apart from causing paralysis in her limbs and eye lids. What they did was give her a blood transfusion, and overnight stay to enable them to keep an eye on her deterioration. Rosy was visibly upset and I didn't know what to expect.

The following day, the vet gave Angel the all clear to recuperate with us back at the van. She is under strict instructions not to do anything that would cause excitement as her breathing has not completely been cured. She is a van-bound dog for one week and then she can go on very short walks during the second week. Our task is not to allow another paralysis tick on Angel this season as she may not recover.

Angel has made some doggie friends here at Bonny Hills, so I went over to their owners and just told them what had happened, just in case they were wondering why Angel hadn't made her presence known for a few days.

So now I have Rosy bound to her banana lounge chair waiting for her foot to heal, and Angel laying on it with her, not understanding why we haven't taken her for her walks of late.

I can't wait until all three of us are back on the beach.

Rest, rest and yes, more rest

2007-10-22T17:45:00.000+10:00

We're still here at beautiful Bonny Hills. Last week it rained a little but most days have been lovely with a gentle coastal breeze except for yesterday, which had quite a strong NE wind blowing. The annex did a bit of flapping but is still standing.

Stephen and Angel are both great. Stephen is looking so relaxed (beard and all) despite completing all the bookkeeping for the last 3 months and working on some websites. Angel is having a great time too, though I think we should rename her "Itchy" or "Scratchy". Something seems to be irritating her and we can't see what or anything on her skin. It could be that she keeps lying underneath the caravan in the long grass with whatever bugs live there. Tonight we're trying her with a different treatment to see if this will give her some relief. So far, not a scratch in sight.

Meanwhile, I've been adjusting to the fact that my foot (heel) needs plenty of rest and time in order to heal. So I'm staying off it and have put just about everything on hold for a while including the sewing I was going to do. I didn't realise how much I was on my feet while sewing the other week. As chance would have it, the sewing course at Spotlight I was going to start last week was cancelled due to lack of numbers. I'm enjoying the rest though and Stephen bought a banana lounge for me to laze about on with my foot up, so I lie there looking out at the ocean (as long as no one has their caravan in the way) and only be a few feet away from the caravan. It's great!

Today is battery recharge day. Every week we need to recharge a 12V battery that runs all the lights in the caravan. Gradually the lights get dimmer and dimmer until eventually it's like dining by candle light. Not that I mind that. When we finally remember to set up the recharger it needs to run from morning until night and even though the completed light doesn't come on, the lights are nice and bright again. Some of the caravans we saw had 2 switches for every light so they can be run from 240V or 12V. I don't know what it is but there's something quite nice about this little weekly ritual.

Anyway, that's all from us.

A Whale of a Time

2007-10-10T18:47:00.000+10:00

Unfortunately, for the next month or so at least, I can no longer go on the morning beach walks. My foot injury (plantar fasciitis) which I've had for 12 months now has flared back up again despite wearing the recently purchased expensive orthotics and joggers on my walks. After a phone call yesterday to the Heel Pain Centre to get their advice, it seems I've been doing all the wrong things to aggravate the injury plus the ONE time I went barefoot on the beach last week sealed the deal. Beach walking, walking up and down hills, going barefoot are all big NO, NO's. So, feeling a bit sad and sorry for myself I stayed at the caravan this morning and did the washing while Stephen and Angel went off on their respective walk and run.

It was while I was hanging out the washing that I noticed several people standing around looking intensely out to sea. Like the busy body I am, I took a glance toward the sea as well and there to my delight were 3 or 4 whales close in to the headland just in front of me slowly making their way northward. WOW, this was the first time I'd ever seen whales this close in the wild. They were magnificent to watch. They were just hanging around off the coast leisurely rolling around in the sea taking their time to get to where they needed to go.

I realised how very lucky I am to be here, that the foot will get better eventually (although I've had it now for 12 months) as long as I give it time and that there'll be plenty of time for walking along beaches. In the grand scheme of things, it's not that big a deal.

So now that the annex is up, I've got somewhere to do my sewing. I've got a little project underway to make something to wear to our niece's wedding next month. Also, I've signed up to do a short overlocking course at the Spotlight in Port Macquarie. Although I've had my overlocker for over 20 years, I've never done anything more with it than neaten seams and I know there's a whole lot more I should be able to get it to do. The course is only 3 hrs a week for 4 weeks and hopefully, my ancient overlocker will be able to do all the things they are going to teach.

Anyway, that's all for now. Good night!

Up went the caravan annex!

2007-10-06T16:40:00.000+10:00

It has been a few weeks since we bought the caravan and we thought it was time to try and erect the annex that came with it. We only got shown once by Watson's and there were quite a few processes involved. So, we both took a deep breath and attempted to get it done, before the sun set in 6 hours.

Slowly, but surely, bit by bit, we remembered what we had to do and within 90 minutes we had another room, which by the way, Angel has taken up residence in. Rosy is going to use the room for her sewing. Our large table fits in there quite nicely. We are both quite proud of ourselves as we didn't bend or break anything, and seeing the annex costs around $2000 to replace, it's a good thing.

Now all we have to do is wait for it to rain and for it to be windy to see how it will hold up. There's a picture of it on the right.

On the beach this morning, during our walk along the beach a woman walked passed us, after being sussed out by Angel, who was 'off lead'. She said "I didn't recognise your dog without the lead!". It's quite a looong lead that Rosy put together. It's 20 metres long and causes much talk amongst the other walkers. We need a lead that long to keep Angel happy and a little free, while we are around a lot of people. Angel tends to lose us in a crowd, maybe intentionally.

Another guy we met on the beach couldn't believe how much Angel runs. She normally does 10 lengths of the beach to our one, and all in running mode. I am thinking of changing her name to 'Everyready' - it just keeps on keeping on.

I wonder who we will meet on the beach tomorrow.

Well, well, well

2007-10-05T16:08:00.000+10:00

Guess who was still asleep in bed till nearly 8:30am this morning? I'll say no more.

Who's in Bed until 8:30am??????

2007-10-04T18:23:00.000+10:00

I would like to say in answer to one of Stephen's posts not too long ago that not all of us are in bed having breakfast until 8.30am. Some of us (me) are usually up making the said breakfast. However, I think I owe Stephen quite a few breakfasts as he made mine for the last 6 years M -F. I must say I am sleeping a whole lot better here despite being in a much smaller bed, a nearly level caravan with the noise of waves crashing and the occasional car or truck passing by. Could it be the fresh air, exercise, lack of stress - who knows as long as it keeps going.

We visited a couple of markets over the long weekend which really turned out to be the same market in two different locations. On Saturday we were at the craft market at the Port Macquarie near the marina. They had a good selection of stalls with all the usual jewellery, knitting, painted wood thingys, more craft things made out of towelling than I've ever seen and belly dancers. Then on Sunday we visited the markets in the main street of Laurieton. I recognised the same stalls from the previous day but this market came without belly dancers. Nevertheless, we had a good time and found a great little cafe to sit outside and have lunch.

The other day we took a trip up to Kempsey and South West Rocks. Not much to report about Kempsey - we went there to pick up something from a shop there and as it was so hot we didn't look around too much. A friend recommended we visit South West Rocks. It's quite a drive out there, but worth a visit. Once you turn off the Pacific Hwy, the road eventually runs alongside the Macleay River for kms & kms. It's a lovely drive out there and once you finally arrive you find a cute little beach village with a caravan park right on the beachfront. Although it was school holidays the village didn't seem too crowded but the caravan park seemed busy.

Speaking of school holidays, quite a few people turned up here for the long weekend but quickly disappeared once Monday came around. There were a few big groups who despite being in tents brought along their TV sets and sat around outside somberly watching the footy grand final. They were the quietest bunch of footy followers I'd seen - must have been because Melbourne won.

That's all from me for now. Cheers.

All things spiritual

2007-09-30T17:21:00.000+10:00

I apologise to all of you who are not into spirituality for this post, but there are some who may find this interesting.

For a year or so now Rosy and I have had this feeling that the universe has been conspiring to have us try out this lifestyle. We don't know why, but we went with what we felt. I mean if you don't try these things you end up with a lot of regrets. Anyway, a dear friend of mine sent me a dvd, which I received yesterday. It wasn't on a subject matter that I thought was relevant to Rosy and I, but it did have something very interesting to say. It's about the four great services of myth. And that the individual or community has a living connection with
1/ Nature
2/ The tribe
3/The Cosmos
4/Sense of personal identity

Well you can't get more involved with nature than staying on the beach in a little area of forest, being mindful of what resources you utilise.

And you can't get more involved in a tribe than other caravaners and people who stay in caravan parks. They are so friendly and help each other at the drop of a hat. Everyone is full of stories. Sitting around their campfires, reminising about the one that got away.

Rosy and I have be working with our own unconscious content for a number of years now. Yes we do believe there is something bigger than the individual. In the dvd the speaker quoted,
Yes, the world is bigger than "I" am.
Yes, the world is more powerful than "I" am.
Now spend the next 8 or 9 decades getting used to it.

And last of all, Rosy and I are discovering ourselves and who we are meant to be - not what our parents and society thought we should be. Our own sense of personal identity. Mainly through dream analysis and lots of communicating with each other.

So as you can see the similarities to our current lifestyle fit into the four great services of myth. We had never known that this theory existed and it sort of explains what has been guiding the both of us in our endevours. Interesting hey?

Angel on the beach.

2007-09-27T16:46:00.000+10:00

Every day, after we have had breakfast in bed (around 8:30am) it is time to go to the beach and take Angel for her morning constitutional. She is such a different dog on the beach and now has no problem with going up to any dog and saying "Hey" (as they unceremoniously sniff each others butts). The walks we use to have in Engadine were very different and full of anxiety. It seems that all the fuss is about Angel going where she wants to go, and if she can't go there she whines and barks. It brings a tear to my eye to have anxiety free walks. She is reminisant of a toddler who just wants to go and explore, while the mother is worried about he/she is getting up to. When Rosy calls Angel to have a drink of water, she comes over bregrudgingly, just like a kid would say "Oh Mum..I've had a drink can I go now." After a week of this we just ignore what she does on the beach now, and she seems to be all the better for it.

Rosy and I started to notice that Angel was giving the ocean a wide berth so we have been getting her use to it, enticing her with food treats. Although it looked like Angel was just copying what Rosy did, with not getting her feet wet with her shoes on. Just today Angel was getting into the surf and running along. She even went over to the pond and ran into it. We saw her go in and suddenly she disappeared. She mustn't have noticed the sandy bottom dropping away from her. We were wondering if she knew how to swim and suddenly we see this little white head bop up and down (doing dog paddle) until she got to a place where she could stand up. It didn't bother Angel and she still ventured into the ocean after this event.

Just as a treat we have put a video on the blog of Angel on the beach. If you want to watch it and have speakers, be sure to turn the audio on. Just double click the thumbnail image on the right. The video will give you some idea of how Angel goes for a walk now. Let us know what you think of the video through the comments section.

Yesterday, Angel met up with a rather large Golden Retriever. This dog was so cute. It would run into the surf and then lie down in the water, waiting for Angel to make a move. Then this dog would run out and roll all over the sand. Then the whole process would begin again. We get to talking a bit with other dog owners and mostly they say what a well behaved dog Angel is. What the!!!!!

I feel so happy that Angel has found her Nervana. And the great news is that she spends the rest of the day outside the van, behaving herself.

Well, I must away now, even though I don't have anything to do. I think I will just BE, for a while.

Survival week 1

2007-09-23T15:32:00.000+10:00

Well, we survived our first week of caravan life and haven't been voted off the island (c/park) yet.

As first time caravaners we are constantly learning things our new home. Firstly, we learned (or should I say reconfirmed) that the NSW Government will take any opportunity to squeeze money from people. We bought our caravan second hand caravan through a dealer and were well aware that we would have to pay stamp duty to transfer the registration from the previous owner to us. What we didn't know was that the poor dealer is also hit for stamp duty they take over the registration of the caravan even though they are merely acting as a seller. However, I'm sure this gets passed onto the buyer so we would end up paying stamp duty twice. So not only did Morris and friends collect $800+ in stamp duty from us for this caravan they also collected $300+ from the dealer for the same caravan. I won't even go into how repetitious the rego transfer form was.

Secondly, we learned that the caravan is quite watertight even with the 4 seasons roof hatch open in rain mode position (this leaves the roof hatch open just a bit to let air flow through). Late yesterday, there was a torrential downpoor while we were out so we crossed our fingers and hoped that we wouldn't come back to puddles of water. The only soggy things we found when we got back were the 2 towels hanging over the back bumper bar.

And lastly, we moved the caravan to be in a more level position today. We would have done this last week however no sooner had we got here, than another couple came in straight after us and parked where we needed to move to. It didn't matter as they left today so we have the whole area to ourselves (at least for today). Stephen did a fantastic job of backing the van up hill and relocating us down into just the right spot. I must say a big "thank you" to the person or magazine, I can't remember which, who suggested to getting walkie talkies to help with directing someone who is backing a caravan. It made the job so much easier. It takes a bit of practice not only to do the backing, but to give clear directions (not really my strong suit) AND operate the w/t but we got there in the end.

Now we are happily balanced in our new spot and will put up our awning tomorrow. That'll be another learning exercise (the guy from the dealership spent more time showing us how to put up the awning than anything else on the caravan and there were about 100 instructions to remember). We'll tackle that tomorrow - today we'll just enjoy where we are.

"Shitter's Full" (National Lampoon Christmas Vacation)

2007-09-20T18:02:00.000+10:00

One of the reaons Rosy and I picked this carvan was the open space it had for the things we wanted to do in it (get your mind out of the gutter). We decided not to get a caravan with an ensuit because it reduces the amount of space available in the van, they take a lot of cleaning, and they wanted an extra $10,000 for a metre square floor space taken up by the shower and toilet.

So, we decided to get a "g'zunder", a neat little toilet that stores in the van and we can use in the middle of the night, rather than having to walk to the amenities in the cool night air (sorry for the subject matter).

Anyway, today we had to find out what to do with the contents of said toilet. It was surprising how clean and easy it was, so don't be afraid to look at this type of option for your next camping holiday. They all operate with detachable cartridges that you can carry to the "dump" and empty out. All in all it has worked quite well and if you didn't know there was a toilet in the van, you would never know.

Every day I learn something new.

2007-09-19T17:31:00.000+10:00

We've been in our c/van at Bonny Hills nearly 4 days now and I just love being here. It's a great spot to slip into our new nomadic lifestyle and get used to living in our new mobile home. I must admit I was a bit nervous about driving the c/van from Pt Mac down to here but it really wasn't as difficult as I thought. 2 things I've discovered about towing the van I will share with you: 1) when Navman says turn in 600m don't wait until the next time they say turn to put your foot on the brake as there's no way the c/van will slow down in time; 2) if the c/van salesman says "No, you won't need driving mirrors if you have a Landcruiser", don't believe him.

That discovered, we made it here safely and found a shady spot all to ourselves where we could unhitch the van. This proved to be the next challenge. As it was our first time out with the c/van (apart from the little park at Settlement Pt) we chose a site we could drive through. However, the site had a bit of a slant to it. Stephen did a great job doing all the winding to level the van while I watched little bubbles move around in the spirit level (much less strenuous). Then suddenly, we heard a clunk and saw that one of our front stabiliser legs had buckled. Aggh!!~! It looked like we were going to have to make Bonny Hills our permanent home as there was no way we could raise or lower the leg to move the van. Thankfully, with the help of a mallot, a hammer and much persistence, Stephen was able to bash it into back into shape so the leg can be raised again. We'll get the leg replaced when we move away from here around Nov.

The c/van is now starting to look like a little home sweet mobile home. We've been sorting through all the bags of clothes and stuff we brought up from Sydney. I'm REALLY surprised we've managed to find spots for just about everything we brought, however, we now have a box in the back of the car full of "nice to have's but no room to keep" which will go back into storage when we come back down to Syd in Nov.

We're definitely getting into the swing of this holidaying by the beach lifestyle. Relaxed breakfasts followed by long walks along the beach. Angel loves it too!

More to come later. Bye for now and hope you enjoy reading our blog.
Bye for now, Rosy.

Arrival at Bonny Hills

2007-09-16T14:09:00.000+10:00

Just 20 minutes south of Port Macquaire we found a lovely little caravan park at Bonny Hills, overlooking Rainbow Beach (see picture).

Rosy and I had a good look around to find a good location (that we could drive through, rather than reverse in) and that had good Internet connectivity.

I hd a couple of hiccups with the uncoupling and levelling, but this is a pretty big learning curve. We have walkie talkies to communicate with each other when manouvering the caravan around objects and when reversing. A workmate of Rosy's suggested it to her as a means of saving the marriage when driving caravans. It also saves on disturbing other visitors. Rosy did a great job in placement of the van, even after doing a little bit of reversing.

We had our first night in the van and other problem solving situations arose, but then in the grand scheme of things they are not that big a problem. I am sure we will get them worked out over time. The important thing is that we have the desktop computer and notebook operating as this is our entertainment centre and my tools for Internet work.

It's a beautiful day today so we went for a walk along the beach. We passed most of the people and Rosy let Angel off the leash. She shot out of the barriers like a greyhound and went and sussed out every person, dog and pebble. We ended up putting her back on the long lead after it took us a few minutes to get her attention back. That's enough Coke for her. Surprisingly, the stay Angel had in the dog kennel, while we set up things, has given her a better temperament. She hasn't gone off the deep end with any other dog, so far. Also, we have neighbours with two cavalier king charles spaniels (both female) and they all get on so well with each other.

Bonny Hills Caravan Park is only small, with room for about 20 carvans. As long as the hoons stay away over school holidays we will most probably stay here until Cathies wedding in November.

Stephen

We're On Our Way - Ah Ha, Ah Ha.

2007-09-14T08:48:00.000+10:00

Well, we arrive in Port Macquarie in one piece and found a nice little caravan park at Settlement Point on the northern outskirts of the town. We got a cabin for a few nights and it overlooks the Hastings River. We were greeted with the most glorious sunset. The park owner is a nice guy and very obliging and vague, which seems to suit us down to the ground seeing we didn't know what to expect with the caravan.

The day finally arrived to collect our van. We were a little late, but it didn't seem to matter because Barry from Watson's Caravans put an electric brake pack in my hands and directed me to an auto mechanic he had booked. It took the best part of the morning for the gadget to be fitted to Herc (short for Hercules, the name we call our Landcruiser). Then in the afternoon we went back to Watsons and they started to show us the ins and outs of the van and how to operate everything. What a brain override that was. Luckily Rosy had a pen and paper handy to jot most things down.

They got to the stage where it was time to hitch the van to Herc and they asked us to unlock the existing tow bar ball. We looked at each other puzzled. What lock? What key? We had no idea what they were talking about and we definitely didn't have a key to unlock the device. No matter, I asked if there was a locksmith in town, of which there was, so off we went. Although the van people were a bit concerned as they weren't quite sure that the locksmith would be able to take the lock off. Apparently, caravaners use them to stop people from stealing their Hayman Reece apparatus, which cost about $1000 a piece. Anyway, we get to the locksmith and they say they will try to unpick the lock. After about an hour they decide that isn't going to work so they then decide to drill through the lock. That didn't work wither. Then they try drilling through the bolt. Hey presto! One busted lock.

It's now 4:30pm and Watson's shut at 5pm. I don't know. these people who live out in the country and have other lives. Well, you can imagine how quickly they showed us how to hitch and unhitch the van, and a very quick lesson on how to reverse it. I have to say though, they were really good with detailing the van, adding quite a few things to it for no extra cost. As it was the Hayman Reece sway bar, the electric brake were thrown in. They basically got the unit in working order before they let us out the gate.

Then it was time to drive out. I had asked Rosy if she wanted the honours, but guess what, she didn't want to do it. So off we go. I have to say, it was remarkably easy. Not at all how I had imagined it. The power of Herc made it feel like i wasn't towing anything at all, and because the twin axles are at the back of the van, it basically followed the tyre marks of Herc. We were going through round-a-bouts and corners and speed humps with very little effort. Wahoo!!!

We have decided to settle in a place called Bonny Hills, about 30 minutes south of Port Macquarie. It is right on the beach and we are looking forward to getting there and setting everything up.