Macksville

Macksville was our stop after Newcastle. We had hoped to make Coffs Harbour Tuesday night but ran out of light and steam so decided on Macksville. We stayed at a really nice little camp ground called Guma Reserve. Right on the river. If we hadn't promised to catch up with our mates the following day, we'd likely still be there.

We had a car problem on the Wednesday morning. The engine fault light came on. Luckily Coffs was just up the road so after catching up with our mates we stopped by VW. It was an EGR value problem. It appears they we need to work the diesel a little more to keep it from sooting up. VW fixed it and we were back on our way.

Guma Reserve. A pleasant respite from the the past couple of days.

  We're in heaven... deservedly!

Newcastle

The weather looked pretty good for the drive up from Sydney. We booked in to a park at Stockton Beach A great place. Just out of town and right behind the beach.

Unfortunately a pretty serious low pressure system arrived about the time we did.
Sunday afternoon we received a message from the SES telling us to pull down awnings and secure any loose items... this is getting serious! We were battened down, windows closed and all secure by about 8pm. We were getting serious rain and the wind was strengthening. The wind strengthened through the night with gusts up to 120km recorded at the port entrance, about 500m from where we were. The van was being buffeted. I though of filling up the water tanks to add another 180kgs of weight but yours truly only weighs 85kg and might have been blown away. So we put up with the buffeting and the noise and the rain which was now coming in horizontally. We didn't get much sleep but in the morning we discovered we were still on the same site (alone) so we were pretty happy. We also discovered the guy on the site behind us had moved his car to shield his own van during the night so we had the full force right on the back of the van.

Our mates (Glen and June) took us out for the day, north to Port Stephens, then back into town for lunch, the lookout and some of the southern beaches. The weather was wet and getting windier but the company was excellent.

Monday night was a repeat of the night before but windier and wetter. We had our car behind the van to break up the wind as best we could. The morning arrived, we looked outside and there were trees down all over the place, minor flooding in the park, non of the services were working, power, water, etc was out.... but we had prevailed. My major concern in the whole matter was that we got hit with something, but we didn't

The guy next to us, in a pop-top, had it lowered and was watching it move up and down half an inch and wondering when it was just going to "pop", which it didn't. It wasn't the weather to be out camping in.

We drove out midmorning Tuesday heading north. There was minimal flooding along the coast but there were trees down everywhere, mostly cleared. There were potholes everywhere. We were careful.

 Yep, it was windy.

 Newcastle Port

 Stockton CP on Tuesday morning

The weather map showing the wind on the Sunday night. 

Sydney

I drove in to Sydney to the Lane Cove Caravan Park. I must admit to being a little concerned about being so close to Sydney with the van on. The Caravan Park is pretty close to Sydney in the Lane Cove National Park. A great park right on the train line with plenty of walking and cycling paths around. It's right under the Kingsford Smith flight path. Fortunately planes stop in the evening, but start again around 6am.

We didn't drive too much around Sydney, caught the train mostly and found the service brilliant except on the last weekend we were there (the first day of the school holidays) when they decided to shut down all the city services for routine maintenance. Someone needs their head read I think.

Dave and KT live in Bondi which was only about 30mins by train and a short walk from where we were. We spent quite a bit of time at Bondi in the east with the kids. They share a place with 3 others. It's the only way "out of towners" can get accommodation anyway close to the CBD with the prices the way they are. We also got out to the northern beaches ourselves for a day. The walks around Sydney through the parks and along the beaches are great.

We headed off north on Sunday to catch up with Glen and June whom we met last year at the devils marbles and travelled with for a couple of weeks. They live in Newcastle.

Sunrise over Bondi from the kids deck.

Dave, Katie and me on one of our walks.

Orange

We're booked into Lane Cove Park in Sydney from about the 9th April for a week. We decided to catch up with some mates in Orange so we drove from Canberra up to Cowra and then to Orange.

We know Dave and Jodee from PNG. They've been back in Orange for about 12 years. They had been in Sydney for the footy and we each arrived back at their place at exactly the same time. The Camel races were on that day, so we spent the day at the races. A fantastic event. Didn't win too much money, but didn't lose too much either.

We all got up with sore heads the next day, went out for brekky and had a quiet afternoon.

According to the locals, there were about 4000 people at the track for the Camel races. That compares with about 200 punters for the usual horse races. The Camels might become a more regular feature...

I backed this mongrel. It ran half way down the track, then decided to turn around for some photo opportunities. The finish line is behind it.

Dave's done an great job bringing his car back to life over the past 3 years.











We sent Rose back to Brisbane from Orange. We'd seen a townhouse and it ticked all our boxes so we thought we'd take a shot at it. We're now the proud owners. Looks like we're returning to Brisbane.

I drove down to Sydney a couple of days ago and Rose flew in.

Canberra

Rose hadn't been to Canberra before. We stayed just out of town at a place called Cotters on the Murrumbidgee River. A nice place. We just "wedged" in between a couple of other caravans. It was Easter the following weekend so we were lucky to get a spot. We seem to have "jagged" good spots most of the trip, and this was right up there with the others.

I have family in Canberra that we haven't seen for some years. We contacted Richard and Carol and spent a very pleasant afternoon and evening with them. We're also travelling with Richard and Carol in Canada and the US later in the year between Vancouver and Anchorage.

The bikes were given a workout around Lake Burley-Griffin, we visited the war memorial which was amazing, and Richard took us around Parliament House (his usual stomping ground).

I also spent some time at Mt Stromlo in the mountain bike park. An amazing place with downhill, uphill, around the hill and any other type of riding you might want to do.

I actually got lost at one stage and ended up throwing the bike over a couple of fences and riding through roadworks to get back to the car.

A couple of days well spent. We could have spent a week there.

The house of Representatives. Note the covers over the tables and chairs in the centre. The Speaker was heard to comment "... well we have so many leaks, they might as well be in the roof too!"

Richard and Rose in the Senate. 

Cooma

We left Pambula (should have stayed another couple of days though) via Bega and headed inland towards Cooma. The school holidays are now happening so it's better to avoid the beaches.

No one told us what the grade of Mt Brown was west of Bega and we found that during the 10km climb they were doing roadworks. We were stopped several times and doing about 10km/hr at others. The whole climb took about 2 hours. Still the sun was out but the temperature had dropped.

We had a near miss about 6km south when an idiot in a transit van towing a trailer decided to pass us around a long left hand corner over double lines. We were sitting on our usual 90km/h and he came around a truck and decided he might as well make use of the speed he'd picked up and continued past us over double lines. Unfortunately for everyone, there was a camper van coming in the opposite direction who had to break suddenly and swerve off the road, as we had to do too.

By the time we arrived in Cooma it was jumper weather, but the sun was still out We had a coffee in the only place that looked as through it was open. The coffee was hot and the service was great but the rest of the place looked closed.

We stayed in a "free" camp about 4km out of town. We were one of 2 vans at 5pm, and the next morning we discovered a further 4 or 5 had arrived.

Sunny the day before. Pea soup the next morning. Back on the road a little later than usual to let the fog rise. Checked we had heaps of diesel for the van heater and we were set for Canberra.

Pambula

We arrived late in the week prior to the Victorian School Holidays. We'd booked 4 nights. The day after we arrived, the park had another 260+ arrivals and we were surrounded by campers of all shapes and sizes. It's a pretty popular place with some great rides and walks.

The beach stretches between Pambula and Merimbula. It's about a 4km walk one way. We walked it one afternoon and still back in time for sundowners.

We made use of the bikes. It's a short ride in to Merimbula along cycle paths and trails. Merimbula is a bit crowded, but the Saphire Club does have a great $10 Schnitzel on Tuesday nights.

The dolphins were surfing along the beach at one of the nearby bays one afternoon. Interestingly, the local fishermen were also pulling in some nice Salmon that afternoon too. We went out the following day and didn't do too well.

Timbilica

An old army mate, and the best man at Rose and mine wedding lives in Timbilica. He lives in a roadhouse that he's converted into his home which is also the home of an absolutely amazing Harley Davidson collection.

"Possum" and Tanya have lived here for about 25 years and have done a great job making it their own. They are pretty well self sustaining generating their own power, growing their own food and brew their own grog, to list just a few things.

We dropped by for a couple of hours on our way through to Pambula. We would have arrived earlier or stayed longer but we didn't get into Genoa until late, and we'd booked to be in Pambula later in the day... Pambula, we found later, to be very busy