Dec 11, 2018 - Jervis Bay to Sydney

9 December Beautiful morning. Headed out for Sydney. So out from Huskisson to the Princes Highway and headed north. Passed through Nowra, not a very pretty town, across the Shoalhaven River and along the estuary to Coolangatta and on up the coast on the Grand Pacific Drive. Looked in at the little towns along the way but the beaches were heaving, well it was Sunday and the first hot weather they had had for a while. Beautiful beaches and great facilities, but too many people and nowhere for us to park towing a trailer as we were. We drove...

Dec 10, 2018 - Mimosa Rocks to Jervis Bay

6 December A quiet night, we were sheltered from the winds and there were no galahs to wake us in the morning. But the sun shone through clear blue skies so we got up and on our way. Called in at Aragunna Beach on the way out. Beautiful in the early morning light, noone else there. Decided to have breakfast at a cafe for a change and so drove to Bermagui some 20 km away, we were hungry by then! Found a cafe and enjoyed a full breakfast; service very slow, but they were so friendly. We drove to the Blue Pool which is described as a large...

Dec 6, 2018 - Wonboyn to Mimosa Rocks

5 December Woken early by the birds, usual story, but it wasn’t the galahs this morning, it was the bellbirds, with their ringing bell-like call; very loud! All through breakfast and striking cmap we had bird visitors; Red-browed finches, rainbow lorikeets, bell birds, king parrot, little wattlebird, and finally just as we were about to leave a Wallaby appeared. Ruth held out the bad containing birdseed we were given last night and the wallaby came to her and ate out of the bag. Not something we would normally do, but this particular...

Dec 4, 2018 - Crescent Head

4/12/2018. Tuesday. Hot, some cloud cover Crescent Head A quiet day. Crescent Head doesn’t have many shops other than a supermarket, chemist, fantastic bakery, 2 pubs/clubs and a few other small shops, so certainly not a place to spend a lot of money. But the beach - what more could you want! We didn’t go down today and give a repeat performance from yesterday - didn’t want to spoil the locals. Today was our day of walks - Hazel and Ron walked early this morning while we caught up on some sleep, and later Hazel, Ron and myself walked to the...

Dec 4, 2018 - Wilsons Prom to Wonboyn

Wilsons Prom to Mallacoota (Wonboyn) 2 December Once off the Prom we joined the Gippsland Highway, part of the Melbourne to Sydney Coastal Drive, and headed east. Mostly open farmland with several large tracts of commercial forest. We swung off to look at Port Albert, but being Sunday, everything, and there want much, was closed. Turned off again to Woodside Beach the self proclaimed start of Ninety Mile Beach which continues all the way to Lakes Entrance , becoming a spit rather like, but much longer, Chesil Beach in the UK. The waves were...

Dec 3, 2018 - Crescent Head

3/12/2018. Monday. Hot Crescent Head Just before 6am must be the time! Bang, bang, bang! We’re wide awake now. Hazel and Ron were luckier, as their young family next door were very quiet. But we all crashed last night, so had a good sleep and were woken to a beautiful morning. After a visit to the Chemist for scripts, we met Hazel and Ron in the water. The beach is only a couple of hundred metres from our vans and is beautiful. The water wasn’t deep but quite gusty waves knocked us over as the sand was very uneven so hard to get a steady...

Dec 2, 2018 - Coopernook to Crescent Head

2/1/2018. Sunday. Hot, hot, hot Coopernook to Crescent Head We all slept in at lovely quiet Coopernook. We didn’t even hear the other vans pull out. We drove on the scenic route to Port Macquarie, a place Hazel and Ron know well and love; a place we’ve only been to twice, the second time with friends Pam & Don. We had breakfast at the Pancake Place and Ian was violently ill 50k or so down the road. Not a good memory for him! Today a learning experience for me and another memory! As we were walking down to the river, 2 elderly ladies with a...

Dec 1, 2018 - Singleton to Coopernook

1/12/2018. Saturday. Hot and sunny Singleton to Coopernook The annual Singleton Market was held today at the Showgrounds, so we were woken about 6.15 with people driving in and setting up their stalls. It was nice though to have the market come to us! This is the third year of the market, and all the stalls sold good quality craft, food and plants. We had a good look around, made a few purchases and left at 10am. We saw and drove alongside a coal train with innumerable carriages - we couldn’t count them, but it was long! As we were...

Nov 30, 2018 - Gulgong to Singleton Show Grounds

30/11/2018. Friday. Sunny and hot Gulgong to Singleton We were rudely awoken this morning by the lady banging on our door to collect our fees for our overnight stay at the Showgrounds. I suppose some people leave early to avoid payment and 7am probably isn’t too early - for some! For the first hour or so, we drove through State Forest area with trees and bush on both sides of the road, before we came to some grazing and cultivated land around Merriwa. There were open cut mines and slag heaps, also huge power stations, on the way to and...

Nov 29, 2018 - Grenfell to Gulgong

29/11/2018. Thursday. Sunny and warm Grenfell to Gulgong We walked up to the main street and had a look at the old buildings of Grenfell, which was the birthplace of Henry Lawson. He was actually born on the goldfields and not in the town. We had a coffee before we left probably the best free camp we’ve stayed in just before noon, and drove through Gooloogong to Canowindra where we had lunch in a lovely park. We chatted to a couple who were close to 90 years old who travelled around Australia and mostly stayed in cabins and had a small...

Nov 28, 2018 - Oura to Grenfell - both free camps

28/11/2018. Wednesday. Cool and wet Oura to Grenfell It rained nearly all night and this morning till we left, and Wagga Wagga 20km west, was said to have had 4mm. It was cool but not as cold as we have felt. We drove to Junee and visited the Chocolate and Licorice Factory, but the licorice machine wasn’t operating until 12.00, so we had a few tasting samples and left. We drove through a very small town called Bethungra, which would have to be the saddest, untidiest, most derelict town we’ve ever seen. If you blinked, you’d miss it....

Nov 27, 2018 - Jindera to Oura near Wagga Wagga

27/11/2018. Tuesday. Warm, sunny, light rain Jindera to Oura Free Camp east of Wagga Wagga Today I was greeted with Hazel and Ron singing happy birthday to me. It’s hard for me to believe that I’m 74 - I really don’t feel that old, but my body tells me that I am! After breakfast, chatting with ‘new friends’ and a local council worker who told us that this is not an official free camp yet - word only got out via a Councillor who is a caravanner, and it still needs to be set up properly with bins etc., and packing up, it was time for coffee...