Gilgandra NSW 25 July 2026

 Gilgandra NSW 15 July 2026

Fairly easy run down from Moree. Stopped at Coonabarabran for a sandwich in the park.

Made it into the van park early enough, went into town to the one (1) open shop that sold coffee, a ‘greasy spoon’, but decked out in a car motif so not all bad. Grabbed some food at the only other shop open, the IGA, and headed back to the van via the Info centre and the cemetery. Pleased to report all the Mortimers are still in their allotted places.

The van battery indicates that it’s charged but with the temperature sensor plugged in it wont run the load and seems to go awry with it plugged in. I suspect that the ‘new’ battery is kaput, thanks in no small way to my mistreatment of it. Turned the battery charger back into Power Supply mode and we’ll just leave it like that. Right back where we started at Day 1.

Stanthorpe Qld 23 July 2026

Stanthorpe Qld 23 July 2026

Left Tewantin at 845 as planned, traffic was relatively calm down the Mighty Bruce, over the Gateway bridge ($6.57), down onto the Logan Motorway ($4.10) and out and around Ipswich, then Warwick, over the mountains via The Gap and lots of road work, to Stanthorpe. Big deserted van park. We were allocated the “best spot in the park” mostly because it was one of two Ensuite sites and at the top of the hill.
TV is laying up, wont find channels. FWAW finale is coming up soon and I'm under the gun to get it fixed. Basically we had a relaxed day doing not much. Spend a heap of cash! Bought new running shoes and a new headlamp for the car.

Took the TV to the recreation room and plugged it into the TV aerial there. It works fine. Junk aerial I bought from junk shop doesn’t appear to work at all, so a waste of $10 as far as a diagnostic tool was concerned.

it certainly wasn't a waste having coffee and later, lunch, at the   Groove 'n' Grill Diner, downtown, as they say. 

Groove 'n Grill Diner. Stanthorpe Qld July 2026

Groove 'n Grill Diner. Stanthorpe Qld July 2026

Groove 'n Grill Diner. Stanthorpe Qld July 2026 n

Sitting here tonight minding our own business and bam, lights out. In a nutshell the 240V 16A circuit breaker had tripped because we had floor heater on, oven on and then JB turned the kettle on. Anyhow all settled down after a bit of fiddling. But I had to relook at the battery situation again. Nutshell: the battery is overheating and the thermal cutout is cutting out, which means the charger is not charging and then the battery is going flat and the under voltage sensor senses and cuts the load from the battery, hence no lights. The only thing  I could see is that the battery type switch was set halfway between ‘wet’ and ‘agm’ which means the battery may have not been charging properly. On and on it goes….

Spent an hour in  the Museum next to the van park. Extensive collection of locally donated articles, some with attached local history. Actually very well done. Here's a snap.

Museum. Stanthorpe Qld July 2026

Museum. Stanthorpe Qld July 2026

Cold morning light. Checked the battery again. Is  now showing float instead of absorption so thats a good sign. Still sounds like its boiling though. Checked the cells, its old school, and naturally they are all empty. Topped them all up and we’ll see what another night of charging does. And I disconnected hat sensor thing, it seems to be causing the under voltage to trip straight away. On and on…

Moree NSW 24 July 2026

Moree NSW 24 July 2026

Left Stanthorpe and headed to Moree.

Took a backroad, a ‘C’ road at best. Tedious, bumpy, rough, slow. 80-85 was about it. Stopped at Texas to settle down for a half hour. Coffee and scone. 

Texas. Queensland. July 2026

Back out onto the road and picked up the Bruxner Highway. Who are they kidding? Heaps better than the last goat track, but not fantastic. Turned left and headed to Warialda, another ‘C’ road and worse than the last. It was a toss-up what would break first, me or the van. Finally we arrived at Warialda and we just had to stop again. Found a little park and had a sandwich by the side of the van. From Warialda we picked up the Newell Highway and had an easy run across into Moree.

Now, we have stayed at Moree once before and I swore i’d never come back, but here we are. Fortunately we are in a different park, The G’day park just out of town on the Newell Highway and it's reasonably pleasant. They have a little hot spring so we had a soak. Lovely.

Moree obviously still has a crime problem. The gates are locked at 6pm and there are signs every where to make sure everything is locked at all times.

At least I can now plainly see why the TV doesn’t pick up any channel: the lead-in cable from the aerial is completely severed half way up the mast. Another job for another day.

And yes, the battery is still not solved. It  started to stink of hydrogen during the evening, and now the "Bulk" light is on which is not a good sign and it probably should have the thermal warning lead plugged back in. Turned the whole lot off and hoped the battery would last the night, which it did. 

Braved the zero degrees outside and took part in the Moree Parkrun at 7am. Madness i'm sure.

Moree Parkrun, 7AM. Moree NSW July 2026

Tewantin, Qld 15-21 July 2026

 Tewantin, Qld 15-21 July 2026

Oh my, that drive for 2hours 45 minutes from Tweed to Tewantin. Just full on. Motorbikes seemed intent on committing kamikaze under or front wheels, one truck literally fell apart in front of us… A van and car on their sides in a ditch… Glad to be here. Exhausted. Stressed. Why do we do it?

Already been down to Perigean Beach, Coolum, Maroochydore or Mooloolaba or wherever.  Windy, rainy, unpleasant.

Perigian Beach Qld

Car made a particularly weird noise when we pulled out pf the carpark. Not a grinding noise, sounded like cardboard box dragging or something. Odd. Stopped and looked all around. The noise started again as we left but not heard it since. Assume it was something stuck under the car / in the engine? Who knows. Does make you wonder just what you would do if….

Doesn’t bear thinking about.

Saturday. Up early and down to Coolum for a 7am start at Parkrun. Reasonably pleasant trail run around some duck ponds near the industrial area. Quick breakfast and then off to Eumundi for the market. Last few time I have dropped Judy off and then gone to find a car-park. She went on her way and then I spend an hour trying to park, including the pay parking areas, which are all full. They only open up when someone leaves, but just like a spot in the street, you have to be the car on the spot, or around you go again. Finally jagged a spot in the pay parking, $9.14 worth and had just backed in when Judy calls me to say she’s finished. Rats. Went and drank coffee at Berkelouw’s book shop and cafe in the main street to make it seem worthwhile. Returned to Tewantin and went straight to the marina and more or less straight onto a ferry, direct to Noosa itself. The Noosa Concours d’elegance was in full swing. Some really great cars apart from the exotica one always expects to see at these things.

Judy throwing herself into the madding crowd. Bugatti on the right. Noosa Qld July 2026

Next-gen concours judges going through their paces, looking for faults with the F40. Noosa Qld July 2026

They have this program called Next-Gen Judges, where they take young car enthusiasts and train them in the art of judging cars on their merit, not by their drool-value.

Our pick of the bunch. A 1936 Cadillac.  Noosa Qld July 2026

We lasted a couple of hours and jumped a ferry back to Tewantin Marina where it seemed only right that we should have some lunch, given that it was after three o’clock!

The weather is not great. Windy and cloudy. The wind started to alarm us so we put the awing away.

The awning. Did I mention that the remote lock for the release is broken. Didn’t worry me much as I can just as easily operate the lever by hand. Except now the blind roller isn’t under any tension. Either the spring is broke or the end cap has come away and let the spring go. We have a ‘little man’ coming to the van park tomorrow to deal with it.

Tweed Heads NSW, July 7 - 14 2026

 Tweed Heads NSW, July 7 - 14 2026

Moved up from Yamba to Tweed Heads, to the council owned and run park in Dry Dock Road. Probably in our Top 3. 

We forsook the mighty M1 for the more sedate and certainly for us, nostalgic A1, aka Pacifc Highway. Just a pleasant dawdle the 160 of kilometres, mostly because we had to be out of Yamba at 10 and couldn't get into Tweed before 2! Anyhow, stopped at Mooball for lunch. Who wouldn't want to stop at a place called Mooball? Mooball was a bright spot on a one-time tedious journey. It's a tiny place, a fleabite actually, but in its day everything was cow-themed. Telegraph poles, garbage bins, street signs the few buildings. After it was bypassed it could have easily died but by a stroke of luck, the government chose to turn the abandoned railway line that runs right beside it, into a Bike Trail. The clever folk of Mooball turned themselves into Bike hire, Bike picnic, Bike outfitters etc etc. The place is alive and doing well it would seem. We made our contribution by having such at the pub. 

Mooball NSW July 2026

The weather has been 'iffy' at best, so first day in, just drove to the obligatory lookout at Point Danger. We have had quite number of lunches and coffees in a quaint little place right opposite the tower itself, which defines the border between NSW and Qld, and points out NEWS for those that might be in doubt as to which way is which. Much to our surprised "our" DBar was gone and a dirty great big tall edifice stood in its place.

Now you see it....2019....

....and now you don't! 2026

Went out to dinner with Reg at the White Ivory Pub, on the water just over the bridge. Great night.

I went and did a Parkrun at Kingscliff, which is actually a bit further south at a place called 'Salt'. Went back to Kingscliff for breakfast at Choux Box cafe. Really nice. Being a bit bored and seing as we were out and about early, we went driving, as we do. 

First stop was a drive-by of a tiny little town called TumbleGum, right on the Tweed river and it is a delight. We meant to go back there for lunch. If they had a van park we would stay there as well.

Drove up through Murwillumbah and out through to Uki, where we hadn't been for years. Yuk. The Nimbin mob have moved in and turned it into a row of new age alternative rubbish shops. Oh well, might as well go and see the real deal as we are out tat way. Now I don't like Nimbin, never have. It just looks dirty and disheveled and deadheads all over the place. In the space of a walk of two short blocks we were offered 'weed' three times and 'fresh eggs' by a scruffy man that jumped out from behind a large advertising sign. 

Only one thing brightened the scruffy looking place up, and that is this mural of a whale:

SAVE THE WHALE!!! .... Collect the whole set. 
Nimben NSW July 2026

Took a drive up to Mt Tambourine to the little village street that was lined on both side by cafes and art and craft shops. We couldn't find it! Turns out it's now called "Gallery Street", as I suppose some sort of allusion to it being all art galleries. It is anything but and Id sum up by saying we will never bother going back. We tried to find a cafe for lunch and eventually had to settle for Le Chille Cafe, Chilean themed of course. Service was really bad but lunch when it came was first-rate.

Back at the ranch, it seemed the right time for Judy to go and have a fish at a little place down along the Terranora River. here are the snaps:

 

I amused myself by taking sunset photos:

Terranora River. Tweed Heads NSW July 2026

Terranora River. Tweed Heads NSW July 2026

Yamba NSW. July 5th 2026

Yamba NSW. July 3rd-7th 2026

We are back in Yamba again and surprised to find ourselves down the other end of the Blue Dolphin Caravan Park, rather than our 'usual' place right up the other end. It's an ensuite site in their unique style which is s block of six, one each for six adjacent sites rather than one ensuite on each site.  Our van is backed right onto one of the pools, but probably because they don't heat this pool, it's pretty quiet. The kids come and go to have a ride on the water slide but then disappear again back to the other heated pool. Or their scooter, or bikes or wherever. So far so good. 

Went out for a bit of a drive around today, first stop was Angourie to look at the 'world famous' beach. Well it's world famous if you are in the surfing world.

Angourie Beach. Yamba NSW 2026

Around the corner are the "Blue and Green pools". I've been here a few times and they just look like dark forbidding pools of cold inky water. As I've mentioned before, they are the result of the quarrying that took place here from 1890 to 1899 to provide bluestone rock to build the channel training walls in the nearby Clarence River.

Angourie Pools. yamba NSW 2026

Too bad that in 1899, the miners broke through into a spring and the big holes filled up with water. They used to have steam powered cranes to lift the rocks onto a steam train that ran right around the headland and across to a wharf on the Clarence River at Yamba, maybe 5k. You can see a few old relics lying around and if you consider that these rails have been more or less in salt water for 127 years, they look pretty good.

Old railway lines. Angourie Pools, Yamba NSW July 2026

Back around in Yamba itself we took a cook's tour in the car. Overlooking the Main Beach is the lighthouse. Not the original. This one was built in 1956 to replace the original one that became a bit obsolete when they built the Pacific Hotel more or less right in front of it. 

Lighthouse. Yamba July 2026

What to do on a rainy day in Yamba? Grab a coffee and go watch the waves at the beach is one option.

Main Beach. Yamba NSW July 2026

Having expired that avenue of diversion, we took a drive up the highway to New Italy to have a look at the museum. Fascinating story of how these early settlers came to be in Australia.

In a nutshell, the Italians were involved in the The De Rays Expedition (1879–1881) which was a disastrous and fraudulent attempt by French nobleman Marquis de Rays to establish a South Pacific utopian colony called "La Nouvelle France" (New France) on the island of New Ireland in present-day Papua New Guinea.

They escaped to Australia and following a period of 12 months when they each had to go out into the community and work, they reassembled and were granted citizenship and they all went and settled at "New Italy" up on the North Coast of NSW.

Museum complex. New Italy NSW July 2026

While we were up that way we drove out to Evans Heads to have a look around. The town and area has a nice feel about it and we've pencilled it in for a stay next time we come up here.

Breakwater on Evans River. Evans Head NSW July 2026

I got all excited about a sign that said "F111 Museum", which turned out to be an the old WWII airfield, which after a bit of a chequered history was recently bought privately from the Council and operates as a private airfield and a museum. According to the website it has all kinds of interesting aircraft, including the F111. Unfortunately, closed on Monday. Maybe next time....

Had a bit of fun on the way back. Our car's GPS kept telling us to go out to Casino, drive down to Grafton and then back up to Yamba. You can see why, the M1 apparently doesn't exist! Turns out our maps are from the 2021 update, too soon after the M1 was opened to have been included. Like only a few weeks earlier. You'd think the map people might have had a bit of a look around, 'scan the environment', before publishing. 

Oh oh. We are in the middle of the mudflats. better go back and take the long way around!

As we flew along the very much solid, existing M1 and the bridge over the Clarence River, I grabbed a snap of the oldest existing, operational sugar mill in Australia. It's on Harwood Island in the Clarence, at Yamba. It was opened in 1874 and is still crushing 'em. As a side story, the cane used to be brought down the river in barges until someone invented the railways and then the motor lorry. The last of the barges were scuttled along the river in 1975.

Sugar Mill. Harwood Island, Yamba NSW July 2026

Punt or barge used to carry sugar cane down to the mill. This was the last one left and the council crushed it because they deemed it 'unsafe' for the public. Ferry Park, Maclean NSW August 2012

 

Urunga NSW, July 2nd 2026

Urunga NSW, July 2nd 2026

Had a bit of a wander around sort of day, mostly via the old Pacific Highway, now referred to as the A1 or Giinagay Way as parts of it are now known. Just driving on it, as it twists and turns and goes in and out of every coastal town, not to mention radar speed traps everywhere, coppers hiding behind every bush, brings back a lot of memories. It was bypassed by the M1 back in 2016, but still, I can remember driving it many times: that slow crawl as you wend your way toward the day's goal. One truck, one snail, or one of the inevitable and interminable road works and you are reduced to a crawl. It was truly horrible. Not as horrible as the Bruce Highway in Queensland mind you, but up in the top 3.

We detoured off it to start with, turning down Rodeo Drive to Bowraville, and to be frank and with no disrespect to anyone who lives there, we drove through, turned around and drove right back out. The most notable thing is that there isn't one upgraded / refurbished / renovated building facing the main street, which is kind of quaint but kind of sad as well, especially as a lot of what was there was boarded up and closed permanently.

Went to Macksville looking for coffee and or lunch but found a Department Store instead which required investigation, and then on to Scotts Head, the Macksville coffee shop options looking decidedly bleak. We had lunch there, nice hamburger and chips washed down with passable coffee. I took a snap of the mural on the toilet block as the most exciting thing I could find. It wasn't a great beach day but there were nippers out paddling about and learning how to be the next-gen lifesavers. Good on them!

Mural on public toilet block. Scotts Head NSW, 2026

Continued our drive by of Grassy Head and Stuarts Point before deciding that Urunga was worth a visit. Uranga is of course 50km in the other direction, but given the day, we may as well be doing that as anything, and besides they have a lovely old one kilometre long wooden boardwalk from the van park, over the mangrove flats and out to the ocean beach.

Or at least they did have. We had wondered how the old wooden one was holding up and the answer was that 12 months ago they ripped it out and replaced it with a really nice metal and plastic one, two-and-a-half metres wide and even extends down the south arm of the Bellinger River / mud flats to the wetlands sanctuary, a boardwalk that appears to go nowhere and is  still referred to as an "interpretive boardwalk", although what it's interpreting is anyone's guess as there are no signs of any sort. The main boardwalk gets about half the way to the beach at the moment, but they are still working on it and what they have built so far is pretty special. Regardless of what they call it, it's a special part of the coast and well worth a visit.

 Well done them.

Urunga Boardwalk. Urunga NSW, 2026

Urunga Boardwalk. Urunga NSW, 2026

For your edification and just a bit of fun, here is a bad photo of the sign that used to be there, telling us all about the history. I assume they are now rewriting history, as they can and do.

Sign, Urunga boardwalk. Urunga NSW 2016

Just for fun, read the sign and think about the progressive increase in the cost of successive upgrades. I wonder if the new sign, should one eventuate, mention that the new boardwalk's budget is some $6.1 million.