Canberra, ACT

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Well, well, well. Here we are back in our own house. A few statistics for those interested in these things:

Days away: 138 or 4 months, 18 days
Total kilometres driven : 24,740
(BMW: 19,390, Various hire cars (4) 4,350)
Total kilometres covered by the van : 12,300
Photos take: In excess of 5000
Blog posts made : 119
Blog views, and not by us! : 4318 and counting

Best thing: Just doin' it!!!!!! For me, this was as close to an adventure as I'm likely to get. Make arrangements for the cat, house, bills, letters. Get car and van ready as best as you can. Pack up all the things that you think you'll need. Put half of them back. Have a last meal and drink with the family and then just literally, drive away into the sunset, knowing that you wont be back for at least 4 months. Transport run out across the Murray, done it all before. Had a fabulous couple of days in Mildura, Dinner in Stefano's restaurant and a whole day being shown all over Lake Mungo national park by the last of the traditional owners. This was a taste for things to come.

First time we turned our rig northward and into the unknown at Berri in SA was a buzz and we had an inkling that we were on our way. Saw Wilpena Pound and explored the Flinders Ranges, the likes of which we hadn't seen or experienced before. Now that was going to be hard to top.

I had a 'moment' as we left Port Augusta heading west and you come to the intersection with the Stuart Hhighway that heads north for 2,700 kilometres to Darwin. Now I knew we were truly going to do it and this was the start of something big.

What a place, travel for hours through apparently barren plains, visit legendary places like Woomera and the Breakaways north 'o Coober. And travel, and drive, and drive. Stay in a real dinki-di Road House. Sat up at the bar and had a drink with the locals and a few fellow tourists.

Turn left after a weeks travel and drive another 300 uninterrupted k's to a bloody big rock called Uluru, which to me was truly awe inspiring, well at least until I saw its cousin just a bit further out, Kata Tjuta. Soaked up all the Aboriginal stories and yarns and culture and law. Loved it, gave me a whole different perspective. Enough rock? I don't think so: another 300k to Kings Canyon, 'just up the road' and you see more great big rocks you and love it.

Meeting Lyn & Ray on top of a hill in a van park in Alice was pretty special and I need to thank them for their hospitality. Good on yas.

Getting sick on the road in the outback is not a pleasant experience, but hey, we were learning fast to take the good with the bad, and so, you push on, all the way up to Mataranka. Even the name sounds adventurous. And then Katherine and finally Darwin. Having to get the car fixed wasn't really a low, we got to meet Josh the mechanic who used to work for our mechanic in Canberra, and we had Russell and Josh and another Josh who fixed the gearbox itself  doing all they could to make sure we were looked after: and I have to thank them all for that as well. Like I said, we had started to learn to adapt and adapt we did. We saw more of Darwin, and loved it, than we might have. We hired cars and trucks and saw Kakadu out east and Kunanurra way out west.


We saw crocs up close and scary as hell. We saw aboriginal paintings thousands of years old, we saw landscapes as old as time. We took a ride in a tiny plane out over the Bungle Bungles, Lake Argyle and the Argyle diamond mine. The landscape is truly fantastic. We swam in rock pools, under waterfalls, in thermal spas and swimming pools on the edges of the ocean. We did all we could to immerse ourselves in the history, culture, land, people and a way of life previously unknown to us.


Pick a highlight? Not a chance.
Go again? Bet your life on it, can't wait.

Next time we'll go a bit more bush, take a few more chances. We need to taste that spirit of adventure again, to live a bit more on our own resources, to take nothing for granted in our daily life. everyone should do it, it's a transforming experience.

Worst part? That's relatively easy. Leaving the outback and crossing over back into civilisation, which started for us in Emerald in Queensland. Nice place, but too crowded, too civilised, too urban.

Biggest mistake? Taking too long wandering down the coast. Should have stayed 'out there'.

Cheers, from us for now, stay safe wherever you roam.
Brian & Judy

Sadly, this is the penultimate post

Yes folks, sad but true. Who would have thought that 137 days could go so fast? One minute your heading out all bright eyed and bushy tailed and the next you're looking back on some great times and pinching yourself to check that you really did go to all those places and do all those things. Good job we took snaps and wrote a blog and a diary otherwise we would never have believed it.

But, today is the last day out for us, we head home tomorrow, so for now i'll just leave you with some snaps from Lake Conjola, and promise to write an extensive wrap of the whole experience tomorrow.

Don't forget to look at the Lake Conjola snaps again as i added some more.

Snaps of the day

Ducks on the lake

Sunset on the lake

More arty sunset on the lake

A last fish, a last champagne...

The Great Annual Fish-off. Lake Conjola, NSW

Happy Birthday Paul

Actually, 'twas yesterday, but better late than never.

The Annual Fishing contest was down to three anglers this year, Judy, Paul and Paul's mate Kerry.

The lake's entrance is closed to the ocean, the lake is full of fresh water and sadly, the usually scarce fish are completely non-existent. SO, over to the beach. Paul had his beach rod, last used 1973 and a spare for Kerry. Judy had her trusty lake and estuary rod. Paul had pilchards on a three-gang hook, Judy had the usual prawn on a big red hook. I rigged the line as requested for beach operations and off we went. The battle was on, lines were cast, bait was thrown into the ocean, feet were frozen.

Fish? Not a one, not a hint of a one, not a bit, not a nibble. Nothing, Zippo.

The session was called when a suggestion that the only nibbles that were going to be had would be served on a platter with a nice glass of wine. And so it was that the Great Fishing Contest for the Year 2012 was declared a non-event on account of a lack of interest on the fishs' behalf. a Fish Off it certainly was. Next year, we'll get them next year!

It lives! Long live the Beemer

It true. The car was shipped on Thursday from Ulladulla to Canberra to Advanced Tech Automotive by the NRMA. Advanced Tech Automotive ordered the part Thursday morning based on the NRMA roadside assistance diagnosis.

Now get this - Advanced Tech Automotive called me on Friday at 12 noon to say the car was fixed and ready to go, now that is service. It really doesn't get much better than that in the car repair business.

My special thanks to NRMA whose Platinum Coverage service has been truly outstanding. Well done to them and especially "Chris" who took my intial call and handled it with efficiency and top level professionalism.

Now that we know how the coverage works, we wont hesitate to take off again next year and head outback again. Far out, as they say,

Rats! More car trouble

Yes, that's right, the fabulous X5 has packed it in again. Not happy, Jan!

This time we were coming back down the narrow dirt road from Pointers Hill and stopped to take a snap of some coloured birds in a tree and Bam! , a dreadful smell of burnt brakes or rubber or something and then the steering got all heavy like it had a flat tyre. Limped into Ulladulla, parked behind the NRMA shop and called roadside assistance. Turns out that the big pulley (harmonic balancer) on the bottom of the engine has collapsed. Game Over - tow it back to Canberra for repairs is the only really useful option.

Now as it happens I am a platinum member of NRMA with top level cover - and they have been fabulous so far : organised the car to be taken to Canberra, organised a hire car for us for the next week, and will, when asked , have the van transported back to canberra as well. Cost? Nothing. Doesnt get better than that.

Some snaps of Lake Conjola

So i suppose i should post the snap of that coloured bird that caused all the trouble...

Coloured bird. (aka King Parrot)

Lake Conjola, NSW

After spending a few enjoyable nights with Amy and family in their nice warm house, we spend the last night in Canberra in the van at Eagle Hawk. Couldn't be bothered cooking so we had dinner at the Eagle Hawk Hotel, which they tell us is closing in a few weeks as the new owners want to tart the place up. The van park is more of a cabin coral with a few random van sites. It's also the #1 place for large groups who come to Canberra on school trips etc. Kids - 1000's of them! Not really a problem except the insisted on taking the direct route from cabin to food - right through our site instead of the roadway which would have delayed them 23 seconds.

We had the van nice and toasty when the power dropped out. Rats. It was soon restored and the night passed uneventfully, snuggled down under our doona and three blankets. Woke to find the van an ice box and... no power. Only way to cope was a hot shower and porridge,jump into lots of warm clothes and get back on the road.

We elected to go north up the highway and turn down the Macs Reef Road to Bungendore and then back up to Tarago and across to Nerriga before the easier than the Clyde run down to the coast. We had been across once before and there seemed to be less dirt road than last time - 3k from Tarago to Nerriga and 8k on the last leg across to the highway.

Made it into Conjola to find the van park undergoing some well overdue work on the sites we normally use, so we took one of the new ones right down the other end and near to the amenities. Had lunch and restocked the van in Milton before returning to a take a stroll along the beach. First thing one notices is that the lake no longer empties into the sea, it's completely blocked and wont be reopened until it floods next.

No snaps today, but some sure to come along in the next day or two.

Canberra, ACT

Just a drive-by at this time. The day we turned up it had snowed for 1/2 an hour at the van park and was generally wet and cold and thoroughly miserable.

Went and watched #2 grandchild go through her paces at gymnastics - herds of little'uns doing the bar and the horse and jumping up and down - they're so cute.

Saturday lunch we checked out one of our old favourites just to make sure things were still up to scratch, then as we were so far south, we zoomed out to Corin Forest for a bit of snow-play. There was a good six inches of snow still on the ground, but as they say..."You should'a been here earlier / yesterday!

Some snaps

Snap of the day

Blacksmiths Beach, NSW

Blackies is right near Swansea. We are here for two nights so we can see some old mates before we make our last leg into Canberra. It's a penultimate leg actually as we go away again for a week before making the ultimate leg for good, well for a while at least!

I'll add some snaps soon...

Here's a few from Caves Beach

Snap of the day

What? No Illinois Nazis? I guess not, so we'll have to wait for it to go down. Bridge at Swansea, NSW

Coffs Harbour still

Finally the sun came out AND the wind stopped. What a combination. Sat around in the sun and wandered about. Found ourselves up the top of the mountain and looking out from Sealy Lookout for a squiz and then came back down for lunch. Judy elected to sit in the sun and read, I went for a walk along Boambe Beach, the only one here at present that is fairly soft sandy, the others have all been churned up a bit by the big seas over the last years.

Be sure to see the extra pictures at Coffs Harbour

A snap for Lauren

Rust? You wanted rust. This is the end of the railway line after 100 years being eaten by saltwater

Sawtell & Dorrigo, NSW

It's blowing a gale, it's not so hot, it looks like rain, the markets are off!

What can you do?

Go for a drive is the only option outside of going to the mall, so we went out for the day. First down to Sawtell where from the headland you can see and feel the ocean raging around you. But wait, what's that? No, its not a surfboard rider, even they are hunkered down in their hoodies, its a Kite-surfer. I stuck the camera of multi-frame, focussed the big lens on him and waited. Spoilsport, he just kept zooming back and forth across he boiling waves.

Wandered up Waterfall Way to Dorrigo. Ignoring the stack of toilets at the sewage farm, we had a quick look at Dangar Falls. It must be 100 metres down to the pool, but they still have a sign to tell you that diving or jumping into the pool is forbidden! Here's yer sign...

First stop up the hill is Newell Falls. Somehow they found enough room for a layby so you can stop and rubber-neck. Mind you part of the safety fence is now at the bottom of the zillion metre drop. As you drive up the hill you keep a close watch on the fence that's supposed to stop a two-ton car from going over the edge. No-way! Best to stay on the blacktop!
 
Dorrigo itself appeared to be closed - funny about that - it was closed last time we were there as well...

Around the corner is the Rainforest Centre where they had a cafe with a fire-box in the corner and passable food. After lunch went out onto the skywalk and took some snaps.

Sawtell Snaps  Dorrigo Snaps

Snap of the Day

Lunatic, Sawtell, NSW

Coffs Harbour, NSW

Sadly, we had to leave the relative warmth and sunny sky of Yamba and move a bit cloer to our final destination. So we moved 130k further down the coast to Coffs Harbour. Pretty slow going as the Pacific Highway is mostly under a continuous roadworks sign, but should be one hell of a road when its completed.

The weather, as predicted on BOM was starting to close in, windy, cold, a hint of rain. We didn't bother putting the awning out and its just as well as the strong gusts buffeted us all night. Drove down to the marina and watch a big fishing boat make it safely into harbour, then watched fascinated by the huge seas crashing over the southern breakwater. I snuck back at dawn with the camera to see if I could catch some of the atmosphere. These waves you can see in the photos, crash right up and over the wall, pretty spectacular. One of the pictures is taken straight on and although I was standing on a dry spot, its just a bit unnerving when you see your viewfinder completely filled with white foam right in front of you.

Coffs pictures

Snap of the day

Oi - git you rotten animal!

The sun came out, we ventured out and that's when I got the real snap of the day...

I reckon this is good.Southern breakwater, Coffs Harbour, NSW

Iluka, NSW

Iluka is right across the Clarence from Yamba, on the north head. The ferry runs over and back half-a-dozen times a day, so naturally we took a ride.

Iluka came into existence when they built the training walls, or breakwaters, in 1890 that keep the Clarence open to shipping. All the rock was quarried locally and after it was all over, a bunch of the men decided to stay on and start the fishing fleet in their brand new harbour. About all that is left of the old town is the post office, now a dress shop, and the pub. For some unknown reason, the fery drops you off right up the other end of the two streets that the town consists of.

The pub supplies a courtesy bus but many, including us, elected to walk along the foreshore, which is quite pretty. The end of the line is the fish coop, and unless you're prepared for a big hike (we weren't) that's about it. You can hang about and have a meal in the pub, or walk back down the street to the two shops; a bakery and a cafe. The other shop was a grocer bust is closed due to lack of interest. The 3 tables at the cafe were full so we grabbed a pie and snag roll from the bakery. By he time we had finished the cafe was empty so we moved into a sunny spot and ordered a muffin and coffee. Judy came back out all miffed because they had snapped at here with a terse "Why shouldn't we?" when she asked why they had a picture of Steve and Peter Mortimer on the wall. Not a good start, but wait, it gets worse. I was chewing on a piece of muffin when Judy voiced my concern: it was off! Sure enough on closer examination, the blueberry blue bits were green... Yuk! And the coffee was 'orrible

The antidote was a custard tart and lamington from the bakery and further medication in the form of an icecream back at the wharf were we waited for the ferry to take us away from it all.

By nightfall, even further medication was required, so we adjourned to a rather nice Italian Osteria  up the hill in Yamba, where apart from fabulous food and a glass of Prosecco, we were entertained by a loud Italian at the next table telling his 3 companions how fabulous the lovemaking was with some random woman he had met on the sunshine coast. Arh, those Italians.


Some few snaps => Iluka, NSW

Snap of the day

Must be that old gum-wire...

Ulmarra, Bluff Point, Brooms Head, NSW

Took the History Walking Tour around Yamba, but used the car instead. Most interesting item was this milepost. Some of us remember them being every mile along the road... Then we had little green shields ever 5k and now you get one big green sign at the start of the section and you're left to dead reckoning and GPS to know where you are 

Milepost. 1 mile to Yamba, 11 miles to Maclean

 Visited some of the places that the Pacific Highway has let us forget. Ulmarra is billed as "A visit to Ulmarra is like stepping back in time as the village remains one of the finest examples of a 19th Century riverport in Australia." You be the judge. It all looked a bit false to me, like a cardboard fascia had been plastered up to make it look like the town they suggest. For all the talk, there's nothing much there really and a quick walk up and down and a sqizz at the river was all it took.

Main Street. Ulmarra, NSW

Bluff Point? OK so you're forgiven for not knowing instantly where this is. Its a point on "the mainland" as the locals put it, on the opposite bank of the Clarence to Maclean. Our interest lay in the fact that it still has a working punt, which we just had to have a ride on. One of the reasons it survives is that the trucks loaded high with sugar can use it to get to the mill. We were first on and the little man called us right up to the gate to leave room for others. Judy complied and we turned our engine off and waited for others. Two more cars to our left and then a very large truck nosed up behind us. We thought we were off but something was wrong, we didn't budge. In the mirrors we could see the truck being backed up and assumed he was being backed off for some reason. But no! With a roar of its engine it charged back on, we braced ourselves to be pushed into the river when it slammed its brakes on and the whole ferry tipped forward. Judy was almost freaked out! Suddenly we were moving, gliding across the river as if nothing was more normal than using a huge truck to give the ferry a kick start....

Bluff Point Vehicular Ferry. Maclean, NSW

Brooms Head is a tiny town right on the coast, 20km east of Maclean. The caravan park, right on the beach, is possibly larger than the town and looked quite attractive, but maybe a bit remote and basic for most. But the view....

Brooms Head, NSW

Singing in the sunshine

We were pleased to wake to sunshine as we were going on a jazz cruise up the Clarence River at 11am for 4 hours. The Yamba jetty was chockers with a mob waiting for the ferry to arrive, so Judy was a little apprehensive about how it would be - would we get on, will there be a seat, will the boat sink?

We decided the top deck was the place to be as the seating was in pairs whereas downstairs was seating at tables for 8. There was a large group of ladies of a 'certain age' that had reserved 4 of the 8 tables downstairs and with the band in one corner it was also pretty full. We stayed upstairs until Iluka where another mob was waiting, but it was windy cold and you couldn't hear the band.  Fortunately, a big bunch got off at Iluka to go to the market, but Judy quite rightly suggested that I nick downstairs and grab some of the food before it all went. After I bought some sandwiches and ordered a nibbles platter, I noticed two great seats up for grabs, so I grabbed 'em. It turned out to be a very good decision. Settled in our new possie, we grabbed a bottle of Sav blank as an accompaniment. The band was already starting to react to the ladies who may have had a glass of something before the cruise and definitely a bottle or two since embarking, the sunshine was streaming in through the window and doorway and the food was yummy. The ladies turned out to be from the local golf club on their annual jazz cruise day out and were having a great time, enjoying the music and copious amounts of wine. They started singing and dancing and generally encouraging the musos who responded accordingly. Judy of course had to join in, even if she only got me up once for a dance. The whole boat full of people embraced the fun and I’m sure we could be heard from the banks of the Clarence. There were certainly a lot of people waving at us. The atmosphere only got better throughout the day and even though I’m sure we would have enjoyed the cruise anyway, the ladies really made the day.

We had turned about just past the highway bridge up near Maclean and the band took a break. The atmosphere was so charged up that the horn blower took over the piano and started pumping out some old crooner stuff. The crowd went wild. One lady wanted to do "I Am Woman" karaoke style nut he just didn't know it (he's a jazzman!) and it started to fall a bit flat. Quick as a flash he whips out the trusty iPad, and called up the chart from the internet. Bam! Together they brought the house down. Wow, what a show - and he was just filling in because he likes to play music...

When we arrived back at Iluka a couple of hours later to drop some people off, there was a heap of sober market goers waiting to get on for the trip back to Yamba on that leg of what was now ostensibly the normal ferry service. They didn’t know what they were in for! The band was still pumping it out, the ladies still partying, it was really just going off, but the newcomers embraced the atmosphere and some of them got up for a dance. Unfortunately the Yamba jetty hove into view very quickly and the band had to stop, pack up and get off. To cries of “one more” they obliged for a final, final song and we were dancing for the last time. We alighted after a very enjoyable cruise, a bloody cracker actually. We headed back into town for a coffee in the sunshine and a read of the Sunday papers. What a great day.

Judy wrote an original for this blog, I hijacked it, so my apologies if its a bit wonky - Brian

Daily snaps => Jazz Cruise Sorry, Picasa is no longer available

Sampler

Sofalatido

Maclean, NSW

For whatever reasons, we zoomed over to Maclean, about 20k upriver. It's a nice biggish town as well. One the hub of commercial transport on the Clarence, it's only claim today is to call upon its Scottish heritage, as many other towns do. They have a cairn they built, after they lost the bid for the real one that came out from Scotland in 1988 for the Bi-centenary and went to Mosman in Sydney. Their home-made cairn is made from real Scottish rocks however, so they are pretty pleased with it. They also have a bunch of Clan Chief poles showing the Chief's name and the Clan's tartan. All the telegraph poles (yes, all) in the town have a tartan painted around the bottom and all the street signs have the Scottish translation under them, mind you a lot of them seem to translate to No through road! What the need is some standing stones or at least a circle of standing cabers in the form of telegraph poles. I must tell them. Maybe they should rip over to Glen Innes and take their standing stones, they aren't doing much with them at the moment.

There is a park on the corner of the highway called Ferry Park, where apart from the i shop they have an old vehicular ferry and an old river barge. I love these ferries, as if you didn't know. This one is quite small, probably only two or maybe 4 T-model Fords and probably not the one that the Pacific Highway traffic went across the Clarence on until 1962.Ah, vehicular ferries, punts, as we called them. What a graceful and stress free way to travel the highway. Now of course its a 4 lane super bridge and Maclean is a name on a signpost flashing past your window. The river barge at least had a sign giving some of its history, it being the last of the barges, timber hulled and wooden sided, it carried 70 tons. The state of both exhibits was pretty bad however and its only a matter of time before they just disintegrate. 

Pictures for your amusement -> Maclean

Snap of the day

Vehicular Ferry. Maclean, NSW

Yamba, NSW

After 4 weeks of lounging about the lovely town of Tweed Heads / Coolangatta, it was time to move on.

And on we moved, this time down the Princes Highway past Ballina (yeah, it's finally been bypassed), back onto the goat track past the river towns and just before reaching Grafton, turn to the east and into Yamba. Billed as The Top Town in NSW, it's easy to see why, it's just a delight. Small and unspoiled, it runs along the Lower Clarence River for a short way and up onto the headland. The place is neat, tidy, spotless. There are walking tracks and rivers and beaches and a coffee shop on every corner and a few in between. Its a bit up market, but in a really nice way. Judy's head was turned by all the boutique dress and shoe shops but behaved herself - for now. Did the mini-grand tour of the beaches and sights, it's not that big a place, before returning to the park and taking a stroll along the river boardwalk.

I went a bit snap-happy. Check these photos and you'll see why -> Yamba Sorry, Google no longer support Picasa and deleted all the files,  and I didn't back them up.

As usual there's a snap, but make sure you see the others!

Angourie Headland. Angourie, NSW

Tweed locals

Been doing nothing much. Had lots of glorious sunshine with a bit of wind here and there but mostly really nice warm relaxing days.

Judy has given the fish a fair old shake the last few days, I can't remember her ever catching so many, and some good sized bream amongst them as well. We took a run down the coast popping into some of the smaller towns and ended up at Lennox Heads where we had lunch. Just cruising now, due to leave Friday, so we've done all our sight seeing and I don't think we have missed anything.

I have a few snaps of just the local area, enjoy -> Tweed locals

But what about one teaser for the day?

Surfie. Coolangatta, Qld