Judy & Brian Tour Oz

HOME! 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 nation...

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...

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 declar...

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,

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 col...

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 e...

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

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

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

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 ...

Sadly, we had to leave the relative warmth and sunny sky of Yamba and move a bit closer 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 f...

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 ferry 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...

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...

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...

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 t...

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 y...

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