Beach Driving at Stockton Beach and on to Tamworth via Stroud and Gloucester (not the A46)

Finally I am writing with my shorts and "singlet" on, plus the sun is shining on the tent and there is country music on the radio (explanation below).  Damn rain - anyone would think this was Australia we are driving round wouldn't they?  Well sometimes it does not feel like it we have been so wet.  But today it does. 

We are in the Country Music Capital of Australia "Tamworth" in NSW (still).  It's 600kms North West of Sydney and about 500kms South West of Brisbane.  Quite outback in style, but large enough to have all the shops we need.  Tonight we might head out to soak up some country sounds with a Tooheys or two.  Now I know I don't know much about music, and less about country music, but out here is does just sound....right!

To get here we have had a fantastic few days, with a fair few kms but a lot of good sights to enhance the journey.  When we left Soldiers Point the first thing we did was some beach driving all the way down Stockton Beach, past a shipwreck and then looped back round to head up to Wallingat National Park.  Stockton Beach was very long, very windy, but great fun for someone who hasn't driven on the beach for a fair few years - and this was something else altogether!  The sand was very loose and quite deep at times, both cars did well considering how loaded up we are, but I think we all crapped ourselves a few times when either the cars felt like they were going to roll or (for me) I thought we were properly stuck in a tricky dune when we were trying to find the way out!  After a few attempts neither me or Paul could make it to the top of this dune, but you can see how deep and loose the sand is:

Great fun all round as you can see from the smiles on our faces!

Nick - a dead shark we spotted on Stockton, just for you:

After Stockton we headed on a tourist trail which took us through Stroud and Gloucester, we were so chuffed by being in the replica of the Cotswolds we did a full-on tourist picture:

Apparently an agriculture company founded the town and simply named it because of the area's similarity to the Cotswolds.  To us it was green and the hills were rolling, but apart from that it was most definitely Australian.  The same went for Gloucester although we did have a nice pie and chips there.

Barrington Tops National Park is listed as World Heritage status for it's rainforest area (along with many others up the coast of Australia), and it was definitely beautiful, but cold and quite similar to the Snowy's so we didn't linger long - although for the avid bird watchers out there (you know who you are, or is it just me?) we did see a female lyre-bird which are quite rare apparently.

We made it to Tamworth by mid afternoon and had a bit of time to dry our stuff in the sun before an early night

Tent vs Cabin

Now don't laugh, but me & Em have just settled down to watch the Vicar of Dibley on TV with a pizza delivery.  Yes, we succumbed after a few wet days in the tent and have splashed out on a cabin in a holiday/caravan park.  Pizza delivery, running + drinkable water from a tap, light switches, hot shower, flushing loo, kitchenette, toaster.....it's amazing, but there is a lot of stuff we take for granted, and after only a couple of weeks of going without them it is noticeable when they are there again!  If anyone is interested I'll post a picture of a "drop-toilet" which is what we mainly use in National Parks but I assure you - even without pictorial evidence - it is a strange feeling walking away from a toilet after a number two without flushing; nobody can ever get used to that surely!

Location update; we are in Soldiers Point near Nelson Bay on the NSW coast approximately 100kms North of Sydney.  Paul & Emily have joined us again after a few days in the city, during which time me and Em explored around Myall Lakes National Park, and very pretty it was too - beach on one side and freshwater lake on the other side.  This is Em on the lakeside showing how flooded it is:

 

I had my first dingo encounter (Em has seen them before on Fraser Island) at the campsite on Saturday morning (before we left for the cabin):

It was tagged and was very wary of us, and the posters on the campsite told us to keep eye contact and back away if they appear.  After I stared it down (and accidentally whistled at it, which it ignored!) it moved on to other pitches where the people had left for the day to scavenge around their rubbish.  A very strange sight indeed and not a dog that I would like to cross - they are big (larger than a retriever) and quite lean, I would imagine they would be pretty nasty when angry.

After me & Em had packed up camp (after drying everything for about 3 hrs in the sun) we decided to get the bikes out and go for a ride to an old fishing village reachable only by boat or walking track; after 20 mins of riding through puddles the track was covered in lake however, so after taking our shoes off and carefully trying to cross the flooded path we tried to get further, but could not as the lake had risen so much, it was fun something different, here is Em getting her feet muddy and wet:

And just so you know what backpackers we are being, here is the (free) local wireless internet access from the library where we were checking email and posting to the blog:

And a few replies to feedback left recently:

More roadkill/oceankill pics will be posted as soon as available.  Glad you enjoyed them - I was well chuffed we got to see a seal being nibbled on at the end of a such a pleasant ramble to the headland!

No photos of uprooted signpost are available as I am embarrassed about the incident, but my excuse is it had been a long day of driving ;-)

And finally I will be shaving tonight so don't worry - the ginger beard will be more under control by the next post......

NSW...Still

This is a big state - not the biggest - and we are still in it, even after a mammoth drive yesterday. 

I am writing this from our campsite "Mungo Brush" in Port Stephens/Myall Lakes area.  We have had our 2nd night running of waking up to a very wet tent unfortunately; since leaving the Blue Mountains/Jenolan Caves area we spent a night in the mountains, not expecting to wake up to a frosty temperature of 2 degrees and a thick fog, and for our first night in Myall Lakes it rained for most of the night....so we are drying the tent as I write this and will then pop to the local library in Tea Gardens (that's the name of the town) to upload it.

Paul and Emily are visiting friends and family in Sydney so me and Em did a lot of driving yesterday from the Blue Mountains area to get back to the coast hoping it would be drier and warmer (which it is the latter most definitely).  We captured these town names on the way through the Barrington Tops area, hopefully we will drive back through on our way to Tamworth to see if they are really like their namesakes!

Before a brief visit to Barrington Tops we also did the tourist thing to reputedly the oldest cave system in the world called "Jenolan Caves".  For all budding geologists the rock in that area has been dated back to 430 million years ago, and some sediment from the cave floors has been dated to 340 million years ago.  I don't reckon Wookey Hole can beat that, but its a long time since I have been there, so feel free to let me know if I am wrong.  Anyway Jenolan was worth the narrow, winding roads to get there.  Cave pictures dont come out too well on camera, but here is one to give you the idea, it took an hour and a half to wander around on the tour so I have a lot of blurry pictures if anyone is really interested:

Going back in time again our Blue Mountains visit was also memorable: we did a walk around Wentworth Falls which was peppered with path closures for safety renovations, and at one (unmarked on the map!) said site, it was closed for a further 30 minutes when we got there, so we waited for the workmen to let us through with a handful of other tourists, when a thunderstorm opened up above what felt like directly over our heads.  It was quite an experience feeling the thunder when we were perched on a path between the mountains.  Once we were through the site we ascended back to the car park through a few little waterfalls safe and sound, but wet.  Here we are with Wentworth Falls behind us - they were quite beautiful from below:

Overall we are having a great time, the car is doing ok (although I had a small argument with a signpost last night when reversing - luckily my bullbar backed me up and the signpost lost the argument), we are doing ok, not missing work in the slightest, loving all the little experiences that make up a good holiday and hoping the rain stays away.  And thanks for all your comments and emails about the blog, they are being read with pleasure (and some homesickness) when we get internet access!

NSW South Coast Continued - Booderee National Park

We are still on the NSW coast.  We've been camped up for 4 days in Booderee National Park which is in the Jervis Bay area.  Before there we spent one night at Depot Beach, which wasn't much cop so we pressed on to Jervis Bay.  The park is not too big, not too small, and the beaches are stunning:

It has been interesting for a number of other reasons too, namely:

It's home to the Royal Australian Navy's Survival and Ship Safety School, so we got to see some squaddies out on manouvres (actually they were at the historic lighthouse taking a tea break I reckon):

We saw a dead seal being pecked at by something (probably a shark, I dont know what sort - also Paul caught two sharks in about 20 minutes on the beach near our campgound - only a little banjo and some sort of funny shovel nosed one we weren't sure about!):

And too much other fun stuff like a kookaburra swooping a piece of cheese out of Em's and Emily's hands....possum's that dont know when to back off and one that nearly pissed on me as it ran up a tree when I chased it off....etc etc. 

Here is a picture of Em at Governor's Head with Bowen Island in the background:

NSW South Coast - Mimosa Rocks National Park

After a very relaxing week in the Snowy's we all felt recharged enough to move on...so since leaving Anglers Reach on Sunday 4th May we have been slowly making our way up the South coast of New South Wales.  And very pretty it is too.  Bega is a nationally famous cheese so we stopped in to the namesake town for a bit of tasting, including fudge and a fascinating museum about the history of the area and cheese making.

From there we have been camping next to the beach in a spot about 20kms North of Bega, at Gillards Beach near Tathra.  I would like to list all the native animals we have seen since being here, but it would go on for a while; so I'll limit the birds as I think I am the only one that's interested anyway:

Sea eagle, whipbird, bellbird, oystercatcher, wattlebird, pelican, black cockatoo.

Then the marine life:

Stingrays - they were sweeping up the ocean floor beneath Tathra pier (you can just mae him out in the pic below, they were huge!), and dolphins - they swam through the surf about 20 feet away from us as we were taking a dip in the ocean!

And the marsupials that gather round the campfire with us at the end of the day:

Swamp wallaby (first pic below), eastern grey kangaroo (second pic below), bandicoot, poteroo and a bush rat/mouse called Gary that wanted to make a new home in Paul & Emily's camper bed!

Captain Birdseye

We had a good day yesterday at the Snowy's. It was snowing outside so I spent most of the day lazing around reading, eating and playing Nintendo.  I have been getting abuse from everyone as they think I am addicted to chocolate and that I shouldn't be able to eat the size of my heads worth of the stuff.

Early evening Chaz and Paul headed off down to the lake (Lake Eucumbene) to do some fishing whilst me and Emily prepared hot milk and Kahlua (coffee liqueur) to keep us warm whilst we were down there.  We almost left the house without a torch, but I ran back up to get one before we headed down.  However it wasn't very bright so we headed in the wrong direction into marsh land in the pitch black with our arms full with thermos flasks.  Luckily just as the panic started to set in we eventually caught sight of their fire and managed to find our way to the dirt track.

Just as we were all about to head back to the house as the fish weren't biting, the guys checked the rod for the last time and to Chaz's delight he had caught something; a brown trout. Paul knocked it on the head to kill it and Chaz stuck his fingers through it's head for the obligatory first fish photo. As you can see from the photo he was very chuffed and he didn't wipe the smile off his face for the rest of the day.

A few moments later Paul then caught a rainbow trout so this time Chaz wacked it on the head with his mag-light.  The fun bit came when we got back to the house and Paul taught us how to gut them, which Chaz handled very well, which was a bit of a surprise considering his issue with handling worms!

Anyway, it's fish in beer batter for dinner tonight and I think Chaz has now caught the fishing bug.  However this is quite appropriate as he is looking more like Captain Birdseye every day. 

Across the Snowy's

I'm writing this from the comfort of Paul's parents house in Angler's Reach near Lake Eucumbene at 7am on Monday 28th April.  It's about 2 degrees outside and there is a good blanket of snow on the ground so am glad I am inside and in a real bed for the first time in 8 days!

Working back to when Paul and Emily arrived at Police Paddocks; we left there on Friday and reached Nariel Creek (via Wodonga for supplies) for an overnight camp beneath some tall poplars in full autumn colour.  Camping beside the creek was extremely cold even with our huge fire, probably the coldest night camping we've ever done in fact - I am not sure but the temperature was probably only 3 or 4 degrees overnight.

Hopefully we have reached the end to a chapter now, that is our resident mouse appears to have relocated from the boot back to his native countryside.  After finding a pack of noodles attacked and us setting two traps baited with peanut butter, there has been no sign of him/her or his poop....

So in the morning we set off to Corryong, a pretty mountain town and home of Jack Riley - the Man from Snowy River - for a map and some supplies and then began our 4WD trek into the Snowy Mountains.  We were following a suggested trek itinerary published on a 4WD website.  After 30kms of tarmac the road turned into steep, winding gravel track which slowed our pace down to about 10-15kms per hour and mostly 2nd gear.  The track is usually used by logging trucks, but we didn't encounter any thankfully as it was pretty narrow in places!

Our first stop on the trek was at an old stockman's hut called Wheelers Hut.  The huts in the Snowy's were built by the early settler's (some have been destroyed by bush fires and subsequently rebuilt) and are still used today for emergency shelters.  They usually contain a few bunk beds and a fireplace with kindling and firewood always left by the last person.

Continuing up the track into the mountains we entered an area called Mount Gibbo Scenic Reserve.  The whole of the Snowy's are covered in Snow Gum trees, a few of which still show the burn marks of serious bush fires from 2007 and 2003.  The climb to the top of Mount Gibbo (1750m) was some serious 4WDing with steep inclines up rock faces with loose, sharp rocks aplenty to test the tyres! 

We made it to the top with only a few slips and slides.  It was an exhilirating ride!!!  And a great view from the top:

The descent was obviously steep too, but low gears and a steady pace helped us down.

Unfortunately at this stage I realised my rear left airbag (for the suspension) had not pumped up, so Paul and I had to whip the wheel off and do some diagnosis to find that a slow puncture (which had been there for some months - I just hadn't realised/noticed) was present and as we had been driving so slowly 4wding, the compressor had not kicked in to pump it up again.  After a cold hour in the mud and hail we decided we should get to a campsite before dark so limped down off Mount Anderson to Dogmans Hut campsite.  At this stage the airbag was alright again, but I'll have to order a spare part and replace it before we go anywhere more remote. 

When we arrived at Dogmans Hut there were a few local Aussie's camped there already and one old chap had a Land Rover Defender, he came over and commented on how good the Land Rover's were, which we all laughed at as we had just had this incident with the airbag!  Anyway he runs a business from home supplying spare parts to the locals who own LR's in the area and gave me his stubby holder so I have his number to give him a call to get my new airbag.  A funny coincidence when you consider how in the middle of nowhere we were.....

The camp at Dogmans Hut was a superb evening under the stars with loads of thick snow gum logs on the fire, a tasty curry cooked on the fire, and a few beers had. 

In the morning we left the Snowy's via our first river crossing - in this case the Murray River which will be considerably colder than any up North!  Paul did the depth test in his shorts!  We both crossed no problem and the water was probably just up to the top of the tyres at its deepest:

As we continued out of the mountain range we saw many grey kangaroos in the rain and had a snow storm on the roads which was a fitting end to an awesome trek across the mountains.

Heading on then to Anglers Reach via Thredbo and Jindabyne which was about a 2 hour drive on tarmac.  We'll come back to Thredbo later in the week to do the walk to the top of Mount Kosciuosko (Australia's highest mountain - see the itinerary to the left).

First Bush-shower Taken and Bread Attacked!

Since leaving Aireys Inlet on Sunday we have been camped at a beautiful spot called Police Paddocks near Rutherglen on the South side of the Murray River - the border of NE Victoria and NSW.  It is called Police Paddocks as the police used the 1000 hectare island - which we are facing from our campsite - to spell their horses during the 1880's apparently.  The island is in the background in the pic below and the tree behind our gazebo looks about 500 years old in our expert opinions:

It is now Wednesday and we have started to chill out and enjoy the pace of the natural day.  Using solar energy and river water today we experienced our first bush shower!  We bought a $10 black bag with a hose attached which we put in the sun for 3 hours, then hung it off the roof of the car and between a couple of tarps took a well deserved shower in the heat of the day. 

I think there is a Kookaburra in the picture above, no prizes for spotting it I am afraid.

It was all go earlier in the morning as when Em took out the kitchen boxes a mouse hopped out from its comfy bed (of one of our tea towels) and disappeared under a tree.  On further investigation we found he had been at our bread and left poop in several places in the back of the car.  This also explains why we were woken up twice during the night by the car alarm as the motion sensors picked up the little blighter having a ball with our fresh bread.

Apart from that we have been doing a little fishing (no luck yet); Chaz caught a shrimp with his Swiss army knife(!) which we used for bait until it fell off.  We then caught another shrimp using a homemade net out of a mossie face net and cable ties.  Still the fishies evade us though.  And we arent quite sure what to do with one if we catch it anyway.....

We are expecting Paul and Emily to join us in the next few days to begin our trip over the Snowy's.

Leaving Today!

This post is mainly for my new tyres, but also to say we are getting on the road proper today!

We're leaving Aireys Inlet at around lunchtime and heading to the Rutherglen region of Victoria for a few nights camping, ready to meet Paul and Emily in Corryong once they have finished working on the camper.

Yesterday we took some snaps of the cars as mine is now trip ready and Paul's almost - except for the camper:

 

For those interested in the pimp factor; we both went for Mickey Thompson All Terrain tyres, although I have a complexion about mine as they are smaller than Paul's, so no comments about size please.

The next post will be whenever we can get near an internet connection.  Cheerio for now!

Last Day at Work

We are now both officially unemployed! I don't think it has quite sunk in yet for either of us.

We had a good leaving party at the pub last night so today was a bit slow, and still lots of packing to do tomorrow after an early night tonight.....

OK, here is my pimped ride:

The Disco with it's new 2" body lift:















Lovells heavy duty front springs:















Lovells shock absorber and the air suspension spacer kit:















Finally here is a snap of Paul and Emily from a previous weekend after working on kitting out the interior of their camper:

Pimped Rides, House Turmoil and Last Day at Work

Well we both got through our penultimate day at work today which was fun...and the house is now in complete turmoil....chairs taken apart, boxes piled high, Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares on TV....We can't figure out what tyres are legally allowed on the car (as I am replacing the highway tyres for more all terrain type tyres)....Paul and Emily cant decide on a domain/email name....oh and the bloody graphics card has died on the laptop, so I am writing this through a slightly blurry screen. Awesome timing Dell, thanks.

Good things are the car now has a 2" suspension lift, with new front springs and four new shock absorbers. Also new rear brakes and shiny new coolant AND - I almost forgot - no more oil leak! What a relief as it was leaking very badly. All thanks to Paul's dad Bill for a busy weekend on the cars last weekend. Paul and Emily are getting there with their camper too. I will upload some pics of our newly pimped rides soon.

So just tonight's sleep to go and an easy last day at work tomorrow. Move furniture day is Wednesday next week, clean the house and hand the keys back is Thursday, then we are officially homeless!

Google Map

Check out the searchable Google Map - centred on our house today - at the bottom of the blog.

Car Servicing & Thinking About Not Working

Over the long Easter weekend it has been all car stuff I am afraid.

Saturday was spent removing the 2nd row seats and rust proofing the door panels (for that beach driving on Fraser Island!). Also some other bits and pieces that needed doing like wiper blades and washer fluid and all that boring stuff.

Then Easter Sunday at Paul's we changed the engine oil + filters and diff oil, plus greased the uni joints under the car. With Paul and his dad's help of course, but it is a nice feeling knowing you changed the oil yourself and saw all the clean stuff go in all the same! Once the transfer case oil leak (typical Land Rover apparently) is sorted at the dealers then the gearbox and transfer oil will be changed and we will be good to go - in terms of oil anyway!

Next plan for the car is changing all four shock absorbers and front springs for some heavier duty and 2" raised ones, and raising the rear by 2" with a special lifting kit (as the car has airbags for the rear suspension). We'll also replace the rear brake pads whilst we are at it.

Me and Em still have a lot else to do other than the car; packing, moving out, planning, etc. And now only have about 3 weeks left at work. Both of us are really excited about leaving work, but daunted by the thought of not being at work at the same time - make sense? Well, imagine waking up every day and not having anything to do except fish (we've both got rods now!), beach bum/surf, read, drive (sometimes), explore, make/pack camp, and cook. It's gonna be weird.....

We've Quit!

Me & Em both handed our notices in at our respective employers yesterday. It was a very exciting day indeed!

Emily works at Philip Morris too and we both scheduled meetings with our managers for the same time so the news came out at once.

And we went to see Ian Brown at Hi Fi Bar in the evening with the Freeman's which made it a really cool day overall!

Warm up bush camp with Nick and Dyo

Over the Labour Day long weekend we took a trip to Bunyip State Park with Swiss friends Nick and Dyo. This was a dry run for our trip and included a couple of tricky 4WD tracks through the park.

It was also a great way to spend the weekend with our Swissy friends who are shortly heading off to Buenos Aires on assignment, with plenty of bush tucker had around the fire on Saturday and Sunday night before heading home on Monday during a windy, hot, total fire ban, day off work!

Nick teaching us how to chop wood the Swiss way:

Base camp:

A friendly local in a WWII jeep:

Nick's Suzuki leading the way:

My Disco after a difficult climb up steep terrain called Western Track, both cars made it up no problem and it was beautiful forest at the top:

And some happy campers at Seven Rock lookout - after searching for this place for nearly 5 hours (including the difficult 4WD Western Track) it was a welcome relief to see the wide open view of Gippsland and Westernport Bay from the top:

Tomorrow is D-Day at work for me and Em so come back soon for some more stories of how we are getting on with our preparation!

Some car prep pictures...

Paul (our travelling buddy) put his chippie skills to work on the back of my car one weekend in his hometown Aireys Inlet. The frame and floor is made of aluminium and plastic joints with ply shelves, carpeted expertly by the girls, for a rather useful end result!
















I had the dual battery and inverter fitted which will also come in very handy for powering all the 12 volt camping accessories, charging the laptop and camera batteries and most importantly the 50 litre Waeco fridge:














And above I had a crack at fitting the driving lights - with direction from Paul!

Em's stuff

Yo - Chaz is buggin me