Caravanning Camping Touring
Let me share some of our stories with you. I'll try to keep it fun and interesting, with heaps of photos, hints, tips and reviews all relating to life on the road.
10th March – 14th March 2025
After what seems like an eternity, we are finally able to continue our travels. Sure, it’s only a short trip, just long enough to see how well mum can cope by herself, but still…it’s a trip and nothing is going to stop us, not even cyclone Alfred.
Now, where to go? Not too far, we must be able to get home (it’s scary that we call Port Macquarie home) quickly if mum needs us. Not too wet, which is virtually impossible thanks to Albert and not too dry, we want to be able to use the kayaks. We don’t want much do we?
We decided on Split Rock Damn, a 340km drive west/north from Port, which includes a section of the Great Dividing Range. On the morning of the 10th Alfred convinced us not to go over the range. It’s tricky with a van at the best of times but with this much rain, you can expect fallen trees, rockfalls and road falls, but that wasn’t going to stop us. We’d just go the long way around.
As you can tell from the maps, we didn’t make it to Split Rock Dam. We’d been driving south down the Pacific Hwy for a couple of hours in the pouring rain, when we saw a sign for the Myall Lakes National Park. We’d never actually been there but after a quick Google search I’d located a campground and booked ourselves in. As soon as we arrived, we extended our one-night stay to three.
It continued to rain for the first two days, we didn’t mind, then it cleared up on the third. We booked another night. We would have stayed longer but the site was fully booked. We had a lovely time on and in the water. We had a sandy, little beach was which was great for swimming, even though you had to walk a couple of kms to get more than thigh deep.
While Peter enjoyed the area on his new push bike, I decided to do the circuit walk that left from our camp. It was a short walk so, what could go wrong? Now right here and now, I’m going to blame the mozzies. I mean, they were really, really, bad. Every time I stopped, which I do frequently with my camera, I became a living mozzie attraction. On top of that it was 33 degrees c and incredibly humid. I’d only been walking about fifteen minutes when I called it and headed back to Chunky Bum for my mozzie net and bug spray.
And this is where it all went wrong. I zigged when I should have zagged and after a much longer than expected time, I finally burst out of the jungle into the camp site, only it wasn’t’ mine. I figured out where I was, and where I had gone wrong, and decided to take the wet weather track home as it was the shortest and, it was wet. Made sense to me. Well, it would have been had the track not slowly vanished from existence.
I did eventually get home, hot, tired, sweaty and covered in mozzie bites so I went for a swim. I tried again the next day, but with the same humid conditions, and nothing to protect me but my mozzie net, (the bug spray was so old it didn’t spray) I didn’t stay in the jungle for too long.
Peter and I were sitting by the lakes edge one evening when a group turned up to go prawning. Not off a boat but by pulling the net between four of them around the edge of the lake. We were quite interested and the group allowed me to take some photos of them at work.
We had a welcome visitor in the camp one day, a stunning Lace Monitor. For non-Australians, this is a subspecies of goanna. He was a lovely fellow and hung around the camp for several hours giving me plenty of opportunities to take his photo. I reckon this fella’s about a metre and a half from nose to tail.
There wasn’t a lot of bird life while we were there, I think most were still sheltering from Alfred, but I had fun watching this pelican enjoy his bath time.
Of course there were a few other birds as well, but this first is my favourite shot of all. Talk about timing. The Pacific black duck landed in front of me on dead calm water, at dusk. The lighting was perfect, the reflection spot on, I just love this shot.
Don’t worry, we’ll get to Split Rock Damn soon.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
18th November 2024 10st March 2025
Ok, so…this post is not a fun post, nor is it centred on travel. But this blog is primarily to keep a record of everything that happens while Peter & I are travelling, and as such, must be recorded.
My mum was admitted into hospital on the 28th of November 2024, and so began a very scary time for us all. We didn’t get her home until the 22nd of January 2025. But…get her home we did and we’re so very grateful for that.
During November Peter, mum and I had a series of medical appointments, thirteen in total, but nothing too serious. Then on the 28th Peter and I took the kayaks out, we were enjoying a lovely day on the water when we got a call from mum’s village, asking us to come home because mum couldn’t walk.
In short, this is what happened. Mum had a narrowing of her spinal column, caused by age, wear and tear and calcification of the spine. That resulted in paralysis in mum’s legs, mainly her right one.
Luckily for us, mum’s overall health is excellent, and it was determined that she was a good candidate for an operation, though there was no guarantee that the op would reverse her paralysis.
Spoiler alert! It did.
Mum’s journey started with twelve days in Port Macquarie Base hospital. Side note: We were supposed to have gone to Kevin and Gabriela’s for an early Christmas celebration with all the family, from the 6th – 9th December, but for obvious reasons, we couldn’t make it. However, Kevin, Annalise & her partner Lauren (from Sydney) and Nick & his partner Maddie (from Melbourne) paid mum a surprise visit on their way home. She was blown away.
After her twelve days in Port, mum flew south to John Hunter hospital (Newcastle). There she would have her operation, a Laminoplasty. We drove down and were able to stay on the hospital campus, basic but oh so convenient.
In layman’s terms, a Laminoplasty increases the space within the spinal canal. It does this by cutting completely through one side of the lamina breaking it free from the spine, and part way through the opposite side creating a hinge on the lamina. A bit like a drawbridge. Metal hardware is then attached to keep the drawbridge open (like wedging a door open with a stick), removing the pressure from the spinal column. Mum needed hinges on C4,5 & 6 (neck).
Mum spent a total of seventeen days in John Hunter, mostly waiting. She had four scheduled operation dates, where she was prepped and ready to go, each one cancelled at the eleventh hour. It was utterly devastating for her. But she was in a public hospital and emergencies had to come first. In the meantime, she was very well looked after. Her operation finally went ahead on the 23rd of December.
We celebrated our “Little Christmas” on Christmas day two days later. How’s that for recovery? They breed ’em tough where we come from.
On Boxing Day, mum was flown back to Port Macquarie where she stayed for a further twelve days and where her journey to recovery began.
But wait there’s more. Mum was then transferred from Port to Wauchope, a small country hospital twenty minutes west of Port, for seventeen days of rehab. Fantastic staff, and well worth the extra time away from home. They got her back on her feet and well on her way to recovery.
All in all, mum spent a total of fifty-eight days of incarceration, whoops I meant hospitalization, and by the end of it all, she was well and truly ready to come home.
I have to say, mum coped with it all extremely well. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t hard for her, or that she didn’t have any bad days, because she did. But most of all she hated all the waiting and planned many escape attempts. When they failed, she pleaded to anyone who came near her bed, be they doctors, nurses, lunch ladies or cleaners, “Can I go home now?” All to no avail.
For her age, (88) and for what she went through, and how well she came out at the other end I have to say we are extremely proud of how she coped. Throughout it all, she was rarely without a smile.
It was a huge relief when mum finally made it home, able to walk with the aid of a four-wheel walker. A tiring time for sure and what a relief to be in her own bed again.
We weren’t able to celebrate Christmas properly in hospital, so we rescheduled it to the 25th January. I think it is safe to say, the day was a success – if a month late.
Welcome home mum.
And that brings us to the beginning of March. Mum is almost match fit and Peter and I are chomping at the bit to get back on the road. We will, in fact, be heading off on the 10th, weather permitting, staying close to Port in case we’re needed but trying to get back in the mode of our nomadic life style.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
2nd November to 18th November 2024
So, this post is somewhat different as we take a little holiday from our big holiday. My Aunty Ann (mum’s sister) and my cousin Claire flew into Port on the 2nd November. They flew in from Colorado, USA, and after a good night’s sleep, or not so good in Claire’s case, (she drew the short straw and had the foldout bed) they were set to go and I have to say, we had a ball.
A short drive from mum’s place is Lake Cathie. On one side of the road is a lovely protected cove, you can swim, fish or when the tide is low, walk over to the main beach. A Cathie Creek (more a river than a creek) runs off the cove under the bridge. On the other side of the bridge is some great kayaking. Peter, myself and Claire made good use of the kayaks to explore the Creek while the Mums caught up on the good old days.
Port Macquarie really is a beautiful part of Australia, though their visit was short, we made sure to fit in some of the best that Port has to offer.
On the 4th we all piled into the car and drove up to visit Kevin and Gabriela at Kingscliff, passing the Big Banana at Coffs Harbour, (one of the many BIG things scattered around Australia) and a brief stop in Ballina. We only had a short time with Kevin and Gabby, but enjoyed a wonderful home cooked meal. Claire had booked a scuba diving trip in Cairns, so , on the 6th Claire, Ann, mum and I hopped on a plane to Cairns. Peter was our airport drop-off driver, so he was able to escape us ladies with a side trip to visit family in Kingaroy.
We stayed in an Air B and B at Holloways Beach, in Cairns. It was close to a couple of restaurants, and a short drive from shops. With our trusty little hire car we had everything we needed to enjoy our three night stay.
Claire had booked three dives on the Silverswift, through Quick Silver, it was a really lovely catamaran and even though I didn’t dive, I thoroughly enjoyed being out on the pristine waters around the Great Barrier Reef. While Claire and I enjoyed the reef, Mum and Ann went on a day trip to Green Island, at the end of the day we exchanged stories while we enjoyed the feast of champions; Cheese, crackers and wine. 🙂
While in Cairns we wanted to experience the Kuranda railway. A stunning one hour and forty minute trip through rainforest and over bridges with views of stunning waterfalls. I did the good tour guide thing and called to book our seats only to find out that for the entire three days we were in Cairns, the rail was closed for maintenance. So, into the car we got and drove up to Kuranda. You don’t get the same spectacular views from the road as you do from the rail, (I did it too many years ago to count) but we had a good look around, and did a couple of touristy things.
At the end of the day Mum, Ann and Claire hopped on the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway, leaving Kuranda station. Even though there wasn’t a lot of water in the falls, the ladies told me the views were lovely. While they enjoyed the views from above, I drove down the range to pick them up at Smithfield. No, don’t feel bad for me, you see I don’t like Skyrails. I don’t know why, I’m not scared of heights, or bridges or flying but for some reason, Skyrails scare the poop out of me. So, I really enjoyed the drive. 🙂
We flew back into Brisbane, where Peter picked us up, had another evening with Kevin and Gabby, then back to Port Macquarie, this time the inland route taking us through Grafton and the last of the Jacaranda flowers, for more fun in the sun.
Strike One – The BBQ picnic boat. What better way to spend a day but cruising on the clear waters of Port Macquarie. I called and booked a boat for 6 hours, answered all the relevant questions, asked the relevant questions, and the day before ,bought and packed all the goodies we needed. We made it to the boat hire ramp, but got turned away because we didn’t have a boat licence. So much for ‘..all the relevant questions”.
Strike Two – The great dolphin chase. So, there we were with a car full of goodies and no BBQ picnic boat. No worries; There’s a lovely area called Camden Heads, the perfect spot for a picnic, a swim and if you’re lucky, dolphin spotting. We’d all had a lovely walk along the breakwall, and the beach when the BBQ plate started to call me. Mum, Peter and I headed back to the picnic area to fire up the barbie. After a while Peter went to see what was keeping Ann and Claire.
Claire had spotted a dolphin and decided she wanted to swim out closer to it. Now, she is a strong swimmer, but so was the current and before she knew it, the current was taking her out of the inlet and into the ocean – not a good thing! Fortunately, she had been seen from the beach (now several hundred metres away) and a guy called the rescue service before sprinting up the breakwall to help. As scary as it all was, Claire didn’t panic, she made her way across the strong current to the breakwall and with the guy’s help she managed to clamber up over the sharp rocks to safety with only minor scrapes and bruises. The paramedics arrived soon after to check her out and the day’s adventure was, thankfully over.
Strike Three – The dolphin cruise that wasn’t. We opted for a somewhat safer way to see dolphins and booked a four-hour dolphin cruise. It was an extremely windy day, but we were all looking forward to the cruise.
Long story short; we had a glass of bubbles and some nibbles while we waited for cast off. After a few jokes from the captain, the clock struck 11:00 and we’re off! Only we didn’t get very far. We were about fifteen metres from the dock when we started drifting sideways towards another boat which we almost hit. We had lost control of one of the engines, which, we were told, shouldn’t have been a problem, but the wind was too strong to manoeuvre the boat safely.
The map below shows the route we took (well… where the wind took us) to a dock opposite our departure point. When we arrived on the other side everyone, except us, got of the boat and walked back. We decided to stay on board and enjoy the free flowing bubbly and nibbles, and the interesting cruise/drift back to our departure site. It was 12:47 when we finally disembarked, staggered to the nearest pub and bought a bottle of bubbly.
The following day, we farewelled Ann and Claire. It was a a short visit, full of laughter, fun and adventure. It was fantastic seeing you both again, so thank you for coming such a long way. Till next time, stay safe; and Claire…stay away from those dolphins!
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
9th October to 25th October 2024
From Goondiwindi we continued making our way south.
We had an overnight at Gurley, stopping early to avoid/enjoy a storm before a nice camp on the Namoi River.
We had only planned a night or two on the banks of the Namoi River, but it was so nice we stayed for six. It was a lovely peaceful spot, and very popular with the friendly locals.
We had what is likely to be our last camp oven cook-up before the summer heat. Peter gladly got out his trusty bowsaw and cheerfully collected enough wood for us to have a fire most nights. He then spoiled us with his speciality; date scones. One thing is certain, whether its on the coals, over the fire or in the van, we always eat well.
One of the locals noticed me with my camera and asked if I liked birds. Silly question; he went on to tell me that there was a flock of Magpie Geese at Lake Narrabri, not that far from us…PETER…. and off we went.
After a couple of nights at Gunnedah Paceway (nothing much to say about that) we ended up at one of our favourite spots (Cobrabald River) for another six nights. We were hoping to spot our Platypuses and Rakali but were a little disappointed that neither were there. There was however, a little fellow further down the river. I really don’t know enough about platypuses to know if they are nomadic. Perhaps moving when the food runs low, or if weather plays a part in their movement. There had been a lot of rain and the river was higher than usual. Wherever they are, I hope they’re safe.
There were, as usual, quite a few birds here. The regulars and a few newbies. There were quite a lot of Australian Reed Warblers. I’ve seen them before, but not here, and boy do these little guys love to warble.
And there were some very busy parents in this tree, across the river.
As you know, we visit here whenever we’re in the area, but we have never ventured across the road. We did this time and were pleasantly surprised at how pretty it was. Not as suitable for camping, but quite lovely and we saw a few Eastern Long-necked turtles.
This really is a pretty spot, and just to prove that WA is not the only state to have pretty wildflowers, look at these.
Next stop, Port Macquarie and our visitors from overseas. 😊
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
7th to 10th October 2024
We left Millmerran on the Monday. It was later in the day, so we didn’t get far, not that we need an excuse to not travel far. Our next stop was Goondiwindi. We were a bit lucky there too. We rolled up into the Goondiwindi showgrounds in time to catch the last three hours of a Camp Draft competition.
The horses in the Camp Draft competition were absolutely stunning. Lean, with shiny coats, it was abvious they were well cared for and they seemed to enjoy the challenge.
For those of you who don’t know what a Camp Draft Competition is (I know I didn’t,) it goes like this. There is a mob of cattle inside a small yard (this is the camp) the rider has to select a beast, cut it out of the mob and prove to the judges that he/she has control of it. Once they have it under control, the gate is opened and the rider and horse move the beast into the arena. (28 points). I couldn’t get any photos of that, but it looked hard and a good few riders didn’t get passed this first stage.
Once in the arena, the horse and rider must guide the beast around two obstacles/poles. You fail one, you are out.
If they get them around both obstacles, they must finish by driving the beast through the opening formed by another two poles.
There is a huge burst of energy and action when the gate is open as both beast and horse charge through the gate.
Then the fun really begins as the horse and rider attempt to guide the beast around the course. At times, it was hard to tell who was in charge, the rider, the horse or the beast.
I’ve got to tell you, that isn’t easy. The beasts want to go where they want to go, horses and riders work incredibly hard to control the beasts, to guide them around the narrow poles, and very few complete the course.
Of course the horses were the heroes, but the beasts need a mention too. They had to keep the horses on their hooves… get it? Like ‘On their toes’. Heh heh, that’s funny. Alright, I know what they say, if you have to explain a joke it really isn’t funny.
The only disappointment was that we only got to watch for a couple of hours. This is one of the things we love about travelling, the unexpected. Whether it be a new bird or animal, stunning scenery or an activity/sport we haven’t seen before.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
25th September to 7 October 2024
Before I get to the main topic, I did forget something else, and I’d be remiss not to rectify my omission. On the 19th of September, we went on a family picnic at Bjelke Peterson dam. We had a lovely time with our family.
Peter and I hung around the dam for a while longer and I did my usual wander with the camera. I was pleased to see a few birds there.
It seems we weren’t the only ones having a bit of a get-together.
A party of cormorants of all types: There were Little Pied, Pied, Little Black and even Great Cormorants, as well as Pelicans, Seagulls and Little Terns.
And a few loners. A Black Fronted Dotterel, Great Crested Grebe and late in the afternoon, as the storm clouds rolled by, we spotted this Wedge Tailed Eagle.
All in all, a day not to be forgotten. 😊
Now, back on point.
We said goodbye to Big Ears on the 25th, and on the 26th Arnie ditched his training wheels as we left Kingaroy on his first solo trip, without Big Ears to keep him in line.
Not before we had a couple of visitors near Chunky Bum.
Something not quite cute, and something super cute.
We felt it was fitting to carry on some traditions in Big Ears’ name. So Arnie’s first solo camp was at Rodney’s Rest. It was, after all, the very first place we stopped with Big Ears way back on the 1st of August 2020 (The first day of Peter’s retirement).
Talking about carrying on, you may recall Rodney the Rooster.
This is Rodney and Hugo; they were good mates.
He lived at Harland Park and we saw him a few times over the course of a couple of years, so we figured this was ‘Rodney’s Roost’. But the time came when we saw him no more, so we renamed Harland Park to ‘Rodney’s Rest’.
Well, on our first visit with Arnie, who should we see but, da, da, daaa!
The son of Rodney.
Ok, so it might not stand up to a paternity test, but it is a nice story: New car, first camp repeated, new Rooster to greet us.
Anyway, enough of that frivolity. We had planned a longer trip before heading back to Port Macquarie, but we had some exciting news that meant we’d be back sooner than planned. We have relatives in the USA, and my cousin and Aunt are coming over for a holiday at the beginning of November. So, Port Macquarie here we come, albeit slowly. You all know us by now, we don’t do anything quickly. 😊
After two nights at Rodney’s Rest, we continued our journey south, to Toowoomba. Toowoomba is a lovely City, heavily treed, heaps of gardens and our single night extended into three while we enjoyed a bit of civilisation, and the end of the well renowned Toowoomba Flower Festival.
From there we drove to Millmerran. We were just going to pick up some groceries and pass through the little country town. But it was difficult to miss the Camp Oven Festival signs, so we asked the local shopkeeper what it was all about. It turns out that it is a biennial event and had been sold out for months.
But undeterred, we made a call and sure enough, the lady said it was sold out! We had checked on their website and it looked as though there was a ‘Big Rig’ site available, so we asked again and after a bit of re-checking she gave us the site and we were booked and paid for, and heading for the Millmerran showgrounds.
They checked us in through their system, we were given our pretty, hot-pink, paper bracelets and a blue BR 14 sticker for Arnie. Our entry fee covered all the festival and 7 nights’ accommodation.
We got a fantastic spot, right up at the back end of the camp area, and a corner block to boot.
On our third day, after being out sightseeing, we got home to find the real owners of BR 14 camped a few metres away, they had booked the site months before! Well, it was a big site, so no problems.
It’s hard to tell from the photo, but the ovens in the forefront are big enough to cook for fifty.
There were a few bits and pieces on from the Tuesday, (when we arrived) but the main event didn’t start until Friday, through the weekend.
Damper throwing competition, only in Australia
I have to say, we’re not normally the “big gatherings” type of people. Too much humanity squished into a small space is a bit hard for me to take, but because of our location, we still felt we had plenty of privacy in amongst the other 1,250 caravans.
I found this image online for the 2016 festival.
While in the area we took the opportunity to explore a little, and really enjoyed our trip out to Mount Basalt on Thursday.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
