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.
So, we had a week to kill before our booking at the Warrumbungle National Park, and Peter left the planning up to me. He said, and I quote, “You just tell me where to go, and I’ll follow your directions”. This was my first solo trip planning and I wanted to make it count. What better way to do that, than to explore the Pilliga Region.
A nice little circuitous route, even if I do say so myself.
Sculptures in the Scrub. What can I say about this place…we loved it! I had planned on two nights here, but we extended it to three. And of course, most of the roads were dirt, or sand. We do love a bit of off-road.
Sculptures in the Scrub is a remote bush camp, saying that, it has excellent facilities. There are a few picnic tables and BBQ’s, two long-drop toilets (cleaner than some toilets I’ve seen in shopping centres) and is very well maintained. There is a booking fee of $6 through the NSW National Parks and Wildlife and is worth every cent. On a side note, I got a chance to photograph some birds, I haven’t seen many this trip. Probably just the wrong places at the wrong time of year, but I had fun with these little fellows having a bath.
Our campsite also gave us access to the Sculptures and Dandry Gorge walking track. If you’re in the area you have to do this. It’s an easy walk, two and a half, to three hours to do the full circuit. We did it in about four. No, we’re not that unfit, but we tend to detour and explore the tracks less walked. What can I say, we’re rebels? Oh, and Peter does enjoy his afternoon snooze.
The Salt caves were a bit of a disappointment, mind you, I’m not really a cave kind of person, but the fire tower there offered an exceptional 360 degree view of the area. If heights don’t bother you, climb up and enjoy the view. There’s also a two km return walk to a dam, but when we were there the dam was under construction. Saying that, it was a great walk through the sandy scrub and a good way to kill a few hours.
Our last stop on my plan was Lake Yarrie. We arrived there late in the afternoon, and soon after were treated with a stunning sunset, complete with rainbow. You may have guessed from the foreboding skies, that we were in for more rain, if you did…you were right. This is another great place to visit, it’s a very shallow lake, three kms in diameter, and a very pretty area.
It really did rain hard the second day we were here and that, combined with past rain, had made the lake overflow in some areas, covering the path that circumnavigates it, so we didn’t get a chance to walk around the lake, but if we are ever back in the area, we will be sure to drop in to do just that.
Next stop Warrumbungle NP. See, we can make a plan and stick to it, we’re still on our way to Walgett. We’re just taking the scenic route.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
We had four nights at the John Oxley caravan park in Coonabarabran, a lovely country town in Central NSW, and a very nice caravan park. While there, we took advantage of the water and power, caught up with the washing and enjoyed some long hot showers. The weather was mostly overcast and rainy, but not wanting that to spoil our visit, we took a day trip into the Warrumbungle National Park. Hugo decided to stay at home, but he didn’t know what he was missing. It was a wonderful day, and it truly did feel like we were walking through the clouds.
The Warrumbungle NP should be on everyone’s “must-see” list. We enjoyed the day so much, when we got home, we made a booking at Camp Blackman for 7 nights. Good news is we were able to get the booking the even better news is, that we couldn’t get 7 consecutive nights until the second of July. So, we had a week to kill.
Where oh where would we go?
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
Ok, so we didn’t make it to Walgett, but we are still heading in the right direction. We found a lovely little spot called Hickeys Falls, just a few hundred metres off the Newell Highway, and were pleasantly surprised by the amount of water flowing. It was quite unexpected and beautiful.
We did consider staying there overnight, but it was in a bit of a gully, there was a lot of shade (not good for the solar panels) and it was bloody cold.
Hickey Falls 
We drove on for a kilometre and saw a sign for Spire View, and we thought, what good is a “view” if you don’t stop to view it. As we drove into the parking area for the Spire we noticed a dirt road and decided to see where that went. We are so pleased that we did.
About a hundred metres down the road, we came across a lovely treed, flat area and thought, this’ll do. And this is where we are, still, two nights later, and of course Peter had to get his scooter out for a closer look at the Spire. Good job he did, he got some great shots of it. We’re close to the highway, but even though we can hear the odd truck passing, you’d think we were in the middle of nowhere. We have plenty of sun, we have plenty of firewood, food and water, what more could we possibly want? I even had a chance to do some real authentic bush camp cooking. Slow cooked Chinese style, melt in the mouth pork belly and fire roast vegetables. Yumo!
I think we’ll be staying another night, then we’ll get back on the road.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
One of the many things we are going to have to get a handle on is deciding where we want to go. Now that is easy enough if you have a set of parameters to work within. But, when you have no time constraints, no distance limitations, and a bloody big country to explore, well… it’s not as easy as you’d think.
We had planned to leave Toukley and have a week of bush camping, but the wet weather encouraged us to look for a caravan park where we could plan our next stage in comfort. So here we are in Dubbo. I don’t know if the weather is going to allow us to do much while we’re here, but we did have a lovely day at the Western Plains Zoo (which is well worth a visit) and I got my camera out for the first time in a long time, and Hugo finally got out of his PJ’s.
But I digress, back to our problematic planning predicament. Of course, the logical thing to do is to sit down with a map and put a plan in place, and we have the tools to do this. Between Google maps, Google Earth, our Australian and NSW’s maps, and the HEMA touring map book, you’d think that we could put together a workable plan and stick to it. I think we’re up to Plan “G”, but we have revisited Plan “C” several times, so now, and don’t hold me to this, I think that we are going to follow Plan “C”. At least, some version of it.
When we leave Dubbo, we are heading further north to Walgett then on to Lightning Ridge, and we’ll leave it at that for the time being. I’m sure we’ll get the hang of it one day, in the meantime, we’ll just keep moving on.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
We arrived in Port Macquarie on eighth of May to surprise mum for Mother’s Day on the ninth. We stayed at the Breakwall Caravan Park for the first three nights and after that, we were able to park the caravan in mum’s village for the duration of our stay.
Anyway, back to the surprise. As we stood outside mum’s house, I called her to wish her Happy Mother’s day. While I talked to mum, Peter knocked on her door holding a bunch of flowers in front of his face. Suffice to say, she was surprised.
In between working our way through mum’s list of chores (it seems no matter how old you get, mum always has chores for you) we have had plenty of fun. Not least of which was our picnic at Ellenborough Reserve, a large grassy area at the junction of the Hastings and Ellenborough rivers.
We had an enjoyable time clambering around the river banks and mum, at eighty-five was like a mountain goat, nothing was going to stop her as we explored the area. The river was flowing quite fast while we were there, and it was clear that there had been a lot more water flooding as a result of the heavy rains. Trees were uprooted, debris was high along the banks and there was quite a lot of erosion. On the way home we took a detour which resulted in mum’s car, a Suzuki Swift, having its first off road experience. I’m not sure if the car enjoyed it, but we did. The Suzuki gained a few more scratches and lost a hubcap, which we dutifully replaced with a full set.
Australia can boast some of the most beautiful stretches of coastline in the world, and Port Macquarie has its fair share of these. Long, long stretches of soft, sandy beaches where you can walk for hours, no matter the weather, so while we were there…we did plenty of that.
From Port we drove to Sydney for a week to help celebrate my big brothers 60th birthday (yes, he is getting old, and yes, I am younger) and to catch up with some friends before heading north again, this time staying at Toukley. This gave us a chance to spend some quality time with Peter’s son and family.
So, six weeks into our trip we have finished the rounds of visiting family and friends, and we loved every minute of it, but now we are ready to take on the great unknown. Tomorrow we will be leaving Toukley and heading northwest, but at this stage our destination is still unknown.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
We learned a valuable lesson on the trip between Kingaroy and Port Macquarie. Simply put, if you want to find an overnight stop, do not travel the new Pacific Highway.
Over a period of twenty-four years, the Pacific Highway between the Queensland border, and Newcastle in New South Wales, has undergone major road work, including bypassing all towns along its route. Now this is great for those wishing to go from A to B quickly, not so good for the towns who miss out on travelers passing by, nor for travelers who wish to meander, explore, and take a break in these bypassed towns. As we found out the hard way.
We left Kingaroy around seven am on the seventh of May. The plan was to take a relaxed drive as far as New Italy, which is about five hours drive, if you stick to the speed limit, overnight there then head on down to Port the next day. When towing, we tend to drive a little below the signed limit, adding extra time to the journey. Add to that the fact that we stopped a quite a few times (you know us, we’re never in a hurry to get anywhere,) come four thirty that afternoon, we were well and truly ready to call it a day.
A friendly visitor at one of our stops.
New Italy is possibly the last remaining rest stop on the Pacific Highway between the Queensland border and Port Macquarie. It has a café, a small museum, gift shop, toilets, and a large parking area suitable for overnight stays.
I mentioned the work being done on the Pac, well, they have just recently finished the section adjacent to the New Italy rest stop. It has changed so much that we drove merrily past it. Never saw it; missed our stop. Bypassed it. Don’t ask me how we did that, but we did.
We drove for another hour, Peter was getting tired, it was getting dark, and we were having no luck in finding a place to stop. Then I saw the sign to Iluka, and there was a caravan symbol on it. We made a snap decision and took the exit.
As the road became narrower, we lost the last of the daylight. The road was in pretty bad shape, courtesy of the heavy rains, and we had no idea where we would end up. We did eventually come to the end of the road, and a little caravan park which, unfortunately for us, was fully booked. Nothing to do but perform a three-point turn, with a fourteen-metre rig, in the dark, and head back the way we came, only this time we stayed on the Old Pacific Highway.
It was seven thirty when we finally found a place to stay in the tiny town of Ulmarra. We wearily parked down a backstreet, between a park and the local police station, it wasn’t until we woke up the next day, that we realised we were only metres from the banks of the Clarence River.
Let’s just hope we don’t have too many drives like this one.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
