Author Archives: Dearne and Rod

On leaving Merimbula on Sunday morning we travelled the grand distance of 6km before we came across a roadside oyster market.  It was a must stop and we paid the princely sum of $10 for 1 dozen oysters – brilliant. We would have bought more only we are limited in refrigeration space.

A further 2km south, the Pambula Sunday Markets were in full swing. As ‘luck’ would have it there a park beside the market and in we went to pass an hour or so. Nothing was bought but it was a good opportunity to look at the local craft scene and grab a cup of coffee.

Our next stop was Eden. Eden is situated on Twofold Bay in the Ben Boyd National Park. Twofold Bay is in the third deepest natural harbour in the Southern Hemisphere.

Eden coastline from Whale Watch Point

Eden is also one of only two places in the world where whales come in so close to feed that during whale season it is not unusual to see up to twenty whales on one day.  Unfortunately the migratory pattern of whales led to a thriving whaling industry between 1828 and 1930.  In 1931 the townspeople established the Eden Killer Whale Museum that records the history of whaling in the area. Some of the photographs are very graphic but the museum is well worth a visit.

After a day of ‘mental stimulation’ we made camp for the night at a lovely little beach at Nullica Bay and at the mouth of the Nullica River. It was another free camp and there was only one other van there – love it.

The Seahorse Inn – the only remaining building of Boyd’s venture

Monday morning we drove 5km south to the historical spot of Boydtown. In 1842 one Benjamin Boyd, a shipping and commercial opportunist from London, had the grand idea that the Twofold Bay area could become the capital of Australia and commenced establishing the self-sufficient township of Boydtown. Brick cottages, a wool store, a church, a salting down store and other community buildings were all part of Boyd’s grand style empire.

The principal relic of Boyd’s idealism is the Seahorse Inn. It began construction in 1843 however, symbolic of Boydtown itself, the Inn was built by convict labour and was never fully completed. It was abandoned in 1849 when liquidators were called to deal with Boyd’s failed idealism (and finances) and for almost an entire century, The Seahorse Inn was left vacant. In 1975 it was bought by a private concern who have restored it to the beautiful hotel it is today.

And what happened to Boyd you may ask? The story goes that in 1851, accompanied by a native, he went hunting on the island of San Cristobel and was never seen again.

Our Mallacoota Park up

On Monday afternoon we continued our journey south and parked up for the night on the foreshore of another beachside town, Mallacoota. I know we have said it before but if you get the opportunity to drive this coastline, get off the main highway, onto the little side roads and visit the beach towns. They are stunning.

Tuesday morning we had every intention of driving to Cann River, bidding Bruce and Lyn au revoir, turning right and over the next week meandering our way to Canberra in preparation for Xmas. However part way to Cann River we discovered a rest area that had an access road into the Alfred National Park (not on any map we had).

A shot in the Drummer Rainforest during our walk

We hadn’t gone to far up the road when we came across a large flat grass area surrounded by rainforest and almost beside the Thurra River.  On exploring the area, we found we were only a short way to the Drummer Rainforest walk. After completing a few household chores, we set off on the walk. It was worth the effort – a pristine environment and not another person to be seen.

We travelled no further that day!!! By the time we got back from the walk, took in the washing that was strung amongst the gum trees, it was time for 5 o’clockers. Another very ‘stressful’ day??

Today (Wednesday) we are really on the road towards Canberra.  We will make a short deviation to visit Jindabyne and maybe Thredbo if we have time. Bruce and Lyn have continued on to Melbourne for Xmas – we may catch up with them again in February.

A wee apology around our communication of late – in some of the remote beach and forest areas we are visiting, there is no cell coverage. We are picking it up again once we are closer to towns or in some cases back on the main highways.

Merimbula is one of those little coastal towns that we will be very sad to leave. It is located on the Sapphire coast of New South Wales and is approximately seven hours from Melbourne or three hours from Canberra. The weather since our arrival on Thursday has been super kind to us, the towns services and hospitality are great and of course the local delicacy, oysters, have been well and truly sampled.

One of the many oyster farms on the Merimbula Lake

The region has been ‘reinvented’ a number of times over the past 170 years.  Immigrants from Scotland first settled in 1830 and established a whaling station and cattle runs. In 1840 when the livestock market crashed, it was found good quality maize could be grown on the cattle farms. This in turn led to the proliferation of flourmills. To compliment the maize industry and in 1922, pig farms and bacon factories were established.

Oyster farming is Merimbula’s crowning industry today.  Oyster farming begun in earnest after World War I and today there is scarcely an estuary or inlet not laddered by oyster farms.

At the Crowded House and Split Enz Tribute Concert

The prime reason for our visit to the town was to have three days of no travel and just kick back and relax. We have certainly been able to do that. The Crowded House and Split Enz Tribute concert on Friday night was a great success – not like the ‘real’ thing of course but it was a very pleasant evening.

There are a number of good walks around the area but for us the best one was the boardwalk around the edge of the Merimbula Lake. The boardwalk is approximately 3.5 km and takes about 1 or 2 hours to complete. There are signs along the way to highlighting the local marine life and vegetation. It is an easy walk and gives stunning views over the lake and surrounds.

More shots of our boardwalk amble HERE .

The happy couple on the Merimbula Boardwalk

Today (Sunday) we leave Merimbula and head further south. We are not quite sure how far south we will go on this leg as we need to be mindful we have to be in Canberra on the 16 December to have the motorhome and jeep serviced on the 17^th.  We will probably go as far south as Cann River then take the Monaro Highway north to Bombala, then northeast to Jindabyne, up to Cooma then back onto the Monaro Highway into Canberra. We shall see – the weather and road conditions have ways of forcing a change of plan.

The plan on Monday was to head into Narooma and spend a night there before continuing our journey south. Like many of the smaller NSW coastal villages, in the off-season there is not too much going on. They are beautiful enough but the full range of services do not ‘kick in’ until the peak holiday periods. In saying that, our visit enabled us to top up with LPG, purchase a few groceries and have a look around the area.

Mainstreet Tilba Central

We forgot to mention in our last up date that we were most impressed with the little village of Tilba Central. Lying in the shadow of Mt Dromedary, it is one of those country towns that almost ‘died’ when the gold mining boom finished and then the agricultural industry declined in the 60’s.  However through the efforts of the local towns people, the historic character of the village was preserved. Most of the buildings are circa 1880 and are in stunning condition.  Click HERE for more on Tilba Central.

The stunning Mystery Bay

Back to Narooma – we decided not to stopover in the town’s camping areas as they were quite expensive and by moving a few kilometres south gave us more options.  As it turned out we found an excellent spot some 12 km south in an area called Mystery Bay. It was a free camp area beside the beach and in a very quiet part of the coast. The Bay was given its’ name in about 1880’s as the result of the disappearance of five local men. It is believed they were all murdered while away on a fishing trip.  Their fishing boat was found washed up on the local beach, bullet holes in its mast, empty shell casings in the hull but very little else. No bodies were ever recovered and murder was never proved.

A few more shots of Mystery Bay HERE .

Tuesday morning we continued south along the coast with our first stop being Wallaga Lake Heights. We had been informed that the area has some of the best ‘wild’ coastal walks around. After parking up, we had a quick coffee then set off on a 6km walk. On previous walks we have come across a huge variety of wildlife – this one was no different.  Thirty minutes into our walk and sunning itself directly beside the track, we encountered a red belly black snake. Before leaving home we had done our homework on snakes we may encounter so we knew to keep well away. The snakebite kit was not needed in this case.

Our clifftop sunrise at Bermagui South this morning

After our coastal walk we drove into Bermagui and spent the night at Bermagui South on a cliff top just 1km south of the township. It was quite a stunning park over actually as just across from where we were parked there were 85 steps down to the largest saltwater swimming pool we have seen. It had been built into the existing rock structure and each tide filled it with fresh salt water. What was even more impressive was that it was very well used by the local community.

Historical Tathra Wharf and Museum

We departed Bermagui this morning and are now in the township of Tathra, situated at the south end of Mimosa Rocks National Park. Tathra has its origins in the agriculture and farming sector with its’ historical’ wharf paving the way for a reliable shipping service between the town and Sydney. Between 1862 and 1954 the only reliable link to Sydney was by steamers that carried everything from the district including cheese, butter, pigs and passengers. The steamer fleet was known as the ‘Pig and Whistle Fleet’ because when live pigs were carried and the steamers piercing siren sounded, the pigs started screaming.

We are leaving here tomorrow morning and are slowing making our way towards Merimbula for the weekend.  We have tickets to a Crowded House and Split Enz tribute night at one of the Clubs in town so are looking forward to a very social weekend.

Our first white kangaroo seen at Merry Beach

I think the weather god must have heard our whinging over the past week about the rain we have had to deal with because our two days at Merry Beach was perfect – chilly nights, no rain and daytime temperatures of around 26C. Merry Beach is in a small bay on the NSW coast comprising mainly holiday homes and a motor camp. Kangaroo and wallaby wander around the camp at will as does the local duck population.

Because we do not have that far to go to get to Canberra by Christmas, Merry Beach is the second stop in a row where we have stayed more than one night. Taking longer stopovers has given us the opportunity to do some serious walks around the area and to take advantage of the sights in the local National Parks.  One of the big differences we noticed in this area compared to the others we have visited since arriving in Australia in June, is the number of flys. If one stopped moving for just a second, flies would be onto you in the millions. Still, it is what it is and we are having a brilliant experience.

More shots of our Merry Beach visit HERE .

We departed Merry Beach on Friday (in the rain) and continued our journey south. Again we had no plan at the start of the day of where our overnight stop would be. Many travellers had told us that the New South Wales coastline is one of the best in Australia so we are making a point of stopping in at most of the ‘signature’ beaches and Parks on our way.

On Friday we travelled along the Princess Highway calling into the coastal villages of Durras, Long Beach, Broulee, Batemans Bay and finally settling at North Head, which is about 8km out of Moruya. Moruya is the hub of the Eurobodalla and is famous for its markets, fishing, antique shops and fine food outlets. Speaking of markets, Moruya has a Saturday market. Guess where we were on Saturday morning?

Chuck and Ali, along with Bruce and Lyn, overnighting with us at North Head, Moruya.

On Saturday afternoon Rod’s brother Chuck and wife Ali from Canberra joined us for the afternoon. After a few wines (and a couple of ‘rumbo’s’) they ended up staying with us in the van overnight. It was great to catch up with them and bringing each other up on the ‘family’ news.

One of the downsides of our motorhome is that you need a heavy traffic licence to drive it and in Australia there is a zero blood alcohol tolerance in terms of day-to-day driving. Obviously this is a good thing but the down side is that it prevents us from going into any wineries and both of us participating in tastings – until we heard about Tilba Valley Wines.

Overnighting at Tilba Valley Winery

The Tilba Valley Winery is about 40km south of Moruya (or 360km south of Sydney) and has low cost camping ($6) amongst the vineyards that the vintners have made available to wine tasters and diners. The campsite is also on the edge of Lake Corunna. Sooooo, Sunday morning it was our normal casual pack up and we made our way to Winery.  It was a great location, very generous tastings, the meal and wine was excellent, a jazz and blues band entertained us and we had a great overnight stop beside a beautiful lake.

This morning we are intending to drive a little inland to visit the villages of Tilba North and  Tilba Tilba then looping back on the Princess Highway driving 10 minutes north to the township of Narooma. ‘Apparently’ Narooma is the mecca for whale watching and recreational fishing but we will let you know. At the moment we plan only to stay one night but if the fishing is good we may stay more than that.

‘Gee’ the climate has been cruel to us over the past week or so. We headed back into the Booderee National Park on Sunday with the intention of staying there at least two days but the weather was terrible. It ‘bucketed’ down during our first 24 hours ‘in the bush’ so the ground surface was not flash. Rather than stamping around in the mud we decided to make an early exit on Monday and try to get into some better weather.

The entrance to Ulladulla Bar

As I had mentioned in our last blog update, we were told of a great little spot in the township of Ulladulla so we decided to make that our next stopover. We are not big on RV parks (caravan parks) but the Big4 Bungalow Park in Ulladulla is owned by the Royal Australian Navy and by using our RNZN Senior Rates Mess Association Card we were able to get 25% discount on our stay i.e. $22.00 per night. The Park is right on the water and is immaculate – as you would expect from a Defence site. If you are in the area and looking for cost effective accommodation, they have excellent cabin and camping facilities. I should imagine that in the peak periods it would be packed with sailors on holiday.

Chook with Rod on his Monday night visit

On Monday night we had a visit from Chook (Wayne) Fowler who works out of Sydney. Our last catch up with Chook was at our farewell in Auckland in June of this year so it was great to see him again. I have always been impressed at what ex communicators are able to turn their hand too on leaving their ‘naval experience’.  Chook is another who has taken on a new trade and has made a brilliant success of it.

On Tuesday night, along with our Australian travelling companions (Bruce and Lyn), we decided to give cooking a miss and catch the Ulladulla Servo Club courtesy bus to the Club for dinner. We were picked up at about 5.30pm, had a very pleasant evening and were dropped back at the van at about 9pm. The best part of the night is that Dearne spent a couple of minutes on the ‘bandits’ while we were there and won enough to pay for our dinner. Brilliant!!

Over the past three or so weeks the water pump on the van had developed a very ‘dry bearing’ sound. We carry a spare pump on board and I was going to wait until the existing pump died before I put the new one in. However this morning before we left Ulladulla, Bruce had to take his van to an RV repair centre to get his awning repaired. While there I enquired how much it would cost for them to install the new pump. The workshop quoted $60 for the job. One hour later the new pump was installed and I didn’t have to get under the van or get my hands dirty. For $60 why would I bother. Over the next few weeks I plan to pull the damaged bearings from the old pump, replace them and I will then still carry a spare pump.

Parked up at Merry Beach

Once the maintenance was completed we continued our journey south along the New South Wales coast road visiting Lake Conjola, Bawley Point, Kioloa, Pretty Beach, Merry Beach and Pebble Beach. Part of the afternoon travel plan was to select a place we could stay the night. After ‘another’ management meeting we decided on Merry Beach primarily because we could stay on the water edge and our Australian Motorhome Association membership gave us a significant discount i.e. we could stay for $15 per night.

We are now tucked up at Merry Beach in beautiful weather (25C)  for the next two days.

It’s been a funny ol’ week. While we had a really relaxing four days in Berry, it was punctuated by not so smart weather (rained two days out of four) and there was a weeklong cattle sale at the showground so we were ‘lulled’ to sleep each night by the gentle ‘mooing’ of livestock. In saying all that, we had a great time there.

We arrived in Berry late Monday afternoon, settled in then had a quiet wander around the town. We were walking distance from anywhere so it made looking at the local sights very easy.

On Tuesday morning we caught the train north to Kiama. We had called into the town on our way south but we found parking extremely difficult so had a quick look around and carried on.  It is a beautiful little place so we both wanted to return. Kiama is about 15 minutes north of Berry by train and the town is centrally located so it is an easy walk to the town and harbour.

During our time in North Sydney with Dearne’s cousin Rob, we never really had the time to go into Sydney itself so on Wednesday morning we jumped the train again and travelled into Central Sydney. It was a two and a half hour train ride and with not having to drive, we were able to take in all the sights on the way. It was a great way to see the country. Thursday was our last day in Berry and we spend most of the day stocking up on bits and pieces for the next leg of our journey.

Rod, Dearne, Lyn and Bruce at their ‘late and long’ lunch at Huskinsson

Earlier in the week we got word from our friends in Bundaberg (Bruce and Lyn) that they were back on the road, heading south and wanted to catch us up. On the Friday when we departed Berry, we decided to continue south but not to go too far that it would make us difficult to find. We ended up stopping on the ‘roadside’ at the entrance to Sussex Inlet. After a flurry of text messages later in the day, Bruce and Lyn rolled in at about 8pm that night.

After a few ‘catch up’ wines we called a management team meeting to plan the next few days. It was all agreed that we would head back north a few kilometres into Jervis Bay and have a look around some of the stunning bays in the area. The plan was to overnight on Saturday in the Booderee National Park and explore the area from there.

However like all plans, they do not always work out. We were unable to get into the National Park on Saturday so ended up driving to the nearby town of Huskinsson and spending the night there. When we arrived we parked in a side road close to the ‘action’ and then walked a few metres into town for a late lunch at the local hotel. Four hours later, and after a very enjoyable afternoon, we ‘walked’ back to the motorhome and spent the night where we had parked. Brilliant!!

Booderee National Park – Rod looking for the fish

It was a crack of dawn start this morning as we wanted to be away from our ‘street’ parking before the township awoke. With the lesson learned from Saturday, we had booked a couple of sites in the Booderee National Park for Sunday so we headed back to the Park very confident we would get in. We drove through the entrance this morning with no problem and are now parked up ‘amongst the gum trees’ for the next couple of days.  We saw a few fishers on the beach late this afternoon casting for whiting with reasonably good success. We may have to give it a try tomorrow.

When we leave the National Park on Tuesday we intend heading further south along the coast to Ulladulla. The Australian Navy apparently have a very nice Park there and New Zealand Service and Ex Service people are very welcome to park over. We will let you our success.

There are some stunning bays and scenery between here and Ulladulla so we are not quite sure how long it is going to take us to get to Ulludulla. When you do not wear a watch, time does not really matter.

Take care everyone – four weeks until Xmas!

Our spot beside Paddy’s River

Our last four or five days have been a period of ‘one night stands’.  After leaving Trunkey Creek on Friday we made Paddy’s River our next overnight stop. It was a great little spot midway between Goulburn and Moss Vale, directly beside the Hume Highway and as the name indicates, on Paddy’s River. We were a bit apprehensive about being so close to the highway as we were the only travellers staying at the site. However, the night went without incident albeit we both slept with one eye open.

Saturday morning we continued east along the Hume Highway. We turned off the Highway at Moss Vale and experienced a bit of the New South Wales countryside.  We drove through Sutton Forest (stopping at the local market day of course), onto Robertson then over the Macquarrie National Park to Shellharbour. Some of the roads and tight corners through the National Park came with their challenges but we got to the bottom without any damage or breakages. We had a late lunch at Shellharbour then followed the coast road through Warilla, Port Kembla to Wollongong.

Wollongong City from the lighthouse point

The weather for the past three days has been atrocious. Reasonably high winds and ‘bucketing down’ – it is certainly not conducive to parking up and enjoying the environment. We had every intention of staying at Wollongong for two or three days but the forecast was not good so we had Saturday night at North Cliff Reserve beside Lake Illawarra a few kilometres south of Wollongong and on Sunday we headed back inland to the township of Jamberoo.

Jamberoo (population 925) is on the edge of the Budderoo National Park and about 40km inland from Shellharbour. They encourage travellers to visit the town with free parking, great services (LPG, water, diesel, dump point), a historic ‘pub’ about 50 metres from the free parking area and lots of great walks through the National Park.

The weather continued to be the enemy during our Jamberoo visit. It rained continuously so there was very little opportunity to get out and about altho’ we did manage to get a walk in early Sunday afternoon. Later in the day, we braved the conditions and walked to the hotel for a couple and ended up staying for dinner.  A nice end to an otherwise ‘house bound’ day.

The Berrys at Berry

This morning we travelled south and have ended up in the township of Berry (true). We are parked up at the Berry showground and plan to stay here until Friday.  We feel strangely at home here!! The weather forecast is showing no signs of improving so if wet tomorrow, we intend to catch the train from Berry to Kiama then maybe onto Sydney Central. It will be great to travel up the coast without having to drive. If the weather is fine, there is plenty to do around Berry.

For more evidence of our BERRY location, click HERE .

Dearne, cousin Rob and wife Karen and Coco

We had a very social three days on the northern beaches of Sydney with Rob and Karen. One of the great opportunities of our journey in Australia is that we are able to catch up with relatives and friends ‘on their own turf’.

As you know, most of our travel entails freedom camping. In Sydney that was a little more difficult. We ended up staying at the North Narabeen Big Four Tourist Park on the northern beaches of Sydney. We have to admit it was very nice – a five minute walk to North Narabeen itself, a one minute walk to the beach and a 10 minute drive to Rob and Karen’s abode at Pittwater.

Our few days in Sydney comprised a little bit of touring, a few casual (but social) meals and a ‘fair ol’ sampling’ of the local wines.  Thanks Rob, Karen & Coco for your wonderful hospitality.

Thursday morning we departed Sydney and drove west through the Blue Mountains to Bathurst (about 200km). We were very conscious of the fire risk in the Blue Mountains so did our homework prior to entering the National Park.  The drive provided us with some stunning scenery although there was clear evidence of recent fires and burn offs that didn’t look so smart. We stopped at the top of the Blue Mountains at a little village called Bilpin for lunch then carried on through the Park to Lithgow then Bathurst.

Relaxing after our lap of Bathurst

While neither of us is a great motor racing fan, a visit to Bathurst and Mount Panorama was a definite ‘must do’ on our travel plans. Finding the track was easy as ‘the Mount’ was a stand out above the town. While the track is currently under maintenance, we were lucky enough to be allowed in and drive to the top of Mount Panorama and back down. Question? Are we the first Traillite Motorhome to do a lap of the Bathurst Racing Track? No doubt someone will inform us if we have not set the standard.

It was a great experience and another visit ticked off the ‘bucket list’.

The Black Stump Hotel at Trunkey Creek

By the time we had competed our Bathurst visit it was getting late in the afternoon. After a quick reference to the i-phone WikiApp, we decided to drive another 50km south to a little village called Trunkey Creek for the night. They advertised parking availability at the village’s local reserve, hot showers and toilets and all we had to do is let the local publican know that we were there. It was about 5.30pm when we arrived so we had a quick beer at the hotel then headed away to set up for the night.  In our visit to Trunkey Creek, we have discovered another great little place to stop over if you are in the area.

This morning (Friday) we set off in an easterly direction and are now heading back to the coast through Crookwell and Goulburn. No plan is set in concrete but we thought we would try and get somewhere south of Sydney perhaps around Bundeena or Helensburgh by Monday or Tuesday. We will then continue south along the east coast to Batemans Bay before heading inland to Canberra for the Xmas arrangements (more on that later). We will probably return to the NSW/Victoria inland for a further look around after Xmas.

The time taken to get from Ellenborough Reserve to Port Macquarie was only about 90 minutes so it gave us plenty of time on Thursday to have a good look around and stock up on groceries whilst there. Port Macquarie is a growing area with a number of new housing estates and plenty of stunning homes along the canal systems. Again house prices in general, and on the canal (with your own private jetty), were relatively inexpensive compared to New Zealand. It is easy to understand why many New Zealanders make the decision to shift across the ‘ditch’. Housing affordability away from the main centres is an attraction.

We spent Thursday night at the showground in a little town called Taree.  Taree is 317 kilometres north of Sydney and is on the Mid North Coast, New South Wales. It has a population of around 20,000 people and is the centre of a significant agricultural district.

1916 Harley Davidson Cub in perfect condition

We left the Taree Showground quite early on Friday morning as Rod wanted to visit The National Motorcycle Museum at Nabiac before getting to Nelson Bay. Nabiac is 28km south of Taree on the Pacific Highway or 1.5 hours north of Newcastle.

If you have any interest in motorcycles put this museum on your bucket list. The National Motorcycle Museum houses in excess of 800 motorcycles and memorabilia relating to all type of motorcycle from 1900 to the present day. What is even more impressive is that the museum is privately owned and operated by the Kelleher family and friends of the museum. Our favourite motorcycle was the 1916 Harley Davidson Pup (in going order).

For those of you travelling in an RV or caravan, the museum is a ‘no cost’ over night stop. You will need to be self-contained and pets are welcome.  For more shots of the museums display, click HERE .

Harry, Jane and Rod at the Nelson Bay Marina

We arrived at Nelson Bay mid-afternoon last Friday in beautiful weather. Nelson Bay is a coastal resort town of approximately 5000 people located just inside the mouth of Port Stephens, a large natural harbour. Nelson Bay is the largest town of the Port Stephens area and is 223 km north of Sydney via the Pacific Highway.

Harry and Jane live five minutes walk from the beach and about 1km from the town centre. We were able to park the motorhome in front of their home and move ‘indoors’ for the period of our stay. It was a nice change spending our weekend in a ‘real house’ rather than in the motorhome.

Rod and Dearne with the camel train at the Worimi Sand Dunes

Harry and Jane were wonderful hosts and made sure we had a good look around Nelson Bay and Port Stephens area. We loved the little bays dotted around Port Stephens but the most impressive sight was the Worimi Conservations Lands sand dunes. The 32 kilometre long beach is the largest mobile sand dunes in the Southern Hemisphere with some dunes reaching 75 metres in hight.

Thanks guys for a wonderful weekend and looking forward to possibly catching up with you again in May at Alice Springs. More shots of our visit HERE .

We left Nelson Bay this morning and are winding our way to Narabeen in North Sydney to visit Dearne’s cousin Rob and his wife Karen who live in Pittwater. We will be there until Thursday when we will ‘upsticks’ and work our way back inland and further south.

Coffs Harbour Beach (with people!!)

Neither of us had visited Coffs Harbour before, so along with the brilliant weather, our visit made for a great couple of days. As we said in our previous blog update, while at Coffs Harbour it was our intention to make our home at the Coffs Harbour League grounds. As it turned out it was a good decision – they have great facilities and the club’s caretaker, Vern, an ex Kiwi from Gisborne, ensured we wanted for nothing. Many thanks Vern.

While at Coffs we took the opportunity to have a good look around the area. On Saturday we drove 60 km west to a small town called Bellingen on the Bellinger River. The town was very ‘60’s with many ‘alternative’ lifestylers thriving amongst their population.

Coffs Harbour Sunday Market

On Sunday Coffs had its’ beach markets. It was a compulsory attendance and Dearne came away with a couple of ‘essential’ items while the ‘bag carrier’ was just as happy with a hotdog. It is the first time since arriving in Australia we have seen lots of people on a beach. We are seeing some stunning beaches along the east coast but they seem to have very few people using them.

On Monday we continued our journey south on the Pacific Highway. Much of the journey followed the Nambucca River and the kilometres of oyster farms that are active on the river.  There were plenty of roadside stalls selling the product so we were ‘forced’ to make a stop and pick up a couple of dozen.

A few kilometres later we took a coast road east to visit a small beach town called South West Rocks.  We had heard about it from other travellers so thought it would be worth a visit. On a good day it would have been a great but on our visit the town was experiencing a vicious wind off the sea wind so it was not the best day to spend too much time there.  We made the most of the visit – did a quick walk around the town, had lunch in the van and then headed west through Kempsey and back onto the Pacific Highway.

The Hastings River at the Ellenborough Reserve

While we were at Coffs Harbour we heard from another camper about a ‘free’ campsite at Ellenborough (just below the Wirrekimbe Wilderness) called the Ellenborough Reserve.  The Reserve is about 70km inland from Port Macquarie and is on the junction of the Ellenborough and Hastings Rivers.  We were a bit nervous on the drive as the GPS had taken us on all the backroads so we were not quite sure what to expect. As it turned out it was a perfect area – very flat, all grass and with trees for shade.  There were about 10 vans at the Reserve when we arrived but there were still plenty of flat sites to choose from. The park up area was about 30 metres from the river and ‘people were catching fish’. We ended us staying at the Reserve for three days it was so good. Very restful stopover.

We departed Ellenborough this morning and are heading to Port Macquarie for a brief visit. We need to pick up a few supplies so Woolworths here we come. We get great fuel discounts by shopping at Woollies so it’s worth the effort to find one of their stores.

From Port Macquarie we will continue our way south (not sure yet where we will stop tonight) and are spending the weekend with Harry and Jane Parker at Port Stephens in Nelson Bay.  Harry and Rod used to work in the same industry (Harry in Australia and Rod in New Zealand) until both sold their businesses and moved on to new lifestyles. They have remained the best of friends.