Archive for February, 2008

Hello again everybody.  Since we last spoke we have been in Moama across the Murray River from Echuca.  The weather has been wonderful for us although the locals here are desperate for rain. 

Our first trip was to the Port of Echuca for a look at the paddle steamers.  The first one we came across was the PS Mary Ann so, of course, couldn’t pass up this photo opportunity.

We were camped right on the riverbank so managed to get some good pictures of the Paddle Steamers as the came up the river.  Here are a few, The Pride of The Murray, The Emmy Lou and The Canberra.   There was only one real drawback to being camped here and that was the cockatoos, this picture shows just a few of them but there would have been around a thousand or more roosted in the trees each night with your young ones and the noise was incredible.

We had our usual duck family who insisted on being fed every morning, there was one difference though, these were mutant ducks about four times the size of our usual visitors and not only that they ate about four times as much.  Keeping them in bread was a costly business

Motley enjoyed his bike rides around Echuca and Moama and made a few friends on his trips around town and along the river.  This pair were artists who paint pictures along the Murray.  He met them on one of his bike rides and stayed and enjoyed a beer with them.

We discovered from our next door neighbours that Moama Bowls Club was a nice place for lunch so we took ourselves along there to try it out.  if you are ever in Moama don’t miss it.   Huge sized plates and lots of food, choice of 5 different main courses cost $5.00 each.  When you pay for your meal you got a voucher for a free pancake.  They cooked the pancakes while you waited and there was maple syrup, lemon, jams whatever you wanted as a topping.  Absolutely delicious.  On our first visit Motley1 had bangers and mash and vegetables and I had fish and chips.   Of course, we went back again for another lunch a couple of days later, I had Lasagna and chips and salad and Motley1 had chicken casserole with rice.  The food was delicious.  Wish there was a Bowls Club like this in every town

We did the market at Tongala on Saturday and I had a strange man working on the stall….now when you’ve stopped laughing have a look at this picture because it got worse !   Chill, Motley1 says to tell you “Well. we are in “Howdy Country” , that’s his excuse and promises to get rid of the hat before we head back

Sunday, we did Moama market which was a good busy market although at the very end of the day a huge gust of wind upended our display and we ended up picking up bookmarks for a while and a few hours sorting them all out when we got back to the van.

On Monday, we worked all day getting out all the orders we had taken at the two markets and making some new stock and on Tuesday we set off again for our next stop.

We were driving along the Murray Valley Highway towards Swan Hill, this picture will show you how flat the area is, not a hill in sight for miles.  Dry hardly describes the place either and I think it has been many months since they saw rain here.   We were approaching Kerang when we took this shot at the level crossing where there was a major accident with a truck not too long ago, the amount of crossings here are amazing.

As we got to Kerang, we pulled into a parking lot opposite the Information Bureau, there was a large water tower which was open to the public.  Motley1 climbed to the top, I just admired it from ground level   Not that I couldn’t climb all those stairs you understand , just didn’t want too!

When we pulled into the parking lot there was a car parked there, just out of sight in Ben’s photograph which is a shame.  The guy was standing outside the car smoking a cigarette.  Leaving the centre we pulled back onto the Highway but decided to turn around and go back into town as we needed to find a post office and a bite of lunch.  We had only gone a couple of hundred yards when we became aware of a loud queaking noise and Motley1 thought that it was the wheel bearings so we pulled into a side street to have a look.  Three of the four wheel nuts had almost fallen out of the wheel, he tightened them up and we set off perplexed as to how that could have happened but we had only gone another few blocks when the squeak started again so we pulled into a mechanics yard to have him have a look.  The wheel had come off the hub so when he put the wheel and nuts back on everything was fine.  He was at a loss to explain how it could have happened and we knew the wheel nuts were tight when we left Echuca because Motley1 had painted the wheel the day before and would have noticed if they were at all loose.  We can only surmise that the guy in the parking lot had thought it would be fun to see a wheel come off a caravan or perhaps he had a grudge against all caravanners.

Save in the knowledge that the wheel would now be fine we headed to Swan Hill, I dread to think what might have happened if we hadn’t turned around for that lunch. 

We’ve had a couple of days here now and checked out the Pioneer settlement with the PS Gem, seen the Giant Murray Cod, had a chat with an ostrich and I finally discovered where Motley1 was going when he said he had to see a man about a dog !

We are off again in the morning, don’t quite know where yet but we’ll keep you updated when we can.

Oh, I forgot to show you my favourite paddle steamer at Echuca, so here it is.

Thanks for the emails Bev, we appreciate them even if we don’t get to answer all the time .

We have been to a few different places since we lasted posted on here and as you will no doubt be aware we met with some of our usual weather.  We left Sydney and headed to the Southern Highlands and my famous last words as we left were that we had no need to book a caravan park as school holidays were over and they would be deserted.  I think we should read the newspapers or watch more television as we discovered when we got to Bowral that there was a concert scheduled for that weekend with Jimmy Barnes and Joe Cocker.  As you can imagine there was no accommodation to be had for that weekend.  So we booked in for one night at Mossvale to work out what our plans would be.  We were booked into two markets and here we were with no caravan park.

We went for a drive in the afternoon to Kangaroo Valley and stopped here at Hampton Court Bridge for a photograph before heading into the township to The Friendly Inn.

We wandered around for a little and decided that we had best head back to the van and decide where we would head off to.  Just as we were leaving, the clouds descended and the rain poured down.  As anyone who has been to the Valley will know it is down a very steep, very windy road and there we were driving up the hill, round hairpin bends and unable to see a thing for the rain and low clouds.  A torrent of water was running down the road to meet us and it was a most unpleasant drive.

We got back to the park and decided that we would head off the following morning for Canberra and try and book into a couple of markets there.  As it turns out it was a wise decision as the markets were both cancelled as was the Jimmy Barnes concert due to rain.  Remind me again, this is a drought we are experiencing?

Arriving in Cnberra we booked into the nearest caravan park to the city as we thought we might stay for a while and do a bit of sightseeing and all the touristy things that Canberra has to offer.  We checked out the van parks and were disappointed that we couldn’t find one that was really very nice.  having read on the Cravaners Forum about the Exhibition Grounds we went for a drive there.  It was full of caravans, looked ok and was about half the price of the parks per night.  Great, we thought and headed off to find the office to book in for a week or two.  Just our luck though, the Royal Canberra Show was on and they were closing the grounds to caravans the next day.

Still, the weather was dry and we set off to enjoy our stay.  We visited Telstra Tower on Black Mountain.  It was a long way down to the car park but I’m sure you can spot the car there.  Motley1 had a walk around the outside viewing area while I enjoyed a nice cuppa from the comfort of the cafe.  We visited the National Archives of Australia, the amount of records that they store in this place is astounding.  A great place to check out any immigration details of your families.

Our next port of call was Parliament House gardens (Old Parliament House that is.) They have a beautiful Rose Garden here so we literally “stopped to smell the roses”.

These visits, of course are over the course of a few days.  It would be impossible to see everything in one day.  each place has it’s own attractions.

I should mention that I had a birthday whilst in Canberra, another year older but I don’t look a day over 65 !

Parliament House was our next stop.  ( If you see a pattern here with the photographs, Motley1 had no idea I was using these for the blog )  Getting on a bit, it is hard for Motley1 to keep walking without stopping for a rest every now and again and he reckons these parliamentry seats were quite comfy.  The foyer of the building isvery impressive, marble everywhere.  We were having a wander around looking at the portraits of previous prime ministers when we were joined in the foyer by the Governer General complete with entourage.  It was the day before the first sitting of the new cabinet in parliament and many of the new members were there checking out where there positions in the house would be.  I had mine all picked out.  For me the highlight was going up onto the roof of the building, having the grassed area on the roof was a wonderful idea and it gives you a wonderful view of the flag.  The views from here are some of the best in Canberra, so when you visit take the lift up to the roof as one of your “must do” items.

The next day was “Sorry” Day so we headed down to old Parliament House where the Aboriginal tents were situated.  Here you can see the beginnings of the bonfire being put together.  I was amazed that they were being allowed to have a bonfire on the grounds but a you can see here as the day wore on the grounds were home to cars, vans, tents etc etc.

Next on our travels was the War Memorial.  If you only had time for one day in Canberra then this is the one place not to miss.  From the front of the building you look all the way down to the parliament Houses.  The exhibits and displays will keep you here for hours.  There is a recreation of a night bombing raid in a Lancaster bomber which has to be experienced to believe.   We spent the best part of a day here and could easily have come back for a second day.  Here is a picture of Motley1 on the balcony of the memorial.  Another shot of him in the grounds with a tank and last but not least outside the Hall of Remembrance.  I haven’t posted any pictures of that or the tomb of the unknown soldier as they do no justice to the reality.  I’m sure you would all be as moved as we were.

Our last day, we spent at the National Museum.  Again, this is an all day event, there is just so much to see here.  A highlight is the Garden of Dreams, no ordinary garden this, but I’ll leave you see and experience it for yourselves.

We had intended to stay for longer in Canberra, perhaps another week or so but it was really quite cold and the caravan park was nothing to write home about so we decided to chase the sun and try for a little bit of summer before winter arrives.

We left the next morning to head for Albury and stopped off for a while in Yass.  It seemed a little more run down than I remembered with a few empty buildings around but still a nice little spot.   Albury was to be our stop for the night and we found a lovely little park in Lavington and booked in for the night.  The owner was very friendly and came to the site to check that we were settling in ok.  Motley1 mentioned that he had heard that a couple he knew were managing a park in Albury but he had no idea which one.  Yes, you’ve guessed it, it was the park we had checked in to.  So he had a visit with them for a while.  We were sorry we only had one night here as it was one of the nicest little parks we have stayed in.

We left the next morning around ten not really sure where we would end up.  We stopped, of course, for the mandatory picture of the dog on the tuckerbox.  I still can’t get that song out of my head !!!!  Approaching Holbrook we were taken aback to see this submarine as we were driving through town and of course we had to have a photograph of that too.

Our trusty GPS got us to Mulwala (I’m still sure that’s not where I asked it to take us) and we have been here now for around 5 or 6 days.  We are camped on the lake.  The weather has been wonderful.  The food at the local RSL for lunch was cheap and exceedingly good.  Drinks at Happy Hour were cheap, free entertainment anf two good markets.  We have enjoyed this week more than we have any other for quite some time.  We are still trying to work out how good this pilot must have been to land the plane on these posts outside the RSL Club or to give it its’ proper title Club Mulwala.

We are moving on tomorrow and goodness knows when we will have internet access again and I have had to promise Motley1 that this post would end with a picture of me rather than him.   So here I am, enjoying the sunshine, drinking a beer, the phone glued to the ear and the only thing missing to complete the picture would have been a cigarette somewhere in the vicinity   Now …NO repeat NO comments on the legs will be allowed ..ar you listening Gaz ?

Well till next time, take care everybody and we’ll keep updating as long as you keep reading..

P.S. Motley1 has now also celebrated another birthday, I had to tell you that in case you thought it was just me who was getting older.

Happy New Year !!!. 

It’s been such a long time between posts but I can assure everyone we are still alive and kicking.  We haven’t drowned in the floods, been eaten alive by mozzies (although they try) or had any other catastrophies happen so far.

So let me try and bring you up to date on what we have been up to.   We spent New Year’s Eve with Ben’s son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren in Toowoomba and then headed off down the Great Dividing Range.  I refused point blank to tow the caravan ( what I mean is to be a passenger while Motley1 towed) down the Range from Toowoomba, so worked out an inland route to follow.  We stopped in Tenterfield and had a look at Peter Allen’s maracas (stop the snickering right now!!!! ) and headed on to Casino and then Lismore. We should have gone down the Range from Toowoomba because we ended up with a 39 kilometre twisty, hilly drop down from higher than we were above sea level in Toowoomba. 

We arrived in Lismore in bright sunshine but we should have been a little more knowing than we were at that time as the caravan park was a little soggy underfoot.  The following day, a little soggy turmed into a quagmire and on day three we watched the river rise rapidly.  The rain just never halted, day or night.  I’m sure many of you saw the television coverage of the evacuation of caravan parks etc.  We stayed put but kept a wary eye on the river all the time.  I will post some pictures later of the streets around Lismore and you will be able to see why we had to stay where we were.  The driving conditions were horrendous and the roads had potholes big enough to swallow semi trailers.  We had planned to do the market at Brunswick Heads but it was cancelled.

Motley1 turned on the computer to do some work and the monitor went bang which in a caravan was LOUD…..disaster….no monitor means no work.  So off we set to replace the monitor.

Byron Bay market went ahead despite the weather and we had quite a good day.   We did some sightseeing around Byron Bay and drove up to the lighthouse and then walked to the most eastern point of mainland Australia at Cape Byron.  We watched the dolphins from here while battling the wind.  The weather looks great in the pictures though.

We left Lismore as soon as the rain had stoppped, the caravan park was by no means the best we have stayed at and we were glad to be back on the road.  We headed for Coffs Harbour and the hope of some dry if not sunny weather.  It is Summer, isn’t it? We arrived in Coffs mid afternoon, sun shining, no rain ( =big smiles ) and set up in the Coffs Village Caravan Park.  Small park, very neat, nice amenities. 

Do I have to tell you or have you guessed already, during the night it started to rain, by the next morning we were up to our ankles in mud.   I swear if one more person had said  “we need the rain”  I would have been committed for trial for murder.  I would have pled insanity by virtue of a waterlogged brain !

We booked into the market at Woolgoolga on the Saturday and Coffs Harbour on the Sunday but without much hope between us that we would be attending either.

We enjoyed Coffs, rain or no rain, we enjoyed walking, the library had really good internet access and we had a little family of ducks to take care of.  The river behind us was full of water dragons and the biggest eels we have ever seen. 

We met some really nice people here, everyone in the park was very friendly, a couple of young girls who were parked next to us even went out and brought us back takeaway Thai food because we had offered them a cuppa as they had no cooking facilities.

Coffs Returned Soldiers Club was very nice too but we had the worst Lambs Fry ever here, overcooked would be a huge understatement.  For anyone not in Australia, Lambs Fry is liver usually served with bacon and onions.

Saturday morning and we set out for Woolgoolga.  What a beautiful setting for a market.  The park was right beside one of the nicest little beaches we have seen so far and the sun was shining.  We had a great market day.  We never stopped all day long and were worn out by the end of the market.  We packed up and left the car parked where it was and went for a “paddle” , as near as I’ll get to a swim.  The water was wonderful, blue, clear and warm.  A very successful and unexpected day.

The Coffs Harbour Jetty market sounded nice but was in fact in the underground carpark of the shopping centre.  Great for an all weather market I guess but not very preposessing to look at before the stalls were set up.  It wasn’t a bad day though so we had had a great weekend market wise.

We had thought of heading off on the Monday but it had been such a successful weekend and we were enjoying Coffs Harbour (apart from squelching around in mud outside the caravan) that we decided to stay longer.

We went for a drive along The Waterfall Way to Bellingen and Dorrigo.  If you ever get a chance to do this drive, you will love it.  Not a suitable for drive with a caravan attached though!  The waterfalls alongside the road are spectacular (after all the rain they were in full spate).  The little towns of Bellingen and Dorrigo are full of interesting craft shops and cafes.  We carried on to see the Danger Falls and although the rain was drizzling for most of the day we had a wonderful day out.  Motley1 had the biggest vanilla slice either of us has ever seen in a cafe in Bellingen.  It was a triple decker but he still managed to polish it all off.

Bellingen had a market day on the Saturday so we booked in for that and for Coffs Harbour again on the Sunday.  We had to get busy and make some more bookmarks.  The new monitor is really nice and I had just started on the bookmarks when the printer gave up the ghost.  Oh well, off shopping again, this time for another printer.

Bellingen and Coffs markets were both fairly good, a great market atmosphere at Bellingen with buskers, drummers, bands and lots of things happening throughout the day.

 No visit to Coffs would be complete without a visit to the Big Banana so of course we did the tourist thing and visited.

We decided to head down to Port Macquarie for a few days.  The muddy caravan site was really beginning to get on our nerves, so we said our goodbyes to our neighbours in the park with invitations to join them next year as they all spend Christmas and New Year there and headed off.

We were driving across the bridge over the Wilson River and Motley1 mentioned how the wind was quite strong when all of a sudden the towing mirror flew off the door and disappeared.  My heart stopped beating, here we were on a bridge with lots of traffic and I felt sure the mirror would hit the car behind.  It was a terrifying thought as the poor car behind would have no where to go to avoid being hit.  We got the the end of the bridge and pulled into the side of the road.  The traffic kept flowing with no sign of damage to any other vehicles.  A huge sigh of relief.   We did a Uturn and went back across the bridge to find out where the mirror had ended up and there it was laying on the side of the road virtually undamaged.  We drove off the bridge and parked and Ben walked the half mile or so back across the bridge to retrieve the mirror.

With the mirror fitted back on the car we set off again for Port Macquarie.  We stayed at the Melaleuca Caravan Park, a very well maintained park, nice wide sites.  The park was full of teenage basketball players as there was some sort of training of players from all around Australia happening in the town.  We stayed two nights and it was heaven to have no mud under our feet every time we stepped out of the van.  No ducks here but rabbits everywhere.  Domestic rabbits must have got freed around here and bred.  There are lots of them and they are very tame even eating carrots out of our hands. 

We set off for Forster, I used to live around here so it felt a little like coming home.  Still love the drive over the bridge from Tuncurry to Forster.  We stopped in Tuncurry to say hello to friends who live there and then headed out to the Lakeside Caravan Park.

We booked in for  a few days and were given a welcome pack and given a site as near to the water as they had available.  A few steps away   The sites here were really big and so well looked after.  We expect it will get busy in the park as this is the Australia Day long weekend.

Woke up this morning another year older

Couldn’t stay miserable though…the sun was shining, the lake looked wonderful, we had breakfast sitting outside the van, a perfect start to a day.

We went to see a few places around town and enjoyed the sunshine.  We drove out to Pacific Palms and Smiths Lake.  The Frothy Coffee Shop was full so we decided to give it  miss and head back into Forster.

We went out to tea at the Forster Club where I had a delicious plate of curried prawns and a couple of glasses of wine.  Motley1 had Hawain Chicken.  All in all a very pleasant birthday.

We booked a site at the Pacific Palms market for the Sunday, giving us another two days to enjoy the sites around Forster. 

The weather remained fine and we went to Burgess Beach and climbed around on the rocks.  The sea is pretty wild around here but it is never crowded and we enjoyed paddling around and wading through the rockpools.  We drove up to Bennetts Head and did the Rotary Walk to One Mile Beach.  We drew the line at walking up Cape Hawk as the last time Ben did that climb he spent two days not able to move his legs.

Pacific Palms market was a lovely market under the palm trees as the name suggests and we did reasonably well.  As the following day was the public holiday we thought we would get an early start so packed up the van after the market, hooked up and were ready to leave the next morning.  The sunsets over the lake here at Forster are incredible as you can see here and here.

Our drive down to Sydney was very hot, not too much traffic although we had a couple of hold ups for roadworks.  There are always roadworks on Bank Holidays!  When we arrived in Sydney it was 36 degrees and despite the best efforts of the GPS to get us to our destination, we took a wrong turn.  My fault though I talk louder than the GPS ever did and sent Motley1 off the freeway 1 exit too soon.

The next day we picked up the supplies we needed and visited the doctor to renew our prescriptions, arrange for blood tests etc. etc.

All these tasks taken care off we arranged a market for Saturday and Sunday,

Yesterdays market was undercover, a huge market which reminded Motley1 of Caribbean Gardens and we had a fairly ok sort of day.

Today, Sunday. we set off to what is regarded as one of Sydney’s most successful markets.  We had only been set up for about an hour when the thunder and lightning and RAIN started..oh boy did it rain.  We were very quickly up to our ankles in mud and rivers were running between the stalls.  Everybody dejectedly packed up their stalls in the pouring rain and loaded up their cars and vans with soaking gazebos and stock.

The joys of a hot shower when we got back ..soaking wet and shivering.  Now we have to dry everything out and hope the rain stops long enough to get the tarps and gazebo dry.

Motley1 has to go back for a blood sugar test tomorrow as his levels were a little high ( 2 hours of doing nothing but sitting in the doctors surgery).

So now you are all to date as we prepare once again to head off into the wide blue yonder…ok it is nice and blue till we get there and then it become the wide grey yonder

Till next time..

P.S. If you read this before I get the chance to add the pictures come back soon and have a look.