Day 47

19 March 2013

Stayed at Port Wakefield last night at the sleepy little caravan park there. It was right on the river so nice spot!

Pack up was a breeze, so easy we were standing around saying that we must of forgotten to do something! It was too easy! Joel is of course already talking about all the things he can modify....here we go again! Hehe.

We decided to head down into the Yorke Peninsula for a little bit and have a sticky beak around. We went down to Ardrossan, over to Maitland, then up to Moonta, Port Pirie and our final destination was to be Port Augusta but we only made it to Port Germein as had heard some great reviews off Wikicamps that this is crab heaven!

Nice town, nothing to it, pub, general store and bait, that's about it. Oh and the longest wooden jetty in Australia, 1.6km! Headed to bait shop to load ourselves with gear and information ...you can hire the pots from here (which we did cuz our crab pots are illegal in SA) $3 a day to hire, some bait and the locals telling us don't take more than 40 and take a big esky! We were like whatever we will be stoked if we get 1 and really we were doubtful that we would even get that.

You guessed it, to get the crab you have to walk the 1.6km jetty! Off we went, took the rods as well in case crabbing did not turn out well. Dropped the pots over the side of the jetty in about metre of water and no word of a joke you can actually watch the crabs circling the pot and then they get in and you pull em up! Easy as that, we couldn't believe it! In less than an hour we had caught 20 or more crabs and it was a struggle to keep up with the 3 pots we had going at once! We actually stopped after our bucket was full but we could've kept hauling them in! It was crazy, so fun though. After our crabbing arvo we couldn't be bothered fishing and headed back to cook them up!

The park has a crab cooking facility which you can pay $2 to cook up your catch. Some great guys we met on the jetty helped us cook and clean them, and we took over from here and ate them!

There is nothing better than catching and cooking your own meal!

The only question now is....do we stay here longer to get more crabs?!

Carly & Joel

 

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Day 34

6 March 2013

Woke up to a fairly crappy sleep last night, the road that the park is on is quite noisy and a major road it seems, pretty much all night! Slept in shorts last night for first time as it is warm days here ATM and it was pure bliss!

Started morning off with a run, there are great bike track/walking tracks all through the park, they must span at least 20km and are right on the water. Back for a shower and to do some washing, hooked up some clothes lines with rope between trees to hang out washing.

Decided to head to Sorrento to check out where we will catch the barge from and just to have a sticky beak. Really pretty down there of course, right on the water, clear blue calm water, can't go wrong. We walked out to the pier where the ferry goes from and sat down to take in the serenity....hehe and we could see the ferry coming back so decided to wait and see how big it was in real life! Well the verdict is it is big and the driver must be good to reverse between some concrete pillars and tight spaces!

We then saw a sign for historic steam tram and lookout walk and followed the signs. Up some stairs and round a corner and there are some old tram lines and information boards with the story of the old steam tram. Walk further and up some more stairs and you get 180 degree views of Sorrento and surrounding bays. There is also a picnic area here if you are equipped with a picnic, we were not so headed back down to keep going and check out Portsea.

Bit more driving around through national park (lots of walks in here), then to shops to pick up a few bits and bots.

It was warm today so at 2ish we had enough and decided to go and sit in the water instead of in the hot sun. It was low tide so there is not much deep water, just knee deep waterholes everywhere, so we just sat down in one of the holes and enjoyed the cool water and great weather!

Back to the camper for our first try at lamb shanks in the weber. We bought a casserole dish to fit in the weber and i would say it was a big success, also found a meat shop that has cheap cheap meat with our lamb shanks only being $5! Cheap meal - done. Tomorrow we will do some more exploring and try and be a bit more active!

C u tomorrow

Carly & Joel

 

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Day 33

5 March 2013

Well this morning started off with drops of water falling on our heads! Every time one of us moved it made the drops of water that had built up from the early morning dew on the canvas to fall onto our faces! Haha good times! Note to self, Bedflys should be put up at all times.

This morning also started with indecision on where to go next. We either go above Melbourne and around to the Great Ocean Road or we cheat?! We did a lot of research and decided to cheat! And cut straight across from Sorrento on the ferry to Queenscliff and straight onto the GOR! Will cost us the same sort of money in fuel to go above Melbourne and this way we get a cool boat ride! So next destination is planned for somewhere near Sorrento so that we are ready to hop on barge in a couple of days.

Found a couple of campsites at Rosebud and Joel's brother had told us this is a good spot for flathead and since we are killing the flathead fishing at the moment, that was our new destination!

Heading out we went through Seaspray which is such a great little tiny town. This is really where the country meets the coast! Little beach shaks right on the water, one caravan park and one small shop, that in one trip to this shop, you can.....pick up your mail, get some bait and tackle, pick up your groceries, get lunch and buy a 6 pack of rum and cokes. Best shop ever! However all we wanted was breakfast and they had nothing....so off to the next shop. Another point on Seaspray, if you are looking to invest money in property, look here! In 15 years I reckon it will be a tourist Mecca! Two secs out from the beach it turns into big country properties, sheep, cows etc it is just quite weird really! There is also these trees on the way out of Seaspray that are like big oak trees on either side of the road that have grown together to form a tunnel over the road. Very unique!

We stopped in at Rosedale bakery on our travels and picked up breakfast, nice bakery and there are some life size wooden carvings of motorbikes which are pretty cool and one of Ned Kelly out the front. We then followed the GPS along the highways to get to Rosebud. The highways here are very similar to QLD, just felt like we were heading down to Brisbane. The biggest thing I have noticed in VIC is that they are big on the tired driving bandwagon. Every few kms is a sign saying Wake Up! Or The only cure for fatigue is sleep, or Powernap Now or my personal favourite...Open your eyes.... My only question is, if your eyes are closed would you see the sign?

Make it to Rosebud, pay for 2 nights for $25 a night and head to our camp site. Set up and look out at our view and surroundings and decide what's the rush....lets stay 7 nights!

So we are here for 7 nights and it is going to be a very relaxing, fishing, walks along the beach, swims in the bay type week! Can't wait! We had a bit of a stroll along the beach tonight and need I say more!...

Goodnight

Carly & Joel

Ps. I have set up a new mobile site for the blog so if you view it on your phone etc now it will be a bit easier to navigate and you will be able to comment on posts. If you use an iPad to view the blog use the mobile site as well as it will allow you to comment also. Any other annoying issues let me know. Haven't had much feedback on the Facebook issue.....??!

 

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Day 30

2 March 2013

This morning we woke up to blue sky and somewhat warm sunshine. No complaints here!

Market day today, Mallacoota has markets from 9 to 1 just behind the main street. Easy walk from the holiday park so we walked over to check them out. There was about 12 stalls selling a range of products from fruit and vegies to jewellery and arts and crafts. While we didn't buy anything they are worth just looking at in case there is anything you might like. We then headed down the Main Street and stopped at Lucy's cafe for breakfast. Scrambled eggs, coffee and a muffin, not bad, nothing to rave about though. Then to the bait shop to sort out a bit of new tackle for our rods in the hope that we may be able to catch something today!

New lines rigged up and we head out again. It was much calmer today than yesterday which meant we were drifting at a good speed to pick up some flatties....and we did! We got four all up, but 3 keepers. They have to be between 30-50cm to take them.

I did also manage to catch quite a few shells! Not sure what is inside of these but they clamp shut on the hook and you can't get the hook out! Annoying cuz they are heavy enough to make you think you have a fish as well!

This took us pretty much all afternoon so we headed in to fillet and eat them! They have a really well set up scaling and filleting section just up from the boat ramp. We headed there and ran into a nice man who showed us the best way to fillet flathead which was very nice of him! While you are filleting the fish there is so many seagulls flying around ya head, and pelicans just standing all around the tables waiting for something!

It is a bit unnerving having a mob of pelicans stalking you! We gave them some easy food (fish carcasses) and we were on our way. Joel had them on the frying pan in the weber before you could say "fry the flathead!" And eaten pretty much just as fast, pan fried in garlic butter fresh flathead....mmmm

Joel then washed his dirty car to try and make it look half respectable!

Carly & Joel

 

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Day 29

1 March 2013

First of the month! Which means we have been travelling for one whole month!

Woke up to mainly blue sky's but still freezing, one out of two ain't bad. Decided to do some early morning fishing....since this is a place for fishing! Put the boat in and headed out to try and get some yabbies (or nippers as they are called in Victoria) going to pump nippers just does not have the same ring to it! Anyway one nipper later we gave up and decided to just try the plastics. In Victoria you have to wear your life jacket all the time in the boat unless you are anchored, which does not go down real well with a qlder haha but here we are sporting the fashionable cheapest life jacket you can buy! (Can not say too much about Victorians as there are some Victorian readers! Hehe)

I'm still not sure about plastics, I am a bait girl and I just think its alot easier to know when the fish is actually biting, I have a bit of trouble with the squidgees....think I have a fish so reel in to find nothing, don't think I have fish and there is a flathead on the end of it! I saw the flathead and got a wee bit excited so started reeling like a crazy person up to the boat and the flatty shook its big head and got loose! We saw it and everything! Disappointing! And this would be the only fish we saw all morning.

Headed in to go for a bit of a drive and scenic look. Joel was searching for 4wd drive tracks and there are a few around here, however I would not call them 4wd tracks, more like roads similar to the Sunshine Coast after lots of rain, just potholes everywhere. So Joel got pretty bored of that so he found his own 4wd track.....

And got the car very muddy and dirty! Which was his aim!

Came back to camp and I went for a bit of a run around the park and Joel wanted lollies from the shop so I did that on the way. Realized I must of looked like a dickhead running with 2 bags of lollies! People were probably thinking I was running with them cuz I couldn't wait to get home and eat them! Haha ok I had a couple when I got home! : S.

Bit of TV, chicken pasta bake in the Weber (of course) for dinner and off to bed ready to go out and try fishing again tomorrow.

Carly & Joel

 

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Day 24

24 February 2013

Woke up this morning to severe rain and wind! It pelted down all this morning and I was a little concerned to what we may get up to.

Unfortunately our camper is definitely not rain proof....with the bed areas being canvas it is similar to sleeping under a tent. We got up and Joel's whole corner of his bed was soaking wet! Good start! It seems to drip down these metal bars that hold the canvas up and drip in one corner which then goes into the mattress and sheets etc. I thought I better check mine and it was the same! So we put little containers under the drip to lessen the damage there and rolled the mattresses up hoping the rain would ease off soon.

Luckily it did and the sun came out for the rest of the day so it gave the mattress, sheets and floor time to dry.

As soon as we saw the sun thought we better get out there and have a fish while we can. We were going to go off the rock wall where the salmon are but it was like a washing machine in the surf and the waves were crashing against the rock wall which didn't look really safe! We went on the calm side of the wall instead and Joel caught a flathead....well when I say caught.....I mean we saw it stuck on the end of the hook and he tried to pull it up over the rocks and GONE!

We then came back to camp and made a pizza for lunch. We used a leftover wrap for the base which surprisingly worked well and went crunchy so was yummy! Joel's sister posted on Facebook that she made a pizza which cost her $100 for the gas and $60 for the ingredients......well we say this pizza cost us $1 for the gas and $5 for the ingredients, povo pizza!

We then decided to fish again, cuz we have done so well previous to this! Haha... I caught about 6 little whiting and Joel caught another flathead that threw him off just at the beach! So frustrating! We really need to take the boat out and get in some good spots to get some of these fish, starting to get embarrassing! See what the weather is like tomorrow...

Carly & Joel

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Day 23

23 February 2013

Today we awoke to rain and wind. And lesson NOT learnt! We left the roof hatch open last night and had a van full of water again! We are really lucky I think that the water just goes on one side of the van where the bench and sink and flooring is, if the hatch was on the other side, it would be wet couches, wet iPads, wet everything!

After our clean up we headed outside the van to have a look around, at this stage it was pouring and the rain was blowing straight into the annexe area so we couldn't really even stand outside the van without getting wet! We are trying to be resourceful in our bush camping and decided to put buckets under the water flowing off the annexe roof which we can later use to have a shower.

I had read on the Internet about the Moruya Markets and thought they were worth a look even though it was miserable weather. On the Internet it states it is the fastest growing market in central NSW with 120 stalls, so I thought well it will be worth a look surely......

Markets are located on the river, first left after the bridge in the park there, can't miss them. I would say they would have been pushing 10 stalls here, in their defense it was raining, however I am not sure that the 110 stalls that didn't turn up today really exist?! Anyway some nice fruit and vegies if you need them.

We then went for a bit of a drive, not like we had anything pressing to do at the van! Our neighbours had told us about a walk so we thought we would check that out, it was called the Bingi Dreaming Track and it is located at the Bingi Point. The walk we want to do is 5.5km so couldn't do today because of the weather situation but the Bingi Point there is nice and worth a look.







There is a information sign there that says shipwrecked vessels are located in this area etc....Joel was like where? And then he thought he found one.....haha

He also found some shelter from the rain under the shipwreck!

The weather was just not good so we kept driving in the car and decided to have a look at Tinebar where a couple of campers had told us you can get a $5 lunch here at the Sports Club. It is only about 10 mins up the road from our camp and is clearly signed off the highway. Good news the $5 lunch is only on Monday to Friday...haha but we decided to go in and have a look around anyway. It is a really nice little club, wasn't packed or anything for a Saturday, had a beer and some hot chips and gravy and headed back to camp.

Unfortunately the great solar system we have does not work when there is NO sun! So in the afternoon we had to resort to the next source of power - the generator, which is a bit noisy but not much we can do about it. You are allowed to run generators from 8am-8pm here so not breaking any rules.

The rest of the arvo was spent marking on maps where we have been, looking at where we are going, watching TV, cooking pikelets, eating cream haha and settling in for a night of karate kid.

Carly & Joel

 

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Day 22

22 February 2013

Today we did not do much, it was crappy weather.

We did decide we were going to go into town to get some jam and cream and attempt to make scones again for our nice neighbours; however rain put a dampener on this idea. Maybe another day...

We did go for a bit of a fish but pretty much as soon as we got out there it started raining so had to come back as we didn't take our rain jackets!

We couldn't get tv reception here but after talking to some other ppl they were getting reception, so we decided to move the antenna. We moved it onto the back of the ute as the ute was in a bit of a clearing where there was no trees. And whola 23 channels! So note do not put antenna behind trees as will not receive signal!

I have also added a map of our trip onto the blog so check out the "Where We Have Been" page with the new map showing locations. This is a working progress and I will keep adding when I get the chance.

Let us know you are reading and post a comment below. Ask us questions if there is anything you want to know or suggest things we can cover! Tell us some wet weather activities we can do as it looks like that's what we are heading towards in the next couple of days!

Carly & Joel

 

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Day 12

12 February 2013

This morning we woke fairly early to get ready to leave for a bigger day of driving. We had decided that we were going to head to the Chichester State Forest as we had read a few stories in 4wd magazines about falls, waterholes, 4wdriving and fishing in this area being good and it was free, so win win.

The drive was about 3 1/2 hours to Dungog where there is an information centre where you can source maps for the forest so this was our destination. At the moment we are using a combination of the GPS and my google maps navigation on my phone which is pretty good most times but is not foolproof as I have told Joel many times and I don't hear him complaining when it gets us to destinations! Anyway the first exit we were meant to take the lady with the directions indicated the turn was 600m and just as she said this I saw the turnoff zooming past us and it was gone! Thanks lady with the directions.... this is the same lady that took us on the crazy journey to Dorrigo.... silly mole.

Anyway 50km down the road she gave us another exit which we also missed as drivers love the right hand lane when there is a car towing a caravan in the left hand lane! We then went past about 6 u turn oppurtunites which we also missed... we then ended up sitting in the right hand lane just waiting for a turn around point! Finally got one, headed back to the original exit and we were going in the right direction for Dungog. Dungog is about 25km from the highway and through pretty shit pothole ridden roads. Finally got to Dungog and almost took out a small car as after driving for 4 hours, Joel missed the giveway sign! (Giveway sign, what giveway sign?! haha no not really it was a weird intersection, only one you would find in a small town!) Made it to the information centre, raining in Dungog (yay), had a chat to the information guy and he pretty much said "why would you want to go to the forest when it's raining and there are leeches, I don't like going there at all?" WAY TO PUT PEOPLE OFF. After this Joel was ready to strangle anyone and everyone that came in his path and said F$k this we are going to Nelson's Bay!

So back the way we just came, back onto the highway and another 1hr or so to Nelson's Bay. This is where we were going to head after the Chichester Forest so we had already researched a little about it. Pretty much it's expensive but in a beautiful location with lots to do. So we headed to a few of the parks we had researched and one was no vacancy! Argh starting to panic, will we get a site here or have to drive another 2 hours to somewhere?! We then headed to Shoal Bay and pulled into a park there,vacancies yes! Right on the water, beautiful, amenities, games rooms, full holiday park with all the bells and whistles pretty much. So we set up here, this is also very busy but there was still a few spots left. We are staying here for 3 nights so did a full set up.

We then headed to the beach for a swim, the water the freezing, it has been really overcast all day so I am hoping that the weather improves over the next couple of days with lots of sun! Took a couple of pictures of our surrounds, it sort of looks like phuket or something similar its very pretty, not sure why but made me feel like it was overseas somewhere.

Water is very clear and sand is clean and pretty white. Looking forward to what we can do here. Hikes, bike riding, snorkelling, swimming, dolphins, kayaks, 4 wheelers, sandboarding... will be an expensive part of the trip but well worth it we think.

Another win for us today is that we got the tv working at this park. Joel put the antenna on the broomstick pole and attached it with gaffa tape to a pole of the annexe.... not as flashy as the winnerbago's around us but it works! Home and Away - watched, dinner eaten, chocolate for dessert and ready for a big rest and falling asleep to the sounds of channel 7's crap shows (just like home) for fun in the morning. Starting with a run along the beach!

Another lose for today, we missed two big things, the big oyster at Taree (too far off the highway) and the big rock (which is a replica of Ayers Rock, not as big but weird enough that people care about it)... missed this as we decided to stop at a rest stop 1 sec up the road from it so didn't want to stop again!

Carly & Joel

 

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