Day 49

21 March 2013

We stayed at Point Lowly last night which is 20km from Whyalla and is a free camp. This area also seems to be home to a huge gas mine which seems to connect with Whyalla's steel mining, so big operations going on out here!

Wow we just seem to attract wind! Last night was windy again, while we were thankful we were not back in the camper, we were still getting battered by the wind! The wind was just whistling with incredible force and kept us awake again!

Headed off after a little sleep in (the wind was to blame for this)...had to go back into Whyalla for our big day of driving today! Now we are doing big k's at the moment and the pure reason for this is to get to WA! SA just hasn't lived up to our expectations, it is so dry and really not pretty at all and there is just 100's of kms between towns, it is very boring driving! We were pretty excited today though cuz we did come across a few curves in the road which kept it interesting! Sorry to any South Australians reading! Someone had told us we are here at the wrong time of year so that might have something to do with it.

So yea WA we hope this will live up to expectations cuz really the whole trip was about getting there!

Drove through another mining town at Iron Knob,

And then onto the Eyre Highway towards Kimba, the halfway point across Australia! And home to then Big Galah!! Now this is what I am talking about, it was a BIG galah, it was maintained and it didn't have a big fence around it saying under construction or closed or private property!! So yay big thing!

Fuel at Kimba too so filled her up and saw a pretty cool vintage car and van, which we are blogging about mainly for Joel's dads enjoyment as we thought he would like it. It was from QLD to so maybe even know them!?

We are now settled on the water again, oh so peaceful and will probably stay here for a couple of days before hitting the Nullabor! Fishing is good here so we will be hopefully doing some of it tomorrow!

Carly & Joel

 

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Day 41

13 March 2013

Today was apostle day!! Now while I was excited about this day, I also was thinking that I have already seen so many photos of these things, and was skeptical about whether actually seeing them for real would be much different....

Day did not start well....wind was huge here last night! We had the awning on the ute out overnight and were woken early morning with a huge bang which made us both sit upright and say WTF was that?! Well it was the awning crashing down! So in these huge winds we are trying to put the awning down while the wind is getting under it and forming a sort of parachute above our heads!! Crazy! Even better news it bent the leg of the awning so we couldn't pack it up properly and just had to do what we could until the morning. Not much more sleep was had after this as wind was so strong, Joel also got up and put tent poles on a diagonal at our beds to brace the roof as it was just swaying around in the breeze! Good times! We hate wind!!! The water pump in the van also burst and leaked water everywhere the night before so we weren't having much luck!

Anyway we packed up and got the hell out of there this morning for brighter pastures! Made it to the apostles, there is lots of parking here for big rigs which is good, and a little kiosk and toilets if you need them. Then a short walk to a boardwalk that overlooks the apostles. Well I couldn't be further from the truth by saying that seeing pictures would do this place justice....it did not! No matter how many pictures you have seen of these things, you will never be able to imagine how amazing it is in real life. The sheer size, shape, coastline....just amazing! This has to be on everyone's bucket list! I was really in awe...from here there are so many little stops you can see more and more of this great coastline.

We then stopped at Loch Ard Gorge which has one of the greatest looking rocks (I think), called Razorback.

Also at Loch Ard Gorge is the thunder cave which is a cool little cave chiseled out by the waves.

Further along the road is the arch, also great, just amazing that this is all naturally occurring!

Then to London Bridge which has collapsed into two pieces now. When this collapsed there was actually people standing on one of the rocks and they were marooned there until a helicopter could pick them up!

Bay of islands is pretty much the last lookout of this great area.

Great Ocean Road done and we are now in Warrnambool staying at a Big 4 park, living it up with jumping pillow, spa, heated pool, gym, table tennis, big TV and hot showers! All of which we have used this afternoon! Only here for the night and then well we are not sure.....

Carly & Joel

 

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Day 31

3 March 2013

Sunday morning woke up to a beautiful sunny hot day! Yay! So after breakfast we decided it was time to chase the flathead again!

Joel had played around with a few soft plastic and cut tails off ones and superglued them to the other just to see whether they would have any effect... They looked ridiculous of course but the proof is in the pudding I guess...

There are moorings here for your boats along the waters edge and they cost $4 a day to park your boat in them. We made a discovery that there was old mooring points right up the end towards the rock point and beach end. We asked the lady at reception if you have to pay for these and she said she didn't even know they were there and we should have just parked boat there and not asked! Haha so that's what we did. So it was a lot easier this morning to go fishing as we just carried our gear to the boat, jumped in and off we went.

We started well, flathead straight up! And this continued pretty much all morning! We ended up getting 8 keepers ranging from 35-40cm, 1 dropped at the boat, 1 undersize and 1 that Joel cut the gills and went to wash it over the side of the boat and it slipped from his hands and swam away!!! Oops!

Almost bagged out and we were getting hungry so back to camp for lunch!

Joel loves looking at everyone else's set up and saying how great, good, awesome of a set up they have. I told him the smorning he keeps reminding me of Kath & Kim when they see anything and say "that's nice, that's different, that's unusual!" Joel does this with pretty much every van setup he sees "that's a good setup, ooh that ones a good set up, ooh very nice!" Haha it makes me laugh and is a bit of a running joke at the moment!

Anyway totally off track....had some lunch and decided to see if we could get some more flatties this arvo! Unfortunately it was super windy which we felt hindered our fishing and we only came home with one! Overall though 18 fillets later, gives us (or Joel) a few free meals so can't complain!

Last night at Mallacoota tonight, tomorrow heading to somewhere near Lakes Entrance.

I am also thinking about setting up a Facebook page for the blog....seems that it is a little bit annoying to come to the website all the time to read the blogs and the email subscription doesn't seem all that reliable....what does everyone think about this? Should I do it? If you think it's a good idea please let us know cuz even though I am not a huge fan of Facebook it is where everyone goes for the daily news of everyone's life.....

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 27

27 February 2013

Today we woke to rain, rain and more rain. We were planning to walk to the summit of Mount Kosciusko today so we decided to take a drive to Thredbo first and see what the weather was like there. From our campsite it is about 15 mins to Thredbo.

At Thredbo it was raining even heavier and we were really not prepared with the right gear to walk in this weather. Joel had no rainproof jacket and we were going to get soaked. We went for a bit more of a drive past Thredbo to see what else was around. There are a lot of different walks that can be done along this road however none of them are pleasant in the rain.

We decided that there would be no point in coming here if we didn't attempt Mount Kosciusko! Back to Thredbo we had a look in a few shops hoping to pick up a cheap jacket, of course they were all about $500! We then went to the sports centre to buy our tickets to the chair lift to start our summit walk. They had a few jackets on sale and there was a full waterproof, wind proof, breathable snow jacket on sale for $80! So Joel got this and we were then ready for our walk.

Something to eat in the cafe before we go up on the chair lift. World's biggest Anzac biscuit $4, and sausage roll for $6.50. Now onto the chair lift, the pass is $32 each for an all day pass on the chair lift. The chair lift was pretty cool, you can imagine when it is snowing how much cooler it would be but there was still some good views and it was an experience (for people that haven't been on a chairlift before). This was made even more of an experience as it was pouring rain and we were both just hiding in our rain jackets hoping we would be at the top soon! Made it to the top and we were soaked! Still pouring rain, wind is getting stronger we push on to our first destination the Mount Kosciusko Lookout which is 2km from the chair lift.

I would love to say we just loved the views and it was an amazing walk....the truth is we could barely look up as the rain was pounding our faces and if we did look up all you could see was all the fog overtaking the view anyway! There is a steel boardwalk all the way to the lookout and it is an easy walk. We made it to the lookout and looked out and saw ....FOG! At this point we decided there was no point in pressing on to the summit as it was another 4.5 km plus getting back and we wouldn't be able to see anyway and we were already wet and freezing! This was so disappointing!! I really wanted to do it and just seemed like an epic fail but we decided we would like to come back in ski season so we will get another chance to climb. (Some comfort).

My big Anzac biscuit (ok half of it, I was hungry!)

 

We headed back to the restaurant at the top of the chair lift to try and find some warmth. I found warmth in a hot chocolate...mmmm and Joel found warmth in a $8.50 Kosciusko beer (which he was not very keen on)!

Back down the chairlift and the fog lifted and rain cleared for our ride down so we could enjoy it a little more. At the bottom we are wet, cold, disappointed and ready to get into some dry clothes so headed back to camp for a quiet night.

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 3

3 February 2013

 

Well our day started really early this morning, about midnight! We experienced extremely high winds here over night and the whole camper felt like it may just lift off the ground and tip over! We had to get up numerous times to readjust poles and take stuff down and the door kept coming open in the wind! It was hectic and if we weren't fixing something up, we were lying in bed wondering what the next thing would be that would collapse! So no sleep for us for most of the night, the wind did die down at around 4am so we slept from then to 8ish. High winds are expected again tonight so this could be another interesting night...

As mentioned in last post, we headed off to the Byron Bay Markets which are on the first Sunday of every month. On the way to Byron we made a detour to the Macadamia Castle to see what they had to offer... inside is a nice cafe and gift shop and obviously macadamias for sale. To get into the actual activity side of the castle it was a $17 admission fee and inside you can play mini golf, visit the animal farm etc however we didn't really think this was something we needed to waste money on (however if you have kids, this could be a good day out) so after having a look around we got back in the truck and kept going.

Byron was absolutely packed with people and it really is a unique part of Aus, there was a lot of bare footed, hairy arm pitted, carefree, tie-dyed, hugging people around which was interesting people watching but I would have to say that everyone there just looked healthy, fit, happy and slightly out of it.. so they must be doing something right!! We were hoping that the markets may have fresh fruit and vegies but out of the 100 stalls that were there, there was one fruit shop. It was mainly clothes, food and therapies etc.

After the markets we thought we would take the tourist drive back to Ballina past Lennox Head. Lennox Head is so much quieter than Byron and nicer, less touristy... we stopped at Lake Ainsworth where we sat on the edge of the lake, enjoyed a mango we had purchased at the markets and watched the sail boats ride up and down. I also experimented with the self timer on my camera (see third photo below) which I think went surprisingly well considering we are both in the shot, our heads aren't cut off and we don't have some weird look on our faces like "When is this camera going to go off?!" haha

 

By this time we were hungry and ready for lunch, and as we were not very organised this morning we hadn't bought anything to have on the road so we continued back in the direction of Ballina. A little up the road was the Lennox Head Lookout which had some spectacular views but was very windy!

Back at camp we had lunch, went for a swim, sunbaked and rested. Dinner was T Bone we bought from the butcher at Ballina Central and it was delicious. Yes I may just become one of these people that posts a photo of everything they eat... I am only doing this as I think it is quite impressive what you can make from only a Weber Baby Q!

 

After dinner we headed to the camp kitchen to see if there was anything worth watching on tv (as we haven't quite worked out our TV set up yet!) and of course there was nothing on tv! We then decided we should try and get an early night to catch up on some sleep.

We also trialled what happens if you follow our blog by becoming a "follower" at the bottom of the page. If you do choose to follow it, it is good as it sends you an email with each post I upload, rather than you having to log on to the website each time. Only downfall is that you need to have a google, twitter or yahoo account or set one up to follow. The follow by email doesn't actually seem to do anything...

Anyway totally up to you guys.

Carly & Joel

 

 

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