Week One Day Two

Our home for the next 3 months



The Big Banana


John fishing on the Clarence river at Yamba

2nd Night and this time in a tent. Lying on the double airbed writing this blog, feels so decadent when the rest of friends and family are slaving away.Hee Hee Hee. We started the day off with Hope and I still sleeping, John going to the local shop in Yamba buying eggs, bacon and sausage and then fishing for a hour. He put about 4 feathers on his line and was pulling out four fish at a time. All be it that they were very small. Of course he threw them all back in. He woke us up in time for us to make breakfast, clean up pack up and leave by 10.00am.

We then headed towards Coffs Harbour. We stopped at the "Big Banana" for the obligatory photo and then made our way to the Harbour. Wow it was beautiful. Lots of commercial fishing boats, a lovely walk along the sea wall a, seafood restauarant and a lovely spot for a nice cold drink.

We are now settled in our tent at Nambucca Heads. Again a stunning location. The caravan park is called the White Albatross Holiday Centre. We are facing a lake with the sea just behind that. Lying here you can hear the ocean. It is so peaceful. We have bought our New South Wales fishing licences, and will be ready to do some fishing a little later.

Before that we have to cook dinner, a quick stop at Woolworths, and dinner is sorted. Meatballs, rice and vegetables. We still have to eat healthily.

To date the milage covered is 403Kms we are under the belief that we will do about 600 Kms to a tank of fuel. Not bad for the first full day!

Our first night

Sunset at Fishing Haven Park Day One

After our house rental was cleaned today, we decided that we are far too messy to stay the night. So we left a day early. At 15.20 this afternoon with 74917 kms on our odometre we set off. Saying a sad farewell to Ormeau Gold Coast. We are going to miss everyone! We stopped at Ballina (New South Wales)to see the "Big Prawn" and to stretch our legs then continued on down the Pacific Highway.

We decided to head to Yamba (NSW)as we had heard that it was beautiful along the coast there. We had also decided that as it would be dark when we got there that we would try and get accommodation rather than pitch our tent. (Does that sound like a bit of reluctance on our part to forgo the aircon????)

We found a lovely campsite called Fishing Haven Caravan Park right on the Clarence river. WOW what views. We arrived as the sun was setting over the river, fishermen where fishing from the jetty's and it was spectacular. By the time we had checked in it was 8.00, hungry we went into Yamba for some food. We both fancied curry and we went to "Indian affair" defininately a place to forget. The presentation of the food was horrible although it tasted reasonable. Also the portion sizes were not worth what we paid for it. Hope had Tandoori and when we got back to the cabin, promptly threw up all over the bedroom floor. Does not bode well for us tomorrow!

Our house is empty

Well that is that, all our goods have been loaded into a container and on its way to been shipped back to the UK.
We are camping in our rental till Saturday morning. So for now we can have dinner without flies sleep peacefully (on our air beds) without mozzies and have the airconditioning on. We are close at hand to the loos and showers. Small comforts that will have to sustain us for the next 3 months. I still think we must be mad, but what an adventure!
The cleaner is coming tomorrow morning to do a bond clean, the estate agent in the afternoon so depending on what happens we might even leave a night early. I wander where we will end up, tomorrow night?

Getting close

Today marks the first day without a fridge. Our last fridge (we had 2 plus a wine fridge) was picked up this morning. Poor Hope had to have ice-cream for breakfast. Mmmmmmm we must be going soft in the head.
We have dedicated one room for all our stuff that we are taking around Australia with us. This is because the packers are coming tomorrow to start packing all our belongings. That is the nice thing about international moves you are not allowed to pack, the bad thing is other people packing your nickers!

We want to get going now, this hanging around is getting to us, we want to explore, we want to see, we want to start our adventure. Roll on Saturday!!

Garage Sale

This week has seen us fighting a war.... The war of the shop notice boards. To advertise the items that we were selling and our Garage sale, we printed off a whole lot of notices and put them on shop notice boards. What we did not realise was that we should have hired security to keep them on the boards. People selling similar items, simply remove your notice so reducing the competition. But we prevailed and have been pretty succesful so far, one day to go.

John returned his company car yesterday, and attended a farewell BBQ. He was presented with an Aussie (homemade) cork hat, flag and stubbie (with built in boobs).We must say we were very grateful to Pickwick for allowing us the use of the car and petrol card for the last 20 days, considering John was no longer working for them.

We have just watched Pat Callinans 4 x 4 adventure unfortunatley in this episode he did part of the area of WA that we are not going to. However they did pass through Kalgoorlie, it was so exciting thinking that in a few weeks time we will be there.

Jonathan and Victoria going

Yesterday, the last full day with Jonathan and Victoria was spent at Currumbin Wildlife Centre and Coolangatta beach, rounding the day off with dinner at Hannigans, Calypso Bay. It was a rather funfilled day, holding baby crocodiles, putting black headed pythons round ones necks, having birds flying over us, feeding kangaroos, fending off an interested emu nibbling on your bag and camera case. mmmmmmmmm What were we thinking!
This exciting wildlife adventure ended with a swim in the sea at Coolangatta beach, where loads of fish abounded, and unfortunatley jellyfish and blue bottles too. It was the latter two that drove us out of the water.
Dinner was on Victoria and Jonathan as a way of saying thank you for the last couple of weeks, which was very nice of them. It was our pleasure!
Unfortunatley today was the day that we had too take them to the airport. Boo Hoo, time waits for no man and this time came around very quickly. After checking in we had a coffee, where Hope spilled her chocolate milk all over her dad, much to the sadistic delight of her brother!
Too bad, so sad but you will be in the snow next week. Have a safe trip!

Tying up loose ends

There is still so much to do. Items to sell, as we are restricted to a 20ft container. Car to service, (7 yr old to entertain),tyres to check, (7 yr old to entertain), insurance to sort out (7yr old to entertain), cleaning (7yr old to entertain), trip planning (7yr old to entertain). By now I am sure that you are getting our drift. If it is stressful on us it must be doubly so for her. Since her cousins have left and the more focused we are becoming on the move and trip the more whiny and needy she is becoming. So we keep on having to stop take a breathe and remind ourselves that we need to revert back to being a 7yr old. So excuse us if we throw temper tantrums, whine, whinge and generally throw our toys out of the cot over the next week. This will happen when we revert to being a 7yr old!

Excited by our trip, Hope in front of a map of Australia. The enormity of traveling 17000 km's hitting us right between the eyes.

Australian Trip 2010

12 days to go before leaving on our trip around Austalia, looking forward to seeing all that Austarlia has to offer. The challenge of this trip is spending 3 months in a car with a tent, and a 7 yr old. Will keep you posted.

We will be staying at the following places Sawtell, Taree, Sydney, Katoomba, Sussex inlet, Canberra, Mount Beauty, Shepparton, Melbourne, Port Campbell, Robe, Hahndorf, Port Augustus, Port Lincoln, Ceduna, Fowlers Bay, Nullabor, Cocklebiddy, Norseman, Kalgoorlie, Hyden, Perth, Dongara, Denham, Coral Bay, Nanutarra, Tom Price, Port Hedland, Sandfire, Broome, Fitzroy Crossing, Halls Creek, Kununarra, Katherine, Jabiru, Darwin, Gove, Mataranka, Tennant Creek, Alice Springs, Kings Canyon, Uluru, Coober Pedy, Peterborough, Broken Hill, Cobar, Orange and back to Sydney.

Some places we will be only spending a night and others a few days.

In the mean time we still have Jonathan and Victoria with us for the next few days, so I think a trip to Cedar Creek falls is on the cards, especially if it is as hot as today. The falls has a natural slide which is great fun.