Week Two Day Eleven

A pretty one


From the deep



Spot John


The field of cows

A pleasant morning, started with coffee and breakfast with Barbara, Ashlee and Ryan. They had to go to work and to school......shame. Never mind we went into Shepparton. What a lovely town.

It is great to go into a town that has not been cloned, there are great individual shops to wonder into. They also have a green with "cows" in it. Some where great..... others mmmmm disturbing.

We had a relaxing day today, did the shopping we needed to do, cooked a roast for dinner and looked at photos.

Barbara has the day off tomorrow so we are going to explore!!!!

Week Two Day Ten

Speaks for itself


The campsite after the tent is broken down.


The lookout.


Macro shot

We woke up to the fog again, sitting outside the tent to absolute silence was wonderful. The coffee warmed us up after a very cold night. We have got sleeping bags, that Matthew and Gareth (John's middle son and friend) used while backpacking. However they are small, only just covering our shoulders and the zips are broken. I think we must have had about 4 layers on, including socks and with the sheet doubled up over our shoulders.

We decided not to spend another night, because of the cold. However if we could transplant the campsite to a warmer place we would. It was lovely. I went around taking macro photos of the dew on the grass, flowers and Kangaroo poo (I'm learning so it was easy to focus on.....ha ha). We were sad to leave Raspberry Hill Campsite.

We stopped off at a lookout overlooking the valley and Mt Beauty in the distance. We had also found out that we had camped at 1700m above sea level. No wonder we were cold!

I phoned my friend Barbara and asked her if we could come a night early (it has been 6 years since we last saw each other, and I must say I couldn't really wait any longer). So we made our way to Shepparton. We stopped at Bright, a little town under Mt Buffalo, for a coffee. Lovely picturesque little town.

We have had a lovely BBQ (braai), a lovely warm sleep in a comfortable bed and we are now getting ready to explore Shepparton and the surrounds.

We have done a total of 2562 Km's so far!

Week Two Day Nine

The Submarine at Holbrook


John cooking dinner


Hope and John putting up the tent


A few of the "skeleton"trees

We left Gundagai this morning, I must make mention that the "Gundagai Motel" was lovely. It was very reasonable and one of the best we have ever stayed in.

We were on our way to Mt Beauty in the Alpine region of Victoria. We passed through a little town of Holbrook population 1200. Right there at the start of the town was a Submarine. Of course we had to stop and have a look around. What an interesting little place.

We arrived in Mt Beauty and went to the local information centre. We were told that they could provide info on free campsites. We gathered as much info as possible and set off. We headed for Falls Creek one of the skiing centres of the region. On the way to Falls creek we came upon the most incredulous sight. A few years ago a devastating fire swept through the area, killing millions of trees. These skeletons still stand, white against the horizon. I would say it is the most amazing sight that I have ever seen. We drove through Falls Creek basically into the unknown because of the thick mist. Following the road into an abyss. Looking for Raspberry Hill a free campsite and the only facility is a long drop toilet. We shall see what the night brings.

Hope's Blog.......... We are on Mt Beauty, and when we were driving along there was a lot of mist, and we drove over a dam wall. You could'nt see over the edge and I said it was the drop off just like in "Nemo" . At the campsite I needed to go to the toilet and it was a long drop toilet ....my first it was cool.

Week One Day Seven and Week Two Day Eight

Capitol Hill from City Hill in Canberra


Fitzroy falls taken on the 800m walk.

So sorry guys, could not get a signal last night..... so the blog was delayed.

After we left the Blue Mountains, we headed for the coast. We went via Kangaroo Valley as we were told that it was beautiful. It was fantastic not only for the scenery but also because of the steep gradients we had to go down. It had its scary moments especially when your part of the road was blocked by fallen trees, from the previous mentioned storms.

We stopped off at Fitzroy falls, to stretch our legs and to see what it was all about. We were pleasantly surprised to see a rather magnificant waterfall. A lot of times the "waterfall" is tiny. This was great.

From there we went through Kangaroo Valley Village, we passed over a bridge that had wood slats as the road. mmmmm would not like to go over in a truck.

We ended up in Sussex Inlet, not by accident but by design. It was a lovely spot right on the river which had black swans swimming on it. The idea was to go fishing and to relax on the beach. However we left early this morning and headed inland, you guessed it, it was still raining.

On the news last night we heard about a train derailment in the Blue Mountains because of a landslide. Luckily there were no injuries. The weather also closed the highway, so I think we made it out in time.

We drove along the coast to Batemans Bay and then on the Kings Highway to Canberra. We stopped at Nelligen because it had such a wonderful river "The Clyde" to do a spot of fishing. John caught a bream but as we had no were to cook it, he threw it back. We ended up by dismantling and packing all the gear in the pouring warm rain. It was great fun.

We stopped in Canberra for a look at Capitol Hill and City Hill. We took a walk on City Hill and looked across the lake to Capitol Hill. Unfortunately we could not spend too much time in Canberra, but those of you that know Crawley (in West Sussex), it is full of roundabouts that just leads to confusion.

We are spending the night in Gundagai. A day planned in the Alpine region of Victoria tomorrow.

We have so far left Queensland, gone through New South Wales, into Australia Capitol Territory and back into New South Wales.

Hope's Blog.........it was soooo cool today we went fishing. I even have my own fishing rod. We did go fishing but we where in the rain. I did'nt know how to cast, so I just bobbed my line in the water. I did'nt use my fishing rod the whole time I also used the hand line with prawn as bait, but the sad thing was that I did'nt catch any thing. My dad was casting and he caught a small fish! I did'nt want to hold it, it was ickie.

Week One Day Six

The Three Sisters


In the Zig Zag Train.



Viaduct 2 and 3



The Cockatoo's


Bahahahahahahahahahaha...................Sorry had to get that hysterical laugh out. We survived last night!!!! The storm that came through the campsite last night was VERY FRIGHTENING.

If we were not in the tent, it would have blown away, however we can rest assured that our tent does not leak.

Before we headed out this morning, we were visited by loads of Sulpher Crested Cockatoo's. They were expecting breakfast. Sorry mates!!! However we did get some good shots.

Anyway last night out of the way we wondered what we were going to do today. The things that we had planned was probably going to be cancelled because of the extreme conditions. However we did have a very interesting day. We started off by going to see "The Edge" on the Giant screen cinema. This is a must see Blue Mountains wilderness experience.

From there we went to Clarence to experience the Zig Zag Railway. We thought that it would just be a train journey, but it was so much more than that. We had opportunities to climb off at various points for an informative talk, and to take photos. The scenery was spectacular and the viaducts were amazing.

We took a chance and went back to Echo Point, the main viewing area for the Three Sisters. When we stopped there in the morning it was so misty there was nothing to see. When we arrived there was still mist, but it rolled away as we stood there. The Three Sisters appeared out of the mist. I must say it was an awe inspiring site. It has a lovely legend tied to it so please click on the link and read about it.

Anyway it is still raining and cold, but hey ho what would camping be if not for a little rain.

Hope's Blog....... I wonder how cold it will be tonight. I think I am going to wear what I was wearing yesterday.....lots of warm clothes! guess what I love writing my bit of the blog!!!! (Thank you Ms Sarah for your lovely comment) the best part of the day was looking at the mist across the mountains it was beautiful.

Week One Day Four and Five

Bondi Beach


Mmmmmmmmmmm



Double bay

After a lovely night sleep at my sisters, we did a small sight seeing tour around the local area. We saw Sydney Harbour Bridge in the distance, Bondi Beach, Vaucluse House (1827) and Double Bay. We had a lot to do and as we are spending 2 weeks in Sydney at the end of the tour, we will sight see then. When my sister picked up the the kids from school we went to the "beach" at Double Bay. This is an enclosed swimming area. As we where there a P&O cruise liner passed by making its way to Sydney harbour.

This morning we headed for Katoomba in the Blue Mountains. We found a lovely caravan park, and yes we are camping, and yes it is raining. I do not think that we have ever had a camping trip that it hasn't rained.

We did a scenic drive on our way in and stopped at "Cahills lookout". Wow we where high. The rock formations where majestic, and the trees looked so small from up high.

The town of Katoomba is great. We encountered many interesting personalities on our walk through the town. We stopped for a bite to eat and a coffee (fantastic) in the "Blue Hour Cafe" A must for anyone visiting.

We have lots planned for tomorrow..............

Hope's Blog.... Wow it is cold and really wet, there is even mist. I am wearing long sleeve pj's and long pj bottoms plus a jacket. It is freezing I am turning into a ice cube........ brrrrrrrrrrr I like it ha ha ha he he he.

Week One Day Three

Hope and John at "home"




Nambucca Heads at high tide



Sunday, a day that we had planned to fish, swim and just enjoy Nambucca Heads.............. Not to be I am afraid to say. During the night it poured with rain. (the good thing about it we know that the tent is waterproof). Dilemma, do we stay and do everything in the wet or do we head down to Sydney to my sister.

The thought of my sisters warm, dry home and company for an extra night (we were staying only one night ) won in the end.

We moved everything under cover at the holiday park, so that I could pack up and sort out in the dry. It was great, met a young couple, she was German and he was Dutch and they where just finishing off their 3 month trip around Australia. Picked up some good pointers and was please too find out that the Park we where staying in was the most expensive park to date. Note to oneself ........ need to find cheaper parks to camp in.

We left at 11.00 and hit the road. (not literally) Our next stop was to Port Macquarie, we parked on the headland for a snack, while shaking our heads in disbelief at the foolhardiness of the local surfers. The sea looked evil. A storm was brewing and the waves where being whipped up into monsters.

We stopped at Lake Cathie for lunch. We found a picnic bench next to a river and had lunch while looking at the pelicans.

We then headed for Sydney, spectacular rock formations on the side and middle of the road. So much rock must have been removed to lay the road into Sydney. I must say I am glad that I did not do any driving in Sydney. Confusing to say the least.... thank goodness for GPS (and John).

Yea we arrived at my sisters. The cousins, the dog, the cat and the adults a cacophony of noise. Dinner was Thai, yummy much better than the Indian we had the other night. The kids eventually went to bed and after separating them (because they wouldn't stop talking) they fell asleep.

To date we have done completed 1016 Kms.