Week 2 Corrimal to Shoalhaven Heads

We rolled into the "GONG" Wollongong staying a a nice caravan park right on the beach but you would not believe the temperaturem most days it struggled to get into the 20's. It is a huge town, we don't klnow what we were expecting but it appears to be the holiday destination for both Sydney and Canberra.

Looking back from the headland to the City centre

We walked the city, had a beer at the 5 island brewery and a casual walk along the foreshore.

A little north of Wollongong is the Sea Cliff Bridge, quite a spectacular structure constructed in just 18 months in 2004 has a length of 665 metres. One of the unusual things we tend to see around the place are engraved locks locked to railings all over the place. It looks like graffiti has given way to high tensile locks with you unending love to your partner engraved onto locks.


We only stayed in the caravan park for 2 days, the first day we could hardly get out of the van because of the wind so there was a bit of walking to be done, so much more to see and so little time.

Off to Shoalhaven Heads

Only about 80 km down the road was a pleasant little drive, we now take less than 30 minutes to packup, hitch on and get on the road.

Close to the beach on the Shoalhaven River Shoalhaven Heads Caravan Park is a very family friendly park. The area has bird watching platforms walking tracks and an outside Gym to kept us busy. As you can see we have both mastered the equipment, what will be our next challenge.



 Just down the road is the Coolangatta winery originally the original site of the Berry family estate from the late 1800's. A small boutique winery producing around 5,000 bottles of wine per year.

A broad variety of grapes are gown but no crushing or bottling is done on site.

From here we went up the Kangaroo Valley Highway to Fitzroy Falls to see some spectacular views. The skies were not as clear as we would have liked due to the winds and high moisture levels in the air.

Cambewarra Mountain Lookout



Don't you just love signs like this

All the walking has got the thirst going so off we went to the Kangaroo Valley Township for Bangers and Mash and a Skooner of New just to keep us going.



We saw a wood working store and couldn't help but be amazed by the rocking horses. The one here didn't have a price but smaller ones with less detail were around the $6,000 mark. If you got to ask the price you probably can't afford it.


 











 

Our First Week on the Road

 I forgot to show you the photo of Michelle taking Trice out to the van.


We have survived our first week and discovered some beautiful parts of the country although after showing this photo I may not. We are travelling around 250 to 300 klms every 3rd day so that we can get to see a the local sites. Our trip from Wooli to Crowdy Bay was a nice drive and went without much trouble until I hit a post in the camp area which made a hell of a noise making everyone look at me driving. I felt like a goose and had some ugly marks on the side of the van. Luckily I had packed some wet and dry sand paper, battery drill and and a few other bits and pieces and it is all fixed now.

This is the road into Crowdy Bay which was about 5klms of dirt road. The car and van have been packed very well with no rattles and nothing breaking.


This is a National Park with very clean and modern facilities but only cold showers. I thought what the heck I will leave the hot water for Trice as we only have one tank full and I will try the cold showers, they can't be that bad. My god it was freezing and I did notice that everyone else was using solar hot water bags.

Cooked a great Camp Oven meal in the new Gas bottle stove, works a treat.

The beaches are long, wide and uninhabited, we were walking for an hour and not seeming to go anywhere. The funny thing is that you are in the middle of nowhere but you get great phone service.

Being a National Park you do get you fair share of wildlife, kangaroos and a giant goanna and then Trice came across a brown snake but it was only a baby.

Natural Arch Diamond Head

We came back from a walk to find a mother kangaroo and her joey having a sleep on the floor of our annex. We assumed that when we came back that the mother would get a fright and move on. Not only did she continue to make herself at home she also wanted to share Trice's lunch.


We met some great people who all have the same attitude, it is just so refreshing, they just want to have fun and see this beautiful country. Interestingly our van got nicknamed the Starship Enterprise because of the 'stuff' on the van.

Off to Lake Macquarrie

Just south of Newcastle and twice the size of Sydney Harbour this is magic. Staying in a caravan park you do have the benefits of camp kitchen rather than cooking on the camp oven, hot showers and shops. I prefer to stay in the National Parks because people do not have the same goals and dreams but it is nice for a change.

Visited Murrays Beach, Swansea and then back to Caves Beach and The Caves which were a highlight.

The beard is growing but it is white

 The caves were fantastic, you just wait for the waves to back off and you can run into the caves where there are many other caverns and arches leading to other beaches

Saw a sign for the 'Catho' pub which is a historic pub not far from The Caves, so we decided to investigate.

We couldn't help but notice that as we got closer to this old historic pub that the amount of tyre rubber on the road from burnouts appeared to be getting more frequent and then we saw it. It is a very old pub which is a biker pub, barmaids with more ink than skin, Harleys and a full rock band going nuts all on a Saturday afternoon. Walked in and ordered a Pure Blond and a Lemonade Lime and Bitters in a deep voice. We then found out about the rubber on the roadways, as each patron leaves the pub it appears that it is necessary for them to do a burnout up the street, bikes and cars.

 



WE HAVE LIFT OFF.



We love all our kids this much

Well after months of talking about, drinking to it and making every conceivable gadget I could think of we have hit the road. It was very teary for many people and Ben was scared I was going to hug him, so I did. Saying goodbye to our kids and grand kids was very hard especially after spending the last 4 weeks or so living together.

Our first stop is Wooli and when we arrived here both Trice and I were strangely flat but I think it was all the emotion on leaving, excitement mixed with trepidation and sadness. We both slept 12 hours on our first night but after a week or so I am sure we will be in the groove and will start to loosen up a bit. we have spent our first day going for a drive to Ulmarra to have a coffee and lunch in the Ulmarra pub on the Clarence River, came home to do my assignment for my continuing education for the marriage celebrancy and start the blog. I promise to lighten up and give you an insight of our travels.

This is the view from our caravan.

As our hair is going to be an issue while we are on the road, Trice went to hairdresser and I had to go along as well to learn how to apply colour. This is a photo of how it is supposed to look, I will keep you posted as to when I will apply my handy work.

And this is a photo of Trice's handy work on my head, she has done a great job and I just hope she can repeat this for the wedding......