Archives for February 2017

After getting up at 7:00, we were on the road in no time, and headed down to the Hornsby Train Station, which was only about a half hour away. Unfortunately, there was absolutely NO PARKING available, and in particular, not for a vehicle our size, so that dashed THOSE plans. We decided to head down to a park that I had read about on another campervan website in Alexandra, a neighborhood near Sydney and close to a transit station, but when we arrived there, the entire park was blocked off and apparently under construction of some kind, so that was another no go. Then we decided to take another look downtown for some kind of parking, and wasted another hour in traffic, no go once again. We gave up, and settled for a drive across the famous Harbour Bay Bridge, which wasn't in any way, shape or form very exciting. Then we decided to head to the nearest campground in the Macquarie National Park, which is nothing like any national park we have in the U.S., but it did have a nice campground where we could get electric for the night, which we'll need because it's hot and very humid, and still raining off and on. We asked about going someplace nearby to have a meal first, and it was impressed on us that there is absolutely no parking of any kind for a vehicle like that, and our only option was to walk 700 meters (nearly half a mile) to the nearest subway station, and take a ride to Chatwick, the next town over, where there were plenty of restaurants. As hungry as we were, we had no choice, though it took a long time to walk there because Hubby's legs have been giving him some pain, we think due to his poor circulation. In any event, we finally managed to get there, paid $8.20 AU in cash for two tickets to that nearest town, then walked around an outdoor shopping area until we found a Thai restaurant. We had hoped for someplace nice, but everything was just take away with just a couple of tables at best, so we settled for a table next to the kitchen and had an average meal with poor service, not even offering to refill my ice tea during the entire meal! Then they wouldn't accept my credit card, so I had to use more cash to pay for lunch. Good thing I still had a little Aussie cash left! Though now I have a bunch of coins I don't know what I'm going to do with. I had hoped to exchange all my Aussie $ for Malaysian Ringgits when we get to Kuala Lumpur, but I'm not sure I'll have enough anymore. Anyway, we left there, then while Hubby waited for me, I ran into a giant multi-level indoor mall to buy a gift for brother Jeff, then we headed to a coffee shop for a sweet before taking the train back to the campground. It had been nice during the afternoon, but when we got off the train we ran into another rainstorm, and even with an umbrella we were compelled to stop a few times to keep from getting soaked. At last we made it back to the camper, with plans to relax and read the rest of the evening, but discovered my Kindle was dead, and the TV didn't work, even though we're practically right in Sydney. We must be doing something wrong, though I've tried to reset the channels a couple of times, it's still not finding them. Oh, well, it was an opportunity to catch up on my blog! Would love to post some pictures, but unfortunately the wifi here at the campground is only good if you're sitting in the office, and frankly, I'm just too tired and cranky to even consider walking all the way over there! That's it for me, though, I'm done for the night!

After some discussion yesterday and today, Hubby and I decided to try to get as close to Sydney today as possible, in hopes that we could find some way to get downtown and see the Opera House, so we made a beeline down the Pacific Coast Highway, which was a patch up of motorway, highway and small town main street the whole way. Unfortunately, it was patchy rain off and on all day, including some real gully washers that reminded me of a good south Florida summer thunderstorm. That made it a pretty tiring drive, and after a long stop at a service center that wasted almost half an hour (NEVER AGAIN, KFC!!), we finally settled on a free campsite at a rest area that was on the water, just a bit off the highway, in a place called Mooney Mooney. Not much more than a parking lot and boat launch, but it had all the modern conveniences that a camper needed, and we settled down for the night just as darkness fell. It continued to rain off and on during the night, and even with earplugs it could be heard. Not my favorite weather for travel! But we're only about an hour outside of Sydney, so we have high hopes we'll have a chance to see some sights tomorrow. We met a couple in a gas station that suggested we park in a town called Hornsby and take the train into Sydney, which sounds like a good idea. Hope that works out!

After leaving our little municipal park behind, we made the hour drive to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, the place everyone said we had to go whenever I mentioned wanting to see a koala in person. Hubby was feeling the after effects of his rambunctious ride yesterday, and was a bit tired, so he mostly found places to sit down while I wandered around. We managed to see the sheep dog show (very ordinary, the sheep all knew what to expect and the dogs didn't exactly complete their tasks as ordered, plus the keeper had to discipline one dog because it had started to get in the habit of barking when the other was doing its thing) so it wasn't exactly very thrilling, or even interesting. We also went to the free flight bird show, and again, the keepers behaved as if doing a show was the last place they wanted to be, and the final big raptor that was supposed to appear never did, so it kind of ended with a thump. Unfortunately, with it being Sunday, the place was packed with screaming kids and bad parents, especially the divorced ones that you could tell were on their one day out with the kids, so it wasn't actually very enjoyable. It seemed more like a zoo than a sanctuary, and that the animals were being highly exploited, especially the koalas, just for the money. Sad to say, but that's how it felt. About mid-afternoon we finally left, and headed down to another campground we had found on Wiki-Camps about two hours south, this time a $25 place, but they had a laundry (which turned out to be free!), but no dryer, so I quickly washed several loads of laundry and put them out on the handy line. This place was a ways off the freeway, part of a mountain lodge, at the end of a dead end road, and though it catered to a younger crowd, ended up being nice and quiet. I had a short conversation with a young French guy about his tent, which was a split-level job, with the bedroom on top of his truck and the living area down below, something I'd never seen before. After a while it started to rain, so I had to run out and get the washing down before it got too wet, and fortunately the sheets had gotten dry in time, though a lot of the rest of it had to be scattered around the inside of the campervan to let it dry. Thank goodness it was a quiet spot, though, after being in a parking lot next to a train and a road last night, so no earplugs tonight!

Woke up early, no surprise, and were headed out pretty quick, as we still had a long way to go. The terrain remained flat and agricultural for the most part, until we got closer to Brisbane, then the hills once again took over. In one section, there were these enormous cacti, at least 25 feet or more tall, looking like they were just about to blossom. Would love to have seen that! Once we got near the city, we decided to look for a decent Indian restaurant for our main meal of the day, but once again, we had problems finding parking, until by some miracle, we ended up right in front of a placed called The Sultan's Kitchen, with parking at the back! We parked and wandered in, then discovered that they were only open because an Indian tour group had booked the restaurant, but they were just finishing up, so the proprietor very generously agreed to seat us anyway. He offered a bargain price for the us to have what was on the buffet, but seemed quite content when we said we'd rather order from the menu, which we did. It was a fabulous meal! He came by and conversed with us several times, and Hubby enjoyed speaking with him and answer his many questions. Afterwards, we headed up to the ranch. Daryl had very generously invited us to stay up at the property overnight, declaring that it was spectacular out on the ridge, so after some phone guidance from him (he wasn't on the premises), we eventually made our way out there to what was, indeed, a spectacular spot, overlooking Brisbane, and you could even see the ocean in the distance (apparently about where the Coral Sea and the Tasman Sea meet). We were actually in the horse pasture, so we had numerous visitors during the evening, and it was so quiet, we looked forward to an excellent night sleep, especially after the noisy night of trucks we had last night! I thought it would be a good place to see stars, but surprisingly, there was so much light spilling up from the city that they weren't really that great, but it was a great night anyway!

Well, the night wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. The trucks never did settled down much, and the AC running was a bit disturbing, but we did end up getting a halfway decent night sleep. We departed just before 8 and headed straight into town to find the public dump, since oddly, the Holiday Park didn't have one, and managed to get all that done in short order, and off we went! We stayed mostly on a road called A-39, not a freeway, but it was the most direct route to Brisbane. We stopped once for a meal at McDonald's (they call them Macca's here as slang, rather than Micky D's), but they all have free wifi, so I was finally able to download a pic my brother had sent me a few days ago. I had tried in several other places, but for some reason, it just refused to download, but finally I got it, pictures of my horses from the rump side, to prove they're not starving (as if I thought they were :-). Most of the day was devoted to going through miles and miles of flat agricultural fields, though we weren't sure exactly what was in the fields. Some had obviously been recently harvested, looked like it might have been wheat, but I have to say, these fields were are extensive as anything we've seen in Iowa or Kansas or Nebraska. They stretched on so far that the windbreak of trees faded off into the horizon, buried in a mirage lake, until the curvature of the earth literally made them disappear. How far they went on I have no idea, but they were incredible. Not much corn, but I think wheat and barley and perhaps hops, even cotton in one area. Almost had sheep withdrawal today, but did finally pass several fields of sheep, so I did get my sheep fix. Don't know what I'm going to do when I get home. There was also a stretch where there was a very interesting cactus tree that grew about 20-25 feet high, even 30 feet in a few cases. Beautiful, and looked ready to bloom, would love to have seen that! We finally reached the area where we had found a campground from Wikicamps, which has been an invaluable resource, but this time it was a bit shaky on information. We looked for Bush Lagoon, but there were no signs, and we passed it. We came back and found a turnoff that had to be it, but it was little more than a sandy area around a drying pond, though there were lots of tracks and scat around, and I had hopes of maybe seeing some kangaroos or koalas or wombats in the wild. I put out some old french fries, but that didn't help. Oh, well, I seemed condemned to only see kangaroos as road kill, darn it. I'll keep looking though! Because we were so far out in the boonies, though, the stars were incredible! We even found the Southern Cross just by looking out the windows of the van, plus there were more stars than I can remember seeing in a long time painting the sky. We had hopes that the trucks on this busy highway would diminish during the night, but it didn't slow down too much, and we had traffic passing most of the night. But it was free, and the stars were great! Can't have everything, right?

Got up early again, this time heading to Mansfield, with a purpose. We had arranged to go riding nearby tomorrow, and we arrived in town fairly early. We learned the Mansfield Hotel had a restaurant and bar that had wifi, so we headed in for lunch. I had a bunch of logistical work to do, cancelling and making reservations in Malaysia after our big change of vacation plans, and the wifi was slow, so it took me most of the afternoon to manage. Finally we headed out to another free campsite in a State Park called Mt. Samaria, to a nice little site near a creek, with a couple of other campers. As we had eaten early at the hotel, we weren't terribly hungry, so we settled in early for the night, with the alarm on for extra early as we had a nearly 45 minute drive to where our day-long ride would start tomorrow.

Once again up with the alarm and on the road by 8:00, continuing to gasp in awe at the beauty of this Great Coast Highway. Apparently it was dedicated to the soldiers and sailors of The Great War, and built during the 20's and 30's, a remarkable engineering feat, without a doubt. Again, stunning all along the way. We stopped at a small animal, self-sustaining sanctuary shortly before we reached the 12 Apostles, because I wanted to get up close with as many Australian animals as we could. No Koalas, but we did get to pet some kangaroos, see some dingoes, and get close to a bunch of other birds and mammals. Plus I got my sheep fix! Every since we left New Zealand, where literally you couldn't drive for 15 minutes without passing flocks of sheep, I've been going through sheep withdrawal! Today, we managed to see sheep a couple of times, both in the sanctuary and along the road, so I've got my sheep fix for the day. Anyway, after we spent an hour walking around the 40 acres site, we bought a couple of cups of coffee and muffins and back on the road we went! We stopped at the 12 Apostles visitor center and walked down to the first lookout, then Hubby stayed behind while I walked the rest of the way, taking some incredible pictures of this remarkable phenomena, large sections of limestone have been washed away from sections of land, leaving free standing monuments of real estate. Amazing! We then made our way west along the coast, stopping at a whole series of these natural monuments, with names like The Arch, the Grotto, and London Bridge. In Port Campbell we stopped at the visitor center, where, unlike the national park center, we found some maps, and a lot of information about a famous shipwreck that happened in these parts back in 1878. Nearly 80 people on board, and only 2 survivors, only 4 bodies found, the rest washed out to sea. Was glad we finally got some information, we were surprised at how little is provided at the sites themselves. Hardly anything on how the erosion phenomenon occurred, almost nothing about the local flora and fauna, other than a few vague references to how hard it is for a few creatures to live on the harsh conditions of the coast, and an unkempt cemetery that's been mostly tarred over as a walkway, while the graves themselves are overgrown. Kind of sad, really. Anyway, after going as far as the Grotto, where I jumped a rock wall so that I could actually put my hand in the water, the Southern Ocean I soon learned, along with young man who wanted to get a couple of rocks for his turtle pen, Hubby and I headed out again. Having decided that we didn't have time to get all the way to Adelaide and still do all the things we wanted, we headed back to Port Campbell where we filled up on food and fuel, then north to another free campsite north of Ballarat in a regional park in Cresswick, passing through much more rural areas with lots of cattle and sheep (really got my sheep fix at the end of the day!), and settling into the woods early, by 6:30 tonight. No need for dinner! Just going to be early, reading, and will be up again in the morning!

Got up with the alarm this morning, as we anticipate a long drive today. Not sure how far, we're going, but we sort of have a plan to head along the Great Coast Road, apparently one of the most scenic routes in Australia, on our way to a place called the 12 Apostles, the equivalent of desert hoodoos, but along the shore of the Southern Ocean between the towns of Princeton and Port Campbell. What a gorgeous road! After driving through more beautiful countryside and forests, we turned out toward the Coast Road, and soon we were weaving along on a road reminiscent of 101 in California, a road literally cut into the side of a cliff, for miles and miles and miles! There were a number of cute little beachside towns along the way, but the road always went back to hanging just off the side of the cliff, which, being on the left side of the road, was the closest to the drop-off into the sea. Fantastic! After miles and miles of that kind of driving, and a stop in a little town for a fish and chips lunch, and later groceries, we found another free campsite (thanks Wiki-Camp Australia!) that literally was just above the Coast Road. So many camping areas are entirely unmarked, absolutely no signage, especially for the free ones, so if you didn't know it was there, you would drive right by. We turned onto a gravel road by a creek that immediately started climbing upwards, but not so dramatically that our rig didn't make it. There were several turnouts along the way, including one that actually overlooked the beach (that was already taken, darn it!), but we found an available spot near the top (there weren't many!) and settled in for the night, listening the distant surf pounding the beach below us. Fantastic!