Picked up a 7 month old Mercedes extended van without too much issue. It was good we have some experience with our camper as that led to pertinent questions during the very brief to non-existent checkout. Some of the items they advertised were not included like the outdoor grill and fly screens on the windows but they did find a French press for us. Yea! Anyways, off to the store for some food and van supplies like beach towels and kitchen towels. Drove into a mega mall that had a Target, a Woolworth’s and a K-mart apparently we arrived at the busiest time possible. Lines of cars going in and out and the car lanes were made for a Mini-Cooper not a 7 meter long van! I chose the wrong lane and a vertical height board slapped our air conditioner on top of our van. I’m now stuck in a narrow lane with 10 cars behind me. I luckily stopped just after the lanes split for parking garage vs open air parking. Now I needed to back this bad boy up against all this traffic. Katie got out and sweet talked the guy behind us to back up and eventually there was enough room to get to the open air parking lot. Notably, nobody honked. It may be against the law. I don’t know. Don’t think any damage was done to the AC. Just embarrassing! We drove for a couple hours to Newcastle which is 2 hours north of Sydney. Now I put the directions into google maps but I didn’t preview where Google was taking us. I presumed out to a peripheral freeway and on to Newcastle. Well. No. We drove the narrow crowded streets right through the heart of downtown Sydney. In fact, we passed the street the hotel we had stayed at was on. Somehow we made it to the north side of the harbor. I think we took a tunnel under the water but we could have been on the Sydney Harbor Bridge for all I know. My hands were white gripping the wheel hoping another vertical warning sign didn’t suddenly appear on the highway. Yeh! We are free and clear of the city and cruising our way north. I’m not that much into weather numbers and records and such but that Sunday as we drove north, 5 inches of rain fell. Yep. Pretty much couldn’t see the lanes and occasionally hit a lake at the bottom of a low point on the highway. We finally made it to our destination in Newcastle. Gin and Tonic time. A nice caravan park with side by side by side pads for the holiday makers to park. The sun briefly made an appearance and all was good.
Luckily there was minimal late night noise. They don’t allow generators in most places and no budding DJ’s in our park. We haven’t used hookups much in our van at home but it was nice to have it here. We had the AC running on low mainly to dehumidify and to keep a nice breeze overnight. Again we don’t have any screens on the windows. We walked on to a ferry in the am to downtown Newcastle a former steel town now big on shipping out fertilizer. Nothing much in the town but flocks of Little Corellas and Sulfer-crested Cockatoos. Huge racket. Inundated the trees. We headed out for Hunter Valley wines. We stopped at Audrey Wilkinson winery which turned out to be a km down a gravel road. Van did pretty well but I wish the map services knew the type of roads they are leading you on. Gorgeous views and ok wines. We drove out to a public picnic area for lunch and views, then on to Tulluch wines which were good. They had a nice tasting for kids there! Chocolate milk, Cranberry juice, Apple juice and Lemonade. They also got to try it with assorted foods like pretzels, gummy bears, strawberries, and grapes. Start them young! We went off to our caravan park which was minutes away. Nice enough with power. Not too crowded. Walked to a local brewpub which was disappointing. In the am we were off to a slow start, outside in our chairs having coffee and reading the news. The sun was out. We drove out to a cheese maker and picked up some local cheese. On to Tyrell cellar door. May have been one of the best tastings we’ve had in Australia. Our server. Scott, had worked in France and California and had been at this winery since the 80’s. He started off recommending a shared flight as someone had to drive but after tasting multiple wines each with generous pours we understood. We learned a lot and tasted some terrific wines. I offered him a modest tip which he initially refused but eventually accepted. They don’t seem to like tips here! He then gave us multiple tips on where to go, stay, and eat as we made our way up the coast. Tyrell has a beautiful property and they allowed us to have our picnic lunch at one of their outdoor tables..
Lunch at Tyrell with a view
We visited Brokenwood cellar door after that which had a few nice wines but nothing we felt the urge to buy. A local girl was serving us and as we have commonly found, she had never seen a wombat or a platypus. She did not know what a pademelon is. She had traveled in her immediate area but had never been to Sydney or other states. Probably typical around us at home but it makes you think when you travel so far to see these things. We decided to head for a small campground by Seal Rock. A couple hours drive led us to a pitted gravel road leading to the campsite. After several km we pulled into a fairly primitive campsite but close to the ocean. Found out what a Billabong was here. A billabong is a large pond formed when the river changes course from high flows.
Billabong
We had drizzles in the am so opted for breakfast at the beach at Seal Rock. Part way into breakfast, a major downpour. Getting to be typical. Sunny then light rain for a minute with shadows still about. Then downpour! We drove north to Port Macquarie. Stopped in at a Koala Hospital which was good on them but little to see except…
recovering Koala
We hiked out to the light house, then drove on to Hat Head Beach. Another caravan park with hookups. Tremendous bird population with Rainbow Lorikeets and beautiful Eastern Rosellas all foraging for food around the campsite.
Rainbow Lorikeets
Eastern Rosella
Masked Lapwings were there and they tended to chase after any dogs that went by. I had downloaded an Australian bird app but no matter who was singing, it came back Noisy Miner! Katie went out at dusk and found 2 kangaroos. I managed 2 gin and tonics. We drove further north to Bellingen the following day and began the Waterfalls Highway which headed East. Griffith Lookout provided great views over the local mountains and then on to Dorrigo National Park.
Griffith Lookout
We walked out on the Skywalk for views and then down to Crystal Falls.
Crystal Falls
We were hoping to see Lyre Birds which are frequently seen there, but no luck. We did catch a Pademelon in the picnic area though.
Pademelon with a huge fan.
We drove on to Dangar Falls but it was getting late so we backtracked to a small free RV site just off the highway. Worked out great. Got there just in time to secure a good spot. Others campers ended up piling in close to each other as the night wore on. Misty in the am on our drive to Coffs Harbor. Clear enough when we got there to hike out to Muttonbird (Sheerwaters) Island. Beautiful views of the marina but no Muttonbirds. While leaving to continue our drive north, Katie yells ‘Stop’ as she frequently does. This time it was a huge Black Stork. After a short while, the stork took off into the air. That did not seem possible given the size of this bird!
Black Neck Stork
We drove on to Byron Bay which was busy. It was Friday. Many campgrounds were full or had a two or three night minimum. We found a nice place though and we were able to walk into town from there. Despite the intermittent downpours, we made it to ‘Chihuahua’. That turned out to be a masterful find of a Mexican restaurant. Great Mezcal margaritas and fish and pork tacos. All is well. On the way home stopped at a popular local bar where a guitarist and drummer were playing the blues. Nice. In the am. walked into town for a long black coffee and an almond croissant. Yes it poured two or three times while we were there. We were going to hike around Byron Bay but the rain is getting to us so we are heading north, hoping for sun. We stopped in Mooloolaga for a picnic on the beachfront. Started pouring rain with wind gusts. Walked along the ocean front which is beautifully done but started pouring rain. Headed north to Noosa Head looking for camping but all is full on this Saturday. We drove up into the hills east of town and found a quiet campervan park to stay at. Steaks and Caesar salad for dinner along with some Shiraz. Yum! We were all excited as the weekend was coming to a close and camping sites should open up. But…., it’s a 3 day weekend. Turns out it is Australia’s Labor Day this Monday. The whole weekend has been part of a three day weekend. The campers aren’t going anywhere. We drove north to Hervey Bay. This is a small low key oceanfront town. We found an opening at a beachfront campsite but didn’t go out much that night because of the rain. We woke up to intermittent sun so we walked a couple miles along Shelly Beach. I may have said this before, but the Australians tend to name things in a very straight forward manner. They don’t add fluff or deep ponderous thoughts to things they name. Shelly beach was covered in shells. Pretty straight forward. Very calm lake-like waters though it is the Pacific Ocean.
Shelley Beach
We drove north (getting to be a theme!). Very sunny while on the road. Stopped at the visitor Centre in Bundaberg which led us to a lookout on the tallest hill in the area. At least 100 meters above sea level! Good views but windy. The lady at the visitor centre told us about a snorkeling site at Coral Cove which we went to. Rocky shore with no clear access to the water. The shore was actually experiencing 2-3 foot waves that pounded the rocky shore. We looked around a bit but a monsoon came through and we hightailed it back to the van soaking wet. We moved on to downtown Bangara just 3 km away looking for a boat tour shop that would take us snorkeling to Lady Musgrave Island. Well the address they gave was closed up. We looked for a restaurant to chill for lunch and make our plans but it turns out Labor Day is a big holiday and almost everything is closed. This included restaurants, bars, grocery stores etc. we found a hotel with a pub and casino that was open and went there for Parmi (chicken breast covered in a variety of choices) and fish and chips. We had heard about a camper site on the beach maybe 20km out of town so we drove there. Picked up a spot that we could back up to the beach and what! The sun stayed out for the first hour or two of our afternoon here! We are so happy.
Moore Park Beach
We don’t plan on going too much farther north and we hear the weather could turn sunny in a few days so we might hunker down here.
Coming Soon!
Campatime2 and the Final City