The Final Leg - Homeward Bound.

Monday 15th September.

We departed Cambewarra about 12:30pm yesterday, heading for the Hume Highway via Kangaroo Valley and Mittagong. An uneventful trip with only light traffic saw us arrive at Bullahdelah around 6:30 pm where we had decided to stop for the night beside the Myall River. Although it was dark upon our arrival we found a nice level overnight parking spot without any difficulty.

We departed Bullahdelah around 9:00am. With only 60 km's left to Hallidays Point we arrived home shortly before 10:00am.

Now a few facts and figures relative to our great trip in the motorhome.

Distance travelled. 12,337 km's.

Average diesel consumption. 13.8 litres per 100 km's.

Average cost per litre for diesel. 168.4 cents / litre.

Most expensive diesel. 204.0 cents / litre. (Kulgerra NT)

Least expensive diesel. 151.9 cents / litre. (Gin Gin QLD)

Nights away. 146

Number of different overnight locations. 55

Number of Free Camping Nights.   81 (55% of total)

Most Expensive Caravan Park. $43.50 p/n. (Lee Point, Darwin)

Overall Accommodation cost per night. $15.10

The Penultimate Leg.

Wednesday 10th to Sunday 14th September.

We departed Penrith around 12:30 bound for Cambewarra via Hume Highway, Mittagong and Kangaroo Valley arriving at 3:30pm in time to go and see Lachlan play basketball.

We all went out for dinner to an Indian restaurant to celebrate Colin's 50th birthday which was yesterday. Gail is assisting Carol with preparation for his birthday party on Saturday.

Carol kindly loaned us her car so we were able to go into Nowra and buy the ingredients to make Gail's speciality for the party - sausage rolls. I also helped by doing a small painting job.

Our intention is to depart Cambewarra on Sunday sometime with an overnight stopover along the way, arriving home sometime Monday afternoon.

Colin had an absolutely fantastic 50th birthday party on Saturday night where he had friends in attendance from various phases of his life since living in NSW. A great time was had by all and it was terrific that Gail & I were able to catch up with so many of his friends, both old and new.

Watch this space for a summary of our trip which will be compiled after we arrive home.

Penrith Family Reunion.

Friday 5th to Wednesday 10th September.

We arrived at Penrith around 2:00pm to be greeted by Ian who directed us into the rear yard where we could park the motorhome and connect to 240 volt power for our five, day stay there.

We also received an enthusiastic greeting from our dog Velvet who looked as though she had been totally spoiled during her stay with Rogue and Logan. She apparently shared their kennels during her stay prompting us that now would be the best time to buy her own kennel as soon as we reach home.

We spent quite a bit of timed catching up, including a day trip to Akuna Bay where Ian and Tracy have their boat moored. The weather was lousy so we spent most of the time there under cover on the boat.

It was great to see everyone and to see how much Kelsey has grown and developed her own happy personality.

I also managed a short visit to the Winnebago factory at Emu Plains to purchase a set of tyre valve extensions which Ian helped to fit the following morning. To simplify this task we removed the outer rear wheel while parked on their front driveway.

Picturesque Putty Road

Thursday 4th September.

We appear to be clear of the rain (and snow) now as our route takes us further south through Scone, Aberdeen, Muswellbrook and Singleton where we branched off from the New England Highway onto the Putty Road. This road will take us through some beautiful varied scenery, winding roads, flat pasture land via Howes Valley and Colo to Windsor, a distance of some 175 km's in total from start to finish

However our overnight stop for today is at the Grey Gums Cafe about halfway along the Putty Road. Grey Gums Cafe is a popular stopping point for motor cyclists traversing the winding hills of the Putty Road, where they are well catered for with toilets, food and coffee. They also offer free overnight camping away from the road for travellers such as us.

In return for this great hospitality we are having fish and chips from the cafe for dinner.

Tomorrow we travel via Windsor to Penrith for a few days with the Redman family and to be re-united with our Grand Daughters, our beautiful Great Grandaughter Kelsey and of of course mans' best friend Velvet.

Would You Believe SNOW.

Wednesday 3rd September.

Upon waking up around 7:00am we discovered we were in the midst of a full drop of snow. The surrounding grass, trees, fences and picnic shelter roofs were all covered by a thick blanket of powder snow. What a magnificent sight. I dressed quickly and went outside to take photos etc. The snow was still falling, enough to make me quite wet by the time I came back inside the motorhome where the outside temperature was showing zero degrees.

We had a quick cup of tea to warm up then extracted ourselves from the camp with no difficulties.

During our progression down the mountain and back to the New England Highway we passed more snow and some lovely photo opportunities before dropping below about 900 metres and the snow line.

As Tamworth is only about 60 km's away we decided to go there for breakfast at McDonalds, arriving around 9:30am. We then checked out all the shops in the CBD of Tamworth where the sun was actually shining now and quite pleasant.

The afternoon travel continued on the New England Highway to about 20 km's north of Scone where we set up for overnight at Burning Mountain.

Sometimes, the quiet corners of a state hold the biggest surprises. Burning Mountain Nature Reserve is tucked away off New England Highway, but make the stop in your car and what you’ll discover is an ancient phenomenon right beneath your feet.

Apparently there are only three naturally burning coal seams in the world – including this one.

Into the Wet Weather

Tuesday 2nd September.

Moving further southward we encountered a fair amount of rain in our travelling today. If we thought we have gone as high as we could yesterday we were to be proved wrong. We stopped briefly in Armidale (elevation 980 metres) on the Northern Tablelands where the biting winds drove us into the warmth of several shopping centres purely to escape the cold. During the afternoon as we progressed towards Tamworth we ran into several very heavy sleet storms making visibility extremely difficult, but due to the nature of the terrain we were unable to pull over and let the storm pass us by. Speed was down to about 45 km/h with windscreen wipers going flat chat.

Our destination for this afternoon was Hanging Rock, ( not to be confused with Hanging Rock, a locality in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales).

Hanging Rock is a gold mining village and also rock face on the Northern Tablelands, New South Wales. This former gold mining town is situated about 10 km south east of Nundle. The village is part of the Tamworth Regional Council district. Hanging Rock’s elevation is about 1100 m. Due to the high altitude of the village, Hanging Rock and the surrounding mountains can occasionally receive a snow fall on the coldest of winter days. Hanging Rock had a population of 195 people.

Just east from Hanging Rock, Sheba Dams (No 1 and 2) were built by hand in 1888 to store water for sluicing gold. Now they are just a pretty spot to picnic, camp, and fish for trout.

This was our planned camp area at an elevation of 1,150 metres.

Light rain continued to fall throughout the late afternoon and evening limiting our ability to throw a fishing line in. The access road was quite wet and slushy but firm enough not to be of concern should the rain continue throughout the night.

During the night we heard what we thought to be the pitter patter of light rain.

The Scenic Route

Monday 1st September.

Up at 7:00am this morning, a quick breakfast then I drove the rental car back to Thrifty depot at the airport. All checked in ok, then onto an express bus back to 27th Avenue and a short walk to the Tourist Park.

We had packed everything away in readiness to leave before I took the car back, so upon my return Gail was waiting and ready to leave.

Having previously decided to take the inland route south from the Gold Coast we had already setup the GPS to take us to Kyogle first then onto Casino etc. However we needed to fill the Iveco with diesel before we hit the motorway so ignored the first few instructions from the GPS in order to find a service station. Would you believe there were no fuel outlets anywhere on our proposed route to clear the Burleigh Heads area via Reedy Creek road.

We ended up doing about 15 km's basically in circles on and off the motorway, down through Currumbin Valley and several other obscure locations just north of the NSW/QLD border before we eventually turned the blasted GPS off until we found a place to fill up. Having accomplished this long winded feat we turned the GPS back on to get directions to Kyogle.

Have you ever travelled to Murwillembah from the Currumbin area ? Well don't bother, it is the windiest, narrowest, up and down goat track of a road you would ever expect to find in such a populated area. Having finally reached there our not so nice GPS gave us directions to Kyogle.

We are both certain that we traversed the entire length of the Great Dividing Range, fortunately having the anguish and pain reduced somewhat by the fact that we were traversing through some of the nicest scenery imaginable. After what seemed like an eternity we reached Murwillembah only to find that we could have travelled via the Pacific Motorway then branched off direct to Murwillembah . Oh well, it was a lovely drive...

From Murwillembah to Kyogle was exactly the same type of country, seems like the Great Dividing Range has been extended for our enjoyment.

After all this excitement we decided to have lunch in Kyogle at a very nice bakery.

Then on towards Casino, and yes you guessed it, the Great Dividing Range was still there snaking ever southward for our continued enjoyment, climbing ever and ever higher as we progressed.

At 550 metres altitude we thought that was about as high as we would go.

Wrong, greater heights awaited us as we pressed on towards Tenterfield. At one stage we almost stopped to crack a bottle of bubbly to celebrate the change back to a nice undulating, cruise control friendly road. Our excitement was short lived as back came the GDR to offer us even more beautiful green scenery now at an altitude of 760 metres. Our progression through Tenterfield on towards Glen Innes took us even higher until at 1050 metres we appear to have topped out but obviously we are still on the GDR where we have finally stopped at 5:15pm at a nice camping area beside a small river in the company of four other happy hill billies.

Sunday Lunch at the Beach

Sunday 31st August.

Another lovely sunny day with temperature in the mid 20's, so we caught up on some reading for an hour or so until it was time to head off to meet Carol Mac for lunch at the Currumbin Vikings Surf Life Saving Club. Carol had booked a table beside the window with a great view back towards Surfers. The lunch was very nice and gave Gail and Carol the opportunity to catch up.

After a long relaxing lunch we returned to the tourist park and packed away the non essential items ready for our departure tomorrow morning. We watched a very funny, but naughty movie on TV called "Meet The Millers" with Jennifer Anniston.

Carrara Markets

Saturday 30th August.

Market day at Carrara is a weekend institution on the Gold Coast and a must do activity. The extent of the stalls is amazing, selling all sorts of goodies at quite reasonable prices. I bought a T Shirt and a "head sock" which is a type of stretchy bandana to wear under my motor cycle helmet for comfort and also to stop my ears being torn off every time I remove my Aldi helmet.

Gail picked up some makeup at very good prices and a top.

Watched the last round matches of the AFL during the late afternoon and evening.

The Long Walk

Friday 29th August.

One of our favourite walks is here at Burleigh Heads. There are a series of walking tracks between Tallebudgera Creek and the beach at Burleigh, then into the shopping centre. The lower track which follows the cliff line through the National Park overlooks the pounding surf below. This is the pick of these walks however on this ocassion this track was closed due to a serious rock fall caused by the recent very heavy rain.

The alternative walk via the top track involves a lot more initial uphill, then a series of stairs at the end of the walk down to the beach at Burleigh. Gail did exceptionally well as this would have been the toughest walk she has done since injuring her back 8 months back.

Today is a public holiday on the Gold Coast as their annual show is on, but most of the touristy shops in Burleigh were open along with all the eateries.

We had brunch at "The Pantry" cafe where the food is always terrific. I had eggs Benedict and Gail had Swiss Waffles with maple syrup and ice cream. The walk back via the same route was taken a little more easily as we both felt weighted down with the food.

Did a bit of washing during the afternoon then went to the Tweed Heads "Twin Towns" club for dinner.

Day Out to Brisbane

Thursday 28th August.

We drove into Brisbane today, specifically to visit a shop whose specialty is mastectomy bras and swimsuits which Gail needs to replace. The lady who owns and operates "Spirit Of Life" is recognised Australia wide as the best in the business with the greatest range available.

The GPS was absolutely critical in guiding our way to Ramsgate where the shop is located.

Tamborine Mountain

Wednesday 27th August.

We met Carol Mac and her mother at Paradise Point for morning tea at a nice little sidewalk cafe.

Carol's mum is getting a bit forgetful and prefers not to be away from her home for too long so the short break for morning tea suited her. It also gave us the opportunity to have a good chat with Carol who we have not seen since our last visit to the Gold Coast last year.

After we left them Gail and I drove to Tamborine Mountain in the hinterland area. To make a round trip of this drive we went via Nerang, then returned via Oxenford. This is very much a tourist Mecca with all sorts of shopping outlets aimed directly at the tourist trade. We had lunch at a Subway.

Retail Therapy

Tuesday 26th August.

First thing this morning I caught the bus to Coolangatta airport to pick up a rental car from Thrifty.

The airport facility is the easiest and best place for me to get to.

We have rented a small compact, 5 door automatic Nissan Micra for 6 days which will give us greater flexibility to do the things we have planned for this week.

A visit to Harbour Town and Pacific Fair shopping centres gave us a shot of some retail therapy.

Back into The Rat Race

Monday 25th August.

On the road by 7:30am this morning as we have a couple of appointments to meet this morning on our way to Tallebudgera. The first around 8:30 was to meet up with the PM Lubricants guy just east of Ipswich, to collect the PM800 addative, then onto Roamsafe to have a better security door fitted. A bit of a hickup in relation to the PM Lubricants, however it will be delivered to us at the tourist park during the week at no cost for the delivery. It was then on to Wongawallan where the new security door was fitted within an hour, allowing us to proceed on to Tallebudgera.

After looking at several potential sites we selected site 135 in second avenue which best suited us.

We had a reasonable easy afternoon, having been on the road early and negotiated the early morning peak traffic on both the Logan and Pacific motorways.

Where the H... Is Marburg

Sunday 24th August.

A bit of rain overnight but not enough to prevent us from walking back into the small village of Marburg. Not much open this morning except for the newsagent and an antique dealer who had a massive amount of paraphernalia both in and outside of his premises.

There are a couple of trotters training on the track today. They appear to have quite a strong harness club here in Marburg with a group of volunteers arriving to scrape the sandy track back to a nice smooth surface. A couple of flat bed contraptions simply towed behind a couple of 4WD's.