Category: Victoria

10. Great Life lapping Australia 2024

Darwin Northern Territory

We’ve decided to separate in Darwin for a rest and to do all the touristy things in our own time. There is much to see and Lyn and I saw most of it last year and just have a few spots to add to tick off our list. We enquired about going over to Tiwi Islands and having a day of island culture and entertainment but at $490 per person, we shied away from that idea. Lee Point is a campground to the north of the city about 15-20 minutes drive. We have learned that the campground was constructed after cyclone Tracy. The builders and trades workmen lived here for two years while the massive rebuild took place.

Each site has an en suite for the ‘tenants’.

We benefit from a sea breeze for much of the day and evening. The breeze takes away that clammy, humidity feeling. Because one in our group is waiting for a medical procedure to be done at Darwin Hospital, we will be staying here for who knows how long.

Last year we chose a favorite restaurant; the Cool Spot at Fannie Bay. The reason? Fabulous rocky road ice cream. I guess you agree we have made an excellent choice. When in Darwin, don’t leave without trying one; you’ll be surprised. (I’m not getting paid to make this promotion)

While in Darwin last year, we had heard about the Darwin Waterfront and thought it was just the jetty where the Royal Flying Doctor Museum, and the bombing of Darwin exhibition is. One day this week, we ventured further and discovered a beach and water playground. Around the perimeter were many eating places, too many to choose from really. I guess the late evenings have seen numerous rowdy parties there. Above the restaurants are holiday accommodation units and motels.

Royal Air Flying Doctor Museum and Darwin Bombing memorial display

Lyn and I had visited this spot last year but it still impresses us to experience again. The bombing in 1942 was catastrophic as was the cyclone in 1974. The good work the Flying Doctor does, is worth another look and donation.

To represent the experience of the bombing of Darwin

There are a bunch of underground tunnels just under the city itself. You gain entry through a small opening near the Darwin waterfront buildings. These tunnels were built to house oil and other fuels as a storage facility instead of the large above ground tanks we see at oil refineries today. The walls of the tunnel we toured, tell of the history of the building and problems associated with having such a large storage facility that if penetrated during war, would destroy the port of Darwin. I’m not a person who always remember facts and figures associated with museums and exhibits, so I suggest you make the time to visit the tunnels when next in Darwin. Ex servicemen are treated with a discount on entry.

Hopefully, the next post will have more exciting locations to review, but we’ll wait and see.

2. Great Life lapping Australia 2024

Welcome to the blog of our trip around Australia.

Our first day of the lap was done with sunny skies and that rare feeling of “bye home, we’ll see you in 6 months”. We have travelled this road many times up inland Victoria and into New South Wales along the Hume Highway. We are more eager to get to our first camping spot at Jugiong than to take notice of what we pass. Toilet stops are frequent in the mornings but the one at Lake Nillacootie now has a coffee trailer that provides ’not bad’ coffee and chai latte. This became our first “extended” stop off.

Jugiong is over 500km from home and a regular overnight stop. There is a large recreation ground that the community makes available at a small donation fee. Camping is available along the Murrumbidgee River or on the oval. The autumn colors are still showing before dropping to become mulch for the ground. There is a cafe that provides good old country meals which we always enjoy. Some friends happen to be here and we have a good time reminiscing old days; Fred went to the same school as me back in the 60s.

Entrance to Jugiong NSW
A very leafy restaurant
The Sir George Pub
Great place to eat and purchase quaint souvenirs
Lyn hard at work in motor home using Starlink for speed

We decided to stay a second night as the morning provided blue skies again and the weather report said lots of rain ahead towards Sydney. Lyn has run a travel agency for over 30 years and now works from the motor home while traveling. She has some of the best office locations one could want for. Today was the first time we tried our Starlink internet system while traveling. It provided excellent speed and access which made Lyn happy.

On days we travel, we find it better to wake up, pack up and get going for an hour before having breakfast. We make our way onto the Hume Highway at 7:30am in the morning chill, but the promise of a good day. The Hume Highway is a divided highway and is used continuously by trucks or lorries carting produce between Australia’s two largest cities Sydney and Melbourne. Today is very busy and at times we have 5 or 6 trucks passing us at once (we travel 10 or 15 kph slower than the trucks).

Normally, we make sure Lyn is the driver through the busy city of Sydney to save $90 in tolls while I sit in the passengers seat giving directions through suburban Sydney. Today we decide to do part of the drive through Sydney paying tolls and part on a renowned section of road that used to be a very congested part of the journey. Having 5 or 6 semi-trailers around you as you’re driving can be very daunting.

We head further north up through the distant regions to the north of Sydney, and to the Pacific Highway which runs up the eastern coastline of New South Wales and into Queensland. On last years trip north, we found a new campground that is just 400meters off the highway where we stay for the night. Due the recent high rainfall, the owner of the campground requested we set up on the road to prevent ground damage in the camping area.

The following morning, we had made a meal reservation at an Artisan Restaraunt. This restaurant was built by a guy with a ‘dream’ to provide a highway stopover providing food all grown on his property. The meal is delicious, again.

While we were at The Artisan Farm, Lyn’s sister and husband caught up to us from Melbourne, and we travelled on to a free camp near a tavern for a night of rain and cards. Our short journey took us to a convention site where we will be for 10 nights before travelling on to Grafton, NSW.

Darwin 2023 – for 7 weeks then home.

For many years I have thought of Darwin as a place “in the far flung outposts of the British Empire”; and indeed it is a long drive to experience the northern part of Australia’s civilisation. But I found a very well organised city with good roads and many new buildings and shopping centres. Cyclone Tracey did the north a favour in many respects. Sad to hear the stories of the “wind that blew the town away”.

The other major catastrophe for Darwin was the Japanese bombings during the 2nd world war. The experience of the event is depicted in movie form and virtual reality of the attack on the harbour. This is at the waterfront of the harbour and is included with the Flying Doctor museum and display.

Kaboom
James and Di

We stayed out of town for 7 weeks. The little Suzuki came in handy for when we wanted to see the area around Darwin and to do shopping etc. A good buy indeed. Hitching it on the back of the motorhome eventually became a breeze.

Sited in the bush.

Darwin was sunny every day; 32 degrees was mostly comfortable. No clouds for 11 weeks straight. We saw a couple of the famous Darwin sunsets: one at Mindil Market and the other at Cullen Bay.

It’s hard to find accepted take off points for the drone in the territory and I don’t want to offend the powers that control who can or who can’t. I only used the drone twice in 7 weeks.

The swimming holes at Berry Springs are a refreshing spot to visit on a hot humid day. We took a couple of visits there; one with Diane and James. The springs at Litchfield National Park were also fine. I had a bit of a panic attack (the accident I had does that at the wrong time) there on our first visit and wasn’t able to join Lyn in the water.

Wangi Falls

There are some good restaurants in Darwin. Our favourite one became “The cool spot” in Fannie Bay. They make the best rocky road dessert you could imagine. Here’s the three that we each downed while in the town; on different days, of course. The one in the round cup was at a market one night. They poured a liquefied ice cream mix onto a freezing cold stove top and literally scraped it off into ice cream rolls. Delicious too, of course.

Who can better this Rocky Road dessert?

By staying at a campground for 2 months, you can’t help but get to know other campers who have ventured to Darwin to get away from winter too. Almost the whole guest list turned up for what followed the daily 4pm happy hour, a game of darts. Two teams of 15 to 30 members each brought “soul” to what could be a dull two months. The fortnightly “dress up to a theme share dinner” brought a few laughs too. A number of us are still in contact to be updated with the darts score.

Lyn in “neon” lights
Fritz in camouflage

Our turn to head south came too quickly as the warm sunny weather became the normal, more enjoyable lifestyle than being in winter clothing, even inside, that awaited us on our return. We would have stayed longer if our trip to Croatia wasn’t just four weeks away.

We spent a day cleaning the inside of the motor home before heading for the Stuart Highway that was to take us south via Alice Springs, and Port Augusta. We decided to take a different route to home via Mildura and then south to the Yarra Valley via Bendigo and Seymour.

There are many places on the Stuart Highway where travellers can “free camp”. We took the opportunity twice before arriving at Alice Springs. Just north of Alice are the Devils Marbles. We arrived to a full camping area so we moved on 80 Km further along the highway.

The Devils marbles

In Alice Springs, we met up with Glenn and Kyung who purchased their Paradise Motorhome 6 months after us but we have met up a few times in Melbourne. They left Melbourne after eventually selling their business and getting on the road to do a lap; they are in the 16th month of exploring and came up to Alice Springs following some time on the Eyre Peninsula, South Australia. We camped in a campground out of Alice Springs where it is safer for tourists. We managed to time our visit with the arrival of the northbound Ghan on a Thursday.

Here’s comes the Ghan with the wrong engines today.
Glenn and Kyung
Rock Wallabies were active around our site near Alice Springs

There are a few really well cared for tourist spots near The Alice; Simpsons Gap and Standley Chasm. Take a look.

Simpsons Gap
Standley Chasm

The highway south of Alice Springs also has some free camps and we traveled with Glenn and Kyung stopping at the SA/NT border, train spotters camp, and Lake Hart near Woomera. There were 5 trains that went past our camping spot at Lake Hart and none at Train Spotters.

SA/NT border free camp
The soccer was on.
At Train Spotters
Near Coober Pedy

Port August became the town of farewell as we said good bye to Glenn and Kyung, and headed to Berri for the night beside the Murray River. As we were walking around the free camping area deciding where to set up for the night, a lady in a campervan drove over to us and asked if she could stay close to us for the night as security for her. This was the first time she had free camped since her husband had passed twelve months ago; she even called it her “virgin” trip. Of course we were happy to help and had a nice happy hour together going over places we both had been to. That’s the way grey nomads live most of the time – helping others who lack the experience.

Free camp at Martins Bend Reserve

When you get close to home after a long journey, you start to “hot foot” and get home sooner. After leaving the Murray, we took a short break in Mildura and thence to Wedderburn. This was to be the last night of this trip to Darwin for 2023. We found a free camp just near to the town and settled down to watch tv. The morning would see us arrive home soon after mid day to reorganize the house after the last of the renovations had been completed the week after our departure 15 weeks earlier.

Crossing the Murray River near Mildura.
The last free camping spot at Wedderburn
Oh! There’s home.

Dando’s Free Camp – Otway Ranges, Victoria

We spent the March long weekend at this interesting free camp in the heart of “the Otways” in Victoria with our son and his family. Basic facilities are provided by the State Forest Department. It’s a great place to be “device free” as there is no signal, both by phone or the internet, to access the outside world. Most sites have a makeshift fireplace to keep you occupied if not wandering the camp ground or nearby tracks by foot or 4WD.

This park is in the heart of the beech forest region so there are many 4WD tracks for the enthusiast to muddy-up their vehicles. I didn’t do a physical count, but there would have been at least 100 vehicles, with many camping in tents and swags with makeshift shelters, in case the weather becomes inclement. Thankfully, only a little mountain dew dampened the ground.

Breakaway from Covid

Yeah! We can get away in freedom and take to the highways and beaches of Australia in our chosen alternative to our home in the Yarra Valley.

It’s probably fair to say, that many grandparents have either made a bee-line to, or made arrangements to, visit their grandchildren in the first week of lockdown freedom. Our grandkids and son and daughter-in-law, have been in semi-lockdown in Geelong which has had less severe restrictions than metro-Melbourne. However, within 12 hours of the lifting of the restrictions, we were making our way toward Geelong. We had washed and polished the motor home two weeks before; we just had to “fill the fridge” and load the clothes and we were on our way. Our first task was the “grand parents task” of collecting two of the kids from school and transporting them to netball, before we could be introduced to their new house of abode which they had moved into a month before.

  • Some time with Jay
  • Birthday Party for All
  • Elisha’s 14th birthday

We had gone to Geelong to also have a repair job done on our generator. We’ve had an intermittent leak coming from the generator area which showed up a little while after switching it on to use for the microwave or air conditioner. Friends directed us to a European Affair mechanic and we now have an extra fuel filter on the breather line. Hopefully all good for free camping in the future.

From Geelong, it’s just a short drive to Portarlington. We had chosen a “right on the coast” site as we couldn’t get the site we wanted at Barwon Heads Campground for 10 days starting on the Friday. Portarlington doesn’t seem to be loaded with vegetation and rather baron. Apparently, the fishing is good if ever you’re interested. There is a fast catamaran that travels to dock lands in Melbourne a few times a day.

  • Portarlington site beside the bay
  • Catamaran to Melbourne

Barwon Heads is out towards the coast from Portarlington, just 30-40 minutes away. With the first weekend after Melbourne’s extended state of lockdown, the town became super busy over Saturday and Sunday. Lyn’s sister and husband Rod came down on Saturday to check out the town too. They were both impressed. Our son Jay and his wife and family came down from Geelong for a few hours in the afternoon.

  • Yes, the rain and wind comes here too.

Sunday’s weather forecast was to be 34 degrees. We took some time at the beach but left early afternoon as the wind came, blowing up sand and turning sour for the rest of the day.

Monday was a bit on the “not a beach day” category. Being in a laid back lifestyle, allows breakfast to happen even after 10am. We manage to fulfil that criteria perfectly. It was 1pm when we ventured out to the hardware shop to pick up some silicon to clean up the slide on the toilet canister. Nothing like struggling at 1:00am to pull out the slide locker. Hey, after so many months in lockdown, the drains also needed some draino work to free up the drainage pipes.

Time for another beach walk in the late afternoon. There’s plenty of walking space here when the tide is out. Yes, we still wear masks on walks – it’s the law in Covictoria. It’s also very clear that the mandatory use of them in the state has been a weapon for the reduction of the Covid-19 virus. That and the lockdown have been a saviour to our future really. (Sorry all you anti-maskers – will NOT agree with your opposition to the use of them).

Tuesday, we had to mark it down that we took an early morning walk before breakfast. As our custom used to be, so shall it be in the future.

  • Barwon River meets the sea
  • Looking eastward
  • Looking westward

Our time during Covid

It pains me to see councils allowing a second, or even a third house, to be built “up the backyard”. When this happens, all it does is give psychologists more appointments with people who have become so mixed up from being prevented being able to gain the natural therapy of working their gardens. Take a look and enjoy this short video of the blooms that have shown up this spring.

10 Days Away – Ocean Grove, Seymour, and Gunning

We woke on the Friday to bad news that a friend of ours from our time in Papua New Guinea days, had passed away. We decided to divert our break and head to Sydney to pay our respects and to make a speech during the memories of Darryl.

Our motor home often manages to find the Free Camp at Seymour for a night or two. As we made our way out of Gundagai, another Motorhome didn’t like ours and tried to run us off the road. Just as he overtook us, he cut across in front of us sending us into a plastic white post which did some damage just behind the front passengers door. It could have been much worse with a culvert just beyond the post. Our journey became a little tainted with anger at the greedy motor home driver.

We had had good reports of a great free camp at Gunning north of Yass on our way to Sydney. So we aimed to arrive early in the day to get a good spot and leave late in the afternoon headed for Sydney. The donation camp was worth the stay with lots of bird life using the reeds across from us as breeding grounds and hide outs from other birds in chase.

On our way back to Geelong, we’ve stopped back at the Seymour Free Camp where it appears they are endeavoring to make the Old Goulburn bridge at least walkable for us campers to get to the town of Seymour using a walking track.

 

 

 

190915 A Quick Trip North

Once the feeling of a “nomadic” life gets in your blood, there’s no turning back.

I am reminded of our first “try” at motorhome living. We went to the US of A in 1983 for a three month tour in a friend’s motor home out of Los Angeles. Initially, we were to “see it all” but the PNG government devalued their currency 2 months before our departure which meant our PNG savings reduced by $US1000. In 1983, that was a lot of money. But we went on a significantly reduced itinerary and kept to the west coastal regions of USA and Canada. All went very well.

This trip north was planned 50 years ago as Lyn had graduated from a college course and we were headed for the 50th anniversary of that significant event in her life. Many old friends, whom we hadn’t seen much of in those 50 years, had to be searched out, questioned and hugged. Addresses, phone numbers and Facebook friendships were swapped for later referencing and delving into each other’s past. It was a good time of refreshing, and reminiscing.

Those who attended from Lyn’s Graduation Class
The auditorium for the reunion complete with a great Orchestra and Chorus

After the homecoming (yes, an American Term, but it works for those who have called an education location “home” for their early years), We headed north in search of warmer weather, but we were also headed for ‘delays’ along the way. At the intersection at the end of the M1 heading for Hexham, we were in the right lane with a B-Double on our left. The lights turned green and we both headed for the new direction. However, we became a bit ‘jammed’ and came off second-best, loosing our left mirror in the process when the second trailer gathered it on its way through. We were very fortunate, both that the B-Double didn’t hit any of the bodywork, or us, and that an Iveco Truck Centre was within 100 metres of the scene. In 2 and a half hours, we were back on the road with a new mirror, taken from another truck in their yard, heading to Buladelah free camp-site for the night.

Buladelah free camp is a Lions Project to allow nomads to stop over for the night or sometimes two. There has been a donation box but that was missing this visit. The town pub hosts a lot of the nomads for evening meals.

Our journey to Hallidays Point wasn’t too eventful, but the location at Red Head where I had stayed before on my way north while Lyn was overseas, has changed and the caravan park is in the conversion stage to becoming an over 50s village with just a small number of sites for overnighters. The location is sheltered behind sand hills which border a lovely beach to walk along. On chatting to a few of the new residents there, they all found it to be a pleasant place to live with much activity for the park residents coming in the near future.

While here, we met up with a couple of Lyn’s friends from college days, one from over 45years ago since last catching up. Both these ladies have lived in the area for 12 years and neither of them were aware that they were ‘neighbours’. So a good time had here.

Coastal towns have great markets on a Sunday and Black Head was no exception. There were rows and rows of stalls with Lyn finding an island lady giving massages. A short neck and shoulders turned into a good 45 minutes while the others in our group wandered around the stalls.

From Hallidays Point, we made our way to an area which we frequent on most of our trips north. South of Forster/Tuncury, are a few nice beaches which we find is relaxing for us. The campground nearby, only has 4 sites but we have never had a problem having a few nights or even a week there. There are many kookaburras there and a few enormous goannas that prowl around searching for food. The owners are kind and accommodating too. Lyn had a fall coming back from the beach on the Thursday. Kind friends took us up to Taree Hospital to have two little stones removed and 5 stitches to hold the wound together. (No more visits to the beach).

A friend airing the 6pm TV news

With a surgery procedure due in a weeks time, we set off for Melbourne on the Monday and made our way to a friends place who was doing some major renovations to his back patio. The first work since his retirement has turned into a big project. While sitting quietly chatting, I felt a sensation that I was entering the bad stage of a menieres attack.  By the morning, I was feeling ok to drive the motor home again.

In the mid afternoon at Yass, we had a problem with the starter motor in the motor home and ended up on a tow truck headed for Iveco in Quenbeyan at 11:00pm.  In the morning, the service centre made up some reason why it wouldn’t start. We were not able to be sure what was wrong until we arrived in Geelong the next day when the same problem reoccured. The Iveco truck centre found that a small wire to the solenoid of the starter motor was doing an on again/off again trick. Now we have a fixed starter motor and can travel with less tension.

After the weekend catching up with the 4 grand children, Sunday was departure day for Caleb heading for Finland for 7 weeks on a private school exchange arrangement. A family has been in Geelong for 2 years and the kids and Jay’s kids got on well. They returned to Finland a couple of months ago and invited Caleb to go over for 7 weeks.

The house hasn’t changed much but the tulips were up on our return. I haven’t been able to do the lawns or the garden and kind Lyn has stepped in to carry that load.