23rd February - 1 March

Monday 23rd

It was a beautiful day and we did lots of walking, etc. I made up a big batch of curried sausages that should last us a couple of days.

We all trooped up to have Happy Hour at the designated time but had only been there for about 10 minutes when a big storm front hit us and everyone scurried away to batten down the hatches! There went the afternoon! We amused ourselves for the resto of the evening by watching DVDs - not nearly as exciting as chatting to the neighbours, but what can you do?

Tuesday 24th

The morning was bright and clear and beautiful. After I finished my morning's work, we headed on into Bathurst to drive around Mount Panorama - I mean if you go to Bathurst you HAVE to drive around Mount Panorama - right?!!

We also went into the Bathurst Racing Museum which Ross found very exciting and he wanted to pack up everything and get a job there and stay there forever but I managed to persuade him otherwise :).

We managed to have a great Happy Hour with a bunch of residents this afternoon without getting rained on.

We are going to move on in the morning and see what other wonderful places we can find.

Wednesday 25th

I did my work while Ross packed up (sounds like a good plan to me!). We went and said goodbye to our new friends and headed off at about lunchtime. We went through Carcour, Cowra and then Young. We stopped at Young at the information centre (not easy to find - no signs on the building but it looks like a railway station) and they told us there was free camping at the showgrounds which is not in Camps 4, but it was still early so we kept going. We couldn't find any campsites that were going to be worth staying at so we just found a roadside stop at Illabo. It wasn't be best choice as it was right next to a railway line and the trains kept going through but we managed to get to sleep eventually!

Thursday 26th

We got on the road mid-morning and headed to Junee - what a great little town! There is heaps to see there and we started and the Licorice and Chocolate Factory. Neither of us is particularly interested in licorice, but the chocolate part definitely got our attention! We took a tour which cost only $4.00 each ad we got to play "Licorice Bowls" (you would have to be there to understand) and I won! I got to stand on the podium (stairs) and receive my award (a bag of licorice)! It was great fun.

We then headed to the Monte Cristo Mansion which is the most famous haunted mansion in Australia. It was going to cost $9.50 each to go on so we didn't bother but we did buy a book that tells a little of the history of the place. It is a fascinating story and would be well worth going to have a look at if you were more financial!

The next place we visited was the Roundhouse Railway Museum. That was $6 each and I didn't bother going but Ross went on the tour and had a wonderful time - he was in his element! The old guy let me go in and have a look at the model railway they had though, which was quite interesting.

We then headed to Wagga Wagga and decided it was time for a hot shower so stayed at a caravan park right on the "Wagga Beach" which is the inland equivalent of a beach which is a spot right on the Murrumbidgee River which was quite a nice place to stay (although the white cockatoos were quite noisy in the morning - guess we will have to get used to that). It was lovely to have a nice long hot shower for a change.

Friday 27th

I did some work in the morning and Ross went into town to try and do a couple of things. After that we checked out of the caravan park and parked the van in a parking lot and then went to have a look at the sites of Wagga Wagga. We went to the museum to have a look at "Box World" which is a miniature town built purely out of recycled boxes, etc. It was pretty interesing. We then spent the next few hours wandering around the shops of Wagga Wagga as well as checking out the Memorial Gardens. By late afternoon we were ready for a swim and headed to "Wagga Beach". After that we decided to try and find a campsite for the night and ended up at "Oura Beach" which is east of Wagga. It is so DRY around here - they haven't had any decent rain for quite a few years. It is a nice campsite but there is a total fire ban so no campfires - makes it a little less fun. We had another swim and then another one right on dark to cool us down - it is pretty warm at the moment.

Saturday 28th

We decided to have one more swim and then head off again - the water is great - perfect temperature! We headed back into Wagga Wagga and went to the Botanical Gardens for a look around - pretty nice place - they even have an animal farm there go I got to play with some of the animals :).

WE drove through Albury which is a pretty big town, but there didn't seem to be anything too interesting to stop and look at so we kept going to try and find a new new place to stay. We found a reserve called Murray River reserve or somehting like that which is not in Camps 4 but is located at the end of Moss Road Barnawartha North (Vic). It was a nice place with heaps of places to camp but all the good ones were taken so we decided only to stay for the night and then move on and find somwehere else. I can't wait to find another nice campsite so we can settle down for a couple of days.

Sunday 1st

We found another couple of campsites listed on Camps 4 but they weren't very big and there were no spots that we could get good solar power all day so we kept on going. WE got our first glimpse of the Murray River today - just love the Murray! We ended up finding a nice place called Kyffins Reserve (found in Camps 4). . We are near Tocumwal (wherever the heck that is). It is right on top of Mulwala Lake which is kind of part of the Murray River.

We went into town (Yarawonga) to check out the scene but again there doesn't seem to be too much in the way of excitement but the ladies in the information booth were very nice.

The bird life here is incredible - you name it you can find it here. There are white cockatoos, black swans, ducks, galahs, shags, egrets, water hens, magpies, pelicans, pee wees, willy wagtails, kookaburras etc, etc. It's a great little spot but there are no ammenities at all so you have to make do. We have lovely neighbours and we had happy hour with them this afternoon.

16th - 22nd February 2009

Monday 16th

We were booked in to do an Aboriginal Discovery talk this morning at Wentworth Falls at the Conservation Hut and fortunately the weather was not as bad as it has been. It turns out that Ross and I were the only ones on the tour so we had some pretty good one-on-one education! The people running it were Chris Tobin and Janelle Randall-Court who are Aboriginal Discovery Rangers for the Blue Mountains National Park. They were fascinating people to talk to and they knew so much about the Aboriginal Culture (though both having not been brought up in the bush were still learning some of the things!). Ross and I were a little apprehensive at first that it may be a little uncomfortable talking about some of the subjects that may come up but they both soon put us at ease with their easy manner and confidence in themselves.

We went for a bit of a walk down to one of the lookouts and along the way were Janelle showed us all sorts of plants that could be used for medicinal purposes and for “Bush tucker” as well as where to find red ochre for grinding up to use for colouring stuff. When we hit the lookout it was just gorgeous – the clouds were hanging low and they move so fast! We were hanging over the edge and noticed that water droplets from the plants below us were hitting us in the face – they were being blown upwards with the updraft of the wind. There were also a few waterfalls running which Janelle told us normally don’t run but because of all the wet weather they were running.

We wandered back to Katoomba after the tour and found a shoe store with a great sale on so we bought Ross some hiking shoes (something he has needed for quite some time). After that we headed back to the Dairy and did some washing ready to leave in the morning L. We are a little disappointed that we didn’t get to do as much as we wanted while we were here, but we still had a great time. If the weather is okay in the morning we might go and do a small bushwalk, but the weather forecast isn’t looking too promising – we live in hope!

Tuesday 17th

Well, the weather hasn't changed so we packed up and drove down to pick up Boris who was VERY glad to see us! Shannon and her family were just fantastic and spoiled him rotten the whole time and he lapped up every bit of it! We are so glad we left him there instead of a kennel - our minds were much more at ease.

We had left the caravan at the Old Leura Dairy and when we got back up the mountain we went and picked it up and found a place to park for the night on the side of the road just north of Katoomba. The caravan is starting to leak, probably just because it is old and it has been in the wet for the last week so I think we just need to get going and find somewhere dry to camp and dry it out and see if we can find any leaks that need plugging up. If the weather is okay in the morning though we might have one more go at having a look at the Three Sisters.

Wednesday 18th

Well, the weather is exactly the same again this morning so we decided to move on. We headed west towards Bathurst and it finally stopped raining. We found a great spot near the river just east of Bathurst (found it in Camps 4) near Tarana called "Flat Rock". There are a couple of other campers here and they were nice enough to give us some of their firewood to get us going, told us about a big stand of big, fat, juicy blackberries and also gave us some of their garlic prawns they cooked on the barbie!! How nice :).

Ross went to the toilet late at night and it was a really black night. Boris followed him like he always does and after a few minutes I started wandering over there because I had to go too but I didn't take a torch with me (I was kinda just wandering around in the dark hoping I would spot Ross' torch when he came out of the loo). Next thing I could hear Boris yelping off in the bushes somewhere and not having a torch with me couldn't work out what was going on. I started calling him and yelling at poor Ross to get off the loo so we could have some light to work out what was going on. Boris kept yelping and Ross (luckily he had finished) came out of the loo with the light. Boris finally came out of the bushes looking very upset but we couldn't see any marks on him so didn't really know what had happened to him but Ross guessed that he had had a run-in with the electric fence and had the bejeebers scared out of him!! He hasn't gone back over near that fence since so I reckon Ross might have been right! Poor Boris didn't know what hit him! It was also drizzling so the wet probably made it worse.

Thursday 19th

It rained again overnight but it wasn't too bad. I got up and did some work while Ross pottered around.

We went for a lovely swim and a walk and found more lovely juicy blackberries and an apple tree with some nice apples on it - tough life! The boys (Tony the neighbour and Ross) went and took the chainsaw and got a whole bunch of firewood so we could have a good fire tonight. We did a lamb roast with roasted vegies - yum yum!

Friday 20th

We sat out and watched the stars last night - just glorious! We saw a bunch of "shooting stars" does anyone know what they actually are? Tony reckons they are space junk but they move so fast - they cover half the sky in the blink of an eye! (hey that rhymes!).

We saw a snake right next to the path we were all walking on today, it was a brown snake but not sure if it was a normal brown or a king brown. I tried to look up on the internet how to tell the difference but I couldn't really tell.

Today we pottered around doing as little as possible - beautiful day. I cooked a lamb casserole with potato dumplings in the camp oven and we shared it with Tony and Michelle.

Saturday 21st

We went swimming again today, it is just beautiful weather - about 30 degrees - perfect for swimming and sitting in the shade reading.

I cooked a bacon and cheese damper in the camp oven and we did jaffles with the left over lamb roast from the other night.

It was a lovely night and we sat around the campfire trading stories.

Boris is such a tart. A bunch of different families turned up to go swimming down at the river and he goes up to every one of them and offers to accompany them down to the river and go for a swim with them. Him being so charming and all they don't mind in the least and always promise to bring him back when they come back. Some other campers also set up camp nearby and he felt obliged to spend some time letting them scratch his back - very considerate of him!

Sunday 22nd

We are packing up to move on this morning. We will head into Bathurst to do some shopping and then find somewhere else to stay tonight.

We said goodbye to Tony and Nicole, we got on really well with them and hope we meet up with them somewhere else along the line. They have a 9-week-old baby with them (baby Toni), who has been on the road with them since she was born. They look like they don't have two pennies to rub together as they are travelling in a really old Land Rover Defender with tents, but I reckon either one of them would give you the shirt off their back if you needed it. They have a great attitude to life and I learned a lot from them.

We headed through Bathurst after shopping and through Blayney and came to a camp site on Carcour Dam - it's a pretty popular spot and we found a nice place to park the caravan. There are cold showers and toilets here so we reckon we might stay a couple of days. We might even do some fishing in the dam - we'll get the boat off the roof and have a potter around. The dam is pretty low on water but we will give it a go anyway.

We found a group of travellers having "Happy Hour" so we invited ourselves and some others along and had a nice chat to all the campers for an hour or two before heading off to have dinner.

There are wind turbines up on the hill near hear and when it gets windy you can hear them in the background. They are probably about a kilometre away.

9th - 15th February 2009

Tuesday 10th

Well folks, we are finally back on the road again! What a great feeling. We were meant to leave first thing this morning, but as usual the Disco decided to throw a curve ball right at the last minute and had to have some last minute repairs done before we could get away so we didn’t get away until 2:30ish and only got as far as “Ayres Rock” Roadhouse at Karauah where we spent the night. I managed to do some work while we were travelling along. Everyone has been warning us about how hot it’s going to be but so far we have had rain and jumpers all the way!

Wednesday 11th

It was cold and miserable again today and we kept on driving into Sydney where we had to pick up a few bits and pieces that Ross had won on the internet. Our first stop was at Horsley where Ross had to pick up some Land Rover parts. It was really weird because we were driving through the city and traffic and all and the next minute we were driving through farmland and country lanes – weird! Anyway, we got there and found Erich and his lovely wife on their farm with their fantastic workshop – turns out he is an ex engineer and he has this awesome workshop setup (Ross wanted to be adopted so he could live there and use the workshop). They were lovely people and would have been more than happy to stay and chat all day but we had to keep going and get the other parts and look for somewhere to park the caravan for the night. Erich said we could have parked it there overnight but they were going out and locked the gate at night –would have been a nice quiet spot to camp but never mind – we will find somewhere! Next we were off to Hurstville to pick up some K’Nex for Ross to play with while we are travelling – don’t laugh!! It is really light to carry in the caravan and it keeps Ross amused – they are kind of like Leggo/Mechano. Anyway, we had to wait around for the lady to come home so we walked around a bit and came across a guy doing his gardening out the front and started talking to him and he was just the most lovely guy and really interested in what we were doing, then when we kept walking along people were nodding and smiling at us and saying “hi” as we walked past, which was really weird because we thought people in Sydney were supposed to be cranky, but everyone seemed so nice. Once we got the K’Nex it was off to Merrylands to meet the people who are going to look after Boris for us while we are staying up in the Blue Mountains. Ross won some accommodation up there for a few days but Boris isn’t allowed to stay with us so we are leaving him with a family who will spoil him to death while we are there and he won’t miss us at all!! We arrived in Merrylands and met Shannon and her family of 5 kids and they are just the most beautiful family and Boris is going to have a ball! We parked the caravan in the carpark of a huge park just across the road from Shannon’s place and in the morning we will drop Boris off with his adopted family.

Thursday 12th

We dropped Boris off first thing this morning and headed for the mountains. It is still cold and miserable and raining. I worked as we were driving along again and we went straight to where we will be staying which is called “The Old Leura Dairy” which isn’t actually an old dairy, but a kind of eco friendly place that they built all these cool buildings out of straw bales and recycled materials – apparently it is made 80% out of recycled materials. Anyway we were too early for check in so we went sightseeing. We walked around Leura and then thought we might go to one of the local lookouts and see what we could see (even though it was raining!). It was hilarious; we trooped down to this lookout only to find we couldn’t see a THING!! Everything was just completely WHITE – we could hear a waterfall though! We decided sightseeing wasn’t going to do the trick so we went to the cinema at Katoomba (only a few minutes drive away) and saw a film about the Blue Mountains on this huge gynormous screen which was pretty awesome. By the time we finished there it was time to check into our accommodation – we were staying in “The Studio”, which is a tiny little building made for two – it’s just great – we love it. The rest of the afternoon was spent working out what thing we wanted to see while we were here, taking a lovely long hot bath, etc, etc. It very cold and very wet at the moment. We are booked in to do the Plughole Adventure at the Jenolan Caves tomorrow, which is a 2.5 hour introduction to caving as well as some abseiling and it also involves “sliding and wriggling through to the infamous ‘S-Bend’ squeeze”. Can’t wait – sounds like fun! It will be cold and wet and raining again – but that won’t stop us – won’t matter what the weather is like once we hit the caves.


Friday 13th

WOW! What can I say!? That was one of the most amazing things we have ever done! We both had a fantastic time. Ross was a little concerned about the abseiling because he isn't great with heights, but he surprised all of us and did it with ease. I of course jumped over the edge with no qualms at all. It was then on into the cave itself and got to look at all the old signatures from the original explorers from the 1850s. From there we were straight onto squeezing through impossibly small looking holes and sliding on our butts all around the cave for the next two hours. We both loved every second of it and would love to do it again. Neither of us felt claustrophobic at all. We also went to Selwoods Science and Puzzles and hung around there for a couple of hours - it was a great place full of stuff to do and it's free entry - keep you amused for hours. We ended up buying a couple of things as pressies for the kids looking after Boris - had to buy something, there was so much to choose from, it was a hard decision! It looks like it is going to be cold, wet and raining for the rest of our stay here so we are going to have to get creative about what to do to amuse ourselves. We will head into the information centre tomorrow and have a chat with them about what we can do on a wet day on a budget! We can't really afford to pay to do activities all day every day, so we will have to work something else out. We originally wanted to do lots of bushwalking while we were here but I don't think that's going to happen now.

Saturday 14th - Valentine's Day

Yep, it's raining and foggy again. We briefly thought about going to the Scenic Railway, but then thought better of it as there wouldn't be any scenery to be seen because of the fog! We decided to hit the shops at Katoomba to see what there is to see. We had a great time at the op shops in Katoomba buying warm wet-weather gear and getting some great bargains. We also went into "Pickwicks" store at the top of the street which is just amazing. There are two stores next to each other and although they have different names they are apparently combined because I was in the first shop (antique, bric a brac) and I asked where there was a toilet and the lady said they had one next door upstairs, so I trooped into the next shop (another antique, bric a brac shop) and went upstairs looking for the toilets thinking the toilets would be in a corridor as you would expect but instead there were more rooms full of books and antique clothing, etc, it took me about 5 minutes to find the toilets - it was a total rabbit warren - every time you turned a corner there was another room with more stuff in it! I eventually found the toilet and Ross joined me upstairs and we started to make our way down again and noticed more stairs so we investigated and found more rooms! The place goes on forever and it is just fascinating!

Sunday 15th


The weather is still bad so we didn't do mcuh today. We went and checked out Lithgow which we didn't think was nearly as exciting as Katoomba. We went and had lunch at the local club which was nice.