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Day 66 12-12-2007
Total Distance - 9319.05 kms
After a bloody freezing night where i reacon it was between 5-10 degrees, we crawled out of bed and had brekkie.
When the pigs, i mean kids were fed we went for a drive to do some detecting, when we got to the spot, we couldn't be bothered any more so we headed off for a drive to Hill End. It was a nice drive on dirt roads to get out there, and was only about 40 kms away.
We stopped at a shop in Hill End and got some hot chips to put on our sandwiches for lunch and had a drive around the town. This place has some really old houses. There are also a lot of run down abandoned places that the government should do something about, with the history that is attached to this place it would be a shame to see the old places fall in.
After this, we decided to go home via the 'Bridle Track'. This track was built by convict labour as a horse track between Bathurst and Hill End. If you have a chance to do this road, don't pass it up. The scenery and history attached to this road is amazing, and was probably one of the nicest drives i have done. It is 4wd recomended, but if you were careful and avoided rocks you could get a 2wd through in the dry.
We ended up back at Bathurst for dinner then drove the 40km sback to Sofala, with a stop on the side of the road for some firewood, then we sat around the fire for the rest of the night.
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Day 65 11-12-2007
Total Distance - 9128.55 kms
We left the caravan park by 9.30 am and headed into Bathurst to re-stock on some food this morning before heading bush again. It was only a short drive today as we headed towards Sofala.
When we pulled into Sofala we were shocked at how small it was. It looked like it had come straight out of an old western movie. The houses were right on the side of the road, well there was only about 4 off them, a coffee shop / general store, pub and post office. I was waiting for a couple of cowboys to walk out and have a shoot out in the street.
We found a lovely free campsite on the river in a free area. The local council must want people to stay here as there are clean rubbish bins, a sheltered area with picnic tables and toilets.
After lunch i went out detecting again, well at least there aren't many bottle caps here, though i found a few bullet shells. I stopped after a couple of hours as it started raining again. It only rained for about 1/2 hour so that was a nice change. We settled in and had jaffles for dinner and sat around the fire for a while before going to bed.
Kai saw another snake thismorning, a red belly black and produced his standard responce of running like hell and getting back to up so worn out he couldn't speak.
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Day 64 10-12-2007
Total Distance - 9052.36 kms
I woke up at 7am to a beautiful blue sky, which made a nice change. I had a cuppa, breakfast and did a load of washing before Tay woke up at 9am. We went into town and walked around the streets for a couple of hours having a good look around. When we left to go back to the camper for lunch, i had to do another lap of Mt Panorama, just because i could.
After lunch i went out to try and find somewhere to swing around the metal detector. I went down to the river which had a small sandy beach, but when i got there, there was a bloke there in a Suzuki with a trailer on the back and he was filling it up with sand / river rock. As i drove past him i gave a wave and he put his head down, i drove past and stopped and started to walk over when he jumped into his car and took off. I am guessing that he wasn't supposed to be doing that. I had a bit of a look around here, but only got some rubish.
I next went up to the gold diggings near the race track, this turned out to be a conference centre and school camp ground which was built ot look like an old gold field. I asked the staff if i could have a look around, one lady wasn't to keen on it because you are supposed to have a guide, bu tmy sexy smile won her over and she said ok then. The gear that they had there was increadible and was like walking back in time, it is increadible what people will let you do if you just ask.
When i got back we got dinner ready and tidied up a little because tomorrow we are off to Sofala to continue my quest for that first illusive nugget (damn gold)
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Day 63 9-12-2007
Total Distance - 8982.08 kms
We woke up to rain yet again thismorning, though it was only spitting it was a pain to pack up in. As we drove off at about 9.30am, the rain stopped, which made a nice change. We didn't have far to go today, Oberon to Bathurst is only about 42 kms and a short drive makes for a good day.
I had to sttop once about halfway to Bathurst as i was imagining noises coming from the front end (yes, i am now paranoid). When we pulled into town our first stop was the information centre, which was huge and had a lot of Bathurst 1000 gear for sale. Our next stop was of course Mt Panorama for a hot lap with the camper on. This was great fun getting to take the Patrol around the race track and we had a ball. As we got to the end of the lap we passed a guy getting booked for speeding as the whole track is 60 km/h. You would have to be a bit stupid to speed around here as we saw 3 police cars and i imagine that this is a great source of revenue.
After lunch we went for a walk through town and did some shopping before retireing to the pool for the afternoon. We were going to go to carols by candle lights tonight but the kids said that they would rather go swimming, which was fine by us. We were in bed reading by 9pm.
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Day 62 8-12-2007
Total Distance - 8904.71 kms
Tay woke up at about 3am this morning having bad dreams, i don't know what it was about because at that hour i don't care (mums job). After finally getting back to sleep, i woke back up at 8am (yep, lazy, i know). We had showers and brekkie and left to go to Jenolan Caves.
It was only 26 km to get there, but the last 5 kms was straight down hill, i wouldn't have liked to take the camper down there.
At 11.15 we got to go into Orient Cave, Bec hates caves and tight spaces, but i dragged her in anyway. She went really well, only freezing 1 time where the steps went straight down into a cavern. The sights in this one were amazing and it went for about 1.5 hours. After this we had lunch and did a self-guided cave walk. The first half of it was no problems at all, it was all through big open areas. The second half of it was through the smaller caves up high in the mountains. Bec walked through the entrance and felt ill straight away and refused to go any further, so she went back the way we came and met us at the end. Lucky she did, because it just kept going up and up.
We got back to the caravan park at about 3.30 pm and i sat around for a while, Kai did some school work, Bec had a lie down and Tay was made to have a nap because she was acting like a baby. I intend doing nothing for the rest of the day after walking up and down hills and steps all morning.
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Day 61 7-12-2007
Total Distance - 8848.61 kms
We were fed and on the move by about 10am after the kids had a swim and said goodbye to the friends that they had made. We stopped for fuel near Rooty Hill (i love that town name) and got our dearest fuel so far at 1.509, i guess that it will get worse as we go west.
We got up into the Blue Mountains and stopped at Leura at the candy shop (i was talked into it), next was Sublime Point, so we walked the 200m to the lookout, even Bec came, though she was shaking like a leaf (scared of hieghts). We then did the cliff drive and went to Echo Point and did the compulsory Three Sisters lookout thing. Next off to Goverts Leap, this is spectacular as there is a huge waterfall there and it was flowing (not surprising after all of this bloody rain).
We are now at Jenolan Caravan Park (Oberon) doing some washing and waiting to go to Jenolan Caves tomorrow. We only did 200 kms today, but i am stuffed, it was all through the ranges and hard work (yes i am whinging).
Because you are interested it did bloody rain again, but only for half of the day this time.
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Day 60 6-12-2007
Total Distance - 8644.64 kms
We got woken up at about 1am thismorning by a massive thunderstorm, not your regular run of the mill one, this one was huge. We got about 700 of rain in 2 hours which was the highest rainfall in 2 hours in 37 years, we are thinking of starting a business up - you pay us to stay in your town, and the rain will come.
When we reluctantly got up in the morning we did a bit of mopping up as the camper had leaked a little, but only in a couple of spots (i am starting to get the leaks under control).
We went to the shopping centre for a couple of hours so that the kids could buy a few small prescents for chrissy then went back to the caravan park where the kids went swimming and i tried to update this journal (i was about 2 weeks behind).
Noodles for dinner, and into bed at about 12am once we finished yapping.
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Day 59 5-12-2007
Total Distance - 8625.67 kms
We woke up this morning to cloudy skies again, scoffed breakfast then contemplated going in to Sydney for the day. I didn't want to because of the crap weather, but the boss put he foot down and made me get off my butt (it didn't rain all day either).
After finding Seven Hills station we bought family traveller passes which let us use the bus, train and ferry all day. We got off the train at central and boarded another one to Circular Quay where we went for a walk and took the customary 100 photo's of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House. This was followed by a walk through the botanical gardens to Government House. After this, it was back to the Quay for a ferry to Lunar Park. Luckily today no rides were working, so we were happy but the kids weren't. Then it was a ferry back to the Quay where we had lunch. After lunch we got back on the train and went to the Australian Museum, it wasn't to bad but i liked the section on gold and jems the best. There were a few different types of skeletons from people to animals to fish. They did have a lot of bugs and spiders on display were good to look at. We walked around Hyde Park for a while then got back on the train and headed home. The train ride home was interesting because there was some drugged out freak at the station causing the security guys some trouble, when we got on the train we discovered that it was peak hour, and man can you pack some people on the trains in Sydney, the kids hated it.
The rest of the trip was drama free and when we got back to the caravan park we sat in the spa to rest our legs for a while.
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Day 58 4-11-2007
Total Distance - 8599.34 kms
We finally got moving again thismorning, leaving Jim and Tina's place at about 9am. I have to thank them for putting up with us all weekend and helping us out as much as possible.
We ended us stopping at the Parklea Caravan Park, between Blacktown and Parramatta. It is a really nice place but is costing us $38 per night which we think is ridiculous for a powered van site (they don't have unpowered). We had rain for the afrternoon, so we just sat around and updated the internet site and went for a swim and a dip in the hot spa. Bec cooked veggies and rissoles for dinner and the kids got some school work done. One good thing about the place that we are staying is the camp kitchen, it has hotplates,BBQ's, hot water, a fridge and 9 BBQ tables, so that helped whilst it was raining.
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Day 57 03-12-2007
Jim got the ski boat out this arvo and took us for a spin up the river. The Speedo stops at 55mp/h so we must have been doing between 60-65 mp/h. It was a real blast. Taylor had the time of her life and said that it was the best thing that she had done so far. Kai sat there praying that he wouldn't die. After we pulled out the boat the forecasted storm hit us, the ground outside the house was white with hail, some of it was up to 10 cent piece size. Luckily there was no damage to our cars, that we have found yet anyway.
We cooked dinner for Jim and Tina and sat back and watched Little shop of horrors, then went to be ready to take off again tomorrow.
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Day 56 02-12-2007
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Day 55 1-12-2007
After the game of cricket we headed up to the verandah and started drinking at about 3 pm, we all cooked a bbq dinner then Tony came out in his santa outfit. The kids loved it and all jumped on him for photos. The wives even got to sit on santas knee for a photo (Next year I want the Santa costume). We sat around speaking rubbish until around midnight then hit the sack.
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Day 54 30-11-2007
Total Distance - 8499.42 kms
We got up early this morning, packed, had brekkie and went for a swim before leaving the caravan park at 10am. As we were on our way to Lower Portland today we had to rely on the 'Navman' to get us there. Well it took us some weird, wonderful way through the mountains. I started to get concerned when on the way to one of the ferry crossings we came to a sign that said No Caravans, No trucks over 3 tonne, well the Patrol weighs somewhere around 3 tonne and the camper is about 1.2 tonne, so technically it should be ok. It all ended fine with the road being a steep 1 lane descent down to the river, across the ferry and a steep climb up the other side again.
We did another 70kms or so and got to Cliftonville Ski Lodge where we met Jim and Tina who are members of the Downunder 4x4 club and caretakers of this beautiful place. We talked for a while and set up the camper in a bit of drizzle before going for a drive into Richmond. I lived here when i was in primary school and nothing looked familiar. On our way into Richmond we went past the air force base that Dad used to work at, man it is big. We went past our old house to show the kids and as expected they didn't really care that much, though they both laughed when i stopped at the old primary school.
We got our washing done and had a walk around before heading back to Jim and tina's place to meet some of the 4wd club members (Ron, Wendy, Darren, Nicole, Keith and Lillian) and catching up with Tony and Shayne who we have met before. Jim cooked a BBQ while we sat around yapping till about 1am.
Find it at www.seek.com.au Your Future Starts Here. Dream it? Then be it!
Day 53 29-11-2007
Total Distance - 8189.41 kms
We reluctantly got out of bed at about 8am and started packing up this morning, it's a tuff life we are living at the moment that is for sure.
We drove to Wyee for lunch and headed off through The Entrance (which looked brilliant) and down to Gosford looking for somewhere to stay. We found a caravan park outside of Gosford and as Bec went in a guy selling caravans next door came over and said "for your sake i hope that they are full,the cops are always there". Bec came back and said "They are full thank God, they look like derros". So that worked out ok, he then pointed us to one in Umina.
When we got to Umina it was great to have a hot shower. We had 2 swims in the pool this arvo before having a BBQ dinner. We had to come in early tonight as it has started raining, so the kids are catching up on their diaries and Bec and I are reading magazines.
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Day 52 28-11-2007
Total Travelled - 7983.29 kms
We decided to spend another day here, mainly because we are too lazy to pack up again and this place is beautiful so why rush off.
I woke up, got out of the camper and went to get a drink out of my car that was on a lean! Yes a bloody lean, i had staked the rear tyre on something. On the positive it was only flat on the bottom......... took the tyre off and used the speedy seal tyre plug to fix it, i did have to put 2 plugs in it, but it was really easy to do, so i now know how to do it and that i can trust it if required. Next to go was the fridge. Bec went and got something out and the freezer was defrosting. That was traced back to the plug (after a call to dad). The earth wire wasn't connecting properly and was working intermittently. I had another one in the kitchen, so i stole that and put it in the truck. it is all good, now i have to buy another to replace the one that i stole.
We spent most of the day fishing with only little ones to add to our tally, and we did see quite a few dolphins swimming up the river, so that was something different. The kids were swimming in the river for hours today and i got a heap of photos of them on a rope swing.
One thing that is bothering me is the amount of food that kai eats.....He nearly eats as much as me now, and the bugger is only one third the size.
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Day 51 27-11-2007
Total Distance - 7969.19 kms
I woke up at 7.30am, shortly followed by Kai at about 8am, so we went fishing for a while whilst we were waiting for the girls to get up. They awoke at about 9am (again). Bec is now blaming her sleeping in on daylight savings.
When Tay got up, she came fishing with us also, and she caught another bream, this one was a keeper. I caught 4 undersized bream and one whiting which was a keeper, just. I would have thrown it back he swallowed the hook big time. Kai doesn't think that the small ones are worth getting, and he is waiting for the big ones. Well, that's his excuse for not catching any.
At about 11am we went for a drive to the main beach at Hawks Nest, we didn't go out very far as there was a small shark swimming up and down the beach. After our swim we came back to the campsite and had lunch then the kids did some schoolwork for about 2hrs whilst i was fishing again. After they had finished their days work they came and joined me fishing again, caught a few more undersized ones, Tay told a few more good stories about the massive ones that stole her bait.
We got sick of fishing later in the afternoon, and we all went for a swim in the river for an hour or so before starting dinner. Vegies again, this time with sausages, chicken and steak.
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Day 50 26-11-2007
Total Distance - 7928.40 kms
After my lazy family woke up this morning (9.30am) Bec went out and got us McDonalds for breakfast. We have spent heaps on takeaway this weekend, and it tastes like rubbish.
While we had brekkie we were playing with the motel owners little fella (Callum), well he was playing with us anyway. We gave him the ball, he would throw it and Tay, kai and myself would go and fetch it. He thought it was a great game, the little bugger.
We finally got the call from Holden that the truck was ready to pick up, so i walked down there to pick my baby up. Damn it was good to have it again. It cost us $580 to have the new parts put on, which i thought was pretty reasonable. They also ran the fridge for us all weekend on 240 volts so the car battery wouldn't go flat.
It took us a while to pack up all of our stuff because we had crap everywhere. The owners of the Taree Motor Inn (Mick + Candice) have been great since we got here, nothing has been to much trouble for them at all. If you are going through Taree, give them a call on (02)6552 6444, you couldn't find people more willing to help you.
After we left Taree we headed out to Forster again and went the coastal road instead of going up the highway. We had to do a few big climbs as we went over the ranges and thankfully the temperature gauge didn't move, the wheels stayed on as well which was handy.
We ended up stopping at Hawks Nest in a camping area about 3kms out of town. We are right on the river and have toilets for $15 per car, per night. this great value around here as the caravan park wanted $33 per night and the national park was $30 per night. This is robbery for a national park considering you have to pay an entry fee for your vehicle as well.
We went fishing for a while right on dark and Tay caught her first fish, an undersized bream. Bec cooked a massive serving of vegies, steak and sausages to fight off scurvy. Damn it was good not to eat take-away food again.
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Day 49 25-11-2007
After this, we went for a drive out to Forster. This is a beautiful place, with a couple of great beaches. We had a swim, and the water was bloody freezing. We then went and got fish and chips for lunch and had it on the water. it's things like this that make travelling worth while. f the truck didn't loose a wheel, we would have driven straight past Forster and Crowdy Bay and not had a look. We will have to spend more time going to smaller out of the way places, because they can be truly amazing.
When we had finished at Forster we went for a drive out to Maitland to visit mums uncle Jeff and Aunty Betty. They are lovely people and it was great to see them again, it has been about 14 years since i last saw them.
We had noodles for dinner and have had a gutful of takeaway, kai would nearly kill for a plate of vegies about now, even Tay wants some and that is saying something.
God i hope that the truck is ready tomorrow.
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Day 48 24-11-2007
We picked up Pizza Hut for dinner and played scrabble till midnight......exciting hey. can't wait to get back on the road.
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Day 47 23-11-2007
Before we made the phone calls i went for a walk down to Holden to see what was happening with the Patrol. First they told me that it would be ready today, then he went and checked on parts and came back and told me that it would be ready on Monday. All we needed was 6 wheel studs,brake backing plate and a rear disk brake. f we were still in Brissy, i could go and pick them up from anywhere (damn Taree).
We picked up the hire car (Magna) at lunch time and drove down to the Wattagans (south-west of newcastle) to see some guys from the Downunder 4x4 club. You see, today we were supposed to be down there with our camper as the 4wd club was down there making a promotional DVD, doing hard tracks throughout the Wattagans N P. have been looking forward to this for about 4 months and with this latest set-back, we are unable to do it now, i am shattered about this. After meeting a couple of guys in the club and telling them what had happened, we headed back to Taree (230 kms) and headed off to bed.
The Magna drove great on the way down there, the acceleration it has compared to the Patrol is increadible, well i had a bit of fun in it anyway. t definately doesn't handle as well off road as the Patrol does, but it got us there.
Find it at www.seek.com.au Your Future Starts Here. Dream it? Then be it!
Day 46 22-11-2007
Total Travelled - 7746.64 kms
We all had a good sleep last night and woke up at about 8am (bloody daylight savings), had brekkie and were on our way. Filled up with fuel at grafton , which was the dearest place that we have fuelled up so far at $1.439 per ltr, but being in NSW i spose that we had better get used to it. We stopped outside Coffs Harbour for lunch in a nice rest area. On our way to Taree, the car was running as good as it ever had, and we were looking at getting between 800-900 kms to the tank, up on our average of 700kms per tank.
1 km short of the Taree exit, whilst cruising along at 100km/h the drivers side wheel decided to leave the car. To say that i was shitting myself is an understatement. The car behaved very well under the circumstances and things could have been a lot worse. It's an indescribable feeling watching one of your tyres passing you up the highway. It took about 200m to stop the car and trailer in the wet (yes it was raining also). I got out to see what happened, and the wheel nuts had sheared off. the only damage to the car was the brake backing plate was bent and twisted, the wheel studs were sheared off and the disk brake had worn a flat spot down to the hub. If i was at home i could have had the parts and had it fixed in a couple of hours. Not Taree, the lack of car parts will see us here till Monday.
After waiting an hour for the tow truck (RACQ was really good through all of this) the truck went onto one tow truck and the camper went onto another one with us. When we were pulling into our motel our tow truck got rear ended by a young guy in a landcruiser (bloody Toyota drivers). The tow truck was undamaged, but the front of the Lancruiser was stuffed. We were all OK, but the kids and Bec were just getting over the first incident and were now shaking like leaves.
After all of this excitement we went up to KFC for dinner and were very weary of black cats and mirrors, when we had to cross the road, we checked it about 10 times.
That was our eventful day, and we never want another one like it, though our luck should be changing shortly, i hope..........
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Day 45 21-11-2007
Total Distance - 7366.31 kms
We finally left Brisbane thismorning at about 7am. We went ou tto Ipswich and picked up Kai from his mothers house. We left Ipswich at about 9.30am and headed through the Gold Coast and stopped at Ballina to get some fresh bread for lunch. We love going to Ballina, it's a beautiful spot, with some gorgeous beaches, both surf and no surf. We were dissapointed that we didn't have more time up our sleve so that we could have stayed here longer. We stopped at a rest area outside Ballina for lunch and the kids played on the swings for a while, thats always good cause it keeps them out of our hair for a while.
After lunch we hit the road again and headed towards Yamba. It is a lovely spot here, right on the beach. We quickly set up the camper and took off to the beach for a swim. It is good to be back near the ocean again because we all love to swim at the beach. We came back to the camper at about 6.30pm and started to cook dinner in the light (it's great having daylight savings again). We had sausages, rissoles and vegies for dinner and went to bed at 9pm as we will have to do a few kilometeres again tomorrow.
It's pretty cold here tonight, after my shower i had to get a flano shirt out to put on. It's increadible how things change, because a couple of weeks ago we were sweltering in central Queensland.
Nearly forgot, the truck performed perfectly today and we tested it out on a few big hills heading south into Ballina. If it was going to overheat it would have done it there, so as you can imagine, we are really happy to have this problem fixed.
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