New South Wales.

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In my last blog I mentioned that we were going to see Craig Stewart at the Kempsey Heights Bowling Club, and I must apologize for spelling his name wrong. Jeremy and Michelle introduced us to him when they gave us a CD they had bought at the Tamworth Country Music Festival when they first heard him. We have been singing away to his songs ever since and could not believe our luck when we heard he was performing at the Kempsey Heights Bowling Club. Well we went along to see him and were not disappointed. He is a very talented singer/song writer and we were delighted to be able to purchase another CD - to give our old one a rest !!! At half time he happily chatted to us and told us of his life and the inspiration for his songs and Pat, John, Trevor and I all came away happily singing some of his songs.
Rain had not featured at all on our holiday until half way through his concert, when the heavens opened and there was thunder and lightening. This rain continued for 3 days and nights and a short stay in Kempsey turned into a much longer one while we waited for the rain to let up. We kept ourselves busy with the PC, reading, etc., and eventually escaped the mud and puddles and made our way to Port Stephens, Fingal Bay to be exact. This area is home to such places as Salamander Bay, Nelson Bay, Corlette and Soldiers Point, just to name a few and these all sit around the bay of Port Stephens. The sea is clear and blue and the homes in this area are beautifully situated in the surrounding hills to get the most superb views of the area. We found a lovely beach where the dogs were allowed to run and we met lots of gorgeous dogs there all enjoying the sea and the sand. Our hounds slept soundly after using up all their energies. By this time we were discussing the best way to skirt Sydney, a notoriously busy city not compatible with towing caravans. We decided to make our way a little further south before doing this and decided to stay at Norah Heads. This turned out to be a great decision as the park we opted for was near the Budgewoi and Tuggerah Lakes and overlooking the Tasman Sea. The lakes are enormous and thankfully sturdy bridges cross them, not a ferry as we originally thought. The last time we took our caravan on a ferry we lost the shoes that cover the back support legs as these sheered off as we went down the steep ramp onto the ferry.
We decided that a Sunday morning was the best time to skirt Sydney and we left Norah Heads by 8am with a firm idea of which roads to take. This went well until we tried to gain access to the M2. Normally if you want to access a motorway on the right you leave on the left and either go under or over that road and join the motorway. There we were sailing along in tandem and suddenly without any warning three lanes went off to the right !!! Oops - too late !!! Thank goodness there was a petrol station a little further along on the right, we were able to fill up and get back on to the motorway from the opposite direction. It may sound silly but towing and getting into the wrong lane is not easy, especially as these are toll roads and you need to be in the right place. Toll roads used to be easy, just stop at the booth and pay your money - not any longer. You have to go on to the internet and register your car for a specific period of time and each time your car passes a toll point the exact amount of money will be taken out of your bank account. If you don do this in advance you have a free telephone number to ring within 48 hours and pay by credit card that way. How folk without the internet manage, especially some older folk who do not have credit cards. Progress - I don think so.
Anyway, once on the M2 and M7 the rest of the journey was a breeze and we stopped at Bowra (home of Sir Don Bradman) to do a bit of food shopping and then we parked beside a pony club while we enjoyed our lunch. At this point Pat and John took off to Aubrey (we are meeting up again in a couple of weeks outside Melbourne) to see some of Johns many relatives and as we want to do the complete circuit of Australia we dropped down through Kargaroo Valley to Huskisson. We visualised Kargaroo Valley as being a nice liesurely drive between two hills, NO WAY !! The village of Kargaroo Valley is nestled bewteen two mountains and although climbing up the mountain did not prove too difficult for our Toyota Prado, the decent was something else. We have never seen so many hairpin bends one after the other, and we had to break so hard our brakes had smoke coming off them. At this point we found a convenient layby and decided stop to allow them to cool down. Eventually we did the rest of the drop in 1st gear and that proved to be more successful. Our first night on our own we stayed in a free park near Huskisson then made our way to the caravan park the next day. We were really lucky and were given a spot right beside the river at Woollamia and Trevor could fish to his hearts content. He caught a big Bream but put it back to enjoy its life a little longer. Again, some lovely walks for Millie and I.
We originally visited this are years ago when Nic and Elodie lived in Canberra and during one of our visits to see them they took us all along this coast. We enjoyed it then and wanted to see it all again, and we are amazed how many things we remembered from that earlier visit. The area is called Jervis Bay and while there we visited Vicentia, Sanctuary Point, St Georges Basin and Nowra. We were there for 2 days and the first day was the hottest November day for 3 years. The temps reached 38o and the wind was so hot and strong you could not go out in it. It was the day of the Melbourne Cup race so we sat in the caravan with the air-con on (it could barely cope) and watched Shocking win the race.
Day 2 dawned cold and wet and only reached 21o all day. What weird weather we are having as we go south. Anyway, although we had the heater on in the car and the wipers going full blast it was easier to break camp and move on than in the heat.
We are now settled in Batemans Bay for a couple of days, another place we visited with Nic and El. We have a lovely site for our van but no signal for tv or the internet so it is out with the knitting, a DVD and a little reading too. Oh, I forgot to tell you - we have the heater on in the caravan. Air-con one day and heater the next - crazy.
More soon........

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Photos

Gan Gan Road.
We could not resist taking this photo as Lucy and Calvin call Trevor GanGan.