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Caroline
Enduring the Scenic Sky wayAnzac Day is fast approaching and so is the cold weather, I remember when we first moved into Canberra and everyone warned us how cold Canberra would get in the winter, I was still very disbelieving at that point, but the word on the street was that Anzac Day was the trigger point and the temperature would plummet. They were not wrong.
Anyway, we have spent 3 years in Canberra, which also means 3 winters, which also means that we have spent probably 2 years and 9 months long in Canberra than we originally anticipated.
I have grown to enjoy the winter, not from a temperature point of view, but let’s just say that the scenery in and around Canberra is beautiful in the winter, enhanced by the lovely blue skies and sunny days.
After much deliberation Andy and I have been considering our options and we both feel that for a number of reasons, now is the right time to move on. You may be asking us "where are you going next?" Who knows, we have a vague plan at the moment and that may remain vague for a short time
Angle of decent
This button altered the angle of the seats, for that Shiiiit ! moment yet, but rest assured it will be warmer during the daytime than Canberra.
No sooner than we arrived here the long drought broke and it started raining, that one weekend when we had almost 36 hours of nonstop rain! I hope the drought does not return when we leave.
Andy wanted to see the Blue Mountains before we leave this area, so with the Rosehill Caravan and Camping show in Sydney on, we made plans to tick both off at the same time and whilst in the vicinity, would spend some time in Winston Hills with our friends Ted and Jan. and we were also finalising the build on the back section of the truck which also meant a visit to Springwood.
Canberra - Springwood
It was the Tuesday before Anzac day, Gypsy was hooked up and we headed out of town towards Sydney. This time I remembered to do the payment for the toll roads! A brief stop at Macca's in Goulburn for the customary Chai Latte and onward toward the M4 and the Blue Mountains.
Our plan was to stop in Katoomba it
is only 30 minutes from Springwood which gives us a nice easy run in the morning. I had tried calling the campsite, but no response, they must be busy, it is school holidays in New South Wales, but we thought we would take chance anyway.
About 20 minutes before the office closed, it was dark by now and we pulled in behind 2 other vehicles. We were lucky there were still a few unpowered sites available, so we checked in.
The night was quite cool and we didn't want to do a full set up tonight, tea was very light and we made use of the camp kitchen to boil the kettle for a cup of tea and get our hot water bottles ready. The camp kitchen was horrendously busy, it took us straight back to the days when we were pleased to see a camp kitchen which saved us setting up everything from our trailer.
We sat for a while drinking our tea and a couple who were clearing their stuff away, spoke briefly, they were from England, but were only in Australia for a short while, and then onto
New Zealand, they mentioned that when they had been to Sydney, they would head to Melbourne and do the Great Ocean Road, we mentioned that if they wanted to see Koala's they should be sure to do Cape Otway, explaining that they would keep tripping over them. We were surprised when they both said "we are not interested in the wildlife". I guess we were both a little disappointed, they must be the first people we have met that did not melt at the thought of seeing a koala in the wilderness. Oh well, just not everyone's cup of tea.
First thing in the morning, Andy disappeared to put the kettle on, making a reappearance with my cup of tea. I was soon out of bed, showered and had the breakfast on. We packed up and headed toward Springwood.
We call in on a guy who makes canvas canopies for 4 wheel drives etc. Andy had seen his website and liked the look of his work, also we are coming out here, because after trying a few companies locally we were not getting the quotes back and thus no timescales for making it, and
Caroline
Supporting the mine as we are wanting to hit the road, timing is crucial to get the truck set up finished.
This was easy, the back cage was lifted off the truck, measured, discussed and we went away safe in the knowledge that it would be made by the time we returned on Saturday morning. We were ahead of schedule, so we stopped in Blaxland for a cup of coffee and then headed back down the Great Western Highway.
We stopped at Penrith for a mooch and a drive up to the lakes, then we headed to Jan and Teds, we knew that we would arrive before they got home from the chores of their day, so we planned just to pull up on the front and slide into Gypsy for an afternoon nana nap. However when we arrived Jan had left a box "that would interest us" on the front porch, it was marked "Australian Wine" I opened it and found that there was a flask of hot water, coffee, tea bags, sugar, biscuits and little chocolate Easter eggs for us to enjoy whilst we waited. I set everything up on the back of the truck,
Andy got the chairs out and we sat on their front lawn enjoying our mini picnic and reading whilst we waited for Jan’s appearance.
Thursday brought with it one of our favourite days of the year, Rosehill Caravan and Camping Super show. We planned our approach with Ted and Jan, which stands we wanted to see in particular, it is the best way to do it as there is so much to see and so much not to see too! If you really want to see everything then 2 days should cover it.
We arrived when the gates opened, bought our tickets and commenced our plan. Today is Anzac Day and to be honest I didn't think it would be too busy because a lot of people would be going to dawn ceremonies etc. However I think that people went to the dawn ceremonies and then went straight to the show, so it was busier than expected, I even saw people proudly wearing their service medals.
Part of the approach is to also browse some of the stands to see what is new on the market, there is always something, but
Buffers
If these buffers failed you would only fall about 300 feet we don't buy straight away, partly because you don’t want to carry it all day but also because you might see it cheaper on another stand.
We squeezed in our visit to Louie and Lorraine from Vista RV, sat down and had a chat but time was slipping away so we headed off to make our final purchases of the day and ten minutes after the MC announced that the show was closed we headed out of the gate. Phew, what a day! We didn't even look at the motorhomes or fifth wheelers, no need for us at the moment though.
The following day, Ted had to go to work which left 3 of us at a loose end, what I wanted to do more than anything was to take the ferry down to circular key and enjoy a wander around the harbour, grab a coffee somewhere and watch the world go by. It was a beautifully warm day.
This was probably a mistake! It is school holidays in New South Wales, coupled with Anzac Day being on a Thursday, I think everybody has made this a long weekend. The word
The new Landcruiser
With its new Canvas Canopy "busy" just does not cover it.
We enjoyed our wander around the Circular Quay up to the Opera House, then Andy and Jan fancied an ice-cream, instead of spending several dollars on the tourist trail, decided that a Macca's ice cream would suffice. But no, it was not meant to be, Macca's had run out of ice cream!
Disgruntled, we headed back toward the quay and Jan and Andy gave in to the biggest ice cream I have ever seen! As i wanted a coffee and not ice cream we headed off to find somewhere nice to sit and overlook the Opera House, just in the cruise terminal, we took a seat and off Andy went to the bar, he came back a short while later and said they have run out of milk.
Now if you know Andy then you would also know that he always says things like that as a joke (I remember a time in Canada when he told me there was a bear behind me, and I looked straight at him to say "yeah right!" He had to convince me that there was actually a bear
behind me and that I should turn around, I was a bit shocked when I realised there was a bear behind me! Anyway I digress, so Jan and I took some convincing that they had in fact run out of milk. Surprised, yes, we are in a capital city not the outback and the was no suggestion that someone had been sent out to get some, it was just a simple "No milk".
So a big thumbs down to the restaurant in the Passenger Cruise Terminal, we wandered back to catch the ferry home before the rush hour commenced. This clearly was not going to make a difference today as the ferry was packed anyway.
We had dinner that night at the Bull and Bush, caught up with the rest of the Davis family, Justin was missing as he had flown to Adelaide for the Tour De Cure, helping raise money for the fight against cancer and Ted was still at work.
Saturday morning meant an early start for is to be back in Springwood to meet the guy that has manufactured the canvas cover for the rear section of the
Special Grass
Do you remember this grass pikey, this very grass we all sat on in 2007 on our first night in Katoomba truck. We arrive in good time and the next hour or so is spent fitting and finalising the design which Andy has spent a lot of time planning.
We drive back to Katoomba where we have booked a site at the Katoomba Falls Caravan Park for a couple of nights where we find ourselves on the very same site that we had in 2007 when we first came to Australia with friends and drove from Sydney to Brisbane.
Andy was really keen to come back here and do all the touristy things at Scenic World, which was basically our Sunday. Probably not the best timing as it is coming to the end of the school holidays and being a weekend there are a lot of people around.
We arrived as soon as it opened on the Sunday and patiently queued for our tickets, one ticket price covers all the attractions, so our fun commenced.
Sorry did I say fun? I am not sure that was the right word, as most of you know I am not really an adrenaline junkie and doing things like the Skyway and being
suspended 270 metres above a ravine is not my idea of fun, even the promise of a good photo opportunity does not do much to calm my nerves.
Thankfully it is quiet and I sit down away from the side windows. It is quite a windy morning which gives me no confidence at all. I am not sure what the fear is, it is not the height, but maybe the fear that the cable will break, unlikely I know!
There is a glass floor down the centre of the Skyway, it is fairly scratched, the guide tells us that the glass is covered in a film and it is usually replaced once a month, but it hadn’t been done for some reason. Gradually I summon up the courage to stand at the side and take some photos, by the time we reach the other side I was feeling somewhat calmer.
Now I thought we were going to get off and take a walk, phew what a relief, but the guide tells us that if we want to stay on then we can, as it would not long before the crowds arrive
Reversing Practice
Caroline practicing reversing Gypsy and you would have to get off and then queue to get back on again. So we took the return journey, this time I am quite enjoying the experience.
Next on the list is the Scenic Railway with the 52 degree incline and is the worlds steepest passenger railway. The last time we did this was way back in 2007 and the experience was quite different, the carriages were open, but now with a revamp, the carriages are fully enclosed and the seats can be positioned in 3 different ways at 52 degrees, the laid back option at 44 degrees and finally the cliffhanger at 64 degrees. Our first ride was at the 52 degrees.
Yes I did say first ride, I also very keenly went back for more, after we took the rainforest walk and the cableway back up to the top, we were very quickly back in the queue for the railway and this time at the front sharing the carriage with another couple and just to be sure of a good experience we had the seat positioned in Cliffhanger!
Guaranteed a thrill and immense relief when the train
slows to a stop at the bottom before hitting the buffers. We had noticed some people stay in the carriages, so we decided that this may be a fun thing to do, so with our adrenaline in overdrive we queued for the journey back up, again in the front carriage, we feel a slow pull as this carriage is pulled back up the steep incline, and then suddenly it slows up, it feels too soon and a sharp I take of breath as you hope that it makes it back to the top station. Finally a relief that we made it.
By now Scenic World is busy with tourists, we queue to get back on the Skyway, it is crowded this time and clearly at maximum capacity. On the other side we have to get off, so we go for a short hike toward the three sisters.
A fairly long wait for the Skyway back across the ravine, and once on the other side we decided to call it a day and avoid the rest of the crowds.
Later that afternoon we had intended to go back to Scenic World and
do the railway again, but we decided that we should take a drive out to some of the viewpoints in the area and watch the Sunset along with everyone else.
It had been an exciting day and very enjoyable bit there was one thing left to come and that was the final for My Kitchen Rules. So after dinner we headed toward the camp kitchen hoping that the TV was vacant for watching. Imagine our surprise when we found most of the campsite in there seated comfortably all watching the final!
The nights are cold here so it was nice to sit indoors watching TV, but as soon as the final was over we all retreated to respective campsites and so to the warmth of bed!
Monday morning meant moving on, so after a shower and breakfast we headed West out of Katoomba toward Oberon, where we stopped for a morning coffee at the Monkey Bean cafe.
That afternoon we found a nice camp at Abercrombie River, we set up easily and had a lazy afternoon, there were only 3 other campers there by dinner time so it
was fairly quiet.
Andy and I went out on a bit of a wildlife hunt, we only saw kangaroos even though there were promising wombat signs, we sat by the campfire and enjoyed the watching the stars above us.
Another very cold night so earlier in the evening we prepared our hot water bottles so that the bed was warm before we got in it. We sat by the campfire to keep the cold night air off us and watched the blanket of stars slowly revolve above us.
We enjoyed it so much at Abercrombie River, we decided to stay another night, this was an added bonus because that night just before dusk a wombat search proved fruitful as a juvenile wombat with beautiful shiny brown fur appeared from its wombat hole!
We watched it for a while, by then the darkness had appeared and the wombat disappeared, so we retired to the camp fire. A short while later we heard a noise and flicked the light from the torch around again rewarded by the sight of the juvenile wombat grazing nearby.
We left it
Residential Parking
on Ted and Jans Lawn in peace so that we did not upset it and resumed our star gazing from the comfort of our tilted back chairs.
The following morning, it was time to go, we were up early and hit the road to make our way back to Canberra. The stunning views over the valleys below us were amazing, the sun was shining above the clouds that were still lying in the valleys below.
By lunchtime, Gypsy was back in her storage unit and we were back at the apartment with plenty of things to do to get ready for our impending departure.
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Jo Trouble
Jo McCarthy
Time flies!
Best of luck for wherever Gypsy may take you :-)