From small steps to giant bounds

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Noosa/Tewantin was a welcome break from watching the water tanks, checking the batteries and emptying the cassette. It came with the added bonus of Marg’s sister and brother in-law Alan having just arrived back from the gulf where they had been fishing – very successfully. We did our best to empty their freezer of the freshly caught barramundi, ‘finger mark’ trout, and of course the gigantic mud crabs, and Geoff even got to the point of asking when he was going to see meat again. The hospitality was great and the fish ...well, something you don’t get in Melbourne very often. Oh, I forgot to mention the prawns! Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and we were back on the road again heading south, as SWMBO was missing the girls and the central heating at home.

We started this trip dribbling along the Murray River, sometimes only moving 10 – 15kms from one camp site to another. The journey up through N.S.W. was also mostly in small hops and it was only the last leg into Noosa that had any real distance in it. The journey back however was to be a major sprint – 1700 kms in 4 11/2 days! We have spent a lot of this trip discovering the joys of country showgrounds. No, not for the shows, but for the cheap camping. It would seem that the message is spreading through the country that there is a river of money to be tapped from the grey nomads who are exploring the tracks less travelled. Depending on the facilities that you want, need or are available, the cost can be as low as $10/night and up to $25/night which would include power, water and toilet/shower facilities and most often, the all important “dump point” – what more could you want? Either way it is a lot less than caravan parks who charge for a lot that you do not need for an overnight stop-over. Our first night out of Tewantin was spent at the Maclean showgrounds and the second night at the Kendall showgrounds. Maclean was difficult to find, hiding in plain sight and we were not the only ones to go straight past the entrance and have to do a U-turn. The location on the banks of the Clarence River was great and in better weather we could easily spend 3 or 4 days there. However the weather was not good and it had rained heavily in the days prior turning the ground into a muddy soup. Thank goodness for 4wd! Kendall was somewhat better, but again difficult to find as it was tucked in behind the main township. The ground was very wet, but not muddy and the 4wd was not required.

The next leap was to Moss Vale, a distance of some 480 kms and as luck would have it another show ground. Not much to report here apart from the fact that it was FREEZING in the morning with white crunch grass and only 5 degrees inside the van so we were away relatively early. When we arrived here, there was already a woman in the final stages of setting up here caravan. Marg gave her some assistance to get the annex wall properly set in the awning roller, a job that Geoff thought totally unnecessary, but it seems that it is part of the essential nesting thing. The woman must have known how cold it was going to be as she was travelling with 2 dogs; not sure how much warmth a Chihuahua and a Jack Russell Terrier were going to provide... Anyway we were too cold to talk and were on our way to Wangaratta (Oxley to be precise) before we saw her .

This was to be the penultimate day before reaching home and we only chose Oxley as there is a great shortage off free camps between the boarder and Melbourne. It meant that this leg was a full 500kms and Geoff was very pleased to see that the Oxley Recreation ground was a) dry, b) flat and c) expansive when we eventually got there. The van did not need unhitching, which was another bonus and it was not long before we night fell. There was to be no wandering around outside that night as the area was littered with ‘meadow pies’; some quite fresh definitely to be avoided if we wanted to enjoy the fresh country air as we slept.

Now I know not a lot of you know Oxley in particular and some of the other areas that we have been through, but we have been through (and stayed in) some of the country’s best wine regions, and 2 of Geoff’s favourite wineries are in Oxley. Sad to say that although he applied his grey cells all night to the problem, there was no way he could work out how to get the caravan into those wineries – bugger! And it has been the same all trip... He must be owed big time.

We are now home and have almost cleaned everything up ready for the next trip. Now for the stats. that I know everyone wants to know about.

Total distance covered: 7,950 kms

Time taken: 1 day short of 8 weeks

Average fuel consumption: 16.2 lts/100kms, bearing in mind that the BT50 was new and had only covered 2,370kms when we left, Geoff expects that we will do much better after its first service and on future trips.



Geoff & Marg.

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Photos

1 Boreen Point, Lake Cathourabra & cormorants (3)
Don't tell anyone, but this is where the prawns come from.

Borumba Dam
On a day trip into the hinterland behing Noosa

Noosa River at sunset
If it looks idylic, you will understand why you don't fing folk from Noosa migrating to Melbourne!

Noosa River
Playground for everyone.

Noosa Heads beach
Small break, but good for the paddle boarders late in the afternoon.

Clarence River Maclean
This was out the back door of the caravan.