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Published: December 16th 2008
CHEERS!!!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!!!You’d be forgiven for thinking all caravan parks are the same: a flat area accommodating rows of identical tin sheds on wheels, slightly grotty ablution blocks, an even grottier camp kitchen and a motley collection of kids playground equipment.
One of my favourite Monty Python quotes was “...as much imagination as a caravan park,” so while the thought of travelling around Australia had a lot of appeal, the prospect of a continual succession of caravan parks did not.
However, Australia has taken the caravan park to another level, making it part of the cultural art form which they adore - being out in the great outdoors. Every van park we have stayed in has had its own particular character, its good points and its bad points - either of which makes it memorable.
We’ve been on the road for over two months, have learned how to put out the awning and even have guy ropes attached now so the whole van doesn’t take off like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in the frequent gusty winds, we’ve got setting up and moving out down to a fine art and can now chat reasonably civilly to each other as we travel
from one place to another rather than the panic stricken silence punctuated with requests for directions through gritted teeth as we navigate traffic and badly surfaced roads with our home bouncing along behind us. Rather than the impending threat of a new space which looks much too small to fit our ample sized van into, we look forward to each new site and comparing it with previous experiences.
Our first shell shocked stop after picking up the van from north Sydney was Cessnock, a largish and largely unattractive coal mining town which has the saving grace of being at the start of the Hunter Valley. Each caravan site was separated by a row of grape vines and although it was too early in Spring to know what variety they were, they held the promise of many vineyards to come.
The next stop was a one-nighter in Tamworth at the Paradise Tourist Park, beside the Paradise River and we even managed a bottle of bubbly sitting on its banks after we were guided in to our spacious grassy site by a friendly park guide.
We’d stayed at the Craigieburn park before and were well acquainted with its amazing natural
Paradise Tourist Park, Tamworth
enjoying the satisfaction of setting up camp stone outcrops and abundant wildlife (kangaroos, rabbits, frogs and birds) which made up for the less than flash facilities. However the Warwick Oasis van park belied its name with hardly a blade of grass and being right beside the busy highway.
At Stanthorpe we had a wonderful site, after we wouldn’t fit on the allocated site in the middle of the park and were sent to the ‘overflow’ sites which were much better, bigger and close to the bush walk with a wonderful view of sunset over the hills.
Toowoomba had a delightful touch with a labelled herb garden specifically for campers, at Goondiwindi (37 degrees and please put your drainage pipe on the trees as they are so short of water) flocks of bats swooped over the park at dusk and the Moree park had four hot pools fed by artesian water, enjoyed by a large number of European tourists.
Mudgee was one of Rhys’ favourites, nothing I’m sure to do with being in the centre of a wine region, but the Bathurst camp was a dud even though we loved the town. At Cowra our site was next to a lovely river, but also unfortunately
the bridge over the river which large and noisy trucks trundled over all night.
Canberra was a barren van park, but so close to the beautiful city I happily forgave it, Gundagai had the most beautiful grass that the camp owner was very proud of and watered religiously. It’s been the only time we walked outside with bare feet.
I loved the Colac Colac park best, even though it is pronounced clack clack in Australian. Huge trees, a babbling stream racing on its way down to the Murray and beautifully quiet in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains. Unfortunately the temperature was decidedly snowy as well - we had a hail storm which is amazingly noisy and scary in a caravan!
We were looking forward to Rutherglen - another great wine region - as the park overlooked ‘beautiful Lake King’. Unfortunately all that is left of Lake King after the drought is a small muddy puddle and the park owners were looking after a family of mum and 8 ducklings - including providing them with a kids paddling pool, complete with duckling sized steps so they could learn to swim.
In spite of our somewhat depressing view of
A treat at Toowoomba
A herb garden specifically for campers to use - the basil and chives were great - I wish more parks did this...I miss my herb garden! the puddle-which-once-was-a-lake, it was a very social camping ground, right in town but quiet and we now have a caravan full of Rutherglen Muscat - yum yum!
So every caravan park experience is different and enjoyable for different reasons.
We’ve just spent a week on the banks of the great Murray River (the third longest navigable river in the world after the Amazon and the Nile...thank you Rhys) at a park where you can’t actually see the river because of the flood banks, but we can view the River Red Gums along its bank from our shade matting covered site - there is hardly a blade of grass to be seen in the huge park in this drought area. We’ve had two days of constant light rain, so this may help, but the Murray hasn’t flooded for 15 years because water is channelled off for irrigation and the natural cycle of flood and drought doesn’t happen any more.
This doesn’t seem to bother the wild life du jour in this park - hundreds of cockatoos that nest in the red gums, making a cacophony as they go about their daily business and flying around the park in
Cowra
our view of the Lachlan River from our van site squawking swarms in the morning and evening, chattering away until at least 9.30pm...”Rraarrk goodnight Jim Bob...raaarrrrk rrraaarrrkkkkk goodnight Bobby Jo rrrAAAArrrrKK”.
We are in Echuca, which is on the Victoria (southern) bank of the Murray and has, by the good fortune of gradually moving the commercial area east as rail became more important than river transport, kept its original mid 19th century river port area, red gum timber wharf (on three levels for when it flooded) and beautiful old brick buildings of the gold rush era. It was the second largest port in the country in its day and has managed to avoid being touristy while providing a very atmospheric view of how life was in those boom days. Many of the original buildings in the port area are now restaurants, cafes etc. and there is a major industry taking tours up or down the Murray from the re-built wharf in renovated paddle steamers.
While we can’t see these lovely old boats from our van, we can hear the poignant “PooooOOOOOOt” or “toot TOOT!” and hear the plosh plosh plosh of the paddles - they are real wood-fired paddle powered vessels - as they swan past. If I
The Majestic Murray River
just down from our van park in Echuca run up the levee in time I can wave to the tourists on board. Sometimes they wave back - there is a 2m wire fence around the camp, so they probably think I’m some poor trapped lunatic trying to escape an asylum.
Of the Murray itself...well...it is flowing, I will give it that - which is more than can be said for many Australian ‘rivers’. But escaped European carp have muddied the water, native fish are rare, the banks are usually bare and dusty - the introduced willows make it look pretty but they are a pest too. The river is the colour and consistency of pea and ham soup, but boy do the Aussies love it. There are camping grounds at nearly every bend and rows of river boats you can charter or self-hire line the banks. It must get crazy at holiday time, but with nearly 2000km of navigable water, I suppose there’s room for them all.
Our park is next to a 5.5km ‘scenic drive’ through red gum reserve which I’ve been jogging round...very cautiously as the Echuca Walks brochure delighted in listing the wildlife as “marsupial mice, lizards and black and brown snakes (snakes
in the Snowy Mts foothills
We decided not to do this walk... are extremely dangerous and should be left alone).” Well I wasn’t about to invite one back to the van for lunch. It’s a good job the drive isn’t particularly scenic, as I spend all my time scanning the rough sandy path.
One park we have definitely crossed off the list to stay at is picturesquely named Picnic Point...probably because it is at Picnic Point, a big loop in the Murray about 50km north of Echuca. After a peaceful eco-cruise through the largest red gum forest in the world, we were enjoying a picnic at Picnic Point, as you do, when out of the corner of my eye I saw a large dark stick behaving in a distinctly non-stick-like way.
It didn’t take long to realise this was one of the red bellied black snakes the eco-tour guide had been cooing about earlier, saying they like to see snakes in the river environment as it tells them the ecosystem is in good health - snakes eat frogs and so on down the food chain.
However, we aren’t too keen to see snakes in our lunch environment, so picture this: I grab the camera (as proof for the Aussies we
Burrowa National Park
...but we did walk to this waterfall in the Cudgewa valley meet who keep telling us they never see snakes) while telling Rhys he might like to look behind him...as I move to get a better shot, the snake slithers very quickly past us towards the river and Rhys leaps silently on top of the picnic table. The only clear shot I got was as the snake was hiding under the car parked next to us and by the time I had resuscitated Rhys it had disappeared, presumably into the river. It had crossed the path FROM the caravan park.
Now we’re on the way to Healesville in the Victorian High Country, about an hour NE of Melbourne for Christmas and New Year. Most van parks will be full of screaming children for the next couple of weeks, so we’re staying away from beaches and holiday hot spots. There’s a famous wildlife sanctuary there, so we’re hoping the only snakes we see are in captivity and the only annoying wildlife are kids on holiday.
We hope YOU have a safe, happy and wonderful Christmas and New Year holiday!!
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