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Published: November 18th 2012
Day 1465
I had a couple of days owing to me, so we thought that we would go and grab gypsy and go off for another mini adventure.
She was delivered to us last week, at Woodstock and “Louie” (The owner of Vista RV) had said even though the water tanks were of food grade quality, there would be the “Horrible” plastic taste, and it would need several tanks of water through the system, to get rid of it “That Taste”
He wasn’t wrong and we were happy to persevere through it, having such a flash new camper trailer and all, and a far cry from what we circumnavigated Australia with.
One of our friends has let us store Gypsy at their premises they own, which we really appreciate and its very hassle free as it’s a huge area, that is concreted, to a high standard and it is under lock and key which is just great.
We arrived to collect the trailer, at around 12.00 Midday with all the new bedding we had ordered from Harvey Norman, we had both agreed on the Zebra Stripe which looks super cool.
It was a really hot
day when we collected her and as soon as we had it hitched up, we moved her out from her spot and drained the tanks, all 120 Litres and as soon as this task was done we refilled, with Canberra town water.
Just to bring you up to speed on the new Camper Trailer, its not a domestic Caravan, it’s a fully off road capable camper trailer that will be expected to go to some pretty rough destinations, and its suspension is as extreme as the suspension on the LandCruiser.
I saw a sticker on a 4 wheel drive the other day, saying, “You may be faster than I am” but I can go to places you can’t”, so If the Cruiser is going somewhere, Gypsy will be expected to follow.
Unlike the Wendy House was , our new trailer is not fitted with a ball hitch, but a D0-35, which is like a universal joint that can articulate in to virtually any angle as required, so the chance of it becoming accidently disconnected when the going gets rough is far less.
Our onward journey was going to be Kangaroo Valley in New South Wales, some
Wombat ,is Heaven Shaped
In the dim light, this was the best I could dowhere we had visited when we went to Rebecca and Murray’s wedding nearly two years ago, and somewhere, where the Wallaby Wanderers have been, (And I will get to that bit in a while)
Now the reason why I chose Kangaroo Valley was simple, Wombats, I had been doing some research on Wombats in new South Wales and my Google search said that a good place to see these elusive, Nocturnal Marsupials was at the Bendeela camp ground in Kangaroo Valley, and with our newly found freedom with Gypsy it was a win win situation.
It was only about a two and a half hour journey, to Kangaroo Valley, which was quite an easy drive and about an hour in to our Journey, Caroline’s phone rang and it was some friends of ours Chris and Jan Fenton from the Four wheel drive club who said, was that you guys we have just passed heading towards Sydney, which of course it was, they were heading to Canberra as it was Four wheel drive club tonight which we were going to miss.
Chris and Jan told us that they had just put an order in on a new V8
Landcruiser, and would be taking delivery of it just before the Christmas Party.
We arrive at the Bendeela Camp Ground at around 4.00 pm and found a spot we liked, this is a free campground, with limited facilities, so its first come, first served and on this occasion it was pretty empty..
The Camp site is state run and does not have a care taker, so you have to be pretty choosy as these sites that are close to town (ish), do have a tendency to attract kids, who just want to be a pain in the arse, and get on the grog, but as it was early midweek, we figured it may not be too much of a problem..
These camp sites do have toilet blocks and rubbish disposal points, and I think the toilets are cleaned daily, so that’s pretty good considering there is no fee, it is also worth considering that you could pay $35.00 bucks a night at a big four camp ground and get less than this.
With our set up, we are pretty self-sufficient now, which has to be the way to go, the only thing we would need to
go in to town for is food as our energy for the truck and Gypsy is converted through solar panels, and as just about everything we use, such as the I-pad for Off road mapping, the Satellite Phone for emergency (Pizza), the lap top for Blogging, and all this can be recharged through the sun, and its free to boot.
Now back to the Wallaby Wanderers and this camp site.!! Daryl and Sarah, when they were on their big adventure told us once that they had stopped at the Bendeela Camp ground in Kangaroo Valley and were fast asleep in (Pie) the name of their Caravan, and were awoke by the rocking of the van, only to find that it was a Wombat, scratching its bum on the corner of a Caravan, in the middle of the night.
We set up Gypsy, still finding out little bits and pieces that we are just getting used to and I do have to say it is awesome, there is loads of storage for things and its really comfortable to sleep in, with plenty of openings to let fresh air in, for those hot Australian nights.
As usual the first
Kookie
Sitting on the corner of the Cruiser, watching what was happening. thing to be done as soon as you are set is, put the kettle on for a cup of tea, once the sail awning was set up to give us some shade. We sat in the afternoon sun, just looking at our new acquisition.
We cooked up, some left over Spag Bol, which we brought with us and sitting in the last of the late afternoon sun , Caroline said, “I can see a Wombat” and sure enough, just the other side of the fence in the rough area a Wombat was waddling off on its travels, just grazing and minding its own business. And it was only 6.55 pm.
From then on the camp ground was busy with my favourite creatures, but there were a fair few about.
We see so many dead animals on our travels, it makes us feel so sad, even just going to work, there are always dead Kangaroo’s on the side’s of the roads, where they have been hit by vehicles, so we are mad keen to go and see wildlife in their natural habitat.
Now Wombats, “Vombatus Ursinus” I just love them, I haven’t got a clue why, I
just think they are a brilliant creature.
They are not a social creature and live, I think up to about 30 years, and basically look like “Teddy Bears” weighing in about 35-45 Kilo’s and about a meter in length.
I do appreciate the damage they do but they are natures excavators, they have very short stumpy legs, and the paws are turned in t 45 Degree’s so they have got that, Knock kneed look and they just waddle along in their own sweet way.
Now, this sounds like a cop out, when I say they are nocturnal, out at dusk, and to bed at dawn, and the time in between is when you will see Wombats if you are lucky enough, and this is why our photo’s are pretty crap.
They are not really skittish, as they lumber along, and the reason why they appear to do so much damage, (aside form the massive holes they dig) is they are such a stubborn creature and they are unstoppable, if they come to a fence, they will not go around it, they will go through it, there and then and if you see some of the pictures
Chicken Curry
Madam, with her Kangaroojack Chicken Curry attached, where they have lifted the fences, with their huge power, you can understand why people get annoyed with them.
Honestly this is my last interesting Wombat fact, they have an armoured cartilage (Plate) that runs from their tail across their backs, this is to stop any predators, being able to grab hold of them on the back, it also serves as a weapon, when they are in their burrow and an intruder enters the burrow the Wombat can squash the intruder between its armoured plate on its back and the burrow wall or ceiling, and this is why they do so much damage to your car, when they are knock over on the road.
Now, on our first evening at the Bendeela Camp ground, we were amazed to see the gorgeous creatures and in the half light saw a Wombat grazing about a 100 meters away, so we obviously slowly walked over and sat on the rocks no more than10 feet away, their eye sight is pretty poor and watched it graze for a while, Caroline turned around and said there was a Wombat, grazing under Gypsy, which made us laugh, its as if nature was taunting
us.
So on our first evening I think we possibly saw half a dozen Wombats, doing their thing, and with all this fun and excitement, plus this fresh air, it was time to slide under the covers and get some sleep, and oh yes try out our new bedding.
I woke at about 05.00 and rolled around the bed for a few minutes and decided to get out and yes, you guess it make tea, it was way too early to make Caroline tea.
The morning was lovely and warm, not sunny, but cloudy but still warm and just T shirt temperature.
My first task though was to check for Wombats and just the other side of the cruiser, there was a Wombat doing what they do best, eating.
I stood there watching it for twenty minutes, another one who was grazing in the early morning became visible, a way off and it seems that when its come to the end of the shift, they eat their way home.
Talking of eating, I had promised Caroline Bacon and Eggs., so as soon as she was up, I put the grill pan on and set
about making our first bacon and egg, Banjo, which we have now renamed a Gypsy sandwich.
The day was quite cloudy and grey but at least it was warm, we drove in to Nowra about 20 K’s away and did some grocery shopping as we wanted to do a Kangaroojack’s Chicken Curry, which we hadn’t done for absolutely ages, probably as I have been away for the last 5 months, admittedly in the UK as well, but I only seem to have been at home in Canberra for about 3 weeks in those 5 months.
We cast our minds back and the last time we cooked a curry was when we went to Flea creek and took the swag out earlier this year, so there was defiantly a chicken curry deficiency.
We of course went in to Maccy D’s for a coffee and to use their internet access, as Caroline wanted to do some re loading of her I pad software and I wanted to check my e-mails.
NB, I am just putting a note in here so far I have typed 1,881 words, so it goes to show that we are enthusiastic about
the blog when we have material to write.
We got ourselves back from town and settled in for a fairly easy afternoon, Caroline read and did some of her blog and I had a siesta, which was great.
There was a steady stream of people coming in to the camp site and we noticed two scout troops, who set their tents up over the way.
At one stage we saw one of the young lads sitting by the fence, looking forlorn and I asked him if he was ok, which he said he was.
After a while he moved positions and it was obvious there was something defiantly going on, and Caroline commented that he was probably having to take “Time out”
I chopped all the chillies and potatoes and browned the Chicken and fully prepared our evening meal, whilst producing copious amounts of tea for my ever demanding wife, whilst she just about managed to turn the pages of her magazine.
Caroline said she was really hungry and wondered what time dinner would be ready, So I said madam could have it any time she wished so it was at at 6.30, hopefully
just before the Wombats made their evening appearance.
Talk about making an appearance, the scouts who had set their tents up over the way, had all decided to come and be noisy and play ball just by the cruiser and when their ball hit the truck for the fourth time, I suggested they go and be a nuisance, elsewhere .
Because the camp site was really busy, Caroline said that she thought our Wombat friends may not make such and early appearance due to the busyness of the camp site and the noise those pesky kids were making.
Whilst dinner was cooking, Caroline spotted a Kookaburra sitting on the fence post watching intently, our favourite Australian bird with the ability to detect sausages and Chicken from god knows how far away.
I threw Cookie a piece of curried chicken and it picked it up in its beak, then whacked it on the ground until it broke in to pieces, Caroline and I laughed as it looked like Kookie was trying to kill and already “dead” piece of meat.
Kookie moved to its next vantage point, sitting on the open side door of the Landcruiser, where
he looked down on us.
His next stop was right on the corner of the shade sail, and as I was standing underneath him I gently stroked the tarp to tickle its feet.
Whilst all this was going on, Caroline was busy taking Kookie’s picture, and eventually Kookie went back to the fence post where he first entered our space.
I had walked the twelve feet to put something in the truck and Caroline walked over to me, to give me a tub of rice to put away, as soon as she was out the way, Kookie, flew to the kitchen trying to break in to our dinner, landing fortunately on the empty curry pot and knocking it over along with the milk.
I think the sound of things falling off the kitchen scared the Kookaburra so he went back to his fence post and looked at us in defiance, knowing what he had done, we have had amazing experiences with Kookaburra’s whilst on our travels.
Once when we were in the Warrumbungle National Park, a Kookaburra used to sit in the tree and spot Cicada’s (A beetle type creature) and fly of its branch
and grab these things off the floor, the second time was at Lake Tineroo in far Northern Queensland, when I was doing a chicken Curry and a Kookaburra pinched a piece of un cooked chicken off the chopping board then proceeded to swoop the pan every time I took the lid off to stir the pot.
Any way the curry was a raving success, “Bloody” Hot but really tasty.
The first Wombat we saw that night was when Caroline was walking to towards the toilet block, a fairly big Wombat was walking across the grass from right to left of the camp ground and when he sensed someone was nearby he stopped, so Caroline stopped, when it settled it started to walk again, so did Caroline, and when he sensed someone again, the Wombat again stopped.
In the meantime as I was pottering about, washing up I heard someone say “”Wombat so turned around and saw Caroline standing still with a fairly big Wombat to the right hand side of her, I switched the gas off and grabbed my camera and headed over as briskly as I could, when I got close by a few people where
already taking photos of the Wombat (Not Caroline) and he just put a bit of a spurt on and sort of galloped in to the next paddock where he just hid amongst the thickets and gorse.
I woke at 1pm as I needed to go to the toilet and stepped outside Gypsy, were I was greeted by other campers who were looking for Wombats, a young couple who had a camper van and a couple of kids were out with the big beamed torches shining them in to the darkness hoping to see these fantastic illusive creatures, I shone my LED torch to the back of the cruiser some 10 mtrs away and low and behold there was a juvenile Wombat just grazing, it didn’t like the light and scampered off.
As usual I was up at 5.00 am and had a look around our little camp area for fresh signs of Wombats and there were loads of fresh dropping and signs where they had been digging, I saw a lone Wombat waddling home again after his night shift and I was content with the number we had seen
The weather forecast had said Thursday was going
to be a hot one and they were not wrong it was a scorcher between 36 and 38 degree’s.
We use technology on our travels a lot, we always have the lap top with us and Caroline uses the I-pad for her stuff, I think the best thing we have ever purchased in Australia is our Telstra Dongle , as it has given us internet access in some crazy places, like the far tip of Northern Australia, (As an example) any way we wanted a shower, so we did a search and it told us where in Kangaroo Valley we could get a shower.
We left the Bendeela camp ground and drove in to town, well town is “bigging” it up a little but it is the prettiest of places.
The shower was at the local show ground and when we got there we found it was at the swimming pool so we went and asked the attendant if it was ok if we used the showers and he said, no worries, but he said to Caroline that the water in the ladies shower was hot and the water in the men’s was not hot at all.
Well I have to say, I (Andy) got a great shower and Caroline’s was cold, so she said!, but we had a shower never the less and it was great.
We went and had a coffee in Kangaroo Valley as I think it is important to at least spend some money in these local shops to support them and as we had a shower that cost us nothing, I think it is important to give a little back to these communities.
We walked up the little high street and the glorious sunshine and stopped at a gift shop as we have a party to go to on Saturday night and we wanted to get a nice card, there were some beautiful pencil sketched cards and you guessed it we picked one with a Wombat on, the artist comes came from Oberon in New South Wales.
This little gift shop was really cool, it sold a selection of homemade Ice creams, marmite and sherbet fountains and other great lollies, (Lollies, is the Australian term for Sweets or Candy)
We go back to camp and the place had really thinned out, the council workers were mowing all
the lawns and making the place look great, we do intend on write to the keepers of this camp site and congratulating them on such a spectacular place.
The afternoon was long and lazy which was nice, I washed a pair of shorts and hung them to dry and they did, probably in half an hour as it was so hot.
When the afternoon cooled we walked down to the next section of camp ground, which the council only open at certain times, so we walked in and were amazed just how big it was.
All these lawns had been cut, the toilet blocks were lovely and clean and we checked the board and this section of the site won’t be open until 20
th December at Midday, what a great place to spend your Christmas Break.
I saw a Wombat in the distance and signalled to Caroline, when we got close it was dead, it was quite young and we think it make have been bitten by a snake, sad but that’s the way it goes.
We got back the trailer and needed to put dinner on, it was well past seven and we had
to do some packing up tonight as we were off to Charleyong (Nr Braidwood) tomorrow for some four wheel driver training on Saturday
Tonight we were cooking “Woodstock” Lamb Rissoles, (Of Course) mixed with herbs and spices, with Tiny Tater’s, Corn and Gravy.
Dinner was a breeze and really tasty and we sat drinking coffee at around 8.30 in the quite and darkness of the evening.
Caroline went to put some rubbish and the bin 20 mtrs away and I heard her call me, I want straight over to her and there was a Wombat grazing as if nothing was exciting, though we were nearly hoping up and down with excitement.
As the Wombat walked past us, I shone the torch on her behind, (Yes I know that is not the gentlemanly thing to to ) and Caroline and I saw, she was heavily pregnant and was carrying a baby wombat in it pouch, which is obviously slung under her belly.
Sorry, but I have another interesting Wombat Fact, the mothers pouch faces backwards, so when she is digging, if it was facing forwards it would fill up with soil, so by facing backwards, the
baby does not get covered in soil, as they are a four legged creature, the baby can get in and out of the pouch without it needing to disturb its mum from eating.
This was so cool and we have never seen it before with Wombats, we have seen loads of Kangaroo’s with Joey’s in the pouch, but this was a first for us.
We went back to Gypsy to discuss what we had seem and how delighted we were and to finish our coffee, Caroline said that she was going to walk down to the loo and left me, to just enjoy the quite of the evening.
I have been producing this blog and was enjoying the typing of it, just sitting there, I was aware that I had a visitor, about 6ft away another Wombat had walked just in front of the trailer and was walking and grazing at the same time, Caroline just came back in the nick of time to see the creature disappear through the fence in to the rough.
It was 9.15 and Caroline said how nice it was to be sitting out, as the last couple of nights we
have been in bed around 9.00pm, in the quiet and the darkness, we suddenly became aware of some snuffling underneath the trailer and the sound of grass been ripped up and chewed.
We sat there motionless and both realised that the grass under the trailer was longer than the rest of the grass as it had been mowed today, we did not want to frightened the Wombat away, as we could not see it at all underneath Gypsy.
Its funny in the darkness, you could pin point where the creature was but its eating, and then we realised that the sound was getting slightly farther away so I whispered to Caroline that I would shine the torch.
The Wombat had wandered just under the cruiser when we shone the torch, it certainly wasn’t the pregnant female we had seen, they don’t like lights been shone at them as they live and operate in a dark world, so it picked up its bat and ball and wandered off.
Oh man, we were just stoked at this, how lucky we have been to have so many Wombat experiences in so short a time.
After all this excitement
it was time for bed and with all the windows open slipped under to doona’s for some rest.
I woke to a very damp morning this morning and didn’t get out of bed until just before 6.00am and there were no Wombats about, I did notice a solitary Kangaroo sheltering under a tree out of the rain.
We were heading off on Friday morning, to Stuarts Crossing as we were having some four wheel drive training on Saturday and some of our friends were arriving there on Friday lunch time, so with a route planned we knew we had only a three hour hop to the edge of Braidwood.
About seven O’clock I was sitting outside drinking my morning coffee and I the door was open to the trailer and Caroline was still under the covers, I said “would you like me to make you a chai” and this little voice said yes please, so I put the kettle on for her, as I knew, she would soon be out of bed and we could get on with packing up and heading off.
It was an easy journey and we only had a small river crossing
to Navigate, the first one with Gypsy, but certainly not a heart stopper, and we were pulling up at the desired location at about 20 past 12.
John and Cheryl had brought two cars with them as they were towing a Porta Loo as 35 club members were expected and there were no toilets here at all and its unreasonable to expect the girls to discreetly have to go behind bushes etc., so the club just hires one of these units out of the club funds which is excellent, though someone has to tow it on a trailer fill it up then tow it back.
We found a suitable camp site and set up , then put the kettle on, (Obviously) then John, Tim and I, Oh and Mack the dog went off to collect a reasonable amount of fire wood.
Soon we came back for our wood collecting excursion with a truck load of timber and we set about making a decent fire as there would be a fare few people camping tonight.
About 5.30 we decided to go and start dinner and just as we got under our shade sail the heavens opens and
it absolutely poured down for a couple of hours.
Fortunately we still had a sauce pan full of chicken curry, that we made the other day and we knew that it would taste even better than it did when we made it and as it was chucking it down with rain, the only thing we had to do was heat it up and do the rice.
Now a bit of rain doesn’t worry us, no sir, but this was not a bit of rain, it was so heavy, which we haven’t seen the likes of for ages.
When the curry was done, we chose to sit inside Gypsy and eat, which definitely was the best way to go
With dinner done, and it still hurling it down outside, we grabbed our umbrella’s and went out as some people were standing around the fire, which was still roaring away even with the heavy rain.
We stood there chatting for quite a while until we bowed out gracefully, as we wanted to get warm and dry.
Its great not to be under canvas anymore, and though we cut our teeth on the Wendy house we are
happy not to be sleeping in the damp any more.
The following morning that we woke to that was a far cry from last night and it was lovely, though the ground was still a bit damp it was nothing like last night.
Today’s plan was to gather at 8.00am which is when our Sand and Water crossing training was due to commence.
Stuarts crossing is perfect for this type of training, and we are grateful to John and Cheryl Southwell who carried it out on behalf of the club.
We completed the training and needed to be away just after lunch as we had a function to attend to on Saturday evening, as we had been invites to Lesley Tozers 60
th Birthday party, which was being held at a hotel in Canberra.
There were loads of people there who we new and we had a fantastic evening
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