We hit the road again a couple of weeks ago on our way to Zoe and Shaun's engagement party in Melbourne. It is about 1100km to Melbourne from Port Stephens so we decided to make a bit of a road trip of it.
Our caravan is set up to enable us to free camp so we did a bit of research and picked out some likely spots to spend the night on the journey. These free camps are usually either country pubs which allow people to pitch up out the back and use the loos in return for the purchase of a couple of beers or a meal, or small towns that recognise allowing free camping will bring a bit of much needed business into the area. 

We had chosen Gunning as a potential stopover as it is right by the Hume Highway which is the freeway linking Sydney and Melbourne so off we set. The first part of the trip usually gets extremely tedious around Sydney where a connecting motorway tunnel seems to be taking an age to complete. At the moment traffic whizzes down the Pacific Highway then grinds nose to tail around residential streets to the north of the city before joining the freeway again. It must be awful for the people who live there as well as being dangerous, we often hear on the news that a lorry has lost control and ploughed into a front garden so the sooner the tunnel is finished the better for all concerned.

 It was not too bad today however and we made pretty good time, arriving at Gunning in the late afternoon. It is always a good idea to have a couple of alternative stopping places in mind when choosing a town for the first time as they are not always quite as advertised but Gunning was fine. The free camping spot was the recreation ground (home of the Gunning Roos rugby team - or football as they call it here) and there were about 6 other caravans already there. It was also home to a group of Crimson Rosellas, a new bird for me to tick off in my book. 

Gunning is a good example of a small town that has been left for dead by the construction of the new motorway. The old Hume Highway passed through the centre of the town bringing business to cafes, hotels, pubs and shops but now the road bypasses Gunning so the town council have been very forward thinking in encouraging visitors by offering a free place to stop. We had dinner in the pub, where they do a cheap special every night (tonight's was $10 schnitzel) and almost all the other caravanners were in there eating too, and it was the same with the coffee shop the next morning.

 Like many Australian country towns, Gunning has beautiful old buildings. The garage was my favourite closely followed by a tiny museum which had a notice on the door giving a phone number to call if we wanted to look around. Gunning also has something I am starting to learn to expect in every small town - a mysterious art shop that never opens but has strange artwork inside when you peer through the windows. This one had various pieces made of milk cartons and old broadsheet newspapers (?) 

 Back at the recreation ground we saw a sight which demonstrated how an Australian man will always find a use for a ute, this time for exercising his horses!

 Since we moved into this house, most of our time has been spent working on the outside and hopefully you can see from the before and after photos that it has come on a bit. I have been concentrating on developing a garden while Ian has focused on making the place easier to get around.

 Our block is like the foothills of the Himalayas and he has just completed a fourth flight of steps just to reach the top of the back garden from the house while I am starting from the bottom making a path which will eventually reach them.

 We try to use recycled materials as much as possible and were delighted to find over 1000 second hand pavers for the path on Gumtree for a fraction of the retail price. Although the monetary saving was huge, we have only just started to recover from the aching muscles gained from four 76km round trips loading and unloading what felt like millions of pavers. We started the whole exercise at 8am and finished unloading the final car and trailer full at 7pm - truly knackered. 

We never learn though and have decided now to embark on our most ambitious project to date - to fill in the underside of the house with an extra lounge, bedroom, shower and toilet, laundry, office and workshop. It is common in Australia to build a pole house like ours when dealing with a steep slope as it is the cheapest method and makes the most of any views but you can see from the pictures the area underneath is huge and wasted at the moment. So we are resurrecting Bodgit and Scarper Builders and jumping in feet first!

 The architect came last week to draw the plans and a surveyor arrived to take lots of mysterious measurements on Saturday so we can obtain planning permission. Ian has to take an online Owner/Builder's qualification and, once the development approval arrives, off we go. 

Hopefully this will all come together so we can do the bulk of the work in winter for a change, we usually forget to take this into account and do all the heavy work while sweltering in the summer heat like proper pommies to the amusement of our neighbours.

 The weather has been on everyone's minds here at the moment because, in some areas, we are experiencing the hottest summer for 120 years. If you thought the British were obsessed with talking about the weather you should come and hear the Australians!
Unlike the British however, Australians are expected to be experts. There are no helpful little clouds, suns and lightning bolts on our weather forecasts to aid our understanding. We are expected to know all about el nino and are battered with meteorological terms like trops, lows, highs and radar maps which look very pretty but are tricky to decipher without some formal training.
Conversations in the supermarket or petrol station all start with references to the heat/cold/rain and everyone has an opinion on what is going to happen next. 'There is a cool change coming' - 'I can feel a storm approaching'. In spite of all this expertise, the whole country is taken completely by surprise by sudden weather events on a surprisingly regular basis! 

To be fair, we do have some big weather here. No drizzle or light breezes for us, if there is wind or rain, it is proper wind or rain. At the moment inland areas of New South Wales are struggling along in over 40 degree temperatures while, in the Northern Territory, some communities are cut off by flooding.

 The series of incredibly hot days was expected to come to a head on Sunday with the biggest worry being fire. Fire is in the back of the minds of all Australians in the summer months and every town has designated safe areas which are usually big open spaces away from trees and buildings. There are other concerns too when it is this hot it is important to keep hydrated and to do as little as possible. Our local swimming pool sent text messages and put up facebook posts saying they would stay open until 8pm each evening until the heatwave ended but most people choose to stay indoors with the air conditioning on full blast. This then places huge pressure on the power supply and, if there is a fire, power is needed to work water pumps because the water pressure drops as soon as every household switches on their hoses at once. A dilemma, I am sure you will agree. The New South Wales government dealt with this by ordering that Tomago Aluminium switched off their smelter during the hottest hours for 3 consecutive days. The smelter uses a staggering 10% of NSW power! 

 The fire danger, which usually hovers around moderate to high at this time of year, was predicted to be catastrophic in our area (Hunter on the map). Everyone in the areas expected to be affected received a series of text messages telling us to be ready to take action or evacuate, we were also called on our landlines. Although this was obviously a helpful strategy in many ways, it threw some elderly people living alone into a panic thinking they had to evacuate straight away. Added to this the NSW fire chief appeared on the news on Saturday night with a very scary speech about how Sunday was expected to bring the most catasrophic conditions seen in living memory, which did leave us thinking we were all going to die! 
I am in two minds about the warnings because most fires are started deliberately and I think it gives people ideas, indeed two men have already been arrested this weekend for setting fires on purpose, they were 32 and 40 years old - not kids! However, the reason for all the warnings was, added to the extreme heat, there were very strong winds due to arrive in the late afternoon which is the worst possible combination for the firefighters.
Unfortunately the predictions came true with 97 fires burning at one point across the state. The little township of Uarby was almost completely destroyed. At one point the firefighters were battling in 47 degree heat against 90km per hour winds and 75% of the houses along with much of the livestock were lost. 

There were no fires near us this time although we could smell one which was about 40km away, but we were again reminded how brave our firefighters are. They are almost all volunteers and it is thanks to them that, yet again, no human lives were lost. I'll leave you with some pix of our local firies with the cakes a couple of little boys made for them. 

 Another 6am start, this time to meet up with Zoe and Shaun on the Clyde Coast. They had borrowed Shaun's Mum's motorhome and originally planned to drive up to Byron Bay then stop with us on their way back. However, by the time they reached Bateman's Bay they realised this would be taking on a bit too much driving and asked us to meet them instead.
This gave us one day to book a caravan park which accepted dogs in the busiest week of the year on one of the most popular stretches of coast in the country. Not much of a challenge there then!
Unfortunately, even if the sites had availability and were listed as dog friendly, they generally won't take dogs in the peak holiday season and the kennels were not an option as we were trying to do all of this on a Sunday and they were closed. 

Amazingly, after about ten rejections, we hit lucky with the Kioloa Beach Caravan Park who not only had two pitches available but welcomed dogs with open arms.
We were anticipating a dreadful journey as nearly all Australians are on holiday around this period but it was plain sailing all the way to Milton, which was less than 50km from our destination. Milton is a very pretty little town on the Princes Highway which creates a huge bottleneck during the holiday season, I imagine it can't be much fun to stay there because every time you ventured out of the town you would have to join the hour long queue to get back in again. Anyway we got through and eventually arrived at Kioloa Beach (nobody knows how to pronounce it, even the locals don't seem to agree).
The Clyde Coast is fascinating. If you follow the link you will see that the locals are very proud to have no McDonalds, KFC, poker machines, cinemas, 5 star hotels, betting shops or big supermarkets. It was great, very refreshing. Internet was non existent and it was only possible to get a phone signal if you stood on the boat ramp or by the 50km sign on the road out of Kioloa but this all added to the fun.

 The campsite was very busy but had plenty of shower blocks, a large pool and was surprisingly quiet at night with kangaroos and wombats moving into the site after dark. Once we had met up with Zoe and Shaun we went to explore and found it was situated on a fabulous beach. This whole stretch of coast turned out to be a series of glorious, dog friendly beaches. 

We had a wonderful few days walking in the woods, where we stumbled across kangaroos and goannas, wandering along the beach, and chilling by the pool. The campsite even put on a dog show including a dog fancy dress competition (the dog in the picture is not Monty). Eventually we said our goodbyes and Zoe and Shaun headed south for home while we wandered north on our way back.
The journey home took us through Robertson, home of the Big Potato and Moss Vale where we stopped for the night at the showground. Moss Vale obviously used to be nice but it is now in two halves. One end of town is well kept with lovely buildings while the other looks very down at heel.

 There were many empty shops and it turned out to be impossible to find anywhere to eat so we cooked back at the caravan and left the following morning. As we drove through the neighbouring town of Bowral (birthplace of Don Bradman) we could see where the money previously spent in Moss Vale was going. It was an extremely prosperous looking place, maybe we will stay there next time, I'm sure Ian would like to visit the Don Bradman Museum.

 We had a brief stint at home, long enough to fulfill our duties at the Tilligerry Habitat and to discover this little chap had vandalised our bird box and moved in! He is a Brush Tailed Possum and we have heard him munching at the hole but didn't really think he would be able to make it big enough to get inside. The box is at eye level with our front door and the possum is driving Monty crazy every evening.
We hit the road again at the crack of dawn to visit our friends in Mount Warrigal, south of Sydney. After the, now traditonal, stop for a bacon and egg McMuffin we had a pretty good run down to Wollongong, about four hours which is better than expected when towing a caravan at the height of the holiday season. 

Most of the trip was motorway so the change in countryside came as a bit of a surprise when we took the Wollongong turn off. The road took us down the, alarmingly steep, Illawarra Escarpment which was surrounded by landscape that could be mistaken for the Sussex South Downs. It was beautiful and very hilly all around as we descended to huge Lake Illawarra. Our friend's house is in a lovely setting looking over the lake itself which is in turn, on a fabulous stretch of coast.
We went for lunch at the wonderful Gerroa Fishermens Club which served possibly the best fish and chips I have ever tasted and has a view to die for of Seven Mile Beach. This was followed by a trip to Kiama, a little north back towards Wollongong where we inspected the Blowhole, a hole in the rocks where spray shoots out when the surf is up. The sea was pretty quiet while we were there so it didn't perform its party piece but we got the idea, there was a fantastic ocean pool though. 

Next morning we were taken high up to Jamberoo which is a good spot to get a proper perspective on the area. From there it was just like looking over English fields of cows and trees and we got an idea of just how big Lake Illawarra is. It really is a glorious part of the country.
We had brought the van because we wanted to do a stop off on the way back at St. Albans, across the Hawkesbury River north of Sydney. We have both just read the book The Secret River, recommended to us by Zoe. It is based on the Hawkesbury around the area of Wiseman's Ferry and I wanted to have a look. We arrived in the town and eagerly headed for the pub which was originally the home of Wiseman and features in the book.

Unfortunately the staff were so rude there we did not stay to look around. I have never said this before in my blog about anywhere but...don't bother to visit the pub in Wiseman's Ferry!
It was a shame because the area is staggeringly beautiful, the ferry crosses the river where there are huge, tree covered cliffs on both sides with very pricey houses dotted around, it is extremely difficult to take a decent photo because the cliffs are so steep but, take my word for it, the place is gorgeous.
We boarded the ferry for the short trip across the river then made our way along the winding roads to St.Albans. After pulling over opposite The Settlers Arms we enquired in the pub if it was ok to free camp opposite and the response could not have been more friendly.

 The barman told us that settlers had been camping there for 200 years and we had as much right to as they did. What fun!
The campsite was a stretch of green on the banks of the river with toilets and running water, all free. 

St.Albans itself is a quiet, lush green little town with peacocks and chickens strolling around, it is commuting distance from Sydney so property prices are high and the pub get surprisingly busy in the evenings. We will come here again, it's a very special little place. 

 After a most enjoyable stay in Queensland we decided to take the inland route home. I have travelled up and down the coast a number of times and, although it is fabulous, I wanted to see some different places. So we set off down Steve Irwin Drive and the Bruce Highway on the five hour journey across the border into New South Wales where we headed for Nimbin, just inland from Byron Bay.
Nimbin is famous for its drug culture and I expected it to be full of young people getting wasted but that was not the case. It seems today's young travellers are more sensible than their predecessors as Nimbin seems to be populated almost exclusively by aging hippies who went there in the 1970s and 80s to smoke dope and never left. Most of the residents have dreadlocks, say 'Man' a lot and bear more than a passing resemblance to Catweazle, even the women!
It is an entertaining stopover, very friendly and the rainbow painted houses and cosmic shops are nice and jolly. We chose to stay at the Nimbin Showground which was a bit of a risk as it all looked a bit overgrown and frayed around the edges. It is clearly no longer used as a showground and the caretaker was another aging hippy living in a camper van by the entrance. We handed over our $10 each and parked the caravan before exploring the facilities with a bit of trepidation. There was nothing to worry about though because the showers and toilets, in spite of being quite old, were spotless. Showgrounds are a good camping option in country towns. There are cheap, always near the town centre and usually take dogs but you do take a risk on what the facilities will be like.
It was very peaceful in this showground too (maybe all the other campers were stoned) and it was surrounded by beautiful countryside, lots of rolling hills and trees that we describe as English green rather than the grey-green usually seen in Australia.
It was surprisingly cold over night as Nimbin is quite high up and, after a flat white in the vegan gluten free, msg and csg free cafe, we went to look at a permaculture garden. The idea as far as I could tell was to let different plants grow alongside each other in a mutually beneficial way, a bit like planting flowers in your veg patch to encourage pollination but on a much larger scale. Ian was impressed by the garden but I thought it was a bit of a mess and the term permaculture was just used as an excuse for not weeding or tidying up. 

We hit the road again and drove through more lush, green countryside on our way to Tenterfield where we planned to stay at the showground again. It could not have been more different than the Nimbin experience. The showground itself was immaculate, all manicured lawns and  spotless amenities and the town was an example of prosperous country living. The buildings were grand and beautiful but it was a bit of a soulless place and is the seat of the Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce who is leader of the National Party (it is a coalition government) and the whole place felt like very white, wealthy farmer territory.

 One reason I had wanted to visit Tenterfield was because it was the birthplace of one of Australia's favourite sons, Peter Allen. He became known in the UK for 'When My Baby Smiles At Me I Go To Rio' but he was hugely successful here. One of his famous songs was 'The Tenterfield Saddler' written about his grandfather and I was pleased to see the saddlery was still going strong. 

There were loads of flies in Tenterfield and they were a feature of our next drive on to Tamworth. It was fascinating the way the scenery changed as we drove through Celtic Country - Glen Innes, Glencoe, Ben Lomond. The landscape became rocky with brown grass but the flies didn't let up as this is cattle and sheep country, in fact they peaked when we stopped to change drivers at Armidale, so much so we did not bother to look at the town but got back in the car as quickly as possible.

 We passed through Guyra, which has an annual Lamb and Potato Festival and is home to the Big Lamb (it can't be that big because we couldn't find it) and boasts the highest caravan park in Australia at 4330ft above sea level.

 On through Uralla, home of the Big Soldier and the burial place of Captain Thunderbolt the notorious bushranger until we reached Tamworth, the country music capital of Australia.
Apart from the Big Golden Guitar and a visitor centre lined with guitars signed by the likes of Dolly Parton and Kenny Rodgers, Tamworth was a bit ordinary really. Just another big town with a lot of flies. 

 Next stop Fraser Island. Dogs are not allowed on the island so we left Monty with a permanent resident on our campsite who dog sits and set of for our pick up point at Rainbow Beach. 

We had decided to go on one of the organised tours we were able to book at our site and it was certainly the right choice if, like us, you are restricted to one day. It is possible to camp on Fraser Island but that would have involved kennels, permits and so on. It was also sensible from a financial point of view because the tour cost $137 each which included ferry, lunch, coffee and all sightseeing whereas if we had visited independently the ferry alone would have been $160.

 John picked us up in the 4WD bus which held about 40 people and told us he was our guide for the day and gave us a bit of a run down on the structure of our day then we were on the barge for the 20 minute crossing.
It was a bit of a grey day which was not great for photos but good for trooping around as we did not have to worry too much about hats and other paraphernalia required on a sunny day in Australia.  

The bus drove quite quickly over 20km of golden beach as we all kept a keen eye out for dingoes, then took a track inland to the resort where we were to start with coffee and muffins. John was strict with the timing with forfeits in place for anyone late back to the bus and it became apparent how important it was for everyone to stick to the schedule as the day unfolded. So, 20 minute coffee break then back on the bus over bumpy sand tracks through the tall trees on the outer edges of the island. These trees were used for logging unbelievably right up until 1991 when Fraser Island became World Heritage listed. The best trees for the industry were the huge Satinay trees, luckily they were only chopped down if they were perfectly straight so they are still some huge ones left that were a bit too bent or twisted to be of any use to the loggers. I cannot imagine how these enormous trees were cut down in the early days with only hand saws available then dragged through the bumpy tracks and along the beach to be loaded onto rafts headed for the mainland. I can only assume each tree fetched a large amount of money!

 The bus stopped at Lake McKenzie, which was glorious, turquoise water and pure white sand. Lake McKenzie is a perched lake, formed when organic matter has settled in a sand crater and formed a seal which prevents the water from disappearing through the sand. The water is crystal clear and feels soft somehow and your skin feels soft too when you have swum in it. We were allocated 50 minutes here then back to the bus stopping only to marvel at the huge dingo proof fence around the eating area for the little camping spots dotted around (also fenced). The fencing disappointed Ian who has camped here in the past before Health and Safety reared its head but I think I would be happier knowing I wasn't going to be sharing my sleeping bag with a dingo.

 Back on the bus over really bumpy terrain this time, the trees changed as we approached Central Station and the sub tropical rain forest. The changing botany of the island is incredible, it is only a small sand island but the trees differ markedly as you head towards the centre. There are over 40 lakes on the island and it is home to over half the world's perched lakes and there are also numerous creeks which flow out into the sea.
The walk through the rainforest was my favourite part of the day. It was beautiful and so green it made your eyes hurt, the staghorn ferns were the biggest I have ever seen but oddly we did not see any birds, quite a few funnel web spider holes but no birds. 
The whistle stop tour continued with lunch back at the resort, John announced this with, "it is an all you can eat buffet so you backpackers on a budget who have been living on noodles for months take note I said ALL YOU CAN EAT".

 They certainly took him seriously, one slender girl was finishing her third plateful when it was time to get back on the bus and climbed aboard munching a fistful of bread rolls!
We took in the coloured sands, the wreck of the SS Meheno beached in 1935 and drifted down a creek to the sea then back along the 20kms of beach looking for dingoes (we didn't see a single one) and onto the barge for home. A fantastic day out, I would highly recommend it.