Sharing My Lunch at O'Riellys

On The Move Again

Our stay at "Canungra" was pleasant and relaxing, we had a swim in the local pool, had a couple of walks, a trip up to Mt Tambourine, "O'Riellys"  in the Lamington National Park and had a day with Marion's Kids and G/kids at Paradise Country on the Gold Coast which was a great day but tiring. From Canungra we moved on to "Casino" where we caught up with  a couple who we met on our travels over 3yrs ago and reminisced on our travels and troubles over this time, after a couple of nights there catching up on some chores we next proceeded on to "Grafton", we were going to stay at the showgrounds for $20 a night but we were given some information to have a look at the "Gateway village" for $22 a night,  so after checking out the showgrounds first we went to the gateway and we couldn't believe that there were caravan parks still around for that price and rated as 5 star, the amenities were immaculate the staff were very friendly, Marion even got some work doing clothing alterations as the managers were attending a glamour ball, we had to stay an extra night to do this but I didn't grumble as I was able to get some swimming in local indoor heated pool while she worked. 

We then moved on to "Port Macquarie" where we had arranged to meet a triathlon friend from Tasmania who now lives here, the first couple of days here were wet and windy but it has improved a bit ,it is not raining now !! We have been for a trip up the river on a genuine Chinese junk and got a bit wet because the wind blew up while we were

Chinese Junk Port Maquarie

up the river  and on the return we were motoring into a heavy swell and waves breaking over the bow (It was fun though) then went for a Chinese meal that evening and we sincerely thank Darren for picking up the tab, yesterday we went for a trip to "Laurieton" about 35ks from here then to a lookout on North Brothers mountain and I decided to run back down through a walking track, I didn't do a lot of running because it was very steep and mainly steps today I can barely walk from the lactic acid build up but I feel great I did it although I did manage to walk to the shops this morning around 3k.

We have decided to stay here for 2 more days so as we can join in with some festivities being held here on Sat. night. We had a great night with the "Follow The Sun Group" who travel around spruiking a range of products that they have won and had them fitted into their van free of charge, we have now moved on to "Forster/ Tuncurry" where there is not a lot of sight-seeing although the beaches are spectacular, I am using the time here to get my motivation for running back again while Marion is catching up on her sewing duties.

We went for a look at seal rocks about 30k south of here and was pleasantly surprised at the great scenery, we were able to walk to the lighthouse (without having to pay) to see the reason why there was 29 shipwrecks here in the 1800s, another surprise was the size of  residential development hidden among the forest.

Our biggest gripe in "Forster" is the cost of everything and if you want to pay by credit (or debit card ? ) they want to charge a fee, we went to a juice shop yesterday and ordered 2 smoothies which came to $14 and we had no cash so they wanted to charge a dollar for the use of our own money on card ( we walked out of course) we also had to pay $1.80 to use our card at the park here, the worst part is it is legal & petrol has just gone from $1.58 to $1.68 overnight even before  Tony Abbotts proposed tax so we are assuming that they are getting in early. We booked in for a week and we leave on Sunday so we will be relaxing for the rest of our stay.

Leaving Forster we made our way towards "Maitland" where we intended to have a look around ( we were going to "Katoomba" but there were fires in the area so missed out on that) but the c/van park we pulled into was a little uninviting to say the least so we decided to move on to "Denham" and then went on to a c/van park about 20k further on, it was a very pleasant spot but other travellers didn't think so as we had the place to ourselves, after a night there we went towards "Mudgee" which was a very nerve racking trip because we thought we had enough fuel but the last 35k we had the fuel warning light on, we fueled up after reaching the c/van park on the river near town and we still had about 7lit left in the tank ( won't do that again ), while at "Mudgee" we visited a historic museum which was different from others, and took a trip to the historic town of "Gulgong" where Henry Lawson lived.

Old Road Bridge Gundagai

After a few nights in Mudgee we moved on to "Cowra"where we stayed at 2 parks because the one we first booked into was above our budget and we had to wait for our mail so we went to another one about 5k from town and a lot cheaper plus it was much better with a heated covered pool and the owner had a get together each night so he could play all his old vinyl records. After getting our mail we moved on to "Gundagai" and stayed at the c/van park on the river just out of town where the old railway bridge and road bridge are still standing (I can't believe that I travelled over the bridge in the seventies) a beautiful spot on the Murrumbidgee river, our next stop was "Rutherglen" which we had planned to do, so Marion could go to the doctor for some blood tests which all came back positive, we camped at the friends where we house sat nearly 2 yrs ago, As some of you have seen on Facebook Marion beat all comers for the scone cook off at the local golf club, we also had a great surprise when one of my sons turned up with his partner for an overnight visit and we went out to the RSL club for dinner which was great.

Judging of the Scones

We are now in "Bairnsdale" after travelling over the great alpine way (not the trip I would wish to do very often with a caravan)  It was an interesting leg of our trip though, we stopped at "Mt Hotham" for lunch and was meant to stay overnight at "Omeo" but we decided to make it to Bairnsdale so we could rest before we head to the big smoke ( Melbourne).