RETURN TO DIARY

Disaster!!!!!

Thankfully only a minor one, we split a rim, check out the photo below. In April, on the way North, we broke an axle on the caravan at the Windsor dealer in Gosford. Now within a few hundred metres of the exact same spot, after travelling many hundreds of kilometres to Queensland and back, we heard a bang and felt some vibrations. Stopping the car we checked around our rig and found nothing. We picked up our replacement tap at the Windsor Dealer again and drove a few k's towards the freeway entrance. Just before entering the freeway we were up to 70kmh when we felt and heard the vibration again. This time after stopping we found the centre of a rim coming adrift. Later, after removing the tyre from the rim, we were amazed at how close the rim was to self destructing especially if we made the freeway and the 100kmh downhill runs! 

The 5c piece shows how wide the split is.

In Sydney we stayed at the Lane Cove caravan park and bought a weekly bus/train/ferry ticket so we could easily get around town. First stop was the Sydney Aquarium where Sandy found her favourite sea friend a turtle.

Then a Deep Sea 3D movie at Imax (more turtles for Sandy) followed by a visit to the National Maritime Museum. We arrived just in time for a tour onto Kay Cottee's yacht, the First Lady. 186 days for her to solo navigate the globe. We were allowed to go onboard, after removing our shoes, and had explained to us how she lived, where she kept her provisions and the hardships she endured on the trip. We both enjoyed this experience.

The First Lady in the National Maritime Museum

The next day after walking over the Sydney Harbour Bridge we caught a ferry up the river to Parramatta and back enjoying the views of majestic river front houses and luxury moored boats.

Ferry to Parramatta

That afternoon we went to the Sydney Tower and enjoyed the hologram displays followed by virtual reality movies with real motion seats and wrap-a-round screens then up the tower to the 360 degree views. This place called Sydney is big, give us Perth any day.

St Marys Cathedral with the towers afternoon shadow.

Saturday saw us checking out the Paddington (jewellery and clothes) and Paddy Markets (100's of stalls full of Tshirts and junk) with Rob and Carolyn from WA, one of the many West Australian campers at the caravan park. There must be at least a dozen of us sandgropers in the park.

This photo was from the ferry coming back from Manly. We went back to Darling Harbour and visited Sydney Wildlife World with some free tickets given to us by some friendly campers. Most of the animals were the same ones we have camped with these past 5 years, the exception being the butterflies and thankfully the snakes.

Circular Quay where we caught the ferries.

After leaving Sydney we travelled via the Royal National Park to Stanwell Park where we took a photo of the new coastal road and unique seabridge near Coalcliff. Stanwell Park is a renown hangliding launch area.

Coalcliff with seabridge around second headland in the distance

The new seabridge with Stanwell Park on the headland behind

Skipping over the the towns we had previously seen we ended up at Eden where we sighted more whales migrating down the coast. The whales are the main tourist attraction here. Eden being an old whaling station town in years gone by.

While here the tap fitting started leaking again. I found that an O ring in the water pressure reducer had split. This meant the low pressure tap fittings couldn't take the higher pressure. That is now fixed so we shouldn't have any more water problems for a while.

We drove out to Boyd Town, a failed business enterprise of the 1840's, and then on to Boyd Tower.

Boyd's Tower on South Head, Twofold Bay.
Built for Ben Boyd around 1847. Was to be a lighthouse but never
finished and was used till 1930s as a lookout by the local whalers.

This was our last campsite in NSW, crossing the border into Victoria we stopped at Mallacoota. A few travelers had told us that this is a good place to stop and they were right. Located on the waterfront of the estuary with many beaches and rivers close by. Pity about the cold winds at the moment, in a few months it would be a lot nicer. With over 500 campsites in the council park, a lot of Mexicans must think the same as us.

At Orbost we drove the Snowy River Country Trail, 300 kms. It was steep, twisty and narrow so we couldn't take the van. A long day travelling but the forest and views were great to see. At the top of the drive we went over the wooden MacKillop Bridge which crosses the Snowy River. Between the bridge and Orbost there are only a few places you can access the river.

MacKillop Bridge

Snowy River

Lakes entrance was the next port of call. A pretty town surrounded by water. The caravan parks looked very busy and as we are not fishing at the moment so we carried on to Holland's Landing after a few hours taking in the sights of the lakes area.

Lakes Entrance

The Victorian fishing licence costs $22 each for 2 weeks and not many fish are being caught by the boaties. It's cheaper for us to buy some fillets. Holland's Landing Caravan Park was a mistake, suitable only for fisherpersons. $18 a night, midges and mossies galore, bore water, bull dust, no power after 10.30pm and you couldn't even boil a kettle as the power was only for lights. They were happy to take our money without telling us any of this.

Port Albert was a nice surprise, caravan park on the water with many old wooden boats moored here. Fishing jetties, boat ramp and a concrete walking track for Sandy along the foreshore. If you want a seaside retirement in Victoria then get in here quick as I'm sure it will boom soon.

Port Albert

A well maintained 20 foot timber boat.

We finished this month at North Walkerville in a council park on the foreshore. Lovely views across the water to "The Prom" (Wilson's Promontory). We have decided to stay in this quiet little scenic spot till Tuesday when we drive into Melbourne to set up camp for a few weeks and experience the "Melbourne Cup" horse race.

See you later

Peter and Sandy