Thanks Peta for running Trail Mail whilst I have been away.  I couldn't have done it without your wonderful help.  

I'm back in the drivers seat again for Trail Mail, so please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions regarding my mail forwarding service. 

Safe travels everyone!

Arrived home in Melbourne yesterday 20th July.  A day early, but glad to get inside away from the cold, wind and rain.  As we pulled over to make our last stop for the trip, the rain was pelting down on an angle, the wind was ripping through the trees, the thought of one more night walking in the cold to the amenities block no longer appealed so we kept driving.  We did arrive at home just as dusk fell.   Getting the caravan in position is the dark wasn’t as daunting as it was 7 ½ weeks ago.  When I worked out how far we have travelled I was a little disappointed to realize we only travelled 9,978kms.  We were not tempted to drive around the block a few times to get up to 10,000 though.  We had a great trip and are both looking forward to the next one in the near future. 

Its been a tough couple of days driving.  We sadly left Byron Bay as the overcast weather moved in. We drove long and hard and got to Port Macquarie.  It was cold and wet and we moved on the next day and got into the groove of traffic and drove to The Entrance near Gosford where we spent the night at an interesting little caravan park that was on what seemed like a lake with the ocean beach just over the other side of the road.  It was sort of like camping at Luna Park or under West Gate Bridge.  But the light show at night was spectacular.  Today we again drove hard (and stressful) through Sydney along the Pacific Highway to Batemans Bay.  Today was a big lesson in trust as we put all our faith into our GPS, it has led us to some weird places and today wasn’t any different.  We were on a freeway and the next minute we weren’t.  But we trusted and we got here.  We did see all the sights Sydney had to offer in the hour that we crossed town on minor roads but we never lost faith that the GPS would get us through.  (actually we didn’t have any other choice as we didn’t have a clue where to go).

 We are going to stay a couple of days here at Batemans Bay (to do some washing).  The biggest thing I have noticed since my last trip this way 25 years ago was the growth and progress of the small towns that I remember.  25 yrs ago they were small hamlets miles from anywhere with magnificent but hard to access beaches. Now they are more like outer suburbs of capital cities.  In quite a few towns today there were traffic jams.  Getting around Batemans Bay tonight looking for somewhere to eat, we struck two sets of red lights within 100mts of each other.  (Red light Fred started to work again as we got both red lights).   There were so many places to eat here and from memory the foreshore which was a grassy sandy space is now full of apartments and the former water front homes just look across the highway to the back view of apartments.  Sad in some ways but you can’t stop progress.  We both miss the small towns untouched much by modern times we passed through in our early part of the trip.

 We have to start getting ourselves ready for the open spaces of home and I’m really looking forward to a bathroom that I don’t have to get dressed and walk outside, down a path, saying good morning to 5 or so other people making the same trip to get to a WC.    Its been a great holiday, too short in some ways.  We didn’t see as much as we wanted due to our time schedule but there are many places we’d like to get back to again one day.  We learnt a lot about our caravan and what it can and can’t do.  And our car has been a real gem apart from the fact we couldn’t always get gas and had to use a jerry can more than once.  I’m brimming with fresh ideas, and I want to get my gardens organised, cook some healthy food with lots of space and equipment around me and be able to do laundry without searching for $1.00 coins.  But I will miss the thrill of discovering new places and I’ll miss the immediate friendship shown to us by many and we’ll both miss the caravan comradeship   on the road waving to every passing caravan as though they were long lost friends.  

We didn’t stay in Toowoomba as we had first planned…we arrived before lunch time so proceeded onto Warwick.  I had been planning on meeting my penfriend of ten years, Kerry who lived near  Warwick.  Warwick was a lovely little town but it was very cold and we were told when we arrived that the water hoses had frozen on all the caravans the night before…brrrrrr.

I finally caught up with Kerry and we filled each other in with all the things that have been happening since our last correspondence.  We unfortunately arrived at 6.30 pm so I missed out on her garden that I’ve been hearing about, but it was lovely to meet her person at last.

We left the next day for Byron Bay.  I think we underestimated The Great Dividing Range.  To say it was hilly is an understatement and we held up lots of traffic many times on the hills, as Fred battled towing the caravan up and down major steep roads in both directions of vertical.

Arriving at Byron Bay was a wonderful achievement.  The caravan park that I had booked (which has been hit and miss on this trip) turned out to be right on the beach and the town centre is right outside the front gate.  So its was definitely a hit this time.  We enjoyed just being able to walk around town with lots to see and also the weather is considerably warmer, back to shorts and sandles again.  Fred even had a quick swim when we arrived.  We have decided to stay here 3 nights before heading down the coast to catch up with family in Sydney and then heading home.  Byron Bay has energised me.  There is so much wonderful artwork and vibrant ideas in this area.  Today we went to Bangalow just up the road and was amazed at the wonderful shops and foody places to visit and such interesting people and lifestyles.  I’ve attached a few sunset photo’s from our caravan park First Sun. 

Hervey Bay reminded us of our home on Port Phillip Bay in Melbourne.  It had every shop you could ever want.  Lots of apartments and restaurants across from the bay.  We were staying about 20kms out of Hervey Bay at Burrum Heads as that was the only vacancy I could find.  I can’t believe how many people are caravanning these days.  

We spent a full day at Fraser Island and it didn’t disappoint and I can’t wait to get back for a longer stay.  We were going to take our car across on the ferry but decided that we would spend our day there driving around in circles and end up missing all the best sights, so we booked a 4 x 4 tour and we weren’t disappointed.  We went with Fraser Island Adventures and our bus driver/tour guide Kevin was a wealth of information and full of  good ‘ol aussie humour.    I really can’t say how much we enjoyed ourselves with Fred even having a swim in Lake Mckenzie which is a fresh water lake on the Island.  Such an amazing place.  We left at about 6.15am in the morning and didn’t get back until about 7.15 pm.  We were totally exhausted. 

We had had enough of the Bruce Hwy and full to overflowing caravan parks so we decided to change our non-plan and head inland to Kingaroy.  Of course I won’t mention Murphy’s Law again but it just happened to be -4C this morning in Kingaroy and the weather during the day wasn’t much warmer.  We arrived early so walked around town and visited The Peanut Van and bought some yummy fresh peanuts and a jar of peanut paste, which is a bit like peanut butter.  We think we will head off to Toowoomba tomorrow and have a couple of days there.  We’ll see where the road leads, and also start acclimatizing ourselves for winter in Melbourne.

We left Airlie Beach and the sun shone (I wish I’d never heard of Murphy’s Law), we put in a long day of driving 531 kms and stayed just out of Rockhampton.  We only stayed the one night and did a quick trip to Gladstone where we were planning on staying.  Having arrived around midday with thought we wouldn’t have any trouble finding accommodation (Murphy’s Law) but we were unable to find anywhere to stay.  We pulled into one of the free camping sites from the book (campers bible) Camps 6, it was already filling up quick and it was on the side of the Bruce Hwy and quite noisy.  We stopped and had lunch in an effort not to kill each other – it was hot, we were tired and we there was no room at the inn.  I rang by chance a caravan park at Lake Awoonga and as luck would have it, it was the caretakers day off  but he had just walked into the office to turn the computer on and said if we got there quick we could have the spot opposite his office.  We were there in about 10 minutes and what a wonderful place it is.  I can’t begin to tell you how peaceful and quiet it is here.  It is mid week and I imagine on weekends it may get very busy, considering there is the most beautiful boat/fishing/waterskiing lake a minute walk away.  We can’t believe our luck getting in here as after we set up the caravans were queuing up to find a place.  We heard from the caretaker that the caravan parks around Gladstone are mostly full of mine workers and that the mines are buying up the caravan parks to house their workers.  Also being Qld school holidays didn’t help with the area around Tannun Sands and Boyne Island.  Today we went to Tannun beach and Fred had a swim and I just lay on the beach and read a book.  Hard to imagine everyone in Melbourne freezing.  We walked down to the lake tonight to watch the sunset and couldn’t believe there was no-one else around.  Tomorrow we are sadly leaving for Hervey Bay and we hope to be able to visit Fraser Island.  Today I finished Jesse (grandsons) cardigan I started knitting the first week of our trip and I found out last week I am to be a grandma again so I will have to get some more wool and start knitting for a new baby????  Very excited on that count!!!!!

We’ve been in Airlie beach 5 days and are leaving tomorrow to move on to area’s unknown.  It has been raining a little bit just about everyday.  We were last here in Airlie Beach 32 years ago for our honeymoon.  There isn’t anything familiar about the place.  Its really taken off and there are new apartment complexes being built everywhere.

We met up with my Brother and sister-in-law in our matching caravans (almost, theirs is bigger) and swapped travel and caravan stories. We went on a cruise yesterday, it was very rough in the morning and lots of sick bags were handed out and used, but not by us thankfully although it was a bit ify for a while.  We were dropped off at Whitehaven beach which was a 5km fine white sand beach.  We walked and sat and enjoyed the peacefulness.  It was a little chilly for swimming.  We had lunch when we got back on board and then headed to Hook Island Resort (the word resort is used loosely) for a            quick attempt at snorkling.  Fred and I didn’t succeed but we did get a swim. (we had trouble getting over the coral in flippers).  Then we got changed and went on a coral reef glass bottomed boat.  It was still a bit rough and were advised if you get sea sick to sit up top which we did.  We saw lots of coloured fish but the water was too swirly to view the coral even in the bottom of the boat.  We got back on our cruiser and went to Daydream Island which really was beautiful compared to the before mentioned Hook Island.  After a hot chocolate and a cake and a walk we headed back to our boat and headed for home.  The water was much calmer on the return trip.  We all slept well last night after the sea air and long day although my body was still going up and down as if I was still in boat.