Beautiful Byron

At the rate we are travelling we may get to Darwin by Christmas...

We arrived at Broken Head last Sunday.  This was a piece of paradise about 7 km south of Byron Bay, in a Nature Reserve right on a magnificent stretch of beach.  Emma and Ben quickly made friends with Mali and Coby, camping nearby, and I went wandering down to catch the sun setting from the beach. 

The sun was shining on Monday so before breakfast we took a walk to the Head, later drove to Byron and looked around the shops and in the afternoon watched a bit of the Cats vs Richmond game then spent the rest of the afternoon playing down at the beach until it got dark.

Our regular visitor, Mr Goanna

More rain on Tuesday (this is starting to get annoying) so our plan to go bike-riding was put on hold and we drove back to Byron and walked up to the Lighthouse.  Emma was the only sensible one and chose to wear her coat while the rest of us endured the soaking, but it was worth it when we spotted a group of dolphins putting on a very entertaining show for us, catching waves, leaping out of the water and generally having fun.  The boys then stayed in the car while I bought bathers (always a good reality check) and thongs for Emma (I have a feeling we are going to go through a few of these).  A movie with their new friends and another day is nearly over.

Yeh, the sun came out again so we decided to stay another day and got on the bikes to ride to Byron.  We rode the first 3 km on the beach, a fun new experience for all. We thought we could ride all the the way but came to a dead end at the river mouth.  Stopped in at FishHeads restaurant for the nicest coffee and best view and rode home again (with requests not to go back via the beach).  2 1/2 hours of riding later we were all a bit weary but not to weary to spend the afternoon swimming and playing on the beach.  It was definitely worth spending the extra day here.

Sunshine at Last

Given that I have been asking the kids to keep their diaries up to date, I thought I had better get on to mine..

Lane Cove NP was a beautiful place, complete with plenty of wildlife like possums, frogs, bandicoots and Australian Brush Turkeys.  The first night we stayed we heard a bit of rustling in the annex and in the morning found a half eaten apple on the ground, so we figure we were visited by one of the cute creatures on the right.

We caught the train to the Quay and checked out the Opera House, Darling Harbour and the Powerhouse museum.  A nice day in all.

The next morning we woke to incredibly heavy rain, with forecasts of NSW's wettest week of the year!!  The photo on the left was taken from our annex door and, being typical of the day's rain, explained the swampiness of our annex floor.  Fortunately the kids were both a little weary from lots of busy days so didn't mind a cruisy day sitting inside the main tent watching movie after movie. 

Given the forecast was for much more of the same for several days, we packed our soggy tent the next morning (in rain much like the picture) and got in the car.  Hopefully that is the most difficult pack-up we are going to get.  Not knowing where we were going we drove until the radar gave some indication of better times ahead.  We ended up here, in Nambucca Heads about an hour south of Coffs Harbour at around 5 pm.  With more rain forecast we couldn't bear the thought of erecting our soggy tent so opted for the cabin and left the camper for another day.

It wasn't a pleasant experience opening up the camper the next day and of course the rain set in just as we decided to do it but we did it.  We then proceeded to wash and dry a lot of the bedding, drain the toolbox, dry out the chairs that even managed to get wet inside the trailer and eventually we were back on track.  The kids were loving the pool here in the park complete with water slide, Ben beat Paul at a game of pool and life was good again.

Thursday night we got through a night without rain, there were a few spots here and there during the day Friday but we still got out on our bikes and had a look around this beautiful place, the kids spent more time in the pool (Paul and I even had some fun on the waterslide) and then made us pizza in the Camp Kitchen.  That night our purchase of a heavy duty tarp the day before came in handy as we got close to 100 mm of rain again overnight!!  The difference this time was that the day today was absolutely superb and we visited nearby Valla Beach, more swimming in the pool, walks and just general pleasantness.

Some photos from Nambucca Heads:

The lagoon at our caravan park

Looking back across the lagoon

The seawall at Nambucca Heads, for years people have been leaving their mark, some of them were fantastic

Soldier crabs, there were thousands of them

Not exactly a swimming beach but beautiful for a walk before dinner

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Still doesn't go far without a footy (even if they don't even know about footy cards in NSW and the pubs don't have FOX FOOTY!)

Looking out to the Heads

Sydney

 Today we thought we had done our smallest drive for the trip - a mere 45 minutes between campsites. We were not at all sad to leave our Penrith campground.  The amenities were faultless and the park was really conveniently located to the Blue Mountains where we spent a gorgeous day yesterday, the photos below don't do it justice.  It was just that some of the things not mentioned in the brochure were the fact that it was right next to a very noisy train station, there were more permanent sites than casual ones and it was about 2mins drive from a juvenile detention centre. 

Our drive down the road has brought us to Lane Cove National Park which is an absolutely beautiful park 10 kms from the city centre, with people who hopefully aren't taking off in the car every half hour all through the night like at Penrith.

I said we did our smallest drive - but that was until we thought we would grab some fish and chips just up the road.  We ended up going to Dee Why which was half an hour up the road and then drove around and around and around the Northern Beaches area trying to find our way back.  Pity it wasn't daylight because the views would have been lovely....

Tomorrow we think we will head in to the big smoke and check out the harbour bridge, powerhouse museum etc

Looking out at the Jamieson Valley

Top of the Wentworth Falls

Part of the Leura Cascades

The Three Sisters

One week in

And the winner of the Gold Medal is.... Emma Miller

After spending a very relaxing day in Canberra yesterday, playing tennis in  the morning, five o'clock drinks at 3 pm, with a visit to the AIS in between, we thought it was time to get back on the road.

We all enjoyed our visit to the Institute of Sport yesterday but I have to admit that we were all a little underwhelmed by the facilities for our elite athletes.  Emma was so excited by the prospect of seeing where the gymnasts train and found it looked a lot like the Arena! She was also a little disappointed to find that she has probably missed her chance to become the next great gymnast as they start training at the AIS from the age of nine and this doesn't give her much time to be discovered.  Even Ben didn't leave there thinking that was where we wanted to spend his early adulthood - seemed like too much hard work..

We packed up this morning and after a lunch stop in Berrima we headed for Penrith, just outside the Blue Mountains NP.  We are very pleased that the evening is so pleasant that I have kept the beanie in the bag and won't even need the coat or thermals tonight.  Ben and Emma even had a dip in the pool earlier.  They lasted about 3 minutes so Paul and I were not remotely tempted. 

Capital Country

After leaving Porepunkah yesterday we drove 5 hours up the Hume Hwy to our Capital City.  Three of us had never been to Canberra before so we were all looking forward to the experience.  It turns out the park we had booked into wasn't even in the ACT but it was still only about 15 mins from the city centre.  We are getting better at setting up and it wasn't long before we were sitting up to a very enjoyable pork/vegies/noodles stirfry.  Who said camping=BBQ?

After another night of really appreciating the thermals, we set off to the War Memorial today.  Many people had told us this was worth going to but it still amazed us.  This place was incredible.  We saw and heard so much that it was impossible to take it all in and were moved to tears by the tomb of the unknown soldier and the rememberance wall with all the poppies.  We retrieved the service history of Paul's Great Grandfather, Hurtle Murray Bright which then made all the World War I exhibits a little more personal, particularly the large diarama of the 6th battalion in Somme.  It made us all appreciate our lives that little bit more.

We then took a picnic to Lake Burley Griffith and rode our bikes around the Lake to Parliament House.  Unfortunately there was no Question time to witness but we were escorted around by a very informative guide and saw the House of Representatives and the Senate and Emma cartwheeled on its roof. 

Back on our bikes, to the campsite via the supermarket and into the thermals and beanies before another icy night.

Easter in Porepunkah

We left our nice comfortable home on the 5th of April, 2012 for a 3 month look around our larger backyard.  After a few minor adjustments (mainly bike related), we set off to Porepunkah for our first stop.  Having spent the last few Easters camping on the river here with my family it didn't seem like anything out of the ordinary, just a great break in a gorgeous part of the world.  We love the spectacular autumn leaves, the Ovens River (freezing cold for those game enough to swim in it - the kids were of course), and the great bike paths and walks.

We have ridden to Bright a few times, caught rainbow trout and salmon, played in the park, walked the Canyon walk, visited the Deer and Emu farm, watched the kids paddle down the river in the inflatable boat (and caught them before they got carried to Myrtleford), smoked ourselves out by the fire, collected the bounty left by the Easter Bunny (and eaten lots of them) and more.  Hopefully today we will watch the Cats beat Hawthorn, and if they are not looking like doing that Mum and I will no doubt go shopping while the boys continue to watch.

It is really only today that it is feeling a bit different to other Easters, as Amanda packs her tent to leave today and Mum and Dad and Josh and James get ready to leave tomorrow that it is sinking in that we are in this for the long haul and we wouldn't want it any other way.....