Passmore Reserve

There is nothing much here except that its a free site to park and stay for the night. This place is about 23km west of Clifton and next the the Condamine River. Its a big area with some picnic tables and bins. No toilet facilities.

Passmore Reserve Camp

Sculptures in the Shrubs

Not an arts person, I have now seen 2 sculpture exhibits. The sculptures in Pilliga NP is not much different from the infamous Sculpture by the Sea in Sydney except for the location.

There are approximately 6 sculptures along the trail each with a story to tell based on aboriginal stories. It was interesting as one would not expect this in a national park. 

The campground is very well maintained with clean toilets and free BBQs. Looks like a lot of money has been put into the park.

Free BBQ. Just BYO food

Launch Day - One Day before the start of Spring

It was an early morning start at 6.30. Partly to avoid peak hour traffic.

Early spring bloom of wattles

First stop was Mudgee. This is one area we listed as potential future home. The place made it to our list after watching Doctor Doctor, the channel 9 series, which was filmed there. The famous shot from the show was the clock tower, which we obviously did not missed.

Modern Spick & Span Toilets

One surprised for me was the public toilet right at the edge of the town. Its one of those modern self cleaning, flushed when you wash your hands and with a time limit of 10 minutes. You also get to listen to music while in there.

We reached our first stop for the night around 4pm. It was in Pilliga National Park called Sculptures in the Shrubs.

On the Road Two Point Oh (2.0)

Yes, after a two year hiatus, we are back into the "Podd" again. Preparation started in July with TJ doing most of the heavy lifting.

The newly improved Podd include:
- Solar panels on the roof - no more noisy Gen set
- Bungee cords to hold stuff in place
- water filtration
......and many more

Off to Fraser Island via central NSW.......

All loaded ready to go

Filling up water and bikes mounted

Memory Cove

Memory Cove Wilderness Protection Area is the only place in Lincoln NP where you have to book and is key-access, limited to 15 vehicles/day and 5 camp sites.

TJ exploring the coastline rocks

This area includes vast expanses of coastal mallee with outcropping granite and open ocean coastline.

can you spot the pod of dolphins?

Exploring the area, we saw a pod of dolphins surfing the waves at West Point. There is also a mother and her joey hanging around our camp, oblivious to our presence.

Fishing

It was fishing today. We went to McLaren Point and found a good spot to try our hand at fishing.

TJ got his first one within a few minutes. It was likely big enough to take but we decided to let it go. We were also not sure what kind it was. It was more than an hour of fun but we never got the 'big'. We have plenty of time to try again.

Sleaford-Wanna Dunes

We went on an adventurous 4wd drive today. Headed to the Sleaford-Wanna Dunes where you find massive sand dunes by the Sleaford Bay coastline.

Letting the tyres out b4 the run

We set upon Cape Tournefort, where we had many firsts - our first beach drive, first time getting bogged and first time using the max treks. You need to get bogged to learn how to get out of it, according to TJ. Though, it is an honour to choose one of the worst beach in the area, a local told us.

The trip took over 5 hours including time getting out the beach, mucking with the tyre pressures along the way, quick lunch stop and countless stops for photos.

Cape Tournefort

Investigator Trail

I did my first hike today since returning from US. We decided on walking from our camp to Stamford Hill, along parts of the Investigator Trail. The trail is named after the ship used by Matthew Flinders when he surveyed the coastline here. The entire trail is over 93km.

Up Stamford Hill, we got views of Boston Bay, Port Lincoln and Lincoln NP plus a commemorative monument of Flinders' voyage.

Along the way, we saw more emus, a couple of them keeping cool in the water on a hot sunny day.

Lincoln National Park

After 2 nights paying for powered site, we left the town and went into Lincoln  NP.  We bought a holiday+camping pass, which gives us 8 weeks access to most SA parks plus camping for 5 nights at each place.
On our way, we saw a mama emu leading her young charges.

The park has many camping spots and after scouting a few of them, we settled on Fishermans Point. The site is up high looking down the bay. This is home for the week

View from our camp

Tuna Farming

Port Lincoln is reported to have the most number of millionaires per capita. This is due to the tuna industry. The blue fin tuna is farmed for export. The trawlers will get the tuna from out in the sea and place them in catchment nettings nearer to shore until they are ready.

We went to the marina to look at the large fishing boats. There is also an attraction where you can swim with the tuna in the catchment.