Boodjamulla

Cooling off

I have found my favourite place so far. Its Boodjamulla National Park or known in English as Lawn Hill. This place is in outback Queensland. The last town before this area is Mount Isa, 356km away. 

Exploring the gorge

Postcard sunset in the outback

The drive in is on unsealed road for almost 200km. It is desert country. However, at the end of the day, you get a pristine river running in the gorge. The water is crocodile free. So we are free to jump in and enjoy.

We took the kayaks out and spent a few hours exploring the gorge. We paddled up to the waterfalls and took a cool dip before lunch.

A selfie

TJ taking a dip

I am glad we decided to head here after the unexpected return to Sydney. I would highly recommend this place and make sure you book your campsite. It is very popular and busy.

Dinosaur Capital of Australia

Are we chasing the property dream?

After an unexpected trip back to Sydney for a couple weeks, we were northward-bound again. The change of plan saw us driving 7 to 8 hours a day for 2 days to Winton. This place is famously known as the dinosaur capital of Australia.

The drive took us back to places that we have been 8 months ago. We stopped at Longreach, where 8 months ago, we experienced temperature of about 40C and today, was about 26C. That's outback Australia.

Dinosaur footprints. Large and small

Arno's Wall in Winton. Just junk stuck to a wall!

We set up camp at the North Gregory Hotel, which is a pub/hotel with parking spots for caravans for $10/n. This place comes with showers too. Its the cheapest campsite we could find in town.

The next day, we drove to Lark Quarry National Monument. This is the area where they discovered dinosaur footprints and based on studies by experts, there was a stampede. Thus, the name Dinosaur Stampede.

We are definitely in the outback 

Every Family needs a Farmer

The title above was a common catch-phrase when we were living in Brisbane more than 10 years back. Being city folks, we don't realise where our food comes from and how farmers do the hardyard to produce it.

We were fortunate to meet the S family when we first embarked on our trip. They camped next to us on Fraser Island and invited us to visit their farm if we do pass through. Sure enough 7 months later, we were there, on our way up north to NT.

We had a lovely stay at "Merlwood", a cattle and piggery farm. Its my first time to a piggery. RS took us around the farm and explained the process. Cleaning and looking after 1000 pigs is no easy task and this was scaled down from breeding over 4000 pigs a year ago. The smell do stick on you.

Another downside is the price. Unlike us consumers where we only see price increase in our bacon or pork, pig farmers are subject to price fluctuations. And, according to RS, the price has been on the down for the past couple of years. Not that this was reflected in the supermarkets for us.

Farming is definitely hardwork. There are no weekends or public holidays. You work from sunrise to sunset in all weather conditions.

It was a good experience for me and we want to thank the S family especially RS and the lovely JS who invited us to share their home even though they only met us for 3 days. We hope your trip to Europe in July goes well and the beginning of more trips to come.

Top End Here We Come

We are on the road again after a four weeks "holiday" break in Sydney. It was great catching up with friends and family. Its good to see nothing much had changed in 7 months even the construction along George St!

Our new TV add-on

Dangar Falls

The next part of our journey will be exciting as we will be heading into more remote places, which we have heard and read about. What's also exciting is that we have been accepted as volunteers in Limmen National Park. We will be working alongside the Rangers, hopefully gain some insights into their operations. The scary part is that we are going into croc country.

Crystal Shower Falls

Our first stop from Sydney is Dorrigo. While the temperature in Sydney on the day we left was 33C, it was 26C here due to the altitude of 762m. We were planning to camp at the Dorrigo Showgrounds but due to an event, we had to change to the Dangar Falls Caravan and Camping grounds.

NSW Pony Club State Championship, which closed the showground for us to camp

Behind Crystal Shower Falls

Easter Break

Hiking with friends in Ku Ring Gai Chase NP

We are now taking a break for Easter. Unlike many Sydneysiders, we are not heading out of the Big Smoke but staying in the city to avoid the mad Easter traffic and crowd. We are also using the 3 weeks to catch up with family and friends.

At The Basin. So ready for a swim

Plus a good time to do some modifications and maintenance on the Podd. TJ is installing a TV for me!!!

Gillards Beach - Mimosa National Park

This place was an unplanned stay but I am glad we took a sticky-beak to check it out. It was on our way to Wilton Park near Bermegui when we took the detour. While it was quite busy due to a large school group, we found a nice little nook with an area overlooking the sea, which TJ called the observation deck, and decided to camp here. 

Our observatory deck

From here, we could drive to Tathra and Bermegui. With the long weekend in ACT and Victoria, we stayed put for 5 days. Over the weekend, we visited Bermegui, which had their version of sculpture by the sea and the seaside festival. The weather for the days we were here was perfect. 

My first salmon

Gillards Beach

Sculpture by the sea

Sculpture by the sea in Bermegui

We met some campers next to us who were knowledgeable in fishing and after a couple of days trying, got my first salmon. It was reasonable in size and I am happy the rod and line did not snap. While I was excited with the catch and would loved to get a few more, I am not a morning person. Our neighbour has been urging me to get up by about 7am as this is usually a good time. He has been consistently getting a few each morning. Sleep vs Fish....Sleep wins!

NSW Sapphire Coast

The  NSW South Coast is popularly known as the Sapphire Coast due to the blue sea water. This will be our planned route back to Sydney for Easter. This part of NSW is a seafood paradise, especially oysters.

Beach in front of our campground

Our first stop is Boydtown where we camped at Boydtown Caravan Park. Before long, we saw a mobile van selling seafood. Dinner decided for the night. Prawns, Oysters and salmon, which we sliced and ate raw, sashimi-style by the fire. TJ commented that the salmon was the best sashimi he had, ever.

Dinner by the fire

From this base, we ventured to Eden and Merimbula. Eden has a working wharf where fishing boats unload their catch. We saw a boat unloading seafood straight into a truck bound for Sydney Fish Market. Its ironic that to get fresh seafood that we saw today, we have to go to Sydney!

After lunching on Eden mussels and fish & chips, we drove to Merimbula. It is a much bigger town than Eden. I read that this town is popular with many baby boomers seeking a sea change from Sydney. I could see evidence of Sydney money pouring into Merimbula.

On our way back, we stopped by an oyster shed, bagging ourselves 2 dozen Sydney Rock farmed from Merimbula Lake. We paid $14/dozen for large ones and $10 for the medium-sized. These were live unshucked oysters and TJ had to re-learn his shucking skill from 3 years ago. They were yummy.

Illegal Transportation of Animal

I was woken up at 3am this morning by something crawling up my leg. Initially I brushed it away thinking that its a bug or insect. Next thing I felt was small feet walking. Luckily I had a torch next to me and saw a tail scuttering into our blanket. By this time, I have woken up TJ and we saw a little mouse. Looks like it has been living in our van for the past few days from our last camp at Croajingalong. 

It has decided to hitch a hike across the border!

Sh*t Storm

Pardon the French above but I meant it literally. We camped at a free camp in the town of Genoa, Victoria and was happy we found a nice spot right at the end. It is private and grassy. Come night time, we could hear rustling up above the trees. We realised they were bats. The sound of bats flapping and splattering on our canvas awnings and roof kept us awake. In the morning, we found bat guano all over the top!

Instead of moving, which was a hassle, TJ placed tarps over the top of the awnings and we parked our  car away from the "fly-zone". Unfortunately, the bats were mainly around our area between some trees next to us. Others further to the entrance were spared or had minimal impact.

Croajingalong National Park

Bridge across Thurra River to our campground

Thurra River

After spending 2 nights in a motel in Orbost(our 17th anniversary), we proceeded to Croajingalong NP. This national park follows the wild and unspoiled coastline of East Gippsland from border of NSW to Bemm River. There are a few campgrounds in the park and we chose Thurra River. 

Kayaking in Muellers River

With the river and the sea, there is plenty to do. We took our kayaks for a spin at Muellers River, went over to Honeymoon Bay for snorkeling and fishing and on our last day, visited the Point Hicks Lighthouse. 

While Honeymoon Bay was a disappointment, very much unlike its name, the visit to the lighthouse was a pleasant surprise. Our timing couldn't be more perfect. The caretaker was driving up and gave us a lift at the back of his ute, thus saving us a 2km walk. Then he opened the lighthouse and allowed us in. It was my first time in a lighthouse, walking all the way up to the top. The only downside was that we were not allowed out at the top due to the gale-force wind at the time.

Hitching a ride

Spiral stairs in the lighthouse

We officially finish the summer in Croajingalong National Park, Victoria!