NSW Adventure

BRETTI RESERVE – BARRINGTON TOPS NSW

Monday 7th April 2014 – What a perfect place to choose as our first stop on our trip! Took us about 5 hours all up to drive here from Sydney, in convoy with the Capes’s. Bretti Reserve is a free camp about 45 minutes from Gloucester in stunning Barrington Tops. We chose this spot because Drew had passed this place during his Day of Difference Charity cycle ride the week before. We found a good place to park the vans at the end of the reserve, right by the river. It was just what we needed, peace and a fair amount of solitude, not a lot to do except relax, take a wander down the stream and get our heads around what we about to embark upon. No mobile or internet access at all which is a bit strange but good! Very good! Just what we needed.

 

Tuesday 8th April – We really didn’t venture far today, just pottered around the river and the caravans. Maddy was keen to get in her school work so I spent a good few hours reading through what we needed to do and coaching her through some spelling, writing and maths. Looks like it’s going to be quite good fun and Maddy makes a model student so far, she’s so keen to do it which really helps! This first 2 weeks of work isn’t actually due for another 5 weeks and we seemed to have completed a good third of it in the first day!

Wednesday 9th April – We found there were yabbies in the river which created much excitement and amusement particularly from Nikki and Maddy trying to catch them. First we tried wrapping some raw chicken in some netting and trying line catching. That attracted them alright but we just couldn’t haul them in! After a trip in to Gloucester and some advice taken from the locals we purchased a Yabbie Trap!!! A platypus safe one I might add as the river had platypus and therefore Yabbie traps are forbidden, except the safe ones which are ones with small entrances. Anyways we loaded the trap with chicken and took it down to the river at dusk and yahoo! We caught 6 yabbies within about 30 minutes, only small ones mind, we would need another 30 more just for a snack, never mind supper! We left the trap in overnight, I couldn’t wait to check it the next morning, imagining it was full to bursting, at least 50 or more surely. Imagine my disappointment when there was only 1 very small yabbie, I guess I need a bit more practice. We didn’t spot any platypus though, shame, haven’t seen one in the wild yet, hope to!

Thursday 10th April – Time to leave Bretti and make our way up the coast. Jules and Pete are heading to Port Stephens for 4 nights as Jules has the opportunity to join her crew in an off shore yacht race. We decided to head up the coast as we’ve been to Port Stephens a few times, so thought we check out somewhere we’ve never been before. We belong to a few Caravan and Travel Facebook groups so asked for some suggestions and as Harrington came up twice, Harrington it was! Just less than a 3 hour drive, so all good!

HARRINGTON

Thursday 10th April – Beautiful drive from Bretti to Harrington, just under 3 hours, booked in to the Big4 in Harrington for 4 nights, will be nice to have electricity and abundant water and a laundry I guess but not so much looking forward to it being noisy and busy. We chose this site because of the facilities for kids mainly, a decent pool with a water park and slide will delight Maddy for sure, oh and a playground and jumping pillow, lucky girl. First impression of Harrington not that flash, although there’s a new waterfront development and a new small shopping centre, the main old town is a bit run down, few shops and take aways but you wouldn’t want to eat there. The camp site is OK, huge, bit old and tired too, we found a good spot though, tucked away and quite quiet as it turns out. We were near the kiddies playground so Maddy was happy.

Friday 11th April – Sightseeing day, first stop Ricardo’s Farm for some strawberry picking and a tour on how tomatoes and strawberries are grown by hydroponics, great place, came away with a kg of each and several other yummy treats from the produce shop. Maddy loved picking the strawberries, they were delicious too! Tomatoes like tomatoes used to taste, bright red and full of flavour. I asked a lot about what sprays and chemicals they use, seems very little so I was fairly satisfied with that.

Ricardo’s Strawberry and Tomato Farm

 

Then on to Cassegrain Winery for a spot of wine tasting, very nice wine, oh I do love wine tasting, especially as I am rarely the driver, couldn’t resist half a dozen bottles could we! Beautiful lunch there too, feeling a little sleepy after all that wine!

Cassegrain Winery

 

Lastly off to Bago Winery and Maze, bit off the beaten track but what an amazing maze! Cost $27 for the 3 of us mind, Maddy had an absolute ball though, what a wonderful afternoon spent racing around the maze, looking for all the hidden treasure too! Didn’t try the wine, I think I was still squiffy!

Bago Maze

Saturday 12th April – Crowdy Bay National Park. Thoroughly enjoyed exploring this national park, found a few amazing camp spots at Kylie’s Hut and Diamond Head Beach. Would be a great spot to stop another time, if we were coming this way again would prefer to stay here to Harrington. Even the big rigs get in at Diamond Head, it was busy though, being the first weekend of the school hols. We parked up here and had a picnic lunch on the beach, glorious! Didn’t take my camera, doh!

Below is the Crowdy Bay lighthouse, Drew loves to photograph lighthouses, has always thought about creating a coffee book of photo’s of lighthouses, perhaps he’ll gather enough photo’s on this trip to finally make that happen, I hope so!

Crowdy Bay Lighthouse

Drew also set Maddy up with our compact camera and showed her how to use it. This is her taking a photo of us at Kylie’s Hut. She loved her first day of taking photo’s and looks like she’s going to be a budding photographer just like her Daddy and Great Aunty Jean. We hope to get Maddy to write her own blog too, once we’ve worked it out ourselves!

Kylie’s Hut

Sunday 13th April – Cycling to lunch and Coopernook. Had a bit of a slower lazy morning, I did an hours walk while Maddy had a play in the pool, then we decided it was time to get the bikes out! We’d spotted a Tavern overlooking the water in the new development about 4km away, so off we set. There was actually a really great path pretty much all the way from the caravan park to the cabin, following the waterfront and through the new development, which is pretty smart and perfect for what looks like 95% retirees. We have a WeeRider which is a tag-a-long bike for Maddy, she loves it and peddles like crazy to make sure her and Daddy are always in front! The afternoon was a quick ride out to Coopernook, across the highway, not much to see there but we drove through and up in to the State Forest up to Vincents Look out which was great fun, misty and rainy.

Monday 14th April – Leaving Harrington and off to South West Rocks. Time to pack up and leave, although we didn’t reckon much to Harrington itself, we enjoyed our few days there. We were ready to move on and join up with Pete and Jules again. Wouldn’t stay in Harrington again but would definitely stay in the National Park.

SOUTH WEST ROCKS

Monday 14th April – Was great to meet up with Pete and Jules again at South West Rocks, we were really looking forward to seeing them again, big hugs all round after only 4 nights apart, that’s hopefully a good sign for the next 9 months together. We’d booked this site (South West Rocks Tourist Park) back in January and was surprised at what a lovely site it was, our sites were right by the river with a few trees in between, almost felt a bit like free camping. The whole site was actually very very tidy and nicely done, we’d certainly stay there again. Only down side turns out that there we heaps of Mozzies, you only need step out the caravan for 30 seconds and wham! They got you!

Perfect spot for a fish, the boys enjoyed being so close to the river and fishing as the sun went down, what an awesome spot to sit and enjoy a glass of wine watching them too, did they catch anything? What do you think… They did hear that the guy parked next to us had caught a mud crab the day before and had it for dinner, that’s what we were hoping for, but no… nowt!

Tuesday 15th April – We’ve been to South West Rocks before so we know what a beautiful little spot it is, especially the long sweeping beach and the National Park with the Trial Bay Gaol. Jules and Pete had never been, so we felt like official tour guides as we all headed out to explore on the bikes across to the old gaol for a special treat, lunch out! Beautiful weather once again, we are being exceptionally lucky so far with the weather.

 

Wednesday 16th April – Jules and I decided to go for a long walk along the beach this morning to the old gaol and back, we knew it would take a few hours and get a coffee on the way, coffee shops in town looked a bit average so we asked a local, seems the best coffee is at the cafe at the National Park, perfect, we were walking there anyway, it will be our reward!!! Another absolutely glorious day!

On the way back on the beach we saw some utes and 5 blokes sitting at the back of the beach. We stopped to chat and ask them what they were up to, even though they were a bit scary looking, like something out of Deliverance… anyways turns out they were Mullet Fisherman and they were waiting for the mullet to come through. Someone was on the headland watching out for the fish and would give them the nod if and when they came through. We actually really enjoyed chatting to them and learning all about Mullet fishing. Seems every bit of mullet is used an most of it is shipped off to Japan! When we told them about our trip they were also really helpful with tips about Cape York and fishing up there etc. As we didn’t actually mention the boys I am not sure if they thought it was just us two girls doing the round Oz and Cape York thing, they did seems pretty impressed when we told them we have 4WD all fitted with the winch, snorkel and gear etc. It’s moments like these when to get to chat to locals that really make that trip, we wanted to take a photo of them as they were such a mottly old bunch of sea dogs.

 

Thursday 17th April – Time to pack up and move one again, even though we are only a week in to the trip, we seem to have it all off to a fine art. Drew does all the outside packing up, tables, chairs, awning etc. I do the inside, close windows, put everything away, secure items in cupboards, give the van a really good clean and make a packed lunch if its a long drive. Today we head to Yamba for Easter Weekend, again we’ve been to Yamba before and know what a super little place it is but Pete and Jules haven’t yet.

YAMBA FOR EASTER WEEKEND

Thursday 17th April – Great to be back at Yamba once again, we booked in for Easter Weekend hoping that the sleepy little town of Yamba wouldn’t be as busy as some other places, and it wasn’t. This site (Yamba Waters) wasn’t as nice as the others we’d chosen so far, mind you even booking back in January, we didn’t get much choice as many of the other sites in Yamba were already full. We were at the back of town a bit, would have been nice to have been on the waterfront but it looked very busy and a bit too tightly packed down there.

Friday 18th April – We’re all loving riding our bikes and managed to get quite a lot of cycling in while in Yamba, we cycled down to the beach and then around to Angourie and Spooky Beach, which wasn’t very Spooky…. there are lots of cycling tracks in Yamba which is perfect! We probably cycled 20km or more today, loving it!

Spooky Beach

Yamba is a great fishing town, we decided Good Friday had to be a fish eating day so off to the local fish markets it was. Couldn’t decide which fish to buy so bought locally caught Mullet, Shark and Luderrick (Black Fish) and cooked them 3 ways., bit of a fish Tapas! Wow delicious! We’ve been taking it in turns to cook each night which has been just brilliant. We’ve eaten pretty well so far, even on a tight budget and not had the same meal twice. It’s working out really well, we all enjoy food so much that quite a lot of effort goes in, it’s also pretty handy having Pete the chef with us!

Saturday 19th April – While we were in Yamba we decided to get up for an early surf, Pete got up extra early to cook up some sausages for brekkie and keep them warm in the dream pot while surfing. We headed down to the beach around 7.30am and found the roughest surf you’ve ever seen, it was spectacular! There was not a soul in the water, for good reason, but lots of people watching the surf. The locals were saying it was the biggest surf they’d seen in 10 years! Still the sausages were good! We also found a Campos coffee shop, hoorah, turns out it wasn’t actually as good as the Campos coffee we get in our favourite coffee shop in Sydney, boo!

Spent the rest of the morning exploring the town, bit of shopping needed! Yamba has a lovely array of shops and all through town there are little gardens built with herbs in for people to help themselves, love that! I hadn’t bought my liquidiser with me and was missing my morning green smoothie, found a compact one, whoop whoop, that put a smile on my dial!

The boys decided Yamba was a good spot to do some fishing, so after checking with the locals about best spots and tides they set out that afternoon to the breakwater wall. Hmmm… another not so successful trip, 3 rigs lost and lines broken and no fish! Whilst they were fishing Jules looked after Miss Maddy while I went for a run, saw the most gorgeous sunset from the breakwater.

Didn’t bump in to the lads fishing though, perhaps they were at the pub which is why they didn’t catch any fish! Pete had bought a crab pot today to get some mud crabs as we head north, perhaps they’ll have more luck leaving the crab pot in and sleeping on it!

We’re not terribly keen on this site, the neighbours aren’t really our cup of tea so to say…..Jules happened to say the people were a bit bogan around here… to which Maddy asks “what does bogan mean aunty Julie”.. Julie – “oh people who don’t wear shoes”… Maddy – “Oh I must be bogan then as I don’t wear shoes very often..”

Sunday 20th April – One of the highlights of our stay in Yamba was the ferry trip to Iluka and then the walk through the heritage rainforest to Iluka Beach.

Luckily we’d both brought insect repellant because within 6 steps of entering the rainforest we were literally being attacked by mozzies. You’ve never seen anyone get the insect repellant out and apply it so fast! It didn’t seem to deter them too much either, the whole 2.5km of walk was spent checking arms legs, splat, arms legs splat! They even bit you through your clothes! It was awful, bless her Maddy just ran and ran and ran until she was out of it. Once we were out of the rainforest though they were gone, and we found a beautiful beach to have lunch. Decided NOT to walk back through the rainforest but take the longer walk back via the beach.

Iluka Beach

 

It was beautiful day once again, the weather is just awesome. Just before we got back in to Iluka we passed an old pub on the water with great music playing and lots of people sitting outside, we could have stayed there a while if we weren’t heading back to catch the ferry. I think we could spend a few days in Iluka another time, the beaches sure look beautiful and it was quiet.

Monday 21st April – Time to say goodbye to Yamba and head North to Byron Bay, shouldn’t be a long journey today, less then a couple of hours, very much looking forward to going back to Byron.

BYRON BAY

Monday 21st April – Oh how we love Byron Bay, we just love it! I do especially anyways, there’s just a really special feel about the place. We arrive Easter Monday, the Blues Fest has been on all Easter weekend and today’s the last day, so it’s all rather busy, plus it’s school hols, I don’t care, I still love Byron! We ended up choosing the caravan park that’s right on Clarkes Beach rather than the other 2 or 3 caravan park options in or near Byron, it was really expensive but the other sites didn’t have very good feedback from others who’ve stayed there on Wiki Camps (the app we use to help find and choose sites). The only down side besides the cost ($90 a night) was that the site was quite “tight” for caravans… and oh when we arrived yes it was! Wasn’t made any easier by the fact that people have parked cars and trailers so close to the road that there’s just not much room to manoeuvre. It sure was tricky, must have taken at least 6 attempts but Drew managed eventually to get the van in place, and unbelievably we managed to do it without falling out or Drew loosing his cool, I was impressed!

As soon as we set up we headed down to the beach for the last few hours of daylight, what a fabulous welcome to Byron, sunset from the beach just outside our caravan park.

Byron Bay Sunset

Tuesday 22nd April – Once again we have been totally blessed with the weather, it’s over half way through Autumn and we’re having the most glorious sunny days, around 28 degrees, just perfect. The park is located directly on to Clarkes Beach so we have spent many hours on the beach, the water is warm and crystal clear, it’s magnificent! We’ve loved building sandcastles together and making underground tunnels. The water is crystal clear, perfect!

Building Sandcastles

 

Also got the chance to catch up with a couple of guys from work for Brekkie who had been here for the Blues Fest, that was a special treat, lovely to see them and send cuddles back for all.

Wednesday 23rd April – This morning we were just about to head out of the park on our bikes when we noticed a Koala perched in the tree just a few metres from our van, how totally awesome is that. He was a real cutie and seemed almost to be posing for photos! We would never have expected to see a Koala so close to Byron. Our other wildlife experience while at the van was over lunch, Drew and I were enjoying a fabulous quinoa, roasted veg and lamb lunch with a glass of Rose when all of a sudden a naughty Kookaburra flew in and snatched the lamb right off my plate and scattered my lunch all over the table, cheeky little bird!

After lunch Jules and I got to go back to Kiva Spa in Mullumbimby, my beautiful friend Tina had bought me a massage voucher for my birthday for Kiva Spa. It’s such a unique place, it’s very Balinese yet it’s right in the middle of Mullumbimby down an alley way. The spa’s are great but I love the sauna best, which is built in a Yurt, which is a wooden structure in the shape of a hexagon, the sauna is wood fired, it’s a very low roof, no more than 140cm high, so you have to crouch down to get in and find a spot to sit or lie, than crawl out again through double doors so you don’t let the heat out. Then it’s in to a cold plunge pool then back in to a hot spa and round you go again. Totally relaxing, zen! Thanks Tina for treating me!

We’ve been on the road for almost 2 and a half weeks now, it’s actually going quite fast and we seem to be busy, often too busy to even update my blog or check emails. We decided to treat ourselves to a dinner out tonight as Jules and I had been to the Tree House restaurant at Belongil when we were here last and wanted to share the experience with the lads, plus it’s Drew’s birthday in 2 days, so kind of an early birthday treat! The boys loved it too, such a cool place, on a warm balmy night, fabulous music, great food, great vibe.

Thursday 24th April – We’re so glad we brought our bikes, today we cycled through Byron to the Farmers Markets, it’s just so wonderful to cycle places and not use the car. The farmers markets are typically Byron, all healthy and organic produce, could have spent a fortune! The other thing I love about Byron is the beautiful long flat beach, I’ve been up and out for a long beach walk or a run every day, then a dip in the ocean to cool down, it doesn’t get much better than that! Starting to feel a bit fitter which is the plan!

Loving the beach

 

Friday 25th April – Drew’s birthday!!!!! Birthday cards and presses in bed, what a lucky boy, then I went for a walk/ run up to the lighthouse and Drew and Maddy headed up with cameras. we met up there and all visited the most Western Point of Australia together. Then back to the van for brekkie and pack up, leaving today for Mooloolaba. Jules and Pete were super keen and got up at 4.45am to cycle down in the dark to the Anzac Day dawn service. Not ready to leave Byron really, could easily have stayed a few more days, but I guess we can come back here anytime. As we leave I can’t help but think this is one of the places I can imagine living at….