SALE - EDEN - CASINO - HOME

12/4/2012:    We left Sale after the Motorhome Rally and heading east drove to Paynesville which is on the Gipsland Lakes and stayed overnight. The lakes are quite extensive and appear to be very popular with the boating mob

13/4/2012:  11 degrees - 21 degrees - sunny.  Just being closer to the coast and away from the lead up to the mountains made a lot of difference to the temperature, we felt warmer.   We had a look around and then drove to the opposite side of the lake to a place called Metung after John Storey said it was a good place to stay and hire a boat, we enjoyed the little holiday place, it has a nice feel to it, we had coffee watching a couple of black swans drifting around in the water in front of us, very peaceful and relaxing after all our rushing over the past week.

From Metung it was back out to the highway and on to Lakes Entrance. The land around here is mostly dairy farming and is lush and green. We stayed at the Ponderosa Van Park which was a close walk to shops and the footbridge across to the ocean.  The Van park was like a ghost town as the majority of van owners were not there, but it was very quiet and peaceful, we needed to catch up on sleep.

14/4/2012:  15 degrees - 24 degrees - sunny.   Went for a walk along the waters edge to the footbridge and went across to the ocean side, it is a long beach 90 miles long.

                           

15/4/2012:  17 degrees - 24 degrees - sun and wispy cloud.  Drove along the highway to Nowa Nowa and drove out to the remains of a trestle bridge built by hand when the railway went from Melbourne to Orbost. The railway is not used and has been turned into a walking / bike track from Sale to Orbost.

                             

Drove on east to Orbost had lunch in the park beside the Snowy River and saw the totem pole which marks where many floods levels have been recorded with the highest being in 1971, the land floods from the Snowy River.  The Visitors Centre is in a little old slab hut which was used by a family back in the 1800s.

We then drove out to Marlo to see where the Snowy River goes out to sea, it is very interesting to see and read about, now that the spillway at Jindabyne has been remodeled to allow more water to flow down the Snowy River, to prevent the river dying.  

Entrance to the Snowy River at Marlo

We stayed overnight at Marlo, again another ghost town van park, as everyone had left after easter.

16/4/2012:   17 degrees - 27 degrees, sunny.   Drove from Marlo east to Cape Conran, lovely quiet place, beautiful white sandy beach stretching for miles, had morning tea, 

We then drove on back to the highway and on toward Cann River amongst tall thin straight trees on either side of the road which did a lot of winding and twisting.Stopped at Cann River which is where the Monaro Highway joins the Princes highway, everyone else must have been tired of the winding road and speckled sunlight through the tall thin trees, because the little park was packed.

After lunch we made our way around lots more winding and twisting road with dappled sunlight through tall thin trees to Malacoota which is a lovely spot, the council run van park has 710 sites along the water front, there are quite a few small jetties to tie your boat up to, for a fee of course, and the Malacoota Inlet has a number of rives which run from the mountains, the inlet has small islands and sandbars with a small outlet to the ocean, sort of  like where the Murray River runs out to sea near Goolwa S.A., also Lakes Entrance and Marlo where the Snowy River runs out to sea, but I think Malacoota is the pick of the lot, so we decided to stay for a week to rest up and catch up on the blog, also Victoria School Holidays finished last weekend and N.S.W. finish next weekend, so the camp fees in N.S.W. will be higher, while it is holiday time. 

Moorings for caravan park residents boats



Mallacoota Lake entrance




Big mouth




Mallacoota campsite - had great views



17/4/2012:  17 degrees - 22 degrees - sunny/ late showers.  We walked along the foreshores checking out the river and outlet to the sea, caught up with the washing, then as it is our 42^nd Wedding Anniversary we decided to find a nice restaurant, however the nice looking one was closed, so we walked to the Bistro in the Malacoota Hotel.

18/4/2012:  20 degrees - 23 degrees, showers/wind/sun/rain.  Blog catch up day. 

19/4/2012: 17 - 20 degrees - rain. Had a good rest, walked to bakery and checked out the coffee and cake.

20/4/2012: 17 - 23 degrees - rain - late pm sunshine. We decided, even though it was raining we would go on a boat cruise around Malacoota and learn about the area, it was very informative and towards the end of the cruise we saw the rain stop and it looked a lot brighter.

 Mallacoota Jetty

Osprey picking up fish

21.4.2012: 18 degrees - 22 degrees - fog/cloud and a little sun.

 Mallacoota at evening

22/4/2012: 18 - 21 degrees - showers/cloud/sun. Went to church and met some of the locals, had morning tea with everyone, met some other tourists from Canberra, turns out one of the chaps Trevor Murdoch was an engineer who worked with Lloyd at Burwood, its amazing where you meet other Telstra people.

23/4/2012: 18 - 21 degrees - cloud/and sun. After a restful week of reading, walking and playing board games, we left Mallacoota after a look at Bastion Point and the outside of the WW2 RAAF operations bunker (it wasn't open today so we have to come back on a tuesday next time).

Gypsy Point

We then moved up the coast into N.S.W. and stayed at Eden, which is a beautiful place, we stayed in the carpark of the Fishos’ club and had a lovely fish meal in the club. The view of Twofold Bay was beautiful, the Fishos’ Club is high up on the hill and you can see one side of the bay looking one way and the other bay on the other side, just spectacular.

24/4/2012: 14 - 19 degrees - cloud and rain. Went to the Whale Museum in Eden, very interesting and worth a visit, we read about another Jonah storey and how people went into the dead whales for 1 l/2 hours to cure themselves of illness, just amazing, also the stories of shipwrecks on the Saphire Coast were amazing, there was even a ship that went down in February 1943, called the Iron Knight, Captain Ross went down with the ship. We wondered if Lloyd is related to him, as his great great Grandfather was Captain David Ross, so we have some homework to do.

We drove up the coast checking out Pambula, Merimbula Tathra Wharf and continued driving along the Pacific Way to Bermagui where we stayed at the Zane Grey Tourist Park, the rain eazed off a little and the sun came out for a while.



 North from Merimbula

Tharthra Wharf

 

Bermagui

25.4.2012: We awoke to the sound of bagpipes playing for the dawn service which was only about 50 meters from our Coaster, so we listened to as much of the dawn service as possible and felt snug and warm in bed, as it was cold and damp outside. We finally were brave enough to face the elements and left Bermagui.  Drove past Wallaga Lake where we stayed about 35 years ago, and couldn’t believe how many permanent vans they had squashed into the van park, we headed north up the coast along the Pacific Way calling in to the little beaches, we wove up into the hills with dry stone walls dividing some paddocks to the beautiful quaint little town of Tilba Tilba and Central Tilba Tilba where the 11 am Anzac Day Service was taking place.

 Mystery Bay

Tuross beach

We continued up the coast through Narooma, called into Tuross Head, and a few other beaches, then headed north for Batemans Bay, where we stayed at Caseys Van Park which was a bit like a ghost town full of permanent vans with no one around. We were playing cards after dinner that night when we had a knock on the door and a security man told us to be sure to leave no windows with screens attached unlocked at night as there are people going around cutting the fly screens and steeling things whilst people are asleep, we had no problems and saw nobody, and our fly screens were OK next morning.

Caseys Beach Batemans Bay

26.4.2012 Drove up the coast, calling in at Merry Beach and Lake Tabourie, they both looked different to what Lloyd remembered as a teenager, but he remembered lots of lovely times there with his family. Burrill Lake was the next beach to call into before Ulladulla, then we drove to Milton Showground where we stayed for the night.

Merry Beach - the Ross's holidayed here  in the early 60's - there was no development then -great beach and fishing

Kiola

Kiola boat ramp

Lake Tabourie entrance - Ross's stayed here 62, 63 the old cabins have gone

Durras beach

27.4.2012: 14 - 21 degrees, sun and showers. Drove into Mollymook and had a walk along the beach, the sun was out and the water was very clean and clear and the sand lovely and white.

 at Milton showground

Mollymook beach

We drove up the coast to Jervis Bay and drove out to Booderie National Park where we stayed overnight at Green Patch. Once again the beach and water were clear and bright.

Di at green Patch beach on Jervis Bay

28/4/2012: 16 - 25 degrees, sunny. Drove up through Berry to Kiama and stayed with Marg and Phil in Kiama. We introduced them to our new card game of Sequence, which we all enjoyed, we also played Canasta

29/4/2012: 17 - 19 degrees. Cloud and rain. We left Kiama in Phil’s new Pajero four wheel drive and Marg was the tour guide, taking us up Saddleback Mountain to see the view, which was a bit misty in the rain and chill, but rather spectacular.

 The Tippetts and us at Saddleback

We drove through Jamberoo up Jamberoo Mountain Road and at the top we came across an Asian family whose car had gone off the road and other Auzzies were trying to push it out of deep mud, until Phil stopped and pulled out his tow rope and pulled him out, we think he may have fallen asleep at the wheel, he had his wife, baby, young son and his Mother in the car, we were glad it was nothing worse. We decided Phil was the hero of the day.

After Phil’s good Samaritan deed for the day we headed on to Carrington Falls which was a great display of powerful water rushing down the rocks after rain had fallen,



                    

we then headed for Belmore falls which was better than the previous falls because it was like two lots of falls with a grotto pool in the middle.

  

                                                                                        

 We had a lovely day together including afternoon tea at the famous Robertson Pie shop and enjoyed playing Canasta after dinner.

30/4/2012: 17 - 19 degrees. Sun and cloud. Had a quiet day, caught up with washing, went to dinner at the Vietnamese Restaurant in Kiama with Marg and Phil then went back to their home and played Canasta.1/5/2012: 17 - 20 degrees. Sun and cloud. Left Phil and called in to say hello to Michelle, she is happy and it is lovely to see her, she is looking forward to her holiday up to Maroochydore next week. Marg and Phil have been busy making things to make life easier for her and Mark. We said goodbyes and wished Michelle a lovely holiday in Maroochydore and Marg a great break in Carnarvon Gorge.
We headed up the Princes Highway and turned off at Woonona to visit Lloyd’s Aunty Mavis, she was happy to see us and we shared our trip with her and told her we had called in on Beverly and Das, her daughter and husband, who live in Bendigo. Mavis had lots to talk about and is keen to move up to Cronulla sometime soon as she will be closer to her daughter Linda, and life will be easier as she has been told, by her doctor, she can only drive her car short distances, she feels her wings have been clipped.
We left Mavis and headed up the coast road over the new Seacliff Bridge and stopped at Stanwell Park for lunch, then off again towards home to spend one night at home, I had good intentions of cooking dinner for Katrina and Dean as I had bought mince to make spagetti bolognaise, but we were a bit late in the Sydney traffic and Katrina beat me to it. It was lovely to see Katrina and Dean again, we had dinner, washed, picked up some clothes for the high tea on Sunday afternoon at Londonderry with the Sydney Wanderers, and caught up with the mail.


2/5/2012: 17 - 25 degrees - sunshine. After sleeping in at home we went to the shops and collected food etc. for the weekend, we bought some quick pies for lunch and headed out to the Richmond Club at Richmond to catch up with the others. Lloyd had to join the Richmond Club for $4.00 and we were then able to spend the night in the Wanderest Travellers Park which is owned by the club and is across the road from the club, we paid $10 for a power site so we could use the computer to catch up with our blog but unpowered sites are free. After catching up with everyone at happy hour we all went over to the club for dinner.

3.5.2012: Went to Aldi to check out the specials, then we went to the Club again for morning tea with everyone, then we all headed off to Londonderry, where we set up our RVs then had a practice of disc bowls for Casino week, happy hour, a quick dinner and then back in the hall for cards.

4.5.2012: Another lovely day catching up with everyone and playing disc bowls and doing craft work, and generally doing what we did the day before.

5.5.2012: Played in the organized disc bowls comp and felt I played better when we were clowning around stirring each other. Instead of happy hour we had a Formal High Tea for Mothers’ Day, we all dressed up and had a fun afternoon. The temperature was dropping fast so we all changed back into our warm gear to play cards.
 

The waiters at High Tea were in formal gear

6.5.2012: The Sydney Wanderers joined with the Londonderry Church and had a very nice service singing lots of old hymns and choruses we had not heard for many many years, had morning tea then still catching with others we hadn‘t seen for a long time we had lunch and returned to the Richmond Club with Pat and Lyn who would be coming with us to Casino.
Had dinner at the Richmond Club, coffee in the lounge, discussing our safari and where we would head tomorrow, then an early night.

7.5.2012: We headed up to the Laundromat to do the washing, then Lloyd and I following Pat and Lyn headed off cross country to join up with Pennant Hills Road and the Pacific Highway, stopping at the Hawksbury River for lunch and then Tomago Bowling Club where we were going to stay for the night. There is a nice grassed area beside the club recreation grounds with toilets and showers available with no charge to stay there.  Rosemarie caught up with us and we had fun practicing our disc bowls.   Unfortunately the dining room of the Tomago Bowling Club was not open on Monday night, so we had to cook our dinner.

8.5.2012: Lloyd had a sore throat and was not feeling very well, so he stayed in the Coaster and rested, while Pat and Lyn took Rosemarie and I into Port Stephens, so Rosemarie could see the area she had heard about but never seen, we called in at Anna Bay, then Shoal Bay, Tamaree Headland. Zenith Beach, Fingal Bay, had lunch at Nelsons Bay then went up the Gan Gan Lookout and had a spectacular vista of the whole area, the day was beautiful, sunny and clear with no clouds you could see north across to Tea Gardens and Hawks Nest and east to Tomaree Headland and west to Karuah plus all the lovely hills in the backgound with their blue hues, makes you think how this hill or that hill was once a volcano millions of years ago. We arrived back at Tomago too late for disc bowls, so we went to the club and had a drink only to find once again no dining room open, so we had to cook dinner again.

9.5.2012: We headed up the coast in convoy of three motorhomes, Lloyd, Rosemarie and Pat and Lyn, past Taree and found the Coopernook State Forest Park (No. 84 in the Camp Six Book ), we had to travel 4 km of dirt road, and be wary of timber jinkers, but what a beautiful spot, lovely and grassy, ideal for disc bowls, and no lights shining in your van at night, lovely tall trees all around the grassy area and lots of other people enjoying the place. We had lunch and set up our disc bowls and met Keith from the Lakelanders CMCA chapter who joined us for a game of disc bowls, we played tripples and had a lot of fun.

 Coopernook State Forest campsite

10/5/2012: Cool morning - sunny. Drove up to Kew and turned off to Laurieton and continued up the Coast road to Lake Cathie where we shopped and found a nice coffee shop with Devonshire teas. Then on up the coast road again through Port Macquarie and out to the Highway and up to Kempsey where we turned off to Crescent Head and booked into the caravan park at the beach. We set up our motor homes, had lunch, did a load of washing, and went for a walk up the headland, everyone thought it was a great spot, we think it will be a good location for our next safari to Boonah in October for the next Rally.

Crescent Head

11/5/2012: Cool morning - sunny. Left to head out to Kempsey, but we heard on the radio there was a major traffic hold up at Macksville north of Kempsey where a car had collided with a semi. We had morning tea and lunch in the park beside the bridge and went for a walk around the shops to fill in time until we heard the road was open again, apparently witnesses told the police the car had veered across the road and went head on into the semi, that enabled the investigation to be cut short so they could open the road again, the old chap driving the car must have had a heart attach or blacked out.

Our safari continued on our way up the Pacific Highway through Macksville and onto Coffs Harbour, we turned left towards Coramba, continuing on through Nana Glen to Glenreagh where we stayed at the Glenreagh Recreation Grounds, which is a very quiet spot with lots of grass and surrounded by hills on all sides and there were only a few others staying there as well. Naturally the disc bowls came out and we had another practice, then happy hour before the cold sent us inside.

12/5/2012: We drove out through Glenreagh where they had a street stall in the local church so we all stopped and had a chat with the locals and bought a few things, the locals seemed to enjoy our company as much as we enjoyed their company. The sun was out and it was a lovely day, the road was not too busy and the drive was pleasant. We reached Grafton and made our way over the strange bridge which we feel was an engineering mishap as it has two quite unusual corners, making it difficult for long vehicles they need to stop and allow the traffic to break to be able to negotiate the corners.
After Grafton we turned onto the Summerland Highway and drove 90 odd kilometers to Breamer Park where we arrived in time to have another disc bowls practice beside a shelter shed where we had our happy hour and I lit a citronella candle to keep the mosquitos away, we ended up sitting there in the dark chatting away until Bob arrived about 6pm. Naturally we had to catch up with Bob and what he had been doing in Port Macquarie so we sat for another hour before we went indoors to cook dinner.

Breamer Park

Casino Village camp site - 2.5 metre hedges around each site on 'Magnolia Row'

13/5/2012: Cool morning, Rosemarie left early to go to church, so Lyn, Pat, Bob, Lloyd and I made our way to Casino where I picked up a few supplies and we went to Casino Village RV Resort and booked in for a week. I caught up with the washing and we practiced our disc bowls again.

14/5/2012: Cool morning - sunny day. Rosemarie, Bob, Judy, Roy and I, caught the local bus into Casino where we wandered around the shops until we could catch the bus again, the driver pointed out north, west, and south Casino before he took us back to east Casino where the Casino Village RV Resort is located.
We were amazed Casino is quite a big town and has an Abattoir, there are a lot of older houses but also quite a few new homes and the people seem to take a lot of pride in keeping them neat and tidy.

We had time for more disc bowls and went to the BBQ hut for happy hour, a sausage sizzle and finding out what our teams were called and collect our hats with the appropriate bird name on them. The Ladies Tripples were the Terns, the Men’s Tripples were The Snipes, The pairs were Rosemarie and Bob the Chickens, Judy and Roy The Ospreys, Lyn was with another chap and they were Hens and Lloyd and I were Crakes, which we have never heard of.
The BBQ hut was very cold, windy and smokey, we were glad when it was over so we could return to our motor homes and get warm again.

15/5/2012: 6 - 22 degrees - Sun and wind. We turned up at 9.30 am for a 10 am start in our Sydney Wanderers Uniforms and enjoyed our games, umpiring and scoring where necessary, we had a good day with a lot of wins under our belts.

 Di lining up a shot

 Lloyd gets a disk in the air

Sydney Wanderers team

16/5/2012: 10 - 24 degrees. Sun and wind. The competition continued all day again with most of our teams scoring wins. We had a short rest then caught the courtesy bus into the RSM Casino and had dinner.

17/5/2012: 14 - 24 degrees. Sun and wind. A rest day, but we went into Casino to buy bits and pieces to decorate our bird hats and the table for the Saturday night dinner. We had lunch at the RSM and returned to the Casino Village for happy hour and a game of cards after dinner.

18/5/2012: 14 - 24 degrees. Sun and wind. Back to the Disc Bowls competition all day, we made it to the semi finals and were beaten by 1 point in a tie breaker in the Ladies Tripples and Lloyd and I were also beaten by 1 point in the pairs, so we need to practice more for next time.

19/5/2012: We watched the finals, decorated our tables for the dinner and all went to Happy Hour and enjoyed our meal. We said our goodbyes to Roy and Judy as they were leaving early in the morning.

 

 Ladies tripples team

Presentation Dinner

20/5/2012: Lloyd and I decided to stay another day, so we said goodbye to everyone except Pat and Lyn and had a catch up day and played disc bowls in the afternoon to try and improve our games.

21/5/2012: Lloyd and I had a 10am appointment for the Coaster to have a grease and oil change, so we wandered around Casino and stocked our fridge up with food to continue our trip.
We rang Tony and Di in Murwillumbah and drove up to Kyogle and across to Murwillumbah to have afternoon tea with them both, Di is looking OK but finds it hard to get her breath so she cannot go out of the house except for doctors appointments. Tony is doing a good job of caring for her and it was lovely to see them both. We had to rush down the Highway trying to reach Mullumbimby, we were not sure if there were many hills to reach Mullumbimby, so we decided to go to Brunswick Heads for the night. We may not be going there again, the Van Park was very expensive.

22/5/2012: We drove down the coast road to Byron Bay for a lookaround then to Lennox Head and Ballina and then down the Highway to Grafton where we stayed at the Grafton Showground, we met our neighbours John and Maria from the Sunshine Coast, they are a lovely couple traveling around like us.

 Byron Bay with Mt Warning in the distance (a little left of centre)

 Lennox Head

 Split Solitary Island

Moonee Beach

23/5/2012: Said goodbye to John and Maria and headed down the highway to Crescent Head, where we checked in for four nights to have a catch up with our blog and a rest. We had stayed here on our way up to Casino and we like the place as it has a 6 hole golf course and a bowling club a hundred metres from the caravan park. The Malibu Surf Classic surfboard competition is on for the next three days, so that will be interesting.

 

Crescent Head panorama

24/5/2012: I caught up with the washing and met one of our neighbours and while we were chatting the wind came up and people had gone out and left their awnings out so we took our own in an wound others in to prevent any damage and Lloyd went to the aid of a tent making a lot of noise only to run into Dave Duckworth and his wife Sherry, Lloyd and Dave worked together at Telstra, Burwood. We ended up spending the afternoon playing lawn bowls with them at the local bowls club and having a Chinese meal together, then went back to their van and played cards, we enjoyed their company.

25/5/2012: 20 - 21 degrees - rain. Caught up with Dave and Sherry before they left, their new van is very comfortable and has lots of great features. Unfortunately Lloyd forgot to get a photo of Dave and Sherry with their new van which is an Adria Altea made in Slovenia, so we have no photo. We enjoyed watching Dave with his new toy, a remote control caravan mover to turn the caravan around to attach it to his car, it’s a pity you cannot use it for boats, I guess they will come up with a waterproof one some day.
We spent the rest of the day catching up with the blog.

We went for a walk in the afternoon to watch some of the competitors in the Surf Classic and to walk up the headland, we saw the board riders and beside them were bait fish, so the birds were dive bombing the fish, an amazing sight, some of the birds must knock themselves out as they seem to stay on the water surface for a long time.

 

 

One of the surf competitors had an 

old car and a 1945 home made caravan

just big enough for him. 

 

Crescent Head Caravan Park

26/5/2012:  11 - 21 degrees.  Sun and wind.  Went for a walk up to the headland then watched the golfers and walked to the shops.  In the afternoon, Lloyd rested as his back was not feeling very good after standing around talking to neighbours, so I introduced our neighbours to disc bowls and we played all afternoon.

 

Tomorrow we leave Crescent Head and head down the highway to Coopernook to stay the night, and we intend calling in on Pauline and Frank to see how Frank is recovering from his stroke.  We then intend to call in on Lyn and Neil at Hawks Nest, then Carol and Loy at Corlette and finally Alison in Woongara.  After all our visiting we hope we catch them all at home, (of course we will ring first), we intend driving to Bundilla Scout Camp, at Winston Hills where we will catch up with our Sydney Wanderers group until next Sunday when we end our round the block trip and return home, until next month and the next rally in October at Boonah in Queensland.

 

After all our travelling and seeing many lovely places, I feel the grass is not greener everywhere else, our NSW coastline is rather spectacular and the grass is greener at home.

 

This is the last post to our blog, hope you enjoyed the photos and description of where we have been.

 

Cheers

 

Di and Lloyd