Kuttabul

From Clairview we headed towards Mackay. On the way Liz rang around and found a campsites at the Kuttabul Hotel for just $15 a night – so we headed out there. Kuttabul turned outt o be a little town surrounded by cane fields (no real surprise about the cane fields really!). The hotel itself however was located about 3 km’s outside the town (also surrounded by cane fields however).

At first glance it appeared a little bleak and Liz said that she felt a little like she was in Crocodile Dundee when she walked into the hotel itself. Once we settled in however it turned out to be very comfortable and friendly. To make things even better we found that $15 was only for the first night – all nights following were then just $10 – which made it close to the cheapest caravan park we have found. Unlike most parks it also had very roomy individual toilet and shower rooms, so all in all it was a win all around.

On the first afternoon the kids and I headed into Mackay for a look around and to do some shopping. This was again not significantly different to many of the other coastal cities we had visited, with a busy port, marina facilities and shopping to support both the town and the surrounding hinterland.

Next day we headed up to Eungulla in search of platypus. On the way we came across a trail to a lookout called the Sky Window. This looked out over the valley where all the cane fields were, with the forested mountain sides on either side – quite a magnificent view.

A bit further on was an area of rain forest that had a stream meandering through it. In the stream we were told were abundant platypus that would just go about there business oblivious to any nosy humans. Before we headed to the stream however we decided to take one of the rainforest walks and have a look around, which met the expectations of rain forest trails.

Back to the stream and a viewing platform had been set up to ensure us blundering mammals didn’t make too much of a mess of the environment. As promised there were platypus going about their daily business – mainly consisting of swimming about looking for food. In addition there were several turtles nosing about as well as a range of waterbirds and some very busy water beetles. This ended up being one of those times when just standing looking was enough to remove several hours of the day.

Following this it was back to the campsite in preparation for the drive to Cairns.

Clairview

Sunday saw us moving on once more – so after farewells with Pat and George it was ‘On the Road Again’. Driving is starting to consist of longer distances again as we head back into more remote areas.

Due to the distances we want to make over the next few drives the GPS has had the ‘preference for minor roads’ removed and we will be predominantly following highways.

First step was to make Rockhampton for lunch, with an ultimate destination of Mackay (although we had a couple of alternate stops in place depending on where we were as late afternoon set in). Rockhampton again had a Bunbury(ish) feel about it although this is a judgement made entirely on a quick drive through. The highlight of Rockhampton ended up being purchasing an armful of Dixie Drumsticks for less than a dollar each – pity the things we were actually looking for were so expensive in the shop we stopped at that we didn’t buy anything we actually wanted.

As we continued North it became obvious we weren’t going to make it to Mackay that night (not without pushing through and setting the van up in the dark anyway). We therefore skipped to our first alternate destination and pulled into the small community of Clairview. I am strongly of the opinion that the transient population far outweighed the permanent population, with a packed caravan park greeting us as we made our way to a free park area a bit further down the road which had at least 25 sites occupied. This free site was a great spot with good quality toilets available and the beach (or mud flats as the kid decided after playing in them for a while) right there. The popularity of the place proves that we aren’t the only people to have been impressed – it is obviously well known to regular travellers of this region.

Next door to the toilet block was a community centre and I was exceptionally impressed to find that the local Women's Action Group set up a small stall from there the next morning with several of the travellers dropping in for things. From our perspective it provided a very welcome home baked morning tea while we finished the haul to Mackay. I am always impressed when people find a way to make value out of popular free camping spots.

Good, Bad and Downright Ugly

Next stop on the trek North was Miriam Vale, where we lobbed on the Pat and George (parents of some friends from back home). Miriam Vale is South of Gladstone by about 70km.
Our first day in the area gave us an opportunity to explore Seventeen Seventy and Agnes Bay. This proved the value of talking to people who live in the area as we had never heard of them before but pat and George suggested it was the first place we should look over. Seventeen Seventy was the first place in Queensland to have European land, and only the second place in Australia Captain Cook came ashore (after Botany Bay – OF COURSE). No prizes for guessing the year that it happened or why the town is called Seventeen Seventy.
Agnes Waters is located about 6km from Seventeen Seventy and the two towns seem to operate almost as one entity from what we could see. The beaches were pleasant and the fishing is apparently very good.
Like many holiday destinations we have passed through in Queensland however their seems an almost unhealthy abundance of properties on the market. This was something we had already noted when we visited Tambourine Mountain and I ma wondering if Queensland tourism is currently struggling a bit although from the number of caravans, motor homes caper vans and caper trailers we have seen on the road, that part of the market at least seems to still be strong.
The next day we had a guided tour through Benaraby, Gladstone, Boyne Island and Tannum. Pat and George had spent many years living at Boyne Island, Pat worked at Benaraby and George in Gladstone so they well and truly knew there way around.
Looking at the dam that supplies the Gladstone water supply was amazing, especially as George was saying that before the floods it had just 6 months water left in it, with the dam wall being extended in order to improve the catchment volume in the case of extreme weather events. As it turned out the extension had only just been finished when the floods came and the water was still running over when we were there, so water shouldn’t be a problem in Gladstone for a few years again.
Driving around Gladstone was amazing. It was a Saturday and after living in Bunbury for several years we were astounded at the lack of activity on the streets. While people often talk about Bunbury being quiet I reckon if they spent some time in Gladstone Bunbury would feel like it was crazy busy. This didn’t ring right given that Gladstone is a significantly bigger port than Bunbury, but I guess life doesn’t always make sense.
The industrial development also appears to be having a dichotomous effect on the local economy, with rental properties almost completely unavailable and asking huge prices due to development of a major gas hub amongst other developments. Of course this has created the problem that people not on these high resource industry wages are unable to afford to live in the area, an issue also being faced in WA by places like Karratha. The difference for me is that Gladstone is no where near as remote.
While there we went to a local park for lunch where we spent a couple of hours spotting turtles mooching about in the lake. Just as we were about to leave Max also spotted an eel doing its thing along the edge of the lake.
The other event of the day was Harry buying himself a new camera (which in the end we decided we should actually pay for). We had given him our old one and bought a new one for Max. Harry’s however had started taking pictures with a dark pink background and then ripping through batteries in minutes. Initially we had thought it was something he had done to it (he had also managed to reset the language to Chinese), however on searching the web came across a forum that suggested these problems were actually quite common. Needless to say Harry was exceptionally happy following this and has spent a large amount of time since snapping random images.
The camera itself ended up coming from Harvey Norman and if it wasn’t for the fact that Haz was beside himself with excitement there is every chance we would have walked out without a camera. The service may explain the quietness of the town (especially given that the only place we didn’t receive awful service was Domino’s). Again, Bunbury was made to look fantastic in comparison, which may surprise some.
What’s more the manager only seemed to leave an argument with Liz in order to start one with another customer. As the camera was for Harry Liz asked what the cheapest one they carried was and was pointed towards one right where she was standing. She was also looking for a couple of other things and while finding them came across the same camera that Max has for a significantly lower price than the one that was supposed to be the cheapest in the store. After some argy-bargy we finally got what we were actually looking for, with the manager wandering off to another customer while the person on the till apologised for the way he and one of the camera sales people had treated us. As I walked back to find the kids I came across the manager getting stuck into another customer because he wanted to sell floor stock to save having to get a large screen TV out of the warehouse, yet when the customer suggested he was willing to consider this if the price was made to his advantage the manager then got stuck into him. Not quite the customer service standards I was brought up with!

Sunshine Coast Musings

Leaving Canungra, we headed to Buderim, to visit one of Liz’s uncles. Rather than going  straight up through Brisbane we took a round-a-bout route via Ipswich. The only ting this achieved other than making the drive more enjoyable was to allow me to change Harry's chair over.

 

After his original one went up in smoke in the Watagin Forest I had bought him a new one while we were in Coffs Harbour, however that collapsed the first time it was used so I was waiting to come across a Big W (not the high quality of the replacement) to change it over. This time it seems to be holding up to actually being sat on.

 

Arriving at Buderim itself was fantastic, as Tim, Suzanne and the kids have always been welcoming and good company, although things were a little frantic. Sarah had only returned from being on exchange in the Netherlands two days before and Lotte (the daughter of teh family she had been staying with) had arrived two days before that to spend a year on exchange in Australia. I think the transition from one daughter to three was taking a little to get used to.

 

Luckily for us Tim was on holiday and around the whole time we were there. Buderim is a lovely town on top of a mountain North of Brisbane. During our time there we managed to mix the mundane (changing oil etc in the car) with the magnificent (Buderim Ginger Factory). One of the early highlights was climbing My Coolum. Max was the funniest – whinging about how hard it was for the first half of the climb, until Tim offered to carry his camera (all 500 grams of it) at which point he then ran the rest of the way up!

 

We started out by visiting Maleny (where Tim and Suzanne used to live and still have a small farm) for lunch. This reminded me a little of a mix between Nannup, Margaret River, Balingup and Bridgetown. It didn’t appear to have the industry backing Margaret River of Bridgetown, but offered more than Balingup or Nannup.

 

That night Liz and I disappeared for what is likely to be our only night without the kids – Indian in Buderim followed by coffee in Mooloolaba (which I think Liz now wants to move to just to provide an excuse to say the town name more often ). Mooloolaba certainly provided an interesting counterpoint to the Gold Coast as it felt much more welcoming and we genuinely enjoyed the feel and atmosphere.

 

In between me swearing at the Pathfinder (Nissan seem to have an ability to make oil filters virtually impossible to access – and then when I finally got to it it had been over-tightened at the last service) we spent a lovely afternoon at the Buderim Ginger Factory (located in Yandina). This was significantly better than our expectations and we all left feeling that we probably should have given ourselves a few more hours there.

 

We visited Maleny again after that, this time to wander around the farm. Tim has planted part of it to rainforest trees with a view to the craft timber market in the future as timber becomes more difficult to access. The highlight of this trip was probably however the kids and Liz playing with a back hoe.

 

All in all our time there was very enjoyable and Tim, Suzanne, Sarah, Rachel and Lotte were all extremely accommodating – especially considering the circumstances. Once again it is time to move on again, I think Liz is appreciating the fact that we are definitely getting into warmer country now.

Gold Coast to Lamington National Park – a Real Dichotomy

And so Max awoke, 9 years old and 155cm (5 foot 1) tall with much excitement. This was dampened a little a it was a pack up morning, but as we had promised to spend the afternoon celebrating, he wasn’t too disappointed.

 

Our first need was to remove ourselves from New South Wales. We decided the appropriate manner was to travel through Tweed Heads into Coolangatta before heading inland. By the time we made it into Queensland we had pretty much made up our minds as to where we were going to camp, so headed up to the lucky town of Canungra. By just after lunch we were all set up and ready to party (in a nine year old sort of way). We had given Max the opportunity to decide what he would like to do and he had plumped for an afternoon at the movies followed by dinner. A quick scour of the GPS found movie theatres at Nerang, which is basically the next town so off we went.

 

On arriving the choice came down to Cars 2 or Kung Fu Panda 2 and Max decided on Cars (based around the fact that he had seen the original Cars, although couldn’t remember it, while had never been interested in the first Kung Fu Panda). Before the movie started Max and I went for a walk to see what was available for tea afterwards. We found Tandoori, Thai, Wood-fired Pizza, Sushi and several other options all in close proximity so Max decided on…………….. Fish & Chips.

 

The movie was better than I was expecting and much better than Max was expecting (as we found out both during and after). The fish and chips were also a winner and he decided it was one of his best birthdays which is fantastic given it is the only one he has spent with just his immediate family. To finish the night off we headed up into the Lamington National Park, to the Natural Bridge to hunt for glow worms. This was a magical walk, although I think Liz found it a little challenging in the dark. As it turned out it is a very well visited place with around 300 people trekking through every night. luckily for us we arrived before any of the tourist coaches so were able to have it pretty much all too ourselves.

 

Next day we designated a rest day, with the kids getting to explore the Canungra Showgrounds, complete with rodeo arena and river winding its way around much of the perimeter.

 

Today we well and truly made up for it. Firstly we headed up to Tamborine Mountain, which turned out to be a community of around 6,500 people. From what we could see it predominantly revolved around tourism and the floods at the start of the year hit them pretty hard with a surprising number of properties on the market. This followed on from stories we had read in the local Gold Coast papers talking about the high unemployment in the region and the correspondingly high level of crime.

 

Tamborine Mountain itself was well worth the visit, before we headed back down towards the Gold Coast itself. I must admit we weren’t really expecting a lot out of this part of the day but thought we should at least drive through. In the end it met our expectations, with the countryside we had passed through and our (certainly mine and Max’s anyway) preference for smaller places meaning that it didn’t really provide any sort of ‘must stop’ incentive, except for the fact that we were there at lunch time and so found a nice waterside park to eat lunch in. Once we had finished tooling along the coastline we headed back inland to O’Reilly’s, to visit Australia’s first tree-top walk. This involved 30 odd k’s of winding roads up the mountains which is currently vying for my favourite drive of the trip, before we reached our destination. The walk was lovely and it really rounded off the day beautifully. It also delivered a fantastic counter-point to the Gold Coast experience, with O’Reilly’s much more likely to become a future holiday destination than the coastal strip at this point in time.

 

All in all we have really enjoyed staying in Canungra and the surrounding areas (Nerang through to the Lamington National Park) have been beautiful and could easily be lived in, however jobs and industry do seem to be an issue. The fact that I recently set the GPS to minor roads and shortest distance rather than quickest time also seems to have improved the roads it takes us down. Previously I was diverting down interesting looking roads with it swearing at us, now it is taking us down the interesting looking roads all of its own accord!

The Eastern-most Point in Australia

Day dawned in Mullumbimby and, unlike our previous camp, no ice was apparent. After getting ourselves sorted out we decided the first stop should be Byron Bay. It wasn’t until we got there that we realised it was a Sunday, but this didn’t seem to have any effect as everything was open and busy. It then dawned on us that it was also the middle weekend of school holidays, which may have helped explain why, when we tried to visit the lighthouse every possible parking option for three kilometres was already taken. After a similar experience at the next beach area we tried to visit we decided to try our luck in the town itself and if this also didn’t work – then find something else to explore and come back the next day hoping that it may be marginally quieter given some people may be back at work.

 

Luckily the town itself was easy enough to park in so we had a wander. One of the first things we discovered was that there was also an international junior surfing competition running in Byron which would only have added to the people around and probably meant that coming back the next day didn’t help much anyway.

 

Byron Bay itself was a visit that we had been uncertain of for some time as it has a reputation for being both beautiful and quirky, however having lived in Margaret River we were interested to find out how much of this remained and how much was a reputational hangover from earlier days. As it turned out the reputation was well founded and the town probably hung together better due to Margaret River. This in part appears to be due to the main street being flatter, whereas Margaret Rivers main street is a fair uphill toil. In addition the railway line running adjacent to the main street, although now disused, has resulted in minimal cross streets giving a greater level of continuity to the shopping strip. Finally, the warmer climate has probably resulted in a different feel to both he style of shops and the set-up of the strip. I am not sure for instance that the ice cream shop would have been doing the same volume of trade in July if it was located in Margaret River!

 

The first thing to catch Max’s eye was Subway, but we were able to ignore his multi-faceted (and anything but subtle) hints for long enough to wander several other blocks. Eventually this included coming across an Asian foods store that also sold Yum Cha. Liz therefore ordered a range of pieces and we introduced the kids to one of our favourite treats. Harry was also excited as only chop sticks were offered and he has always liked eating with them. This liking may in part stem from Max’s unwillingness to even try however.

 

This time, with no choice, a rumbling belly and a great liking for food generally, Max was forced to persevere with the chop sticks for a while, with the outcome being that he ended up reasonably proficient (for a first try) with them and actually decided he didn’t mind using them. Harry also developed a taste for Jasmine tea although we are yet to discover whether he genuinely likes tea itself (he also professes to like peppermint tea) or just the concept of drinking tea. Max on the other hand is demonstrating a general dislike of all things tea, which makes my tastes (black tea or green/jasmine tea only) seem cosmopolitan by comparison.

 

Continued exploring through the town unearthed several shops that could have resulted in me having to find a few weeks work to enable us to continue if Liz had been unchaperoned for any period of time. In fact Liz decided she could happily live in Byron Bay and I worked out that it was unlikely I would ever find a job anywhere that could support her living in Byron Bay .

 

Last stop in town was a home-made ice cream shop we had discovered earlier. The range was phenomenal with the result that Max decided to purchase himself a triple scoop to enable him to at least try three different flavours and Harry went for a double for the same reason (by this stage Harry had already spent too much elsewhere to allow himself any more). Liz and I however confined ourselves to much more conservative helpings that were nonetheless beautiful.

 

We took these with us and decided to try the lighthouse once more in the hope that the numbers of people had thinned since the morning. This seemed an unlikely chance with the sun due to start setting, but you never know.

 

When we arrived we were startled to find that parking spots galore were available at the peak, so disembarked and set about having a poke around. One interesting find was to see that the original two assistant lighthouse keepers residences are now rented out as holiday accommodation. If I ever visited Byron for a holiday in the future this would be one of my accommodation options for exploration, as the idea of being able to step out at both sundown and sunup appeals, even if I would probably want to disappear for the days themselves given the number of visitors the place attracts.

 

The lighthouse itself appeared similar to others we have visited in South-West Western Australia (unsurprising really given that they were all built in similar times and for exactly the same reason), but the lookouts were a must, both for the picturesque nature of the coast and the opportunity to visit the Eastern most point of Australia. The whole ambience of wandering around a beautiful coastline at the Eastern most point in Australia, home-made ice-creams in hand while the sun set was phenomenal.

 

Next day Liz was feeling the strain a little and needed a quiet day in camp so the boys and I set off to find a beach. We ended up at Brunswick Heads (appropriate really given we were camping on the banks of the Brunswick River), which wasn’t particularly exciting from the point of surf, but was fantastic for the kids. This was the first time they had really had the chance for a swim since we set-off as the weather had finally warmed.

 

The whole of the morning was therefore spent relaxing and playing in and around the water. At about 2pm we decided it really was time for lunch so I went up to the car to put something together. As I was in the process of making lunch however I accidentally closed one of the doors, only to find that the keys had fallen out of my pocket and were lying on the floor of the car, my mobile was sitting on the front seat and when the keys had landed in the car they had obviously hit something that depressed the lock button –v so there I was – car locked, no way of getting in, spare key back in Mullumbilly with Liz, lunch half made inside a car sitting inn the sun with the fridge door still open to ensure that all the food in it should spoil, no way of contacting Liz and the kids still happily playing on the beach although starting to get agitated due to hunger pains growing.

 

Luckily, just as I did it a guy pulled up into the neighbouring parking space and before he had even got out of his car he obviously worked out that something was amiss. He immediately offered to drive me back to pick up the spare keys, so I fetched the kids and off we went. On the way he explained that when it came to cars he believed a little in karma and worked on the fact that he would need assistance every so often, therefore it was only right and fair that he helped others out when they needed it. This worked out for me as I had only jump started another camper that morning and have a similar belief so all ended up right with the world, although lunch was delayed by half an hour.

 

Following this, and a roast that night that Max decided was one of the best meals he had ever eaten, and the first roast he had ever enjoyed it was time to start getting sorted out for our sortie into Queensland, the last mainland Australian State yet to be visited on this trip. After the kids went to bed however there was also a need for some decorations as it was Max’s ninth birthday the next morning – so out with the streamers and balloons.

The Importance of Community Pride

While driving around one thing that has really stood out is the importance of community pride. A town like Balingup has it and I guess that meant that I grew up expecting it to be the norm.
To me community pride is exhibited in several ways, including:

• being genuinely positive when talking about the place you live in
• doing the little things required to help keep the place you live in attractive (picking up litter etc.)
• getting involved in community organisations and activities
• taking friends, colleagues etc. to visit your favourite places within your community

A blog by Chris Brogan springs to mind regarding some of these elements -
This topic came to mind when we were walking around Moree and Max and Harry asked me “why there was so much rubbish on the streets and graffiti on the buildings”. It set in train a discussion (pitched obviously towards a 7 and 9 year old) about why people look after some places and not others. To my mind this largely revolves around community pride.

Places we had previously visited, such as Yacka and Bellingen obviously exhibited it, although in vastly different ways. Yacka was a small town somewhat in decline – yet with a genuine local spirit and desire to  preserve and maintain the town. This has resulted in a ‘town walk’ being created to showcase the town’s history to visitors as well as a local archives.

Bellingen on the other hand is a vibrant hub, with funky little shops and what would appear to be a growing population. Both towns however appear full of residents who genuinely care for their towns and are proud of where they live and how it presents to outsiders.

Moree on the other hand had the opposite feel (even discounting things we had heard about the place prior to arriving). The scene was set when, just after I had finished setting up camp a ‘local’ wandered past on his evening constitutional and stopped to say ‘you better lock everything up tight in this town’. Whether this was right or not, the message was delivered in a manner that definitely suggested he wasn’t particularly proud of ‘his town’.

This was then followed up with the discussion with the kids – which really hit home as I figure that if the kids notice something of this nature then it is pretty obvious. It also suggested to me that pride is partly learned, as it is through our teaching that the kids generally pick up litter when they see it (and have a profound dislike of graffiti – especially tagging).

This isn’t to suggest that Moree has nobody with a sense of pride in their community, just that is is heavily outweighed by people who obviously don’t care enough to put their litter in the bin, while Bellingen undoubtedly has people who do litter etc. however being in the minority this is quickly cleaned up by others.

The difficulty is how to turn around a situation where there is a low level of community pride. There is obviously no magic pill that can be out in the water and often early steps to improve places can be quickly destroyed by the elements that have no pride. I would suggest that it is simply something that has to be persevered with and promoted within the community. The key thing to keep in mind is why should others be impressed/attracted to my town if I am not?

To go back to Chris Brogan’s post linked above – what are the places in your community that you have pride in taking your visitors to? If there aren’t any, what can/are you going to do tho change that? Are there places that you would like to be able to take people to and why can’t you? How do you have an impact to change this?

I am a firm believer in bottom up development being the most successful and long-term. This therefore suggests that one person can make a difference if they have genuine desire and stick at it.

Ice Without Fire

In the end our planned leaving of Moree was put off for a day due to Liz being ill. This resulted in the kids getting the chance to sit in the local library reading for a couple of hours, as well as me having an additional day to spend with Lauren.

While in town I had an interesting discussion with a local shopkeeper who was talking about the recent downturn Moree had been dealing with. He was very upbeat about the future with a new solar array being installed and farming conditions picking up recently, but what impressed me most was the attitude he had regarding the difficult times he had been experiencing.

Instead of being all downhearted, he was talking about the opportunity and impetus it had provided to really look at the business itself and spend time finding ways to improve its profitability. The result is a number of middle men being cut out – with the result that its pricing is now far better than even chain stores in the same retail space. They have also identified a significant product gap in the local market place and are in the middle of opening another store to take advantage of this.

When this was combined with the recent change of focus at the Showgrounds (after a lengthy chat with the caretaker) it shows clearly how adversity can often result in very positive outcomes if people take a positive attitude into their decision making.

Channelling all that positive energy I decided to try and make pizza’s from the ground up in the caravan. Up until now I had cheated and bought some sort of flat bread for the bases, so this was a bit of a challenge. The outcome was at least as good as previous efforts with the flat bread, however I still have a little way to go with the Weber before they are anywhere near as good as in the oven at home – I guess I still have three months to work on that.

Next morning (actually afternoon) we did actually get on our way. It ended up being afternoon as motivating the kids to do their bits inside the van to allow us to pack up doesn’t appear to be improving with time. I always allow myself an hour to fold everything away and sort bikes etc. but this can’t start until clothes are packed and washing up done. Hopefully this will eventually also be embraced by the kids.

In the end we stopped for a late lunch at Warialda – at the local saleyards – although the saleyards didn’t look like they had been used for some time.

We then continued on through Inverell and stopped at a roadside camp half way between there and Glen Innes. This was a revisit of our night at Thredbo Diggings, with temperatures dropping well below zero. By the morning all four of us were in one bed in order to try and keep warm and there was several millimetres of ice across any water around. In fact all water sources were iced up to a greater extent than they had been in the Snowy’s. I think Liz regretted her comments of ‘come on, it’s only one night – I’ll be able to cope even though it will be a bit cold’. I am guessing free camping is back off the agenda for a few more nights following that.

Today we headed on for the coast, eventually stopping at the Mullumbimby Leagues Club. Campsites are going to be a little more difficult to find for the next couple of weeks given we are once again in the midst of school holidays, and this time in a real tourist area.

The trip to the coast was once again beautiful – full of rolling hills and forested areas, especially as we once again headed over the Great Dividing Range. Eureka, just before Mullumbimby, was the highlight. It was full off winding roads with fantastic views and roads with canopies of trees arching over them. Something you don’t often see with power lines normally adjacent to roads, requiring roadside trees to be heavily pruned.

Mullumbimby Leagues Club is another place that is taking advantage of existing facilities to provide campsites, which also diversifies their income. Game days are Sundays, so campers are advised that showers are off limits from 10am to about 6pm as they double as the change rooms. Campsites themselves are spread around the rim s of the ovals, so in addition to week long income there is also more atmosphere on game days as well as the chance for a few extra sales through the canteen.

Of Baby’s and Hot Springs

Moree is now all but done and dusted with us leaving tomorrow morning. It has been for the most part one of the more relaxed stops on the journey as our main reason for coming was to visit a cousin I am very close to, who has just had her first child. Most of the stay has therefore been spent sitting around chatting!

The first morning we did ride up to a rocket ship playground the kids had seen the previous night. They decided it had the biggest slide they had ever been on bar Kidstown.

Today we ventured up to the Municipal Artesian Baths. When Moree was first established a Canadian drilling company sank a bore into naturally heated artesian water and the hot water has been bubbling to the surface ever since. Only one pool was open as the centre is undergoing a massive renovation, but that one pool was enough to heat even Liz up – sitting at a constant 39 degrees.

While these waters appear to provide a certain amount to the local economy it surprises me that more hasn’t been made of them. The town is predominantly a service centre to the farming region around – predominantly cotton growing – however significant droughts prior to this year have seen it start to decline. An opportunity must exist to try and create an environment that can attract part of the population that normally moves North each Winter out this way instead.

Part of the difficulty here is that Moree has a reputation of not being the most visitor friendly location, but other town have turned these things around before.

Other than that Liz has got her baby fix and I have had the opportunity to spend time with Lauren for the first time in a few years so it has been very successful and now we ready ourselves to move back towards the coast and on up into Queensland. It will certainly be pleasant to get back to warmer evenings with the temperature back down towards zero at night even though the days are very pleasant.

100% of 50%

We have now reached the half way point of this trip (in time and most probably distance as well). We are currently in Moree visiting a cousin of mine who has just had a baby – so Liz is also getting her baby-fix at the same time.

This seems a good time to reflect on the first half of the journey, which has included many highs and a few lows, as well as an opportunity to really explore who we are as a family. There are not many families who get to spend 6 months together night and day in this manner and I expect it will only prove to keep us closer for the rest of our lives.

One major realisation for me is that many of the towns and places we visit, which are well-known as tourism mecca’s, have not really impressed us all that much. I think this is largely due to our comparison points now being Australia-wide whilethe reputation each of these places has forged has largely being in comparison with it’s surrounding region.

The highlights include:

• the Great Australian Bight
• swimming with Sea Lions in Baird Bay
• Yacka 
• the night spent at the Thredbo Diggings campsite in the Snowy Mountains, especially waking up to a caravan covered in ice ad the looks on the kids faces when they found their bikes had turned white.
• the Lane Cover River Caravan Park in Sydney, which had a fantastic feel and was well run by NSW Parks and Wildlife.
• the Australian Reptile Park, found by accident and unknown to us before we visited.
• Port Macquarie foreshore and the Coopernook Forest Camp
• Bellingen and surrounds
• and visiting family and friends in Melbourne, Koonoomoo, Canberra, Sydney and now Moree.

While the lowlights definitely include the number of caravan parks that seem to think they can try to double (or close to) their fees due to us having two kids with us. We have no problem with paying a little extra as there is 4 rather than 2 of us having showers, but given that most of the rest of the costs will not change with the addition of two people in the van, doubling the costs just seems unconscionable to me.

The attempted theft of gear from the car in Melbourne also mounts as a negative, as does being told by Liz’s Mum tonight that a speeding fine had come through for while we were descending into Sydney, coming down out of the mountains. I never imagined we would receive one of these while the caravan was hitched up, but obviously wasn’t riding the brakes quite hard enough at the time.

The set-up we decided on for the trip has, for the most part worked well and there are not many changes I would make to either the car or the van if I was doing it again – certainly nothing major, so it is nice to think that we nutted this out pretty well before leaving.

It has been interesting to view the changes in each individual member of the family, and the family as a whole over the past three months and I am anticipating further changes as we complete the second part of the journey. Liz certainly seems to have settled into the trip in the last few weeks after a fairly shaky start while Max seems to grow by the day (as a person really, but probably physically as well looking at him). Harry hasn’t settled as well as Max but for the most part is getting an amazing amount out of the trip – it is just a pity that his down periods are virulent enough to detract from his majority, luckily these sorts of reflective moments help to better identify this.

One thing that I have really noticed is that SA, Vic and NSW all have a more significant sense of history in the majority of their towns, however WA just feels more vibrant. NSW has certainly had the poorest roads, while the Great Ocean Road – even though the coastline was certainly rugged and beautiful – didn’t quite live up to expectations, probably due to being viewed soon after we traversed the Great Australian Bight.

Camping sites have been variable as is expected. We have come to love showgrounds when we are looking for powered sites as they are generally relaxed, friendly, uncrowded and reasonably priced with plenty of room for the kids to run around, while the interest in the major style caravan parks has definitely waned even though we didn’t intend using them much on this trip anyway. I have also been very impressed with Liz's ability to weed through the free camping sites and pick out the good ones as we are heading into new areas.

For all that it’s roads has been poorer than other states, NSW has probably had the better quality free camping sites so far on the trip. Whether this is because they are generally better, or due to us becoming more adept at identifying good ones from descriptions and the occasional photo I am unsure.

Finally, the family has also become much more hirsute, albeit in different places. While the kids and Liz are showing off ever increasing heads of hair, most of my growth see\ms to be facial!

Thanks to those of you that have kept in touch, we look forward to seeing you all soon and conversing often.

Country Music and Ski Fields

While heading for Tamworth we were still yet to decide on a place to stay. Liz spent part of the trip checking locations, prices and facilities. Once again our bug-bear of parks profiteering from children raised its head again, this time with several of the parks in Tamworth. One in particular quoted us $21 a night, but upped it to $41 as soon as they heard we had two kids. As discussed previously it staggers me that places think it reasonable to effectively double their prices when the kids are likely to cost them the sum total of an additional shower each! All the rest of the costs are already being incurred as we don’t use any more power with 4 than we do with 2.

In the end we decided on a place out of Manilla (the Manilla Ski Fields Caravan Park), which while being 70km’s additional drive from Tamworth, sounded interesting and relaxing and was very reasonably priced at $18 a night. We guessed that this pricing was based on the fact that it was a reasonably remote location that attracted few tourists. We stayed for three nights and there only one other passing van that stayed while we were there – and only for one night at that.

As the name suggests the park was right on the edge of a lake (Lake Keepit), which effectively lapped up to the park fence. It turned out we had visited at the right time however as the lake edge could sometimes be up to a couple of hundred metres away.


The park was predominantly occupied by permanent vans – different to a lot of parks however form the perspective that people couldn’t stay onsite permanently, they were only allowed to be used as holiday homes. This meant that the park still maintained a holiday feel with most vans being used as weekenders, predominantly by people with a bent for fishing, but also by a number of people that just enjoyed the peaceful surroundings. For the most part the people we encountered while there (which was several as we were there over a weekend) were very friendly and welcoming.

It was one place where we felt no need to lock anything up and the kids were able to ride their bikes around without any concerns (except for one dog that was there that managed to bite every child riding a bike while it was there (not badly enough to hurt, but certainly enough to badly scare) – with no concern showed by its owner. It turned out that the owner had been spoken to previously and there was an agreement that the dog was only allowed on site if it was chained or otherwise contained, however given that when we spoke to the owner he claimed to have nothing to tie it up with it seems that the park owners have some significant issues ahead with this one.

When we first drove in the surroundings seemed a little bleak (not surprising that we had passed through lush rain forest in mountainous country side that day to get there before finishing in quite flat, unforested farming country. Next morning when we woke up however we were astounded a the beauty and tranquillity of the park, with the sun setting off the lake and trees behind. In the end we didn’t move much on our first day there (bar me wandering into Manilla itself to replenish our food stocks), but just enjoyed the peace, with the kids hooking up with another boy staying there and enjoying spending time with someone more their age.

Manilla itself was a very pleasant looking town. One thing I am realising is that smaller towns with little growth in recent years have managed to preserve their history much better than larger growth centres (like Bunbury). Manilla was one of these where a majority of the central shopping area was made up of older, architecturally interesting, buildings. This was reinforced the next day when we spent the day wandering around Tamworth.

Like Bunbury, much of the original commercial building have been removed to make way for new developments over the years as the City grew. I guess this is the price of ‘progress’ with many of the redevelopments happening prior to the historical value of the original buildings being understood.
Tamworth was another example of a town that just blended into a number of others. The lookout at the top of town was impressive but didn’t have a really ‘wowing’ feature to overlook that would make it memorable. We stopped up there for lunch and I was surprised by how many other people visited it, however the short amount of time most of them spent there once they arrived proved that there wasn’t anything that really held people there.

Avenue behind lookout (with Max - 8 going on 16!)

remnants of lunch

SuperMax

We followed on down to the Big Golden Guitar. this included a Country Music Wax Museum, gift shop and cafe. Liz and I had been talking about what made these sort of businesses work and had arrived on a mixture of an attraction, gift outlet and cafe – which this one covered almost exactly. The only significant downfall was the unattractiveness of the cafe area, especially considering the fact that the cafe doubled as the entry to the rest of the building.

The most surprising element was a wall dedicated almost solely to Sir Donald Bradman within the cafe area. This was unexpected in a facility dedicated to the Australian Country Music scene, but interestingly kept the kids attention for longer than anything else there.

To finish the day off we hunted down a clock tower Harry had picked out when we were atop the lookout. Luckily I saw a post card of it which identified it as the Post Office building and provided its address. Some heritage signage on the street corner highlighted the previous comments regarding the difficulties of maintaining heritage in growth centres, which most of the early buildings in the City Centre now nothing more than footnotes in history.

Following a leisurely pack-up and a few final chats to people who had stayed past the weekend in the park we headed off for Moree, to catch up with a cousin of mine. This included a stop in Narrabri for lunch. The kids were excited that adjoining the park area we stopped in was an actual AFL ground – as opposed to nothing but rugby league and union fields that are obviously the norm in NSW. This resulted in a kick-around on the ground to allow the kids to have shots for a ‘proper’ goal. Max was even more impressed when he found out that the local team was the Narrabri Eagles and the logo was even correct!

we then hunted around to a Telstra shop as my new (only 4 months old) shock-proof, water-resistant, dust-resistant phone refused to work. Luckily, while in there it started working again for no more reason than it stopped in the first place apparently, but not before we had organised a proof of purchase to be faxed through from Total Telephones in Bunbury, transferred everything across to a loan phone and worked out how we were going to get the phone back to us once it was fixed given our uncertain movements. Still, provided it doesn’t do it again I am happy to not have to mess around with getting it fixed and organising to switch phones over again in the future. The store in Narrabri was extremely helpful and accommodating in this as well which made the messing around much more bearable.
On the way out of Narrabri we were therefore able to go about organising somewhere to stay in the Moree area. after a few phone calls Liz called the Visitor Centre to enquire about local showgrounds given our positive history with them so far this trip. This proved once again to be a good option, with the showgrounds being centrally located, reasonably priced and with plenty of room for the kids to run and ride around. Interestingly this was the only showgrounds we have stayed at so far that has anybody else staying there other than Warrnambool.

The Gondwana Rainforest

First morning while based at Thora we moseyed on up to Coffs Harbour. First stop was the Big Banana, however for nothing more than a photo stop. We have decided that it is important to at least let the kids see as many ‘big’ things as we can on the trip.

We then headed down to the marina area. After wandering around the fishing boats and then inspecting the array of product on display in the Fisherman’s Co-Op outlet I found a homemade ice cream store and dragged the kids over for a look as they had already decided they wanted to purchase an ice cream each (thanks Grandpa – he provided them with an ice cream allowance before we set off). No matter how good the ice creams looked however the kids still had their hearts set on packaged stuff they had already discovered elsewhere and given it was relatively freezing outside meaning neither Liz or i had any interest in ice cream that day, we managed to walk out of the store without spending a cent.

We then strolled along the breakwater up towards Mutton Bird Island while the kids polished off the ice creams, however didn’t make it the whole way as Max suddenly decided he needed to head back to the toilet and Liz was also becoming concerned that we would have to carry her back as her limbs would cease to function in the cold winds.

Following a drive around town we stopped to pick up some stuff for lunch (and a new chair for Harry after his original one became part of a campfire in the Watagan) and set out to find a playground to let the kids run off some steam. This became unbelievably difficult, even after Liz got some directions off local Parks and Gardens workers, however just as we were going to give up we spied one at a distance. By the time we were finished there we decided it was time to head home as it had been a late lunch anyway.

On the way home we stopped at a shop just outside Bellingen to see if bananas had come down to a reasonable price. While the price was significantly reduced we didn’t find any we were happy buying, but we decided it had been worth the stop just to browse around the shop. not only did it carry a huge range of local fruit and veg, but it also had a range of other gourmet products. I think they effectively carried enough of a range to negate the need to visit any other store for food supplies if desired.

Next day we spend in Belligen, starting at the The Old Butter Factory. This was both a fantastic complex of buildings and a great craft establishment, with several businesses all co-located within the complex, with some of them including artist studios and workshops adjoining the retail outlets. In many ways it reminded me of the Balingup Cheese Factory in the days when artisans were located there, only much better. This was partly because the buildings themselves were much more impressive and  partly due to the range of businesses represented.

We followed this with a visit to The Yellow Shed, which had an eclectic mix of books and gift items, with a nursery out the back. Once we had finished there we again set off on the great playground hunt, this time with even less success than the day before. In the end we dropped by the Visitor Centre and got directions (once there we realised why we had been unsuccessful as it was anything but easy to find).

We finished the day with a wander along them main street of Bellingen, including visiting a sweet shop ‘Sweet Bellingen’, that turned out to have only opened the week before. Most of the walk consisted of admiring the buildings rather than the shops themselves, with several impressive and well preserved historic buildings.

Just as we were about to leave Liz sent me to have a look at a small establishment called ‘Vintage Espresso’. This was a mixed coffee shop and second hand store, with much of the furniture on sale also being used by the coffee shop patrons which was along the lines of business ideas I had canvassed with Liz over the years.

That called to an end our visit to this area and next morning we set off for the Tamworth area. One major benefit of these few days was also a full water supply. We had struggled to find good drinking water at previous campsites and were almost at the point of buying water however the wet weather we had experienced provided an opportunity to catch enough water off the annexe to completely restore our supplies.

The trip to Tamworth started with a drive through the Gondwana Rain Forest. First stop was a lookout a few k’s off the road (Waterfall Way). The lookout itself was a bit disappointing as we could see very little due to the fog and low-lying cloud, but the drive in and out were beautiful, especially the cattle appearing out of the fog.

We then stopped at the Dorrigo Discovery Centre before we made it into Dorrigo itself. This discovery centre included an art gallery area with some beautiful paintings of local wildlife.
We started by walking out on the Skywalk which was built across a valley so that within about 50 metres it went from being at ground level to being 40 metres above ground. The view across both the close forest and the larger valley area were amazing, with a mix of fog and cloud also hanging around.

On the way out of the centre we made a decision to buy a print of one of the paintings which had particularly appealed to me, meaning that we will always have a memento of one of our favourite stops on the journey so far.

Next stop was the other side of Dorrigo, at the Dangar Falls. These provided a lovely finale to the area, with a progression of flatter farm land making up the rest of the trip.

One thing we realised after this section of the trip was how our perceptions are changing. In many ways we are becoming harder to as we travel further. I think this is largely due to the fact that as time goes on we have experienced more meaning that each place we visit is being compared to an ever increasing number off experiences. Coffs Harbour encountered this, with it becoming just another mid sized city to us, while Bellingen, Dorrigo and the road in-between managed to pull themselves above the myriad of other places we had been. In fact that area is on of the few that Liz and I have come across that we both thought we could easily live in.
Bellingen itself (at a commercial level)gave the impression of being a mixture of Margaret River, Bridgetown and Balingup without the bad bits.