Jun 18, 2013 - Monorail and more!

The best laid plans… We started the day a bit late – 9:00ish – with breakfast at the hotel. Then we made our way down the street a bit to the monorail station. At every corner there is a button to cross and most folks wait for the signal. Alice… not so much. But we still made it with no troubles. I bought a single ride ticket – a mistake I later found out. In any event, Monorail! We went from Centre City to Convention Center – one stop past where we were supposed to get off. It was OK because there was a pedestrian bridge over the harbor...

Jun 18, 2013 - Did Len McConnell ever meet Banjo Patterson?

There was movement at the Van Park as the word was passed around... Ooooops wrong poem... Today was an exciting mix of non adventure, waited till the fog started to lift then drove out to Stuart Town aka Iron Bark. I don't remember it, I vaguely remember the railway station as when we worked in Orange, Email used to hire a train to take us all on the works picnic at Xmas to Stuart Town, a marquee was set up and a Christmas Party ensued, then it was back on the train to Orange.... Those were the days, “Works Picnics”. Stuart Town was...

Jun 17, 2013 - City Tour

We got up at 6:15 after a fairly restless night – our room was quite near the train tracks and they rumbled on and off all night. Anyway, up and to breakfast – Alice didn’t want any. Then we headed outside and across the small park to our meeting place for the tour bus. It was just a collection bus that took us to the main terminal by the ferry dock. Once there we were joined by about 15 other folks and we piled on the bus for our city tour. We went first to “The Rocks” which is a district in Sydney of marinas and expensive houses and the...

Jun 17, 2013 - Wellington Caves

Woke this morning to subzero temp and a pea soup outside. I used to work with a guy who was nick named “London Fog” because he never lifted.... We stayed inside till around 11:30 then wandered all of 50 metres to the Japanese Gardens and had a bit of a look and took a few pics. Its quite nice but not comparable to the one at Cowra... Walked down to the Golf course then back up to the bottle house before heading back to the Van for a bowl of soup, Minestrone, not Brown Windsor, if I want Brown Windsor soup I'd have to cook it myself. Now...

Jun 16, 2013 - Wellington NSW

After an exhausting drive of 155Km we are camped at Wellington Caves. Quite a nice park; $66 for 3 nights – can't complain about that! Nice and quiet apart from the whine of the commutators and straight cut gears on Electric Golf Buggies heading off for a round, really why ruin a good walk by hitting a little ball and chasing it? Ventured into the Visitors centre after lunch (yes we got here for lunch) and another piece of the puzzle re Fardy slid into place. The question is; why did he bring his new wife Mabel to Wellington after their...

Jun 16, 2013 - Across Australia

A nice easy start to the day. Up around 8:00, a nice shower, and down to the lobby for breakfast. Forgot my room number (!) but we eventually figured it out. Breakfast was quite good with a large selection of items – and, oddly enough, the eggs did not have bacon in them. The odd thing was a bird – a magpie – that was in the dining room landing at tables and eating people’s left overs. Servers didn’t seem to mind. If there were no empty tables the bird would squawk. Back to the room and finished packing then to the lobby. Transport showed...

Jun 15, 2013 - Sofala at a glance

An amazing weather change overnight, woke up to pleasant sunshine. They day did remain coolish though... After a brief bout with the Good Guys to get a new PVR for the van we set off for Sofala. Carol even asked for the “Best Price” she must have picked that up from me in Hong Kong.... I sort of found where my Granddad lived according to the information supplied by the researcher, Beth, at Bathurst Library. He gets a spot too on the Memorial Roll of Honour alas the Soldiers Hall was locked so couldn’t get inside but the chap who runs the...

Jun 14, 2013 - Return To Orange

Drove to Orange this morning. Its changed a lot since we lived here (as one may expect). The Bathurst Orange Development Corporation were trying to develop the 2 cities back then – yet another Government football/hot potato that achieved little....We had a look around town took a cuppla shots of our first house, part of the deal of moving to Orange was that you got a new house.... Then drove out to Mt Canobolas via “The Pinnacles”... Mount Canobolas is as claimed the highest point in New South Wales west of the Great Dividing Range, but is...

Jun 13, 2013 - Bathurst, thawing out....

We missed the morning tide by an hour... Had to complete yet more paper work from Taree Base Hospital – poor Aunt Vera has been admitted again – she hasn't been eating her prunes. Then we got under way and decided to stop at Goulburn for lunch at the only place in Goulburn where you can park a van....We did wind the windows down and yell out to Robin & Irene aka Sylvia but I guess they were both inside sheltering from the sleet which started to fall during lunch. Karen was smart enough to direct us through the back streets to the Oberon...

May 18, 2013 - Back where it all started

May 18 - 25 Our final destination on this trip is back where we began at Crescent Head. We have certainly noticed a big drop in temperature particularly overnight. So far Davo has caught a record 55cm flattie here. We will be returning home with a freezer full of fish. Cazza is researching one arm golf, (quite popular in America) and has had a couple of games with Davo as her caddie. It has been a great trip even with the unexpected change of plans. The NT and Kimberley's is just another adventure to look forward to in a few years. Maybe...

May 12, 2013 - Pottsville

May 12 - 17 A little coastal village called Pottsville in northern NSW was our next stop. Pottsville South tourist park is on the banks of Mooball Creek. As we were only about a 30 minute drive south of Coolangatta we made a few trips up there for Davo to surf near the famous Snapper Rocks, we also went sightseeing at Mount Tamborine on the Skywalk, and went to the Outback Spectacular Show, which didn't disappoint us, (although we had a few sad moments of reflection that this was the closest we would get to the outback on this trip.) On...

May 10, 2013 - On the air again!

By now you must be thinking we've fallen off the edge of the world, but never fear, we're still here. We've been plagued with computer/Internet problems - my modem had been deactivated by Telstra because I hadn't used it for a while; my E-Pad (which holds my life)shut down and had to be replaced and that took time, but hopefully everything is ok now. We're now at Bright in North East Victoria after spending time in Wagga with Mum but I'll start where I left off weeks ago. April 7 Through Kempsey to Crescent Head to find Point Plomer for a...