Home again home again jiggety jig!
Well what a great holiday we had. Finally starting to see a bit more of the land of Oz.
the weather we experienced ranged from the scraping ice off the windows to shorts and t-shirt (I wish I had packed some)type weather. I will include a few photos here but more will be posted on THE W PHLOG over the next week or so.
-- First stop Wentworth falls, and the 3 sisters. The Mexican restaurant in the photos used to be the Quarter Deck that Boris' folks owned and they lived out the back for 8-9 years of his life (He reckons its gotten much smaller).
the 3 sisters
Casa Juanita
--Our plans to camp the first 2 nights out were cancelled as it was raining to hard to get out and set up a camp ( I blame this on the Strahl camping genes ), so we got a cabin at Oberon instead. This is near Jenolan caves, which were the first step in our grand adventure. Lots of steps, had a 10 story climb before entering the caves but they were spectacular, the photos don't do it justice.
-- Next stop Dubbo and the Western Plains Zoo. A great zoo this one, lot's of babies and a great set up!
-- Off now to the camping leg of the Journey, first stop the Warrumbungles. A range of volcanic mountains near Coonabarabran. Let me say here that the landscape on the drive was one of the most spectacular I have ever seen. Words escape me to describe the diversity and immenseness of it all. There were feilds dotted with sheep that appeared orange because of the red dust that had blown in the last year. There were kangaroos and emus just wandering around the camp area everywhere, not quite tame except for one young buck(we called him Harold for historical purposes). We stayed here a couple of days hiking around and enjoying the scenery.
--The next portion of our travel was cut a bit short due to a flat tyre in Gunnedah. After unloading everything from the boot, changing to the spare, reloading , driving to tyre shop, unloading it all again getting said tyre repaired, and reloading yet again, we could not go quite as far as planned as setting up camp in the dark didn't have much appeal at the time. Now for the silver lining to this cloud: we found a national park nearer to us and it was one of the best places I have ever camped. As it is winter there wasn't anyone else around and we spent the next 2 days with zero human contact ( not even any mobile reception). It was on the Namoi river and there was a platypus pool near our site for our personal viewing.
-- Due to the lack of miles to reach this paradise we had a big drive when we left. After scraping the ice off the windscreen we headed north through such fun sounding towns as Barraba, Bingara, Delungra, Inverell, Drake, Glen Innes, Casino, Lismore and on up to the Gold Coast. We dropped the girls at Aunty Julie and Uncle John's house to revel in the attentions of Ellie(One of the main highlights in their eyes), and went off to Uki outside of Murrwillumbah for a party we had only learned about a couple of days prior with the old gang... and since we were in the neighbourhood....
Upon waking we looked out over Mt Warning-the first place the sun hits in Oz. what a great view!
--Back to J & J's to spend a couple of days. We went out to Point Danger on the border of Queensland and New South Wales where we saw a mother whale and her calf playing right off shore. Yes Mike, we did make it to Wally World or Movie World as the case may be. So for the first time ever I went on a roller coaster that turned me upside down ( you can't count the ride at Buffalo Bill Day in Golden-remember that?).
Let us never speak of this again.
-- Down then to Coff's Harbour for the final stop. Here we partook in the usual Coff's activities:alchohol, cards, verandah sunsets, etc.
-- After 3,500 kilometres of road and immeasurable memories we are home safe once more and waiting now for the next time.......
the weather we experienced ranged from the scraping ice off the windows to shorts and t-shirt (I wish I had packed some)type weather. I will include a few photos here but more will be posted on THE W PHLOG over the next week or so.
-- First stop Wentworth falls, and the 3 sisters. The Mexican restaurant in the photos used to be the Quarter Deck that Boris' folks owned and they lived out the back for 8-9 years of his life (He reckons its gotten much smaller).
the 3 sisters
Casa Juanita
--Our plans to camp the first 2 nights out were cancelled as it was raining to hard to get out and set up a camp ( I blame this on the Strahl camping genes ), so we got a cabin at Oberon instead. This is near Jenolan caves, which were the first step in our grand adventure. Lots of steps, had a 10 story climb before entering the caves but they were spectacular, the photos don't do it justice.
-- Next stop Dubbo and the Western Plains Zoo. A great zoo this one, lot's of babies and a great set up!
-- Off now to the camping leg of the Journey, first stop the Warrumbungles. A range of volcanic mountains near Coonabarabran. Let me say here that the landscape on the drive was one of the most spectacular I have ever seen. Words escape me to describe the diversity and immenseness of it all. There were feilds dotted with sheep that appeared orange because of the red dust that had blown in the last year. There were kangaroos and emus just wandering around the camp area everywhere, not quite tame except for one young buck(we called him Harold for historical purposes). We stayed here a couple of days hiking around and enjoying the scenery.
--The next portion of our travel was cut a bit short due to a flat tyre in Gunnedah. After unloading everything from the boot, changing to the spare, reloading , driving to tyre shop, unloading it all again getting said tyre repaired, and reloading yet again, we could not go quite as far as planned as setting up camp in the dark didn't have much appeal at the time. Now for the silver lining to this cloud: we found a national park nearer to us and it was one of the best places I have ever camped. As it is winter there wasn't anyone else around and we spent the next 2 days with zero human contact ( not even any mobile reception). It was on the Namoi river and there was a platypus pool near our site for our personal viewing.
-- Due to the lack of miles to reach this paradise we had a big drive when we left. After scraping the ice off the windscreen we headed north through such fun sounding towns as Barraba, Bingara, Delungra, Inverell, Drake, Glen Innes, Casino, Lismore and on up to the Gold Coast. We dropped the girls at Aunty Julie and Uncle John's house to revel in the attentions of Ellie(One of the main highlights in their eyes), and went off to Uki outside of Murrwillumbah for a party we had only learned about a couple of days prior with the old gang... and since we were in the neighbourhood....
Upon waking we looked out over Mt Warning-the first place the sun hits in Oz. what a great view!
--Back to J & J's to spend a couple of days. We went out to Point Danger on the border of Queensland and New South Wales where we saw a mother whale and her calf playing right off shore. Yes Mike, we did make it to Wally World or Movie World as the case may be. So for the first time ever I went on a roller coaster that turned me upside down ( you can't count the ride at Buffalo Bill Day in Golden-remember that?).
Let us never speak of this again.
-- Down then to Coff's Harbour for the final stop. Here we partook in the usual Coff's activities:alchohol, cards, verandah sunsets, etc.
-- After 3,500 kilometres of road and immeasurable memories we are home safe once more and waiting now for the next time.......
Comments