NSW

We say goodbye to Jason and Debs and travel down the south reaching Coolangatta. Stayed at a caravan park at Miami Beach which is lovely. Nicer than Surfers Paradise. Frank from Kununarra called into see us this morning. Great catching up with him. Had a good look around Tweed Heads. This place is unsual as one half of the town is in Queensland and the other is in NSW so depends where you are standing what the time is. The time difference is 1 hour. Stayed at free camp south of Tweed Heads for 2 nights. Grabbed a shower at the BP service station in Chinderah. The NSW coastline is just beautiful...all the way down.

Byron Bay

Next, Byron Bay didn’t disappoint us, very busy busy with lots of young surfies everywhere. Lots sand and surf. Ballina is a nice town too on the coast. Stayed 2 nights here at a free camp and found the local swimming pool was open to casuals having showers there.

 



The Flooded Rugby Grounds

The weather forecast is not looking good....they say a storm is heading to the coast...we will keep an eye on it. Driving inland now away from the coast towards Grafton the rain has started to come. Passed Grafton we find a free camp just off the road. We thought that maybe we should head back to Grafton and stay at a camping ground but decided we would sit it out and carryon the next day down to Coffs Harbour. The rain was getting very heavy by now and the weather forecast was all over the news that a cyclone was going to hit from Gladstone to Newcastle...Cyclone Oswald. We hadn’t had a significant rainfall in all the time on the road so we came up with a plan so make a shelter to go over both back windows so we could leave them open at nights when it is so hot. Found a big Bunnings at Coffs Habour to grab our materials. Found a spot to stay at the local rugby league sports ground where we met Vern (the caretaker) and stayed there for $15 on power. The storm is starting to hit the coast at Bundaberg now and they are being battered by tornados and heavy rain. Rain rain go away...we have an ideal spot to make our blinds under the grandstand. They worked perfectly. It poured last night and was very windy.

Coffs Harbour in Oswald Cyclone

 

Vern picked us up the next day for a tiki tour around Coffs. The sea is so angry and brown. Lots of surface flooding around, lucky Vern has a 4WD. He even gave us some Marlin steaks for dinner...yummm!  The cyclone is still making its way down the coast towards us so we brace ourselves for another couple of nights. Vern picked us up again to go and watch the sea pounding over the sea wall in the harbour. The TV crews are there filming. Very spectacular. We stay with Vern at the rugby grounds for 4 nights...the cyclone has moved out to sea and we can finally leave our safe home and move on down to Port Macquarie.

Port Macquarie

Port Macquarie Point where they body board

Port Macquarie....we love it here! Body boarding mecca....Walking down the rivers edge is lined with rocks that have been painted by people. Some are monuments for people whom have died (I think from swimming/body boarding nearby). Body boarders were right at the point where the river met the sea. They would surf on the waves to their right and the river would push them back out to sea again. Fun to watch! The sea is still dirty with lots of debris but doesn’t deter them. Parked at the beach in a carpark and hoped that no one bothered that we were there. Being self contained helps.   Truckin on down the road we called into the Taree Information Centre where we were told its nice to drive through the Lakes and it was lovely. A big haul up the other side though. Stayed at Bulahdelah under the bridge by the river. Kids were jumping off the small jetty there into the brown looking river....yuck! Very noisy night with trucks, but safe and free!

We are continually being wowed.....Port Stephens is a place that everyone should visit. The bush seems to go right down to the sea. Beautiful golden beaches. Unfortunately the weather packs it in while we were having lunch so we continue down the track to Newcastle. The rain is so heavy on the highway we are reduced to driving very slow.

 

Newcastle Ocean Pool

Arrived at Newcastle about 3pm, where our GPS took us in through the port side where one of the largest coal unloading and loading facility in the world is. Found an awesome park right alongside the beach at Nobby Beach. The rain and wind eased so we walked along to the ocean baths which had 3 pools that you could swim in for free and shower there too. Walked up to Forte Scratching on top of the hill overlooking the bay. Noticed the storm had developed to the south and we had to run back to the bus below to avoid getting drenched. Just as we got to the bus a freak gust blew and nearly ripped our awning right off the bus. I was hanging onto it and the wind was nearly lifting me off my feet. Luckily we managed to retract it back in without any damage. Would love to stay here for longer too as the buildings around Newcastle are so old and beautiful. One block of flats we walked passed had steps down under the road to a door to get into. I can only imagine how horrible it would be to live in these flats!

BIG Trucks

Truckie Kerry

Off to Muswellbrook to stay with Kerrys cousin Wendy and husband Mike. Muswellbrook valley is surrounded by coal mines....everywhere you look you can see one! Wendy organised for all of us to go through the mine where she works driving the BIG 350Tonne capacity dump trucks. There is a bit of induction to do but we are soon driving down the ramps in a normal 4WD truck alongside these massive dump trucks. Kerry and I both get a ride in one of these huge trucks for a load and dump. This was such a highlight of our trip. These incredible huge trucks can be driven by people with just a car driving licence (with lots of training though). Once these trucks had their loads on board it felt like you were riding on a boat in the waves, they felt so spongy as they moved down the roads to the dump spot. This was such a highlight of our trip!



The BIG and the small