Moruya - Newcastle

Smiley & Will

We said goodbye to Moruya and the south coast of NSW and headed to Bondi Junction visit with Smiley, Peta and their new son Will. We had a lovely evening and Smiley even cooked dinner.

Aaron, Lib & Will

On the way there we had called a caravan park at Rockdale to stay the night but they were fully booked. There was no way we could spend the night at Bondi Junction as Smiley's flat is right on Oxford St in the middle of the shopping district. What to do, what to do??? Not wanting to then drive all the way up the Mountains, we decided to spend the night in the car park at the start of Prince of Wales Drive at Port Botany. We had spent many pleasant New Years Days there with friends and family. We were rudely awoken the next morning at 5 am by trucks in the container yard starting their day, however, who could complain? Drinking coffee watching the sun rise over the water and taking the dogs for a walk on the beach first thing in the morning.

Charlie meets Rusty

We then headed up the Blue Mountains and spent the next two nights at my brother's house in Glenbrook. It was great to see Trav, Kath and Jack and meet their new 4 month old puppy Rusty. Rusty is part dingo and is the epitome of the Energizer Bunny. He just goes and goes and goes.

On Wednesday we moved on to Mum's house at Winmalee and stayed for the next five nights. It was so good to be able to spend such a decent amount of time with my mummy bear. She had managed to get two days off work which we spent pottering in the garden, repotting plants and fixing up her yard. I even managed to do some basic maintenance for her and fix the arm on her lounge chair. The evenings were spent chatting, watching TV and playing Upwords of which Mum was to prove to be the champion. It was good to Rose as well, he's grown up so much since we've been away, and to meet his girlfriend Jess. Trav, Kath and Jack followed us up to Mum's as well and so the eight of us spent a great few days together.

Asha, Charlie and Rusty finally getting along at Mum's

The day before we were leaving Chris, Ken and Daniel, dear family friends, showed up for lunch. They had recently sold there house in the Gold Coast Hinterland and bought a massive Chevvy Pickup and a fifth-wheeler, to begin living life on the road. It was just like old times, a great time with friends and family.

Sadly, on Monday we made our farewells and headed towards Newcastle to see Lib's best friend Nadene. On our way through Morriset we stopped in to see Chris and Ken's new fifth wheeler. After a beautiful BBQ lunch and six or eight beers we decided to spend the night with them in the caravan park. You cannot believe how horrified I was when they told me the cost was $30 for the night for an unpowered site. But as we'd been drinking, we had no other option. Chris was adamant that they were providing dinner for us too. They rolled out their flash new Baby Q Weber and proceeded to cook us a very succulent roast chicken for dinner. All in all, we had a great time and will love to see them on the highway again somewhere.

This morning we completed our journey to Newcastle and arrived safe and sound. We will be here for the next few days before we turn westward and head to Broken Hill.

Temora - Moruya

Lib training Charlie @ Tumut

We left Temora on Monday and headed toward Canberra via Tumut and Cooma to visit our dear Bra's, Bri and Jes. We had not anticipated the roads to be so hilly or windy but we should have guessed as we were travelling through the Snowy Mtns. By late in the afternoon we had only reached Tumut and decided to find a place to camp. We found a lovely spot 23km SE of Tumut on the bank of the Goobarragandra River called Thomas Boyd Track Head Campground. It is a campground on the 440km walking track of Hume & Hovell. It had flushing facilities, a river with fish and a big grassed area for the dogs to run.

Lib training Charlie @ Tumut

Goobarragandra River @ Thomas Boyd Track Head Campground

Goobarragandra River @ Thomas Boyd Track Head Campground

Goobarragandra River @ Thomas Boyd Track Head Campground

Goobarragandra River @ Thomas Boyd Track Head Campground

Goobarragandra River @ Thomas Boyd Track Head Campground

The following morning we set off for Canberra arriving late in the afternoon. On the way we stopped to look at Blowering Dam. It is very impressive.

Blowering Dam NSW

There was one really scary moment on the drive. As we were climbing a really long hill and the temp gauge reached 115 degrees we felt sure we were about to cook the engine, but thankfully we reached the top and the downhill run cooled it right down again.

We had a lovely visit with Bri and Jes and met their beautiful two month old daughter Annabelle. She is so sweet. It was good to see them all again including Sonny and Biscuit.

After saying our goodbyes on Wednesday morning we then headed for Moruya and North Head Primitive Campground on the south coast of NSW. On the way down the mountain we had another really scary moment when we rounded a steep corner and the traffic was stopped at road works and I had to use the hand brake as well as the foot brake to pull Bess up in a hurry. Whew! It was close. Good thing we'd just had the front brakes done. After another hour or so we reached our destination. YAY!!!  We had finally made it back to the coast. We hadn't seen the ocean in over a year and we were both eagerly awaiting the next few days.

We are staying here one more night before heading to Sydney tomorrow.

So far we have enjoyed walks on the beach. Asha has always loved the sand and it seems Charlie shares her interest. He is more game of the water than she is but he wont be a water dog, I dont think.
I've been fishing a few times but it seems I am doing nothing more than feeding the fishes. I haven't caught dinner yet. The campground has plenty of grass, flushing toilets, cold beach showers and allows campfires. It is dog friendly and cheap. $15 per camp per night. So far we have only seen a couple hours of sun and it has bucketed down a couple of times but we dont care.

The campground is also next door to the local airport. It is fairly quiet and is interesting to watch the various small craft (incl. helicopters) coming and going. It is great watching the sky divers.

It is really nice to just kick back, relax and let the sound of the waves wash over you.

Asha & Charlie @ North Head Primitive Campground @ Moruya NSW

@ North Head Primitive Campground @ Moruya NSW

@ North Head Primitive Campground @ Moruya NSW

@ North Head Primitive Campground @ Moruya NSW

@ North Head Primitive Campground @ Moruya NSW

@ North Head Primitive Campground @ Moruya NSW

Ardlethan - Temora

I finished work last Wednesday and we have packed up and moved on to Temora for the weekend to see Lib's parents and to get some minor repairs done to Bess.

Bess was booked into the mechanics on Friday to have the brake pads replaced but when they took off the brakes they found that the disc rotors had been cracked and needed replacing. And to compound this problem the old discs had been machined because the bearings were a non standard size and so the new discs needed to be machined as well. All this means we are homeless for the weekend and hopefully will have Bess back by Monday. It puts us a day back in our plans but as we are now in no hurry and getting used to the idea of "slowing down" again, it is a minor set back.

Lib and I have also decided to take the plunge and quit smoking again. She is going onto the patches while I am taking Champix. Our official quit date is 19/02/2010. Cheers to us. This time it will work. I estimated that in the last 10 months of work we would have saved an extra $4000 if we had not been smoking. Holy Cow! We could have had an extra 2 months holiday....

Asha and Charlie are both well and Charlie is coming along very nicely in his training.