Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Tumba Bloody Rumba Trip













Here, in this sweet place, I sit alone next to a babbling creek, savouring the scenery. In the distance, a constantly changing cacophany of bird sounds, on my skin the softest wind you can imagine brings the smell of the forest. My man Eb is taking a little hike to Lucifer's thumb.

I am in the Chaelundi campground in Guy Fawkes River Park, soaking up the middle of nowhere.

Our departure from home was a leisurely 9am. We made it ALL the way to Lismore (45km) before we stopped for breakfast. Drive drive drive; boring, until we turned on to the Old Glen Innes Rd. What a spectacular drive! Our first destination was Dalmorton, an historic mining town. We soon discovered a lovely camping area, across the river, which we had completely to ourselves.
The campground itself was lovely, on the banks of Boyd River, complete with a glorious secluded swimming hole. We hiked, swam, went for a drive into the wilderness. Great way to start a holiday if you ask me.

From Dalmorton, we continued on the Old Glen Innes road, which was one beautiful scene after another. There was a tunnel built by convicts, the road winding its way along the river and pleasant surprises around every corner.

Eventually, we made our way to the Gwydir River near Bingera, to rest our heads for the night at one of the many free camping spots along the river a little way out of town. It was very pretty there.

The next morning we were Warrumbungal bound! We stopped along the way to check out Sawn rocks in Mt Kaputar National Park. An hour or so of rock-gawking and we headed off to the mountains.

After a bit of quick research, we opted for the much more low-key campground, camp Wombelong. It was quiet-ish, and we got the best spot there. While we were setting up, the nice man came by from next door and introduced himself. He also mentioned that the rest of his family would be coming along tomorrow, for a big family camping reunion. Mother, father, sisters, their families. Won't that be just GRAND! Oh well, time for some of that famous Eb and Flo philosophy. Like my daughter said recently, "don't worry mum, people are nice."

The next day, Eb wanted to do a walk. I, stupidly, said ok. Hardest walk ever. Oh, I know...the reward was in the triumph of making it to the top, the views were spectacular, weren't you proud of yourself, blah blah blah. Yes, I guess. But the memory of the endless uphill climb, stopping every few feet toward the top, feeling like I couldn't go one more step. And then trying to find a comfortable place to have lunch. They grow hard rocks in the Warrumbungles. Then the down part. Ow. Thighs burning, feet hating me. I vowed never to walk again until at least 2010.

The upside: the views were pretty awesome, and I got some very pleasing pictures. And everytime I mentioned to people that Eb chased me up the mountain to the famous Breadknife, there was respect. Except from his mum, who said: "The Breadknife? Are there still silly people walking all the way up there?"

The next morning, before dawn, Eb got up and climbed to the top of Split Rock, which was across the road from the campground. I slept in, and nursed my blisters. It was such a hairy climb, he left a message on my phone, saying that he loved me, and basically if he didn't make it down in one piece, to recover the camera, because he had snapped some really good shots.

Thankfully, he got me on the phone before I heard his message, and was more sensible in person. Thankfully also, he made it down in one piece.

After breakfast, we packed up and headed of to our next adventure, Dubbo and the Western Plains Zoo.

All along the way for the whole trip, we found backroads which were more direct and all but deserted. Some of the countryside was lush and green and...scenic. And there were times when we didn't see another vehicle on the whole detour.

Another constant on our trip was the Aldi bucket. After much discussion, we decided to purchase yet another bucket. "This one is strong, but doesn't have a pouring spout, that one has a pouring spout, but "we" do not trust the handle." (LIfe with Eb is VERY exciting...)

But good old Aldi had the perfect bucket. Now that Aldi is so popular, we said, "wouldn't it be funny if every camper we see has one of these buckets?" Guess what? (I will let you finish that one.)

Anyway, on to Dubbo. You could say it was an adventure. We got there in the evening, and found out that all the caravan parks were full, because school holidays had started for every state except NSW. OH. We didn't realize that. But the VERY nice man at Big 4 found us a place near the lodge, where he wasn't supposed to put people. "Sorry, its a little far from the amenities" (and the rest of the people) "and there isn't much light if you have to get up in the night." All the downsides were upsides for us.

Except for the TRAFFIC! All night long. Trucks. Loud trucks. We didn't get alot of sleep, but we got up in the morning, got some laundry done and headed off to the ZOO! Yay! When you purchase a ticket to Western Plains zoo, you get a two-day pass. The first day was wonderful, not too crowded, animals all behaving nicely for us. Except for the monkeys, who appeared to be on strike or something. Cranky monkeys.

The next day we had to get up VERY early for the early morning zoo walk (behind the scenes) before opening time. Since we were also spending part of the day there, we decided to completely pack up the trailer and check out early morning. We decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner out, so there wouldn't be any dishes to deal with. And just because.

We ended up at the Cattlemans restaurant, and after one bite of my creamy garlic prawns, I almost ditched Eb and asked the chef to marry me. It was a very nice place, with great service and a fantastic menu. I highly recommend dining there if you are ever in Dubbo. I myself may move there.

Do try to avoid DUST STORM season though. That night the traffic wasn't so bad. However, we were buffeted by extremely strong gusting wind, coming from all different directions, which rocked our little canvas home and threatened to lift the awning up and take it to New Zealand. Poor Eb didn't sleep a wink, and got up several times to hammer the pegs back into the ground.

In the morning, we were relieved to find everything still in one piece, although there was a strange mist all around, all the more mysterious because it was too windy to be foggy. Later, we discovered that it was a major dust storm, that had started in Broken Hill and some dust had made it all the way to New Zealand! That was a bit more adventure than we had planned for.

Sleep-deprived Eb and Flo still made it to the Zoo on time. Because of the dust storm, and the fact that it was still cold and windy, the morning walk consisted of only around 15 people. It was a great experience and I wouldn't have missed it for anything. We had a wonderful guide, who has been volunteering for many years, taking people behind the scenes and telling them little secrets about how the animals are handled.

If you have already, or will look at my photos or Eb's photos on flickr, you may notice the difference in the colour of... everything... on the second zoo day. That was the haze that hung in the air and left a thick layer of dust over everything from Broken Hill to the east coast.

We spent the better part of the day wandering around the zoo, looking at the animals we hadn't seen the first day, and revisiting our favourites. Then we headed off to Cowra, to check out the Japanese Gardens and get a motel room! We felt we deserved it.

The Japanese Gardens in Cowra are very beautiful. We stayed for a couple of hours, admiring the displays and taking photos and left upon the arrival of three busloads of tourists and school groups.

As a bonus, we discovered that the famous Archibald Prize paintings (all of them) were on display at the Cowra Regional Art Gallery, so we added that to our list of experiences.

After a very nice lunch at La Vita, we collected our home and headed off to Tumbarumba! for the Rial Family Reunion. We were only a couple of hours behind schedule.

Luckily, I called ahead to the caravan park, as the owners were going to be at a town meeting when we arrived (along with the entire population of the town). They very nicely left us an amenities key and we set up in the dark. Little did we know that we would be hunkered down at the Tumba-bloody-rumba Caravan Park for five nights! That being said, it was a wonderful place to be stranded, with fantastic amenities and a lovely little creek that runs right around the

property.  I even saw my first Platypus!  


The next day was fine. Tumbarumba is a beautiful town in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains, and everyone there was very friendly. We went to check out the venue for the next day's Rial Family reunion which, by the way, was the motivation for our trip. The manager wasn't home, so we headed into town. At the Visitor's Centre was one of the best historical museums I have ever seen. If you are ever lucky enough to make it to Tumba, make sure to check out the Visitor Information Centre.

Before we could make it back to Sunnyside, we received a call from Eb's sister and mother, to say that they were just about to arrive in Tumba, and would we like to go out for lunch. We would. We did. It was great to catch up with them both.

Later, we began preparations for the BIG day, as more family started to arrive. And the weather started to turn. The unofficial start to the reunion was at dinner that night at the Tumbarumba Motel. It was a lovely time, despite the LONG wait for our meals, due to some kind of crisis in the kitchen. I think the cook spat the dummy or something.

It continued to rain, snow, blow and generally FREEZE right through the reunion. It didn't matter. Everyone rugged up, there were heaters in the marquee, and it was an absolute success, thanks to the hosts, Ken and Edie at Sunnyside, all those family members who contributed historical records and artifacts, those who helped set everything up, the slideshows, the hours of organization in the previous six months and the EIGHTY odd people who came from near and far to be there. Hats off to Blossom who nursed a dream to "dream-come-true." For anyone interested, Eb has pictures of the reunion on his flickr site


One would think that this has been enough adventure for one holiday, but no. We still had the snowy mountains to explore, if the bloody weather would cooperate.

Actually, even though it was cold and wet (one night it rained mud, seriously), we had a wonderful time in Tumbarumba. Thanks to Peter and family for taking pity on us, freezing in our camper trailer, asking us to dine and thaw out at their home. It was very nice getting to know you better, and great to meet and re-meet everyone there.

Finally the weather started to improve and we went on a recon mission to check out the mountains. We got as far as Geehi Rest area before we knew where we wanted to camp. The trip there was easy and not too far, so the next day we packed up and headed off to the Snowies!

We made the drive between Tumba and Kancoban three time, miles of pure bliss, unbelievably picturesque scenery. Lush green rolling hills and big puffy clouds for kilometres. Each time we made that trip, I was so relaxed and blissed out, I nearly fell asleep on the drive up into the mountains. Luckily it did not have the same effect on my driver.

The next two days were magical. That camping spot was just about the best one either of us had experienced. There are several spots along the Swampy Plains river, all spaced well apart with privacy and kanga-bloody-roos as far as the eye can see, with views to the snow-capped main mountain range. It was warm in the sun, there was a river rushing by, we had our own little waterfall, and we could look up and see the changing mountains, topped with snow. Wow. Oh, and no charge for camping there. There were only two or three other campers, all too far away to see or hear. No wonder I cried when we had to leave.

We hiked and drove and went up to the snow and took lots of photos. It was a real highlight of the whole trip.
THEN were we headed home? NO. Still more holiday to come.

Canberra was our next destination, to visit with Eb's brother and sister-in-law before they headed off on their own, 13-month adventure, volunteering overseas. And also to collect Mother and deliver her safely back home.

But first, the wining and the dining at Che Deakin. Which was extraordinary. Yummy Food, Wine, Company. So wonderful to catch up with those guys and then to see Floriade on top of it. Hey, I finally made it back to Canberra! and it was worth the wait. We will be thinking of you on your journey and you can count on a visitation.

After a couple of days swanning around our nation's capitol, we headed off early back to Mother's home base and a couple of nights with Other Sister, and Brother-in-law. It was a long drive, not the best part of the trip and nothing I want to remember, but we three made good travel mates, and we made our special delivery according to plan.

Arriving at che Belmore River, we were welcomed with open arms, luxury accommodation and the perfect dinner.

We had a lovely visit, brunch on the river in Gladstone and lots of shops with a jillion things in them. That night we had another gourmet meal, prepared by our hosts. It was so nice, we even let them join us for dinner.

It was the perfect way to finish off our wonderful time away. Thank you, all of our wonderful hosts, nice people we met everywhere we went, those of you who helped support my family while I was away, and my children, who kept the place in very good order. It was actually a pleasure to arrive home.
Thank you Driver!
The end.
I'm so sorry, I couldn't resist.


Saturday, April 25, 2009

The Great Carnarvon Gorge Epic Trip

Important preface to the story: Baby boy Alex Tyler Stewart was born on Tuesday, April 14. Last word was that everyone was settling in fine to their new amazing lives. Congratulations to Jo and Joel for the start to your new adventure.

OUR JOURNEY

There was great anticipation setting off on the longest holiday either of us could remember. We jumped up and ran around excitedly for a couple of hours before heading off to meet Jenny, Eb's sister, who was travelling with us for the first little leg of the trip.

We waved the train (with Jenny in it) farewell in Casino and headed off towards Tenterfield, stopping at a rest stop along the way called Crooked Creek.

The end of our first day of travel found us at Sundown National Park, situated along the Severn river. At first we were the only ones in the whole campground, but then we were joined by one other couple almost on dark time. It was very peaceful.

The next day we did a fabulous walk/rock-hop up Ooline Creek, encountering some lovely geography, flora and even a few faunas. After lunch, Flo had a little afternoon rest while Eb did another walk up around the back of the campground. The unwinding had begun.

Day three was a BIG day of driving, destination Surat, a small historic town that was on the Cobb n Co mail route back in the day. We had heard there was camping along the river at no charge, and there was, and it was a little bit busy. We ended up right under the bridge, on the banks of the Balonne River, with the road trains roaring by all night, shaking the earth beneath us. How romantic.

We thoroughly enjoyed checking out Surat, including the wonderful free showers at the Shire Hall, the Cobb n Co changing station, which houses a large aquarium, museum, library and art gallery. After grabbing a coffee and homemade pumpkin scone, we headed off to Carnarvon National Park. We camped at the Takkarakka bush retreat, which was just way too busy for my liking, but the only place near the gorge that you can camp outside of school holidays. Lucky for me, I have earplugs.

On Friday we took off early-ish to explore the Gorge. It was Gorgeous, all right! What a wonderful place. The main track heads up the gorge, crisscrossing the river, and is an easy walk. Then there are side-tracks that are steeper and quite magical. We explored Moss Garden, Wards Canyon and the Art Gallery, where we saw thousands of aboriginal etchings, stencils and other artworks. It turned out to be quite a big day, 12.5 km round trip, and so I decided to take the next day off, while Eb undertook to do the whole of the main track, right to the end. He ended up walking around 24 kilometres in one day, after getting up before dawn to walk up to the lookout for the Anzac Day dawn service.

The next day, after sharing our breakfast with the campsite kookaburra (grrrrrr), we packed up and headed off to the wild blue yonder--again. We took the back road, which was gravel, but shorter and more scenic to get to our potential destination--Rolleston.

Let me try to paint you a picture of the Rolleston Caravan Park. Out the back of the 6 houses in Rolleston, is a square block of dirt and concrete slabs, minus anything fancy-pants like a tree. As we cruised around the block, looking thru the cyclone fencing at the inmates, they all stared back, daring us to try it. Dismal is a very flattering word for the Rolleston Caravan dirt lot. We headed off toward Blackwater, with no arguments from either side.

The drive along the 100 k's of mostly gravel road (Rolleston-Blackwater rd) was a little sub-adventure, with the dust from passing cars and one giant truck overwhelming us and the sun shining directly into the driver's eyes. But it was picturesque, and if we could ignore the growing worry about bedding down for the night, it was a lovely route.

And we found a place, oh yes! It was listed in our Camps 4 book, the rest stop under the Water Tower, right on the highway. Later I realized it was listed as "Day Use Only" so...we were actually STEALING a nights rest. Sort of.

Blackwater is not a peaceful town. It is a coalmining town. In addition to being on the highway, the illegal camping spot we found was also on the railway line and next to a tennis court.

As soon as the evening game was over and the last of the tennis players drove off, we manouvered ourselves into position, tucked away in a little corner at the back of the courts. Eb made some stupid joke about night tennis, and voila! There they were, floodlighting our secret hiding spot! They needed a fourth for doubles, but sadly we did not bring our tennis rackets.

I might add, at this point, that the trucks AND the coal trains continue all night, and the shift change at the mines is at six am.

We walked the dark streets of the town and eventually found a great meal at the Coalminers Club. It was very civilized after our nights of "roughing it," and definitely the high point of our visit to Blackwater, the "town that never sleeps."

After re-stocking at the Blackwater Woolies, we headed toward Blackdown Tableland to see the sights there.

After a harrowing drive UP UP UP onto the Tableland, we were rewarded with a gorgeous experience in the National Park and the campground. There were lots of walks, and the campground cleared out almost completely after the first night. We even had a nice fire one night!

One of the walks led us to a magical swimming hole. It truly was the most beautiful place I've ever been. Rainbow Waters (Gudda Gumoo) will forever be in our thoughts whenever we need to think of the beauty in this world.

As well as several good walks, we ventured out one day on "The Loop," which was supposedly for 4WD vehicles. We have a pretend one of those, so we thought we'd have a go. It was all good for most of the time, with a couple of tricky bits to make us feel like it was an adventure.

Then, when we reached the lookout near the end of the loop, we thought we were home free. Then Eb made some stupid joke about wouldn't it be funny if they saved the worst for last, and voila! There it was, the hairiest bit of the 4WD track. For the third time, we had to get out and scout the best strategy on foot. It was my job to wait at the end of the trechorous bit with the camera, and let Eb get on with it. At one point, it was so steep that one of the back tires came off the ground and I had several kittens. Luckily, I was not in the car at the time.

We finally made it all the way around the Loop and we celebrated with a short walk before catching the sunset at Horseshoe Lookout (Yaddamen Dhina). What a wonderful and exciting day.

Sadly, the next day we packed up and left the Tableland, headed for the coast. Byfield National Park is north of Yeppoon.

Along the way we were pleasantly pleased by the seaside town of Emu Park, with it's beautiful bayside park and "Singing Ship" sculpture, commemorating Captain Cook. The town had a nice feel to it, and looked all blue and white and clean.

Not so pleased by Yeppoon, which for some inexplicable reason, serves NO food after 2pm. So, after preparing my appetite for a delicious seafood feast, we were turned away at each and every little tourist cafe in Yeppoon.

Luckily, we had Great Keppel island on our itinerary, so I had to put my seafood cravings on hold for the time being.

There were three camping areas in Byfield State Forest, which is an extensive Pine Plantation. The first two weren't too great, so we quickly dashed into Byfield to book our site, and hoped that Upper Stony Creek wasn't too packed out.

Well...it was great! There was hardly anyone there, and we had the upper half of the campground completely to ourselves for two nights. There were a couple of nice walks, and a very nice swimming hole, which of course Flo couldn't resist.

On the second day, we took a "circuit" walk, which was very nice for the first half, until we ended up on the 4WD road back to camp. We heard these strange noises like guns during the walk, and then bumped into some guys in a 4WD, parked at the edge of a causeway, drinkin some stubbies and shootin cans. It was 10.30 in the morning. Gotta love the queensland guys.

Later, there was plenty of time to relax and have a few swims, so Byfield gets a gold star for sure! We even took a short drive into Byfield to grab some goodies for our planned outing to Great Keppel the next day.

The trip to Great Keppel was pretty interesting. Not at all what we had expected. This was my vision: We would get off the boat, maybe grab a cappucino before heading off over the little headland on well formed tracks to do some snorkeling. My biggest worry was that there would be lots of people there.

After some snorkeling, my plan was to head back over the track to the resort, choose which seafood place we would patronize to enjoy our sumptuous meal and drinks with umbrellas in them. Then, we might take a lazy walk down to the bay to do a bit more playing around in the water, finding some shady place to read books until the boat came to pick us up.

THAT was not the reality of Great Keppel Island. Just finding lunch was a real challenge. That island is not exactly a tourist trap these days, with the main resort in mothballs for the past 18 months. There was one place that sells tourist junk and eggs and toast and sandwiches. The advertised Pizza place was only open on the weekends, and the only other establishment had only reopened three weeks previously. It wasn't funny then, but it is worthy of a chuckle, looking back.

We did have a nice time snorkeling at Shelving Beach, after scrambling over very eroded tracks on the headland. We got to the only place open for lunch just before they stopped serving, by which time I was starving, and still thinking of seafood, although I had by then given up on the cocktails with umbrellas.

Good thing too, as they didn't even have beer on tap, and I don't know what would have happened if I had wanted a glass of wine with lunch. We settled for a bottle of beer each.

It was also the cook's day off, so there were no hot chips with the burgers. Still optimistic about getting seafood on a tropical island, I asked the trembling serving girl what kind of fish was on the fish burger. This is what she said: "We're not really sure. It's some kind of generic white fish."

We ordered chicken burgers. Which took over 45 minutes to appear. Which were frozen crumbed (crummy) patties, a few centimetres thick, and burnt on one side. And served with a bit of shredded salad and NO sauce of any kind. Yum.

Never mind, we didn't starve, we got some great quotes for the blog, and the island was so unpopulated that we took a walk after lunch and were the only people on the long stretch of deserted tropical island. How romantic.

After our big day out, we treated ourselves to a motel room in Miriam Vale. Even tho Eb did not enjoy the night driving, it was nice to grab a Barra Burger at the Big Crab, a bottle of wine at the Miriam Vale Pub and sit in our room watching TV while we had takeaway dinner. And I finally got my seafood.

We like to finish off our northward journeys with an evening in Perigian Beach, with our friends who live there. They are the most wonderful hosts on the planet. Great company, four course dinner, fine wine, the best guest room you can imagine, and our host's special eggs for breakfast. Thank you, our dear Perigian friends!

Then we got to visit with the newest member of the Macdonald clan: little baby Alex Tyler Stewart, and his proud mum, dad and aunty. Not yet three weeks old when we met, but I can already imagine a really impressive personality there. I think he is going to keep his parents on their toes, and everyone in stitches with his humour.

It was a real treat to catch up with the Brisbane crew, and the perfect icing on the icing on the cake.

And then we were home again. Best homecoming ever! My lot had cleaned the house top to bottom and mowed the lawns, as a belated birthday present. And the critters had left Eb's house alone, as an early birthday present to him. It was nice to be home.

Now...where are we off to next?

Many more pics on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dichristie/ or click on the slide show