It was much warmer last night. Having the extra blanket, and the thermal top helped, plus the temperature stayed above 0, so it was a great nights sleep. Apart from the ranger emptying the bins at about 1.00 in the morning! I woke up feeling quite refreshed though, even though it was 5.15!
I dosed for a bit but got out of bed around 5.45. It was starting to get light. A cup of tea, some cereal, and some bacon and eggs, had me energised for the day. Pete boiled a couple of eggs, but didn’t end up eating them. We packed up camp, and were on the road before 7.30, after a bit of a walk around the campsite to check out the local area. Definitely a place I’d like to come back to and relax at!
We drove for a couple of hours. We were both quite surprised to make it around Sydney without too much traffic. We were making fantastic time, but then came across a (fatal) crash north of Sydney.
Eventually we made it past, and on to an open road, since all 3 lanes went in to one. And we continued our journey to my first “planned” stop of the day…the big frilled neck lizard!
It was good to have a leg stretch as it was about 10.15 by now. We used the facilities, but at $55 entry, we weren’t going to give that a go! Unfortunately we arrived at the same time as the school groups, so it was hell getting in there (at least none of the little shits used the toilets so we didn’t have to wait for them – I think 4 coach-loads arrived when we did!). Eventually they cleared enough for us to get a photo. And then it was back on the road.
I looked ahead at fuel stops, and the cheapest was when we still had about 100km left in the tank. So whilst we had only been going about 40 minutes, we had another stop to fill up, and also had an early lunch at the subway – it was about 11.30, but may as well make the most of the stops we have. Pete had a few issues to deal with at home, so took the opportunity to handle them while we were stopped. I checked the air in the tyres since we hadn’t since St Leonards (all good), and we got back on the road.
After half an hour or so, we started to hit the Newcastle traffic. At one point I wanted to go to the “Fighter World” museum at RAAF Williamtown (I’ve worked there, but I thought Pete would enjoy seeing it), and wanted to take him to Fighter World. But it was a bit too much of a detour with the traffic. So we continued up the highway, and saw our first sign pointing to Brisbane.
Another hour or so of driving, and Pete was starting to get tired. So we pulled in to a rest area. Apparently the car on the left wanted to camp and had a semi-permanent set up.
I had a turn at driving to give Pete a rest – which was good, since he got a stressful phone call just as we got to the car. Different driving with a caravan on the back, but the car had plenty of power, so it was easy. About an hour up the road we went to the supermarket to get some dinner for tonight. And of course, I had to take us on a slight detour….
Then it was back on the road, heading towards Jolly Nose. It was a place I had done a bit of research on, and had an idea of where to camp, but didn’t know if the caravan would get in there. So I had to walk the track, which was a fairly steep hill, in case there wasn’t a place to turn around with the caravan. I eventually found the start of the campsite, which looked OK, but was fairly tight. But just 50 metres down it opened up to a fantastic clearing and large turning circle. And luckily I had mobile coverage, so called Pete, and he brought the car up.
I set up my swag, and we made ourselves at home. Not 15 minutes later, another car arrived, so lucky we were there first! Once we were set up I wandered down and said g’day to them – a french couple on a working holiday visa. They were on their way to Sydney, and then Bali and back home. We chatted for a bit, and then I returned to camp and we organised dinner as the sun went down.
Tonights dinner was the steak and garlic butter we had bought, with the caeser salad. How healthy are we! Oh, and an egg.
We did a proper load of dishes, so got to test a few more things in Pete’s van. I also set up the lights outside so we could enjoy sitting outside for the evening. A bit tricky, but I managed to set something up which worked.
After dinner, our neighbours brought their chairs over. I had told them to come over after dinner if they wanted to, so it was great that they did. We had a good chat and asked them all about their travels in Australia. A little possum came and joined us, which they loved.
It was a bit of a later night tonight, but good fun. A couple of cluster-8’s and a couple of cc’s made it hard to stop, but I was well disciplined, and we got to bed around 10ish.