Port Augusta to Hay

21st September 2023

Distance: 846 Km

Fuel: 94 Litres

The Marathon continues…

Apart from a couple of stops, one for fuel at Renmark and another at Lake Benanee near the town of Euston it was a day of serious driving.

Lake Benanee was actually a very nice spot to stop and when we were there some caravans were already setting themselves up for a night of free camping. The council had even provided a toilet.

We, however, had more driving to do.

We had started driving at just after 8am and checked into Hay Caravan Park at about 5.45, just before it got dark. It was a long day. We also changed time zone, back to Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST).

Wentworth to Burra

8th September 2023

Distance: 373 Km

Fuel: 49 Litres

NSW, Victoria and South Australia in One Day

It was still windy early this morning which made it feel much colder than it was. We had decided to leave a bit earlier than usual so we could meet Andrew at a rest area on the way, we first crossed the Murray River into Victoria.

Andrew sent a Google location of a rest area – to cut along story short Google’s idea of the location and Tom Tom’s differed greatly and it was only after a phone call that we finally met up. We were in contact over the UHF radio much earlier surprisingly while still 15 km apart however reception at this distance is a bit sketchy.

We travelled in convoy until the South Australian quarantine post at Yamba where, as a caravan we were delayed by a search for fruit and veg. Andrew decided to carry on to the kennels where he was dropping off Ollie, his dog, for a fortnight. While we were delayed anyway it seemed a good time to fill up with fuel and have a toilet break. We met up with Andrew again at the turn off to Morgan and Burra immediately after he left his dog at the kennels.

There was not much traffic most of the way. (Dashcam – sorry about the reflections)

Eventually arrived at the Burra Caravan Park at about 1.30pm but South Australia is half an hour behind NSW so it would have been 2pm for us.

We had an unpowered site so Andrew got one for $10 next to ours – to be honest I think the owner thought Andrew was in our car. I drove into the town for fuel and some bread

A few hours later we were joined by Dale who had driven from Narrandera in one stint in his Jimney.

That evening Andrew cooked us Chicken Sausages which was very nice of him.

Hay to Wentworth

7th September 2023

Distance: 349 Km

Fuel: 36 Litres

On the Banks of the Murray River

I don’t know why I chose the caravan park at Wentworth, if anything it is a bit out of our way but I haven’t stayed there before and it cost no more than the others in the region, so there you go.

As usual set off at about 9.30 am. This is not an exciting ride, we are crossing the Hay Plain, it exactly that, plain and featureless, why the road even has bends in it I don’t know, it could have been driven straight across the plain. You can see trucks coming from miles away.

We only made one one stop on the way when it started to rain, I put my new rain protection plan into play (don’t ask).

At Mildura filled up with fuel because the skies looked black ahead, turned out to be a good move because shortly it poured with rain and didn’t stop until we have been at the caravan park for over an hour.

The Fort Courage Caravan Park is owned by the local fishing club and is right on the banks of the Murray River. Unfortunately the La Nina foods has taken a toll of their fishing infrastructure.

But it was still a lovely place to stay

Andrew contacted me during the afternoon to say he was on his way to Mildura too, we have made arrangements to meet at a rest area on the Sturt Highway in Victoria in the morning. He will stay at a free camp place similarly right on the banks of the Murray

After the rain disappeared it gave way to a sunny afternoon, unfortunately it was also still quite windy and therefore quite chilly but the caravan park and the river side is a nice place to wander about.

Cootamundra to Hay

6th September 2023

Distance: 332 Km

Fuel: 36.7 Litres

A Cold Morning!

Woke to a very cold morning in Cootamundra, the dew had frozen on everything. You can see it here on the table.

After a quick shower, a coffee to warm me up and some cereal, settled down in my warmest clothes soaking up the morning sun. Once the ice had melted took the opportunity to clean the bugs off the windscreen, make sandwiches and prepare to leave, there was no rush – it was 9.30 before we got away.

An easy journey the first part on country roads with little traffic before joining the Sturt highway where there was more traffic including B Doubles, Semis and the occasional road train but nothing you’d call heavy traffic. The wind is having an effect on fuel economy, am probably using just over 11 litres per 100 km.

Because it was a relatively short journey only stopped after midday for a chance to stretch the legs and have a bite to eat at a quite well appointed rest area, some local councils/shires create very nice facilities for motorists often in the middle of “nowhere”. Not a great fan of long drop (composting) toilets but what else can they do?

Arrived at the caravan park at about half past one and immediately after setting up drove a couple of km down the road for fuel. It wasn’t anything like as cold as yesterday.

The only complaint about this caravan park is that it is right next to the highway so there is a fair bit of traffic noise but personally I didn’t find that a problem and it is very well run.

Red Centre Trip – 2023

5th September 2023

Distance: 358 Km

Fuel: 39 litres

Why and Where?

Am setting out on a trip most of which I have done before. There is one notable exception, on a previous visit to Uluru (Ayres Rock), over a decade ago, I missed out on a trip to Kings Canyon due to time constraints. This trip is partly to rectify that omission BUT, more importantly, to share my kids’ first visit to the red centre of Australia. After the success of our trip together to Camerons Corner this trip is something I am looking forward to very much.

Setting out.

The car and camper were packed on the weekend so there was little to do on this first morning apart from load in the milk, lunch and other perishables.

Left home at about 9.40am to avoid the morning crawl on the F6 leaving the city via Mount Ousley and Picton Road before heading south on the Hume Highway.

Apart from being very windy it was an uneventful drive, only moderate traffic with no hold ups – stopped just after the Canberra turn off at the Mundanoon Rest Area for a cheese, tomato and pickle roll and a toilet break.

Came off the Hume Highway at Jugiong and meandered along the back roads to Cootamundra where we booked into the caravan park and set up for the night.

It took a while as I haven’t used the camper for over year but eventually got things reasonably well organised.

Went for a stroll to the Cricket Captains Walk in Jubilee Park, adjacent to the caravan park, a collection of bronze busts of Australian Cricket Captain’s set beside an oval walk. It celebrates the fact that Don Bradman, the most famous of all Australian cricketers, was born in Cootamundra.

Once the sun set it was a cold night in Coota with temperatures hovering about freezing just before dawn.

Back Home

Date: 27th December 2022

Arrival

Set my alarm for 5,30am to watch as we entered Sydney Harbour and make our way to the White Bay Terminal.

After we docked I went for my breakfast, no exercise walk this morning.

Disembarking

There was plenty of time after breakfast to collect my bag from the cabin before 7.30am and make my way to Deck 7 to wait for my disembarkation time. Many comfortable chairs available as people left so I just read or watched the goings on around me as I waited. The time passed relatively quickly and soon there was a call for the “Orange 4” group to make their way to the gangway.

Thank goodness getting off the ship was not the hassle that getting on had been – had to find my luggage then queue to get through immigration, this was not well organised but at least the line moved steadily. P&O definitely need to improve their embarkation and disembarkation procedures.

Once outside found my way to the queue for the bus to Central Station, there was only a short wait, I was lucky to get on a bus pretty quickly and was soon going into Central Sydney. The only downside was that my train was on Platform 25 down in the bowels of the earth, many lifts and levels down

I caught the 10.30am train to Wollongong, unfortunately, being a public holiday, it stopped at every northern suburbs station but can’t complain about that too much, it just took about 20 minutes longer than normal to reach home.

Conclusion

As on my one and only previous cruse I enjoyed it more than I thought I would but again I would be surprised if I ever went on another cruise. Yet here we are! My previous cruise was with Carnival who also own P&O but it was like a different company.

Embarkation was absolute hell, it was horrible, a complete farce that was totally disorganised and ridiculous, I hope they improve on that – they certainly would have trouble doing any worse.

The one real disappointment on this cruise was the entertainment, it was at best very ordinary, I am talking about the theatre productions, the bar bands were much the same as before, pub bands of varying abilities but good enough. The Christmas Eve and Boxing Day shows were a big improvement but frankly they were the only good shows on the whole cruise, it should have been so much better.

The rest of the “free” shows, as I say, were very ordinary, less than an hour of one performer on stage, sometimes with a recorded backing track, if you wanted a “variety show” it was an extra fee which I thought was a bit over the top and a very poor way to go. I noticed other events that required an extra fee though they were (I think) mainly aimed at the younger passengers but I think it is a bad sign that these cruise lines are going to indulge in drip pricing, where there are a number of add on fees to the original cost of the cruise.

A minor irritation (because this annoys me on land too) – the only “ordinary” beer they stocked was VB in 375ml cans for $9 each, all the other beer was in 330ml stubbies and cost at least $9.50. I think the Adventure Hotel was the only bar with draught beer (that might be incorrect). Personally I don’t like drinking from cans but they were always willing to give me a (sometimes) chilled glass to pour it into however I really object to 330ml bottles they are an absolute rip off.

Will I ever go on a cruise again? Who knows?

Embarkation Day

Date: 17th December 2022

Why? You may well ask…

A few years ago I went on a cruise, it was not something I had ever thought about doing or was particularly interested in doing but this was a family affair, a celebration of my daughter, her husband and friend’s 30th birthdays. In the event it turned out to be better than I expected but perhaps not good enough for me to want to go again.

A combination of circumstance this year made it look like I would spend Christmas alone, which, after the great debacle of 1971 when, for job related reasons, I spent Christmas Day alone eating a chicken the size of a sparrow and listening to John Lennon’s “So this is Christmas”, was not an event I cared to repeat.

A couple of months ago I started looking for Christmas holiday packages but was quite surprised to discover that they barely exist. I came across a P&O 10 day cruise that left before Christmas and returned after Boxing Day but when I tried to book there were no vacancies so I thought that was that. However a week or so later I received an email from P&O telling me of special cruise offers and to cut a long story short I paid for a balcony cabin with an obstructed view on this Christmas cruise.

I was only advised about a week before sailing of my cabin number together with a note to say that I had been “upgraded”. So here I was on yet another cruise set to sail with only a few weeks notice on Pacific Adventure. I was off to the south Pacific – visiting New Caledonia and Vanuatu on a very large ship indeed!

Getting There

No rush, don’t need to catch the train until after 9.30 so I watered my pot plants in the hope that they will survive until my return.

The train was late arriving at Central but still that is no worry the bus to White Bay didn’t leave until 1pm, there was over an hour to kill so sat down on one of the seats in the Grand Concourse and prepared to wait. Had only been there for five minutes when some fellas in Hi Vis and P&O shirts wandered by asking for people waiting for the shuttle bus. They said there were people waiting at stand 1 just outside the station so I wandered out. In fact there was one couple! But here was as good a place as any to wait.

The bus arrived after about 20 minutes and they loaded my case while I sat on the bus. At least it was comfortable because this turned out to be a long wait of nearly an hour and it was not until after 1.15pm that the bus finally left for the White Bay Terminal.

It got much worse…

On arrival at wharf terminal I dropped my bag at the baggage drop off point and joined the long queue outside the terminal building, this queue was slow but worse was to come.

When I finally arrived inside the building I was asked if I had completed the Verifly app. I had not, in fact I deleted it off my phone because it wouldn’t recognise my vaccination certificate so was useless. Because of this I was directed to a separate queue, this queue moved at a glacial pace and it took over an hour to get to the front, several times I thought of just going home because I was fed up with all this standing which was killing my back and walking was getting painful.

When I did eventually get to the front of the queue I was directed to a lovely lady (no complaints about any of the staff I encountered) who took pity on me, after examining my proof of Covid vaccination and RAT cassette she wrote a big P on my boarding pass. From this moment on I experienced no hold ups at all, every queue was bypassed and within half an hour I was on the ship. (A big Thank You to her)

They really need to do something about this initial queuing it was awful. No seats, no social distancing, just dreadful.

On Board

Once on board it was a matter of finding my cabin and waiting for my bag to arrive – finding a lift was the next challenge, I think the reception was on Deck 7 so I had to get to deck 11, the lifts were in great demand but eventually I did get to my deck and found my cabin. My pass key was waiting in the letter holder outside the door together with my meal times and the ship’s news paper.

I certainly had an unobstructed view of the ANZAC Bridge and the old White Bay Power Station from my balcony.

The cabin was nice enough, the shower was tiny but quite useable so I watched the safety video when I was interrupted by a knock on the door it was my room steward telling me that I had to report to my Muster Station as soon as possible and that food was available at the rear of the ship.

The cabin had a double Australian power point as well as a couple of, what I presumed were US power sockets, so I wouldn’t need the double adapter I had packed just in case.

A hiccup

My bag didn’t arrive, eventually I found a note in the mail holder telling me it had been deemed suspicious and I needed to collect it from the library on deck 7 . After attending my Muster Station (waste of time that was) I went to pick up my bag, the girl asked if I had any alcohol or liquids in it (I hadn’t) and asked if I would open it which I did. She then said all was well and I was allowed to take it back to my cabin. Again a bit of a waste of time but so it goes.

Underway

By the time I got my bag back to my cabin the ship was moving and before I knew it we were travelling under the harbour bridge.

As you can see it was a grey, miserable day and while it didn’t actually rain it always looked like it would.

The Evening

According to the timetable they provided my evening meal was in the Dragon Lady Restaurant. My meals are scheduled at a different restaurant each evening with different cuisine. Dragon Lady is Chinese, Angelo’s Italian and Waterfront is apparently modern Australian. I can change the venues but I will try each first. According to my schedule on Christmas Day I will eat at Angelo’s.

Dragon Lady was a bugger to find, it is on deck 6 at the rear of the boat BUT you cannot reach it directly because the theatre is in the way so you have to go to deck 7 to get past the theatre then down to the restaurant. I had to ask several times to be able to find it.

It was a three course meal and pleasant enough, no complaints there, I had trouble hearing the girl waitress because she was wearing a mask and I am getting deafer but she was very attentive and the courses arrived regularly without any delay.

After the meal I had a look around the bars etc but I was pretty tired after today’s proceedings so I went to bed about 9.30pm.

Wauchope to Wollongong

5th November 2022

Distance: 498 Km
Fuel: 32L

The original intention had been to travel to Newcastle and complete the journey home on the 6th but it was only 11.45am as we approached the Newcastle turn off so decided to press on. In the end arrived home at about 2.50pm.

In the event it would have been perfectly possible to have taken the camper and saved a lot of money on accommodation but the forecast had been bad. You are a bit cut off staying in motels whereas caravan parks are much more sociable.

Statistics

Total Distance: 1126 Km
Total Fuel: 109L
Av Fuel Price: $2.32/L
Motel Costs: $818

I would estimate that the same trip staying in caravan parks would have had accommodation costs of about $200 to $250, while towing would have used marginally more fuel, it is still a big difference.

Travelling up the coast is not my favourite trip normally I would have travelled inland but the flooding made this very difficult and I suspect those communities have enough on their plate without us adding to their problems. It is so long since I went up this route that I don’t think I recognised any of the route because previously it went through every little town north of Newcastle, for example the road around Bulahdelah was particularly dangerous. The road is much better now but the trip has lost something.

We went to see the Jacaranda Festival and Timbertown so it was a successful trip, the weather was particularly kind to us even the forecast showers never eventuated.

Timbertown

4th November 2022

Distance: 13 km
Fuel:

It was so cold last night, no idea why, had to turn the reverse cycle AC on to warm the room up.

Today was a trip to visit Timbertown, somewhere I haven’t been for 35 years. It turned out to be a very enjoyable day, even though it remained overcast the forecast showers never happened.

It has to be said the place is not what it was. However the staff were really nice and all rides were included in the entry fee. There was a terrific steam train which circled the park, every half hour, as well as horse drawn carriage rides and a tractor ride.

I suspect the place is kept going by local school visits because there were three coach loads of children while we were there, they seemed to have a wonderful time with the gold panning and all the rides. Personally I always enjoy watching the the boilers and steam engines in use too.

At lunch time we visited the cafe next door and a had a very good toasted sandwich and coffee. When I was last here there was food served in the restaurant on site but that seems to be defunct now.

For reasons I will blame on my total lack of any sense of direction I left the park travelling west so the satnav guided us back to town using back roads, hence the 13km trip when the park is only 2 km from the motel.

Grafton to Wauchope

3rd November 2022

Distance: 247 Km
Fuel: 27 L

Went for a walk early just for the exercise, it was a lovely sunny morning and there was no need to set off early as we only had about 250km to drive to get to Wauchope.

The drive was mostly back down the route we travelled up on but instead of heading east toward Port Macquarie we drove inland to Wauchope.

Checked into the motel early and went for a walk into the town, quite a nice shopping centre with an IGA where we bought some snacks. It is a fairly typical small Australian town of about 7000 people.

In the evening strolled down to Wauchope Country Club for a meal and a couple of beers.

The town has an RSL Club too but the Country Club was only a few minutes walk away.