Nelson - 7 nights

Nelson is a small township situated at the mouth of the Glenelg River just 5kms from the SA border. Like many places, I chose this spot via my fishing mags due to its mulloway and bream reputation. I was disappointed to some extent, although it was a beautiful area, the fishing was slow with only undersize bream caught.

We spent a day exploring the Lower Glenelg River and having a fish at some beautiful locations. The next day was a trip into SA to visit Mount Gambier and the Blue Lake - it was very pretty. stocked up on groceries (weren't ready for the "no plastic bags" law) and had a counter meal at the pub - then took the kids to HJs for lunch! We stopped off at Piccaninnie Ponds and explored a beach nearby.

The following day my German cousin and her boyfriend (Steffi and Tobias) joined us at the van park. They were on holiday (Singapore, Aust, New Zealand and Hong Kong) - they had hired a car in Melbourne and driven down the Great Ocean Road. We had a big night with lots of schnapps and laughs as we caught up with each other. They slept in our tent for 2 nights - the 1st night "on top" of the blankets and were freezing - too many scnapps that night !!!!

I took Steffi and Tobias exploring some of the local sights that we had previously seen - Nelson, Glenelg River, Piccaninnie Ponds and the local beach accessed by a small but steep sand dune that caught Steffi by surprise when I sped up rather than stopped to access the beach!!!!! That afternoon we all visited the Princess Margeret Rose caves - about 25kms away. It was a small but pretty cave and the entrance fees were reasonable. We then spent a couple of hours at the beach before dinner was had at the local Nelson pub and to finish off the day, Tobias, Steffi, Brodie and myself fished the last couple hours of daylight with only small bream caught! The next day Steffi, Tobias and myself went to the Glenelg River National Park and fished for half the day - again undersize bream was the only fish caught! We were back for a late lunch after which we said our goodbyes to my little cousin and Tobias who had a long drive to Adelaide that afternoon.

The next couple of days were spent relaxing with the occasional fishing fix - one night was spent with our neighbours - a group from a small country town near Mount Gamibier - and drinks were on order till late night!

The next day we were off to cross the border into our home state!

Kingston SE - 3 nights

We were keen to get to Kingston as we had arranged to meet up with Pete and Lianne (Keira's sister) that night at the van park. A couple of friends of ours, Mick & Sue, were also in the neighbourhood and stayed the extra night to catch up with us. It was a hot day and a hot night - Lianne and Tamara went for a swim at the beach and then we sat around having drinks late into the night and catching up with all the goss. The next day they all packed up and we said our goodbyes - we would meet up again on the Australia Day weekend in Cape Jervis.

The next day was spent lazing around the park and checking out the town. Keira went for a quick visit to a local Food and Wine fair and I had a fish off the beach that night - it was beautiful weather and fishing conditions - but no fish!!

Goolwa - 0 nights

Our last caravan park stay of the trip - we had booked for 4 nights at this park and arrived approx lunch time in 43 degree heat. We paid for our stay and as I was being dictated the park's "rules", I made a comment along the lines of "I'll read your draconian rules later" - the park manager just went off her tree and refused to deal with me calling me all sorts of names. I asked for my money back as I didn't need to be treated in this manner and after some push and shove with her husband, they returned our money and we left with a parting comment from the owner that they will call all van parks in the area and have us blackbanned - as it was, we ended up in Port Elliot Caravan Park - a much better park than that in Goolwa! I have never heard such ferrel gutter language from someone in the business of dealing with customers - a formal letter of complaint will be written to the Top Tourist Parks Assoc of which Goolwa Caravan Park is a member. Final comment - stay away from this park, it was dirty, unfriendly and, not surprisingly, empty!

Port Elliot - 3 nights

We arrived here just after lunch - Keira was happy to go into the office and booked us in - I don't think she wanted a repeat of what happened earlier in the day. We were lucky, we managed to get 3 nights which suited us fine. We parked the van, didn't bother with the annexe (it was still very hot) and jumped straight into the water to cool down. Knowing that Mike and Marie Hannaford (and kids) holiday at Port Elliot every year, I gave them a call - they were camped about 50 metres away but had just packed up to leave that night - we still managed to catch up and have a bite to eat. We finished setting up later that night, luckily as the weather had changed and it rained most of the night and much of the next day.........

The following day Mum, Steffi and Tobias came up for a visit and stayed in a cabin overnight (along with the kids and myself) and Michelle, Barb (Keira's mum) and Brianna came up and stayed in the van. Once the rain stopped I took Mum, Steffi , Tobias and Tamara for a drive around Goolwa and Hindmarsh Island to show them the sights. That night we all had dinner at the local Port Elliot pub and then a few drinks well into the night.

At 5.30am the next morning Steffi, Tobias and myself headed off to the Murray Mouth for the German's last chance to catch some decent fish ........ but not to be........ just small crabs - the Germans must just be bad luck when it comes to the fish! We got back about 10.00am and we all decided to head off to Victor Harbour where we explored Granite Island and the local shops. From Victor Harbour, everyone headed back to Adelaide and we went back to the van at Port Elliot. The next morning we packed up and were off to Cape Jervis.

Cape Jervis - 1 night

We arrived at Dave Meake's shack around lunch time and set up the van. We were considering heading off to Kangaroo Island for a few nights but only if we could get the cottage and fishing charter that we had 2 years prior when we visited KI. We made the phone calls and after a number of conversations with the parties involved we managed to organise 4 nights at Bimberta Cottage and a 1/2 day charter on the Tory M during our time there. It all fell into place and the next day we left our van at the shack and caught the ferry across to the island.

Kangaroo Island - 4 nights

We caught the 9.00am ferry across to Penneshaw - stocked up on some (very expensive) supplies and headed off to Bimberta Cottage in American River. I got the boat all ready and headed off for a quick fish with Brodie in the bay. Brodie lost interest after an hour or so of no action, so I dropped him back on shore and went out again where I picked up 4 or 5 nice whiting and a couple of tommies. Keira and myself then celebrated our 1 year "on the road" anniversary with a late night session of bourbons and scrabble.

The next day, Keira took the kids to sight see - Admiral's Arch, Remarkable Rocks, Seal Bay, etc etc - I headed off for a fish around the bay where I again picked up a few whiting, tommies and salmon trout.

On Sunday morning we headed off to the American River Gala Day held at the local oval located just behind our cottage. We checked out the markets, had a bite to eat and the kids had fun on all the rides which were free. As the weather had turned quite windy, we didn't take out the ducky but we fished from the wharf instead where Keira caught a number of trevally and salmon trout while I picked up a couple of tommies and small whiting.

Luckily the wind had dropped somewhat by Monday morning and our charter was on. We had fished with "Scratchy" the last time we were in KI and had bagged out within a couple of hours - but, as with most of Australia, this was a "bad" year for fishing and we had to work hard to catch our whiting. We were on the water for a good 6+ hours and eventually came home with 34 whiting and a few trevally and tommies - we were very happy with the catch and the effort Scratchy put in above and beyond our half day charter. The kids were great on the boat and caught their share of big whiting with Tamara having the catch of the day - a 45cm kidney slapping whiting. After getting back to the cottage and cleaning up the fish, Scratchy came round with some of his home brew scotch and we spent the night knocking back the drinks and having a good conversation.

We spent the Tuesday morning packing up the car and cleaning up the cottage before heading back to Penneshaw to catch the 1.00pm ferry to Cape Jervis.

Hawkesbury River Houseboat - 3 nights

Keira had, for years, talked about her previous houseboat trips on the Hawkesbury River. It sounded fantastic so I rang a few marinas and eventually found one willing to hire us a boat for 3 nights for $700 - 2 days later we were on our way to Brooklyn - home base of the "Ripples" fleet. It was about 45 minutes from Dave and Shirley's place. We were loaded on board by 11.00 and motoring up the river by 12.30.

We found our first overnight mooring about 2 hours later, we had gone up river where less people tended to go. There was no-one about. It had been raining for the last couple of hours and Keira and the kids were not too happy with the poor weather. However, fish still bite in the rain, so I was still kept busy. That night I caught 3 flathead 42cm, 53cm and 67cm respectively. The last flathead was caught on a live 15cm Tailor that I had caught on my lighter rod. I was happy - enough for 2 fish feasts!

The next morning the rain had cleared but it was still not as hot as Keira would like it to be! We headed off to another branch of the river, near the mouth of a small creek. We took the dinghy (with my motor on the back) and explored the creek for some distance - we dropped a crab pot and had a fish. The tide was dropping and the boat was beginning to bottom out - we had to move it to slightly deeper water (= more swell). We fished some more with Keira picking up a few catfish and I had a nice battle with a small ray that I eventually landed and then released. No luck with the crab pot!

The next day we decided to head down river to the "busy" area near the mouth to the ocean. After some hours of motoring we decided to anchor in a long but narrow inlet known as Mulloway Lane. The weather was getting better but still not hot enough to be swimming. Towards twilight, I jumped into the dinghy and "trolled" the inlet for a couple of hours - I had one hit but was unable to land it and lost it about 20m from the boat. Brodie had caught a lot of bream, slimey mackeral and leather jackets on a bait rig I had set up for him - I used the slimey mackeral as bait that night. I had a huge hit followed by a massive run - I was watching my line come to the end when the fish tired and I was able to turn him and get some of my line back before it took another long run - eventually I got him close to the boat thinking I had my mulloway when we saw that it was a Hammerhead shark - about 3-4 ft long - not being in the mood to pick it up (had left my gaff at the van) I let him go!

On our final day, we motored around for a while, stopped off for a couple of hours for lunch and headed back to the marina to arrive by 4pm.

Dave & Shirley's - Gosford - 4 nights - Part 3

Before arriving back at the house, we had to take Brodie to the doctors to get the ok on his cut chin - all was good and it was beginning to heal nicely. The bathrooms in the unit had been completed - we now had showers and toilets - yippppeeee!

I had some work to do on the rubber ducky - I tried locating the leak but was unable to find it - I had to take the boat to Tony and Dawn's pool and drop it in the water - we found the leaks - now to fix them. I bought a (temporary) repair kit from the local boat shop - Zodiac repair kits were only available in Sydney and I needed the boat inflated before travelling as it doubles as a roof rack! I also painted the floor boards and replaced the boats rego numbers - it was looking good - I just hoped it stayed inflated! Keira was getting bored watching me work so she decided that she would catch up with Penny again and spend the night at her place. She was back early on Saturday morning.

As we weren't going to see Dave, Shirley and the kids for Xmas this year, we decided to have a Xmas dinner and presents while we were here. So while Keira and Shirley sorted out the food and gifts, Dave and myself took out his boat and went fishing in Brisbane Waters for a couple of hours - we caught plenty of undersize whiting and bream - but no keepers! We had a great night and the kids had a ball with their presents.

The next day, after catching up with an old friend of Daves and Keiras (from Frenches Forest days), we took Jack, Harry and Brodie out on the boat and everyone caught some fish - although all undersize once again!

Finally we were off to Sydney - a huge thanx to Dave and Shirley - would have been easy to stay longer but we are now counting in "weeks" before the end of the trip - and there is still a lot to see!

Sydney - 3 nights

We drove straight to the Lane Cove National Park van park - this park had won the best park in Australia award for 2008 - it was ok, reasonable cost - nothing special! We got the van set up and Keira headed off to spend the night with her Uncle Chris. The kids and myself spent a couple of hours in the pool before just relaxing in front of the TV. Keira spent much of the night with Chris investigating her family tree - she was able to trace back to the 1850's!

The next day was quite hot so we spent most of the day at Bondi Beach. It was busy! We spent some time checking out the local shopping strip! That night, we had a free guided tour of the van park and its nocturnal creatures - it was quite pleasing when Brodie and Tamara were able to answer many of the questions asked by the ranger - it seems that they have picked up a lot of knowledge on this trip!

The weather had cooled and we were off to Taronga Park Zoo. There was a lot of building works going on around the zoo and the only parking available was underground - the cruiser with the ducky on top does not fit - so Keira used her charm to get us into the staff car park (for free!). We had a long day visiting all the animals - there wasn't much we missed out on.

Sussex Inlet - 3 nights

Sussex Inlet lies in the Shoalhaven region of NSW. A small town on the edge of the inlet to St Georges Basin that swells in size during the holiday periods. The van park we picked was on the foreshore of the inlet and had only 6 "tourist" sites - the rest were permanent holiday vans with hard annexes - and of these there were only 2 being currently occupied - so it felt like we had the van park to ourselves - this was a first for us.

Had some maintenance to do - the van door handle broke so Tamara and myself had to drive 40kms north to Nowra for a replacement handle ($110). Keira and Brodie were both suffering from colds/flu and rested a lot of the time that we were here. I went to the local markets - was quite impressed with what they had for sale. Keira and the kids explored some of the beach by foot and Keira went 4WD for a better look later (at all the surfers!)

I spent some hours on the van park's private jetty fishing the inlet - on the 1st session, I was spooled by a large ray. I went back to the van and re-spooled only to be spooled by a 2nd ray shortly thereafter - this was becoming an expensive fishing session. After re-spooling again, I gave it another shot and caught my first decent 2 kg Tailor of the trip - it was a lot of fun to pull in. Over the next 2 days, I didn't get a bite!!!!

Batemans Bay - 2 nights

Headed south for another 100kms to Batemans Bay - it was a winding and hilly drive and the cruiser had to work pretty hard. Stayed at a 5* park right on the beach. Kids and Keira went for a swim in the pool and then Keira and myself took a long walk along the beach while the kids played in the playground/jumping pillow. Had a fish off the beach with no success.

The next day we visited a small village 10kms out of BB called Mogo. We were hoping to pan for some gold but there were 110 school kids doing the same thing so we will have to wait for another opportunity! Spent our time walking through the village and checking out the shops. Went and did some grocery shopping afterwards and then back to the van park. Kids played with their friends and I fished the beach again - caught an undersized flathead and bream - then a 1m shovel nosed ray - released him - and a nice 60cm flathead that we cooked up for lunch the next day - seems like flathead are my NSW specialty!!!

Canberra - 2 nights

We had a choice to make ...... follow the coast or head inland to visit Canberra. Keira was keen on Canberra, so thats where we went. It meant we would miss the remainder of the South NSW coast and all of the North VIC coast. We decided to take the Kings Highway direct to Canberra from Batemans Bay - Google maps didn't mention that this route went through the heart of the Great Dividing Range and Clyde Mountain - the 200kms took almost 4 hours - the cruiser had to work extremely hard - 1st gear at 30km/hr for a number of uphill stretches. This highway has a casualty rate 85% than the average NSW rate - I'm not surprised, it was a tough drive!

We stayed at a van park not far from the CBD - it was not very nice - catered more for the workers that temporarily worked in Canberra. But we weren't too fussed - we intended to be sightseeing most of our time there and wouldn't be spending much time in the park.

We arrived around lunch, had a bite to eat and headed off. First stop was Nokia to get the cracked screen on my phone repaired ($140). Then we headed off to Questacom - the National Science Centre - had a ball there - very interesting (and interactive).

The next day we drove around the "Lodge" (Kevin Rudd's Canberra residence); checked out all the various embasseys from different countries; went to the new Parliament House; had lunch at the Telstra Tower (this was overpriced); went to the National Museum of Australia and finished the day at the Australian War Memorial. It was a long day but very interesting for all of us. The next morning we were off at 7.30am - we had about 350km (4.5 hours) to travel .........aiming for Albury somewhere!

Albury - 1 night

It was a hot day - about 37 degrees - and we got on to the Hume Highway for the drive to Albury. The wind picked up and our fuel economy dropped - it was another tough drive for the cruiser as we battled head winds for most of the way. We decided to stay at a van park at Lake Hume, about 15kms out of Albury. This is where its commonly thought that the Murray River begins its journey through Victoria and SA. We arrived around lunch time and after setting up I headed off to Albury to pick up some groceries. There was a change coming through and during a 3 minute period - there were some major winds happening. I was in a car park and saw 4 trees snap and fall on the parked cars underneath, shop signs were flying through the air ...... there was panic everywhere.

I was concerned about Keira and the kids back at the park - we had parked the van underneath a couple of large gum trees and I was picturing the worse - I rushed back (but had to clear 2 fallen trees across the road) but everyone was ok. A couple of boats on the lake's edge had busted off their moorings and were floating aimlessly on the lake - about 3 cabins had their roofs smashed with fallen branches. The "storm" had lasted only a few minutes but it had managed to drop the temp. by about 10 degrees - it then rained that afternoon and night ........ NSW weather!!! I still managed to have a quick fish and picked up a large carp ..... but that was all. We left about 10.00am the next morning for another long day of driving - about 450kms ....... aiming to get past Geelong.

Lake Colac - 2 nights

We were over the tough drives with the van on the back - we had decided to explore the Great Ocean Road without the van so we headed off to a free camp on Lake Colac and would bush camp there and do a day trip along the Great Ocean Road. We arrived at Lake Colac around 5pm - we weren't able to fish, the lake was very shallow and there was about 30 metres of boggy ground just to get to the shallow water's edge.

Next morning we were off pretty early - we headed through some very pretty country side to arrive at Lorne (about 80kms) - the start of our Great Ocean Road experience. We stopped at all the usual tourist stops along the way - all up about 140kms of the road before we decided to head inland again and make our way back to Colac (another 90kms). Next stop was Port Fairy for a more relaxing 3 nights before heading off to our "Xmas park" booked about 3-4 weeks ago.

Port Fairy - 3 nights

We had a 2 hour trip to Port Fairy - a lovely seaside town about 30kms south of Warnambool. We did a full set up and were having lunch by 1.00pm. We had a pretty hectic last couple of weeks so we were aiming to kick back and relax. That afternoon I explored the town and earmarked some possible fishing spots while Keira and the kids took it easy. We met a lovely family who were camping directly opposite us and spent some time with them.

The next day, Keira and myself drove into Warnambool to do our Xmas shopping. The kids stayed back in the park - our neighbours were to keep an eye on them. It took about 4 hours and we more or less were able to get everything we needed. That evening I fished a couple of the spots I had previously earmarked - with no success - am yet to catch a fish in Victoria!!!!!

The next day was just lazing around the park, playing with the kids having long happy hours, etc etc.

Narrawong - 10 nights

Well this place was a surprise ...... a fantastic park in a great location. Keira did well to get us in for 10 nights ....... someone had cancelled a couple of hours before she rang (2 weeks ago) - we got lucky, this place is booked out in March for the Xmas period! The park is almost completely surrounded by the Surrey River and the beach is a 5 minute walk over a footbridge.

We spent Xmas and New Years Eve here - it was quiet for Xmas but the masses arrived on Boxing Day. We opened our Xmas presents in the morning, had a big breakfast and spent the day hanging with the kids - for Xmas dinner we had a seafood banquet - fish, oysters, bugs and prawns ........yummmmmy!

The weather on our first night was nasty with heavy winds (45-50 km/hr) and some rain - but it just got better with some real heat during our stay. New Years Eve also saw a storm come through about lunch time but it cleared up for the evening's celebrations.

We met some great people here, two groups in particular, who we celebrated with throughout our stay - 1 group was from Portland (10kms away) and another group from country Victoria near Melbourne. We also spent some time with our neighbours who were a young family from Adelaide wanting to spend a Xmas without the extended family! By sheer coincidence we bumped into our neighbours from Eden Hills - Gert, Susannah and their kids Jasper and Aisha - they were travelling to Melbourne with a Swedish couple and decided to stay overnight at our van park - we spent the evening having a few drinks and catching up on the local gossip - it was beginning to feel that we were getting closer to home :(

We spent our time by swimming at the beach or in the river (Tamara loved jumping off the footbridge), visiting Portland where the kids watched a movie (G Force) whilst Keira and myself had a fish off the breakwater, picking strawberrys and visited Cape Bridgewater and the beach for a swim. 

I dropped the rubby ducky into the river a number of times but was only successful with a couple of bream (1 was 40cm) on my first session. Keira and Brodie also went fishing in the boat. I fished one night off the beach and caught a small snapper and one morning I was on the Portland breakwater at 5.30am and pulled in a small baracouda (52cm). Brodie entered the van park's fishing competition but had no luck with the bream.

New Years Eve began with a Karioke night - Tamara was the first one on with a friend - she sang about 6-7 songs over the course of the night - one was a solo. Surprisingly Brodie decided to have a solo sing - as the kids had recieved Wii Singstar for Xmas - Brodie chose a difficult song that he had been singing for the past week, and he was praised for his "sweet" voice! Glow stix were the hot costume accessory for the night - everyone was wearing them - I think I had a pair of ear rings on at some stage!!! We spent our time drinking between the 2 groups that had "adopted" us and finally got to bed around 3am (after some complaints from other campers!).

We packed up on the 2nd of January, said our goodbyes to our new friends and headed off to our final spot in Victoria, Nelson.   

Port Macquarie - 4 nights

We arrived at Port Macquarie on Melbourne Cup Day. Keira had a few bets on at the TAB and we entered a sweeps at our caravan park. The park put on nibbles and we all watched the race at the games room. Having spent the last few Melbourne Cups at Adelaide Oval all dressed up - I couldn't really get into the mood......... but we came third in the van park sweeps and Keira got her money back at the TAB.

Unfortunately, when we arced up the laptop to get the kids into their internet classrooms - the laptop didn't work!! I took it into a computer store to see what the problem was ..... a fried mother board that was going to cost us $1000 to repair. It seems that during the thunderstorms in Sawtell we had a power surge ...... we had noticed our external extension cord had fused to the van park power poles when we left ... but hadn't realised that it had also fried the computer. I decided to purchase a new laptop - bigger screen, more memory, etc etc for $1500 ...... not an expense that we had budgeted for!!!

We met a great bunch of people who regularly visit this park and spent most of the evening happy hours with them. We went fishing with Sharon and her daughter Keely at the river - first we pumped for some "nippers" as bait - Keira hooked up an undersized flathead and I hooked on to a ray that took about 15 minutes to land - then I let him go.

Then it rained, and rained, and rained ........... and then rained some more. We watched a lot of DVDs and did little else. The rain began to seep in to the floor of the annexe - but it wasn't too bad. We were planning to leave after 3 nights, but it was still coming down hard the morning we were to pack up ...... so we stayed an extra day. We visited the local museum and then went bowling that afternoon. The following morning it was still raining but we were determined to go so we set down in the rain and got soaked. We were off to Crowdy Bay National Park to bush camp for a few days - we hoped the roads were still accessible!

Diamond Heads - 2 nights

Diamond Heads is a campground in Crowdy Bay National Park located about 50 kms south from Port Macquarie. Access is via a 10km dirt road that was in surprisingly good condition considering the amount of rain that the area has had. There was no power or water but the campground had toilets and cold showers. It rained all the way in and we decided to do a basic setup only.

A couple of hours after we got there, the rain came down hard and after about 25 minutes the campground had become a lake!!!! The rain stopped later that evening and by morning the "lake" had turned into a few scattered puddles and we saw blue sky for the first time in days! We spent our time exploring the immediate area by foot and "playing" with the many resident kangaroos at the camp.

Forster-Tuncurry - 4 nights

The first van park we went to didn't have the right "feel" so we headed off to find another one. Keira was trying to remember where she used to stay as a child on her family holidays ....... but the place had changed so much and we eventually settled for a park in Forster located along a small inlet of the Great Lakes system.

After studying the maps of the area we went for a drive and found her "childhood" park about 10kms out of Forster - it was fairly run down and I was glad we hadn't found it earlier!

Considering the terrible fishing I have experienced along the NSW coast, I decided to go on my second charter of this trip (the first being in Coffin Bay SA). We were on the water at 6.00am and the weather was perfect - we went out about 10kms fishing for deep sea reef fish (eg snapper, nannygai, pearl perch, etc) but as luck would have it ..... due to the heavy rains in the area the water was dirty brown from the freshwater run out to the ocean (its normally turquoise blue ..... so they say!) and all we caught were 2 Blue Morwongs and a Nannygai (not by me!). So we decided to target flathead - they liked the dirty water and we caught 27 (4 people fishing). I caught the 2 largest at 59 and 52cm plus 5 or 6 smaller ones ........ so for $100 I had 8 hours on the ocean and 4-5 feeds of flathead - pretty good value for money!

Upon my return Keira and the kids headed off for a 1 hour horse ride through the hinterlands at a cost of $185 ...... and no feeds to show for it ..... but it was the kid's first taste of horseriding and Tamara absolutely loved it!

That night Keira had organised to catch up with Sandra, a friend of her Mums, and they went out to play Bingo but the bingo was cancelled so they spent the evening at the local pub and pokies.  This is where "evil" Keira came out to play - too many wines and not enough food - not long before she was asked to leave the premises. We caught up with Sandra again for a coffee the next day.

As well as the above, the kids spent time in the pool, we all played putt putt, the kids did their school work and we fished at the creek in front of our van. Next stop - Flick and Jeff's in Newcastle!

Jeff and Flick's - Medowie - 7 nights

Medowie is a suburb of the Port Stephens area in the Hunter region of NSW. It is located approx. 35kms north of Newcastle, not far from the Williamtown RAAF base. It was a small rural town until a property and commercial boom in the 1980s and it now has a population of approx. 8000 people.

We arrived at their home on Friday around lunch time and had the van all set up opposite their front door by the time Flick came home from work around 3.00pm. Jeff arrived home from Canberra later that night and we sat around having some drinks and catching up on whats been happening. The next day the weather started warming up and we swam in the pool and lazed about - that night we had a BBQ and huge bonfire and a few more drinks! On the Sunday, Cody was off to a mate's place, Dylan was off to work and the rest of us went for a drive down to Fishermans Bay where I did a bit a spearfishing with Jason - Jason found some undersized crayfish and I speared a tiny fish (just to see if I could!)

Jeff was off to work again in Canberra for a few days and Flick had arranged for our kids to attend the school that Flick works at. The kids were so excited and absolutely loved being at school again - they were so disappointed that they could only go for 2 days! Keira and myself made the most of our "kidless" days and visited the local coastal towns of Nelson Bay and Soldiers Point where I had a quick fish with no success. We bought some local oysters from an oyster farm and had oyster feast back at the house.

We decided to go check out Stockton Beach - a 4WD playground. The beach is 32 km long and in some areas it is as much as 1km wide and has sand dunes over 30m high. As we arrived at the beach we realised you needed a permit to drive on the sand but as I had already let down the tyres, I was not going to drive back to the shop to purchase the permit and decided to chance it. Once we made it through the bush track to the sand dunes - we didn't know where to go and simply headed straight - wrong ....... we were completely surrounded by sand dunes as far as the eye could see! Then we saw a car in the distance and headed the same way - we finally made it to the beach and drove a couple more kms to the wreck we wanted to see. As we arrived at the wreck, I pulled up next to another car - rangers!!!! I thought that they would bust us for no permit .... but they didn't even check!! We stopped at a few of the steeper dunes to let the kids surf the dunes on their boogey boards before heading back to Jeff and Flick's place. 

Jeff was back again on the Wednesday night and we had a couple more late nights and drinking sessions. A big thanx to Jeff, Flick, Dylan, Jason and Cody for their hospitality and the good times - I'm sure that there was some relief from Flick as she saw us driving out of the driveway - time for her to "de-tox" - no more Jaegermeisters for her!!

Penny & Leigh's - Shelley Beach - 1 night

Next stop was to visit a childhood friend of Keira's. We booked into a van park in Toowoon Bay close to Penny and Leigh's house. Penny came around for a visit and few bourbons in the early afternoon. Then we all headed off to Penny's house for a BBQ and catch up session. The kids were kept amused by Wii Singstar and slept the night there. A storm came through during our time there and it came down very hard with lots of rain, thunder and lightning and then just disappeared - NSW weather - tough to predict!! Keira and myself headed back to the van in the early hours of the morning and after a few hours of sleep, Keira picked up the kids  and we headed off to our next destination - Dave (Keira's brother) and Shirley's place in Springfield, Gosford. A big thanx to Penny and Leigh for the BBQ & company!

Dave & Shirley's - Gosford - 2 nights - Part 1

We arrived at Dave & Shirley's around lunch time on the Saturday. We manouvered the van through the trees and set up in the backyard. The 2 bedroom unit was going through some renovations but that didn't stop all of us (except Keira) from setting up the beds inside - we just didn't have any toilets/bathrooms - a small price to pay for the space that was available to us. We didn't do much apart from catch up for the 1st couple of days before we were off again to visit another of Keira's childhood friends - Jo and Doug - who lived about 40 mins away in Tookley.

Jo & Doug's - Tookley - 1 night

We headed off about lunch time on the Monday - we left the van and took our tent for the night. Doug got home an hour or two after we got there and after a few drinks we decided to walk to the local RSL for a meal that night. We spent the night drinking with Jo and Keira catching up on old times. Gemma had kindly donated her bedroom to us for the night so the tent wasn't necessary but Sam and the kids were keen to sleep "out" so we set it up in the backyard. We stumbled to bed in the early hours of the morning - after downing a number of bourbans/beers/Jaegermeisters. Doug had to work the next day but due to the rain that had set in overnight, he was back again before we left - he was not a well man!!! We put down the tent in the rain - it would have to be dried out at a later date. A big thanks to Jo and Doug's (and their lovely kids) hospitality and good times.

Dave & Shirley's - Gosford - 6 nights - Part 2

We arrived back here at about lunch time and simply relaxed - the best thing to do with a hangover! I fished in Erina Creek at the back of the house - it was a tight fit through the track with the cruiser - but I spent some time removing some of the offending bush. I left my rod in and went back to the house for a couple of hours - upon my return, my rod and 2 rodholders had been stolen - somebody passing in a boat/kyak took the opportunity ....... I was not happy. The next day, I bought a new (and better) rod and reel ........ now I was happy again!

I launched the rubber ducky and motored into Brisbane Waters - about a 3km trip through the creek into the bay. Spent a couple of hours fishing with my new rod and picked up 2 small Port Jackson sharks. When I retrieved the boat out of the creek - I must have put a lot of strain on it as the next day it was dead flat - time for some serious maintenance!

The kids still had their internet lessons but they had actually stopped doing their work returns since Flick and Jeff's place. Keira and myself sorted out their work returns and organised to have all their text books and learning aids returned back to the school. They spent their time playing the X-box and Wii whilst Jack, Harry and Ash were at school. The kids took the Thursday off school and we all went ice skating - Brodie and Jack both had huge stacks and cut their chins - Brodie's wouldn't stop bleeding so we took him to a medical centre - stitches were recommended but Brodie wasn't too keen so the doctor decided to "tape" up his chin and reveiw in two days time!

We spent some time swimming in the neighboour's (Tony and Dawn) pool. On the Saturday night we went to dinner at the local pub. We watched movies and generally just spent some quality time together. We were woken up early (before 8.00am) every morning with the builders who were doing the renovations for the unit and main bathroom upstairs. Dave had organised a surprise night out in Sydney with Shirley to watch the play Mama Mia (a favourite of Daves!) - we had agreed to babysit all the kids that night.

Keira had always raved about houseboats on the Hawkesbury River so I made a few phone calls and managed to book a small boat at an excellent "last minute" price - it was off to the river for 3 nights!

Gold Coast Part 1 - 8 nights

We arrived at the park around lunch time and began a full set up that included our tent and the unloading of the car and boat. As Keira was still experiencing some pain with the infections on her arms, I had to go it alone! Keira headed off to Auntie Beth and Uncle Ken's to pick up some extra gear such as chairs, table and mattress for our visitors over the next 3 weeks. We picked this park due to the availability of a bungalow and villa as well its close proximity to 4 of the 5 theme parks that we would be visiting. We had a big rig site on a corner that gave us plenty of room for the van, 2 tents, boat, car and a private entertaining area.

The next day, after an early morning quick fishing fix at the local creek (caught 2 catfish), we all piled into the cruiser and headed off for a swim at Surfers Paradise followed by some shopping at the mall and a visit to the Haunted House for Brianna and the kids. Michelle and Brianna spent the 2 nights sleeping in our tent.

Early the next morning, I drove Michelle to the car hire agency to pick up the Tarago that they had hired - Michelle then went to the airport to pick up Bill, Nathan and our "surprise" guests. We had always believed that our surprise guests would be Kathy, Adrian and Josh but the doubt had set in over the past couple of weeks as everyone's denials were quite convincing! However, we were delighted when we saw them back at the park ...... our original instincts were correct! We had a few hours to kill before the bungalow and villa were ready for the Bowles and Alisons, so the girls went off shopping for groceries/supplies and the boys began knocking back a few beers! Once everyone was settled in their abodes, we all got together on the Bowles' balcony for a BBQ and session lasting well into the night.

The following day was spent across the road at Movie World where we did the rides all day - most of this time was spent in the queues. We all went to the local restaurant for dinner then a couple more drinks on the balcony before heading to bed relatively early.

Early Saturday morning, I went fishing with Adrian at the local creek (Bill was still fast asleep!) where all we caught was a small mud crab with a big attitude - it chased Adrian around the bank before we managed to get it back in the water. We then headed off to the Surfers paradise mall to shop (again) followed by lunch at a surf club in Broadbeach. After lunch we all went down to the beach for a swim and  I showed Nathan how to boogey board the Qld waves! We spent the evening on the Bowles' balcony and were joined by Roy and Lisa who we had first met in Mission Beach.

Sunday morning saw some (me) of us kick back and relax whilst Keira, Brianna, Brodie & Tamara went off to the Carrara markets and Michelle, Bill and Nathan went to the beach. Kathy, Adrian & Josh took the Cruiser and also went to the markets and then continued on to spend the rest of the day at Sea World. The Hauners and Bowles had a family commitment and visited Beth and Ken and their families for afternoon tea. We all met up again that night for pizza and drinks on the Bowles' balcony.

Monday morning saw us all pile into the Cruiser and Tarago and head 5 minutes down the road to Dream World and White Water World. We spent the day doing all the rides - many more than once - and left as the gates were closing. A highlight for Kathy, Adrian & Josh was a helicopter ride over the Gold Coast. Once back at the park, the Bowles and Alisons packed their gear ready for their early morning departure, and drinks well into the night was had in front of our van.

The next morning we said our goodbyes and thanks to the Bowles and Alisons who headed off to the Coolagatta Airport whilst I headed in the opposite direction to pick up the Webbe family from Brisbane Airport to begin part 2 of our Gold Coast stay.

Gold Coast Part 2 - 12 nights

I arrived at the airport just after 8.30am and picked up Nigel, Michelle, Cooper (8 yo) and Maddy (2 yo) who were here with us for the next 10 nights. We set up the baby seat, loaded the baggage and headed back to the park. After the hugs and hellos, Nigel and Michelle (and Maddy) got themselves organised in our tent and we set up Cooper's tent. The kids slept in Cooper's tent, the annexe or in the van - it was a different set up each night. Keira and Michelle headed off to the supermarket to stock up on the groceries - our fridges were completely full! That afternoon we were off to Movie World to give the Webbes their first taste of the theme parks!

To cut a long story short - we did the theme parks almost every day - Movie World (numerous times), Dream World & White Water World (twice - once it rained most of the day), Sea World (once) and Wet & Wild (twice - once it closed on us due to heavy electrical storms). Keira and Nigel definitely had their share of thrill rides - there was no stopping them. The kids loved all the rides - from the big thrill rides to the more placid kiddy rides - nothing was missed. We paid almost $800 for our 4 unlimited theme park tix - and we had our moneys worth........me - I was completely over theme parks - once I had done the ride once, I didn't see the point in doing it again - I sat out a couple of the "quick" trips to Movie World!!!! We took advantage of the early Dream World entry that our tix entitled us to and Keira and Nigel and the kids got on to the big rides with very short queues. 

In between the theme parks, Nigel and Michelle also managed to fit in an afternoon shopping at Surfers Paradise, a full day trip to Australia Zoo (a 290 km round trip) and a night out at The Outback Spectacular. The days were busy, then dinner and a few drinks before falling into bed exhausted!!!

We offered to babysit Maddy one day so that Nigel, Michelle and Cooper could spend a day at Dream World and White Water World. Tamara, after having spent some time with her older cousins, was now the big girl and had a ball looking after Maddy. On one of the mornings, I took Cooper and Brodie fishing down at the creek - but again no success!

During the Webbes' time with us - it was Keira and my 11th wedding anniversary - so with live in babysitters we took the opportunity to head off to a nice restaurant on the marina in Sanctury Cove - Nigel dropped us off and the plan was for him to pick us up a couple of hours later - however, we cancelled that plan as we were having a ball (it was our first night out alone since we started this trip!) The "restaurant" turned into a nightclub with a band - we were chatting with the band members during one of their breaks - and the next thing we knew .......... they called us up on the dancefloor, explained our story to the patrons and we received a round of applause - and then danced (yeah - thats right) danced the night away. The nightclub had a courtesy bus for their regulars and we managed to get a lift back to the van park in the early hours of the morning - a big night!!!

On the Webbes' last day, Nigel, Keira and Brodie headed off to Movie World for their last "fix" on the thrill rides whilst I took Michelle, Maddy, Cooper and Tamara shopping at Harbour Town. A big thanks to Nigel and Michelle for the gifts for the kids - a soccer ball and a pretty dress - Brodie loved the dress (heh heh heh). 

An early flight on Friday morning out of Brisbane saw Keira getting up at 5.00am in order to get the Webbes to the airport on time. We took it easy the rest of the day and headed off the Ken and Beth's for dinner that night - we arrived late as there were a couple of accidents on the freeway which saw us crawling along the 5 lane freeway - we finally made it and had a lovely roast for dinner. The next day was spent packing up the tents, boat and car ready for an early start the next morning - destination ..... NSW!

Hastings Point - 5 nights

Hastings Point is a small coastal village located on the Tweed Coast of NSW, just 25kms south from the Qld/NSW border. There is a huge amount of construction going on as the developers are buying up the land and building holiday dwellings - an anti development campaign is being run by the locals - but it looks like a losing battle! 

We stayed at a nice (expensive) van park where we experienced some "firsts" - we had to unhitch our van outside the office and a groundsman hooked up the van to a tractor and parked it for us - too easy (however, I don't know why he laughed when I asked him to put up the annexe!). We were also hooked up to Austar TV reception (movies, sport and cartoons all day) and there was a leisure centre on site that had a 25m lap pool, heated spas, sauna, gym and massuesse - kids not allowed - we used this facility a number of times!! The kids were not forgotten - they had a pool with 2 water slides, games room, outdoor playground and an indoor playgym. If this was the norm of NSW van parks - we were going to like this state!

We started with the kids' schooling this week (after a 4 week break). I fished off the rocks in the ocean as well as the estuary system - it had been sometime since I had a few decent fishing sessions - but there was no success - not a good start to my NSW campaign! We did a day trip to Byron Bay (80 km round trip) and looked at the sights, checked out the shops, had a drink at a beachfront hotel that Keira used to frequent in her teenage years and had a swim at the beach before heading back home.

We celebrated Tamara's 9th birthday here by decorating the annexe, giving her presents, she wanted to do her internet school lesson and then we headed off to the twin cities of Coolangatta (Qld) and Tweed Heads (NSW) on the Qld/NSW border. We visited some of the sights of the cities before heading off to HJs for lunch then off to the movies to watch Aliens In The Attic - we were the only ones in the cinema - it was a lot of fun. After the movies we had organised to catch up with Keira's relatives, Mick and Carol, for a quick drink at a pub on the marina - it was good to see them again - then back to the park so that Tamara could play with her friends - out came the sparklers, party poppers and balloons - whilst Keira and myself had a drink with the parents of one of Tamara's friends.

Yamba - 3 nights

Yamba is Australia's eastern most sea port and is located on the mouth of the Clarence River in Northern NSW. It was recently voted by Australian Traveller magazine as the No. 1 best town in Australia. Again, the promise of good fishing lured us here, but after about a total of 12 hours on the water in the rubber ducky, I had only 1 barely legal flathead! It has a large fishing fleet, so we had our fill of seafood purchased from the local co-op.

Apart from the fishing, we spent our time checking out the local sights, shopping for supplies and having a drink one afternoon at the local tavern situated on the banks of the river. Keira and the kids also spent some time at the local markets. This is where we also began to experience the thunderstorms that seem common to this stretch of coast. We had one at 5.00am on the morning we left, but luckily it had dried up by the time we had to pack up and leave.

Sawtell - 4 nights

Sawtell is a lovely small coastal village about 10 minutes south of Coffs Harbour. We arrived whilst it was raining and managed to get the annexe set up in between the showers. It continued to rain the rest of the day and all the next day - at one point, 41mm of rain fell in a 20 minute period. The kids spent the time doing school work and we watched a few videos.

After the second night, we woke to blue skies and warm sunshine - such a relief! I fished the numerous creeks in and near our park, but again no luck (more like no fish!). We spent one day in Coffs Harbour, where we (I) fished at the marina before heading to the Big Banana where the kids went ice skating for an hour or so. We then purchased 10 rides on the toboggan which was a lot of fun for all of us. We, of course, had to indulge in their famous banana splits and chocolated coated bananas that were finished with ease. Thereafter, we headed off to a miniture Dutch village and a clog making display before heading back to the van for the night.

The next day we visited Adam, Kathy and the kids who had finished their Australia trip (we first met them in Carnavon WA) and had re-located from Melbourne to a small country town called Bellinger approx 45kms inland from Coffs Harbour. We stayed for a BBQ, reminisced about our travels while the kids played with each other. Bellinger had experienced some flooding with the earlier rain and the roads had only re-opened the day we visited them. We got back about 9.30 that night and began to pack ready for an early exit in the morning.

Point Plomer - 4 nights

Point Plomer camp ground is located in the Limeburners National Park, 15kms along a gravel track just south of Crescent Heads. The kids had heard that this was a nice place so we decided to check it out. There is no water or power - you had to be self sufficient, although there was cold water showers and flushing toilets. We took 45 minutes to travel the 15km dirt road - it was quite rough in places and our van is not built to handle off road travel - however, we made it without any problems. Being a weekday, there were plenty of sites to chose from and we chose a site along the beach front behind a small sand dune that offered some protection from the sea breezes. It was a beautiful spot, surrounded by a number of surf beaches (its popular with surfers).

We had to be careful with our water, so hot showers were not an option - we had cold showers when needed. The battery in the van was fine for the 5 days and the Engel in the cruiser will last for 40 hours before I need to run the engine (for 2 hours) to recharge the car battery. We have become very good at bush camping (compared to our 1st effort in WA).

I spent a lot of time fishing the beach or off the rocks - but again there were no fish in the ocean - we did, however, see lots of dolphins and whales almost every day. Keira caught a whole lot of small rock cods and reef fish - but nothing worth keeping. She also managed to snap her rod (on a massive fish ..... of course!). Keira also went snorkelling but having snorkelled in some of the best spots in Australia, she wasn't too impressed with what she saw.

The kids made a number of friends and they all dressed up for Halloween and went trick & treating - and they did very well! We had camp fires every night and drinks with different people every other night. One day saw quite a bit of rain but otherwise the days were quite warm and the nights quite chilly, especially when the ocean breezes were blowing. 

Bush camping has a very different feel to caravan parks - different types of people, no 240V power - hence no TV, computers, DS or microwaves - its a style of camping that we enjoy. Its generally less crowded and you can find beaches that are totally deserted - not an easy thing to do on the Eastern Coast. We plan to spend a lot more time in the National Parks that fringe the NSW coast.

Clairview Beach - 2 nights

A small coastal shack community about 200kms north of Rockhampton. We stayed here because of the fishing off the beach. Keira and Brodie caught about 30 undersize whiting on the high tide but I don't seem to be too interested in "small" fish anymore - I had my big fish line out but the only thing it was doing was getting wet. The van park is pretty basic, but as one long termer said as we arrived "welcome to paradise .... without the glitter". It rained a little during the nights and a few showers during the day. We did the kids schooling and just played games the rest of the time. The kids enjoyed the nightly bird feeding with hundreds of colourful parrots that would land on you and eat out of your hand.

Rockhampton - 4 nights

We stayed at a van park on the banks of the Fitzroy River. We had booked the van in for a service - got the bearings repacked, replaced a magnet on one electric brake and a new freezer door for our fridge - close enough to $500!!!! I pitched the tent for 3 nights and the kids slept "out" and had a cubby house during the daytime.

We spent one day walking around Rockhampton checking out the shops and river foreshore. We did a daytrip to Yeppoon and Emu Park - lovely little coastal villages situated about 50kms from Rocky. Managed to fish a few good looking spots but with no luck. We also celebrated Fathers day with a bacon and egg breakfast followed by a serious fishing session (without the family) off the banks of the Fitzroy River (not even a bite!) and finished the day with a lovely beef schnitzel dinner cooked by Keira - note that we have struggled to get a beef schnitzel since Broome WA - and when they are on the menu you pay around $22-$28! Kids made some new friends, Darcy and Lilly and Keira took them all for a bike ride to a local park where the kids had a ball! Apart from the above, we continued with the kids schooling and swam in the van park pool most days before packing up and heading off to our next destination - 1770.

Town of 1770 - 4 nights

The town of 1770 is a picturesque seaside village 120kms north of Bundaberg. It was the second landing site of Captain Cook and the Endeavour in 1770 - hence the name! Although the town has been around for a while, everything seems to be new - the roads, the shops and the houses. We stayed at a council campground that was very basic but it was located directly on the beach of Bustard Bay - location, location, location!!!!

We did a full set up and had the rubber ducky in the water (and just left it on the beach at night) - the fishing looked promising being in a protected bay - wrong - strong tides in the channel and as you neared the "mouth" the swell was quite scary - at one point Keira and myself were fishing about 200 metres from the mouth when we heard the roar of a huge breaking wave enter the channel - needless to say, we pulled in the anchor and motored to a calmer section of the bay!!! Took the kids fishing and all we caught were undersized whiting and flatheads - it was very dissappointing!

We had a thunderstorm one morning but the annexe held up just fine and we remained dry. The rest of the time it was in the high 20s and we just sat around the beach and swam and soaked up the rays (after schoolwork was completed - of course!) We did our bit for the local economy and Brodie and myself bought some new boardies and shirts. We watched a couple of DVDs during the nights (always a buzz for the kids) and one night we cooked up a BBQ at the local park that provided excellent facilities for free. Kids made a number of "young" friends that followed them around all day.

Bundaberg - 2 nights

Bundaberg is located on the Burnett River and is about 385kms north of Brisbane with a population of 32000. It is famous for its Bundaberg Rum, Sugar and Ginger Beer production. We arrived here after a short 120km drive from 1770 and were set up by 11.00am. We decided to stay in a van park in the town itself. That afternoon we visited the emerging seaside "suburbs" of Bargara, Innes Park and Elliot Heads.

The next day we checked out Dennis and Irene's (first met in Perth) caravan yard - we were considering upgrading our van but we could not find anything suitable. We checked out the Bundaberg Rum factory and the Ginger Beer shop and purchased accordingly. Brodie seemed very "tipsy" drinking his ginger beer that afternoon!!!! We also watched one of the few games of footy we've managed to catch this year - the Crows going down to Collingwood!!!

Hervey Bay - 2 nights

We stopped at another council camp ground with basic facilities but is again located right on the beach. Both Keira and myself really like this place with its bustling seafront lifestyle with quieter semi-rural suburbia a short distance away from the ocean. The area has all the major stores, good schools/uni and it has a good "feel" about the place - the housing here is extremely affordable - so much so that we have been looking at a number of houses for sale....................!

Hervey Bay is the gateway to Fraser Island and here we bought our permits to drive and beach camp on the island as well as the ferry trip across (total cost approx $250). The council van park were going to charge us full rates for storage of the van so we booked in to a Big 4 in the centre of town - 3 nights of storage followed by 1 night's accomodation - on an ensuite site (all they had left!).

Fraser Island - 3 nights

Another highlight of this trip. We packed the van and relocated it to another park before driving down to the marina to catch the 10.00am ferry across. The ferry ride was about 30 minutes and we arrived at the western side of the island and drove about 45 minutes through the inland tracks (16km) to the eastern beach. The speed limit on the inland tracks is 35kmh but only those with beefed up suspension (or hired 4WDs) could travel at that sort of speed.

We were lucky with the tides with high tides being around 6-7.00 am & pm each day allowing us to drive comfortably on the beach during the daytime. The sand was hard and smooth during low tide (speed limit was 80kmh) - at high tide you had to move into the soft sand which was still negotiable but a lot slower and more taxing on the car. We had purchased a general beach camping permit - we did not want to stay in an organised campground and we had earmarked to camp about 30-40kms north of Eurong. We took about 30 minutes to get to the general area and checked out a number of possible camp sites before choosing one just behind the foredunes - it was a great spot, protected from the wind under a nice shade tree - it had difficult access into the area - this must have put a few people off as we were totally alone 2 of the 3 nights. One night 4 german tourists tried accessing the campsite and overheated their gearbox on their hired 4WD trying to get in (they came in too slow). We had to help them in and they were gone early the next morning (never buy an ex-hire 4WD!).

We set up camp, dug out our toilet and got the fishing gear ready. First fishing session that late afternoon and I hooked up to my first mulloway of the trip - 2kg and 65cm long - within 15 minutes of landing him, we were having a fish feast - can't get any fresher than that. We were all in bed by 9.00pm and up at dawn the next morning.

The next day we visited Lake MacKenzie - a crystal clear fresh water lake surrounded by pure white sand. We decided to take the "scenic" route - only 14km - little did we know that scenic = "rough as guts" track. It took us almost 2 hours to cover this distance and at one point we had to "climb" up a tree with the cruiser to get over the ledge! I was over this track after 30 minutes and wishing we had taken the longer (distance wise) but less rugged route. The lake was busy with tourists (mainly resort tourists that travel by bus) but we had a swim and a couple of beers before heading back. I was concerned that we had misjudged the travel times and that access to our camp site would become impassable with the rising tide. As it was we had to take 1 inland detour to get around a section of the beach and then I had the option of travelling (very slowly) over a rocky outcrop (as all the cars in front of me were doing) or chancing the incoming waves and hooning around the ocean side of the rocks. As we still had some distance to travel - I took the quick option - I waited for a break in the set of waves and went for it ........... we made it 95% of the distance before we were hit with a wave, and being the idiot I am at times, I had my window wide open and Tamara and myself got drenched as the cruiser lost a little traction.........but then we were through and left the other vehicles behind still crawling through the rocks!! We made the rest of the trek back to the camp site without any dramas!! I fished the beach again that night but had no success. We also had a loaf of bread stolen by the dingoes during our time away - we had it hanging high in a tree in a bag but they still managed to get to it - Keira had seen a dingo the night before sniffing around our camp. 

The next day we decided to travel north along the beach for 3 or 4 kms and set up the cruiser next to the Maheno wreck - a ship that had been run aground during a cyclone in 1935. We set the awning up, had our shade, had our cold drinks from the Engel in the back of the car - we were doing it tough! We spent about 3-4 hours hanging around, drinking and fishing while the kids were skim boarding, bogey boarding and dune surfing. This was a lot more relaxing than the inland island tracks! We then headed south past our camp site by 2-3 kms and swam/washed at Eli Creek - a crystal clear freshwater creek that that runs into the ocean. We headed back to our camp site clean and refreshed before having another unsuccessful fishing session followed by dinner, drinks and then bed. We had seen the dingoes hanging around again this night - this worried the kids and Brodie in particular who did not sleep well that night.

We had booked the 4.00pm ferry back to the mainland, so we packed up our camp site first thing in the morning and decided to head back to the Maheno wreck - the kids were keen to surf the dunes again and Keira decided she would climb to the top to get some photos....... I waited patiently (and thankfully) at the bottom!! We then headed back to Eli Creek for another swim/wash before heading off to Eurong for a pie and cake from the resort bakery. We left Eurong at 2.00pm - plenty of time to make it across the island and get to the ferry. The ferry was leaving from Kingfisher Bay - a different landing spot than our arrival. I studied the map and thought I had it sussed and, against Keira's instincts, we took a wrong turn (I still say the map was incorrect) and ended up at the same place as we arrived. We had to go back about 10kms and take a turn that I had ignored the first time - now time was against us as the 4.00pm ferry was the last one to leave the island. Our nice leisurely drive was over, I now had to push the cruiser hard through some ugly tracks, we got caught behind a tour bus for a while and then a small 4WD (Hyundi) that was having trouble getting through some sections. They eventually pulled over to let us past and then all we had to do was negotiate the oncoming traffic that we assumed had arrived from "our" ferry - the tracks were only wide enough for 1 vehicle at a time, with infrequent passing bays - so this was a challenge in itself! We made it with 8 minutes to spare!!!!

All in all, this was a fantastic experience and the first time that we have truly "roughed" it. I was extremely pleased with the performance of the cruiser - it never felt like it was in danger of getting stuck or not being able to negotiate some of the difficult sections that we undertook. I did however, learn that hard-core 4WDing is not something that I crave for - to me, the destination was the motivation, not the journey!!!!

We got back to Hervey Bay about 5.30pm, spent a couple of hours cleaning/repacking the car/van and then heading off to the Esplanade for a late Chinese meal. The next morning we were off to the Sunshine Coast.

Coolum Beach - 2 nights

Its Qld school holidays and it has been difficult to get into caravan parks. However we managed to get 2 nights here at a council campground located on the Coolum Beach. We spent the first day walking around the shops and we purchased a new boogey board for Tamara (we had lost hers on Fraser Island somewhere). The rest of the afternoon was spent at the beach boogey boarding - the beach was patrolled by lifesavers - not something we have seen a lot of - and they "closed" the beach at 4.00pm due to the emergence of a strong rip. The park was full and there were many kids - our kids had a ball as they made quite a lot of new friends and played late into the night.

The next day we did a day trip to Noosa (about 20kms north) - much to the kids disappointment - they wanted to stay at the park and play with their new friends. Noosa was busy and we walked to the beach that was full of hundreds of people - it was crazy!! It did not look like fun at all! We then visited the "Big Pineapple" a Qld icon where we pigged out on their famous ice-creams before arriving back at the van park around 2.00pm. We did not see the kids for the rest of the day as they roamed around the park with their friends. We were off again the next morning for our 30 minute drive to Maroochydore.

Maroochydore - 3 nights

We arrived at another council campground in Maroochydore (Cotton Tree) by 10.30 and we did a full set up of the van and annexe - it had been sometime since the annexe was up and we enjoyed the privacy and protection that it gives us. The park was full but it had a different feel from Coolum Beach because the park did not allow the kids to ride around on their bikes/scooters - so the kids were generally older (teenagers) or younger (toddlers). The park was beautifully located on the mouth of the Maroochydore River to the ocean - so one side was on the banks of the river and the other side was on the beach front. The shops were directly across the road from the park - so the cruiser sat idle for a couple of days as everything was accessible by foot.

The first day the weather was beautiful and we managed a swim in the salt water river. The second day the wind was quite strong (but the kite surfers were out in force) and ruined my plans for a fishing session that night! The third day was the worst dust storm that Qld had experienced in 70 years - this was also the day we visited Australia Zoo. However, we had set off early and the dust didn't come through until mid/late afternoon. The zoo was fantastic and we watched Bindi and Rob doing the croc show as well as shows with the otters and tigers. Its a great zoo and reminds you of the immense passion of Steve Irwin and what he was able to achieve in such a short time. On the way back, we stopped of at the most photographed pub in the world - Ettamogah Pub - a quirky shaped building on the side of the Bruce Highway.

The kids still managed to find some new friends and spent a lot of time with them over the 3 days. Next stop ....... Brisbane ........ approx 130kms south.

Brisbane - 4 nights

We arrived at our van park in Rochedale around 12.00 midday. We had decided to use this time to kick back and give the van and car a good spring clean. We spent our time scrubbing the inside of our annexe walls, washing the curtains in the van, scrubbing all our mats and giving the van a wash and wax. I also detailed the car - it had a layer of fine red dust (from the recent dust storm) sitting on top of a salty crust (from Fraser Island) - this took hours as I detailed inside the doors, cleaned all the door trims, scrubbed the carpets, etc etc. After it was all finished (day 3) we had a secondary dust storm ........... #&*$^%$#.

We stocked up at the local Westfield, bought some new clothes (shorts, t-shirts) and other necessities (sheets, pillows, etc). The van park was quite empty ...... but then why would anyone want to spend their school holidays in a suburb of Brisbane when you are surrounded by the Sunshine Coast on the north and the Gold Coast on the south. This suited us and we, more or less, had use of the pool and amenities to ourselves. We spent AFL Grand Final day watching the footy with quick trips to the pool to "refresh" ourselves - it was 32 degrees! Quite a bit of beverage was consumed on this day!

We decide to spend the Sunday in Brisbane city  checking out the markets, malls and Southbank. The kids decided they wanted a Rip Stik so they went halves and bought one out of the pocket money that they have saved. Keira had an allergic reaction to something and sections of her arms look like the elephant man!!! Hope it gets better soon!! 

Next stop ................... Gold Coast for 20 nights to catch up with the Bowles family and a "surprise" family for a week and then the Webbes for 10 days.

Cape Tribulation - 4 nights

The Cape Tribulation coast is where the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rainforest meet, the only place on earth where two World Heritage areas exist side by side. To access this part of the coast we had to cross the Daintree River by ferry - as the tide was on the way out, we bottomed out with both the tow bar and rear of the van, getting on and off the ferry. Our camp site was about 40kms along the coast - 20kms of that drive was along very narrow, hilly and winding roads with 3 foot deep drainage ditches on the side as well as trees and/or mountain sides. This was, by far, our toughest drive with the van with oncoming vehicles having to stop (or reverse) to allow our rig to get around the hairpin turns. On top of these challenges we had single lane bridges and numerous "spoon" drains where we again bottomed out. Ohhh, and it was raining the whole time!!!!  We finally made it to our camp site, parked the van and Keira and myself skulled a couple of beers each to settle the nerves before setting up the annexe in the drizzling rain.

The van park was right on the coast - just a short walk through the rainforest to a lovely beach with a fringing reef. We were hoping to snorkel this beach but the weather was too wild with heavy winds and rain for most of the time that we were here. All the Barrier Reef tours were cancelled due to the weather. The last time we had seen rain was in Broome and that was for a couple of hours - before that it rained in Albany. I couldn't stop thinking about "Queensland - beautiful one day, perfect the next" - yeah right, yet to see!!!! However, we felt for all the campers and small vanners who were essentially sleeping in small pools of water - as we had the biggest van in the park (and probably the whole cape) we were given their largest site on some high ground and were extremely comfortable in our van. It rained, on average, 4-5 hours per day/night - but it is a rainforest - so I guess you can't complain!

We explored most of the cape and did a few boardwalks through the forest. Keira took the kids down to the local pub one night to watch a cultural aboriginal dance show. We also booked a "Jungle Surfing" tour ($85 each) and were lucky with the weather - no rain! This tour was about flying through the canopy of the rainforest on flying fox zip lines, stopping at 5 platforms with great views over the treetops, down cascading streams and out to the Great Barrier Reef. It was fantastic fun and we all had huge smiles on our faces! Keira and myself fished the beach a few afternoons to nightfall but no luck apart from Keira pulling in an undersize trevally and a few crabs.

We were considering storing our van at the park and travelling to Cape York via the "back door" roads for a few days and tent it but after talking to a couple of 4WDers who had started the trek and had to turn back as they were unable to negotiate the uphill sections of the wet clay roads - we changed our mind and decided to begin our trip south along the east coast - Cape York will have to be done another day/year!!! 

We had decided to leave very early in the morning for a number of reasons: 1. Get to the ferry while it was still high tide, 2. Less traffic on the roads, and 3.Get to Cairns by 11.30 so that the kids can do the class lessons on the internet. It had rained all night and everything was wet - but it stopped as we got up at 7.00am and we managed to set down without getting wet. We were on the road by 8.00am and got to the ferry by 9.00am - everything worked out as we hoped and we made it across the Daintree River without any dramas and pulled into our van park in Cairns at 11.15 - much to the kids disappointment!

Cairns - 5 nights

Cairns has a population of 130,000 - 10,000 more than Darwin and is the biggest city we had been to since Perth. As it would be Brodie's birthday during our stay - we allowed him to choose the caravan park - so he researched them on the net, made his choice and we had to pay $66/night - the most expensive van park of the trip to date!!!! It was nice - it had 3 pools, tennis and basketball courts, bike track, playgrounds, mini golf, etc etc.

As we had been to Cairns a few years before, we decided to make the most of our time in the park and "use" it as much as possible - and this we did.  We collected our mail (we finally got Brodie's Term 3 school books), got Brodie a haircut and had a brief look around Cairns.

On Brodie's birthday, after he had opened his presents, we had breakfast at MacDonalds, caught an scenic train to Kuranda, visted a butterfly farm where, much to the kid's delight, the butterflys would actually land on you, had lunch and did some window shopping before catching the skyrail back to Cairns. We then went to the movies to watch "Coroline". It was a long day but Brodie was happy.

We left Cairns and travelled 60 odd kms to a free camp site at Babinda where we camped next to a beautiful little creek teeming with fish/turtles/eels - I caught a nice 38cm Sooty Grunter - a fabulous tasting fish. We also visited "The Boulders" (a creek lined with massive boulders) nearby but photos are not available as Keira dropped our camera and it no longer works! 

Flying Fish Point - 3 nights

We left Babinda and travelled about 100kms to Flying Fish Point, a small coastal village 8kms past Innisfail. We had a small site in a park about 100m from the beach. I fished the beach a few times but with no luck. I was hoping to get my boat wet but the weather was still quite windy, in the high 20s but at least no rain. I also fished the mouth of the Johnstone River where it enters the Coral Sea and only caught a small bream that ended up as live bait on one of my bigger rods.

Keira joined the park's happy hour on our last night and invited one of the park workers (Michael) back to our van afterwards for drinks - we had a big night with much alcohol consumed - I was pretty crook that night and had a bad hangover the following day - not a lot of fun when you have to set down and move on! Michael did however enjoy himself and we were delighted when he gave us a 2kg Coral Trout that he had caught on the reef the day before. This is a highly prized eating fish costing around $50/kg - we baked it in the oven and had a great fish feast for dinner that night. I don't know what it is - we definetly don't look underfed - but we have scored some of our best fish from people giving them to us rather than me catching them - maybe they feel sorry for me!!!! 

Had a plumbing problem during our time here - the kitchen sink tap started leaking with water ending up on the van floor. I couldn't get a plumber organised so I gave it a go myself. Had to remove the sink, undo the tap, took it into Reece and bought a replacement tap (approx $125). Also found out I didn't need to remove the sink - could have removed the tap with a screwdriver!!!!!!! Anyway, refitted the new tap, reset the sink and it all worked-was quite pleased with myself - I don't have a good history with household plumbing jobs!!

Paronella Park - 1 night

About 30kms from Flying Fish Point, we stayed here to tour the ruins of a spanish castle built in the 1930s by a Spanish immigrant. It is an amazing place - google Paronella Park to find out the story behind its construction. We stayed on the lawn in front of the park with about 15 other vans/motorhomes - the caravan park was full. It was quite pricey - but the money goes back to preserving this special place - it has been ravaged by cyclones and floods over the years but walking through the grounds - you can picture the scene as it would have been in its heyday.

Mission Beach - 3 nights

We booked into a van park right on the beach - in hindsight we should have stayed somewhere else - the sites were extremely small and we were packed in like sardines! After 7 months of being on the road, I put my first ding into the caravan. Although not serious, I was not happy!! Having said all that, it was still a quality park with great amenities and an excellent pool that the kids used on a daily basis. We finally experienced some of this famous Qld weather and had 3 beautiful days around 30 degrees with no wind.

Dunk Island (part of the Family Islands National Park) is located 4kms directly across from Mission Beach. The day we arrived I was chatting to the boat hire guy (Gary) when he invited me out on his boat whilst he checked on his hire boats that he had out that day. We motored around a few of the islands and I got a "locals" knowledge of the things to do. The next day I got the rubber ducky wet (first time since Cape Leveque WA) and Keira and myself tried a few of the fishing spots Gary had told us about - but again, no luck! I took the boat out again later that day with some heavy fishing gear and although I had a couple of big strikes, I was unable to land any of the fish.

The next day the whole family jumped into the ducky and we went across to Dunk Island, stopping at a small deserted island for a little exploration first. We had lunch at the resort, swam a little on one of the beaches and fished for a while before heading back in the late afternoon. The kids had made some friends and that night we had a few drinks with their parents, Roy and Lisa - WA farmers who had sold up everything and were looking for their "next life" - they had been on the road for 3 months. We had a few drinks (too many) and had a great night going to bed just after the kids (after midnight!). There were a few sore heads the next morning.

After stressing about getting out of our site without cleaning up a tree (or another van) we managed it without any problems and made our way to our next destination - Rollingstone.

Rollingstone - 3 nights

I really liked this park - it was only 7 years old, was well laid out with spacious sites, had a toilet block decked out better than our own bathrooms, a huge pool, was absolute beach front and had 2 man made lakes stocked with big barra as well as numerous other species of fish (you just couldn't fish the lakes!!).

We spent our time just relaxing, doing the kids schoolwork and fishing the evening high tides. Had a few big strikes but couldn't hook the fish (likely to have been Mackeral) and caught a few small Grunter Bream. Keira took the kids into Townsville for a day and bought a new camera (having dropped/smashed our old one a couple of weeks ago). 

Bowen - 2 nights

We had made plans to catch up with the Adelaide "plumbers" (Marty & Jo and Frank & Pat) that we had first met in Mt Isa and had seen at a number of places since. The van park we stayed at was probably the worse one of our trip with it being full of "permanents" - but it was the only park in Bowen that would accept 3 vans at such late notice.

We had a big night on our first night with Keira at her sparkling best. We all had sore heads the next day and Keira had a nice bruise below her butt!! The next day I took Brodie fishing, Frank and Marty fished their own spot and all the "girls" went into Bowen to get their hair done and have lunch. We caught some whiting, and although they were legal (legal size is 23cm in Qld), I couldn't justify keeping them as I thought they were too small (legal size in SA is 33cm). Frank caught a nice size bream which he had for lunch. Later that day, Keira, Tamara, Brodie and myself fished the "point" (after some advice from the locals) but as we were arriving the locals were leaving with full bags of fish and we caught nothing worth keeping!!! We had afternoon coffee with the "plumbers" and an early night!

The Whitsunday Islands - 7 nights

Well where do I start .......... For years I have wanted to do a bareboat charter (where you drive the boat yourself) in the Whitsundays so we decided to lash out and charter a 38 foot luxury motor catamaran for 7 nights. It was sensational - we had perfect weather (sailors might not think so) for the whole 8 days. This has been the HIGHLIGHT of our trip to date and will be difficult to top! We all had a ball! After living in a 23 x 7 foot caravan for the last 7 months - the boat was huge - we all had seperate cabins with spacious beds and there was plenty of recreational room!

We left our van in storage at Airlie Beach and used the charter company's valet car service to store our car. The 3 hour briefing began at 8.00am and by 1.00pm we were going solo and had seen our first whales breaching in the distance - we headed towards the whales and got to within 30 metres before they dived under and "disappeared". Throughout the next 7 days we saw (and heard at night) whales on a number of occasions as well as numerous dolphins, turtles, sea snakes, etc etc.

Our daily routine was to drive 1-2 hours to an anchorage for lunch and have a snorkel/swim/explore of the island then travel another 1-2 hours to an overnght anchorage where we would swim/snorkel/fish/relax until we left the next morning. Our overnight anchorages included Dugong Inlet (Whitsunday Island), Chance Bay (Whitsunday Island), Plantation Bay (Lindeman Island), Nara Inlet (Hook Island), Blue Pearl Bay (Hayman Island), Turtle Bay (Whitsunday Island) and Happy Bay (Long Island). Our lunch anchorages included Whitehaven Beach (twice - Whitsunday Island), Langford Island, Esk Island and Daydream Island. We avoided Hamilton Island - it was race week so hundreds of yachts would be racing on a daily basis - and we did not want to get in the middle of them.   

Snorkelling was stunning in a number of places - we bought a cheap underwater camera so we hope the shots we took will work out - Keira was constantly in the water checking out the coral and marine life. The coral was fabulous - a lot more colours and textures than the coral found at Ningaloo Reef WA - and the water was, in most places, a brilliant turquoise blue and very clear. The kids had a ball jumping off the back of the boat or swimming at the beaches.

Fishing - fantastic and heartbreaking!!!!!! Caught 2 small reef sharks (had 1 for brekky the next day and released the other), heaps of silver trevally, blue lined emporers, stripy bream and loads of different types of coral reef fish. We only kept what we immediately ate and returned the rest - something I wouldn't have done 6 months ago! Everyone was catching and Brodie, in particular, was very good at hooking the fickle reef fish. Most of the fishing was from the back of the boat at anchorage but we also trolled behind the rubber ducky as well as the main boat. I lost about $100 worth of lures - I was hit by big fish on a dozen occasions - and did not land any - I began by fishing too light and the first hit took my lure and about 100m of braid before it busted me off on the coral. So I went up to my mid tackle - again too light as the fish simply hit so hard that my line snapped before the drag kicked in. Then I brought out the heavy gear and wire traces - twice they simply crushed and smashed my lures ............. heartbreaking! A learning experience!

We caught up with the Adelaide "plumbers" again - they had booked a day cruise of the islands - so we decided to meet Marty, Jo, Frank & Pat at Whitehaven Beach and invited them on board our boat for some drinks, nibblies and a swim off the back before I ferried them back to their cruiser in the rubber ducky.

On a disappointing note - there were a lot more boats cruising the islands than I had imagined - every anchorage was a battle for the best spots and it made "skinnydipping" a challenge. Luckily we had one somewhat secluded anchorage and 3 of the 4 of us managed to bare all and swim free! One of us just wouldn't be in it .......????? Another negative was of my own doing - I just couldn't completely relax at anchor - I was always concerned about whether the anchor had not set properly (and would begin drifting) or that we were too close to the reef/land when we swung around or we were too close to other boats around us - all wasted worry (although one morning we had swung around on to the reef and as the tide was falling the boat begun to scape against the "bommies" underneath - we were out of there quick smart!). Needless to say - I didn't have any drinking "sessions" all week!

We returned the boat at 2.00pm, had a debrief with the charter company, loaded our car and went back to Airlie Beach for 2 more nights to "recharge" our batteries and clean all our gear/clothes. The kids adapted to land immediately but both Keira and myself took 2 days before we felt we had our "land legs" back again. 

Eight days and seven nights that none of us will ever forget - Keira and myself are determined to get back there again (without kids) and maybe share this experience with some close friends!

Batchelor - 6 nights

Batchelor is a small town about 100km south of Darwin and is the main entry point to the Litchfield National Park. We stayed here for 6 nights so as to be able to watch the final week of Wimbledon on TV - and we saw a lot of tennis - something I haven't been able to do for many years due to this time of the year being very busy re my job as an accountant.

We spent a couple of days exploring Litchfield National Park, in particular the Magnetic Termite Mounds, Florence Falls, Lost City (another 20km return trip on rough bush tracks), Buley's Rockholes and Wangi Falls. Although the park had beautiful attractions, we were not overly impressed due to the number of people - hundreds at each attraction (except Lost City) - this somehow "dulled" the splendor of the park.

I had organised to have a hit of tennis with a top NSW junior tennis player currently travelling with his family for 3 months - we drove the 30kms to the nearest tennis court but found that the net posts were unavailable due to some vandalism so, after speaking with a local, I took the opportunity to fish the Adelaide River - I followed the directions - about 30kms of dirt road followed by 10kms of bush track to a spot on the river said to hold a few barra. Along the way I spotted a beautiful billabong that looked promising. As I got out of the car, I heard a loud splash and saw the ripples on the water - surely a croc - so for the next 20 mins I fished the billabong jumping at every noise I heard (leaf falling on the ground, grasshopper jumping, bird landing). I was too spooked to enjoy my fishing and soon moved on to the river proper (talking to local later that night, I found out that that billabong had a residant salty!). I moved on to the river and although it was a beautiful spot, I had no luck with the fish and was eaten alive by the mossies!

July 1st was Territory Day - you are allowed to buy fireworks on that day on the proviso that you must set them off that night - not that that can be policed. But I was too late to buy the crackers - sold out by 9.00am that morning! We spent the night at the local football oval and watched the firework display put on by the council - it was fantastic with about 200 people present and being so close to the action - it was one of the best displays that we've seen!

We packed up early on the Monday morning (after watching the Federer/Roddick match to completion) as we had to be at our next park by 10.00am - it was school holidays (4 weeks for Territorians) in NT and the van parks were packed. 

Berry Springs - 3 nights

About 70kms from Darwin, a pretty van park with its own fresh water croc billabong that you could walk through (on a fenced board walk) and an outdoor deck chair cinema (kids watched Mama Mia). The temperature is regularly around 30 degrees during the day but it is starting to get quite chilly at night - the long pants have finally come out!

We visited the Territory Wildlife Park - a fantastic park that you needed to catch a bus to visit the various attractions - saw a birds of prey display, freshwater crocs, aquariums, nocturnal house and various bushland environments, to name a few.

Spent an afternoon at the Berry Springs hot springs - another beautiful swimming spot with many "holes" to swim at - the water was a great temperature. Again a lot of people but due to its large size it didn't feel so crowded.

I fished the Darwin River every day for an hour or four again keeping a wary eye out for the saltys that frequent this river. As this end of the river is near the Darwin Harbour the water was mainly salt and I caught a fish each day - a small flathead on soft plastics (although I have this on my trophy list it wasn't big enough to get me excited); a nice 34cm black bream and another first (also a trophy fish) a 38cm Giant Trevally (small as far as trevallys go) caught on a beef strip of all things - this fish was a lot of fun on my light line! So we were into the fish feasts again this week.

Darwin - 6 nights

Darwin is situated on the shores of the Timor Sea - it has a current population of 121,000. We stayed at 2 caravan parks - 3 nights at Boomerang CP and 3 nights at our preferred Free Spirit CP. It was extremely busy in Darwin being school holidays for the Territorians (they get 4 weeks).

Activities included a day trip to Mandorah by ferry where we had lunch at the old pub, swam in the pool and we all fished the jetty for a time (caught another nice 70cm Queenie on soft plastics); visited the Darwin museum, went to the Mindil Beach sunset markets (thousands of people); spent an afternoon at Lake Leanyer water park (all free) with Adam, Cathy and kids (who we had run into again at Free Spirit); visited Stokes Wharf a couple of times (an excellent eatery with a wide selection of foods at very reasonable prices) - again fishing the wharf for a short time with no luck due to the fish being fed at the eatery section (barramundi, batfish, queenies and mullet); watched the sunset and had a drink at the Darwin Boat Trailer Club; went to the movies to watch Ice Age 3 and ate lots of junk food (long time since we had seen a HJ). Brodie and Keira visited Aquascene - a fish feeding demonstration. Keira also had a couple of appointments with an optometrist to get her prescription sunglasses replaced (her eyes have improved again).

We thoroughly enjoyed Darwin and would have loved to have spent more time there but having booked our luxury cruise around the Whitsunday Islands, we now had a tighter schedule if we wanted to explore the top of Qld.

Kakadu National Park - 2 nights

We travelled the 280kms to Jabiru (a small town in the centre of the National Park) and stayed at the Kakadu Lodge Caravan Park. By now we were a little "gorged out" and we decided not to do the 4 hour return trip to Jim Jim Falls and focused on other areas of the park.

We visited the East Alligator Area which included a short hike to the Ubirr Rock Art site (actually only Keira did the hike - I sat in the car with the kids!) and I fished Cahill's Crossing for an hour or so hoping to hook up to a barra - again no luck - but saw plenty of saltys - while Keira and the kids explored the immediate area!

We checked out the Nourlangie area and hiked around the Anbangbang Billabong (actually not a big hike as the billabong had "shrunk" during the dry season) and visited a number of art sites and old aboriginal campgrounds.

The Yellow Waters area was the next region explored - here Keira and Tamara took a sunset cruise ($120) and saw lots of bird life and many crocs. Brodie and myself hung around the jetty for a couple of hours and fished with only a catfish caught. I did however, have a salty follow my surface lure all the way in to the jetty before diving out of sight in front of us - the "tourists", who had gathered there to watch the sunset, were wrapped to get close up shots of the croc and many thought I was part of the "show" and asked me to "lure" more crocs in!

Kakadu is where we saw the most crocs (saltys) in the wild. There are very few places, if any, where you can swim with complete confidence that there are no crocodiles watching you .......as it was........we didn't swim (except in the resort pool)!

On The Move - 8 nights

As mentioned earlier, we now had a deadline to meet so we decided that we would travel quickly through outback NT and QLD.

From Kakadu, we travelled some 400kms to Mataranka where we set up in a van park. As it was still early afternoon, we decided to visit Bitter Springs and the Mataranka Springs for a quick dip in the warm waters. The next morning I was up early and fishing from the banks of Little Roper River by 7am. I caught a couple of catfish and a small bream and was back at the van by 9am. We watched the barra feeding display put on by the van park and were on the road to Daly Waters pub by 10am.

Daly Waters was only 168kms down the road and we were set up by 1pm. This is a pub in the middle of nowhere where everybody stops for the night. A fantastic pub with too many features to mention, but we had a big night with a couple of families who were doing a 3 month trip. Needless to say - the bar tab at the end of the night was ridiculous - but we still had a ball. We were on the road by 9am the next morning suffering with slight hangovers.

We travelled for about 8 hours that day, including fuel and food stops, and free camped at a rest spot (with about 30 other vans) about 600kms from the pub. Our last night in the NT.

The next day we crossed into Queensland and travelled some 500kms to Mount Isa where we stayed for 3 nights (after finally finding a vacancy at the 3rd park we visited). We started school with the kids again, had the Cruiser serviced, stocked up with food and some new clothes (eg boardies, thongs, tank tops, etc). Keira took the kids to an "awesome" playground whilst I spent some time paying bills, picking up mail, organising school work, etc, etc. We decided to do a tour of a (re-created) underground mine ($120) where we had to get dressed in mining gear and travelled underground about 60 feet for a 3 hour informative lecture on underground mining operations. Our next stop was a 2 day drive (700kms) to Karumba - a fishing village in upper Qld on the Gulf of Carpentaria.

We travelled about 600kms to Normanton and free camped next to the Norman River bridge where we wet our lines - only success was a few catfish (one was large) and a half dozen red claw yabbies that we had for a snack the next day.

We left around 11.00am and travelled another 30kms to another free camp along Walker Creek - about 40kms from Karumba (we couldn't get in to Karumba until the next day). This was a beautiful spot on the edge of a lovely creek. Here we met Stuart (a recently retired paramedic) who was travelling on his own and a young couple - Jess and Mat who were travelling Australia living out of a Hiace van. This was a fantastic night as (the very talented) Jess kept us all entertained with her guitar and ukalayly, singing songs that she had written on the road. She was also a fire dancer and amazed us all with her tricks - the kids were enthralled and had a go at twirling the "fire sticks". Lots of alcohol was consumed that night. The next morning the kids followed Jess around until we left - we bought one of Jess' CDs which the kids play daily and know word for word - she definitely made an impression on them! I fished the creek for a few hours hoping for a barra....................but not to be .............again!

Karumba - 3 nights

Karumba has a permanent of population of about 600 that triples in the winter months with the grey nomads flocking to this town due to its world famous fishing in the Gulf of Carpentaria. I was looking forward to catching some big fish here - I was very disappointed - it has been a "bad" year - more likely it is overfished - there is a line up of tinnies at the boat ramp each morning as the fishos head out for the day's catch.

I fished off the beach without a bite and was planning to take the boat out the next day - I had the boat set up on the ramp when the wind came through - strong wind warnings to 30 knots for that day - first time I had seen "real" wind since Geraldton WA - just my luck! So to get the boat wet - I took it back to camp and washed it!!! I did, however, still get a feed of fish ......... Stuart (who we had fed at the free camp before Karumba) had been out on a charter and came home with 6 School Mackeral of which he gave us 3 of them. Karumba has a prawning industry and we were buying 2 kilos of prawns each day for $24 - YUMMY!

Another highlight was catching up with the Adelaide "plumbers" we had first met in Mount Isa - we had a few happy hours together with Martin & Jo and Frank & Pat - they were a lot of fun! They are travelling the same route as us (more or less) and we hope to catch up with them again.

The next couple of days will be spent travelling as we make our way to Port Douglas - some 800kms east from Karumba. 

Port Douglas - 2 nights

We left Karumba and travelled some 600kms and as night fell, we arrived at a free camp called Archer River, in the Atherton Tablelands. It was a tough drive, especially the uphill, winding roads to reach the tablelands - but, in hindsight, that was easy compared to the drive down off the tablelands - heavy use of the brakes caused them to overheat and the last 20 kms or so we had limited braking capacity and had to take it very easy!

We made our way to the van park we had chosen to find it was full but they managed to put us up in a large paddock and rig up a makeshift powersource - we had to refill our water tanks but we were happy with the huge space we had to ourselves and the great views to the mountains.

We spent the next day checking out all the shops and sights of Port Douglas, had a few drinks at the pub, grabbed a video and watched it back at the van. The wind was still blowing each day and the temperature was in the mid 20s. Port Douglas has many expensive resorts and holiday houses and not much else apart from the "designer" shops and pubs - many people base themselves there and do day trips to the surrounding attractions.

Our next destination - Cape Tribulation - some 200km north of Port Douglas.

Broome (again) - 2 nights

Once we returned from Middle Lagoon, we were not in the mood to pick up the van and travel another 3 hours to Derby. So we decided we needed some pampering and checked out a few of the many hotels in Broome. We decided on the Mercure Hotel and booked a 2 bedroom room ($220/night) facing a huge pool. It was heaven sleeping on a large bed and being able to close a solid door to the kids room. We had a TV in each room and our patio was about 10 steps from the pool. Needless to say, the only time we left the room was to swim or eat at various restaurants.

Derby - 4 nights

Derby is located on the tidal mud flats on the edge of King Sound. It has the highest tidal range of any port in Australia. It has a population of 4,500 - half of which are aboriginal. We got settled in the van park - we didn't use our annexe as the ground was bedrock and I couldn't be bothered drilling holes in the ground for the pegs - the weather was in the low 30s and its rarely windy at this time of the year.

On our second night we went down to the jetty to watch the sunset and to our surprise we ran into our original neighbours from Eden Hills - Rick and Anthea Williams - they had moved moved out some 3 years ago, so it had been some time since we had last seen them. They had retired recently and now travelled the roads pretty well full time. We caught up for a drink (or 10) after dinner and spent the night catching up on whats been happening. It was good to see them again.

We spent our time in Derby on school work, checked out a local aboriginal gallery, fished the jetty one night (no luck), had the cruiser up on hoists for a check underneath (after the Cape Leveque roads) - all ok,went to the "prison" Boab Tree and did a day trip along the Gibb River Road to Tunnel Creek and Windjana Gorge.

Tunnel Creek is about 140kms from Derby with about 60km of that on some pretty rough dirt roads. It is a 750m tunnel through a mountain with a creek running through it. As its now dry season, the creek was only knee deep at its worst. It was a great experience and a beautiful piece of nature to explore - the kids loved it. You needed a torch to get through and a decent pair of wet shoes - the creek had fish, shrimp and lots of frogs and the tunnel was full of bats - at the end you walked out to a beautiful creek setting that wound its way through the mountains. It was once a hideout for a famous aboriginal freedom fighter who terrorised the police and cattlemen for over 3 years - he was finally shot at its entrance.

After Tunnel Creek, we stopped off at Windjana Gorge - a 3.5km gorged carved out of the Napier Ranges by the Lennard River. This gorge is famous for its wild freshwater crocodiles - and we saw quite a few quite close up - freshies are generally safe unless you agitate them. The walls range from 30m to 100m high and is quite beautiful to see - it would be amazing in the wet - but you can't access the gorge in the wet season.

We got back around dusk, had dinner and caught up with Rick and Anthea for a few more drinks - it would be the last time we see them on the road as we were both heading off in the morning in opposite directions. 

Fitzroy Crossing - 4 nights

Fitzroy Crossing is one of two "towns" along the 1000km stretch between Broome and Kununurra. We stayed at a surprisingly good caravan park/resort with a nice pool and tennis court and huge van sites. It was also the first place that didn't have water restrictions so before setting up we gave the van a good wash to remove all the powder dust it had collected. 

I fished the Fitzroy River a couple of times, keeping a close eye on the crocs in the neighbourhood, but had no luck. We visited the Geikie Gorge and had a 1 hour boat cruise ($60 for the family). It was a magnificent gorge - it would be amazing to see the Fitzroy River during the wet season - it becomes one of the largest rivers in the world and could fill the Sydney Harbour within hours! We had a round of drinks at the infamous Crossing Inn (the oldest pub in the Kimberleys) - $10 for a "mid" strength bourbon & coke - alcohol restrictions apply to much of the Kimberleys. Apart from school work, we also swam in the pool, played tennis and rode the bikes into the town.

We left around lunch time (after the kid's internet school) and travelled approx 400kms (bypassing Halls Creek) and stopped in a 24 hour rest point - our first night where we didn't have to pay money - it was packed and luckily we scored the last available spot. We left early (7.30am) the next moning arriving at our last WA town of Kununurra around 12.00pm.

Kununurra - 7 nights

The gateway to the East Kimberleys.......a population of about 6000. The aboriginal name means the "meeting of big waters". The town was built as the administrative hub of the huge Ord River Irrigation Project. The Argyle Diamond Mine (the largest in the world) is nearby. We signed in to the Ivanhoe Caravan Park (a 5 star rating) - the sites were tiny, we were in full sun most of the day and the amenities were quite a distance away - not one of our favourite parks!

Kununurra was a fantastic base to visit the many attractions - all within an hour's drive. We visited Middle Lagoon, Black Rock Pool, Mirima National Park, Paddy's Markets, Hoochery's Distillery & Kelly's Knob. We did a day trip to El Questro Wilderness Park - originally a huge cattle station but now a tourist mecca due to the amazing natural wonders within the 1 million acres. Within the station, we visited Zebedee Springs - a thermal hot spring; climbed El Questro Gorge to swim in the middle pools; visited the township and swam the swimming hole at Moonshine Gorge. A couple of days later, we went to Emma Gorge and did the 1 hour hike to the end waterfall and swam in the freezing cold pool (for a short time!) - then finished it off with a cocktail at the resort.

We also did our first river crossing at Ivanhoe Crossing - about a 150m crossing through fast running water. During the week we ended up doing about another 6-8 river/creek crossings. I fished Ivanhoe Crossing but unfortunately this is not the peak season for barramundi - the water is a little cold - all I managed to do was donate a brand new $15 lure to the rocky bottom of the Ord River. The rubber ducky stayed on the car - the river system is full of crocs - both salties and freshies!

On our 3rd day at the van park - we got new neighbours - Adam & Cathy and their 3 boys (Vic family doing the big trip) moved in next to us - the kids were so excited! We first met them at Carnavon and since at 4-5 other places. The kids had a lot of fun playing with each other for the next few days.

On Friday morning we packed up, said our good byes to Adam, Cathy and kids and were excited to finally cross into the NT outback.

Big Horse Creek Campground - Northern Territory - 2 nights

This was a small campground within Gregory National Park about 180kms after crossing the NT/WA border (note: no food restrictions when leaving WA/entering NT). There was no power or water - just a couple of long drops! It was a beatiful little spot on the banks of the stunning Victoria River. $7.70 per night for the family - bargain!

We had our first blow out on the van about 50kms from the campground - the tyre was completely shredded and the rim was ruined - we had to pull over on the side of the road and as there was very little shoulder room we were unable to completely clear the road! We started the fun job of emptying our storage box, removing the box from the draw bar to allow us to access the spare wheel. We had a young couple pull up behind us to give us a hand - we needed 2 jacks to get the van up so that we could change the tyre. This whole process took about 1.5 hours in the hot sun with passing roadtrains and vehicles (speed limit is 130km/hour in NT). We still had another 400km before we reached Katherine where I could have the spare tyre replaced!

We loved the campground and decided to stay 2 nights - our batteries (in the car and van) only last this length of time without being recharged by the generator (I had no petrol for the genny!). Our water tanks were full and we were a lot smarter about our water useage.

I fished the river a couple of times - keeping my eyes open for nasty saltwater crocodiles that inhabited this area. I caught 3 catfish (silver cobblers) but threw them back ........ I was hoping for a barra ........ but not to be. Again the rubber ducky stayed dry on the roof of my car - talking to locals about getting it wet did not fill me with confidence so I decided not to risk it!

We collected firewood during the day and made a camp fire each night. The kids loved roasting their marshmallows and "playing" with the fire. Brodie was being smart and his hair briefly caught on fire - he didn't know whether to laugh or cry - the smell was terrible! Keira and Brodie did a 22km round trip to the small township Timber Creek on their bikes. I helped Tamara build a sea shell mobile from the shells she collected at 80 Mile Beach. The kids also learnt to polish Zebra Rocks that Keira had bought from a rock shop in Kununurra. We are keen to spend a lot more time out of the van parks and "bush camping" throughout the NT.

Katherine - 5 nights

Katherine is situated 330km south east of Darwin. It has a population of 10,000 people but services an area of 400,000 square kms (the size of France). The van park we wanted was full so we stayed at another one for the night. It was a resort with van sites and we had dinner at the restaurant and stayed to watch the guitarist entertainer. The next morning we packed up and took the van to a tyre joint and purchased 4 new tyres and a new rim ($580) - I had been planning to get new tyres in Darwin but the blowout brought forward those plans.

We managed to get into the van park we wanted (Lower Level). It was on the banks of the Katherine River - very picturesque. We spent our time swimming in the pool and visiting the Katherine Hot Springs. We did a day trip into Nitmiluk National Park to visit Katherine Gorge but the only way to access the gorge was via boat and we weren't willing to fork out the money for the cruises they had on offer - so we just swam in the river and had lunch at the bistro - we had seen a number of gorges lately!

On the way back we were about to stop into a museum when we checked out a waterway called Knotts Crossing - the kids swam and I grabbed the rod - looked like good barra country! I climbed along a bunch of trees that had fallen into the river creating a great snaggy area that barra love - on my first cast I had about 5 barra following my soft plastic lure and on my second cast I had caught another of my "trophy" fish - my first barra!!!! It was just too easy! However, it was only about 35/40cm long so I had to chuck him back (they need to be a minimum of 55cm) - I fished another hour but the barra had now been spooked and weren't interested in the lure anymore!

Nitmiluk National Park - Edith Falls - 2 nights

We had heard that this was a nice spot so we decided to bush camp for 2 nights in the National Park. It was less than an hour from Katherine. There was no water or power but there were toilets and showers. Edith Falls has 3 pools - we did the first 2, the 3rd being too long a hike for us!

It was a beautiful spot - there was a massive pool about 300m from our van with nice grassy banks and a small pontoon that we could all jump from - we spent a number of hours chilling out in this spot (it was a little further away than the other access points so we had it to ourselves most of the time). We blew up our camp air mattress and the kids used it to paddle across to the falls - probably a 400m swim. There were big barra in this pool but fishing was not allowed! The second day we did the hour long hike to the second pool further up the gorge - a stunning pool with some nice falls and cool rock pools to lie in.

We thouroghly enjoyed our time at this spot and were sad to leave! 

Hayes Creek - 2 nights

Hayes Creek was simply a petrol station, pub and caravan park on the side of the Stuart Highway. We stopped here because we thought it would be a good base to explore the Douglas Hot Springs and Butterfly Gorge. Hayes Creek ran through the back of the park and was a small creek barely ankle deep with some waist deep holes scattered along the creek. Brodie and myself fished the creek and to our surprise, caught a nice legal size black bream each along with a couple of turtles.

We visited Douglas Hot Springs where the water was very hot out of the ground but the whole experience didn't meet our expectations after some of the springs that we have visited recently.

The 35km (return) track to Butterfly Gorge was very rough with a number of creek crossings and took almost an hour each way...........I am so over corrugations!!!! It was a bit of a hike to get to the gorge pools and some steep rocky outcrops to climb before getting there. I'd carried my rod with me and fished the river, pulling up a few black bream before losing my rig to something big - end of fishing session!

Next stop - Batchelor and Litchfield National Park!

Exmouth - 4 nights

Exmouth was originally established to support the communications base in the area - the army, navy and airforce all have bases located outside of the town - there are signs everywhere "Trespassers will be shot"! Exmouth is a small town of approx 2500 people about 1270km north of Perth - it is more of tourist town these days being close to the Ningaloo Reef and Cape Range National Park.

We stayed 1 night at the Ningaloo Resort Caravan Park - had a fantastic pool well used by the kids. The next morning we visited the Dept of Conservation and Environment to enquire about camping in Cape Range NP - they had a spot available but we had to be there within 1.5 hours or it would be passed on to the next camper (first in first serve basis). We rushed back to the caravan and achieved our quickest set down ever and headed off to the NP - 100km away! We were 20 minutes late but still managed to get our spot - in peak season (June to August), people are at the gate of the park at 5.30am in the hopes of getting a spot - there are maybe 50 spots throughout the 50,000 hectare park.

This was our first time bush camping and we were a bit nervous as you had to be totally self-sufficient - the only amenities was a long drop (toilet) at each camp site.

Well........we had our fair share of dramas. The van carries 180 litres of water and we had an emergency stash of 20 litres in the car - we had used our 180 litres within 24 hours - its amazing how much water a family can use when you don't really think about it!!! Secondly, I couldn't get my generator going, so we had no 240V power - one of the other campers (a mechanic) spent over 3 hours pulling it to pieces ..... but no luck! However, we were able to plug into our neighbour's genny which gave us 240V power and charged up our 12V system. We had decided that we would have to leave the morning after our 2nd night as we would have used up our emergency stash of water by then. But luckily, whilst we were visiting some of the attractions, we ran into a family we had met previously in Coral Bay. They were also doing the big trip around Australia - they had an unusual set up - a truck with a slide on camper and towed a 5 metre fishing boat. They were staying in Exmouth and were doing a day trip to the NP. I was explaining our dilemma to him when, to my delight, he told me his truck carries 150 litres of water in his built in tanks - we promptly drove back to our camp site and transferred the water from his truck to our van (he could easily refill his truck that night back in Exmouth). He also had a problem with his genny sometime ago, so he picked up a small stick and poked it into the exhaust pipe on my genny ...... again, to my delight, a bit of dirt fell out of the exhaust - he pulled the starter cord and on the second pull my genny started purring like a kitten..............I had a wasp nest in the exhaust that was causing all the problems!!!! I was so happy to have run into this bloke again!!! He'd already given me a couple of feeds of fish back in Coral Bay. My new best friend!!

Thinking that our dramas were all sorted out, we decided to stay an extra night...........but our dramas were to continue - but this one was due to my actions!!! I had wanted to see how long our 12V system would work without using our genny - everything was looking fine until about 10pm that night - we lost all power to our van (gennys are not allowed to run after 9pm). We could do without lights and the van fridge was running on gas so the only drama was our Engel freezer (the one holding all our meat, fish & Jagermeister). I decided to hook it up to our car - it was either that or lose the food! I don't have a dual battery system so the next morning once we had packed up and were ready to hook up the car to the van - the car's battery was flat!!!!! So I borrowed someone's genny (mine was all packed away) and had to hang around for some time whilst the battery recharged and I got the car started again. I bet the other campers at our site (Osprey) were glad to see us go! 

Despite all the dramas, we loved bush camping. The feeling of freedom, the sights you see, the other campers and the bond that is generated. The cost of $17/night as compared to van parks $40-$60/night is also appealing. We learnt a lot over these 4 days and 3 nights and can't wait to do it again.

In between all our dramas, we still managed to do stuff - we fished the Yardie Creek mouth .... my fishing glut continues.....Keira and the kids all caught fish but nothing worth mentioning apart from Keira's 60cm Longtom (an overgrown garfish with a mean set of teeth) - I also fished most mornings off the rocks directly in front of our camp site, but with no luck. We did the Turquoise Bay drift - where you enter the water at one end of the bay and you snorkell the reef by letting the current drift you to the other end of the bay. We snorkelled at the Oyster Stacks. This section of the Ningaloo Reef is much prettier and healthier than Coral Bay due to its isolated location - hence less tourists! We saw thousands of fish including a reef shark approx 6 ft long - no longer even scary! We visited the Milyering Visitor Centre that contains a wealth of information about the park and marine inhabitants. We also found ourselves driving at night in one instance - hundreds of kangaroos and the odd echidna or two sitting on the side (and sometimes on) the road. We also ran into our Dutch teacher friends at Turquoise Bay and Adam and his son Max visited us at our camp site. He was camping at another site within the NP and had heard that we were camping at Osprey.

Onslow - 4 nights

Onslow, otherwise known as Cyclone City because of repeated damage, the town has survived even though it had to move to do so. This place was a little disappointing and not what we expected. Our van park was right on the beach so fishing was the go again. Keira caught a number of bream but my fishing glut continues. We did the kids schooling and not much else - we fished at 4 Mile Creek - where a large croc had been sighted only 3 weeks earlier - the inability to cull crocs is allowing them to travel further south each year and is becoming an issue for many towns that had never had resident crocs before. We also fished the new marina where the bait fish swam in the thousands only 2-3 ft from the shore - you could see the Tailor and Queen fish smashing up the bait fish and with all that food they were not interested in what we had to offer - so my glut continues still!!!

Karratha - 2 nights

Karratha is a town in the Pilbara region of WA which was developed from the 1960s to accomodate the mining boom in the area. It is 1535kms north of Perth. We used this large town to stock up on supplies and pick up some school books from the GPO. We paid $58/night for our site - it was a nice van park with a very cold pool. Keira and myself spent a couple of hours window shopping in a large shopping centre - funny the sort of things you miss when you are on the road. Housing and accomodation is ridiculously expensive in this town with a basic hotel room costing over $300/night, a 4 bedroom house - rent up to $2000 a week - I didn't even look at the price of homes! It is full of mine workers and their vehicles. It was pretty easy to leave this place!

Eighty Mile Beach - 6 nights

We left Karratha with the intention of doing an overnighter in Port Hedland before heading to Eighty Mile Beach the next day. However, once we refuelled in Port Hedland we decided to continue straight through - a total distance of some 570km.

Eighty Mile Beach is simply a caravan park on the beach with basic amenities - its 340kms from Port Hedland and 320kms to Broome - with only the odd roadhouse in between. There was a 10km dirt access road to an oasis of palm trees and green lawn with only a small shop with basic food items. There were maybe 80-100 caravans/trailers/motorhomes in the park - many of which spent the winter months there before heading back to home. The park had a great feel to it!

This beach is famous for its fishing, particularly its Giant Threadfin Salmon. However, I was not feeling confident considering my recent poor performance in the fishing department! Still.......I rigged up my big surf rods ready for a crack at high tide in the morning. All up I fished 5 sessions - a total of approx 15 hours - and hooked up to 4 big ones - landing 2 - one in my first session and one on my last session - I broke my drought ........... and what a way to do it!!!! Keira tried a couple of times but the conditions were difficult and she had no luck.

My Engel fridge was now completely full of fish - I had Giant Threadfin (lots of), bream, whiting and Kingfish (from previous sessions); pearl perch and rosie snapper (from unloading the fishing boat at Coral Bay); and Tuna and Mackeral (given to us in Coral Bay).........lots of fish feasts ahead of us!!!

There was no mobile phone reception here, so the kids didn't have to attend their internet classrooms but they still had to get stuck into their school books. They weren't able to swim in the beach (as sharks are a common catch) so they spent their time riding around their bikes and collecting shells along the beach. We drove along the beach a couple of times and spent a few happy hours on the beach watching the sun set. A beautiful place and we were sad to leave it ............ next stop Broome!

Broome - 13 nights

We were concerned about being able to get a caravan spot - but we were about 2 weeks ahead of the grey army - and although it was busy we managed to snare a great spot close to the amenities and the pool at Cable Beach Caravan Park - our 1st choice!

Broome, the gateway to the Kimberley region of WA was founded as a pearling port over a century ago and, as a result, has become a melting pot of many nationalities. It has a resident population of 15,000 that swells to 45,000 during the months of June, July and August.

The temperature was a constant low 30s and most days were spent doing the kid's schoolwork for a couple of hours followed by a swim in the magnificent pool, lunch and then whatever we felt like! We checked out the local attractions, including the beachside cocktail bars and restaurants, Malcolm Douglas' Crocodile Farm, star gazing with an astronomer (one of Keira's favourites), Keira played putt putt with the kids, I took them to the movies (Night of the Museum 2), checked out Matsu's Brewery, went to the markets, spent an afternoon at the local Teddy Bear's picnic and visited the Japanese Cemetary.

I fished off the large jetty a couple of times and caught another of my "trophy" fish - a queen fish - a first on soft plastics - not a large one but they are a fun fighting fish on a light line! 

Tamara had a little accident and swam into the rock waterfall in the pool - came back with skin grazes over her face, head and shoulders - she handled it well and I was proud of her "toughness".

I also organised to have a dual battery system installed to allow extended bush camping to run our Engel Fridge - also had the starting battery replaced with a deep cycle as our little episode at Cape Range effectively "killed" the starter battery (was flat on a number occasions since) - I won't tell you how much it cost (should have listened to you Nig!) but it was probably $300 more than an Adelaide price! Hired a scooter for the day for $25 and Keira had a lot of fun zipping around Broome with the kids.

Spent some days on Cable Beach (22kms long) - voted #1 beach in Aust on a few occasions - over rated in my opinion! Kids boogey boarded heaps. Took a drive through the nudist section - Keira was more shocked than the kids - they had a good giggle! No sexy women!!!

Caught up with Dennis and Irene from Qld (first met in Perth) and a few others for a big night at their van! Briefly met Adam and family again (Vic) but as they arrived the day before we left we didn't spend much quality time together. Met an elderly Dutch couple - Bill and Anne - who had made their fortune by buying, developing, managing and selling a number of caravan parks - they were good value and fun! Kids had caught up with a few friends they had met along the way plus made some new ones.

After a relaxing time in Broome it came time to move on again - and wouldn't you know it - it started raining the day we had to pack - the first decent rain we had seen for some months - luckily we had dropped the annexe the day before and as the caravan was going into storage ($11/day) for a while there wouldn't be a problem with the canvas going mouldy! We were off to Cape Leveque tenting it for a few days!

Middle Lagoon/Cape Leveque - 3 nights

Middle Lagoon is a small aboriginal run camp ground approx half way up Cape Leveque. We had about 80km of dirt road (corrugated, sandy and undulating) - a difficult road to drive. This was followed by about 30kms of black top (sheer bliss) and then a 30km track into Middle Lagoon - as it had rained overnight, this track was full of mud holes - I had the cruiser sliding sideways whilst negotiating out of one particular set of mud holes! Mud was everywhere, including inside the rubby ducky on top of the car and the engine bay!

The camp ground was pretty basic - it had showers and toilets but no power. We had a lovely secluded and shady spot. It was the first time we had used the tent as a family. We had the generator running during the day to run the Engel and electric frying pan. The Engel ran on the cruiser's dual battery system at night - everything was sweet!

Middle Lagoon was special - the bay had crystal clear waters and was calm and protected with a reef close to shore. It was surrounded by a beautful beach with an abundance of rocks containing numerous rock pools. The nights were spent star gazing - shooting stars occurred regularly - better than TV according to the kids. The rubber ducky got a good workout fishing the reef - I caught a nice blue lined emporer (snapper) about 46cm and 2kg - cooked him up for dinner that night. Keira caught a few undersized coral trout that we had to throw back. I also jagged my anchor to the reef but, against my better judgement, Keira "Croft" was determined to recover it - so we tied a bouy to the rope, went back to shore to grab the mask and snorkel and located the bouy again - in Keira went and lasted about 10 seconds before she freaked (it was about 15-20m deep and getting dark) and decided the $20 anchor wasn't worth it - she got back into the boat in record time! Spent some time pulling the kids around on their boogey boards behind the rubber ducky - they had a ball. The boat was simply pulled up on the beach each night and left there - it was a very safe environment.

Keira and the kids were exploring the rock pools when Tamara spotted a crab - a huge 20cm Green Mud Crab hiding under some rocks. Somehow, with a small hand net, Keira managed to get him out from under the rocks and into the bucket the kids had with them - we gathered some firewood and that night we boiled some water on the hot coals and cooked him up - a great crab feast was had by all!

On the way back to Broome we wanted to check out a church completely decorated with oyster shells at an aboriginal community in Beagle Bay - we followed the directions given us but we got nervous when the tracks developed into a crossing over salt plains - thought we had got it wrong somewhere and had to backtrack the 20/30kms to get home. As it turned out we were on the right path and were only a couple of kms away when we turned back! We were aiming to get back to Broome around lunch time, pick up the van from storage and head off to our next stop at Derby........but somewhere along the road we changed our minds..................!

Kalbarri - 3 nights

We left Geraldton with strong winds and arrived at Kalbarri 4 hours later - not a breath of wind! We were here for 3 nights - would have liked to stay longer but school holidays and Easter have forced us to book ahead for the next 3 weeks and 3 nights were all we could manage - temperature was low/mid 30s. Kalbarri is situated 590kms north of Perth and is a holiday mecca! It lies at the mouth of the Murchison river into the Indian Ocean - a beautiful small town - a 900sqm block of land across the road along the river - $1.3m.

There was no schoolwork on the agenda for this stay so we spent our time exploring the gorges in the Kalbarri National Park; a canoe safari; swimming in the river; parrot farm; fishing the river/mouth and of course - happy hours!

The canoe safari was a highlight - was taken 15kms upriver in a 4WD bus at 8.00am. We decided to take 1 canoe for all 4 of us - me in the back, Keira in the front and the kids in the middle ......... big mistake!! Apparently I was incapable of steering the canoe and after half an hour of zig zagging down the river we pulled ashore so that Keira could steer from the back ............... we continued to zig zag for another 3kms because my right arm is stronger than my left and was causing Keira to oversteer....mmmmm!! We eventually paddled into our designated breakfast stop, had a massive breakfast of anything we wanted, undertook some marriage counselling from the safari guide and was given a canoe each!!! Much better, we were able to do the next 8kms with ease - me with Brodie and Keira with Tamara!! We finished off the day with a swim in a nice waterhole, packed the canoes up and bussed it back to the caravan park!!!

Denham/Monkey Mia - 6 nights

Denham is located on Shark Bay, 130kms off the main highway - only one way in and the same way out. Monkey Mia is 30kms from Denham. We had booked into this park due to Easter and school holidays - over 300 vanners/campers/boaties were expected in the week. The weather was in the mid/high 30s and there was, surprisingly, very little wind. The park was located at the end of the town on the water's edge. I spent a lot of time fishing off the beach, with some success - species caught included yellow fin whiting (yummy), yellow fin bream, shark, shovel nose rays and rock cods of various colours and sizes. On our last night in Denham I was so tired of fish feasts that I lashed out and bought $35 of scotch fillet from the butchers - worth every cent!!

Went to Monkey Mia for a day - $12 entry for the family - very reasonable - had a pool, hot tub, discovery centre, bar and cafes .............. lots of green grass..........very pleasant atmosphere. The dolphin feeding itself was a little over-rated - but it had to be done! Did some snorkelling at the beach ..... Keira was in for ages swimming with small sand sharks and touching turtles until she was attacked by a school of something (not jellyfish) which gave her tiny stings all over her body. Our entry fee applied for 2 days, so Keira was back with the kids the next day - they loved the pool and all the other kids there. They also stopped off at a historic homestead for an explore.

Went to Shell Beach - Brodie had seen it on Getaway and wanted to go - the entire beach is made up of tiny sea shells, 10m deep - the water was crystal clear but a very boring sea bed - I snorkelled out over a km and it was still only knee deep! On the way back, took a little dirt/sand track to Eagle Bluff and we fished there for a while.....with Keira having the only success - a nice whiting and an undersized Spangelled Emporer.

Left Denham on Easter Sunday for a 3 hour drive to Carnarvon where we had again booked for 6 nights. 

Carnarvon – 6 nights

Carnarvon's unique location, makes it a tropical oasis situated approximately 904km north of Perth on the west coast. Carnarvon is commonly recognised for its banana plantations, tropical fruits, fine seafood and warm climate and situated in the heart of the Gascoyne Region on the doorstep of the Indian Ocean. We expected this park to be full of kids but, as we found out when we got there, Carnarvon is simply an overnight stopover for families travelling to a more exciting place further north. It fills up after the school holidays with the grey army who base themselves there for the winter. Luckily the park had a swimming pool, rec room with table tennis, playground and a bowling green – all these amenities were used by us and the kids. As it was school holidays, we had ourselves a very lazy week with not much to do.

Here we caught up with Peter and Janika – a Dutch couple we first met in Coffin Bay, SA – they have been travelling Australia for 5 months in a small bus they purchased in Sydney. It seems we have been to nearly all the same places in WA missing each other by days! In Carnarvon, they decided to sell their bus and purchase a Troopy – allowing them to explore the more “rugged” areas of the coastline. We spent many happy hours with them!

We also met Des and Tracey and their 2 yo daughter Lily. They have been living in a huge bus for the past 3 years working their way way around the coast. Des was currently looking after an experimental “beta carotene” farm about 60kms out of Carnarvon. Beta carotene is used as a food dye and it occurs naturally as an algae in salt lakes if the conditions are correct – it creates a salt lake that is pink/orange in colour. As the kids knew all about the Pink Lake located in Esperance (Des’ home town), he invited them (and us) for a tour of the farm – a real privilege as the concepts being trialled are highly experimental and not available to the general public.

On our final day we checked out the blowholes about 70kms out of Carnarvon on a rugged section of the coast – gazing at the sea from the rocks, we noticed huge sea turtles, sharks and some big fish swimming in the swell below us – 5 minutes later I had my rod in and experimented with some lures – hooked up 3 times on some large fish – but only managed to land one. I found out later is was a “common dart” – an excellent fighting fish – really got the blood pumping!!!! Had him for dinner that night! We then drove around the corner to a nice swimming beach and Keira and Brodie had a snorkel in the coral about 20m out from the shore.

Coral bay -12 nights

Coral Bay is a small settlement that lies protected from the Indian Ocean. It is the gateway to the Ningaloo Reef (Australia's only fringing reef). It is about 50kms to the north of the Tropic of Capricorn, approx. 1200 kms from Perth and still 1400 kms to Broome.

We loved this place - we spent the first 8 nights in the middle of the park and the next 4 at the front, close to the beach (people book 2 years in advance to get in the front - we got lucky!). It was the school holidays and the place was packed. Every day was in the low to mid 30s with the nights being around 20 degrees. We made friends with the lovely Gubbins family, from Perth, who set up next to us on our first night - they had 2 young daughters and Brodie and Tamara had constant companions for the week. We also made friends with Vicky and her 12 yo daughter (from Karratha).

Every day, we would walk to the beach, swim out a whole 5-10m and we would be swimming with hundreds of fish feeding through the coral reef - beats Barrier Reef due to its ease of access (but doesn't have the same range of coral colour). Keira would often do this 3-4 times a day, snorkelling through a huge area of the reef. The water was warm, calm and, quite often, very clear visibility. Brodie spent a lot of time on his skim board mastering a range of tricks.

Once we moved to the front, we caught up with Dennis and Irene and a couple of their friends (first met in Perth) and Adam and Kathy and their kids, also travelling around Australia (first met in Carnarvon). We also ran into our Dutch friends again, Peter and Janika (first met in Coffin Bay).

I spent sometime fishing off the marina but with no success. However, on the second night there, a commercial fishing boat docked with 2 tonnes of fish on board - I offered to help unload and 3 hours later the skipper gave me 4 large fish (2 Pearl Perch and 2 Rosy Snapper) - skinned and filleted - about 8 kilos all up. I was a bit sore the next day!! Another family travelling around Australia had gone fishing in his 5m boat and he gave us some Tuna steaks and Mackeral cutlets - we currently have bream, whiting, Kingfish (all caught by us); pearl perch and rosy snapper (worked for); Tuna and Mackeral (given to us) stocked in our trusty Engel freezer!!!