Back in the sunshine state

Arrived at Sunseeker midday yesterday - warm and sunny. Got the van parked up the back and started the long process of unpacking after 4 months away. Our "cottage" was in good order, still clean and tidy. We broke the trip back at Tweed overnight - the caravan park was more or less at the end of the Coolangatta airport runway so it was incoming and outgoing most of the day. Not too bad compared with some of the road noise places we stayed at. It was a breeze going over the Gateway bridge, no tolls to worry about and all we heard was a beep from the E-tag transponder as it deducted money from our GoVia toll account. On arrival at the village, our little Hyundai Excel fired into life after sitting idle under the carport for 4 months and that was a relief because the battery was expected to be flat. Some of the more memorable places we went to since last September were Tallangata on the Murray River, Corowa same area, Bendigo and especially Ballarat, Lake Jindabyne up in the Snowy Mountains - gorgeous place, Hawkesbury river area, Goulburn, and the north east coast of NSW, Nelson Bay, Port Macquarie, Sawtell. The places we would like to go back to with a bigger boat are Lk Jindabyne, Hawkesbury river, Nelson Bay and Sawtell (Coffs Harbour), but not middle of summer and not school holidays. We have a good tent, and planning starts next week

Sawtell, Coffs Harbour

Last big stop before getting back to the Sunshine Coast, we are here for 3 nights,
staying at the Sawtell tourist park which is just a few kays south of Coffs Harbour itself. Large park with sandy sites and right near the ocean. Last night after setting up we went to a local Thai place and got some takeaways, very tasty. Went into town this morning and got some fuses for the car, then drove over to the port and had a look around there, very pretty place. Saw Kiwi transtasman rowers at the marina, they are rowing back to New Plymouth soon. At the back of our site is the bush and there are a couple of striped monitor lizards living in there.

Sunday 17 Jan
Last day of tour. Went to a local headland and found a wonderful swimming pool carved out of the rock at the high tide mark. Sandy bottom and totally fed by the waves crashing over the top of the sea wall - there are even small fish in there. Had a lovely swim.This afternoon there was a small bush fire about 4kms away, quite a bit of smoke in the park. Tonight we'll have takeaways for tea, and tomorrow head north for an overnight stop about 60kms north of Ballina, this will leave us a relatively easy drive back to Caloundra the next day. The big striped sand monitor (Goanna) came out this afternoon and did a patrol of the bush edge. It would be close to a metre long. Photos at the top: Sawtell, Rock pool, Hilii fig tree in the main street Sawtell.

Port Macquarie

Hot but otherwise uneventful drive up from Nelson Bay. The big rivers we passed on the way were at the tops of the banks after heavy rain and flooding in the area earlier. The caravan park we are at is right on the river with its own jetty and boat ramp. Very small park but it will do for the two nights.
In the evening we drove into town and the waterfront. There was a family jazz band playing on the grass by the water, lots of al fresco restaurants and bars on the waterfront as well. It had cooled down and was very pleasant walking around the edge of the estuary/river. On the way out, thousands of fruit bats were moving out to feed. Tomorrow we'll have a proper look around and get some photos.

Nelson Bay, Port Stephens

Pretty as a picture.
Got through the traffic out of Sydney in the morning and had fun keeping the van on the road due to the wind funnel effect of the F3 highway to Newcastle which runs through a series of cuttings and gorges in the area of the Hawkesbury River. What a pretty area the Hawkesbury is and we must come back another time with our bigger boat. From there it was just a warm drive through Newcastle to Port Stephens. Tried several caravan parks in Nelson Bay but none had vacancies, peak season of course. Luckily we backtracked and got a site in a lovely Family Parks caravan park at Anna Bay 10 mins drive from the Nelson Bay foreshore. After setting up the van we drove into Nelson Bay and had lovely fish & chips down on the beach in the cool evening.
Today we tiki toured to Soldiers Point, Nelson Bay marina, Taylors beach and the lovely Anna Bay, Boat harbour. At the Soldiers Point Tourist park, right on the beach, we collected brochures etc for a future visit. Overall Port Stephens is a huge waterway and brilliant boating venue. We will have to come back. Anna Bay was a bit of a surprise, rugged rocky coastline with a lovely crescent shaped beach at Boat Harbour where lots of swimmers were enjoying the water. Anna Bay (original name Hannah Bay) marks the northern end of the largest moving sandhill in the Southern Hemisphere, Stockton Beach.
Tonight after pizza we went for a walk down the back of the caravan park along the edge of the bush to look for Koalas, but the mozzies chased us away.
Port Stephens/Nelson Bay is a lovely spot, especially if you like seafood, and it's a shame we have to head back north tomorrow, destination Port Macquarie.
Top photo: Chris & Anne John in Sydney

Lost in TransLARAtion

Lara as you have probably deduced, is our new Garmin Nuvi GPS. She got her nickname from the Aussie female voice giving out the directions. "ATTENTION HUMANS ... THIS VOICE CANNOT BE CHANGED OR ALTERED IN ANY WAY".
It was good move to upgrade from our old Navman, as Lara has got us through some tricky navigational problems, and got us into a few as well. One of the latter happened in the countryside where I took a different course and forgot to disable Lara first. "In 250 metres select 4WD and turn left onto a goat track". As she desperately tried to get us back on course. I ignored that, and the next instruction was "In 400 metres turn left into a muddy firebreak and follow trees for 4.9 kilometres ...recalculating, recalculating, drive to nearest road, any damn road, recalculating, lost satellite reception, are you lost too?". It is especially funny on a major highway where upgrades have taken the road away from the original map fix, then Lara really loses the plot, parks the car's avatar on the side of the road and sulks until the mapping starts to match up with her internal memory.
Where she does shine though is in a big city like Sydney, where being certified insane is an advantage on the roads here. She weaves us around and through areas that we have never heard of let alone visited, but still gets us to the destination. Sydney airport is a notorious destination for the uninitiated, and Lara took me right to the Arrivals pickup point. I drove on past to access the public carpark and Lara responded "Arrived at destination on left. Why are we leaving destination on left. WHERE ARE YOU GOING BUDDY?. Recalculating, switching off to preserve battery life and sanity".
There is no doubt we would have been in dire straits without her guidance, especially on the approach from Ballarat to the Western Gate bridge in Melbourne. I took a wrong veer and ended up in an industrial estate but Lara faithfully guided us back onto the approach motorway through factory carparks etc. She didn't mention anything about experiencing gridlock, 4 lanes wide, before during and after the bridge though. If she has one teensy weensy failing, it would be sometimes (just sometimes Lara) not giving us enough advance warning ahead of a direction change, for example, telling us to turn right when we are halfway across the intersection can be a bit tricky. Overall though we are very happy with our Garmin, it is easy to operate and pretty damn reliable and accurate. Thank you Lara
Next week "For Whom the Etag Beeps"

Pizza Italiano

When in Rome ...... or Bass Hill Sydney which has an ethnic and cultural mix of population. So why not have homemade pizza for a change - we have a portable oven with a curved back and a pizza plate..... Così lascili cominciano !

Small (or large) Bazaar gourmet pizza base
Shredded Mozzarella cheese
Finely sliced Prosciutto
Leggo's spicy pizza sauce with Garlic Onions and Herbs
Bunch of small peeled and cooked prawns

Spread the sauce over the base, cover with Mozzarella, cut the Prosciutto into small strips and lay on top, sprinkle over lots of prawns, followed by a little bit more Mozzarella. Preheat oven to 220 and cook (grill) for 12 mins.

The sauce adds spice, the prawns are sweet and juicy, the Prosciutto is salty and smoky and the Mozzarella is soft and stringy as it should be.

that's it folks - quick and simple - sorry, I ate the lot. Ciao

HELLO ANNE AND RICHARD @ GREENACRE, SEE YOU SOON