South West Rocks

On leaving Dorrigo ,we took a slow and windy trip down the mountains to the Coast and decided to spend the next 2 nights at South West Rocks. The South West Rocks Tourist Park was a great spot on the banks of a tidal waterway. According to the locals, an excellent spot for fishing. The hardest part of the fishing exercise is keeping the pelicans at bay whilst cleaning the fish.  But a couple of handfuls of fish guts seem to do the trick. While we were there we spotted an immaculately restored HZ Holden.  It was obvious that a lot of love and attention to detail had gone into it.
We bought some freshly caught Mullet fillets from the local Fish factory and they were lovely.  The chap at the fishery said most of the locals thought it was a rubbish fish and only good for bait. We reckon that any fresh fish is good fish!!  Lightly grilled on the Webber with a few Potato Wedges and it was yummy. On day 2 at S.W.Rocks we drove up to the shops to stock up on food ready for our house-sit at Sherwood.

Dorrigo NSW

Well, we set off from Armidale on Thursday morning with the idea of spending a night or two at Little Styx River Campground, which is along the Waterfall Way. Waterfall Way is a road running between Armidale and Coffs Harbour on the coast.  It is approximately 200 kms long and takes in about a dozen different waterfalls, lookouts, picnic spots and campgrounds.  It really is magnificent country. This road is not to be confused with the Armidale to Kempsey Rd. which is NOT suitable for trailers or caravans. (A trip we will do later in the car only.)  We headed for the Little Styx River Campground via Point Lookout and when we reached the top of the road in the car park, we realized that you are supposed to leave your van at the bottom of the hill (I don't think so!!!).  It was no problem getting up there, and there was plenty of room to turn around (THANK GOD - Lea).  We went for a walk up to the lookout, about 400 metres away.  The views were fantastic. You could see for miles, right across to the coast.
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We then headed back down to Styx river campground.
Talk about disappointed, the place was a mess, rubbish piled up everywhere and the ground was all chopped up and overgrown.  I think whoever is supposed to be responsible for it should be shot. It is a beautiful area,  but it was disgusting.  After that disappointment we headed off to Dorrigo to find a place to camp.
Dorrigo is a quaint little town in the middle of The Waterfall Way, just before the road starts to fall towards the coast. We did some shopping and moved onto a beaut little campground called Dangar Falls Campground.  We were the only people there so it was nice and quiet which is the way we like it.  It was a case of find a spot and the caretaker would catch up with us later.  The view across the valley was great.  So we sat outside for a while and had a couple of Reds, despite the fact that it was bloody cold mate! The next morning we took a stroll down to checkout Dangar Falls about 1K out and back from the Campground.
 
The walk was lovely and the Falls as you can see by the piccies were great.
Next stop the Coast. Only 2 days to the next house sit.

Armidale NSW

Well we have finally made it into NSW.  We arrived in Armidale via  Glen Innes in the afternoon. We booked into the Pembroke C/P just out of town. It is a lovely, well presented park especially with all the Autumn leaves around.  I have forgotten what Autumn leaves were like, it`s been so long since we have seen them. Very pretty with all the different colours. We decided to spend a week in Armidale so we could have a look around and get some things done.  Including new batteries for the immobiliser remotes on the tug and a new deep-cycle  battery to run the Engel in the back of the tug.  The previous one lasted about 5 years so that was not too bad.  Armidale is a large town in the New England area, and it is growing very quickly. The weather can be very cold during winter and they often have snow.

When we first arrived at the C/P we spotted another Keddy, but when we asked about it they told us it was in storage along with the tug.  It looked so lonely sitting there, especially next to a Bush-tracker.  LOL.
It was a lazy week for us as in the end we did not do much.  Trying to conserve costs.  Especially Diesel which was around $1.60 per litre.
Whilst we were in Armidale the temperatures dropped quite substantially, so the diesel heater and Reverse Cycle got a bit of a work out.  We use the R/C to bring up the temperature and then switch to the Diesel heater.  I prefer the latter as the R/C dries the air out to much.  But at least it works.  Next stop Little Styx River camp ground.

Stanthorpe Qld.

We arrived in Stanthorpe on Tues.morning and booked into Top of the Town C/P for a bit of a clean up and a decent shower.  As you can imagine, by now the weather is starting to really cool down. We did a bit of shopping and that was  about it for Stanthorpe.  At the top of the C/P there was a lookout supposedly with a nice view over the town, but after I had climbed up there, all I could see was trees.  I think a little bit of pruning is required. Lea would not let me take the chainsaw back up there.  (I don`t know, some people  have no sense of adventure) LOL.  GEE I WONDER WHY!!!!!  (She who must be obeyed!!)

Washpool Camping Reserve Qld. 29/4/11—2/5/11

At last we are starting to head south towards our next housesit.  It felt good to get out of the City and hit the road again.  We are beginning to hate cities with all the constant noise and chaotic traffic.  Give us small country towns any day.  Our next stop was at Washpool Camping Reserve about 170kms southwest from Brisbane.  It is situated on Lake Lesley, a great spot to camp, with fishing and boating activities going on for the weekend, but not intrusive enough to be annoying.  Considering it was yet another long weekend (Labour Day) it was fairly quiet despite the large numbers of campers.  We finally found a camp that supplies free (yes FREE) fire wood,so we were able to give the Mungrill ( Choofer) a good work out with several meals being cooked on it.   And we only used the bark pieces from the wood pile to keep it going.

The weather for the weekend was great for a change, no rain, fine sunny days and cool nights.  We only had to flash the genny up once for about an hour on the first day, because it was overcast and I needed to top up the batteries in case we needed the diesel heater(not that it uses much).  So we spent 4 lovely days relaxing (good for my high stress levels).  On the second morning the lake had taken on a Pea green colour around the edge because of  a Blue/Green Algae attack.  It is propagated by the sun apparently.  But it looked and smelled very strange.

 

Next stop Stanthorpe.