Brisbane Trip Day 26: Newcastle

It was the eldest cousin's 13th birthday today, so Caitlin and I made sure we were up early enough to say Happy Birthday before she went to school. I spent the rest of the morning sorting out my photos and emails etc, while the kids watched Netflix and YouTube videos (and chased the chickens out of the house anytime one of us left the back door open). In the afternoon I walked over to the hardware store to see if they had a new fuse for my fridge cord - we thought we'd fixed it in Brisbane (the fuse had slipped out of place) but the fridge still wasn't working. I plugged it in to 240v power here and it worked fine, so I knew it was the cord. The hardware store didn't have the fuse so suggested I try the automotive place. He looked at the fuse and said it was fine, and said he'd have another go at getting the fuse to stay in the right place. He tested the cord and said the fuse was working but the power wasn't getting to the other end - so I came home and opened up the new cord I'd bought, and that works fine. I spent a bit of time organising to see people during the rest of our trip.

The girls came home from school and their dad from work, and the kids all hung out in the front room for a while. Amelie and I made a birthday card. The youngest cousin and her mum and brother came over, and we had chocolate mud cake for birthday cake. The kids all moved out into the back yard and played on the trampoline and the adults sat and chatted for a while. The other mum and I went down the street to get fish and chips for dinner (we walked to the closest one, which was closed, so we came back and drove into Swansea. On our walk we met a scared, scruffy looking dog, who wouldn't let us get close enough to pat him - he didn't have a collar on and he looked lost, I hope he is ok).

When we got back the girls were dancing to the Moana soundtrack in between jumping on the trampoline. We ate our dinner and hung out in the backyard until the mozzies got too bad. The boys had moved inside earlier and were playing on the iPad. Once the visitors left everyone wound down pretty quickly. I sat out the back for a while and chatted to my BIL, mainly about the Uni cricket club days, and some of his memories of Tony as a kid, then I went to bed and read my book. The kids all came in soon afterwards. A very relaxed day before a week of seeing different people every day!

Brisbane Trip Day 24: Armidale

This was definitely the coldest night we've had on the trip so far, and a bit of a shock after such warm nights in Brisbane. We used all the blankets and it wasn't too uncomfortable. I was up early and there was a fog covering the show grounds, with the sun shining through and silhouetting all the show buildings, it was very pretty.

I had a cup of tea and breakfast and the kids joined me as they woke up. Once I'd eaten I started work on my car window - being a Sunday I figured there'd be no one around to fix it, and also I didn't want to pay someone again, I was sure I could figure it out. It took me a while to get the door panel off, there were a couple of screws I didn't find until I looked up a diagram online. With the panel off I could see what the problem was - the window had jumped the rails and was jammed between the window column and the door frame. I tried to shift it out but it wasn't budging at all. I thought I just needed more strength, so asked the guy in the camper trailer next to us if he could help. He was a young guy, and a mechanic, and happy to help out. He'd also had a similar problem with his own window. My window though was well and truly jammed and he couldn't shift it with strength. He tried a few things and eventually found a screw that loosened the window enough to move it back and out of the jam, then put it into it's rail. He put everything back together for me and the window worked perfectly. I was very grateful.

By now it was nearly 11am so we quickly got ready and headed off to explore. We drove around Armidale and I showed the kids places that I remembered. Amelie was impressed with all the churches. I wanted to show them the 3 houses I'd lived in, on the first pass I couldn't find any of them - everything looked so different. We got petrol and drove up Elm Avenue to the uni, I was pleased to show them this beautiful road that I walked up so many times. There were a few yellow leaves here and there, but it was mainly showing it's summer glory. Driving back through town I found 2 of my houses and I think the driveway of the third.

We set off along the Waterfall Way to the east. I love this countryside - with the elevation so high the sky seems to go forever and the clouds sit differently to what we are used to. The land is pretty dry, with beautiful dead trees in all the paddocks, and lots of large rocks strewn everywhere. It's pretty tough land, very beautiful. We saw 3 eagles on our drive out to Wollomombi Falls.

At the falls we wandered around the picnic area a bit, got a glimpse of Chandler Falls, looked at the gorge, used the toilets then checked the maps and decided to do the walk that goes towards the tops of the falls. The walk was quite pretty, through wooded hills with a mix of living and dead trees and interesting undergrowth. The first lookout gave us a good view of the gorge - it was deep and immense looking - lots of places where we could see that rockfalls had happened, huge slabs of rock lining the walls where there hadn't been falls, and the river way way down below. The day was hot and at one point the kids were thinking about heading back. We could see a cool looking metal bridge up ahead though so kept walking towards that. The bridge crossed the river, above (and a few hundred metres back from) the top of the falls. It was gorgeous, the river trickling between lots of big rocks, and the river banks sloping up to grass and then trees and the blue sky above. We had a play around on the rocks and saw some rock skinks (one swam across the river to get away from us). We found a spot in the shade and sat and ate some lunch (tuna, avocado, ritz and saladas). After eating we explored a bit more above and below the bridge, then kept walking to the lookout at the top of the falls. It was pretty as well, we could see several arms of the falls coming from a rock pool at the top, and had a great view right along the gorge. We couldn't see the bottom of the falls though, they were way below us. After resting a little and admiring the view, we continued on to the lookout for Chandler Falls (two rivers meet at the bottom of the gorge, and they both have massive waterfalls dropping into the gorge just before the meeting place. Wollomombi Falls are the tallest in Australia, over 200m). These falls were also impressive. Not a lot of water in them at the moment, but we could see it falling in steps all the way to the bottom. The gorge here was similar although had different things to look at - a slightly less recent rockfall, different trees, more farmland at the top. We could also see the top of the ridge between the 2 rivers.

The walk back was pretty again although we were all quite tired. The views of the gorge from the lookouts, and even the river at the bridge, looked different because the sun had moved and the shadows were very different. Back at the car we had a big drink of water and a snack and felt a bit refreshed. We drove down to look at the camping ground (which I hadn't realised was there) - it looked pretty and was quite cheap, although the sites looked pretty hard and possibly were all gravel, so it might be tricky for us to set up there.

I'd planned to keep heading east and see Ebor Falls, Dorrigo and maybe even Bellingen, but we'd spent quite a bit of time here and got started later than I'd thought we would, and we were all feeling tired. So instead we went back towards Armidale, then went out to Gara Gorge. The last several kilometres of the road were gravel, and parts of it were the most heavily corrugated I think I've driven on. I had to drive at about 10km/hr in one bit so that the car didn't feel like it was going to fall apart. It seemed to take a long time to get to the gorge, through some very pretty countryside - then suddenly we were on paved roads again as we entered the National Park. We stopped at the Blue Hole and got out to have a look. I remembered people swimming here, and while it was attractive to look at, it didn't look inviting to swim in. No one else was there and there were no obvious paths down to the water either. We found a path through the grass that led to a big rock so we stood there and watched the birds and the skinks and enjoyed the peaceful surrounds.

I'd seen people coming out along the road who had been swimming, and several cars came past from further into the park, so we went down there. There were a lot more cars at the next carpark. We walked down to the river and saw kids in the water, and people walking back up the path in wet clothes, so I popped back to the car and got the kids swimmers. The other kids had said there was a better spot to swim further down the river. Liam and Caitlin clambered over the rocks to explore, which was fun (although Liam scratched his shoulder quite badly on a tree). They came back up and the 4 of us walked down the path a way until we found another place to reach the river. The rocks rose up quite steeply either side of the water, and the valley was narrower and more full of trees than the valley we'd had lunch in. This was beautiful as well, in a darker way. The water was reflecting in shimmery patterns on the overhanging rocks, it was very cool. The kids sat on the edge of a rock with their feet in the water and the fish nibbled on their skin, and I found a beachy area where I could wade into the water. It was cold, though bearable. The kids joined me (we had to duck under a tree branch to get to the beach) and Caitlin made her way over a rock to sit on a submerged (slippery) rock. I'd walked in to about my waist and Liam came with me, then swam out to a rock in the middle of the river. Caitlin made her way out there as well, then when she came back in I went out. There were lots of big rocks under the water and while the water was clear it was in the shade and hard to see, so we didn't swim around a lot. It was lovely though, being in the water and looking up at the rocks and the trees (and the extra reflections that the ripples we were making created on the rocks). Amelie played in the water near where we came in, it sloped down quite quickly there so it was easy to get right in to the water.

We got out and talked to a couple who were making their way up the river going from rock to rock - just where we were there wasn't an easy way to get across or around so they walked through the water. I sat with my feet in the river for a while and enjoyed the fish nibbling on my dry skin. We got dressed and walked back to the car. Amelie read the history of the water flume that used to be here - there was hydro power here once. It was interesting too to look at the debris stuck in the trees and see how high the flood level is here when there's been a lot of rain.

The drive out was a lot easier - the sun was low in the sky and was highlighting the corrugations in the road so I could avoid them as much as possible. We called in at Coles when we were back in town to grab milk and eggs and a 6-pack of beer for the guy who fixed my window. We drove around a little more so the kids could see the attractive main street and the fountain in the mall.

Back to camp and we all went and had hot showers, then had egg and cabana sandwiches for dinner. We tidied up (and I did the dishes so they weren't slowing us down in the morning) and once again were all in bed between 9 and 9.30.

Half-lap Day 83: Exmouth

It rained for a lot of the night, not heavy but quite persistent. Our temporary job of fixing the leak seemed to do all right, we didn’t end up with a puddle inside the tent, although there was still water coming through and running down the outside where we’d directed it (a trickle, not a flow).

I was up early and went down to the camp kitchen to catch up on the blog and organise my photos. Having been away from internet access for most of the past week, and being out of power for half of that time, there was quite a lot to catch up on and I had a lovely relaxing morning playing on the computer. The kids came and saw me and then brought me some breakfast, and they wandered around the park a bit more and I met them at the tent mid-morning.

Tony was cooking pancakes which were very yummy, and the kids had found a maths code/puzzle book in my activities tub – they’d always found this book a bit hard, today they were working at it together and between the 3 of them they were figuring out the puzzles. They played with it for hours.

It rained for a good part of the morning then, while it stayed cloudy, the rain stopped. For the rest of the day it sprinkled occasionally but was mainly overcast, dull, cold and a little windy. I did some washing and put it on the line – some of it got dry fairly quickly.

I went out to see if I could find out what to do about the leak in the tent, and do a few other messages. I was able to buy a heavy duty patch, although we’re not sure if it will work because it will need to be over a seam. I organised for us to get new tyres (desparately needed) when we come back through Exmouth on Thursday. I got some information on some tours we might want to do, and discovered that there is nowhere in Exmouth to buy a child booster seat. Millie’s has been damaged so we really need a new one – it will do the job until we can get to Carnarvon.

Back at the tent we had a relaxing afternoon. I tidied a few things up and the kids played on their iPads and did more of the puzzle book and played with the magnetic shapes. Tony went for a bike ride to buy some more reef shoes, another replacement for our toast mesh on the stove (this one only lasted a few weeks) and to get groceries. I spent a bit more time on the computer, and went up to reception to book us on a Glasss-Bottomed boat tour for later in the week. We had a closer look at the leak in the tent and Tony sewed parts of it back together, hoping that we’ve sealed the gap well enough.

The kids wandered around the park some more and discovered that the pool wasn’t too cold, so they went for a swim. It was colder than they had expected so they didn’t stay in long, only about 10 minutes, but they did enjoy it. I read my book and watched them, while Tony cooked Butter Chicken, then they all went and had hot showers. We ate our dinner and it was soon dark.

Today was the coldest day we’ve experienced for months – I think it was around 19 degrees, and rather damp. We had hot chocolates and marshmallows after tea. The kids wanted hot water bottles to make going to bed a bit more cosy, so we all went down to the camp kitchen and did the dishes and filled the hot water bottles. Back to bed and read Inheritance for a little while then went to sleep.