Country Plaza Motel Taree

... Gundagai and Yass.  We stopped for the night just past Yass in a rest are - our first night of free camping.  We met Dee and Jacqui who were travelling back to the Blue Mountains.  We found that our batteries were playing up in the fifth wheeler possibly from non-usage over the last few months but they seemed to come back and allowed us light at least for the evening. The thing that struck us was that the terrain was ...

EN: After two very nice days in the Blue Mountains we were back on the road, we had to keep moving North towards Queensland. We headed back towards the coast through the very scenic road between Lithgow and Richmond, the most scenic route accross the Blue Mountains, some say. Just before Kurrajong we turned North again, towards the Hunter Valley, which is one of Australia's best known wine regions. ;-) When we got to Hunter Valley, we immediatelly realised we were in heaven ...

... made many new friends. I hope to go back again and go hiking and camping in some of the big national parks like Yosemite and Death Valley in California. I am now back in Wallabi Point and have started work again in Tuncurry. It is really cold, especially in the mornings. I am really keen to go surfing but it is too small so fishing will do for now.

On the 8th we packed all our **** and headed back to Lakemba to pick up our car. Our stuff was so heavy, we had to stop every few minutes to rest. I was just dripping with sweat by the time we reached the train. We bought the car for $1450 and payed an extra $60 to fix the air conditioning which is an absolute must. I was the first of me and max to try driving. Right off the ...

... around 11 we strode confidantly off into the forest, armed with water(essential), cheese and ham sandwiches (even more essential) and springs in our steps (not essential but useful nonetheless). It became apparent early on that negotiating a rudimentary path carved up a mountain side a 3 in the morning was going to be a challenging exercise. The further up we went, the more uneven the path got, culminating in the last 400m where I should use the words 'sublime' 'ridiculous' 'from ...

Day 3 in Byron though was much better. Much much better! We'd checked out of the Arts factory after a night of listening to some drunken girls mobile chirp, telling her she had a text message. They'd offered us a tent type thing by the lake but when they asked if we were okay with nature joining us in the tent we werent having any of it!! So all packed up we were picked up along with Jim and Ash to head off kayaking. After all the safety breifings and instructions on how to paddle out ...

2nd Stop - Coffs Harbour Went to the main attracttion . . . .the BIG BANANA! Woo! walked there, walked round, walked back, walked to the beach, walked along the beach - prob bout 15km in 40 degree heat! Phew!!! The Big Banana was ok - built on a banana plantation, and made in to a theme parky thing! But the highlight was the beach - lovely!

... as the home of the bbq is actually home of the gas bbq - which cost a fortune, so made our own invention of cake cooling trays and roasting tins and charcoal! looked good i tell ye! After this we had an early night at 3am! which was actually early for us recently! our excuse was that it was xmas! The next day i managed to drag neil for some sight seeing of the Botanical Gardens for 3 hours - which was good - he even enjoyed it as there was a war memorial he was ...

... to head straight there. These guys at the centre are so dedicated. While we were there they had gotten a call out to rescue a koala being attacked by dogs . You can see into the medical room the poor little thing was so tiny and it's arm had been badly hurt. The guys at the centre look after about 10 Koala's on a constant basis as they can never go back to the wild but they try to ...

... captain said that they've been given a policy now to stay about 100 metres away from the dolphins. They lowered a boom net where anyone can plunge into the water. We reckon the water is too cold so we didn't give it a try. Getting further away, we passed by jelly fish central...didn't realize that the one we saw on the shore is just part of this massive colony residing in the area. Literally, they're so many of them floating around ...