We started our 16 day camping trip today and we are excited to go camping for an extended period of time in our beautiful Jayco camper named 'Seymour' (see-more).
Our first stop: Mullumbimby. We booked into the Mullumbimby Showgrounds - they received good reviews online - and they had electricity and water available for us to hook up to. They also have the cleanest amenities block that we have ever seen. It was also very quiet and lovely surrounded by trees. It was so nice to sit outside in the fresh air and enjoy the beautiful nature surrounding us.
Mike enjoying our first dinner of this trip - chili -
Wednesday, 16 January, 2019
Nambucca Heads: We stayed with Sue's Uncle Rob and Aunt Gisela - they have a lovely large room with an ensuite for guests to use. They took us out for dinner to a local sports club where we shared a shrimp on a chicken schnitzel meal - yummy! After dinner, we walked along the waterfront enjoying the beautiful breeze and the water. It was so nice to catch up with Rob and Gisela. Their daughter, Christine, who we haven't seen since 1988 (when she was 14) is now a mom of five and grandmother of one and is living south of Sydney. Their son, Grant is now 48 (how did that happen?) is a dad of three and living in Newcastle. Rob and Gisela love living in Nambucca Heads and we can see why - beautiful weather and beautiful scenery.
Thursday, 17 January, 2019
Tanilba Bay: We arrived at Sue's cousin, Cherylyn's place today - Cherylyn and her husband, Ross, have lived in this area for many years and absolutely love living here. We stayed in a room in their house rather than setting up our trailer in their yard (since we were only staying one night). Shortly after we arrived, Cherylyn mentioned that her son, Peter and his wife, Jaime, had had a little boy five months previously - this was news to both of us. We asked Cherylyn if she could invite them over for a visit so that we could see the little one. His name is Lennox and he is adorable. Sue got to have some nice cuddles with him and both of us enjoyed seeing Peter again and meeting Jaime for the first time. Peter is a teacher (specializing in music) and Jaime is a nurse who is currently on maternity leave. After Peter and family left, we had a delicious chicken, salads and dessert dinner and then played a few rounds of 'Rummikub' together - a game based on the game of 'Rummy' using tiles. We had a lot of fun playing with Cherylyn and Ross and will be keeping a lookout for this game.
Friday, 18 January - Saturday, 19 January, 2019
Rouse Hill (west of Sydney): We booked in to the 'Ingenia Holidays, Avina' in Vineyard (close to Rouse Hill) for two days. We were put into an area in between two 'cabins' - we weren't terribly impressed with the location of our campground area or with our lack of access to the wifi (it just didn't work with the code they gave us). They did have a nice pool here, but we didn't take advantage of it as we spent most of our time with Rosie and Cheryl and their families. After setting up our camper, we drove to a restaurant called 'The Australian Hotel & Brewery' where we met up with Rosie, Cheryl and two of her daughters, Nicki and Lisa and Lisa's 3 month old daughter, Maddison. We each got an iced chocolate and shared a chicken parma meal (with an added Greek salad for Mike). It was so nice to see them all again and to catch up a little with what's been happening with them and with us.
Saturday, we drove to Rosie's house - it was 43C and way too hot to stay at the campground. Rosie suggested we join her to check out her local 'Costco'. She had invited us to go to her grandson, Liam's birthday that evening and so we went with her to pick out a gift for him from us and so Rosie could get some food for the party. The air conditioning was wonderful! We decided to eat lunch there (very cheap) - Sue had a chicken Caesar salad and Mike had a hot dog and some of Sue's salad. We bought Liam some gel pens for his birthday and also bought a series of Roald Dahl books for Terri-Ann's kids (one of her favourite authors when she was young), some A & W root beer (for Mike - hard to get here in Australia), some Canada Dry ginger ale (so good when you aren't feeling well) and some 'real' bagels. It was quite a good day for shopping for us!
After shopping, we went back to Rosie's to do some laundry before heading off for Rebecca's (Rosie's daughter and Liam's mom) for Liam's 8th birthday party. The whole gang was there and it was great to see them all.....Rosie, daughter Rebecca and partner Shawn with boys, Joshua and Liam; daughter, Lauren; son Richard and partner Leanne with children, Amos, Gracie and Nate. Cheryl, daughter Renee and partner, Rob with girls, Ayla, Lily and Bree; daughter, Nicki; daughter Lisa and husband, Anthony with daughter, Maddison. We stayed for a few hours and were able to get in a good chat with everyone and Sue was able to get in a lot of cuddles with little Maddison who is a real cutie.
Sunday, 20 January, 2019
Bombala: We stayed the night in 'Bombala Caravan Park' which is a nice little basic campground right by the Bombala River. It was very quiet with friendly service and nice amenities.
Monday, 21 January, 2019
Traralgon: After setting up the trailer at the 'Park Lane Holiday Park', we headed in to meet up with our friends' daughter and her family. Alexis (daughter of Catherine and Bruce Beamer from Canada) and her husband, Justin and son, Rhys, moved to Australia this past week. Justin is going to medical school here in Australia and they will be living here for the next several years. We were so pleased that we could take them out to dinner at the Exchange Hotel (for three hours) and catch up with what they have been doing over the years since we last saw Alexis in Canada a number of years ago and what their plans are here.
This morning, we met up with Rachel Smithson, her two daughters, Abigail and Aleksandra and Rachel's mom, Teresa. Rachel had come to stay with us in Canada for a week many years ago and we had taken her to see all the sights in Toronto and Niagara Falls. It was so nice to be able to catch up with her again and to meet her mom and two daughters. Rachel made us some delicious scones with jam and cream for morning tea which we ate while we yakked. (It turned out to be an amazing 'coincidence' that Alexis and Justin had decided to move to the same town as Rachel lives in - Rachel and Alexis are the same age and Rhys and Abigail are the same age - I put them in touch with each other and hopefully they will become friends). After leaving Traralgon, we drove to Bayswater North where we stayed with our friends, Wendy and Norm Keilar. Wendy and Sue's mom, Trish, worked together in Wagga many many moons ago and have kept in touch all these years. We have stayed with Wendy and Norm a few times and we always have a good time with them. They have such good senses of humour and we laugh a lot with them. Tuesday night, we went out with them to a restaurant for dinner - their daughter, Marjorie and her husband, Peter, met us there for a pre-dinner chat as they had other plans for that evening.
OnWednesday, after going out for lunch to a buffet restaurant, Mike spent the afternoon helping Norm to make a meditation DVD for Wendy - Sue and Wendy spent the afternoon chatting. That evening, we helped Wendy do a crossword puzzle and laughed and laughed as we tried to figure out the answers to the clues.
Thursday morning, before leaving for Wagga, Marjorie came over to make her delicious home-made scones for us for breakfast. Sue had mentioned to Marjorie at the restaurant that she was so disappointed we weren't going to be able to enjoy her yummy scones which she had made for us a few times previously. She offered to come over Thursday morning (early) to make them for us - Sue told her she didn't have to, but was secretly thrilled when Marjorie insisted she would do it. We had them with jam and cream and they were so tasty!
Sue, Abigail, Rachel, Aleksandra, Teresa
Bayswater North:
From left from around the table clockwise: Wendy, Sue, Peter, Marjorie, Mike and Norm
Thursday, 24 January - Friday, 25 January, 2019
Wagga Wagga:
Saturday, 26 January - Monday, 28 January, 2019
Next stop: Bathurst. On our way to Bathurst, we stopped in Cootamundra where Sue's family lived for 18 months (when she was aged 10 1/2 to aged 12). It was great to see her old house, school and pool. Sue used to ride down to the pool during the summer holidays and spend the mornings there. Then she would ride home and spend the afternoon reading on her bed (good times). We stopped for lunch in Young where we bought a meat pie and sausage roll and, of my goodness, that was the best meat pie we have ever had - so tasty and flavourful. We booked into Bathurst for 3 nights and it was nice to be able to stop and breathe for a few days after having so many 1 and 2 day stops. The main reason for stopping at Bathurst was so that Mike could drive around Mount Panorama track. He plays a racing game online and one of the tracks is the one at Bathurst. He is the champion on his racing team on this track and so he wanted to drive the actual track. Online, he speeds up to 300km/hr, but the maximum speed you are allowed to go normally is 60km/hr and the cops are ALWAYS around to catch speeders - in fact, we saw one stopping someone on one of our times around the track. We drove around the track three times - the first time was just to see how the drive was in person and the other two times, Mike put his phone on a holder on the front windscreen which taped the track as we drove around it. Mike was so chuffed to be able to complete this wish of his.
Tuesday, 29 January, 2019
Next stop: Tamworth. Tamworth was a stop on the way home - we would have liked to check out the town - and we will one day - but, we just didn't have time this trip. After setting up in Tamworth, we went into the pool at the campground - it was so hot and was so nice to be able to stay in the cool water for ages.
Thursday, 31 January, 2019
Next stop: Hervey Bay - HOME!
