A fine cool to mild day started with some serious beachcombing around the edge of Coles Bay near our caravan park. The walk to the beach is along a 100m sandy track emerging onto the beach near a back-beach lagoon. The beach itself curves off towards the town with white sand sloping gently into the clear blue waters. Jutting almost apologetically into the bay is a low headland of red granite with a jointed and quartz vein bisected surface that had been eroded into regular rounded blocks.
When the chimes rang out over the ship's PA system to announce breakfast at 6:45 AM the swell of the previous evening had all but disappeared.
The Abel Tasman was steaming through rain and low cloud over calm, smooth sea towards Devonport. The trip up the Mersey River to the terminal was very short and we were sitting in our car ready to drive out at 8:45 PM.
The Water’s Edge caravan park is an interesting contradiction. On the one hand there are facilities to attract children to the park such as heated pools, spas, and games rooms. On the other hand, making life for kids a misery, are rules that disallow ball games and bike riding.
The Mallacoota Caravan park was not a bad place: grass instead of dirt; washing machines in a laundry and a tap nearby to fill the water tank using a hose. So what you ask? Have you ever tried to fill the water tank of a caravan using a Jerry can?
Two hours after heading south from Merry Beach we were battling the holiday crowds at Batemans Bay. We needed money and a few staples.
And, 20 minutes further South, we pulled into a rest area for lunch. Tall spotted gums with small birds walking up the trunk seeking insects under the bark were a source of interest. The transient residents of the rest area - fellow travellers - were giving us advice on road conditions all over Australia and keeping us company while we ate a lunch of cheese egg and tomato sandwiches.
Central Tilba, a National Trust village, was more like Pitt St with an effective road width only 20cm wider than our van. All the shops are done up as tourist traps and there were lots of people being trapped! We didn't stop and I was pleased to turn around after only two kilometres on the road to Mount Dromedary.
Next stop Bermagui where fresh squid sold for $3.50 per kilogram. Jacqui bought $3 worth and we picked up one dozen oysters for $4. They were very tasty.
The plan was to drive to Tathra via the coast but this plan was thwarted by a sign which said caravans are not advised to continue.
Back to the main road at Cobargo and onto Bega for fuel and water. We turned again towards Tathra only to end up at Bournda State Recreation area just South of Tarthra.
The NRMA Camping and caravan book [this indespensible book listed and rated all of Australia's camping areas and was dogged-eared by the end of the trip] suggested a phone call [before arrival] but we were lucky picking up the only free spot at 5:30PM.
The Ranger was a rare human being who went out of his way to help us with and with a little bit of luck will be able to stay tomorrow night as well.
As usual kids wanted their bikes before anything else was unpacked. To save space I had removed Anja’s training wheels and since she had been riding well we set her loose! She managed and Lachlan only returned once, worried looking, to get me to help Anja on her way again.
After dinner (Lachlan said "What's for dinner Dad?" I said “calamari”. and he said “oh squid”) we joined in a sleuth hunt - a valuable way to find your way around a new campsite. Having located only about 3/4 of the clues someone told us the answers to the rest of the questions. We went, straight-faced, to claim our prizes which were 3 posters of: seashores; whales and insects.
Showering in a block without lights was interesting, so Jacqui says as she showered the kids. Making Lachlan walk back naked for 50m was an interesting lesson for us both about the modesty of 5 ½ year old children.
The contrast with Merry Beach couldn't have been greater. Bournda was so quiet: no TV’s, radios or cassettes players, cars, chainsaws or pumps etc. The difference is in part due to the lack of power and was also highlighted by the clear star filled Sky and bright full moon.
Carmen, our next-door neighbour, was impressed that, with an announced departure time of midday it was 11:50 AM and we were almost ready to leave. Alberto Blanco, Hilda Workman and Bere Fraser were all present to see us depart. Alberto used our new video camera to capture our slow descent of the driveway followed by a somewhat faster trip up our Ave. The kids wanted to know why we simply drove around the block and Alberto looked disappointed that we had returned for the camera!
Anyone who has ever travelled south from our home will know that Sydney is a very big city and about 1 1/2 hrs pass before you leave the southern suburbs.
On this day we took even longer, detouring to the western suburb of Seven Hills to have the caravan brakes looked at, they weren't working very well and that was how they continued to operate for the rest of the trip.
We kept a diary with entries for each day - 3 volumes in all.
Nearly everything you read in this blog was transcribed directly from the diaries.
Videos, film camera and audio cassettes
We took with us a Sony video camera, a Pentax film camera and an audio cassette tape recorder. The audio tapes made for Elaine and George Ralph, Ian's parents and his sister Karen Moule have been lost. I have scanned and included many of the still photos and some of the most pertinent and entertaining video content. See the end of this post for some information on the path the videos took from camera to this blog.
A few statistics
We made it right around Australia. And a long way round it was too.
Total distance travelled in the car: 27,000 km
Money spent on fuel: $2758
Mentality: calmer except for insanity due to being cooped up with kids when it rained for 5 weeks in Qld.
Time away: 5 1/2 months (4/1/90 until 20/6/90)
Money spent: every cent we had (our house was rented to pay the mortgage)
Flat tyres: 6. 3 on the 'van & 3 on the car, Each required the purchase of a new tyre
Mechanical problems with the car: replacement of a waterpump, the front shock absorbers, a broken windscreen, punctured air-lines to rear-shocks. On the camper trailer we had broken pipes to the water tank after travelling over rocky roads to Hawker in SA
Longest distance travelled: 800 km in one day from near Eucal to Esperance in WA
Most expensive fuel: 89.9 cents per litre at Balladonia Roadhouse on the Nullabor
Weather: 10 days of rain in the first 5 months, then almost non stop for the last few weeks, max temperature of 40°c in Victoria, in general hot and dry
Most expensive camping: $21 per-night at Inverloch Victoria
Hi, Thanks for checking out my journal. I've always enjoyed writing up our family's adventures using a pen and paper so now, with some time on my hands thanks to Covid-19, I thought I'd write up some of my stories in an online format. In the early days of this blog, I allowed comments. Unfortunatley […]
