Our
Travels Across and Destinations in New South 
Wales
Table of Contents
QLD/N.S.W. Border, Brooms Head, Maclean &
Yamba
Grafton, Gibralta Range & Glen
Innes
Armidale, Tamworth, Cessnock,
Newcastle & The Hunter Valley
Sydney, Sydney surrounds,
Blackheath & The Blue Mountains
Back in Perth for the "Channel 9 Coles
Variety Club Bash"
Moss Vale, Berrima, Sutton & off to
A.C.T.
Cooma, Jindabyne, Perisher Blue & off to
Victoria
QLD/N.S.W. border, Brooms Head,
Maclean & Yamba
Tuesday the 14th of
August and we are off at 10:00AM to head for Brooms Head that was a location
picked by Merrilyn. It didn’t take long and we crossed the Qld/N.S.W. border
that is just past Coolangatta, which is where the airport that services Surfers
Paradise is located. Strangely as soon as we crossed the border the skies were
suddenly 
filled with dark clouds as if the
Queensland people had bulldozed them down there. We drove first to Byron Bay
but as we couldn’t find anywhere to park within a practical walking distance
from the local restaurants or café’s so we continued on and eventually stopped
just outside Ballina in a rest area to have lunch. After lunch we proceeded to
Brooms Head and upon arrival we couldn’t believe our luck at finding this most
beautiful spot. We immediately secured a week at the caravan park, which is
right on the beach with our sites located just behind a sand dune that will
protect us from the ocean winds. Phone coverage is poor but there is a location
just up from our caravan where OPTUS cover becomes available although the truth
be told Merrilyn did not have to keep her left arm up to get that cover. On the
next morning Mary & I drove into 
Maclean (pronounced McLane) a small
town that hasn’t been allowed to change too much since last century and remains
as being very quaint. It is a Scottish theme town where even the lamp poles
have been painted with the different Tartan’s. Thursday and Friday are spent
walking on the beaches and generally taking it easy. The picture at right shows
how a 6-8 kilometre walk is very easy to do when considering where Mary is
standing in relation to where the caravan park is. Saturday bought with it
another day where I needed to drive to Maclean to get good internet coverage to
pay lots of rates etc. Whilst there I stopped at a barbers shop to get a hair
trim (I miss Sandy) which Mary calls my “old man hair style”. On my return, yes
they had all been walking again but to be fair it is a pleasant pass time and
although we haven’t seen the sun since arriving in N.S.W. at least it isn’t
raining. Sunday and yes we wake up to rain so today is somewhat restricted. Now
I am missing my Plasma TV and all those extra rooms to walk around in. Monday
is our last day here so we took a drive to Yamba, which is another beach town,
and then on the way went via Maclean for a quick shop. Monday night bought with
it 90 kilometre winds which gave us a bit of a shaking but the caravan
withstood it. Tuesday morning and we decided to move inland to get away from
the bad weather.
Grafton, Gibralta Range & Glen
Innes
We left Brooms Head at 9:00AM
traveling down the Pacific Highway to Grafton where we turned right to head down
the Gwydir Highway to proceed across to Glen Innes. Before 
getting to Grafton we witnessed the
many sugar cane crops that had been flattened by the winds of the previous
night. Then on the trip through the Great Dividing Range (Gibralta Range
National Park) we witnessed heavy fog with lots of debris on the road with our
speed getting as low as 40 Kmh. It was good to get through to Glen Innes and it
was definitely a most exhilarating and enjoyable drive. Once at Glen Innes we
were out of the nasty 
weather and even saw the sun again
in the late afternoon. Mary insisted that we drive up and down nearly every
town street, after we had checked out the shops and been to see the “Australian
Standing Stones”. That night we had a nasty little incident with the caravan
toilet (we are always learning something the hard way), which we are keeping as
a dinner party story for close friends only! Wednesday brings some finer
weather (cold & cloudy with glimpses of sunlight) so it is decided to take
a recommended tourist drive. Our last stop is at Scott Wright’s winery, where
Scott is a vigneron who declares himself as a “wine maker and tractor driver”
and whose wines are very nice thank you. Dinner is at he local R.S.L. club
where you eat for $6.00 or thereabouts, buy schooners of beer for $3.60 and
then if their scheme works you play the pokies or keno etc for the rest of the
night. Thursday is poor weather so Mary finished writing a newsletter then we
did a little shopping to kill off the rest of the day.
Armidale, Tamworth, Cessnock, Newcastle & The Hunter Valley
Friday - Up early, it is still cold
but the weather is looking to be much better. Setting off from Glen Innes it is
decided that we will travel separately to meet in Armidale. The scenery on the
drive was “green” which is unusual here as we are told it is usually dry and
brown in the winter. On 
arrival in Armidale Mary was lucky
enough to find and catch up with an old Darlingtonite “Sally Rowe”. It was a
delight for her to catch up and I left them reminiscing in a café whilst I took
care of some banking etc. After a couple of hours and after a quick tour of our
caravan we bid Sally farewell. We then proceeded on through the town of
Armidale and back on to the highway, which has some very, very steep descents,
that keep drivers on their tows (toes) as we make our way on to Tamworth. There
is enough time to walk into town after we have set up and it is immediately
obvious that there is plenty to see just around this large country town.
Saturday is used to drive and walk around town which includes the mandatory
look at the giant golden guitar. Much to our dismay it is very difficult to
find any country music entertainment and although we are sure 
that it is here, every where we try
to find it, it isn’t. Even the services club that told us they had a live
country music band performing in the evening didn’t, as we discovered when we
went there for a meal in the evening. Oh well we did win around $160.00 between
us on “KENO” etc whilst there and we will give it another go on Sunday. It is
bought to our attention by my mother that we are famous back home with “The
West Australian” newspaper (page 48 in the motoring section – half a page) and
“Have A Go” freebie paper having picked up the article on us. We’re Famous!
Sunday is a warm sunny day but most of it used doing things around the caravan.
In the afternoon Mary & I drove up to “Oxley Lookout” where we took the 2.6
km walk to the peak of “Flagstaff Mountain”. It nearly killed us, as it was a
steep climb for most of the distance up to the summit. Being so steep the walk
back down was also quite an effort. We had dinner with David & Merrilyn at
their caravan that night and it was a treat. On Monday morning we woke early
and a little stiff so decided to leave immediately for Cessnock in the Hunter
Valley. A look around the town in the afternoon and we saw our first ever
“Aldi” store, which is very much like the “Action” stores of old back home in
Perth. Tuesday and all of us went on a winery tour and are dismayed at the lack
of grape vines that are in the area. Most of the 
name brand wineries we visited are
quite small in comparison to the Swan Valley or Margaret River wineries. I
asked the people behind the counters where the vines were and it would appear
that there are mainly boutique type outputs in the Hunter Valley even with the
big name wineries. At lunch in “Harrigans”, a pub, in the valley we did have
some live entertainment – You guessed it – A country & Western singer – Wonder
if he was from Tamworth? Wednesday is used to explore Newcastle where we were
surprised to see that they have some nice beaches just outside the city and
they are being well used on a 23° day. Thursday and we are getting ready for our
side trip back to Perth next week to allow my participation in the Variety Bash
with Wayne & Rob. Mary will of course enjoy her time home with family and
friends. 
Much of Thursday was spent traipsing
around Cessnock trying to buy clothing suitable for costume etc for the bash
with quite some success. On the way home (back to the caravan) we spotted a
“Red Cross Blood Donor Truck” and Mary decided to give it a go with me (this is
my second time so I am a veteran). Friday we all went together, traveling down
the coast between Newcastle to as far down as Gosford to take a look there.
Saturday brings with it the opportunity to visit historic Morphet where there
are lots of small shops and of course we visited some more wineries on the way
back home. It was a great day topped off with Wayne sending by email a
photograph of our (Rob, Wayne & My) Variety Bash 
Car. They have done such a huge job
getting all of this ready and WOW what a car. Dawn & Lee have been doing so
much fund raising in our (Mary & My) absence and there is more to happen
when we get back where Mary is hoping to be able to contribute. Sunday is
Fathers day and also packing up day to prepare for our trip back home next
week. We made a short trip back to the DeBortoli winery where we spent some
time learning about wine making from “Stafford” who has offered to help us with
advice should we put a few vines in back home next year. The highlight of the
day though was getting a “happy fathers day” call from each of my daughters.
Sydney, Sydney surrounds, Blackheath
& The Blue Mountains
On Monday
morning we left early for Blackheath via Sydney as we thought it might be a
difficult drive even 
though it was only 243Km. We were 
right but on arrival very pleased
with the caravan park in the Blue Mountains at Blackheath – Us because our
caravan will be parked here whilst Mary & I return to Perth for a couple of
weeks and it will be well looked after by David & Merrilyn – David &
Merrilyn because David has family in the area and both David & Merrilyn
love the Blue Mountains. Tuesday is our last day prior to flying out so
David took us on a rushed tour of the area – GREAT! We saw everything in the
vicinity including the “Three Sisters”. Then as he was nearby to their
residence David took us to meet his brother “Drew and his wife Linda (pictured
at right). The Blue Mountains are quite spectacular with lookouts everywhere to
allow one to take it in. An early night is in order, as we had to leave
Blackheath at 4:45AM in order to catch our flight out of Sydney Airport at
8:45AM (APEC is not helping us with our departure plans). Thank heavens David
knows his way around and had offered to drive us to the airport. See below for some information on the “bash” or skip to the next
section further below for the trip continuation. We arrived back into Sydney at around
10:30PM on the 17th of September and once again David had managed to
incorporate some visiting of old friends in Sydney into picking us up. The next
day was spent with David & Merrilyn showing some of their new discoveries
to Mary (as I managed to catch a lurgy and spent the day in bed). Mary was a
little sad that we couldn’t spend more time here as she found the scenery and
walks exceptional in this area. On Wednesday the 19th we departed
Blackheath for Moss Vale with Mary driving and me feeling very sorry for
myself.
Back in Perth for the “Channel 9 Coles Variety Club Bash”
The afternoon I arrived back in
Perth I was informed that much of the car needed rewiring and that I was
expected to attend to it immediately – Who needs sleep anyway – Off I went and
wow what a great job “WG” & “MD” (These were nicknames that we earned on
the bash – mine was to be GM) had done. WG & I finished off the last bits
& pieces just in time to make the publicity release (it is very important
that sponsors get appropriate publicity for their investments). “Constable
Care” was our prime sponsor and we all took it very seriously to do our best
for the icon. The car number .05 was a Dodge Phoenix from around 1964 with a
283 V8 and enough power to rip the skin off a banana given enough time and a
bit of a run up. It was just as well that there was no more power available as
WG managed to do so much damage on day 1 of the bash that he spent the entire
evening repairing it, missing out on the first party and forcing MD and myself
to do his share of the drinking for him. Day 2 found MD & I feeling very
sorry for ourselves whilst WG sat in the back chortling at us all day long.
At first you feel that it is all a
bit of a race but after a short time it becomes apparent that most of the
participants are there to do as much good as possible during the event. It is a
great feeling to drive into a town with all of the kids at local schools out to
welcome you. After the second day we were stopping for even the smallest of
groups and handing out everything from rulers to hats to educational cutout
toys to the kids. Many of the school P&C’s were feeding the bash groups at
breakfast etc., by arrangement, after which some of the participants of the
bash would hold model car races whilst the rest of us fed the children as much
confectionary as we could prior to us all leaving them on a mega sugar high for
their teachers to contend with for the rest of the day.
Criticisms - The driving was
sometimes treacherous, with 1960-70 safety equipment in these old vehicles
hurtling down gravel tracks at around 90km per hour (some cars were going much
faster than that but it seemed to be as fast as we felt confident going at for
the main part). 
For the record our car to my
knowledge never made it to 110km per hour and I am not sure if it could get
there. There is also some work that needs to be done on nurturing new
participants rather than the current 
method of labeling and making them
feel uncomfortable but “bashing” is a wonderful experience that everyone should
take to if they get the opportunity. We slept on ovals at below 0°c in tiny tents
that we put up after arriving at our destinations on most days. Most times we
had hot showers available but on some occasions we went without. The
experienced bashers had hotel accommodation pre booked for some of the
evenings.
We all had a great time and Would I
do it again? – NO WAY! – But WG may (or not) and MD definitely will.
Some Highlights – MD bogging the car
in the car park, at lunch, in front of everyone. GM getting married in his self
sewed wedding dress. Mulgrew Automotives making their facility available to us
on no notice and at no charge when we desperately needed it to replace the
armour plate that GM had ripped off the vehicle on the previous day.
I think the three of us worked and
played well together and it is an experience that I will cherish for the rest
of time – Thanks Guys!
Moss Vale, Berrima, Sutton & off to, then back from A.C.T.
We arrived
at Moss Vale at around lunchtime and I went back to bed. As there was nothing I
needed but sleep Mary went with David & Merrilyn for a tour of the area. I
was, upon Mary’s return, told it was very pretty but frankly didn’t care, as I
was busy feeling sorry for myself. Thursday morning and I was feeling a little
better so we went to Berrima which is a quaint little town that would appear to
live almost entirely off tourism. We found a nice birthday gift for young
Brittney which was promptly dispatched from the local post office. Friday the
21st saw us depart for Sutton which was to be our jumping off point
for Canberra which is around 10 Km away with Mary driving yet again.
Here we
left N.S.W. to go through A.C.T. before returning to N.S.W. to head for
Victoria.
Cooma,
Jindabyne, Perisher Blue & off to the Victoria.
We went to Jindabyne, via Cooma
where we stopped for coffee and a quick look around. On arrival at Jindabyne we
were very pleased with our caravan park the “Snowline Holiday Park” big 4 which
is a full on resort style park. After setting up we drove back into Jindabyne
to hire some skis for Mary. On shopping around the price halved at the BP in
town who were having a sale as the season was ending in just four days.
Thursday night we invited David & Merrilyn over to introduce them to “Yaeger
Bombs”. It was probably not a good idea 
as Merrilyn complained that she was
kept awake much of the night by the caffeine hit. Late Thursday night there
were very heavy winds that gave us quite a buffeting (I loved it but David
& Merrilyn complained that it kept them awake for the balance of the night
which meant they had almost no sleep. Friday morning Mary & I headed off to
Perisher Blue at 7:45AM as we had been advised to go early to expect to come
back at around lunch time. We were a little shocked when the national park
people stung us for $27.00 to enter the park (this is a charge per car per day)
and then on arrival at the resort you need to pay 
a further $79.00 per person for the
chair lift pass. Mary was wrapped to see the snow which she had been hoping
would be OK at this late time in the season. I found a pleasant restaurant and
proceeded to drink coffees whilst killing time waiting for our skier. After tiring of that I tried killing time
reading in the car but that became a little cold – see car photo. We did
eventually meet for lunch back at the restaurant and it was great to see that
Mary was beaming (or was that a frozen facial expression), as she really does
love her skiing. On arriving back at the
caravan park Merrilyn is still sleeping so 
Mary & I had a TV rest then went
up to the resort laundry which is next door to the games room where Mary gave
me a good thrashing in table tennis and pool. Saturday morning is a lovely day
so Mary is off to the ski fields whilst I chose to stay in to watch the grand
final. Sunday, Mary went to the ski fields for her last time and I took the
opportunity to walk to town (around 4km) with David & Merrilyn for a lunch
in town. It is as if Mary could tell we were having lunch without her with her
turning up back in town just in time to join us. We were pleased to see Mary as
the winds were now terribly high, (see picture of a tent that was constantly
changing shape) so a lift back to the caravan park was much appreciated. On
Monday morning we left at 8:00AM to try to avoid the heavy winds on our way to
Victoria back via Cooma but to no avail as they blew heavier as we proceeded.
Last
revised: Date Thursday, November 06, 2008