I'm back on the road again in my gorgeous little van Bobby travelling with my brother Peter and his wife Carol. We're travelling up to Cairns to take a 9 day fully accommodated tour of Cape York Peninsular with 9 others from Albury, who are flying up and will join us for the Cape York tour. Originally two other couples were set to travel by van with us, but they couldn't leave as scheduled, so are planning on joining us later.
My journey started at noon on Thursday 15th May...woohoo!! I drove through to Cootamundra and settled Bobby into the caravan park. It felt great to be back heading off for a three month van trip. Pete and Carol left a while after me so when they arrived and had settled in we walked into town and ended up having dinner at the Central Hotel on the recommendation of a local we got chatting to.
The next morning we took off in slightly different directions. Pete and Carol went to Bathurst to meet up with friends and they camped at the showgrounds. I went to Orange to meet up with my (ex) sister-in-law and stayed at Orange Caravan Park. I got an early start the following day and we met up again on the way through to Megalong Valley near Katoomba.
I'd have to say, the drive down into the valley was an experience I'll remember for a long time!!! The road was very narrow, steep and windy and the traffic 😱 both ways, was horrendous. Pete and Carol were ahead of me and by the time I reached the Megalong Valley Tea Rooms, (were we had arranged to meet) my legs were shaking and the heart rate was peaking...I needed coffee or a stiff drink. I got coffee!!
Unknown to us the "Ultra trail marathon" was on. This year there were over 8000 entrants with categories ranging from 1km to 165km running through extreme mountainous terrain. If you're interested to see the stats including the elevations, check out the website here. We had lunch at the tea rooms and then drove five kms further into the valley and parked in a free park at Old Ford Reserve. It was a gorgeous spot, but there were lots of campers and vans, which we presumed may have been due to the marathon.
We had come to Katoomba to visit CC, the wife of an artist friend, John Wilson who passed away suddenly a few weeks ago. We decided to drive into Katoomba to see CC and as we arrived to the top of the valley at Blackheath we struck a traffic jam that resulted in it taking us around two hours when it should have been a half hour drive.
The road from Old Ford Reserve as we drove up to see CC (before we hit the traffic jam).
CC suggested we bring our vans up to her place so the next day we packed up early and drove back up the windy, narrow road, which wasn't anywhere near as scary as there was very little traffic to contend with, and parked in the art gallery carpark. The weather was wet and cold. We had lunch at Wentworth Falls with CC, Tess (John's daughter) and her husband Nigel and then spent some time exploring the area.
Wentworth Falls Cafe with Tess, Nigel, me, Carol, Peter and CC
Blue Mountains National Park: Wentworth Falls, Megalong Valley, far right, Stunning scenery that a photo does not do it justice...You can see the cable car and Three Sisters towards the top right.
Dinner that night was at a great Chinese restaurant and when we arrived back at the van later that evening I discovered the roof vent in my van was leaking and water was all over the floor. All I can say is...Thank goodness it wasn't dripping on my bed!!! In the cold and rain, Pete helped me rig up a tarp over the roof and the following morning I took off to Penrith to a caravan service centre to find out what was going on.
We discovered the outer frame of the vent had disappeared 🤔😱 Why? Where? How? I can't really answer that for sure, however I did hear a sharp bang as I came up the valley the day before and wondered at the time what it might have been. I never thought for a moment it was anything to do with my van, but in hindsight I'm guessing that's when it broke away.
The Penrith caravan repair guys were fantastic and sealed up the outside of the vent. I taped it from the inside as an extra precaution and so far not a drop of rain has got through...and we've had quite a bit of late. I will need to replace the outer window cover, when I get home, but for the time being it's leakproof and hopefully it stays that way. I just can't open it up which is fine as there are plently of other windows in my van for airflow.
With the van fixed (hopefully) we drove through to Bateau Bay and decided to stay here for the next 2 nights at the beach front caravan park. The first night ended up being pretty wild and windy (70km winds) with the vans getting a bit of a shake up and enough rain to prove my repairs were working...phew!!! It was still miserable and wet the following day. Peter and Carol went off to the golf club to meet friends for lunch, I joined them for dinner at the home of some friends of theirs who live nearby. A really lovely social night...maybe a bit more wine than I would normally partake in!
We thought we may have stayed in Newcastle for a night or two, but my cousin was in Lake Macquarie Private Hospital so we decided we'd drive through and have an hour or two with her and then drive on to Singleton for the night. Considering the amount of rain and road closures we were keen to move westward as soon as we could.
We parked at the Country Acres Caravan Park and went into town to met up for drinks with a friend of Peter's at the Royal Hotel. We ended up staying on for dinner with him. It was still raining and still no sign of any leaks in my van...YEH!! So far we've not had to detour around and road closures on any of the roads we've taken.
By this stage Peter had a few problems he needed to sort out. The Anderson plug on his vehicle was not working and he needed to find a new one and get it fitted. His bike rack had also disintegrated and the bikes were precariously being tied onto the back of the van with ropes and ties 🫢😫
The following day while in Singleton they got the Anderson plug fitted and sourced a new 2 bike roof rack holder. We were on our way through to Willow Tree to stay with an artist friend and her husband on their farm so I drove on ahead taking it slow and we arranged to meet up at Muswellbrook and that's when the fun began.
The trip should have taken around 1.5 hours to get there, but the navigators...ie.Peter and Carol took a left turn just out of Muswellbrook and one and a half hours later we were almost back at Muswellbrook. Hence the day ended up being long, but the bonus was seeing some great scenery including some big coal mines in the area. We got to Willow Tree around 4.30pm and stayed for 4 nights. I'll fill in the details of this most enjoyable and relaxing stay in the next episode of the blog.
Warrah...we're almost at Willow Tree
The trip to so far
This is only the first week of the trip.
Until next time...Enjoy!
Cheers Anne