Back to the Bush

After leaving Byron Bay we made the steep climb up The Great Dividing Range to Armidale, finally leaving behind the warmth of the north and the constant blue of the ocean. We took a picturesque back road from Grafton through the Dorrigo hinterland and when we stepped out of Big Red at Armidale, only six hours after leaving sunny Byron Bay, we were properly cold for the first time in ten months. During the night the temperature dropped so low that camper was covered in frost in the morning and the dishcloths were frozen to the bench.

We stocked up on provisions and headed into a place called Teralba. Teralba is 600 acres of bush, old farming land, creeks and cliffs in the heart of the Namoi Ranges. Em's dad bought the property in the 1970s with his brother and three friends. There was nothing on the property at the time except an old woodcutter's hut. Over the following years they built a couple of stone huts, a timber house and a mud brick cottage. There was no power, and still isn't so they were all built with hand tools only, which required a lot of time, effort and love. The houses have weathered somewhat over the years and additional caravans and tents accommodate the expanding families. However, the owners and their families (including Em and later Rob) have visited and some have even lived in the isolated peace of Teralba over the years. It is one of our favourite places in the world so it seemed like a good idea to spend some time there as a last stop before heading back to Sydney.

There had been a fair amount of rain over the last year (as those of you living on the east coast would know) so the access road was a little worse for wear, in fact even after travelling over 50,000km around the country, it was probably one of the most challenging roads we've been on. But we made it in to Teralba in one piece and we had no intention to leave any day soon so there was no need to worry about the road for a few weeks yet.

We spent two weeks kicking back Teralba style. We panned for gold in the washed out dam, explored the ruins of the old tin mine, rob built a teepee for Jarvis and a new table for the rest of us, we cooked in the camp oven, ate dinner under the stars on the warmer nights and kept warm in Kim's house on the cold nights. We even had dinner, bonfire and fireworks one night. We toasted marsh mellows, rode motor bikes, played archery, read, painted and enjoyed the company of Em's parents, Kim, Steve, Gretta, Todd and brand new baby Atticus (that's the baby on Todd's front on the quad bike).

We had planned to stay on for a few more weeks. However, Big Red needed a new battery and the weather was turning windy and colder (if that was possible). So we decided to leave with Kate and Mark in case we needed a jump start or other assistance. Suddenly two weeks sooner than we expected we had packed the camper up for the last time and headed the car for Sydney.

East Coast 'Summer' Holiday

The east coast, it almost feels like home. The familiarity of the densely vegetated coastline with the constant backdrop of the great dividing range is like a breath of fresh air. It might sound odd, but on the most densely populated stretch of Australia's coastline, there are actually more trees, scrub and lush vegetation than on the vast unpopulated tracts of the west, north and southern coastlines put together (with some exceptions of course). And it is nice to be back amongst such a lovely setting.

The east coast really is the home stretch for us. We are getting weary of the constant travelling, running low on money and looking forward to seeing friends and family. So we decided to come down the coast fairly quickly. We have travelled this part of the country many times and so we just decided to make it a bit of an East Coast Summer Holiday. We stopped in at several Summery coastal towns, soaked up the sunshine and turquoise blue waters and enjoyed some yummy food and superb coffees.

We started our August Summer Holiday in Cairns. It was a brief stop but we had time to stock up on amazing fresh produce at Rusty's Market and have dinner at Yorky's Knob Boat Club with some old friends of Rob's.

As we left Cairns it was a gorgeous sunny day but as we neared our next destination, Bowen, the clouds started to roll in. We then experienced our first rainfall in four months. It wasn't torrential but it was enough to remind us we were leaving the dry season of the top end, which also meant saying good bye to crocodiles, barramundi, tropical temperatures and the land of termite mounds. We've really got quite attached to the red, brown, white and yellow towers being a constant part of the scenery.

Despite the rain, we were still able to get out and about and appreciate the quaint seaside town of Bowen. Bowen is exactly what an old-school seaside town should be, it has big wide streets, a good bakery, an imposing heritage style corner pub (used in the movie 'Australia'), gorgeous beaches, a lovely saturday market and friendly locals. We only stayed in Bowen for a couple of nights, but it was a lovely stay.

We aren't particularly fond of the stretch of coast between Bowen and Noosa, which is over 1,000 km's so we decided to just get to Noosa as quickly as possible. With a brief overnight stop in Rockhampton we arrived in Noosa after two long days of driving. Surprisingly though, despite Noosa being one of Australia's favourite holiday destinations, it really didn't do that much for us. The glamour of Hasting's street was a bit too pretentious, the cafes lacked the flare that we expected, the suburban sprawl in the surrounding areas is far from glamorous and don't get us started on the parking. Having said that, there are some beautiful beaches, you can't really beat a beer at the Noosa Surf Club, the rolling green hills and lush rainforest of the hinterland is spectacular and the Eumundie markets were an absolute treat. So although we won't be rushing back to Noosa in the near future there was plenty to keep us occupied and to top it all off, we bumped into Rob's cousin Pete and his family. So all in all our visit to Noosa was a great success.

From Noosa it is an easy drive to the infamous Byron Bay. We used to frequent this gorgeous part of the east coast regularly in our teen years, but hadn't been back in about 10 years. We had prepared ourselves for a complete shattering of the Byron Bay we had once known. And we found that it is true, Byron has changed but hey, so have we. But like Byron, the changes were mostly on the surface, we may not being driving around in a clapped out combi but Big Red makes enough noise to draw attention and has certainly seen better days and we may not be fire dancing on the beach with the locals but Jarvis sure has a good hip wiggle going on when the band is playing at the pub. So we looked past the expansion of the town, the uprising of several chain stores and the crowds that persisted even in winter, and got down to the business of enjoying what Byron has to offer. We lazed away the days at the beach, ate breakie at several amazing cafes and drank beers at sunset at the Beach Hotel while whales swam past.

It was the perfect way to finish our east coast travels. Tomorrow we will head up the great dividing range, back into the bush and into far cooler temperatures. We are planning to spend a few weeks on Em's family's bush block near Armidale. It is 600 acres of bush with no power, rain water only and makes for the perfect place to hang out and ready ourselves for returning to Sydney and the real world.

Snow, Surf and Weddings

Due to lack of internet access and fairly regular moving between destinations, the posts have been somewhat lacking. So I wanted to bring you up to speed on what we've been doing over the last couple of weeks.

After we left Deni (amid a few tears, mostly mine) we set out for the Alps. We got to the foothills of the  mountain range near Khancoban just as it was getting dark and so we asked the guy at the petrol station if he knew anywhere we could camp (not in a caravan park). He suggested a bend in the Murray River not far from where we were. It was a gorgeous spot next to the river which was flowing fast, there was a small area of lush grass under a small grove of elm trees which were shedding their autumn leaves (perfect for some Jarvis jumping and crunching in his gumboots) and best of all there was noone to be seen. We set up camp in the quickly fading light and cooked up a steamy hot risotto to ward away the very chilly night air. We were even allowed to have a small fire. In the morning we woke to more cold, but also a gorgeous mist that had lifted enough by the time we had finished breakfast for us to see the snow capped mountain tops we were heading for. Unfortunately for this blog we didn't take a single photo. But the lack of photos has left me with a feeling that the place was just in our imagination, which is kind of nice.

The drive up to Thredbo was slow.. very slow. The camper weighs a lot and we have stacked Big Red to its capacity. I think we made a top speed of 40km/h. Thankfully the road on the western side of the Alps is much less used that the east side so we were left to take it at a leisurely pace without stalling the traffic. We stopped for some lunch at Thredbo and then continued down to Jindabyne for three days with Mum, Dad, Jess, Jake, Lara, Adam, Finnley and Ollie. There was snowboarding, tobogganing, snowmen making, apre skiing (aka drinking in the bar) and even a Xavier Rudd concert. Rob somehow won a hand painted guitar signed by Xavier, thanks dad for the ticket and rubbing some of your good luck on it.

 

From Jindabyne we headed to the coast. We stayed with Lara, Adam and Finnley in their gorgeous new place at Bermagui which overlooks the beach all the way to Camel Rock. After a few days we took the much anticipated drive a bit further down the coast to Merrimbula to purchase our very own boat, well a tinnie and a 15hp engine to be exact, but we were super excited all the same. We spent a night at Pambula in a gorgeous caravan park on the beach and then made our way back to Bermie. On our return we stayed with Grandma Laura on her divine property; Ironbark. Rob was promptly put to work (as all good grandson-in-laws should be) overhauling the garden and he did a fabulous job.

We then decided it was time for some serious camping in our camper and most importantly some fishing time in the new boat. We headed for Lake Conjola on the advice of Aunty Lara. And what a great spot it was. We immersed ourselves in Caravan Park life on the shore of Lake Conjola just a stones throw from Conjola Beach. The boating / fishing / reading expeditions were a great success. Rob even cracked a bottle (mini bottle) of Jack Daniels Black Label over the bow of the boat on her maiden voyage. The most successful part of these trips was the fact that I could read uninterrupted for a few hours and Jarvis had a 2 hour nap one day on the life jackets, not much in the way of fish were actually caught.

We then made our way towards Kangaroo Valley for the much anticipated Boundy-Church nuptials. We were kindly housed and fed by Gen and Matt in Bundanoon the night before, handed over Jarvis to his Pa in Bowral and then headed into the "Tie the Knot Festival" (otherwise known as Cath and Cy's wedding). It was three days of complete and absolute fun and a whole lot of love. What a fabulous wedding, well worth hanging around the east coast for.

Having attended the wedding of the century, passed through Sydney to drop off some unnecessary items and pick up our son, we will be heading west across the Blue Mountains tomorrow. It's been a fabulous couple of weeks and a great way to say goodbye to the east coast of Australia. It may be 12 months or more before we see it again but many adventures are sure to be had in the mean time.

Deniliquin: Farewell

Unfortunately the time has come for us to move on and this means leaving Deniliquin and the farm called Kintyre that has become our home and our fabulous family that live here. We've already shared lots of the aspects of farm life in previous posts but to ease the sadness of our departure I have compiled a few more pictures of some of the things we will miss.

Thank you Andy, Kate, Saskia and Zara. We love you all so much and our time spent at Kintyre will always be remembered dearly.

We're going to  miss the big boys working together.

... and the little boy working too.

We're going to miss feeding the chickens...

... and reaping the rewards.

We're going to miss all the animals: Pat the Cat (he's lucky Rob didn't see him scratching Big Red),  Jarah who loves having tea parties with the kids, the guinea fowl who don't have any real purpose on the farm but are very lovely and of course who could forget, Zali the wonder dog who, like in the photo below, accompanied me on a walk along the property boundary most days.

Jarrah

Pat the Cat

Zali Girl

The Guinea

We'll miss lazy Sunday's in town.

We'll miss misty mornings in the paddocks.

Rob will miss carting the round bails around the paddocks
on the tractor.

Goodbye cozy house that has become home.

Deniliquin: Andy had a little lamb

Mum, can I keep her? Pleeeaaase?

Andy has shown himself to be quite the sheep farmer (who would have known). He currently has 85 sheep called Dorpers on Kintyre. When we arrived they were all big as houses and a few weeks off "lambing". From day one, Rob has taken a liking to the sheep and has been responsible for feeding them and moving them around the different paddocks (under Andy's strict supervision of course). These tasks usually involve a ute, tractor and/or motorbike so Jarvis has been pretty keen to go with his dad to 'help out'.

A few weeks ago the lambs started to arrive. It was a tricky start and quite a few died or were killed by foxes. But as the weather turned warmer and the boys went out on nightly spotlighting expeditions (armed and probably dangerous) more and more of the lambs survived. There are several sets of twins and a couple of triplets. They are the cutest little things and the kids (and adults) have taken delight in watching the lambs grow and start to frolic.

The latest addition to the flock has been two alpacas. Apparently alpacas are very protective of the sheep flock and will assist with protecting them against the foxes. Whatever their use, they are awesome, especially when they run.

A couple of days ago, however, we had another fox or maybe dog attack. This time the lamb was still alive so Rob brought her inside and we nursed her back to health and although we tried to reunite her with her mother she has remained orphaned and so has become part of the household. Her name is Gertie Girl. We bottle feed her several times a day. When she first came out of the paddock she lived in front of the fire (we even put a nappy on her) but once she was strong enough she migrated to the chook shed at night time. During the day she wanders around the lawn and plays with the kids.

Rob now wants to have sheep... oh dear, let's add it to the list.