As someone who seems to acquire a lot of leave, this school holidays I decided to spend some time with Ollie. I figured a trip up to QLD with just the two of us would give Rosie some time alone at home, and take me away from work for a while as well.
The original plan was to catch up with my dad around the midway point between our respective cities, but that didn’t work out. Instead, we decided to drive up to Hervey Bay again to catch up with the grandparents as well as my sister and niece that were staying over as well. What we didn’t expect was for Rosie’s sore foot to be diagnosed as a ruptured ligament, meaning she wasn’t able to drive and would need to come along with us on our boys trip. To complicate things even more, she had a girls trip into the Blue Mountains on the weekend we intended to set off, so we had to organise a separate pickup for her on the way up to QLD.
The first Saturday of the school holidays Ollie and I got about preparing everything. Rosie had packed up some extra clothes and things for us to take for her, but we were in charge of food, games, toys and camping gear. We got everything set up, stowed away and connected ready for an early start on Sunday.
The next day was pretty easy going, leaving around 7.30am and heading directly up through Goulburn and Oberon to The Postmistress Cafe and Store at Hartley Historic Site outside of Lithgow. We made it there around 11am, but then had to wait for the girls to drop Rosie off. We hadn’t told Ollie that his mum was coming on the trip to QLD, so he was pretty amazed and excited when Rosie showed up 4 hours into our trip.
We said our goodbyes and set off west, hoping to make it to Dubbo before the caravan park we had booked closed its office. We made it with heaps of time, and got set up in a powered site close to the amenities block at the NRMA Dubbo Holiday Park. You know it’s a friendly caravan park in a good bit of town when they paint the barbed wire toppers on the 10ft tall fences in bright primary colours. So festive!
The weather was great, so while Rosie rested up in the camper I took Ollie down to the swimming pool for a late afternoon swim. The water was freezing. Dinner that night was lamb steaks, sausages and mac n cheese. We had an early night after a long day, lulled to sleep by the roar of trucks passing us just on the main highway less than 30 metres away, and the gentle sound of a mysterious electronic voice coming from the carwash across the road.
The next day we woke up pretty early. Ollie and I had made plans to go to the Western Plains Zoo that day. Rosie declined, and ended up working on her laptop most of the day from inside the camper. Ollie and I really enjoyed the zoo. We ended up driving the van through, which made it easier to stop and check out the exhibits we were most interested in. Ollie’s highlight was seeing the elephants. I preferred the hippo.
Leaving the zoo we ducked into the shops to grab some cheap runners for me. My trendy and fashionable shoes weren’t made for extended walking on gravel surfaces, I grabbed something with a bit more undersole. Ollie and I brought back Macca’s for Rosie.
That afternoon we checked out the jumping pillow and the swimming pool again. Rosie ended up walking down on her crutches to meet us at the pool – this was not a good idea and her foot was very sore that afternoon and evening. For dinner we headed to the Dubbo RSL for a pretty good meal, then back for an early night. A group of students arrived at the caravan park that evening though, and spent the rest of the night yelling, screaming and generally carrying on.
The next morning we were up and about early, about 6.30am. This is mostly due to the kids from the night before waking us up with even more carrying on. We packed up and hit the road before breakfast, but had to pull over just outside Dubbo. I’d noticed a cord or strap swinging around on the back of the camper in my side mirror and found that the cable for the solar panels on the roof of the camper had been dislodged during pack up. I disconnected the cable and headed back out.
We stopped in Meendooran for a couple of pies and a croissant, then headed back on the long straight roads out that way. We saw a lot of painted grain silos, and some of the places in the region had funky solar system components or art. We were using more fuel that expected though, and only just made it into Narrabri with the needle on empty. No petrol light though – Rosie thinks it’s broken.
In Narrabri we got some petrol, collected some pain medication for Rosie and then stopped for a bit of lunch. Back on the road we passed some ‘proper outback cows’, a lot of sheep and in one paddock, a small herd of donkeys. Rosie was much better set up this day to rest her foot. She was situated in the back captains chair next to Ollie, and we had her foot elevated onto the console fridge in between the front seats. It worked out pretty well compared to sitting fully upright for another day.
We arrived at Lake Coolmunda around 4.30 after a long day driving, and OIlie and I booked in and collected a gate key for a stay at Lake Coolmunda Camp Site. Ollie got to hold a small puppy while this was going on. This campsite is run by the caravan park, but it’s right on the lake and doesn’t have delineated campsites. We parked up close to the amenities so Rosie wouldn’t have too much trouble and got set up without unhitching. There were a lot of birds in the area, and a very nice sunset that evening.
We decided to set up a fire that evening, and even cooked some sausages on it for Ollie (much to his amazement that fire could be used that way). Rosie and I had some freeze-dried hiking meals that we’d picked up. Neither of them was particularly good. That night the other two went to bed and immediately after the wind picked up.
I stayed up with a few beers to watch the fire and make sure that it was safe, but not before I pulled down the camper awnings. The fibreglass poles are pretty good in light winds, but gusts tend to cause them the connectors to flick off or break.
The next morning was a very early 6am start, with Ollie very excited to see Nana. We stopped for fuel and breakfast in Pittsworth. Breakfast was fantastic, then back to the long straight roads.
The roads from Pittsworth all the way up to Tiaro were quite varied. We travelled through farmland, flood plains, across the great dividing range and even a couple of subtropical rainforests. This is the type of varied environments you don’t see on the M1, but at the same time they do require a lot more attention and effort.
We stopped for a quick bite in Goomeri. Rosie checked out the bookstore there. They had a ‘big’ pumpkin there, but it’s seriously unimpressive. The big rosella (the flower) on the road to Tiaro was much more impressive. We made our way up through Maryborough and finally finished up in Hervey Bay. Google clocks this trip in at about 1650km, which is a long drive for us over that short period of time.
Nana’s house was welcoming and amazing as always. We caught up with my sister and niece who were visiting for school holidays as well. They’d just bought a puppy (Hervey) while there and Ollie was pretty smitten. He’s a good dog, albeit quite a big one for a 14 week old puppy.
My sister and I had a nice brunch out, and we all managed to catch a whale-watching boat to see the newborn humpbacks as they jump around in the bay. Apparently early October is quite late in the whale migration season, but we saw plenty of action as the young calves learnt how to whale before they head into the Southern Ocean.
Ollie got to use his Fiji snorkel again, both at the beach as well as in Nana’s pool. He loved spending time with his cousin, though he did note that she ‘talked a lot’. I think he enjoyed the quiet time once she headed home and left just us at the house.
With Rosie’s foot still causing her quite a bit of pain, we decided that her and Ollie should fly back on the Wednesday, while I set off on the Tuesday so I could arrive in Canberra on the Thursday with the camper and van.
So leaving Rosie and Ollie in the care of my parents, I set off on Tuesday morning intending to head straight down the M1 on the way back. As a solo trip it went pretty well – I listened to a few podcasts and a lot of music, but otherwise it was a fairly boring trip.
That first night I stayed at Black Rocks Campground near Esk in north NSW. We’d stayed there before when Ollie was a little baby so I knew it was a decent site. I arrived at site 7 to find a bunch of gear scattered around. With no phone reception I couldn’t confirm my booking so I just double checked my booking confirmation email and then packed everything that wasn’t mine into a corner of the site. It looked like someone had left in a hurry rather than someone was set up and coming back. I set up the camper, grabbed a beer and walked down to the nearest occupied site to ask them about the gear. They didn’t know anything about the previous occupants, but they were very nice and I lent them a spare gas bottle as they had brought one with an old connection on it and couldn’t get their BBQ lit.
It wasn’t until around 8.30pm that a car pulled out the front of the site. I explained to a very nice Italian backpacking couple that I’d booked site 7 and showed them my confirmation email. They then showed me their confirmation email, which also said site 7. Considering I was set up with a full camper, I offered to help them move their gear to site 8 next door and that was that.
The next morning I woke up early and packed up the camper without a clear idea on where I might be staying that night. I set off south by 7.30am and kept driving, stopping for fuel and then driving again. Around Taree while having some lunch I checked out my options. Only 125km down the road, just before Newcastle, there was Bucketts Way Camp n Stay, a small campsite we’d stayed at previously. I decided to stop there as I knew they had plenty of room and no need to book.
Once I got to the campsite, I got led to my spot right at the back and set up in the mid-afternoon. There was a fire ban on so no fire that night. In the early evening, just as the sun had set, a huge thunderstorm barrelled in and flew things around. Not a lot of rain, but a lot of wind and lightning. I battened down the hatches and went to bed early.
The next day the sun was shining. I packed up and had a super easy run through Newcastle and then into Sydney. The M7 was the usual mess of roadworks, but then back on the Hume traffic thinned out and I had a clear run to Canberra. I arrived home mid-afternoon to find Rosie and Ollie had made it back safe and sound the night before and my lawn had become a jungle.
A big thank you to Mum and Dad for putting us up and looking after Rosie and Ollie while I wasn’t there.
Boring technical stuff
The vans transmission was doing some dodgy stuff, getting more noticeable as I pulled into Canberra. The transmission fluid is quite dirty, so I’ll swap it out and see if that makes a difference. If not it might need a full flush, replacement filter and a check by a specialist. Symptoms include occasional jerking gear changes, slow shifts into gear from park and some slow changing of gears from 1st to 2nd.
I managed to fix up the solar cabling that we’d noticed was broken leaving Dubbo while at my parents. Closing the lid had caught it and pulled the wires out of the MC4 connectors. A quick trip out in Hervey Bay and I’d picked up some replacement connectors, so I crimped them back on and rerouted the original cable a little different so it didn’t get caught again. I tried to diagnose the broken anderson plug that wasn’t pushing power to the campers DCDC charger from the van, but I wasn’t able to find the cause. This is very much a secondary power source anyway, only used when there’s no solar and a dire need for power in the camper. I’ll get round to fully diagnosing eventually.
Fuel economy was about usual, but strangely fuel was much better on the way home. Obviously the freeway is always going to be better for fuel, but I was seeing 14-15L/100km on the M1 vs 19L/100km on the back roads. I think I do stop more when Ollie is in the car for breaks compared to when I’m driving by myself, so maybe that’s it. I also rotated the tyres and did an oil change just before heading back down south, so that might have contributed as well. I try do both at the same time every 6000km or so as general maintenance.
I fixed up the awning pole holder that snapped during the last camping trip. I just took one from a spot we don’t use with our configuration, siliconed up the holes and riveted it in place of the old broken one. It held up this trip, so I’m calling that a fix.
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