Halfway!!!

Yes, we are officially half way through our holiday! We celebrated this milestone at a Mexican restaurant in Lennox Head with Tequilas and lots of tasty food!

Its a good time to look back over what we have done and how we are travelling...literally! Here are some other facts from our trip thus far....

Time on the road: 5 months, 3 weeks

Total distance travelled: 20,000 km

Most expensive fuel: $1.97 at the Imitji Store on the Gibb River Road

Most we have paid for a caravan park powered site: $44/n at Port Hedland (Average cost: ~$30-$33/n)

Average fuel consumption: 7km/l (which is around 13-14l/100km and includes all our off road driving and towing a trailer!)

Damage so far: one busted shock absorber on the trailer! Pretty good hey! (and Stuart's hand of course!)

Modifications to the camper: Stuarts favourite is the BBQ on the fridge slide tray (given the fridge is in the back of the ute!) and being able to connect it straight to a mounted gas bottle. This gives us roasts, pizzas, baked yummies and lots more! Others include 12v power, LED reading lights, storage boxes, bike mounts – the list goes on!

Number of nights spent under a proper roof: 4 so far, with the rest all under canvas!
Favourite experience: This is so hard.....Stuart’s might be discovering the beauty of the red centre and MacDonnell Ranges. Mine might be that as well, but I did really love paddling the Whitsundays! Everything really! This country is stunningly beautiful!

One thing I'm amazed with is our tiny fridge - holding only 37 litres - is always stocked with a selection of meat/chicken/seafood for dinner, cheese, milk, juice, eggs, dips, mustard, 2 sodastream bottles of chilled water and cans of cool drink, and most importantly - cold beer! Plus any cut vegetables and left over food that needs chilling. It makes me wonder what the hell we fill our full size fridge/freezer with at home?! We are eating an amazing variety of food and definitely not compromised in any way on our nutrition!

Some of the many dishes we have cooked – paella, risotto, beef/lamb/chicken roasts, pizza, green/red/massaman currys, osso bucco, lamb shanks, fish, bolognaise, soups, scones, muffins and damper!

So what have we been up to most recently?!

Our first four nights in NSW were spent in Lennox Head, just south of Byron Bay. We decided to explore this beautiful region from here as it was quieter and a LOT cheaper than Byron. (We paid $27 for a powered site instead of the $54 Byron bay charges in its off-peak period!).

Our day trips took us mostly inland through the hinterland villages and endless rolling green hillsides. We checked out all the great vintage shops in Lismore, deciding to have lunch in Nimbin for a laugh. We did a quick walk of the main street to be greeted with psychedelic murals and wood carvings, a code of street behaviour painted on the wall of the pub, lots of colourful characters and multiple offers of fresh baked cookies and other local herbs! Visiting Nimbin certainly stimulated some good conversation in the car, but we both agreed we weren’t interested in a return visit.

The rest of the time we explored the quaint little villages of The Channon, Uki and Bangalow, while taking in the spectacular views of Mt Warning as well as Jeruselum and Nightcap National Park which has the 100 metre high Minyon Falls. After all this serenity, we bailed on Byron Bay township itself after only an hour wandering through the crowded shop-lined streets. We did go up to the Cape Byron Lighthouse though. This is the most easterly point of mainland Australia - say cheese for the camera!

The locals having a surf!

With three weeks before we need to be in Sydney for Stuart’s next appointment with a hand specialist, we continued heading south to Yuraygir National Park, spending two nights in a sheltered grassy campsite in the coastal heath, just metres from the beach. There where kangaroos everywhere, we saw an echidna on the way in, whales breaching out at sea and a pod of about 10 dolphins surfing the waves close to shore. The local surfers where there every morning enjoying the near perfect waves! – Jen and Dean – you would have LOVED it!

From here we ducked inland over the Great Dividing Range where we discovered the highland village of Maclean, with a distinct Scottish flair that has hundreds of power poles painted with the tartan of Scottish clans. We spent a couple of nights camping in Gibraltar National Park and explored the network of bushwalking trails. We spotted the flowers of the amazing Waratah plant, NSW’s state floral emblem. It was also here that the weather turned rotten AGAIN, so we packed up in the rain and continued along the Waterfall Way tourist drive determined to find a sheltered camp spot and explore this scenic area despite the rain. However the rain, fog and wind just increased, every campsite we came to were just mudpuddles, so we headed through to the coast, arriving at Urunga at 7pm at night where we parked the car and camper next to our rented cabin (yeah we piked out!) and headed to the pub for a hot meal. Whoo Hoo! After bathing out of a bucket for a week, this little bit of luxury went a long way and had me literally jumping up and down on the spot with excitement!

Hope everyone is still with us and enjoying the blog. Don’t forget to write! You can curse us for being the lucky buggers that we are, but we still want to hear how everyone is getting along! We do miss you all!
Mish and Stu