Ayla’s 1st Birthday

Not that we need an excuse to come to visit Craig, Sara, Ayla and Lucy, it was great to visit this time with Jess and Jacey to help celebrate Ayla’s first birthday.

We also managed to show Jacey some of the wonderful scenery around Cairns, Port Douglas and the Tablelands. We did a lot in such a short visit.  

It was great for Jess and Jacey to see Ayla for the first time, and we felt very grateful to see our family together again, and able to spend some quality time together. I am always wishing that we all lived a lot closer to each other!

Avoiding the Newell

We tried to avoid staying on the Newell Highway as much as we could so thought we would head for the Warrambungles after leaving Ebor, only to find the walks in the NP were closed due to a high fire danger. We were very dissapointed.

So we meandered through Gunadah, and along minor roads and stayed overnight at Coolah Sports Reserve overlooking the Golf Course, then on to Wellington and climbed Mt Arthur. The mountain was covered in sedimentry rock which is stones cemented together on the floor of an ocean or body of water.....amazing considering how high up we were,  over 500m

Viewing the otherside from Kalang Lookout, which means beautiful. Overlooking Wellington.

My good deed, cleaning up others rubbish from over the edge of the lookout.

We had the mountain to ourselves

Took a back road through Yeoval the childhood place of  a great Aussie poet A.B.Patterson of “Waltzing Matilda” fame, amongst other poems. We love finding these interesting places by chance.  

Then through Goobang NP to visit The Dish, near Parkes, one of the worlds largest radio telescopes, we enjoyed the 1/2 hour 3D presentation about the Universe and the work accomplished by the CSIRO at the Dish. It can be seen in the distance from the Newell Highway, and we always drive straight past it. Then an overnight in Forbes, where Derek took the time to visit McFeeters Car Museum and then home to Finley, the end of our first long trip with MaDie our van.....  she went extremely well, and we were very comfortable. Derek loves how we can do a uturn or turn around in a street with ease!

2 years on!

As the 2nd anniversary of my life saving heart surgery has been nearing, I have been saying to Michelle that it seems like a different life time ago.  I have moved on from my working life with a gusto, and I have moved on literally from all the worldly ties that kept me home bound, and I’m loving it. I am embracing my passion for the great outdoors, which will see us visiting much of Western Australia and South Australia over the next 12 months, and will mean forgoing our temporary base in rural NSW. Everything in life is but a chapter!

I have just had my yearly medical check up, and grateful that all is well. I can’t stress enough the importance of keeping fit and having regular check ups. So today I found myself - on this my second anniversary - beyond “The Black Stump”, nr Coolah, NSW.

Thankyou for following along on our journey.  Kind Regards, Derek.

Ebor Falls

So grateful that we stopped in Ebor for the night next to Guy Fawkes N.P. and took the time to walk to Ebor Falls. Just spectacular!

Crossing the Great Divide

We have crossed the Great Dividing Range many times on all the quickest routes, but now we have a caravan in tow I thought it best we find a not so steep, less travelled route.

It seems “less steep” translates into long and windy (curvy not blowy), but with gradual undulating climbs and descents, not long  steep gradients.

West to East we found a route north of Warwick to Gatton, which meandered over a dozen river crossings but avoided the Toowoomba Range and Cunninghams Gap at Warwick.  East to West we took the now bitumened Armidale Rd from Grafton to Ebor, (Ebor is 1350m above sea level) avoiding many steep routes and our only flatter option of staying on the Pacific Motorway with all its road works and dicing with traffic in Sydney’s western suburbs.

We were very pleased with both our choices.

                                  Cunninghams Gap is in the bottom of this photo

Also,  there are always many interesting things to see whilst driving along countryside roads.

These letter boxes take recycling to a new level - nr Clouds Creek

Beaut Bike Ride

Finally sold Dereks old alloy wheels that we have been carting around in the back of the Landcruiser for the past week......yes, he has new mags! so now we could get to our bikes.

Kirra Beach Walks

We marvel at how inspiring the ocean can be, as we are out walking the beach twice a day. So grateful the weather is finally warm and sunny here at Kirra Beach, where we honeymooned 36 years ago. Kirra is right next door to Coolangatta, and has a great tourist park 300m from the beach.