Return To Familiar Surroundings

After 6 months on the road, with just a few weeks of house sitting in 2 different states we have returned to the area where we have spent most of our time.

It is great to be on familiar roads, to know where those roads go and to see familiar landmarks. We have been fortunate to be able to land a house sitting assignment which could keep up us in the area for most of the year.

The major task in this house sit is to keep Cricket happy.

Cricket is a friendly, when you get to know him and don’t fuss over him too much, cat who sleeps for most of the day, puts in an appearance late in the day to have a feed and to drown out the television sound with his purring.

He seems happy to be sharing his house with us, and has us trained to meet his not-very demanding needs.

Slideshow

A Photo Slideshow

During our 2 week stay at Shoalhaven Ski Park we often had visits from some of the peacocks ,and occasionally a peahen who came over from the nearby Shoalhaven Zoo. Those visits became a regular event, especially after they were given a handful of corn flakes one day.

There were only a couple of times when the peacocks showed of their huge tail feathers and we were luck enough to capture a few photos. Some of the photos can be seen in the slideshow by clicking the photo of the peacock in this post.

And a challenge met!

Just a couple of days ago we completed our first year in the caravan, apart from a couple of short house-sitting assignments. The first few months were taken up with establishing ourselves and a short trip to Port Lincoln, but the last 6 months has been spent on the road.

Now is the time to look back through the photos to remember all of the places we have been, where we have stayed and what we have taken from these experiences. If we just get some time sit back, and not out exploring new places, I might be able to prepare a little summary for this site.

Well that’s the milestone!

The challenge?

When we travelled to the South Coast of NSW for a few days we passed through the Illawarra region and down to the Shoalhaven. The journey there took us down the escarpment from the Southern Highlands into the Illawarra. From the drive down the Mount Ousley Road I knew that it was going to be a challenge going the other way towing our big rig.

And so it proved to be a challenge. I tried to look at alternatives for getting back to Richmond from Nowra, but each seemed likely to just as challenging, if not more so.

Thankfully today was a cooler day which made it a little easier to scale the road up the escarpment, although it was slow journey. We followed a heavily loaded truck up the steepest parts, being passed by the cars who were finding the drive up quite easy. When we reached the top, the truck in front of us pulled into the rest stop, where there were several other trucks parked, but unfortunately they prevented us from being able to see the strategically placed mobile coffee van who had set up in the rest stop. After the trip up that road a coffee would have been great to help calm the nerves.

Earlier in the day there was another small challenge. The exit from the Shoalhaven Ski Park, where we had been staying for the past 2 weeks. Originally the plan was to set up camp in the camping area of Shoalhaven Zoo, but on the steep road to there I took the wrong turn at the fork and drove into the Ski Park. Since their camping fees were similar, and I did not like the idea of driving out of the Ski Park, up the hill, turning around and coming back down into the Zoo camping area, we stayed in the Ski Park. And enjoyed the stay immensely.

From the bottom, looking up.

Today was the day to tackle the drive out of the Ski Park. We thought it would be quieter on a Monday morning, but it seemed that some of the early campers were starting to arrive. That could have been a problem on the narrow road if someone was coming down while we trying to go up. And the misty rain had perhaps made the road a little slippery.

So it was bite the bullet time, engage a lower gear and slowly head up the road. Thankfully there was no one driving down at the time, and the fears of a slippery surface were unfounded. At the top of the drive, time to start breathing again, and begin the drive before tackling the escarpment as described earlier.

Apart from those two white knuckle experiences, the drive from Nowra to Richmond was very pleasant, especially as we took the Grand Pacific Drive from Nowra to Gerringong, along the coastal (and less hilly) route past the Seven Mile Beach National Park.

We arrived safely at Richmond to prepare for the next house sitting assignment at Oakville. Tomorrow  we start to discover what it takes to look after several llamas and alpaca, many aviary birds, a couple of dogs and cats, two ponies and a few donkeys. Interesting times ahead.

Big Is Not Always Better

This post shares some of the delights of stopping to smell the flowers. Sometimes we are in such a big rush to check out the big things that we sometimes forget to take time to look at things a little more closely.

So let’s use the macro function on the camera and get close-up to just a few of the small surprises that the Grey Nomad trips has delivered so far.

Click the picture below to go to the short slideshow. When you have finished click the Back button on your browser to return here.

Click The Picture for the Slideshow

A Move Down South

Three weeks in Sydney at the Lane Cove River Tourist Park provided us with plenty of contrasting experiences.

The park was about as peaceful as you can get, and with the night-time visitors, an enjoyable experience as well. We enjoyed our several trips on the ferries as that meant I did not have to drive the busy city roads. Getting lost in big shopping centre car parks was also another experience for our Sydney stay.

After the Sydney stay we moved out to Richmond, to the Wanderest Travellers Park, provided at a very reasonable cost by the Richmond Club. The maximum stay at Wanderest is 3 days, so after some tossing around ideas about which direction to go we decided on the South Coast of NSW, and Nowra gave us a couple of options.

The map below shows the route taken on our travels in November.

Exploring the Illawarra

Now that we are based at Nowra there are plenty of things to see and do.

Our first excursion took us back to Kiama to check out the Kiama Blowhole. A favourite tourist destination that has been to focus for millions of photographs over the years, but I just had to take a few of my own.

It is truly an awesome sight to the the water spout pushed into the air from the blowhole, even though the day we were there was relatively calm will very little swell. It must be magnificent when strong winds from the south east drive the waves into channel and force water high into the air.

It’s been great to see the coastline again after travelling inland for a few weeks, and in this region the thickly forested escarpment of the Illawarra region provides a great backdrop and plenty of places to explore in the next 2 weeks.

In The Night.

A few nights ago, while I was winding down at the end of the day I heard a thump on the caravan roof. That was followed by the sound of clawed feet moving across the roof.

By the time I had gathered the torch, gone outside to investigate and shone the torch around there was not a thing to be seen. I had a strong suspicion that it could have been a possum. Maybe even the one that discovered the vegetable peelings that I left outside on our first night at Lane Cove.

I did not have to wait long to have my thoughts confirmed.

Last night while I was using the laptop in the annexe. I looked up and walking straight past me was a Brush Tail Possum. I don’t think it was aware of me until I moved to get the camera. The possum slowly made its way to the door, and allowed me one photo, before heading out into the dark.

Not long after I could still hear it walking over the dry leaves and bark around the caravan, so i went to investigate further, with torch in one hand and camera in the other. When I found it I thought the possum would soon rush off, but maybe it was distracted by the light of the torch, and it stayed around, even moving closer to me.

After taking acouple of photos I decided to go back inside the annexe, and in less than a minute the possum was back inside. But not just in the annexe. This time it decided to climb inside the caravan and explore the bag of fruit and vegetable scraps that we were keeping for the worm farm at the caravan park. Time for another couple of photos after rescuing the worm food.

I decided it was time for the possum to leave, but it seemed quite content to stay, and it was only after some encouragement that it decided to head out through the annexe and into the night. And that was the end of the little escapade, as I closed the zip on the annexe door and went to bed.

Well that’s I thought. I forgot the backpack which had a couple of snack bars in the top pocket.

In the morning while looking at the photos on the laptop we noticed that the top of the backpack seemed a little messy, and on checking it out found a half eaten nut bar. It seems our little visitor returned for a snack while we were asleep.

It has been a real pleasure at the Lane Cover River Tourist park for these past couple of weeks. A peaceful environment, sharing with the birds and animals while being so close to the busy metropolis of Sydney.

More Sydney Icons

We continued our travels after lunch at Bondi and headed to Balmain, an inner city location that I have seen referred to in various movies and known as an area frequented by artists.

Leading to the Harbour

From Bondi to Balmain

With narrow streets leading down to the harbour’s edge the area is full of character. We stopped off at a craft market in one of the old churches, just as they were about to start to pack. One stall had many ink and pencil drawings of hotels that I assumed were local, and onn our short walk we saw several of these, all well patronised on the sunny Saturday afternoon.

We wandered down one of those narrow streets to have a view of the Harbour. At the end of the street was a small children’s playground and lawn that took us to the water’s edge.

The Bridge from Balmain

The view from there gave us another way of looking at the Harbour Bridge, THE Sydney icon that must have been seen on millions of postcards and holiday photos from many of the visitors to Sydney.

The Bridge and Ferries

This particular view of the Bridge also has another icon of Sydney Harbour, the ferries. Several were tied up at the Balmain wharf, and show in the foreground of the photo.

The next few days will take us to other iconic locations in Sydney.

What Are The Sydney Icons?

As someone who has lived in Australia for a lifetime, and only visited Sydney once before, there are lots of places in Sydney that I have seen in movies, on television, in the newspapers and of course on the tourist brochures. This trip, which was to be a short stay before returning in a month, has been extended and give us the opportunity to explore Sydney a little more.

There is so much to see and do, that it is not likely that we will get to see all that we have on the unwritten checklist. Especially as some of them would depend on braving the busy Sydney streets.

That’s why it was a pleasant day on Saturday to driven around by our son and partner on Saturday. They have lived in Sydney for many years, so know their way around a little better than us. The GPS, however, came in handy on a couple of occasions.

The icons?

First, we no longer have to drive through one of the motorway tunnels as we went through the Lane Cove Tunnel at the very beginning of our Sydney Icon tour. We also did the Harbour Tunnel later in the day.

The Bridge Up Close.

There are pictures of the famous Sydney Harbour Bridge all over the place, so I thought that it would be a good idea to show it from a different point of view. In this case, from the inside of the car as we approached it from the northern entrance.

If you are really hanging out to see a typical Harbour Bridge photo I will be adding one later from a recent ferry trip, although it was a dull day when they were taken, so I hope to get a photo with blue skies in the next few days.

The Kings Cross Coca Cola Sign

A favourite of the visual media when they want to show something that symbolises Kings Cross, other than the night life and the characters of the area. In daytime, not really all that brilliant, but with its location right in front of you as you approach Kings Cross at night you just can’t miss it. Great example of good location for advertising.

Bondi Beach

When thinking of what typifies the Australian beach and surf lifestyle, nothings beats Bondi.

Close to the city, with the curved beach with white sand, it is the place to be on a summer day. It is the place to be seen, the place to eat out or maybe even venture into the water for a swim or to do a bit of surfing.

Although not the safest of beaches, with notorious rips that carry unsuspecting swimmers out to sea, the Surf Rescue teams are there to help out people who get into trouble.

After a quick early lunch it was time to head out to more Iconic Sydney, which will be covered in the next post.

Lookii Project Submission Page

Many people who are traveling in an RV (Recreational Vehicle) will be looking to get the best value for the money that they have budgeted for their travels.

This is especially true for those who have retired and intend to spend long periods of time living in their RV, while discovering new places to to see and new friends to make.

To complete this mission please submit some money saving tips that could be included in the chapter about Money Saving Ideas.

Support the project and join one of the Grey Nomad Guide missions at Lookii.

Examples to consider would be

• Free or Low Cost Camping
• How to find free tourism attractions
• Handy and cheap gadgets.
• and lots more.

Successful submissions may be edited and included in the ebook guide that is being produced.

If you have accepted this mission, please add your content as a comment on this post. Make sure that you identify yourself so that successful completion of the mission can be credited to you.