Sunday 11 February: A sumptuous banquet in Jamberoo

Author: Mrs A

Location: Around Berry and Jamberoo, NSW

Thank goodness I passed on breakfast and we did a good cycle this morning, for the afternoon held many delights.

The day started with Barb and Omar busy preparing for the SlowFood Saddleback fundraiser picnic we had been invited to join them on. It was all frenzied activity while home made hummus, Egyptian falafels, Tabouleh, baked Salmon Tarator, deconstructed salad and watermelon were all prepared…a veritable feast. Around 11am we all hopped on bikes to head off on a bike ride around some of the local country lanes in need of some pre-lunch calorie burning.

Barb and Omar took their beautiful wooden road bikes, while Mr A and I borrowed their new eBikes. We set off down their lane and turned left, along stunning gum tree lined roads, rolling green hills making up our views. As we began to go uphill, I realised I was being left behind and that my eBike was extremely quiet…I struggled along for a bit, but then had to stop, concluding that the 16.5kg bike was not turned on.

Mr A and Omar turned around and came back to find me, and we tried to work out what was happening. The very kind Mr A offered me his working eBike, and proceeded to have a super workout on mine, given he has a fully working airway and wouldn’t be Darth Vadering his way up the hills like me. Off we went, continuing on our journey. A working eBike was much more fun, and I whizzed up the hills with barely any effort. Mr A managed 7km before turning back for home, while the rest of us did about another 2 or so kilometres before we turned back.

After showers we headed off to Jambaroo, an area inland from Kiama. Omar drove and wound us through beautiful scenery up and up into the hills. Our destination was a property belonging to one of the leaders of SlowFood Saddleback, Saddleback being the uppermost ridge in the area.

The gathering was very well organised, with picnic benches provided in a field with beautiful views, and even a couple of porta-loos in the parking area – I was relieved, picturing having to crouch behind a gum tree if one’s bladder had needed emptying – very civilised! Out came Barb’s incredible food, accompanied by food prepared by her friend Julie, who was considering joining the group. Amazing dish after amazing dish came out – just delicious. We absolutely feasted, Mr A particularly munching on at least one piece of cake, but avoiding the glass of Riesling offered (because of the calories – ha ha!).

We rolled back to the car and returned to Barb and Omar’s for a cleansing cup of tea to help it all settle, all of us on the verge of very happy food comas. No dinner tonight required…just a relaxing evening before a low calorie Monday ahead.

Friday 9 Feb: Fat biking on 7-Mile Beach

Author: Mrs A

It was time to move on from Kiama, so we packed up, hitched up and drove off south down the coast. Our first destination was Black Head Reserve in Gerroa, where we were able to park up and enjoy breakfast with fabulous ocean views in every direction. The morning was overcast and somewhat hazy, the humidity high. From there we drove further south and towards Berry, where we pulled into our friends acreage and set up camp on their lawn.

Barb is an old friend I originally met at work – we’ve known her and Omar for about 17 years. They moved down to Berry several years ago and have a fabulous time on their property – currently with lawn mowing sheep, hens and lots of vegetables. Over the years they have also experimented with pigs, guinea fowl and a trout farm in their swimming pool. You never know what to expect when you arrive, other than a multitude of bikes, excellent fresh food and great conversation.

We were somewhat tied to the tide, so to say, and had no sooner arrived than were jumping on our bikes (I borrowed a fat bike) and riding the short way down from the house to the beach for a ride. The giant tyres on the bikes help you to plough your way across the sand for a ride – great fun.We returned for a fabulous salad of fresh produce from Barb and Omar’s garden and sheep cheese for lunch.

Tassie likes it here. We popped on her lead and she happily explored the garden, getting a fright when a giant hare leaped out of a bush in front of us and bounded off into a nearby field. Tassie’s first hare!

As the afternoon drew on we could hear thunder rumbling in the background and the sky grew dark. Mr A and Omar fitted up a light bar into Barb’s newly renovated kitchen, and we commenced preparations for the evening’s dinner. A particularly loud boom from the heavens and most of the power went off – notably in the kitchen. Not exactly ideal for dinner preparations. Barbara, cool as a cucumber, changed plans slightly and dinner went into a slow cooker plugged into a circuit powered by the Tesla battery, accompanied by rice in a rice cooker, and vegetables on the BBQ. Dinner solved!

Two other friends, Alan and Jo who live a short drive away on the other side of Berry, joined us for dinner – a fun evening ensued of wine, laughter and stories of goats. A great night and our first evening past midnight for the trip!

Thursday 8 Feb: Ups and downs in Kiama

Author: Mr A

Location: Kiama and surrounds

I guess the clue should have been in the name, Kiama Downs. As we set off on our bikes along the coast, hill after near vertical hill seemed to be in our immediate future. But the views were fantastic! We could see miles along the coast on this beautiful summer’s day. A trifle warm for hilly riding at 30 degrees but a lovely north-easterly breeze was blowing in our faces. There’s nothing quite like riding a bike to bring a smile to your face…well going downhill anyway.We managed to miss our turn off to stay on a cycleway, and ended up on main road for a bit, then found it again and cruised into our destination of Minnamurra. This turned out to be a sleepy little village, with a one platform railway station on the South NSW line. We found the only cafe and ordered some much needed sustenance. One Chicken Club and a Chicken Caesar Salad demolished. Time for the return match. My eagle eyed Map Girl saw a faint footpath line on Google so we headed for that and followed a fabulous path right along the cliff tops.A few more hills and we were soon back in Kiama, with an ice creamery seeming to jump into our path. Wow that went down well. Mrs A with her mango sorbet and me with some English toffee ice cream. Just bliss. 20km ticked off and 1000 calories consumed!Back at the Zone, Tassie seemed to greet us rather grumpily, after all she only just had a 4 hour nap, apparently not quite enough.Dinner tonight was Cambodian fish amok. We both loved the food when we visited the country and Mrs A has added a couple of cracking dishes from their cuisine into her extensive repertoire. The fresh veggies from the farmers market yesterday just added to the flavours.

While I’m on the subject of food (I’m barely off it in this post am I?) we have decided to experiment with using the car fridge as freezer to give us more storage space. It’s working fine when we are on power in a park, but off the grid I don’t see it as feasible unless you have a bank of solar panels and add a third battery somewhere in the already tightly packed Cruiser. I ran the car fridge off power the first day and it was pretty much drained after about 17hrs – which is about normal given the draw of a freezer. We do have a solar blanket (small flexible panels mounted on a foldable backing) but I’ve never seen it pump in more than 2.3 Amps to the batteries even in full sun, so it should extend the time a little but won’t keep up with the drain. It’s a early model from Kimberley Kampers. Enough said. Apart from this all our set up is pretty much the same as on our last trip.

Wednesday 7 February – Exploring Kiama

Author: Mrs A

Location: Kiama, NSW

We had a relaxing slow start to the morning, free from worries about plumbing, gardening or packing. If we haven’t got it now then we’re having to do without it! We decided to put on our walking shoes and investigate the Kiama Coastal Walk. The full walk spans the distance between Kiama and Gerringong, a picturesque 22km following the grassy clifftops.We followed the walk around for about 3km, stopping to watch the Little Blowhole perform its show – a loud ‘whomp’ preceding the gush of water as it follows the old lava dyke under the rocks and up through the gap. We got nicely refreshed by the spray!Not long after here we both had to stop and rest in the shade. Mark’s plantar fasciitis in his heel was causing him pain while walking, and my Morton’s Neuroma was giving me an agonising burning pain in the ball of my right foot too. I guess the cortisone injection I had last week hasn’t made a difference. We are a pair of old crocs! We looked longingly at the gorgeous looking pathway stretching into the distance over the cliff and hobbled back to camp.

As the afternoon progressed we decided to hop on the bikes and ride into Kiama for the farmer’s market. It was busy and bustling, primarily fresh produce from surrounding areas but also some food stalls, a winery and brewery. We tried the wine but it was not to our taste, and neither was the beer. We did find a sheep cheese producer from Robinson – we have tried their cheese before, being one of the few in Australia – and purchased some delicious nectarines from Orange.We took our goodies and rode back to camp for a healthy salad and a glass of rosé.

Tuesday 6 February: And we’re off!

Author: Mr A

Location: Kendalls on the Beach, Kiama

So today was the day when our preparations came to an almighty climax…steady…and we left Sydney for Phase 1 of our Second Big Trip. Our new tenants arrive tomorrow, the house was being inspected this afternoon, and we thought we had everything pretty much under control with only our bathroom to clean after our showers this morning. So perhaps the house sensed we were deserting it, leaving it to cope with the vagaries of another bunch of strangers moving in. Whatever it was, Murphy’s Law operated and as I turned the shower tap on Catherine shouted out from some distance away “Why am I getting soaked?!” The shower head had decided it was a good time to play up and water was spurting all over the room.

A quick text to our property manager, who wasn’t even supposed to be working today, and their plumber turned up less than an hour later. Now that’s good service! He soon had the problem under control and we left the house a little behind schedule at midday feeling a little nervous about what we will find when we return in October. Casting doubts aside we drew away and headed through reasonable (for Sydney) morning traffic. Tassie was a little restless (for new readers she’s our other family member – the Burmese camping cat), but some serious brushing from Mrs A sorted her out.

We only had a short trip today and we were soon pulling into our home for the next two nights in a small caravan park in Kiama. We haven’t stayed here before but first impressions pretty good, especially when we saw a poster on the check in desk advertising a farmer’s market tomorrow! We set up on a nice grassy site and then found the beach within staggering distance. Just what we needed after the stresses of the last few weeks, trying to get everything organised.So here’s the plan in summary.

Phase 1: NSW South Coast Wanderings. We are planning to just amble down the coast, meeting up with various friends on the way, taking our big double kayak as we plan to stick to tar and the coast. We just love Southern NSW and always seem to be rushing through, so wanted a chance to spend longer at some places we have enjoyed previously. Then we are returning to Sydney for a wedding in a few weeks, putting the kayak back in storage at our place and collecting the packrafts so we can hit the dirt when we want. At 7.3 metres the double is just too big a beast to cart around bumpy roads.

Phase 2: Keep the ocean on our right. We will then start heading north up the coast, with very few fixed plans other than catching up with friends in Newcastle, meeting some other Zone RV owners just north of Coffs Harbour, and then calling in at Zone’s HQ in Coolum in mid April for a service. We think we then carry on heading north, and just see how far we get with the only constraint we need to be back in Sydney mid September.

Phase 3: Off to the US of A. So once back in Sydney we will store the van, leave Tassie with foster parents, and fly out to the US. Catherine is presenting the medical research she has helped run at a conference in Atlanta in October, so we thought we should take advantage of her having her flight paid and me go with her this year. Take a couple of weeks to visit friends and do a short road trip, back in the house mid October.

So that’s the idea. Hope you enjoy reading what actually transpires!

We concluded our day post dinner with a sunset cycle along the coastal path to raise the heart beats a little and see some more of the area.It is truly a beautiful coastline and we look forward to exploring some more over the coming weeks.

Five surprisingly good locations across SA & NSW

Author: Mrs A

To conclude our top 20 locations on our lap of Australia, our final 5 leave Western Australia and take us in to SA and NSW. These locations were surprising in that we had reasonably low expectations and were delighted by what we found there.

Again, these are in order of visiting rather than ranked in any way:

1. Streaky Bay – Eyre Peninsula, South AustraliaReason: This was our first stop after having crossed the Nullabor, and our first taste of oysters since leaving Sydney back in May. It was spring when we reached Streaky Bay, and the weather was not quite settled. We had some fabulously warm mornings, but the afternoons often whipped up with quite a blustery wind. Nevertheless it was a great location to introduce us back into semi-civilisation, with a 10km coastal cycleway to explore, and some interesting road trips to natural landmarks. Quite a unique location.

2. Port Lincoln – Eyre Peninsula, South AustraliaReason: We visited this location purely so I could go cage diving with Great White Sharks (a bucket list item and well worth the trip – I chose the ethical option with Adventure Bay Cruises). We originally booked in at the caravan park there for two nights, but loved it so much we stopped longer. Port Lincoln as a town has some great little restaurants, fabulous seafood and plenty of services. A short drive away is Lincoln National Park, home sea eagles, osprey and fur seals you can snorkel with, and numerous picturesque beaches. A flat cycleway follows the coast around into town and along to the marina (and possibly beyond), great exploring with plenty of birdlife. We really enjoyed our time here.

3. Clare Valley, South AustraliaReason: Anyone who knows us well (and our love of fine wine) will probably question why this fits as a surprising visit. Well the fact is we almost left on the first night due to the cold damp weather, but we were pleased we stuck around. The rail trail is a great drawcard here, relatively flat and guiding you to some fabulous tastings. The visitor information centre is award winning, and if you are there on a Friday night they do a wine tasting with $5 glasses of wine and $25 bottles and a cheese and nibbles plate – a brilliant way to meet your fellow campers and taste some local fare.

4. Tanunda – Barossa Valley, South AustraliaReason: Of course the wine was fabulous – we had some great fun cycling around the area which is pretty flat with some off road cycleways, and great tastings. Highlights were Artisans of Barossa, Izway and the Taste of Eden. It was also our first opportunity to taste Vietnamese food in a long while at FermentAsian – a restaurant with a veritable bible of wine on offer – more than 1000 bottles. We settled for one!

5. Cowra – New South WalesReason: Cowra is just an hour from Orange which we have visited on many occasions, but remained a blip on the map for more than 18 years. This time we picked up some literature about it while visiting Forbes, and thought it sounded lovely. As usual we laughed about what the differences were likely to be from the marketing material (often towns read like quaint French villages but disappoint horribly!). Cowra actually exceeds expectations! Surrounded by rolling hills (making the cycling a bit more of an effort than we’d been used to!), lots of interesting history surrounding the Japanese POW camp and some stunning gardens, Cowra also boasts a wine bar with fabulous selection of local beers and wine, and some great places to eat out. We loved the Indian restaurant – we’d put it up there among the best we’ve been to in Australia! The campsite was delightful too, grassy and shady, hosted by a lovely couple who became friends. Definitely worth a visit.

And that concludes our top 20 locations around Australia so far! We’ll be setting off again in two weeks, first to the Sapphire Coast, before doing an about turn and heading north through to pastures new. We’re looking forward to more (hopefully positive) surprises on our horizon…

Where can you find these locations?

Day 201: 17 December – Arriving back in Sydney

Author: Mrs A

From: Bathurst

To: Curl Curl

Distance: 214km

An early awakening for us, despite the late night – a 5am storm reminded us that we had left the roof hatches of our caravan wide open. Mr A did the honours and dashed out through the heavy rain to close them. His wet pyjamas meant he didn’t get to sleep again, while I slept soundly until master Rory awoke us in his quest to visit Tassie at 7am. David and Tamara, we salute you and your early awakenings! Rory was gentle and loving as always and gave us cuddles to say he would miss us too when we leave. His brother Felix also popped down for some feline strokes before we left. Tomorrow it will be ‘Catherine and Mark? Who are they? But I sure do miss Tassie Cat!’ And so we farewelled the Cummings family and headed down the Blue Mountains to our next stop, Katoomba. We were off to visit Jennie and David, another couple of English folk happily living in Australia who had also the good fortune to purchase a Zone RV caravan – number 57. Jennie was there to wave us into the parking spot and provide us with visitor passes, and quickly ushered us into their home near the three sisters for a cup of tea and a chat.

Such a lovely couple – sadly another familiar story – they purchased the caravan then six months later David suddenly fell seriously ill. Fortunately Jennie was quick witted and organised an ambulance which arrived within ten (long) minutes and whisked him away to hospital for treatment. Very scary though, how health can take a drastic turn in the wrong direction. Mark and I reflect on our own health situations throughout the past six months and are grateful that we didn’t experience anything worse. Thankfully David seems to be on the road to recovery now, and they have plans afoot for a fine adventure of their own in 2018.

We had a great couple of hours with them and hope to catch up next year. We left with our first Christmas card and a pot of what promises to be delicious home made marmalade – I am thinking it might be our first breakfast back in our house tomorrow morning.

From there it was on to Forestville and our friends John and Eveliene’s house to pick up a few bits and pieces they had been looking after for us while we were away. So great to see them, and our initial taste of being back in Sydney’s grasp!We stopped off for a quick drink and a chat, before heading on through the narrow car lined streets to Curl Curl. We have to say that the streets of Forestville were the most challenging roads we had driven on in the whole of Australia – a combination of cars on both sides of the street, narrow roads, hills and bends!

We made it back to Curl Curl without incident and found ourselves a parking spot outside the Harbord Bowling Club for the night. We hope it’s a quiet one! Such good fun with friends Clive, Donna and Andy coming along to welcome us back and join us for a pizza at the club.We calculated our total mileage for this trip – 22,478km – that’s about 14,000 miles for you counting in old money. Fantastic. We’re pretty chuffed with all we have learned along the way and what an incredible adventure we have had. So far. After tonight we head back into our house for about 7 weeks, and then the cat will be away again to explore more of this beautiful country…we hope you will join us too!

Day 197: 13 December – Orange redeems itself

Author: Mrs A

Location: Orange, NSW

Another warm day dawned and the promise of vineyards was on our horizon. First we completed some tasks – popping to BCF (Boating, Camping, Fishing) to pick up some new gas bottles. We checked out which vineyards were open on a Wednesday morning – the answer was not many.

Ross Hill Vineyard is not too far out of Orange, and a quick bit of research revealed they are a relatively small boutique vineyard with a great reputation. Wine critic James Halliday has rated them five stars, meaning he considers them an outstanding winery, producing consistently good wine with at least two bottles rated at 92 out of 100 or above. We headed on over.

The cellar door has recently been renovated, and is modern, bright and airy. We were the only visitors and so got a personal tasting. There are some delicious wines there – Mr A was particularly keen on the Pinnacle Chardonnay, and we both loved the cool climate Shiraz. Their light yet spicy Tempranillo was delicious – and would cope with being lightly cooled – perfect for a hot summer’s afternoon.

All that personal service paid off, and we ended up joining the wine club and wheeling off two dozen wines to magically conceal in our caravanAll this wine tasting had worked up an appetite and a very timely text from friend Karen gave us a list of recommendations. We decided to call into Agrestic Grocer. It turned out to be right next door to the Badlands Brewery, the beer Mr A had enjoyed at The Oxley Wine Bar in Cowra, and they offered a tasting paddle from the bar.

The favourite for both of us was the Pale Ale – not too filling, with the right balance of malty-hoppiness. We enjoyed lunch, though the salad could have done with some vinaigrette – they removed the pesto dressing for me but replaced it with nothing. After lunch we picked up some vegetables for tonight (Woolworths ‘the fresh food people’ this time) – again disappointed by the poor quality of fresh produce available – bendy carrots, soft runner beans, under ripe strawberries and nectarines – not what we expected at all.

One of the bottles of Ross Hill Tempranillo was opened with dinner – beef burritos with stir fried vegetables, after which we joined some campground neighbours for drinks and a chat. Gemma and Sweeney are opal miners from Lightning Ridge who met while holidaying in the Philippines. Gemma is from Cambridge in the UK while Sweeney is western Sydney born and bred. What a different life they live, trying to make their fortune hunting for gems underground – Gemma showed us a couple of opals she had been learning to carve – beautiful strikes of colour, and for small stones, quite valuable. As always, it was so interesting learning about another way of life and a lovely evening had.

Day 196: 12 December – Hello Orange

Author: Mr A

From: Cowra

To: Orange

Distance: 101km

We said goodbye to the lovely Keira and Glen, and hit the road. A very hot road….winding through this park-like countryside and coming to our first hills since Adelaide. We drive through the settlements of Milthorpe and Blayney, looking as fab as ever. Then we rolled into Orange and straight past our caravan park entrance. It looked like it had been abandoned, with a scruffy half derelict building lot out the front. Thankfully once you are in the Canobolas Caravan Park the aspect brightens up…a little. We decide to only pay for one night and see what we think.

We unhitch and leave Tas in air conditioned comfort as we swelter in the 32 plus degree heat of mid afternoon. We decide not to cycle and take the car as we need to grocery shop. It is a productive stop at Bunnings (what would a self respecting caravaner do with out the Big B?) and then into the town centre. Now we have this image in our minds of a very picturesque, tranquil Orange. Wow…it has changed. Catherine literally is millimetres from getting knocked over by a car that overtakes the one that has stopped to allow us to cross the road. I shout out and she just pauses as he whistles past in front of her and flies off. We are back in ‘civilisation’. The local Supa IGA is also a disappointment. For an area that’s known for its produce, the fruit and veg is really very ordinary.

We drive back to our park a little disappointed (and shaken), with our first impressions of the Orange we were so looking forward to revisiting. Tomorrow should be better – we’re not fasting – and it definitely wont be an AFD (alcohol free day) that we compell ourselves now to have two days a week…..and we are going wine tasting. Yippee..!

Day 194 & 195: 10-11 December – Stunning gardens and feeding my inner geek!

Author: Mrs A

Location: Cowra, Central West NSW

Sunday 10 December

Sunday morning began cool and dewy but soon warmed up to the early 30s. It didn’t feel uncomfortable though, parked up under a huge tree casting plenty of shade. A BBQ brunch commenced our day, with freshly baked bread and merlot and pork sausages we picked up in West Wyalong.

We had lots of jobs we wanted to tackle today, along with getting our sheets, towels and clothes washed. eBay was the first port of call, with a generator for sale and a 4WD Water Bra (never used or even taken out of its packaging!). I was chief photographer and advertisement writer while Mr A cleaned up the products to ensure they had no evidence of dust on them. Next was cleaning the caravan, washing and vacuuming floors, and Mr A did a good sort out of the storage areas. Our final task was to apply Velcro to our lock covers on the tool boxes to ensure they stay closed. A fiddly job!

A seven kilometre cycle concluded our afternoon – sticking to the least hilly pathways around town. Camp hosts Greg and Keira joined us for a drink after they finished work at 6pm, sharing their interesting journey from being heavy machinery operators in the mines out near Broken Hill to now tending lawns and helping out grey nomads here in Cowra – how life changes!

Monday 11 December

Today was earmarked for more fun activities. We started off out at the beautiful Japanese Gardens in Cowra. Spanning 5 hectares, the manicured gardens are a place of peace and serenity, benches and stunning views around every corner. As with most Japanese gardens, water played a key feature, with ponds filled with Koi carp and waterfalls abounding.We strolled, admiring the views and marvelling at how comfortable the 33 degree day felt amongst all this green and water.We decided to enjoy lunch in the café at the gardens (sadly not Japanese food – the only menu nod to the inspiration was a miso soup!).

Just a 20 minute drive away, we next headed to Canowindra. Mr A and I went our separate ways – he headed off to a coffee shop while I entered the Age of Fishes Museum. This museum was set up in the early 90s after a significant 360 million year old fish fossil bed was discovered near Canowindra. Going back to my geography roots, this natural history absolutely fascinates me, and it is incredible how this was stumbled upon.

The original find (Canowindra grossi – the only evidence of a fish of its kind in the world, unearthed by accident on a farm) was back in 1956, and a slab of rock has been displayed in Sydney for many years. In 1993 an archaeologist questioned whether anyone had looked for more in the same area. The answer was no, so he set off to investigate further. What he found was the biggest find of ancient fish fossils in the world – more than 100 fish of four species. Just incredible. The biggest find was fish with bone structure in their fins almost identical to human arms and wrists, and the ability to breathe through a nose as well as gills. The feeling is that these fish are extremely close to being the first creatures to start leaving the water and moving about on land – they are still looking for evidence of this, but no footsteps (or fin steps) found as yet.After all this learning, we thought it should be time to go and try some local wine. We headed to a winery on our way back to Cowra, but sadly the cellar door was only open at the weekend. Such a shame. Hopefully the Orange wineries will be more welcoming over the next few days…yes, I know, another wine region in our future!…And so to our final evening in Cowra. We again enjoyed the company of Keira and Glenn for a few beverages while our Weber cooked up our butterflied pork. We shared a few stories along the way, Mr A lamenting that I will never let him have a chain saw. Our close friends will know why…and so do Glenn and Kiera now.

I joked that Mr A would set our roast pork onto his iPad to rest if I didn’t keep an eye on him, and picked up a heat proof mat and a piece of foil so he could set the baking tray safely on the side. Our pork had been resting about 5 minutes when I realised Mr A had actually put it on his iPad and covered it with foil!!! Oh how we cried with laughter! Despite this, it tasted rather good with the roast sweet potato and steamed bock choi. I wonder whether Apple have ever registered a use case for the iPad as a resting tray for meat?

It’s amazing we are still alive….onwards….