Lead Up & On The Road

It is finally time to get away on a decent trip. My last blog was our September & October 2019 trip into country NSW and the previous blog was only two months before it, also into country NSW. We did a couple of tiny trips since then. One was a 6 day window in June that we had when lockdown finished in NSW and before I had to go back to work. We had a great time on the Gwydir River at Bingara with friends John and Sue and their friends. It was a beautiful spot and we free camped the whole way. The second trip was a four day getaway to Nelson Bay. It is such a beautiful spot and it was the first place we took our van to after buying it. Here are some photos of both those trips. Our camp right by the river at Bingara:
The view from the lookout:
Beautiful Nelson Bay and Shoal Bay:
Took the cruize to Tea Gardens and had lunch at the Boatshed Restaurant. The lab on the boat spots dolphins:
I had been starved of a decent trip for so long, mainly because of the China virus. Having missed the opportunity of doing a good winter trip we have waited till November for the weather to warm up and then do a NSW coastal trip. That will give us four weeks before school holidays start. The idea for this trip is to checkout all those beaches and towns that we haven’t been to before. I have heard of a lot of good spots and wanted to go there. You have probably experienced the same thing as I that when you travel up the Highway you pass many signs to spots that you have never been to and promise yourself that you will go there one day. So this is now the day. We will also go to spots that we have been to before but not for a long time. For those who want to check out our previous trips here are the blog addresses. First trip to NT, 2013, web address is www.firstbigtrip.blogspot.com.au; The web address for 2015 WA trip is www.secondbigtrip.blogspot.com; Web address for 2016 QLD trip is www.touringseqld.blogspot.com; and the 2017 QLD Gulf trip is www.qldgulf.blogspot.com; Web address for our 2018 Tassie trip is www.touringtazzie.blogspot.com; Web address for our early 2019 NSW and VIC coast trip is www.nswandviccoast.blogspot.com; Web address for our August & September 2019 country NSW trip is www.centralnsw.blogspot.com; Web address for our September & October 2019 country nsw trip is www.southerncentralnsw.blogspot.com; . The web addresses are the best way to look up the blogs but you can also do a search on ‘Linda & Pete’s Travels’ and find pages of blogs that are mostly mine on the early pages.
There was the necessary jobs to do leading up to this trip; mow the lawns; organise chlorine for the pool; fix up issues with the rig, this time replaced a 12 volt plug not working for the portable fridge freezer with an Anderson plug, thanks to John it is better than ever; changed a dodgy tyre; and packing the van and hooking up. So we got way on Wednesday the 11th of November as planned. Only went as far as the Central Coast as we had to assist Linda’s parent with a couple of appointments. That ran into a second night but that’s okay. We were planning on catching up with caravanning friends Lynn and Wal near Newcastle on the way up. It turned out though that they are having four days at Swansea in four weeks time so it will work much better to join them there on our trip home. Much better than just a quick hello. So on Friday we head off and checkout Old Bar. No need to start south of there as we have had plenty of holidays at Forster so we don’t need to go there and we can save some places that are closer to home for short getaways.

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