Queensland - Waiting For The Seasons To Change

It seemed appropriate after visiting my Aunt Christine in Murwillumbah that we should also visit my cousin Marcel (Christine’s eldest son), who lives about an hour north of her, in the Gold Coast region of SE Queensland.  So, as do so many Grey Nomads on their northern migration, over the border we went…

Just like ‘Cousin Eddie’ with his RV in National Lampoon’s movie ‘Christmas Vacation’, we (WTF? - Where Are The Farrows?) parked the caravan on Clark Griswold’s (aka Marcel’s), front yard, plugged the van’s extension cord into a power outlet from the house and set-up camp for a few days of free-loading.  I wonder what the neighbours thought was going on?

During the day we did some sight seeing in and around the region.  We visited Surfer’s Paradise (the high-rise strip right on the coast), and a few other beaches along the coast on day one.

Heather at the 'Surfers Paradise' sign the Gold Coast

The next day we ventured up into the ‘hinterland’ (that’s what Queenslanders call the hills situated a few km (in this case ~ 20km) back from the coastline, and had a very nice day at Mt. Tambourine.  There are many walking and hiking trails to be done up there and plenty of eateries to choose from once you have worked up an appetite.

There are hiking trails and waterfalls aplenty at
Mt. Tambourine in the Gold Coast hinterland

In the evenings, after Marcel got home from work we had a good time catching up on the things going on in each others’ lives.  We really appreciated being allowed to use his home as a base for a few days - Thanks for the hospitality Marcel!

Hitting the road once again, we meandered firstly north and west and then once we were north of metropolitan Brisbane and then the Sunshine Coast, continued north and east which took us back to the coast.

The twin villages/towns of Agnes Water and Town of 1770 is where we settled for a few relaxing days at the very laid-back Workman’s Beach Campground.  The hot and humid days provided plenty of motivation for us to enjoy the lovely clear warm waters with gentle swells several times each day.  The fact that we pretty much had the beach to ourselves every time we went there was a real treat!

Coconut palms were never far away at 'our' beach at Agnes Water 

Before I go too much further, I think I heard you wondering a few lines back, “Why is it called ‘Town of 1770’? - That is an unusual name for a town!”.  Well I am glad you asked.  You see, previously named Round Hill, the town’s name was changed to Seventeen Seventy to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Lieutenant James Cook anchoring his ship, HMS Endeavour, on 24 May 1770, and going ashore here in what was his first landing on what is now known as Queensland (and second in Australia).  Now you know!

Captain Grant and his ship HMS Endeavour anchored near 1770

While there is not often ’too much of a good thing’, that was almost the case at Agnes Water/Town of 1770, so rather than become ‘spoiled’ we reluctantly moved on.  Still warmer and more humid for this time of year than long term averages said it should be, we decided that if we were to continue northwards we would stick to the coast as it was still stupidly hot and dusty inland.  Now almost April, summer had to end soon and be replaced by autumn and it’s cooler days and comfortable overnight temperatures…

We crossed the Tropic of Capricorn at the regional hub of Rockhampton (pop ~ 80,000) where we restocked before driving 40km further on to the not so tiny beachside town of Yeppoon (pop ~ 18,000).

The Tropic of Capricorn is the southernmost point that
the sun appears directly overhead at the December solstice

While in the Yeppoon region (the coast has many near shore islands which make for nice scenery) we came across a roadside stand that was selling what their sign said were ‘Sweet Ready to Eat’ pineapples for just $1 each.  We bought a couple and they were delicious - we went back for more a couple of days later!

Beautiful sweet pineapples for just $1 each!

Like fishermen, Metal Detectors never reveal the exact location of their hunting grounds for fear others will move in and clean it out before they themselves are able to do so.  For this reason I shall remain vague and simply state that it was in the Capricorn Coast 'region' that Heather had a great day of metal detecting!  A Florin, several Three Penny coins and a Kangaroo Penny.  Despite a very heavy downpour, she was on a roll and just would NOT stop until she was satisfied she had found all that there was to find there.  She came in from the rain looking like a drowned rat but with the biggest smile on her face so it was well worthwhile!

Looking like a Drowned Rat but Smiling like a Cheshire Cat
after a great day of detecting near Yeppoon!

With the rain that couldn’t dampen Heather’s spirits also came a change in the wind direction that lifted my spirits as I was well and truly ready for some cooler weather.  I took this to be a sign of the changing of the seasons and as such, when we left Yeppoon rather than continue northwards we turned inland and travelled to the west and south.  As soon as we were on the western side of the coastal ranges we (especially me) were immediately enjoying clear skied sunny days and cooler, humidity free nights.  Overnight the temperature was now dropping to between 16 and 18C and without much humidity.  This was the first time in about three months that we had experienced overnight temperatures below 20C!  It is amazing how well you sleep when the nights are cool!

We camped our way west and south towards the town of Surat, where we had arranged to meet up with a couple of friends we had met at our Christmas campground near Portland, in Victoria.  We shared a couple of meals, enjoyed with some 3 Ingredient Camp Oven Beer Bread.  No yeast, no kneading and leavening and waiting for the dough to rise a second time - just mix the 3 magic ingredients together and put it into the oven!  It tasted as good as it looks! (see pic below).

Camp Oven Beer Bread

For those interested in trying to make this bread (next time you go camping or at home), just click on the link below that takes you to a video on YouTube that we made that provides a quick step-by-step description as to ‘How To’ do it yourself.

https://youtu.be/xTJzp75Q5xU

That about wraps up the 'Queensland - Waiting for the Seasons to Change' portion of WTF? - Where are The Farrows's? journey.  The map below shows our route and summarises when, where and how far statistics covered in this blog.

North from the border to the Tropic of Capricorn then
a turn to the west and a return to bush camping

In the next phase of our journey, WTF? - Where are The Farrows? heads further inland and out west where they commence a pub crawl that will see them taking the back roads across thousands of kilometres of outback Queensland.  We are accompanied by plenty of dust, persistent flies and first-hand experience of both wet and 'dry flooding'.  WTF is dry flooding? - stay tuned to find out!

What goes up must come down! (NSW 2019 - Part 2)

After scaling the dizzy heights of Mt. Kosciusko we needed to transition from the thin air experienced at altitude and come back down to earth (too dramatic? - OK, I promise this will be the last (or near last) mention of our minor/faux mountaineering accomplishment).  

There were a couple of pubs in our Australian Bush Pubs book located relatively nearby so we thought "Where better to re-acclimatise than in a pub?".  We ensured our route took us to them!  These were the Nerriga Hotel (visited on 30th January, 2019) and the Sofala Royal Hotel (4th February 2019).  We got an autograph from the publican of each establishment on their respective pages, enjoyed the obligatory glass of beer and carried on down the road.

(L) The Sofala Royal Hotel, and (R) Bush Pub book being signed by the publican

As usual, we gave the big city, this time it was Sydney, a wide berth.  We stayed inland on the western side of the Great Dividing Range, visiting a number of towns and national parks in the Mudgee Region, renowned for it’s horses and vineyards, before heading back towards the coast via the Hunter Valley, renowned for it’s vineyards and coal mining, emerging near NSW’s second city of Newcastle.

'Carlotta Arch' - at the Jenolan Caves

Panorama with Heather 'on the edge' at Kanangra Walls

Selfie of the two of us at Kanangra Walls

'Frog Rock', near Mudgee

Munghorn Gap Nature Reserve

Looking back towards Newcastle from the breakwater at the mouth of the Hunter River

From Newcastle we meandered up the coast spending time on the beaches and in the hills.  Being in no hurry to be anywhere in particular Heather tried her luck metal detecting whenever the opportunity presented itself along the way.  In one location she had considerable success recovering multiple pre-decimal coins that included: 1921 & 1929 Half Pennies, 4 x Kangaroo pennies and what turned out to be a scarce 1919 Florin!  To say she was excited is an understatement.

H in the field with her trusty detector and;
Head and Tail of a 1929 Commonwealth of Australia Half Penny.
This field also yielded a 1921 half penny, 4 x kangaroo pennies and
a Florin (shown below).

1919 Florin.  These are made of Sterling Silver (92.5% silver).
The M below the year stamp signifies it was minted in Melbourne.
 That makes this Florin 'Scarce' in coin collector's terminology!

I did some camp oven cooking while Heather was clearing the earth of it’s lost and buried coins and managed to produce my best dessert effort to date - a lovely fruit cobbler!

You can use any fruit you like.
This one was apricot but could have been apples, peaches or pears.

We continued to camp, see the sights and do some hiking all the way up the NSW coast.

Lovely clear blue sky day for a hike in Barrington Tops National Park

Warm to hot sunny days and regular rain at night made it easy to enjoy the plentiful beach and coastal scenery as well as some waterfalls (with water falling over them).

Ellenborough Falls (inland from Pt. Macquarie)

There were also encounters with local fauna including a gang of kookaburras that stole hot sausages directly off of a hot barbecue plate, and a mob of kangaroos sleeping on a patch of grass beside the beach that could not have cared less that we were just inches from them.  The more slippery, creepy and crawly were represented too - green tree frogs, flying foxes (aka ‘fruit bats’), lizards and snakes.

L - R: Kangaroo's, Thieving Kookaburra, Python, Flying Foxes and Green Tree Frog

Our last stop in NSW was the town of Murwillumbah located in the Tweed River Valley just a few kilometres from both the border with Queensland and the coast.  This is a beautiful, mountainous, lush green, semi-tropical location It also happens to be the closest town to where my Aunt Christine (my mother’s sister) lives so we took the time to go and visit her and catch up over coffee and cake.

Mt. Warning near Murwillumbah

The Tweed Valley is beautifully green and hilly. Sunny, warm & moist conditions are perfect for growing delicious bananas and avocados!

We took advantage of the many roadside fruit stalls along the way to buy farm fresh bananas, tomatoes and avocados - the difference in taste between these and supermarket/store bought produce is remarkable.

We took well over a month to complete our route through NSW
from it's southern border with Victoria to the northern border with Queensland 

As summer turns to autumn (slowly), WTF? - Where are The Farrows? move ever so slowly northwards into the state of Queensland.  Still too hot to venture far inland and still too humid to get too far north too soon, we stay fairly close to the coast and wait for the seasons to change.

From Sea to Summit - NSW 2019 (Part 1)

We crossed the Victoria / NSW border in mid January to continue our oddessy.

Heading north we passed through the NSW coastal locales of Eden, Pambula and Merimbula along the way to the town of Bega (pronounced ‘bee-ga’), which was to be our base for a few days.  Australian readers will have likely heard the name before as a nationally popular brand of cheese, 'Bega', is named after the town in which it is made.  For any overseas readers, you are now well placed to respond correctly to the highly unlikely pub trivia night question asking you to identify the town after which a popular Australian cheddar is named - this blog can be so informative!

This area of southern NSW is full of beautiful beaches and lush green scenery so over the next few days we explored the hills and coastline.

Heather enjoying the view over Cottage Beach from a nicely positioned chair

Usually the only things to be careful of in NSW waters are ‘rips’ or ‘under-tow’ that can drag you away from the shore, and the occasional shark.  However, this summer due to a slightly abnormal offshore current (that’s what the news has been reporting), another hazard has presented itself.  There have been many ‘Portuguese Man O’ War’ jellyfish (also known as ‘Blue Bottles’), washed ashore.  These are not big things but they are poisonous and a painful sting can result if your bare skin brushes against their long trailing tentacles whether you are swimming in the water or happen to step on the tentacles of those that have been washed onto the beach.  We came across many of these during several walks along the beaches - see photo below.

One of many Blue Bottle jellyfish to have been washed ashore - you can see how they got the name.

With Australia Day and the associated public holiday long weekend that large crowds typically make into a ‘party weekend at the beach’ approaching, WTF? - Where are The Farrows?, never ones to go with the crowd, decided to leave the coast and head inland and upwards.  Just a couple of hours drive had us in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains.  We set up base-camp (please note the deliberate and shameless use of mountaineering terms/puns from this point forward), on the banks of the Snowy River where we prepared ourselves to make the climb to the summit of the Australian continent’s highest peak - Mt. Kosciusko!  Preparation included carb-loading (dinner of spaghetti bolognese and garlic bread), and hydration (a couple of beers for me and a couple of glasses of red wine for Heather).  It was then off to bed to rest up for the push to the top!

The next morning, we made the 45 minute drive from base camp to the parking lot at the foot of the mountain: elevation ~1,365 m / 4,475 ft above sea level.   A short 150 m stroll later had us exactly where our detailed trip planning and research had informed us we would need to be in order for each of us be able to purchase a day pass for the chair-lift that would enable the completion of the steepest part of the ascent.  A peaceful, albeit brief, ride in the cool morning mountain air was soon over as we were required to disembark the chair lift at Eagle’s Nest Mountain Hut some 1,930 m / 6,328 ft above sea level.  We are pleased to report that neither of us even got close to breaking a sweat during this part of the ride, sorry, 'climb'.

Mt. Kosciusko Summit Walk is a 13 km round trip

Now on foot for the rest of the way we commenced the final 298 m increase in elevation that would see us at the top of Australia!  At this point you may be (maybe?) thinking of Sir Edmund Hillary and Mt. Everest type footage of the ominous peak of a towering snow-capped mountain standing in front of blue skies but partially hidden behind wispy cloud cover.  Did we break-out our ice-picks, carabiners, ropes and crampon boots?

Spoiler Alert:  No we did not!

Rather than steep, icy slopes and cold howling winds, we were happy to be wearing cotton shirts and hats as we made the last 298 m climb to the summit via a 6.5 km continuous gently inclined (1m up for every 22 m walked) hike through grassy and sometimes rocky highlands along a 2m wide boardwalk.

The headwaters of the Snowy River originate on the slopes of Mt. Kosciusko

This 6.5km boardwalk constitutes the hiking trail to the summit 

After asking a fellow mountaineer to take a photo of us besides the cairn at the summit of the highest peak on the Australian continent (elevation 2,228 m /7,305 ft above sea level), to capture this historic moment for posterity, we ate the last of our our rations (a picnic lunch) while enjoying the view before making the descent back down the hill (sorry, I should have said mountain).

Cairn at the summit.  2,228m/7,305ft above sea level.

In the event that you had not detected some facetiousness in my writing, it is at this point I must confess that the climb to the top of Mt. Kosciusko is not really an arduous one.  The 13 km round trip, none of it steep (except the part that the chair-lift covers), can be achieved by almost anyone with a reasonable level of fitness and a comfortable pair of walking shoes.  Seriously, you can be comfortably up and back by lunchtime!

Now for the legitimate bragging rights: WTF? - Where are The Farrows? can now say with ‘hands-on-hearts’ that we have scaled one of the 7 highest continental peaks on the planet.  I wonder how many of my dear readers can truthfully make that claim?

Coddiwomple Resumes: Victoria (Dec 2018 - Jan 2019)

Get trusty Ford Ranger Ute (tow vehicle) serviced - Check ✅

Have caravan (our home on wheels) wheel bearings & brakes checked out and various minor repairs completed - Check ✅

House-sitter arranged - Check ✅

Fill the vehicle with fuel and the caravan with food - Check ✅

ALL DONE - We were ready to roll!

Given the fact that it was the start of summer meant that places inland and northwards (one and the same when you set out from South Australia), would be too hot for man, woman and machine to be enjoyable (or even safe in the event of an outback breakdown).  With that in mind, on Sunday December 16th we drove out of Adelaide to resume our journey setting out on a southeasterly heading towards the southernmost mainland state of Victoria.  Our intended route was to follow the Victorian coastline in order to enjoy the cooling effect of the ocean.  For the most part we did this except to give the city of Melbourne (population of ~ 4 million) a wide berth - no need to be towing a caravan through the middle of heavy city traffic.

With no particular place to be at any particular time we ambled along at our own pace.  Do you remember the definition of Coddiwomple (the name we have given to our journey)?  To refresh your memories, it is as follows:

Coddiwomple (verb):  To travel in a purposeful manner towards an unknown or vague destination

Anyway, we found ourselves in a very nice camping area in the hills just a few kilometres outside of the town of Portland.  This place was about 5 - 10 degrees cooler than anywhere else on the map and had everything we needed so we decided to stay here for Christmas and move on again on Boxing Day or thereabouts.

We enjoyed the birds and wallabies that lived in the surrounding forest and it was clear that they had become quite used to and comfortable with humans being in their patch.  If you didn’t know better you would swear they have watches as they all knew just when to present themselves for some breakfast, lunch and dinner!

I think this carrot has gone straight to my hips!

On Christmas Eve we cooked up a nice Christmas feast centred around a beautiful ham and vegetables with all of the fixings!  A lovely outdoor meal that evening and again on Christmas Day (with leftovers for a couple more days again after that) was a good indication that we had done it right!

Christmas in the bush - 2018.  Beautiful ham with all of the fixings!

Between Christmas and New Year we left the coast and travelled inland a bit in order to avoid Melbourne and it's suburbs.  An interesting campsite during this time was inside the rim of the crater of an extinct volcano (Mt. Franklin) - certainly hadn’t done that before!

Camped inside the crater rim of the extinct Mt. Franklin volcano

When we first arrived we almost had the place to ourselves (as you can see in the photo above) which was very nice but that did not last long as the post-Christmas / pre-New Year holiday makers started to arrive.  We broke camp and moved on to leave the revellers to their revelling!

A few days and a couple of camps later we were on the other side of Melbourne and back down on the coast.  We thought about visiting the southernmost point on the Australian mainland, 'Wilson’s Promontory', however there was not a free nor paid for campsite available down there so we had to be content with a ‘drive-thru’ visit.  Maybe we will try again at a different time of the year when it will be too cold for the majority of the masses.

In Australia, summer means bushfires and this year was no exception.  We had hoped to do a couple of days of near-coast, i.e.: non-beachfront, bush camping in order to avoid the previously mentioned crowds and had not long had ourselves set-up in a very quiet bush location when we were visited by a couple of local forest management rangers.  They informed us that weather forecasts for the next day and beyond were calling for +40℃ temperatures accompanied by strong northerly (read: ‘hot and dry’) winds.  As such, we were told to be gone by 10am the next morning because the forest was to be closed to public access at that time due to the extreme risk of fire.  We were up at first light and after a cup of coffee we were out of there.  We really lucked out in two regards having left the fire danger zone:

1. We found a great campsite - couldn't believe our luck, in a tiny town called Golden Beach on a stretch of coastline that is known as 90 mile beach, and;
2. Later that afternoon, plumes of smoke that filled the sky and blotted out the sun could be seen rising from whence we had just come!  That fire burned for several days.

More critter encounters at our next camp.  This time it was an overly familiar/friendly goanna.  He was a bit more than a metre long (I estimate about 4 and a half feet in the old language) and had far less fear of us than we had of him - click on the photo below to enlarge it and check out the claws on each foot as he was trying to get into our van!  

After climbing onto our camp chairs he decided he wanted to go inside.

It is nice to see the wildlife ‘up close and personal’ but also good when everyone maintains a degree of separation that is safe for all parties.

In addition to the camping and caravanning, Heather managed to get a good deal of metal detecting done.  Amongst a myriad of finds including old pre-decimal coins, the oldest being a Queen Victoria Half Penny from 1878, was the hood ornament from a 1947 Ford Super Deluxe 8 sedan, and some old dog registration tags (see pics below).

H posing beside a shipwreck on 90 Mile Beach.
Note: NO detecting done here just a nice photo-op!

1950/51 Dog Tag (Hole punched in bottom of tag means the dog was female)

Hood ornament from a 1947 Ford Super Deluxe 8 Car

I also did some camp-oven cooking - a very tasty lasagne being my best effort!

Lasagne cooked on coals in a camp oven.  We will definitely be making this one again!

We also managed to visit two more of the bush pubs that feature in our Australian Bush Pubs book.

Heather outside of the Dargo Hotel in the Victorian 'High Country'

Inside the Dargo Hotel getting our book signed by the Publican

The Publican of the Commercial Hotel in Bendoc, VIC, signs his page in our Bush Pub book 

An update on the progress of our quest to visit all of the pubs featured in our book will once again be provided in the next blog to be posted. 

Our Victorian road trip wrapped up a few days later just a few kilometres south of the NSW border.  For those interested in the travel statistics associated with this ‘Victoria 2019’ portion of our journey, a map showing our route and stops along the way is provided below.

Our route and camp sites during our Victoria 2019 Coddiwomple

A similar summary of our travels through the Australian state of New South Wales will be posted in a few days time.  As a preview of what WTF? - Where are The Farrows? have been up to, I will reveal that we trekked from sea level to the summit of Australia’s highest peak and back down again!  How many of you, dear readers, can say you have stood at the summit of any of the 7 continent’s highest peaks?