Home Sweet Home

Well we arrived home yesterday. The holiday is now just a figment of our imagination. After leaving a place we can't remember the name, we drove through Melbourne and ended up at Port Fairy for the night.

We then went to our friends Deb and Karl for 2 nights. They manage a cattle farm at Tarpeena so the kids like to do the farm stuff when they are there.

Well hope everyone enjoyed our little trip, we did

Bye for now

The Bozwalds

Not Happy Jane Again

No wonder we can't compete with the Chinese in making anything these days. Anything Australia makes is crap (excuse my language). Thats what it seems anyway.

We have just arrived in a small town near Lakes Entrance in Victoria. We started putting up The House On Wheels and the support post that broke before has broken again. Exactly the same way as before. This is going to cause problems when we pack up as we may not be able to set up again and we are atleast 2 nights away from home and 1 night away from Debs.

Jayco has their factory at Dandenong and we are about 100km away from it. I am almost tempted to drive there on Monday and dump it on their doorstep and demand a new one. (like that would happen).

I'ts a real pain because it is going to push us behind as we were planning on going to Debs on the farm on Monday to stay for a couple of nights and pick up Tooey, then get back home by Wednesday to have a couple of days at home before school starts next week.

Anyway not your problem.

We had a fantastic day at Canberra. Everyone loved the War Memorial and Parliament House. The displays at the War Memorial are amazing.

After leaving Batemans Bay we followed the coast and ended up at a place called Cann River. It was about 100km before Lakes Entrance and was a small park on the side of the road. It was only $21.00 for the night and is owned by the Shire. If you blinked you would miss it but it was one of the best parks we have stayed in.

Speaking of Lakes Entrance, what a fantastic looking place. Pity we did not have toime to stay there. Maybe next time. Funny thats what we have been saying all down the NSW coast. So many great places to stay - maybe next time.

Anyway no pics tonight as not to happy. Also it is very cold here. It rained all day but is clear skys tonight.

Before I go just have to tell you a funny thing that happened to me today. I was setting up our van after chatting to a ni9ce couple next to us. I heard the lady ask "Do you want a cup of tea or a beer". I yelled out, "No thanks I'll be right".

Mitchell began rolling on the ground laughing, as was Jacqui and Sophie. As it turns out the lady was not talking to me, she was talking to her husband. (You had to be there)

Bye for now

Very Very Very Angry Bozwalds

Easy day

Not much to report today. We went for a drive along the coast. Noticed lots of rivers again and some very special spots to have a swim in.

Going to Canberra tomorrow.

Bye Bye

The Bozwalds

Cars Cars And More Cars

Well we spent the last 3 days in Sydney.  It is very big, lots of vehicles and the road system is interesting.  We had it all, driving in peak hour in the rain at night, what fun.

We decided to do the tourist thing for one day.  We parked the car next to Paddys Market.  We caught the Monorail to Darling Harbour and went on a Harbour Cruise.  We then went to the Sydney Aquarium which was worth seeing.  We then went and had a look at Paddys Market.  After all that we had a lovely visit at Lisa's mum and dad.

The next day we went to Bondi Beach and then to Chinatown and had dinner in one of the Food Courts.

We have just arrived in Batemans Bay.  We had a cool drive along the coast between Sydney and Batesman Bay.  Some very nice coastline.

Here are some pics

Bye

The Bozwalds

 

Lane Cove River

More water

The Bridge

The House

Sharks

More sharks

Guess where

Whats so great about this beach

Nice food at Chinatown

Coast along NSW

Run out of witty titles

Hi everyone, good to see that a couple of people are still reading my rants.

Emily,  we did not get to meet Bindi.  She was a bit busy brushing her long hair in America I think.

Good to hear about the job, bad to hear you guys are moving away.

Well we made it to Sydney.  Quite a drive.  I did not realize how steep some of the highway is leading into it.  Also they are doing lots of roadworks to make National Highway 1 dual lanes.  

How's this.  We are staying 10km from the centre of Sydney for $46.00 a night.  It is called the Lane Cove National Park and is very nice.  Cleaner than some of the so called 4 star parks we have stayed at.  It is run by the NSW Parks and Wildlife Service.  We can see the lights of the city from our site, everytime the wind blows the trees out of the way.

Sounds like Adelaide is as hot as here.  I'ts been 27 today and is going to be around 31 - 32 tomorrow.  It is very still and balmy tonight. 

Last night we did some free camping at a place called Myall Lakes National Park.  I have never seen such big lakes before.  The park is made up of a some very large waterways.  We found this really nice camping spot on the banks of one of the lakes.  It looked like something out of one of those SA Great ads on TV.  It was about 60km from Newcastle.

I have noticed as we drive through NSW that they might be on some sort of water restrictions like the rest of us, but I have never seen so many rivers in my life.  Some are wider than the Murray.  I think all the water in Australia ends up along the NSW coast.

As usual our time line is stretching out a bit.  We were supposed to be in Sydney yesterday but we have been doing lots of the tourist drives between the main towns instead of staying on the  highway.  It's the only way to see the really good places to stay.  We have marked all these really nice places for next time. Problem is we will have to live till about 200yrs to do it all.

We have booked into the park for 2 nights but we may have to stay an extra night.  We plan on doing all the tourist things that you do in Sydney, and we want to catch up with some people we know.

I suppose I had better put some pics in this time as I was a bit lazy last time.

 

Cape Byron at Byron Bay

Nice park at Coffs Harbour, worst toilets  ever

I'ts not a grape

Free camp site (we left before the rancher came - not our fault)

Our view from front door

Who's growing up

Newcastle coast

Our new friends at Lane Cove Tourist Park

Well thats all tonight

The Bozwalds

Rain, rain and more rain

The last few nights in the Gold Coast were quite wet.  They had some huge down pours near Ipswich and we got the tail end of them.  Needless to say we got wet during the night.

We left the Gold Coast on Monday and ended up at a place called Ballina.  It is about 20 km past Byron Bay and is a really nice coastal town.  Very similar to Goolwa.

We went and had a look at Byron Bay for the day.  All I can say is it would have been nice to go there about 20yrs ago, before all the schoolies and tourists took over.

Cape Byron was cool and the lighthouse was interesting.  I did not realise that Cape Byron is one of the three spots along the east coast that is the furtherest east point of Australia.

When we packed up at Ballina, I got drenched by the rain (the not so fun side of camping), but it was a good excuse to go to Macdonalds for breakfast and dry off.

After Byron Bay and Ballina we headed of to Coffs Harbour.  We stayed at a caravan park called Emerald Beach Holiday Park.  It is at Emerald Beach which is 19km before Coffs Harbour.

The park is great but they need a few more shower and toilet facilities for the size of the park.

The coast around here is great.  We went on a few walks and decided if you are in Coffs you have to go to The Big Banana.  I did not know Coffs Harbour was famous for bananas.  They are a lot sweeter than the ones grown in Queensland.  

Well I could have put a few pics with this post but I got a bit slack.  I think you all have seen a banana before so I decided to spare you it.  It's also because I have a poor internet connection at the moment.

The plan for tomorrow, Friday 26 September is to drive to Newcastle.  We are going to try and do some free camping (almost free) in a National Park called Myall Lakes.  

We plan to arrive in Sydney on Saturday and stay until Monday, when all going well we will either head for Canberra and then Batemans Bay or the other way round.

Bye for now

The Bozwalds

No More Theme Parks Ya, Clap Shout

Finally we have finished all those blasted theme parks.  Don't get me wrong, I actually had a good time, but it is a long day.  We made it harder by doing 3 parks in 3 days.

The water parks are the hardest because you have to carry big plastic tubes to ride and you climb lots of stairs.

The first park we did was Movie World, then Sea World and then Wet and Wild.

The caravan park we stayed in was called Gold Coast Holiday Park and it was only 100m from Movie World and Wet and Wild which was a real bonus.

Its Sunday night.  We pack up tomorrow and go to a place called Ballina Lakeside Holiday Park, next to Byron Bay.  We are staying there on Monday and Tuesday, then we are off to Coffs Harbour and staying at Emerald Beach Holiday Park on Wednesday and Thursday this week.

We have been meeting quite a few family's doing what we are doing, that is kicking back having a great time. 

Here are a selection of photos from the past few days.  

Mitch's new car

New friends

Daffy

His other car

Some green person

Cool water ride

The next are from Sea World

Sharks

Stingray

Dugong

Finally we have Wet and Wild  (my best park)

Huge rides

The black hole ride - pitch black inside

The Tornado

More slides

Very fast slide

Wave pool

The best ride nice and relaxing

Well thats it finally for now, I know lots of pics but easier than writing

The Bozwalds

Dolphins everywhere and Not Happy Jan

We headed up to a place called Tin Can Bay, about 105km before Hervey Bay. We were told to go there if we wanted to see and feed dolphins.

Well they were right. Tin Can Bay is a very nice place. You go down to the boat ramp at 7.30 am and two dolphins come in to be fed. Have a look at the pics. It's amazing how tame they are considering they are wild dolphins. They have been coming into the bay for about 30 years.







We then went for a drive to Hervey Bay. Almost went across to Frazer Island but decided to do that on another trip.






Now for the not so happy news. We were putting the house on wheels up at Tin Can Bay when one of the poles decided to not do the right thing and some big spring like coil came out. I had to go to a hardware store and get a length of wood to hold it up.


Very attractive. How come these vans cost so much. This wood only cost $2.00 and does just as good a job.


Look important, maybe it's a drain cleaner

To make matters worse when we arrived at The Gold Coast today to finish off doing the theme parks for the next 5 days. the other pole broke.

I had to ring Jayco who organized a repair crew to attend the park and fix it. At least their customer service appears quite good.

All is fine now. I'm not sure exactly what broke-I think a bush that holds something in was not tight enough. We shall see if it holds together. I am getting a service done on Monday and also getting a few warranty jobs like loose screws fixed.

Tomorrow we are off to Movie World so I should have some good pics to bore you all with

Bye Bye

The Bozwalds

This is Sunday 14th post

Well it always starts to rain the night before we are going to leave. I am sitting in the house on wheels at Forest Glen caravan park listening to the rain land on my nice dry canvas. At least we are not traveling to far with it folded up and wet.

We went to Australia Zoo today. All I can say is WOW. Pretty slick operation. Yes it is a very commercial operation but it is also setup so well. You actually walk away feeling like you have seen and learnt something about our wildlife.

I must admit I thought Steve Erwin was a bit over the top but after experiencing what he has achieved and what they are going to do in the future, all I can say is he should have been our Prime Minister as those election promises would have been honored.

Anyway here are some pics

I think the croc will spit him out

They don't look real but they are




Brave or stupid lizard?




Sophie feeding an elephant




Mitch was feeding this elephant but I think it ate him instead

Well I could keep on posting photo after photo but I think everyone would have got it that the kids had a great time

Bye bye

The Bozwalds

Off to the Markets

This is Saturday 13 Sept post, just took a few days to put it up.

We were going to go to Australia Zoo today until we heard about The Eumundi Market at a place called Eumundi of course. It is about 20km away from Noosa Heads.

All I can say is that these markets are the size of the Royal Show and are on every Saturday and Wednesday. It took us from 10.00 am to 2.00 to walk around most of the stalls.

After that we decided to go for a drive to Noosa Heads. Very touristy but the actual beach and surrounding National Park is good. Seems to be the spot to kite surf.

When we got back to the caravan site we went and watched a movie. This park has an outdoor and indoor movie screen.

All going well we are going to Australia Zoo on Sunday.

Our plans constantly change (thats whats good about not having a schedule as such).

Someone has told us about a place called Tin Can Bay, near Fraser Island. The dolphins come in most days and you can feed them by hand. Sophie wants to see them so we are going to try and book into a park there on Monday and Tuesday night next week.

Unfortunately the school holidays in Qld and Nsw are only a week away.

Following are the regulation pictures for this post

Some pics of Forest Glen Big4 park

Kids feeding birds at caravan park




The markets




Cool art



Kite surfing at Noosa Heads

Bye for now

The Bozwalds