Yamba to Hervey Bay - thanks to Tom!

Today we had a quick look around Yamba in daylight since we hadn’t had time to do that before. It is so flat with a marina full of fancy boats and then you come to the town and go up a steep hill where one would suspect the original shopping area was and there are still shops and restaurants but they have Yamba Fair shopping centre earlier on now. If you drive around at the top of the hill you realize it is a cliff with the ocean below. It was quite a view! I took some photos of course.

Well, we had a long way to drive so without further ado we headed off toward Ballina again since that is the way to Hervey Bay; back on Highway Number One! I took some photos through the windscreen of the cane fields flanking each side of the road and of the Big Prawn in Ballina. Yes, they really do have a big prawn. We saw the Big Banana in Coffs Harbour on our way through the other day and today we saw the Big Pineapple in Gympie but it looked rather closed.
The drive was OK except for when I decided to offer to drive since we were on the motorway and it was ‘dummy driving’, that is set the cruise (we love cruise control!) and steer basically, but then we got to Brisbane and I had to drive through town and the traffic was rather heavy there and onto the surrounding roads. Then we were back on the motorway saying, now where can we stop for lunch and a break? In the end I said we just have to stop ASAP so we pulled off to somewhere called Morayfield which is part of Caboolture I believe. By luck we found a little bakery-cafe with good food in one of those big complexes with furniture stores like where Spotlight is in Moorabbin. We got some petrol then Tom directed us back to the motorway. Yes, I haven’t mentioned our navigator up until now but he is fantastic! His real name is Tom Tom One Regional but I just call him Tom. We rely on him for not only directions but travel distance and times as he is by far the most accurate measure we have. If you are going to do a bit of travelling we would strongly recommend you invest in a navigator such as this. You won’t be sorry. Occasionally he doesn’t know where we are because there are new roads and sometimes we show up as travelling off the road then appear back on it which may be some programming or mapping problem but it doesn’t get us lost or cause any problems. I think some of the remote areas are less well mapped and so you can’t put in a Point of Interest (POI) because it just isn’t in there but you can get around that by going to the road or street instead. Apparently there will be new maps released in September to download and update it.
So, we got to Hervey Bay by about 5.15pm and it was still light. The temperature outside for much of our drive was between 18 and 19 degrees and it was up to 20 when we got here which is a great improvement on our 5 degrees at about the same time in Lithgow! We got our gear into the holiday unit then went for a walk to the Esplanade where we were told the restaurants are. We found a pub on one corner which was open on the street side and had patio heater and lots of tables etc and decided it looked OK. We made a good choice again. I had a very filling chicken, sundried tomato & spinach risotto and Fin had chicken breast with asparagus & brie encased in it. We both enjoyed our meals then went for walk along the esplanade. (Without jackets!) We were looking for the mariner because we have to be there at 8am to go on our whale watching tour. We didn’t find it but got a map at the office where we are staying and found we will need to drive there from here.

Yamba & Ballina

Today was a rest day. We slept in (compared to travelling days) then got our washing done at the on-site laundry, had lunch and took the hour or so drive to Ballina to see Fin’s Uncle Finlay and Aunty Valda. It was an interesting drive with many fields of sugar cane along the way and the sugar processing plant Sunshine Sugar in Broadwater puffing out steam from it's stack. As well there was a lot of water in a fairly flat landscape, with much of the drive being alongside the Richmond River and occasionally crossing a bridge over it including a swing bridge to allow for taller water craft. We were surprised at how big Ballina is; there is quite a big shopping centre with all the well-known shops (Big-W, K-mart, Target etc) and quite a large residential area. I think the sign said Population 33,900 for Ballina Shire. Finlay and Valda told us it has grown substantially since they moved there 22 years ago. For some information about Ballina, I found this site: http://www.tropicalnsw.com.au/aaa_site/places/towns/ballina.html
The Clarence Resort here in Yamba is very nice with, as I mentioned before, a pond or two and ducks, kangaroos and micro bats. They say not to feed the wildlife but obviously people do as the ducks came racing over when I emptied the teapot onto the grass and even wandered up onto our patio right to the door of the cabin. (So that's what the gate on the patio is for! Not just keeping little children safe.) Both nights on our way back from dinner coming down the road to the resort we saw the kangaroos grazing on the side of the road near the sugar cane plantations. The laundry room is fine and it has a big games room with video games, TV & videos and an Internet kiosk. My only annoyance is that it is supposed to provide wireless internet but it didn’t work for me even after I spoke to the lady at the office. Lucky my Vodafone 2G connection is working OK!
We had a very nice, but huge meal again tonight. We went to the same restaurant (Pelican Restaurant, Yamba Shores Tavern) after looking around because we knew we would get a very yummy, quality meal and didn’t want to risk a not so good one. We both made the mistake of having the soup tonight and then struggled through our main course. The soup bowl was humongous and we they gave us herb bread with it so we were really not very hungry when we got our main course.
Tomorrow is a big driving day to get to Hervey Bay where we stay for two nights and go on a whale watching tour. I hope we see some. It is a little early but apparently they are starting to appear.

Weeping Rock - frozen tears

We headed off from Armidale toward Coff’s Harbour via the Waterfall Way this morning. We had seen in the book the boys gave Fin for Christmas that it was worthwhile going to Lookout Point along the way so we decided to give it a go. This involved a drive along a road which was mostly unmade and to our surprise there were a few B&Bs or cottage accommodation along the route. We got our car nice and dirty again but it was a fairly easy drive in and it was interesting country side with some cows grazing along the way, some nice birds flying past such as parrots – rosellas and king I think and some kookaburras. When we got out of our car, Fin noticed a Lyrebird in the bushes just near the carpark. I tried to get closer and take a photo or two which I did but not sure how good they are. (I haven’t put the card into the computer yet to take a look.) At the lookout there was a shelter where we could have our coffee but it was still very cold inside; we kept our coats on. There were maps and information on the walls and pamphlets available too. You couldn’t see much from the shelter so we went along the path to take a look from there. It was beautiful forest all around; snow gums, lichen growing on rocks and moss hanging on branches. I wanted to photograph everything I saw but had to be selective or we would have been there all day. While we were in the shelter, a couple came up from further down and told us that there was a magnificent sight at the Weeping Rock. Apparently there was a sheet of frozen water over the rock and drips frozen hanging from it but the guy warned that we should get down there because it might start to break off as it warmed up. We got into the car and drove down to the Weeping Rock car park and started to walk along the path to the Weeping Rock. We found what we thought the people were talking about and madly took photos but then someone else came along and said that it wasn’t it so we went along further and WOW! It was amazing! Freezing cold but amazing. I again took heaps of photos so you will get some idea what we saw. While we were standing there a small avalanche of ice cascaded down but of course I was startled and more worried about whether I was going to get hit by the ice than concerned with taking a photo despite Fin saying, “Get it!” I could never have reacted that quickly but it was spectacular to see it crashing down. The whole area was just so beautiful and we were very glad we made the effort and took the time to stop and see it. On our way back up the track to the car we heard a Lyrebird calling in the distance and then another closer to our path replying or, I should think, competing with it's own call. We tried to see it but when the bird realized we were there it went quiet. I wonder how many of them are in that area? Of course all of this meant we got to Coff’s Harbour later and ended up having more of an afternoon tea than lunch but that wasn’t a problem and we arrived at Yamba just before 6pm to a lovely cabin. As we drove up to our parking spot, our headlights shone on three kangaroos just behind our veranda down toward the pond where we could hear the frogs merrily serenading. I saw what I thought was a large moth fly by also but apparently they have micro bats here so it may have been one of those. What an interesting place!
The drive over the mountain (Dorrigo Mountain I think) was pretty windy and some very steep descents where the signs say trucks and buses need to use low gears. Fortunately all the traffic was coming the other way and we didn’t get stuck behind any trucks for this part of our journey. Even more fortunately I didn’t get carsick which I usually do on those types of roads but it was so beautiful and interesting with very tall eucalypts on both sides most of the time and, .. I just didn’t so hooray! Dorrigo itself looked like a lovely town, situated in very pretty hilly surroundings and with National parks, such as the one where Lookout Point are, so close by it is worth considering for a holiday in the future I think. There seemed to be quite a few farm stay or cottage accommodations available too.
We went to the Yamba Shores Tavern Pelicans Restaurant for dinner and had a really nice meal. Only one course and we our appetites were both adequately satiated. We were seated next to a couple with two little boys; one just two and the other 6 months old and struck a conversation with them telling them that we had been there, done that. They said we were lucky now and we told them they will get there but, yes it is hard when you have two little ones on holiday. Lucky there was a playground outside the restaurant as a bribe! Aah, we remember the days! Thank goodness they are over! Just joking boys.
Well, not sure we will have broadband here since they were meant to have it but they say they have problems with their wireless. I might be able to use it in the lounge area but if not will probably not upload more photos till we get to a broadband zone.

Lightning Ridge

We got up early this morning and packed our stuff up, put it in the car and moved the car to the main car park so we could go on a 3 hour tour after booking out. We did the Black Opal tour which covered the Walk-in mine, a look at the mining claims and camps, the odd houses including bottle houses and castles, the Black Queen bottle house, the house of Fred Bodel one of the original miners, saw videos about opal mining in Lightning Ridge, fossick for opals and see them being cut and polished. Oh, and Devonshire tea! It was very interesting to see how the miners live/lived. Some people still live there with generators for power and rocks and dust for front and backyards. We even saw kids play equipment in one yard so there are children living in those conditions too. People live in caravans, shanty type houses, old train carriages, whatever they can manage, to live on their claim and mine it. There are Holden car door signs all around instead of street signs. You can see Fin standing near one above. There is a central school with about 450 students from Prep to year 12. It is a nice building and grounds and they have a lovely new hospital and nursing home too. Of course, if someone is really ill they can be flown to Dubbo via the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Apparently the government provide a lot of funding for remote communities such as these. There is one supermarket in town and a ladies fashion shop but most stuff is aimed at tourism; opal shops and galleries.
The artesian baths are amazing. Basically it is a swimming pool with water pumped up straight from the artesian bore underground so it is very warm. There were people in there this morning when it was about 10 degrees or maybe less. The steam arising from the pool is incredible.
At $25 each, the tour was well worth doing since we were taken to the most interesting/relevant places and told lots of things it would have been hard to learn ourselves. Of course, they take you to their opal showroom and offer you jewellery at ‘discount prices’ which we had no idea whether they were discount or not but that is what happens when you are a tourist. You don’t have to buy anything; in fact we didn’t but not because it was expensive or not nice but just because most was set in yellow gold which I don’t wear very often and it was hard to get a look in among the grey nomads that were swarming around the counter so I just gave up trying. There were some pretty stones though. I even found a little chip of bluish green opal while fossicking! Not enough to use for jewellery but a keepsake anyway
Our tour guide was locally born in Collarenabri and she loves Lightning Ridge. She even has a claim of her own but a miner works it for 70% of the profits. She has made about $15,000 or so I believe.
After the tour we headed off to Armidale via Collarenabri, Moree, Graves End and Glen Innes. The country was flat and lifeless for a long time and it was again, the road less travelled. However as we got closer to Moree, things livened up. There were actually a few trucks and cars coming the other way and the road surface was better with no pot holes. We got to Armidale by about 6.45pm and I was thrilled when the Vodafone connection was available as the mobile phone coverage along the way had been scant. In fact, Optus was still dodgy in our room but this connection has been fine. Thus, the BLOG update! More piccies when we have broadband again. Meanwhile check out my Webshots album. My username is buglady02 for those that don’t already know and I have put a lot of photos from the trip there already.Enjoy!

From Parkes to Lightning Ridge

We left Parkes at a respectable hour and travelled via the Newell and Castlereagh Highways to Lightning Ridge. It was a good run especially once off the Newell. We left all the semi-trailers behind and the traffic was decidedly light until closer to our destination. It is obviously the road less travelled! We certainly saw less of the grey nomads heading north.
The country side was quite different as we headed along the Castlereagh. It was much drier and very flat. Trees were eucalypts mainly but what I did notice was that there was no mistletoe in them which is quite common elsewhere. Also, the number of birds reduced as we got further along but earlier there were quite a lot of hawks or other birds of prey hovering near the roadside. Obviously, the greeener sections support more wildlife and hence predators. I would love to try to photograph those magnificent birds one day!
We had a nice lunch in a cafe in Coonamble and passed the turn-off for "Come By Chance" twice! I love the names of towns in Australia. That one is an easy one to say but some others sure take a bit of practice to get your mouth around!
Hotel-Motel here is good; free wireless internet access (big plus! - uploading photos to Webshots), restaurant (basic fare but reasonable), they book tours, and the pub right next door. We have booked a 3 hour tour for the morning after a brief look around town this afternoon.

Photos uploaded

I have uploaded some photos to previous posts as well as put some on my Webshots album so you will need to scroll down to see what has changed. In time there will be more.

Off we go again!

Well, we headed off early this morning (7am) on a wet and cold Melbourne day. It cleared up as we went so I am not sure whether that happened at home too but I hope so. Was thinking of all the people at kinder and how they would be coping with a wet morning confined indoors!
I hope it all went well Chris and Ange!

Tonight we are in Parkes again and tomorrow head to Lightning Ridge, opal country.

I put the zoo photos up on my Webshots page so if you want to see them go to my Webshots Album Will add more eventually but it's going to take time with dial-up as my main connection! Didn't get time while I was home so briefly.