Road trip to the Sunshine Coast

It's taken a visit from the Dusty Camper to break the drought in South East Queensland.  Torrential rain followed us most of the way from Grafton inland to the border. The sun came out  in the afternoon as we arrived for a night at Toollum Falls This was the first water over the falls in 8 months and the talk of the nearby town of Urbanville bringing the locals came out for a look. 

The sun continued to shine into the afternoon and there was some excellent birding, of note some Golden Whistlers and Lewins Honeyeaters in good numbers as well as a huge Diamond Python curled up beside the path.

We have used the Camps book (7th edition) to find these great out of the way sites. After a smooth trip, this Brisbane we arrived  at Chez Seidl at Yandina in time for a delicious home grown lunch on the verandah.

Capertee Valley

We left Narooma on Sunday morning, with the view of making it to Abercrombie River NP by evening. After a stop at Surf Beach to catch up with my mum and dad and to wish mum a happy 91st birthday for next month we were back up the Clyde and on the road to Goulburn by early afternoon. 

The road through to Oberon is almost all sealed except for a few patches of bone shattering coregations. We reached our destination at Bummaroo Ford (camps no 430) around 4 o'clock and were lulled to sleep by the sounds of Powerful Owls calling down the valley.

Apart from a semi trailer roll over we had an in eventful drive through to Lithgow and on to Wallerawang

Where we stopped for a cuppa and to our delight found that the rest area loos also has hot showers, does it get any better?

Our next stop was the birding mecca of NSW the Capertee Valley. This beautiful valley is largest enclosed valley in the world and the home of the elusive Regent Honeyeater. We camped at Glen Davis (camps 381), a community run site. A great spot, run on the honesty box - donation. Our only neighbours were a couple of twitchers, looking to tick of the Honeyeater.

Posting this on the road north of Grafton it's raining so we have decided to leave the coast and find some fine weather.

Road trip planning

Mr P is back from his fishing trip to the coast and Dusty is in need of an overhaul inside and out before next setting of on our road trip, north to Queensland.

First things first, curtains and seat covers were stripped out and put in the wash, this was a long overdue chore.  We will need to go out to Fyshwick tomorrow to get the shower tent and pump. I think Anaconda will be out best bet for these. Monday it's new tyres and a trip to Bitch'n stitch' for the privacy screen for the Fiama awning.

We are hoping to get down to Narooma next Saturday for the school reunion and a catch up with friends before hitting the road north on Sunday. Our first stop will be the popular birding spot at Capertee Valley, driving up through Goulburn to Bathurst will also by pass Sydney.

Stay tuned for more reports.

Snowy Mountains Road trip - Canberra Day Long Weekend.

Like a lot of Canberrans we made the most of the 3 day weekend, to take a break from the city. The weather at the coast was predicted to be wet and windy, no better excuse was need to head the hills. We were on the road by 8am on Saturday morning and made a stop in Cooma, I love a good Tourist Information Centre. All those free maps and  the local bird list. Our destination was the thermal pool at Yarrongabilly Caves in the Kosciusko National Park, via Adaminaby and Kiandra.

I forgot to take the camera down with us, so this image is uploaded from the Internet. The pools are down a steep track from the car park, the walk takes about 15 minutes on the way down and was a bit of a trek back up taking us twice as long. We enjoyed the afternoon swimming in the 27 degree water, despite a couple of showers of rain. There is no camp site at the pools so we drove on to the site of old township of Yarrongabilly, to a great little camp site beside the river.

Although we saw lots of warning signs and poo on the road we didn't see any of the reported 7,500 brumbies running wild the the park.

The VW really went well and ate up the hills arriving at the camp in time to get the fire going before dark. We were relieved when this storm passed to the north, entertaining us over dinner with a lightening show.

The drive through the mountains to Tumut follows the side of the Blowering Reservior, most of the campsites along the way were patronised by water skiers, so we decided to continue on stopping for lunch at the 24 hour RV camp at Gundagui. This site is really interesting as it under Gundagui's beautiful old wooden  bridges, you can just make out the railway bridge in the background..

Sunday night was spent at the great camp at Jugiong Showground. This is a very clever move by the showground trust and the Harden Shire Council, to bring grey nomads into the area. Thus tapping those tourist dollars.

I had a great paddle up the Murrumbidgee River while Mr P peddled around the town. Our camp spot was beside the river complete with a camp fire. We were able to burn some more of our supply fence posts we carry in the Venter. 

We very happily made a donation for our nights stay.

Lakes Roadtrip - Paddling in Conjola National Park

Berringer Lake Conjola National Park

Although we had both done some research for our 3 day road trip to explore the lakes in the Milton, Ulladulla area, we really had no set plans. Best way to travel I think!

We had decided to take the road to the coast through Nerriga on Friday afternoon. Although mostly sealed there are very few opportunities to overtake. At one stage we had a convoy of 10, 4WD utes behind Dusty, we obligingly pulled over just outside Nerriga and had a chuckle when all 10 utes pulled into the Nerriga pub car park 2 klms down the road.

Friday night we free camped at a spot I had spied on an earlier trip near Bendalong, toilets, electric BBQ and a waterfront view. Good birding as well, I ticked 1 rufous fantail just near the toilet block (a first for me).  Saturday morning was overcast and drizzling rain so we decided to make the trip down the coast, to see if we could get access to Termeil Lake south of Ulladulla. Unfortunately the road into this part of the Meroo National park is 4WD only. We took the 2WD access road to Meroon Headland and spoke to some the fishermen camping they were pulling down their tents as the fish were not biting.

Time for someserious fishing,so we opted to pull into aptly named little hamlet of Fishermans Paradise for a paddle. This is a backwater of Lake Conjola, I had a great paddle in the falling light up the picturesque Porter Creek as far as the wooden bridge. The creek goes under the highway and is navigable up to the dam a trip for another day. The fishing back at the ramp was pretty ordinary, but was an ideal spot to spend the night.

Sunday we made for beautiful Berringer Lake, in Conjola National Park. This little lake is much quieter than the adjoining Lake Conjola. Unfortunately the mouth of the lake is very silted up and like most extuaries along the coast really need a goodtidal flow to improve the fishing. Mr P managed to bag a nice flathead and swag of tailer for dinner.

Overnight camp spot

Sea Eagle nest

Don't know the story behind this sink in the middle of nowhere

Fish were biting, trailer and flathead.

Congo Camping Weekend

After a week of temperatures in the high 30s it was no wonder that we were joined by a steady stream of traffic down the Clyde on Friday afternoon. Our 5 o'clock departure meant that there were the usual number of idiots on the road, breaking their necks to get to the Bay in under 2 hours. Safely arrived at sea level it was a relief to smell the salt air again and and feel the sea breeze.

Over the next few trips we are going to paddle some of the lesser known waterways of the  south coast. This weekend our destination is Congo Creek, a small waterway accessed via South Head Road south of Moruya Heads. We camped at the very popular National Parks campground, and were lucky to get the last site on the foreshore.

The paddle up the creek from the beach takes about 50 minutes, with a few stops to look at the wide variety of bird-life. 36 species were counted for the weekend, with the highlight being a Lewin's Honeyeater and a Spotted Pardalote, birds that I have not encountered in this area before. As well as a Lyrebird scuttling off the Kings Highway at the top of the Clyde on Sunday afternoon.

In February 2013 Congo Creek was the site of a large fish kill http://www.naroomanewsonline.com.au/story/1345208/fish-kill-at-congo-creek-due-to-low-oxygen-gallery/  The creek is on the way to recovering, with a few lucky fishermen (not us) bagging a nice flathead and bream.

On Saturday afternoon we were joined by a delightful couple from the UK driving a Bocklet Expedition Camper. They had driven overland through Europe to Asia via Pakestan and down through Indonesia via Timor Leste to Darwin. There was a gathering of campervan nuts like me queueing for a peek inside and to hear their stories.

The Bocklet was a late arrival and had to park at the boat ramp on Congo Creek.

Congo Creek Mouth

Fairy Terns on the beach at the mouth of the creek

Mr P trying his luck with lures

Australia Day Long Weekend Road Trip

Australia Day marks the end of the Christmas holiday season on the South Coast of NSW. This now means that all our favourite weekend haunts are not so busy. After an afternoon fish at Preddys Wharf at Moruya we drove down to Potato Point and parked at our favourite picnic area and toilet block. We didn't want to attempt the road in the the National Park during the storm and in the dark. Dusty does not have great  undercarriage clearance, the low hanging water tank takes a bit of a pizzling on dirt tracks. After a top up with water and and a dash to the loo we set off to find the spot Mr P had located a few weeks earlier. This area is a maze of tracks and after a couple of wrong turns we found the spot in time for breakfast on the lake and what a view.

Saturday morning paddle to Borang Lake

I had hoped to photograph the 2 Little Eagles that I had spotted last weekend, so loaded the camera and tripod and set off after breakfast. Given the windy conditions, this was going to be a challenge. Midway down the creek past Horse Island the wind picked up from the south, I made good time with the tide in my favour reaching Borang in 1 hour and fifteen minutes. The paddle back was fine until I was  back in the open lake. My little boat had taken in quite a bit of water by the time I reached camp on the southern side of the lake. Round trip time 4.5 hours of paddling, I was shagged and no Little Eagles.

Sunday Morning and the north easterly was up early again, so we decided  to drive over to Coopers Island and explore that part of the river system. We have often given these bucolic dairy farming areas a wide berth because of the flies, but with the breeze today they weren't too bad. It was a beautiful paddle downstream in to Trunkatebella Lake and upstream towards Tuross.

We decided to explore the camping possibilities along the river near the bridge on the drive south to Bodalla. Given that it was Australia Day proper, there were lots of Aussies, water skiing, jet skiing and sitting in plastic wading pools eating sausage sangers  so we opted for a quiet spot down stream of the bridge. We had the area to ourselves, probably because this part of the river does not have deep water access. A great spot for some more fishing and exploring of the river.

Fishing and birding

The windy conditions didn't help, but we managed to eat fish each day with a nice bream to bring home. On the birding front I spotted 45 species, with this one seen on the shore of the lake closer to the beach, I think it's a Black Fronted Dotterall and other suggestions?