Up to the Bunyas

Our little house

This morning we packed up the car ready for our mini trip to the Bunya Mountains.  We had hoped to pay for the groceries as they won’t allow us to pay towards the accommodation, but sneaky Martin went to the supermarket before we got up so we couldn’t.  We haven’t been allowed to pay for anything since we got here, it is very generous, but very unnecessary we are more than able to pay our way and don’t want our trip over here to be a burden on them.

Wallabies

Crimson Rosella

Anyhow, I managed to convince Martin to take me to the supermarket again and bought some bits and pieces as treats and some bits to make mulled wine (except the wine – Australian law is such that you can’t buy alcohol from a supermarket you have to go to a bottle shop, and they don’t open until later in the day).

Matt with a Rosella

We got back and packed the car, a good job we had Vanessa’s parents big 7 seater as we had a lot to take – bedding for 7 people plus all the food, drink and bits and pieces you need when you rent a holiday place (you never know what you are going to need at these places).  We squeezed everything in and then headed towards Dalby the next town to Chinchilla.  Here we stopped for lunch (wonderful lamb kebab for me, sushi roll followed by  a dinosaur donut for Tom and a sandwich for Matt) and did a spot more shopping – got the wine for the mulled wine and a fabulous new sunhat for Tom (his current one has been getting a bit small for him) a proper explorer’s hat with a crocodile on it.  It will last him a while as it is huge.

Martin with a Rosella

We then headed into the Bunya Mountains a long winding road narrow road twisting up and up into the forested mountains.  It was a beautiful drive, the whole trip from Chinchilla was 2 hours (not including stops) but it really didn’t feel so.  We checked into the office and found our house for the weekend.  Now we were expecting a cabin like the ones we stayed in on the East coast but larger (as there are 8 of us) but we are staying in a lovely house on an estate of holiday houses – all individual and well spaced apart.  It has a huge living area and 3 bedrooms, a huge veranda outside, it even has a jacuzzi bath.  This wasn’t the pennies that they said the accommodation cost!  Oh and I almost forgot, we saw a Kookaburra on the way in and there were dozens if not hundreds of wallabies hopping around munching grass.

What do you call a man with a Rosella on his head?

We unpacked got settled in and then noticed a very brightly coloured crimson rosellas (blue and red) on the veranda, I took a photo, then another came, and another and another.  Wow!  The camera was on overdrive.  You only see these sorts of birds in a zoo at home.  We also spotted some parrots and galahs from the veranda but they didn’t come over.

Once we had got over the excitement we headed down to the National Park office to get some walking maps and then to the general store and shop for a look around (no patches – humpfh!).  There was a bird feeding station down there, and unfortunately one of the birds decided to land on Tom’s head so we had melt down for a little while (it does feel funny)!

Nice warm fire

We wandered back to our house, I made some chicken curry whilst we waited for Ben and Mia to arrive, which they did around 6.30.  So then it was curry and rice followed by a great game of hide and seek with Ben and Tom.  Tom is getting better at this in that he stays put when you start seeking him, but he giggles and doesn’t hide very well, for example his idea of hiding is to lie on the sofa, not even cover himself with anything, just lie there in full view.  Ben thought he would hammer the point home to him by doing the same thing to Tom, but Tom seemed unable to find him (we weren’t sure if he was pretending or if he really couldn’t see him).  It was funny – we were all in stiches.  All Ben had to say was ‘I wonder if Tom is going to giggle’ and you would hear him giggle and he would be found.

After an hour of this we decided it was Tom’s bed time, so off he went (under protest) – it was past 8pm!

Relaxed Day in Chinchilla

Chinchilla has a 'famous' watermelon festival

We woke to a nice clear blue sky this morning. Ben, Mia and Vanessa were up early ready for school and work. Tom got up with them. By the time we dragged ourselves up he had already had breakfast.

Playing a new favourite game

We decided to have a nice slow day. Martin had taken the day off work so offered to show us around. After doing 2 loads in the washing machine (we were down to our last clean clothes) we headed out. Chinchilla is much bigger than I expected, from descriptions I had been given I was expecting a dusty, rickety town with very few amenities in the middle of no-where. It is in the middle of no-where, but it has a decent selection of shops including a fantastic coffee shop with a children's play area. Needless to say we had a good sit down and chat whilst Tom played.

We had a look round the shops, I happened to buy myself a good looking Australian Cake book (can't help myself) and then we stepped in to say hello to Vanessa and her Dad at his Chiropractor's clinic. Then off to the RSL for lunch.

Tom wasn't behaving particularly well so we then came home and put him down for a nap whilst I carried on with the blog and Matt worked.


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Location:Chinchilla

Westwards

Tom and Maggie

Had a good sleep at Lisa's and packed the car and said our goodbyes and headed into Brisbane. It was a revolting day, thick grey cloud and drizzly rain. That coupled with the dreary 'we could be anywhere' drive through the suburbs into Brisbane, we really thought we had been transported back to the UK!

How far?

Although there was quite a bit of traffic, we made it into Brisbane in good time and dropped off the hire car ok. We then headed to a cafe whilst we waited for Martin and Vanessa to arrived - they were driving out from Chinchilla to pick us up - completely beyond the call of duty and very very kind of them - it is 390km from Chinchilla to Brisbane - Martin drove the return trip in one day, I guess in a big country your perception of distance changes.

We headed straight out of Brisbane on the road towards Darwin - a mere 3,400 km away! Looking at that road sign made out trip to Chinchilla seem just down the road!  Unfortunately the going was quite slow as the whole road between Chinchilla and Brisbane seemed to be dug up!  Oh hum. We stopped off for lunch at Picnic Point in Toowoomba - another lunch with a view this time from the top of the Dividing Range down on the plateau when had just driven through - you could see the long straight road heading a long way in the distance back to Brisbane.

Silly sign with two boys

We had lunch - once again it was fantastic - we haven't had a bad meal out yet, except for a rather average Japanese lunch on our first day in Manly.  Steak sandwich for me - complete with beetroot of course, really good flavoursome sausages for Matt and some really naughty cakes again (no wonder Australians are getting fatter - lots of really good food and cakes to die for!)

Sipping a Babycino

We then headed out West again through lots of roadworks towards Chunchilla.  The landscape was flat and pretty featureless - mainly huge farms, mainly growing crops or beef.  There really was very little in the way of settlement - just farmhouses scattered and the odd very small settlement.  We did see 3 huge coal trains on our way though - shame Tom was asleep at that point - we videoed them for him.

We finally arrived in Chinchilla around 5pm.  It was dark by then so we couldn't see much - except a huge MacDonalds (can't be that. Remote then).  We got to Martin and Vanessa's house dumped our luggage and then headed out to Vanessa's parents' house to pick up Ben and Mia.

Heavy machines as photographed by Tom

I think Tom was quite overwhelmed at first as he was very quiet, but slowly he came out of his shell and before too long (once back at V&M's house) he relaxed and was playing nicely.  Ben is almost 12 and Mia 9, so there is quite an age gap -  but they are really nice kids and will happily play with Tom at his level.

After soup and a BBQ all the kids went to bed in the same room.  We didn't hear a squeak from them.

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Location:Chinchilla

A day in the Blackall Ranges

Glass House Mountains from the Blackall Range

Tom playing with Maggie the dog

Today we were all going to go to Australia Zoo, but when we discovered how much it would cost (over £100 for the 3 of us) we decided that maybe our holiday money would be better spent elsewhere. Lisa and Brad suggested they take us on a tour of their local area we agreed and headed off in two cars.

Ettamogah Pub

First stop was The Ettamogah Pub - a big, brash pub on the highway which was Aussie themed: lots of animal characters inside, an old still, the loos were lined with corrugated metal to look like outback loos etc etc. We all had a drink and then browsed the shops - I found some beautiful frog tiles, but once again they were very expensive so I settled for a small magnet version instead of the big thing.

Every name under the sun

We then headed inland into the Blackall Ranges and into Montville for lunch. This seemed very familiar and I'm 80% certain I visited here before on one of my day tours (I think from Noosa). Brad and Lisa chose a fantastic restaurant overlooking a magnificent view of hills and mountains with the sea beyond. The restaurant was called the edge and it was right on the edge. Even the car park had a magnificent view.

Lunch with a view

Brad, Lisa and Matt all had beer battered snapper and chips whilst I went against the flow ad had a lamb tagine pie - all of which were delicious. We then went for a walk down the high street looking at the shops. We found a beautiful wood shop selling wonderful goods including a huge cheese paddle and the most wonderful fruit bowl I've ever seen but we were good and left them behind (I would have to buy an extra long suitcase to fit the paddle in and anyway I'm not sure our dining table was big enough for it!). We also came across a German Cuckoo Clock Shop - this is the shop that made me think we have visited before as it rang many bells. Tom enjoyed it - watching for things to happen on the clocks. We also found a sweet shop where you can watch people making rock type sweets but unfortunately they weren't making any when we popped in as I love watching that sort of thing.

Montville

We then headed back home via a Glass House Mountain view point (very beautiful - big individual lumps of rock sticking up from the floodplain). Brad and Lisa also showed us one of the houses they have their eye on (very nice, very big and very rural) before heading back to their place for cheese and crackers and then dinner. Callum and Tom (who are now best of friends) then had a bath together before bed.


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Glass House Mountain

Location:Narangba

Tom and Callum watching The Wiggles after a busy day

Up to Brisbane

A Brush Turkey - we saw these everywhere

So it was our last night as trailer trash in the amazing freezing sheets. I don't know what the sheets at this park were made from but they were freezing cold, it would take ages to warm them up and then if you moved they suddenly became freezing cold again. It was as if they were made from ice. We ended up with 4 blankets on top but we were still cold. Tom woke up crying both nights because he was cold too. Not a great night's sleep.

We packed up and left. First stop was Byron Bay so Matt could check any messages through a wifi spot. We then headed up Highway 1 up towards Brisbane. We crossed into Queensland and were very disappointed with the sign welcoming us in. We were expecting an huge welcome to the Sunshine State but instead were greeted with a sign no more bigger than a street sign saying Queensland. Oh hum.

Last play in the sea

We managed to skirt round the city - viewing it from a bridge, and then headed onto the Redcliffe Peninsula in the search for lunch. We ended up in a cafe run by a lady who was born in Morecambe of all places, she moved to Oz when she was 10 months, but she's lived in the UK for quite a number of years and knew roughly where Ingleton is, and knows Morecambe, Carnforth etc. It's a small world!

We had a last look at the sea and then headed to Narangba to Matt's old friend Lisa (they were in Japan together). We were given a warm welcome by her and her hubby Brad and Maggie a very cute Cavoodle (a cross between a poodle and a King Charles Spaniel). This was a good test for Tom. He managed to stroke her but then cried when she came close by. Oops. We were very lucky in that Maggie is a very calm and sweet natured doggie and before too long Tom was willingly stroking her and throwing a ball for her. By the end of the evening they were the best of friends - I never thought I would see the day!!!!!

Lisa and Brad have a 2 year old boy Callum who was with his grandparents when we arrived but he soon joined us and after some initial shyness he and Tom were playing quite nicely together, which was lovely to see - very strange to see Tom as a leader rather than ad a follower. Callum was very cute - almost as tall as Tom and talking (I always find that strange because Tom didn't start talking till much later).

Dinner was a BBQ - the first one of the holiday - burgers and chicken kebabs with a huge pot of pasta. Tom ate loads. Then bed for Tom and chat for us. Lisa's hubby Brad is really nice. As a family they are pretty much the same as us - ie Brad is self employed and works from home and Lisa a stay at home mum. They can also live pretty much anywhere as all Brad needs is an Internet connection. Now Brad's career path is quite interesting. He was brought up in a farm in Victoria and started his working life there. He then moved on to truck driving and is now an independent financial trader. Now how many people in the UK would be able to cite that career path? I think it is a result of Australian being a more egalitarian society than ours - here anyone can do anything, we are still governed by class attitudes. They are now thinking of moving up into the countryside to have some land - Brad misses the countryside, and Lisa wants to live somewhere with a bit more character.

We are also both very rock and roll as by 10pm we were all flagging and headed for bed. Nice warm sheets this time.

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Location:Narangba

A Beautiful Day in Byron Bay

Byron Bay

Another morning of clear blue skies and no clouds. We really have been lucky with this little road trip. We had our usual lazy morning and then headed out tothe coast around 10. Today we encountered our first traffic jam since leaving Sydney. It is market day and vehicles were queuing to get in - must have taken us a good 10 minutes to drive the 3 km or so to the beach. We then discovered that you have to pay for parking here - big humph! However, we were wise enough not to do so and soon found space on the roadside which was free.

Oh yes, a mammoth has come with us - Baby Otto

Our plan for the morning was to walk around the headland which takes in the most Easterly point of the Australian mainland, the lighthouse and some forest. So we headed off down the well marked route. We came to a cafe pretty early on so sat down for a coffee (Matt) and juice (Tom and I) whilst watching some wonderful looking breakfasts pass our way. The food in cafes and restaurants in Australia really is very very good - fresh, tasty and imaginative. Only problem is that it is quite expensive (but then everything here is expensive).

Family Young at the most Easterly Point on Mainland Australia 

Lighthouse at Byron Bay

We carried on, taking in the sweeping vistas of clear blue sea, golden sands and lumpy forested mountains. Australia really is full of natural beauty. We also managed to spot some dolphins and whales which was great. We got to the most Easterly point and took the customary photo for proof.

One neat little thing they have here are ready set up tripods at favourite viewpoints (we came across another one in Dorrigo National Park), you simply attach your camera, put it on the timer and run. This means we have quite a few family photos from this holiday.

Oh, just want to make a point about surfers, as this being the weekend, there were loads about. You always imagine surfers to be young guys (in their 20s) sun bronzed, wild hair, cool dudes. This is true to an extent, but these 20 year olds do grow old, and as far as I can work out, once you have the bug you can't let it go. I've seen plenty of older men with surfboard in hand: with snow white hair, pot bellies, beards, bald etc etc. I've also seen many Dads in the water with children teaching them how to surf. I am amazed because I tried out surfing when I was here last and I have never been so exhausted in my life - I used up every ounce of energy - I could barely make it back to my hostel and remember collapsing on a chair in the communal area unable to get myself to my room. That was when I was 27 - so how do 50 and 60 year old men do it?

Hand gliding over the sea

We then headed up to the lighthouse took in the amazing view again and then carried on down, pausing to look at the hand gliders who were having a great time in the thermals going round and round - must have been a great view. The rest of the walk was through a coastal forest back to the car. Once again pretty much all the plants were unrecognisable to us and looking beautiful in the dappled sunlight. We even came across another Brush Turkey - once again not standing still for the camera!

Tom and me in the sea

We made it back to the car and got out our beach bag and headed to the beach. This being a Sunday it was quite busy - ie we had neighbours thin 50 meters of us! I had to put on my new bright pink swimsuit - yuck, I must have stood out on the beach big time! We then spent the afternoon playing rugby and playing in the sea. Tom really got into the sea today, although he won't go far, today he decided it would be fun to sit down in it. This he did and a couple of times he got submersed as a bigger wave flowed over him. We were expecting tears but instead got giggles! He was shivering with the cold, but refused to stop playing as he was having so much fun.

Lying in the sea

Eventually we called it a day and decided to head into the town centre in search of a cafe for tea and a bun and hopefully a wifi connection to check the rest of our plans are still ok. We didn't find wifi but we did find the most amazing cafe 'Twisted Sista' I have never seen such amazing cakes and pies in a cafe before. Basically I would happily eat there every day for a week and not get bored. We shared a caramel slice between the three of us, but couldn't bear to leave without trying something else so asked for a slice of chocolate mud cake and a slice of pear and apple crumble to be put in take away boxes so we could have them for pudding tonight. They didn't skimp on the portion sizes - the slices we took home were HUGE.

Pirate Australia

We then walked back to the car, I was on the look out for tourist shops to get some more postcards - but couldn't find any (I guess we must have been in the wrong area as I'm sure There must be plenty of them here). I ended up getting some in a pharmacy instead. We also found ourselves in a surf shop looking for a new sun hat for Tom (his is getting a little small). We didn't find one, but Tom suddenly piped up that he wanted a surf board! I asked him to show me which one and he pointed to a skateboard. It was $150, however I then noticed a box of mini skate boards - each one $9! We couldn't believe they were so cheap but the shop keeper confirmed it. It was too good an offer to turn up, so Tom is now the proud owner of a green skate board.

Monster Quiche at Twisted Sista

We got back to the campsite, Tom had a go on his new toy on the grass and was happy. We had a very good dinner of pork chops, cheesy mash and salad followed by those two monster slices of cake. The dinner of champions and we didn't get through the cakes so they will feature on our breakfast menu tomorrow.

Skate Boarder Tom

Another fantastic, fun family day. This has been a really good road trip, I'm a little sad that this is our last day of it, although I'm looking forward to meeting Matt's friend Lisa tomorrow and Martin on Wednesday.

Sumo Tom at our Cabin

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Location:Byron Bay

Into the tropics

My favourite spread from 13 years ago and still yummy today

Another glorious day, unfortunately we had to spend it in the car. We moved further north today to Byron Bay. First of all though we had to repack (our luggage has expanded to fill our car - so much so that it has got out of hand). Matt took Tom for a play at the parks facilities whilst I grappled with everything. There was a jumping pillow, giant chess and a putting green - so that kept them both busy for quite a while)

At 10, the car was ready, so we all jumped inside. It wasn't a fast journey as the Highway was single track for a fair while (although there were serious roadworks going on along big chunks of it - turning it from what we would call an A road to a Motorway). We stopped off at Grafton as I spotted a Target where I knew I would be able to get a swimming costume. I popped in and yes I found one that fits - phew, it was also heavily reduced - yahoo, it is also bright pink - yuck! Oh well, beggars can't be choosers, it was purchased and I'll just have to suffer the shame of wearing bright pink!

River Clarence

English and Gaelic in Australia?

As we had stopped anyway and it was lunchtime, we thought we would have lunch too. Matt and Tom found a Japanese outlet so we headed to that: gyudon for Matt and ebi fry with rice for me as well as a side order of gyoza with Tom sharing as usual. We then headed back to the car, we decided to come off the highway for a little while and followed tourist route 22 which took us through beef country, alongside the Richmond River - very flat and lush countryside.

Tartan Totem Poles

And more

We had to get a little chain pulled free ferry back across the river to continue our journey Northwards. This ferry was green and yellow just like the Manly ferry, does that mean that all public transport ferries have the same livery?

The first town we came across on the other side of the river was Maclean, which is a Scottish town. So much so that some of the signs were written in English and Gaelic. They have also painted hundreds of telegraph with different tartans, I even spotted a weather vain in the shape of a piper, the public loos were also divided between lads and lassies. I wonder how Scottish the people are or whether this is just a gimmick to try to get people to stop off and spend money with them? It didn't quite work with us - we stopped, took a couple of photos from the lookout point and of the tartan poles and then got back in our car and carried on.

Tom was quite good in the car - he didn't shut up the whole time, we were singing silly songs, spotting things, playing cafe, playing with Totoro, asking silly questions etc etc. he certainly wasn't going to doze!

Mummy can I play a game on your ipad?

We got to Byron Bay around 3.30, checked in. I was pleasantly surprised with our cabin. I had a bit of trouble finding somewhere to stay here. Either accommodation was overpriced (double what we had been spending), full, minimum booking of 3 nights, no children or tents only (we didn't want to risk my wet weather curse with those). This place was reasonably priced - only drawback is that their wifi isn't working, meaning I've got behind on this blog again. The cabin is more spacious than the other two: it has a bunk in the living area meaning they haven't tried to cram in a second bedroom, giving us more space elsewhere. Tom once again is going to sleep in our bed and then we are transferring him to his bunk when we go to bed.

Anyway after looking around the cooking facilities we headed to the local supermarket to get provisions in: more lamb and some pork, beer etc. then back to the cabin for dinner, shower and bed.


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Location:Byron Bay

Rainforest

On the Skyway

We woke up to some clouds today - but not to worry, there were only a few and they were dispersing nicely. Today's plan was to go to Dorrigo National Park which is World Heritage Listed as one of the Gondwana Rainforests: pockets of pristine rainforests dotted around NSW and Queensland.

This we did- we took warmer clothes and raincoats expecting the worse (we needn't have). It was a 60km drive inland, passing through the town of Bellingen which I had in my mind as an Alpine town with lots of alpine style wooden chalets. Once again my mind played tricks on me as we didn't see any but it was full of fair-trade type goods and craft shops which I also remembered,so maybe I've got mixed up somewhere.

View from the top

Buttress Roots

Small boy amongst the trees

After a slow drive up into the mountains (I got stuck behind a horse box) we finally arrived at the centre. We went to the information desk and asked what we should do with Tom seeing as he will happily walk around 6km. The lady sent us off on the Wonga Walk which incorporates two elevated sky walks where you walk amongst the canopy and two waterfalls. This sounded perfect so we headed on our way.

Crystal Falls

A rainforest really is an amazing place to explore - especially if you come from Europe where there aren't any. There immediately in front of us were thousands of trees - most of them very very tall and very skinny - all competing to get the most sunlight possible. We saw cedars, Tallow trees, rosewood, Yellow Carabeans, Walking Stick Palms and of course most spectacular of all Strangling Figs - trees that sprout half way up an existing tree and then sent roots up and down that tree slowly strangling it and taking over its intake of nutrients etc until the original tree dies and leaves the fig with pipe in the middle where the original tree was. Naughty Strangler Figs. We also saw the Stinging Tree - touch any part of it and you will know about it for days, plenty of ferns and palms, some fine examples of buttress roots and lots of mushrooms (much to Matt's disgust).

Lots of trees

It really was truly splendid, photographs really don't do it justice. We also were confronted by a barrage of sound: exotic birds calling out to each other. We didn't see many, but a Brush Turkey ran out in front of Matt startling him and slightly scaring Tom.

We stopped off at the first waterfall: Tristania Falls for a picnic lunch and what a lovely place for lunch watching water cascade and fall over what looked like a very tall version of The Giant's Causeway - the rocks seemed to be perfectly geometrical. We then headed to Crystal Shower Falls which is absolutely spectacular a fine flow of water showers over rocks. There is a cave behind meaning you can walk behind the waterfall and view it inside out - it was so beautiful and good fun because we all got wet doing it - Tom thought it was very funny.

Glowing (slightly blurred) fern

We then completed the circuit back to the Rainforest Centre. We had been warned that this was very steep, but it wasn't bad at all: Tom didn't stop to draw breath the whole way back - yacking about goodness knows what all the way and we did ok too. Once again he didn't whinge at all during the walk and he was rewarded with 'tea and a bun' at the cafe - what's big slab of cake it was too! We were both very proud of him.

Big cheesecake, small boy

After a suitable rest we headed back to our cabin. Surprisingly it was a good 40 mins before Tom nodded off, he wasn't that impressed with us when we arrived back at the cabin and woke up.

Oh big milestone: today was the first day that he sat still whilst eating dinner - he was under severe threat (his constant fidgeting at the dinner table has been driving us nuts for months now) and he did it - proving he can do it - no excuses now.






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Location:Dorrigo National Park

Onwards and Upwards

Nambucca Heads Main Beach

This morning we woke up to another glorious day - yahoooo. We had a lazy-ish morning and then had breakfast and packed up ready to continue north wards to Nambucca Heads. It wasn't that far a journey - about 130 miles. In fact at one stage it looked like we were going to arrive way to early at the holiday park so we decided to have elevenses at the first independent coffee shop we could find. After a few false starts we arrived in a town called Kempsey and decided to come off the highway in search coffee. We went a bit wrong and ended up travelling about 20Km out of our way to a place called Crescent Head. We were expecting it to be a wild run down place as according to the guide book it was a township on a piece of land which was the first to given back to Aborigines by the Australian Government after they were able to prove a continuous connection to it - this took place as late as 1996!!!!! We didn't see one Aboriginal face.

Writing practice on the beach

However we did find an extremely good and bustling bakery and coffee shop so we had a late elevenses and decided to see if we could find a minor road back to the highway which we did. It was nice to be off he highway for a while, we drove past cattle farms - with some very serious looking cows in the fields or as we like to say - beef on four legs. We were puzzled for a while as to why the sheep were so woolly but then remembered that although it is hot for us, it is cold for them right now - being the middle of Winter.

We got to the caravan park just gone 1 and checked in. We have a slightly smaller cabin here - Tom has a bottom bunk in a corridor between the living area and our bedroom. He's happy enough. We have a cooker but it is just an oven and a grill, no hob, so have to use the camp kitchen for anything that needs cooking in a saucepan.

Running into the sea

We headed straight off to the beach at Nambucca Heads as we had promised Tom another play in the sea. I have been here before - in fact it is the location of one of my best travel stories from my time as a backpacker as it was in a hostel here that I met someone who shared a cell with Chopper (a notorious Australian murderer). We all went to the cinema that night to watch a film - we decided on an Australian film called 'Chopper' not knowing anything about him. Then when we arrived back at the hostel we met one of his cell mates, Jimmy who was portrayed in the film. It was all a bit bizarre. Needless to say bedrooms were firmly locked and possible escape routes noted - disturbing at the time but a great travel story afterwards.

Anyway, normally the place is a sleepy holiday town, which is what it was today. We found the beach and ate our picnic and then got changed to play in the sea. This where I had my first 'oops' moment of the holiday. I found out that I have packed the wrong swimsuit - my pre-Tom one! I can't possibly be seen wearing it in public, so put a T-shirt over the top and kept fiddling with it for the rest of the afternoon. Tom was very pleased to be on the beach again, but for some reason he seemed more afraid of the sea than yesterday and seemed more content playing rugby on the beach rather than jumping in the waves.

Pelicans

After an hour and a half we went in search of Woolies for some food - we got some kangaroo burgers and flavoured chicken kebabs and potato wedges. Not our usual diet - this place is quite like America in that it isn't very well set up for eating / cooking veggies.

We then took Tom to a playground by the river we saw on the way in. We noticed some Pelicans on the river and went in search of them - such huge birds.

We then headed back to the campsite, this one has working wifi and a laundry so we hurriedly put the laundry to good use - it's amazing how quickly dirty clothes build up. Then I grilled the kangaroo burgers and roasted the potato wedges. They were very pleasant, in fact you wouldn't know that the burgers weren't made of beef - according to the packaging they are 98% fat free so you could argue they are healthy too.

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Location:Nambucca River Holiday Park