Day Ten of a Camper Holiday! - Homeward Bound

After dropping the Joey off in Dubbo on day nine, we over-nighted in Blayney. Blayney is a place rooted in both mine and A's family history. My maternal-maternal great grandfather was born here, and Blayney is also just up the road from A's father's childhood town of Carcoar.

The weather in Blayney was less than kind - minus 4 degrees, and the reverse-cycle air conditioner iced up again which meant yet another cold, noisy night.


As this was our last day on the road, we promised the kids McDonald's for lunch - conditional on good behaviour - and went visiting A's two remaining grandparents.


Our kids have been very lucky - luckier than most in that they have been able to meet and have some level of relationship with three of their great grandparents. My Oma has only passed on recently leaving the kids with two great grandparents, both of which are A's grandparents.


These great grandparents have recently moved into nursing homes - one in Bathurst, and the other in Taralga. So our itinerary was set: Bathurst nursing home, Taralga nursing home, Goulburn McDonald's, and then home to unpack and clean the camper.



The visit to Bathurst went well, and Nan was pleased to see us. She was in fine spirits, and the children behaved, remembered their manners and interacted well with her and each other.


During this visit a dark cloud was settling over my thoughts: The Oberon-Goulburn road crosses the Abercrombie River near Black Springs, and this crossing is at the bottom of a very deep gorge.


A very steep-sided deep gorge. With a little wooden bridge at the bottom.


The largest vehicle I had taken over that crossing before now was a Toyota HiAce. When driving out of the gorge, I recall the road being so steep that I was supporting my weight by holding on to the steering wheel. Parts of the road are not only very very steep, but there are strange cambers too.


I was not looking forward to taking 4490 kilograms of motor home through the gorge.


On the drive from Oberon to the top of the descent, I realised I was worrying too much about this gorge. After all I had followed tipper and dog combinations, and once I had even followed a semi-trailer.

This road is steep - we are the same height as the horizon.
Also note the camber of the road
- it's not too clear, but the road is leaning hard to the left.

So I calmed myself down, took a deep breath, set the gearbox to operate only in second gear, and started down the side of the gorge. At this point I was cursing silently over whatever rules forbid vehicles of less than 4.5 tonnes being fitted with exhaust brakes in Australia. I really could have used them.


With the motor home hanging off the gearbox at about 35 kilometres per hour and my view of the steep descent below, my only job was now to steer and periodically apply the brake. There was little else for me to do.

The bridge crossing the Abercrombie River.
Photo by Grahamec

The little wooden bridge crossing the river was looking worse for wear - part of the rails which prevent one from driving off the edge were missing, probably damaged in the recent floods.


The drive up the other side of the gorge was as slow as the descent.

Grandad in Taralga was pleased to see us, and broke into his usual story telling mode. Despite his frailty, this means that he is doing just fine.

After a quick stop at McDonald's we arrived home and began the long process of moving out of the camper and back into our own home.

Day Nine of a Camper Holiday! - The Best Day Ever!

We finished off day eight by heading south to Coonabarabran via Moree. I felt that remaining on the major highways was the simple choice - we had to be back in Canberra by the end of day ten.



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Our sleep was disturbed at 3am by a hammering noise from the reverse cycle air-conditioner. The temperature in the Coonabarabran caravan park had dropped to minus 2 degrees, and the air conditioner had iced over. The result was that we woke up tired and cold.


X's solution to this was that he and I should go outside and kick the soccer ball as we had done a few times before. Kicking a soccer ball certainly does warm the toes.


Our journey inland was to avoid the coastal rain, and before our diversion A had been looking forward to walking on the beach at Byron Bay. So we headed off to go on the Fans Horizon walk in the Warrumbungle National Park, followed by a double-back to the observatories at Siding Springs.


But what we had planned was not going to happen....


A few minutes away from the track head A swerved the camper around a dead wallaby, and then pulled over: we had both seen the much smaller wallaby standing next to the dead one.

This little joey has a cut nose -
most likely caused when she crawled out of her mothers pouch.

I ran back and picked up the tiny creature which was still covered in some of her mothers blood. I wrapped her in my blue Census jumper and held her close to my chest where she quickly calmed down. When I had picked her up she was shivering and making noises like a sick dog.


There was clearly nothing to be done for the mother - her bright red blood was on the road, and in several places very white pieces of splintered bone were sticking through her skin.

X taking seriously his job of keeping the joey
warm, in the dark, yet able  to breathe.

A few minutes later the four of us marched in to the Warrumbungle visitor's centre where the ranger advised us that the usual WIRES wildlife person in the area was in Sydney, and that we would need to deal with WIRES in either Gunnedah or Dubbo. I was a little surprised that the ranger seemed uncaring about the plight of an injured animal in the National Park (isn't this what rangers are meant to do?) so I was tempted to place the little Wallaby on the floor of the visitors centre and leave.


We resolved to follow through with what we committed to when we picked the joey up. Either option of Dubbo or Gunnedah meant the cancellation of our bush walking and observatory visit. Dubbo was in the direction we needed to travel, and so we contacted WIRES Dubbo and agreed on a meeting point in town.

E was very happy to hold the joey wallaby.

X was awarded the job of nursing the wallaby against his chest while we headed to Dubbo. Needless to say, E was quite put out, but I feel X's more mature outlook and his ability to not take a look at the joey every few minutes made him the right choice.


For two hours the joey rested, and eventually slept against X's chest, wrapped in my jumper.


E was given a turn holding the little one, and she handed the joey over to the WIRES lady in Dubbo.


Being the jubilee, we named the joey "Lizzie the second". We learned that this creature was a Swamp Wallaby, and that swamp wallabies are the only true wallaby - other wallabies being more closely related to kangaroos. The WIRES lady also told us that a Swamp Wallaby of this age would not normally every leave her mothers pouch, and would have most likely been eaten by a fox, if she didn't first perish in the cold weather.



So, in just a few days we have gone from learning about being a wildlife warrior to actually applying the conservation message and saving this injured animal. While Swamp Wallabies are not themselves an endangered species, this little joey was directly endangered and our actions made a difference to her.

X (at left) skates Dubbo skate park.
Note the full pipe in the background and to the right.

The children hadn't had any opportunity to ride their Razor scooters during this holiday trip, so when I pulled into Dubbo's Victoria Park skate park, X exclaimed "THIS IS THE BEST DAY EVER!"


Dubbo appears to have the scoop on the rest of Australia: their skate park doesn't feature a half-pipe, but features Australia's first FULL pipe. I can only wonder if anybody has managed to do the full loop yet, and wonder how many broken bones can be attributed to those trying.


At dinner time when we reminded the kids that this dinner would be the last in the camper van, the howls of protest from both children reassured me that this holiday experience was worthwhile and a hopefully a memorable one for both children.

Day Seven of a Camper Holiday! - Border Ranges National Park

The Camper parked at Sheepstation Creek camp ground.

Waking up and listening to the rain on the camper roof was disappointing. Our original plan was to return to Canberra via the Pacific Highway stopping around Byron Bay, Wauchope, and Newcastle.


Yet the rain was not so bad: the day was warm, and we were in beautiful rainforest surroundings.

The path crossed the creek many times.

X and A had got up early and gone for a walk, leaving me and E to sleep in. When I emerged, X had returned and so declared himself my tour guide. We walked the 2 kilometre track to the Brushbox Falls lookout.

Green everywhere. Green leaves, green moss. Gorgeous!

The track took us across a large, shallow gully, and it was interesting to note the variations in the forest - initially the forest had sparsely spaced trees with a grassy undergrowth, and as we crossed the bottom of the gully, the trees formed a dense canopy, making a muddy path in the cold air.

A strangler fig.

The path crossed the creek several times, and then went up a muddy slope.


With my limited knowledge of rainforest habitats I was able to point out a few features to X, such as strangler figs living their parasitic life on another tree, and luxuriant layers of moss growing on fallen timber.


The lookout consisted of a wooden platform built in the side of the hill.

X's favourite waterfall photo.

The falls were lovely, and I took the opportunity to try and experiment with camera shutter speeds to achieve different effects - slower speeds resulting in a silkier appearance of the water, and greater depth of field.


We wandered back to the camp ground, and sheltered from the rain in the communal camp kitchen where we checked the weather reports. Wet weather all along the New South Wales coast meant that we needed to move further inland to stay dry.


Staying in Sheepstation Creek would be lovely, but it was simply too wet to go on longer hikes with the kids.


After some research and deliberation, we decided to break camp and fossick for Sapphires.

A Wren checks in on us at the camp kitchen.

Day Six of a Camper Holiday! - Heading Down to Border Ranges National Park

After a day at Warner Brothers Movie World A was a little frayed around the edges, so we decided to head for a National Park to camp for the night. I chose Sheepstation Creek campground in the Border Ranges National Park.



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The drive to the Border Ranges become hair-raising when between Oxenford and Canungra the fuel warning light lit up. The vehicle manual indicated that once the warning light was lit I had only 7 litres of fuel left. I knew there were two petrol stations in Canungra, which was only 20 kilometres away. But I was worried when I considered that the vehicle was averaging 14 litres per hundred kilometres and we had a very big mountain to climb and then descend on the other side.


As it was, we made it to Canungra and fuelled up. We calculated that we had less than one and a half litres remaining in the fuel tank. I was very relieved, not just because of the inconvenience we would have faced in getting fuel, but as this vehicle has a Diesel engine, we would have had a bugger of a time bleeding the fuel lines and priming the fuel pump.


Once we passed through Mount Chinghee National Park we drove in some amazingly hilly country - going up some hills the vehicle would downshift to second gear and we would crawl along, and when we crested the hills I couldn't see the road until we were descending proper.

Photo from The Land.
This naughty bloke took
his horse interstate without
organising tick treatment.
I imagine that there are
similar photos on a DPI
computer somewhere of
me driving a motor-home.

We crossed the New South Wales - Queensland border at Richmond Gap where I was intrigued to find a pair of speed cameras very near each other and facing in opposite directions. Despite travelling very slowly, we had both the front and back of the vehicle photographed. Signs advised that these were surveillance cameras installed by New South Wales Department of Primary Industries. It seems that these cameras are a very big deal on the Eastern end of the NSW-QLD border. Late 2011 some bloke had towed a horse across the border after obscuring his number plates and triggered a major search effort. All of this effort is to quarantine New South Wales against cattle ticks which infest the coastal areas of Queensland.


My studies in law immediately bring to mind constitutional issues here. I immediately ask myself 'Is the New South Wales response reasonable and proportionate to the threat against which they are protecting?' If so, then we are not dealing with a protectionist matter, and the actions of New South Wales in running this system are reasonable and are not in breach of The Constitution which prohibits restrictions on interstate trade.


Also of interest at the border is a sign advising motorists that the road was built and is maintained by the Kyogle branch of the Lions Club, and a money box is attached, inviting donations. We stopped and A emptied her pockets of coins into the box. This is the first time I have driven on a toll road which operates on an honesty system - not only in terms of whether you pay, but how much you contribute too.


The Campsite was a few kilometres further and we arrived in the dark. After encountering my second honesty box for the day into which I paid my camping fees, we found a suitable site and set up camp.

Day Four of a Camper Holiday! - Tamworth to Coochin Creek

After the wax museum, we settled in for another long drive. We aimed for Coochin Creek campground, not far from Australia Zoo. This was to be our first night without the convenience of mains power and running water.

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A cross-border tussle

Our route took us up the New England Highway through Armidale, Tenterfield, Warwick and Emerald. When we reached the twin towns of Wallangarra and Jennings, we stopped and had some fun on the New South Wales / Queensland border. X and E found the whole concept quite novel, which was surprising given the (literally) thousands of times they have crossed the New South Wales / Australian Capital Territory border.
I think the whole concept of "Queensland" was the more exciting part - actually being in a place a long way away was what made a potentially mundane activity something extraordinary.

The train billboard at the border

A very large billboard thanking us for visiting the Queensland downs was just on the New South Wales side of the border. The billboard is cut in the shape of a train, and it has stairs and a platform behind it for punters to have their photo taken.


Once we reached the Bruce Highway in Beerwah, we found that the intersections had been modified so it was no longer possible to turn right without the aid of an overpass. This resulted in a 30 minute detour, which was very frustrating. Despite my frustration, I do appreciate that at-grade freeway intersections are very dangerous, and are responsible for a high number of crashes.


We arrived at Coochin Creek after dark, and established camp. What we found in the morning was a gorgeous, sensitively developed bush camp ground beside the Coochin creek.

X with soccer ball in the morning at Coochin Creek campground.

In the morning: Australia Zoo.

Day Three of a Camper Holiday! - Lunch in the Warrumbungles

After a slow start involving the usual routine, plus grocery shopping and fuelling up, we left Dubbo, and set Tamworth as our destination.


We travelled via Warrumbungle National Park and stopped near a lookout for lunch. I remained behind cooking butter chicken and rice, while A, X, &E walked the 500m to the lookout.

Butter Chicken and Rice

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X and E had protested bitterly about the Thai green curry which we had served the night before - it was too spicy for their taste. Today's butter chicken provoked enthusiastic responses when I served, and disappointment when requests for second helpings were rebuffed with an empty pan.


On their walk the kids took a rather lovely collection of photos:

Well, plenty of white, plenty of gums to look at!