Will We Ever Get To The Border??

Time to catch up with our news of late, which is not terribly interesting, but still - its all news I suppose. Our last blog saw us on the road back to Aberdeen, and after a nights stop over at Warragamba - the worst!!! caravan park we have ever stayed in- over rated and over priced.  Mind you, when a caravan park has no NRMA rating it is not hard to give it a rating - and this one certainly doesn't deserve one.  We had to run two extension cords to get access to power, if we'd needed water we would have had to cart it, and the amenities block a good five minute walk away - all for $37 a night.  Leaving the next morning we loaded the car onto the trailer for the last time and navigated our way through Penrith and headed up the Putty Road, which I think we included in our last Blog.

We arrived back in Aberdeen on March 25th, in time for Barry's dad's 90th birthday. 

The day went off all ok, but Harry has become very frail, since last we saw him, and his medical condition worsening by the day.  It was great to catch up with the family

Harry With All His Children

The Two Youngest Grandchildren Justin and Kimmy with Pop

Matt, Debby and Alicia with Pop

Barry and I - Helping To Celebrate The Day

The day went off all ok, but Harry has become very frail, since last we saw him, and his medical condition worsening by the day.  It was great to catch up with the family and we ended the day with a nice meal at the pub up the road for dinner that night.  All in all a good day.

As most would know we had decided to sell the trailer and buy and A frame tow hitch, heavy enough tow the courier.  We ordered it from Melbourne and had arranged to have it installed in Newcastle, so it was back to Newcastle we headed, back to our old and great friends Barb and Ian. Always made to feel so welcome at their home and Barry and Ian enjoy their afternoon happy hours everyday.  We are blessed to have such good friends.

Barb and Ian

The Braking System Inside The Car

Barry Checking Out The New A Frame

The A Frame took about 2 days to install and is quite amazing with a wireless braking system.  All just done with plugging the system in the car into the cigarette lighter in the car and this communicates with a similar LED system on the dash of the bus.  When not  towing it all swings back up against the back of the bus and locks in place.  All very impressive and will hopefully make life much easier for Barry, rather than loading and unloading off the trailer.

After the installation it was off the the RTA engineer for certification - that's whole new story.  This isn't required in any other state other than NSW and the certification is only good for 3 months  all for a $350 for half an hours work!!!  But prior to having the RTA check done it was off to a mechanic to have a brake test done - should try taking something this big for a brake test in the middle of Newcastle - makes life interesting - thats for sure.  Anyway passed with flying colors.

A couple of new tyres and a wheel alignment later and we were able to leave Newcastle - some what poorer!!!  (that is after paying registration and insurance on the bus as well).

Camped at the Aberdeen Rodeo grounds, which is one of the best free camps anyone could possibly want. Water laid on and if you are lucky enough the council workers will come around and let you into the shed to run a power cord - so what more could you want.  Mostly have the place to ourselves, but Friday night we had the company of the Queensland Polo Cross team, who left very early the next morning on their way to the Royal Easter Show.

Have spent a lot of the last week trying to help Sandra and Kay clean out Harry's unit - who is now safely within the confines of the Strathearn Nursing Home.  A huge relief for us to now head off, knowing he will be looked after and safe.  But boy the amount of stuff that has had to be cleaned up and sorted out is unbelievable.  Still some to do over the next couple of days, but nearly there now. Had a lovely day off yesterday and had lunch with Sandra and nice couple of hours it was too.

The Easter bunny even happen to find us down here too and Barry has now nothing to show for it, an now will have to sit here and watch me slowly!!! plow my way through my two boxes of Cadbury Favourites - which could be anything up to two weeks - slow torture, I think you could call it. lol.

Starting to wonder if we will ever get past the NSW border, but after this week, that is it - due west is where we head.  Mum and Dad coming over here for a few days next weekend and after that we are off.  Planning to just slowly make our way to Broken Hill and across to South Australia, and a few weeks of making our way across the Nullarbor  Plains - so much to see along there and a great site to check out is right here -

http://www.abc.net.au/eyre/nullarbor/default.htm?site=capricornia&date=%28none%29

So looking forward to heading off and seeing some new things and get this camera going.  But a few things to deal with this week before we get going and we hope you will enjoy keeping up to date with our travels as we go.  Our timing is not all that good as we have been delayed so many times, as we were hoping to get up north of Western Australia during the winter, but our plans will have to change and we will just take it as it comes - Day by Day.

Having visitors for lunch today and have the camp oven going now ready to enjoy some good company and food.

Spent Saturday at the Nundle Chinese Festival, which will be our next blog, so some more reading for you coming up real soon.

BigRedBusTouringCo.com: The Joys Of Life On The Road!!!

BigRedBusTouringCo.com: The Joys Of Life On The Road!!!: "It's been awhile since our last blog, and must be about time we bought it up to date. The last blog, found us down on the south coast of NS..."

The Joys Of Life On The Road!!!

It's been awhile since our last blog, and must be about time we bought it up to date.

The last blog, found us down on the south coast of NSW in the small town of Milton.

Unfortunately, the weather kept us pretty 'bus bound', and it just seemed intent on raining and raining.  Much to our displeasure we therefore didn't get much of a chance to do a lot of sight seeing.  During our time down on the South Coast, we did manage to see a fair bit- but our map has a gap in between Sussex Inlet and Milton - oh well - always have to save something for another time.

The highlight had to have been our days around Hyam's Beach - such a wonderfully untouched piece of Australian earth - but to be able to afford to live there is beyond our financial means or dreams.

We stayed in Milton until the March 21st, when we packed up and headed up towards Nowra - a whole 60 kms - were we booked into this caravan park.  We had the bus booked in to have a service done on the generator at the Winnebago place there.  The weather just closed in and rained more and more.  (The South Coast received over 300 mm over a 24 hours period).  The radio was telling us most of the roads north were closed due to the floods, so we were not sure where or what was ahead of us.

We awoke next morning to a day of brilliant sunshine and so it was looking hopeful.  The fog lay thick over the valleys and the Shoalhaven River and such a stark contrast to the day before.

Sun Rising Through The Fog Over The Shoalhaven

Sun Rising Through The Fog

Sunrise Over The Shoalhaven River

Shoalhaven Bridge

Another Shoalhaven Sunrise

Arriving at the Winnebago place we left in the ute and went to do a few things around Nowra - amongst them to find out about road closures etc, but whilst there we tried to find out more information in regard to whether we are supposed to be carrying a log book - we were there for over an hour and the RTA guys get a big thumbs up from us for being so helpful - after not being able to find the information we were after we left, with a promise that they would ring us when they found out the correct information.  True to form, they did ring us later that day - and no- we don not have to carry a log book Mr Policeman that tried to book us up near Murrundi!!!  - and we have the evidence to prove it now - so we can travel with peace of mind...So yet another issue that we can lay to rest.

The generator was finished by 11am, so we were able to get an earlier start than we thought and so headed off up the highway towards Wollongong.

We had  decided that I would drive the ute and go ahead of Barry as I had the GPS.  Along the way, there was a huge morton bay fig tree on the south side of Kiama which is one the biggest and most beautiful trees that we have ever seen.  I called Barry up on the radio and said that I would just pull up and take a couple of photos and then catch him up. 

The Magnificent Morton Bay - The Cause Of All the Trouble!

The view from the Car Park Where I Had Pulled Up

Well, that is pretty well how it was - I got out of the car and took a couple of photos and got back in the car and headed off.  Well - that was the last I saw of him!!!  We had checked out the maps and had decided that we would take the Campbelltown exit - as it was the most direct route to Campbelltown - but all the way along Barry had it in his head that it was the Picton Road we had to take.

I was sailing along and tried calling him on the radio and the last I heard of him was some sort of muffled reply with the word Bulli in it...no reception after that.
I really didn't think it would take to much to catch him up, along the highway, but no such luck - he had just disappeared.

I took the Campbelltown exit and got to Campbelltown where I sat and waited for him- after about 1/2 hour there was still no sign of him, so decided to head back the way I had come - back through to Appin.  I just to had to hope that he would ring me on the mobile.  I got about 12 kms from Appin when he rang me on the phone - where was he???  He was at Wilton and yes he had gone up the Picton Road!!!  But in the mean time he had missed the turn off to Campbelltown and ended up at Heathcote!!!!..Of course it was all my fault lol.
We then had to then double back and head to Wallacia which took us another hour, when if we had got to Campbelltown we were only 30 kms away from the caravan park.  Needless to say - someone was not very happy.  An experience to notch up - thats for sure.  Barry has no idea of direction and doesnt seem able to take in some details of things, especially when it comes to taking directions - like as in maps directions.

The caravan park at Wallacia was just the biggest rip off - charged us $35 for a powered site which we had to reach with 2 extension leads - we had no water other than what we could carry by bucket and the showers etc were right up the end of the caravan park.

We made it up the Putty Road and out to the farm ok.  We had to come back as the bus is due for registration, and yes it was not!!! simple.

A stop at the Halfway House on the Putty Road was always on our list when travelling this road, but was burnt to the ground a few years ago, and at long last someone has bought it and done some interesting things there now the Unity Sculpture is of particular interest.

 

Big Red Parked For Lunch At the Halfway House - Putty Road

Part of The Burnt Out Ruins of the Halfway House

Ned Kelly Mail Box At The Halfway House

The Unity Sculpture At the Halfway House - The Front is male

The Other Side is Female - very cleverly done

As you know Big Red is registered in QLD - we were originally told that we would not require an inspection (as QLD has different rules to NSW).  But no....we had to have an inspection - Barry was all set to head off to QLD the next day, but on suggesting a phone call we had it sort of all sorted. Qld roads sent us a form which required that we could get it done here, then send the form along with the report back to QLD.

We booked the bus into Corbets for 10am - we were still there at 4!!! yes 6 hours we were there.  The bloke doing the inspection was 2 hours late to begin with.  The inspection went ok, until such time as he checked the fuel gas tanks - they have to be checked every 10 years - as it turned out - they had not been done when it was sold to us - (big mistake on behalf of QLD roads) and so it was off to Newcaslte as that was the only place we could have it done. This was after they charged us $235.00 for the privilige of waiting 6 hours! Even charged us half an hours labour for the time it took him to make a phone call to Newcastle to find a gas inspection place - thats when my blood started to boil- could have at least let us talk to the guy and book it in to save us an extra phone call - seeing as we were paying for the time anyway.

Fortunately the guy that did the gas inspection was only just down on the corner from Barb and Ian's where we stay.  We had a full load of gas on and to do the inspection the tanks had to be empty, so the trip down to Newcastle used some of that, so that is when we arranged to go to Taree and meet up with Mum and Dad, which was really lovely.  It took us a while to use up the gas but a trip back via Morrisett and Corrangbong sorted that out.  The tanks got inspected the next day and all was good. (Big Sigh of relief). 

We decide then to return to Muswellbrook to finish off the paper work and send it through to QLD - a fax and a few phones later and all is sorted - we are now registered for another 12 months and will certainly be checking out the different state registration rules as we travel over the next few months.

A nationalised ruling for the registration and drivers licences in Australia is much warranted!!  Would certainly save people such as ourselves a lot of unnecessary stress and worry.

As you know we were selling the trailer, which we did last Sunday when the fellow came out to the farm and picked it up, and we  have now ordered the A frame.

The A frame is on its way from Melbourne and we had to book it into to have it fitted, which is also just near Barb and Ian's.  It arrives on Monday, but they cannot fit it in to be done until the 11th, which is a nuisance!  - they want the car for 3 days, and so that ends our any thought we had of trying to get to Canowindra for the hot air balloon festival, or even thinking about getting to the CMCA rally at Deniliquin. Oh well - there will be other years, but still a shame as we were really looking forward to it.

So here we sit, nearly 12 months after having moved into Big Red, still sitting in Muswellbrook - waiting - waiting to see what is in store for us.

Stay tuned and become a follower of our story - would love to have you on board.