STILL HERE

We are still at North Haven, cant tear ourselves away as it is such a beautiful place, we have decided to stay another week.(again) been here five weeks now!!
I have taken up fishing, I caught a monster salmon off the beach last night with a borrowed rod, so guess what? I am going into Port Macquarie on Saturday to buy a beach rod and reel.
We have decided to return here for a few weeks in Nov/Dec.
It is impossible to describe how lovely this place is, it has everything you would want for a stay and the people are so friendly(but dont tell anybody)

Still at North Haven

Sitting in the rain at present deciding if we should stay here another week or move north on sunday, think I might leave it until friday or saturday, if we move Red Rock on the coast near Grafton looks good for a few days, then I want to go to Maclean to see if I can find my grandfathers grave and after that inland to Emmaville near Glen Innes to suss out fossicking for our trip in August with the usual crowd

North Haven

We arrived here around the thirteenth of Feb. and met up with a bunch of close friends and family, seven vans in total, some stayed for a few days and some stayed for two weeks, we have decided to stay on until we feel the urge to move north.
This place is as close to heaven on earth as you can get, there is so much to do, swimming in the river, beaches, pool, fishing,boating,bike riding, exploring etc. I even started to fly a kite on the beach and any one who said that is just for kids obviously hasn't tried flying a stunt kite.
We have visited National parks, historic towns, sat around and chatted and generally enjoyed each others company.
Everyone has left now and Doreen and I spend our days swimming, walking, bike riding (we average 10 to 15 ks a ride)also there are some teriffic lookouts around here that require a long walk to get to, so we aren't short of things to do.
Doreen wants to put North Haven on a visit twice a year list and I cant but agree that it's not a bad idea.

Naughty boy

Well haven't I been amiss, almost a month without a report, well the truth is we have been having too much fun.
Clarence Town caravan park is great and I would recommend it to anyone for a quiet cheap stay in plesant surroundings.
While here we lazed,swam in the William's river, explored the beautiful national parks that surround, visited Nelson's Bay (yes NELSON'S BAY) not bloody Nelson Bay as the Latte drinking wankers want to call it these days, it was originally named Nelson's and recorded on maps as Nelson's but someone decided to change history.
We even took a ferry ride from Stocton to Newcastle and had a look around, went to the beaches there (fantastic) the ocean pools are great, so clean.
Well after a week or so at Clarence Town the Angels must have picked us up and transported us , because we landed in paradise just over two weeks ago. We found ourselves at North Haven on the beautiful Camden Haven river.

CLARENCE TOWN

WE are at Clarence Town about 50km out of Newcastle at a little council caravan park on the Wilson river, Clarence Town is an old river port where they shipped timber from in the 1800s, the river is wide and deep and great to swim in, I will get around to taking some photo's sometime but am having too good a time at present.
The caravan park is very clean, well grassed and beautiful amenities, the managers leave you alone and best of all only $17.75 a nite for seven days, we came for one day and decided to stay for a week as parks on the coast are over thirty bucks a night and not nearly as good.

What a little gem this place is and it is only thirty minutes drive to Nelson's Bay which has fantastic little bay beaches (great for old farts like us) and the water is crystal clear.

So we are here until next Wednesday and we will go straight up to North Haven.

GULGONG

Wow it is the end of the month already and the last time I was on here we were in Temora, we spent Australia day in Cowra and went to the local celebrations, then to the Japanese memorial gardens, the old prison camp site and the war cemetary.
Moved on to Bathurst and drove around the Mt. Panorama race track towing our caravans (it was a hoot) the slowest lap in history, then off to Lithgow where we

stayed a few days to look at the blue mountains and Jenolan caves (both magnificent) skyrail, scenic railway and all the good stuff.
At Lithgow we went through the small arms museum (unbelievable)and the local lookout (breathtaking.
As of now we are in Gulgong near Mudgee visiting family and tomorrow we are going up into the hills to an old gold mining town called Hill End as my great grandfather owned mines there in the 1800s so I am taking the time to do a bit of family research.
Wednesday will see us moving on towards the coast aiming for North Haven near Port Macquarie by mid Feb.

MOVING ON

Have left Shepparton and now in Temora NSW we stayed a night at Lakeside caravan park in Finley (yuk) give it a miss bloody awful we are staying at a little council park in Temora $20.00 a nite grassed sites nice barbie and excellent amenities, visited Junee and went to Monte Cristo a restored mansion, the railway roundhouse (great for the fellas) and the licorice factore (bloody ripoff), tomorrow going to the Temora air museum and the colonial museum in town and the girls are going to do all the crafty things.
On wednesday we are moving on to Young for a look and then to Cowra for the war cemetary and Japanese gardens.
Will add some more pics when I get more data on the 27th.

SHEPPARTON

Spent the day at the factory outlets in Shepp. SPC,Campbell soup and country soaps, I never much believed in factory outlets before but the ones we went to today were fantastic, worked out we got nearly $300.00 worth of stuff at least, for under $100.00, also Aldi here sell booze, got a carton of lite beer for under twenty bucks

TIME OUT

Still at Mooroopna just out of Shepparton, took some time off from our travels to spend some time with my brother, would you believe that I haven't seen him for fourty one years (too long) but at least we have caught up and I hope it is not for the last time, at least he seems to be in good health for his age (he is 83)
We spent the days reminising about our childhood and all our family memories, it was a very emotional time.
Tomorrow our friends should arrive here from Swan Hill we will probably stay until the weekend and then decide where we will go from then.
It is a particularly beautiful part of Victoria here so we are happy to stick around, I cant recommend

Finborough Place in Mooroopna enough.

OOOPS

Did I say Sunday night in the last post, ooops! a little premature but it is Sunday night now and we are in Mooroopna on the outskirts of Shepparton we found a great caravan park just for seniors just 20 dollars a night with a further discount for a week, it is really great very clean, beautiful lawns and very modern facilities it is a must for any oldies passing through this area it is the in the over fifties village just as you come in to Mooroopna from Elmore.
Couldn't believe the amount of water across the paddocks as we drove over from Stawell and the mess in the towns we drove through that had been flooded, we can only imagine the damage back home.

LEAVING STAWELL

Well it is sunday night here in Stawell and our last night, we didn't get to see much beacuse of the rain but we will be back.
Going over to Shepparton tomorrow if we can get through as I want to see my brother for the first time in fourty years then we are meeting up with friends on wednesday to continue our travels.

PICS

Hooray for Telstra, pics with posts from now on

TELSTRA

Thank God, I have Telstra at last I managed to get 1G on my mobile for a reasonable cost so I will be able to ditch Vodaphone.
A word of warning for anyone travelling who wants mobile broadband USE ONLY TELSTRA anything else is bloody useless.
Sitting in the rain here in Stawell with bugger all to do but wait, maybe tomowwow will be fine.

AT STAWELL

Well the rally is over (thank God) it will be our last one and now we are at Stawell in the Grampions and have done some wet mountain bushwalking and more when the weather fines up.
I cant get over how welcoming and friendly the locals here are and the care and concern they have expressed over the Queensland floods.
The people of Victoria really want to repay Queensland for the help and support we gave to the bushfires and there is a major drive here for donations to the appeal and money is pouring in from all over, thank you Victoria.
As for us we are high and dry and are staying here until Sunday as there is lots to see and do.
I cant stress enough that any one intending to travel, this part of australia is a must.
I dont have good enough service on my computer to put pics up but when I do I will post some but as for now I am doing this on a library computer.

MUST DO'S

If you ever come to this part of Victoria there are some must do's that are worth the visit
Sail on the old paddle wheelers out of Euchuca
Explore the old Euchuca port
Take the steam train ride from Castlemaine to Maldon
Visit the old Castlemaine jail
Have a beer and a meal at the Railway hotel in Elmore
Visit historic Rushworth and go out to the old mine
There is so much to see around here we will probably come back after we go to the Grampions

FINALLY AT ELMORE

Gosh it is January 3rd already and the new year has came and gone, rain chased us all the way down to Dubbo but since then we have had fine weather, new years eve was 42.7c at Elmore and it is fine sunny and about 18c this morning but that's Victoria for you.
Stayed at the Rochester caravan park for two days before coming on to Elmore, you wouldn't believe that two weeks ago it was one and a half metres under water.
There are over 400 caravans at the rally from clubs all over Australia and everyone seems to be enjoying themselves, we have done some of the tourist things like paddle wheel trip, Euchuca port tour etc. we also visited an old gold mine at Rushworth which is inside a hollowed out hill amazing sight we are going on a steam train tour to historic Maldon Wednesday but more importantly off to Bendigo tomorrow to swap the Vodaphone Inet connection to Telstra.