The end of the road - at last!

Here we are sitting in the most beautiful, luxurious apartment overlooking Lavendar Bay and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Oh bliss! We were so excited when we walked in to our top floor corner apartment with wrap-around windows of a view which, in our opinion, is one of the best anywhere.








The excitement wasn't just because of the view, it was many things:
- our own private bathroom
- a big bed with crisp white sheets
- a separate kitchen
I could go on but really it boils down to three words - it's not camping!

Turning the clock back a few days to last Thursday and Friday Hervey Bay was gorgeous, the fish and chips for Thursday tea were rubbish though! It has a pier which is 1 whole km long, from the end you can watch humpback whales, dolphins and brilliant shoals of fish. After walking along it we made our way to the marina for lunch and spent a lazy afternoon on the beach. We left there on Saturday morning rejuvenated and ready to drive again.





Another long drive ahead, we had decided to drive inland past Brisbane on the New England Highway rather than down the Gold Coast, which we visited last year, and although it has some pretty parts, there is a lot which is tacky. The countryside was beginning to change to more contoured land, interspersed with huge plains.

We were heading for Warwick, but found when we got there that our campsite was on the south side of town and we couldn't face getting back into the camper to go and explore. It was freezing! The nice lady at the campsite suggested we might want to add a jumper and 'ditch the shorts mate.' She informed us Warwick is renowned for being the coldest town in Queensland! A short stroll through a housing estate was our only exercise, we got back to the van just before it rained. Oh the joys of going for a shower in a freezing cold shower block and running back in the pitch black through the rain. This was our darkest moment!! We went to bed - early, wrapped in two duvets wondering what we were doing.

Sunday was a good day, it was still cold but there was a beautiful blue sky and the sun was bright. Before very long we past the state line into New South Wales. It was interesting to see that we had left all the tropical climate behind and arrived in an Aussie winter/spring. There were daffodils flowering, blossom on the trees and fat buds everywhere. Our first stop was Glen Innes, a pretty town with Victorian architecture where we had a lovely warming, cooked breakfast then walked up to the standing stones, a miniature Stonehenge which was constructed to celebrate the influence of the Celtic people on shaping Australia, or something like that!








Back in the van we eventually arrived in Tamworth, the 'country music capital of Australia.' We had a lovely site right next to the river, but I have to regretfully report that the novelty of camping was somewhat wearing thin. Any conversation with other campers was terminated somewhat swiftly on the grounds that its really, really boring and you lose the will to live.

We know that Aussies do their best to market their towns with big things, sheep, bulls and bananas come to mind, and Tamworth is no exception, it proudly presents a golden guitar. Lovely.


We woke up on Monday in quite a different frame of mind, the end of the road was in sight. Music cranked up, sun shining, we set off for Cessnock in the Hunter Valley, a wine growing area. It was a good day, rounded off with yummy lamb steaks cooked on the barbie. Mind you we still declined the invitation from a couple in a caravan to 'join us in the camp kitchen.' I wasn't sure if that was a euphemism for something else. Probably meant they wanted to discuss the best water pump or some other piece of scintillating camping equipment.

And here we are. Gorgeous sunny Sydney. We hadn't planned on rocking up in Sydney again but when the opportunity arose... Sydney is like a different world to the one we have been inhabiting. It has colour, an exciting atmosphere, people dressed in smart clothes, cafes, bars, parks and theatre. And beautiful apartments with proper bathrooms and beds!

Tried camping, enjoyed most of it. Would we do it again? NO, NO, NO!

PS. Our journey from Cairns was 2824 km or 1765 miles.

PPS Just taken some photos of the sun setting. Gorgeous.








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Location:Henry Lawson Avenue,Port Jackson,Sydney,Australia