Whitsundays to Broke… it’s a long one folks!

Leaving another very touristy town full of the usual mix of backpackers pretending to see the world and yachties fully enjoying the drunken buffoonery of them, we travelled south in the pissing rain with high winds making the journey time slightly longer than we wanted.. to where, not sure, just south and away from the crowds. Well, not quite, we had a good idea of where we wanted to go- set steam for Bundaberg and the Rum distillery. Through the coastal roads, mountains and back into the plains, we first decided to stop off at Agnes Waters and Town of 1770 which we'd heard about but I don't think fully appreciated when we got there till the next day.

Arriving there this year is possibly not such a bad deal, the large number of newly built holiday homes along the road connecting the two villages is substantial and it seems like they will be overrun at some point in the not too distant future- however, as they are low rise there is hope if won't affect the character of the area too much. The beach itself was superb, with a beautiful crescent bay and long breaking waves coming in making it a perfect place to learn surfing. An even better reason was the price- $22 per head. Turn up at the surf shop at ten am and then go from there. Surfing was great fun, according to some it's just a waste of time trying to wait for the right wave and then riding it for seconds. I think they either suck at it, or really believe any old bullshit. It is a great sport and the next day our much underutilized muscles ached as we'd been swimming through the surf, riding waves (trying to) and then turning around and doing it again. The surfing rash… well that was another story. Surf. It is great fun and pretty cheap. Go to 1770. Free camping near the campsite in 1770 – about 10 minutes drive from main village- you might have to choose to ignore no camping signs. Two days later we headed on south towards Bundaberg, home of the now fairly famous Rum.

Heading off to Bundaberg on half empty tank took around 3 hours down a road which would be classed as an B road, and at times was as windy and narrow as those in Norfolk, but the forested countryside with its large farm, horse dotted between the forests and lakes makes it perfect for a relaxed drive! At some stage you sadly hit the main road into Bundaberg which is like many other Australian cities and has a very sad looking main shopping street, a railway and some other shopping areas, but this time round a massive railway line. Oh, and of course the distillery. Thankfully we were starving for lunch after tasting some very potent rum- so we left Bundaberg sober… Incidentally, our lunches were outstanding pub grub, most suited to the day. Mashed potato with leeks and onions served with butterflied pork chop in cream and white sauce with apples - all for less than 5$ a head, and cooked in one pot and one frying pan. Who said you can't eat well camping? Anyway… onwards and south to Hervey Bay and our favourite weekend to date.

Hervey bay is the base camp for most expeditions to Fraser Island and it's a great little town, stretched thinly along the coast with all the usual amenities – beach, sea, bbq spots and eating spots. Great! We booked a tour like pretty much everyone else with a firm called Beaches. They run hostels and do tours- if you aren't younger than 21 and have some money, don't bother. However, we got our fair bit from them, as their car park was next to their showers and no one checked to see… so we slept onsite and used their amenities without paying- great success!

So, arriving in a fairly nondescript little town on the coast in Australia – on the east coast usually implies there was something pretty worthwhile to do. Friends and various tour books suggest that a trip to Fraser Island is a must do, so whilst we had studiously avoided most of the tourist traps on the coast, we did think we should go and do this as it offered the opportunity to drive through a massive sand dune and along a beach, visit crystal clear lake McKenzie and possibly see Sharks amassing off a place called India Head. All really worthwhile incidentally. The technical driving at slow speeds through the forests is an amazing experience and you really have a bit of a learning curve driving heavily loaded "Troopies" as they're know locally – some have even greater luck of learning how to drive them with a full load of monkeys onboard. Canadian in our case- they epitomized what is wrong with the tours- or at least one of the three in the convoy that starts off drinking at 9am from the rental place which Beaches works with. This seemed to be true of all of the groups- Steve and Dean had one car load similar to ours in their convoy too, and we saw several more enroute who had two normal cars of backpackers who were excited about seeing the island and were able to have fun without getting utterly trashed and then aggressive. So…our first day started off with a worry, then some polite disagreements, and ended up in yelling matches and being threatened with violence when we refused them driving. I have honestly never met such a bunch of wankers in my life. At the very end there were even threats to break Jen's jaw!!! What a man Tyler tries to not be. When we finally got to the camping site, 4 hours late due to smoking breaks galore, a challenging, but very enjoyable 4x4 rock section, the campsite manager was utterly distressed due to the pretty crap day they'd had. He asked us about our trip and then promptly put a call into the local policeman to speak to the boys- who then finally calmed down. We had some very sobering news at that point that another troopie (Landcruiser trooper) had toppled and rolled 8x that morning and two hadn't made it. We were all the more thankful for our stubborn reserve, the idiots on our trip didn't seem to realize what a challenge beach driving with 11 people in a troopie is. The other Landcruisers on the beach btw, didn't have the same tyre tread as us- generally much wider and also did not have the very top heavy loading. My criticism for the trip organizers is that sending out 11 people per carrier is greedy and unsafe, when pretty much all the other vehicles have much broader tyres, shouldn't the off road tyres being used by the firm be changed? Finally, Beaches should by now know the nature of heavy drinking on their trips and perhaps instead of loading the cars full of booze should do a monthly delivery of a set amount of drink to the island that can be pre ordered from a specific list to ensure sober drivers and consumption only when out of the cars?

What was great? Have a look at the photo's, the champagne pools, lake McKenzie, the driving along the beach and through the forest tracks, the large majority of tourists who were exceptionally helpful and supportive during the entire weekend and the managers of the campsite. What would I suggest you do if you want to go? Find 3 to 4 other people and rent a 4x4 Landcruiser and kit and food. It is a stunning island and overall exciting and beautiful.

 

So…. What next after a tumultuous weekend? We decided to carry on heading south, having heard that there was plenty to see slightly inland and also make some time to the Hunter Valley and Bluemountains. To get there, we had to drive a fairly boring motorway filled with drivers overtaking in any lane passing Gympie (YES its called Gympie!!!) and then bypassed Brisbane. The big city experience we wanted we thought we'd save for Sydney- Brisbane we thought would be unlikely to really wow us this time round. We'd heard good things about the coastal resort of Surfers Paradise, and decided to make our stop there – what a mistake that was. Surfers Paradise should be a beautiful town by the name of it, but instead its filled with shops surely no surfer can afford, ridiculously tall condo buildings, and lots of crass tourists from Asia and Europe. We found a camping place, cooked dinner found a starbucks had some tea and then went to bed. Woke up overlooking the beach, something I am always happy with, as is Jen, saw the skyscrapers and almost unanimously said "lets go."

From there onward the trip returned to its blissful and enjoyable driving, walking and experiences. We headed East into Nerang and then headed towards Lamington National Park. The drive was amazing, steep roads and winding bends through lush countryside. We stopped at a Natural Bridge which was also thus signposted- a great achievement of the Australians is their literal naming of places which are in English. The number of 3 mile and 12 mile creeks is enormous for starters. Parking up at the Natural Bridge was certainly something new and interesting- the facilities suddenly took a dive in quality and condition, there was no water in the taps- essentially NSW vs NT and QSLD NSW loses out badly, bt when you have a camper it was no problem! Plenty of water for some fresh pasta and bacon with whitewine sauce, another great meal. The bridge itself was amazing, water pouring into one hole from above and through the filtering blue light into the darkness and then back into splendid sunshine- we've tried to take some good photo's of it.. but it wasn't that easy- have to work on those skills J.

From there we headed south into the pissing rain and towards Grafton. By this time, the rain and the weather had slowed us right down so we ploughed on and were chased by several large trucks who aggressively overtook anytime they had the chance. With no roobars we decided to take it slowly coming to our campsite at a rest station enroute south of Grafton. The next day our weather fortune was slightly better and we headed to Coffs Harbour which isn't much of a town, but provided an excellent walk with massive waves crashing across the harbour protection as well as the surfers and body borders taking advantage of the massive swell. There is a small Mutton bird sanctuary there where we met an fun old man from Newcastle who was with the Salvation Army and a bunch of kids on day trip. He was more than happy to tell us where to see a Muttonbird chick and then chatted to us later on about what we could catch in Newcastle. At this point I had no idea what we'd be seeing there and was astounded to hear that they transfer pilots from coal ship to coal ship by helicopter, pretty cool stuff. It is apparently the largest Coal Harbour in the world, and when we go there, that was understandable. The trainlines running into Newcastle seemed to be clogged with coal trains and I think the UK Newcastle with its history might be a little peeved with the way history has worked out. The town itself is a very interesting mix of heavy industry and shipping, some amazing old town bits where we were naughty and surfed the web for free, and of course like any other town in Oz, has endless suburbs. At sea… its pretty amazing, huge coal tankers waiting in line to come into the port area and surfers once more enjoying the swell. The next morning we watched the local ferries and tug boats emerge and disappear into the mist while eating our breakfast, with the van door firmly closed. It was COLD!

Australia has a few must see's, the Roo's, the croc's and of course the cuddly stuff. Newcastle has a great free sanctuary for these little grey things that appear to prop up tree's while resting on very thin branches. Koala's are very cute, but very, very boring. We didn't try and cuddle one, but we were pleased to have seen some after having seen signs warning about then falling out of tree's along the road. I assume falling out of tree's as they don't seem to move. I think they wait for the leaves to grow in front of them, then wake up and eat them before hibernating once more. Wombats were much more impressive.

Heading again south, where else?

Hunter Valley – April 24th

After a short drive from Newcastle, via a wildlife sanctuary with Koalas, we arrived in Cessnock in the heart of the Hunter Valley. Confusion over how to get to the Vineyards was short-lived after discovering that every sign in fact was signposted to a Vineyard of sorts. Opting to go through the town first we took the last turning and ended up driving through beautiful countryside, with rolling green hills, paddocks full of horses, and of course, rows upon rows of vines.

You almost stumble across the vineyards by accident as despite being frequent, they are mostly tucked away up steep winding tracks. In essence, the process for each wine tasting session is to walk into the old stone houses which all contain a bar, and then you proceed to get asked which wines you would like to sample. The owners are all extremely knowledgeable with their recommendations (and excellent sales people) although there is never any pressure to buy and the whole atmosphere is very lighthearted and definitely about appreciating fine wine. Mark and I decided to stick to the small wineries which produced exclusively for the Hunter Valley to get some more interesting and individual tastings. The HV classics are Semillon for white and Shiraz for red. Learning more about wine has been high on the desires list in a bid to escape going for a bottle that is 'expensive so it must be good' or 'it has to be dry.' It seems that the ideal conditions are dry weather but not too hot, with certain years producing sought after batches of wine. Being a huge fan of red wine, I was understandably in heaven having sample after sample thrust forth with the declaration that you 'really must try this vintage 1999 merlot' – how can one possibly be so rude as to refuse..? And emerging into the very bright (!) daylight after each cellar to be drenched in brilliant sunshine and indulged in such beautiful surrounds really made the day one of the highlights so far. I have listed the vineyards where we graced our presence, as much for my memories as for your potential interest. The day was rounded up by a fabulously illegal bit of parking on top of a hill in a rest area overlooking the valley accompanied by BBQ steak, a select bottle from our educational day and a very long game of chess…

Vineyards in order of visit (I think)

1. Briar Ridge (bought Rose)
   
2. Petersons (bought Vintage Merlot)
   
3. Mount View (lunch stop on their hill afterwards & bought Shiraz, only 3000 bottles made)
   
4. Savannah Estate (bought 1/2 bottle Syrah)
   
5. Petersons Champagne House
   
6. Hungerford Hill
   
7. Tempus Two Winery (also fabulous smelly cheese shop abusing free samples and purchasing of Ciabatta)
   
8. Tamburlaine Wines
   
9. Pokolbin Estate (also port sampling & olive shop – bought bottle Tempranillo. Funny man serving who offered to let us see his pet brown snake. Hmmmm…)
   
10. Rosemount Estate and Lindemans (only big winery visited for novelty purposes. Knew it was time to leave when I asked if one could order 'onwine') –PS (Mt ( owned by fosters!!!))
    

Next morning: BBQ sausage sandwiches with Ciabatta and much gloating from chess win. Floating happy feeling for waking up in such a beautiful place and for having had such a funny, funny day before. JG

 

Waking up ontop of a hill looking at wineries, we knew our only option was to leave and head for Broke, as otherwise we would be. The road headed East then south and twisted and turned its way through Military practice areas and more wineries before the turn off to Wollombi and turn into a sometimes one way, sometimes two way road. Winding and twisting, with bridges limiting weight of vehicles strictly, we found ourselves accompanied by Motorbikes of all shapes and sizes who wizzed down the roads and around the corners with massive grins and perhaps a couple of flies in their teeth? This road took us down into the Blue Mountains and was slow, but superb. (MT)