Category: Roadtrip NSW 2023

Don’t you just love clean underwear day?

Last night we stayed at the Gundagai Tourist Park. It must be the first place that I have ever stayed where Percy got to live undercover for the night.

Let me tell you a little bit about van life. There is something to be said for sleeping in the same bed every night, but waking up in a different town every morning. Apart from the fact that Percy is a great deal smaller than our house, the biggest concession with van living is the size of the hot water system.

Percy has a HWS that holds about 17 litres (might be less, might be more, but it’s not a great deal of hot water whatever it is).

You know how sometimes you just feel like having a long, hot shower? Not possible in a van. You can have a long shower, or you can have a hot shower, but you can’t get both options. It’s either door 1 or door 2.

I needed a long hot shower, so I went over to the amenities block … which is actually a number of ensuite sites that have been labelled “shared access”. So I ran the shower until it was nice and hot, and jumped in … and it went cold. Some jiggery pokery with the taps and I got it hot again, jumped right back in and … it went cold again.

It seems that there was an undocumented feature with the shower I was using where – if you waited long enough – it would alternate between “peel your skin off” scaldingly hot, and then fade to “someone hand me an ice pick” freezingly cold.

So once I’d figured that out, I figured that if I jumped in within the 10 or so nanoseconds that the water was at a pleasant temperature on it’s way to scalding hot or freezing cold, you could have a nice (well, nice-ish) shower.

Which brings me to the second problem.

Cast your mind back to your year 5 science, and how a larger body exerts a gravitational pull over smaller bodies. Smaller bodies are attracted to larger bodies.

For the extended periods between times where the shower was a pleasant and safe temperature, I had to stand away from the water, close to the plastic shower curtain. Large body, small body, gravitational forces.

As I stood there waiting for the shower to heat up or cool down, inevitably the shower curtain would be attracted to my larger body and would stick to me. If the cadence of the shower curtain attraction and sticking had aligned to the hot/cold cadence of the water, the world would have been a happy place.

But alas, no 🙁 First world problems! I spent the time alternately peeling the shower curtain off my body and jumping in and out of the shower.

We were pretty zonked last night so we called it a night just before 9.00pm, and I was sleeping the sleep of the dead just a few moments later. I woke in the dark, thinking it was the middle of the night but it was actually about 6.15am. Dark and cold, so I turned the fan heater on and we went back to sleep until about 7.00am.

The Gundagai Tourist Park have a feature called “stay and weigh”, where you can get your car and van weighed for the princely sum of $30. So after a shower, breakfast and coffee, I wandered over to the park office to book in for a weigh. Paid my $30 to the nice lady – her name is Kerry Taylor as it happens – and went back to hook up Percy, and line up and get him weighed.

Now it would be impolite to tell you Elsie’s weight, but let’s just say that Gary (the weighbridge guy) just smiled and said it was all good news – Elsie and Percy’s combined weights is ~100kg less than the legal limit, so we are all good. And if I drop that 50 litres or so of water in the tanks, it will be even better.

He had nothing nice to say about drivers of a particular make of large vehicle** (I think he used a rude word that rhymed with “bankers”) because they seem to believe that “[these vehicles] can carry/tow/pull anything”, and that they are regularly and seriously overloaded. And the drivers of these vehicles just smile and say “she’ll be right, mate, it’s a …” **

But that’s just his opinion. I have my own view on drivers of those vehicles** that I will keep to myself 🙂

** Author’s note: The make of vehicle has been edited out at MBW’s suggestion. It was only a suggestion, but I had to keep in mind who made the suggestion, and consider the future happiness of this trip.

Weighed and hooked up, and we were ready to hit the town. All reports are that the jail is worth seeing (4.9/5 stars from 29 reviews) so we went to the information office to buy our tickets, only to be told that the jail was not particularly accessible for the mobility impaired (aka MBW) … so we looked at the marble masterpiece instead.

Actually, the nice lady at the information centre not only told us about the jail, but also about how her fourth child was a surprise, but that is OK because her sister is unable to have children after having her pelvis crushed, so she has cats instead.

She must have thought we were associated with Lifeline, but frankly we (I) got WAY more information about childbearing that I really needed to know. Or wanted to know. I can only pretend to be interested in a conversation like that for a short time and my eyes start to glaze over … and glaze they did.

Oh, and she also dropped a motorcycle on her foot once, breaking it, so she was also in a moon boot and on crutches once … so she and MBW shared a moment or two …

So we escaped from the information office and back to Elsie and did a quick lap of the town centre before heading out of town towards tonight’s accommodation at the Albury Showgrounds.

It was a lovely day for a drive in the country. Cool (Gundagai had a temperature range of 4 degrees to 8 degrees today), mostly clear skies, and not too much traffic. We didn’t have a great deal of fuel onboard, but figured we could make it to Albury without stopping (for fuel).

No chance that we could make it to Albury without stopping at all, though 🙁

Gundagai to Albury is only about a 2 hour drive and at about the 1 hour mark, I saw those three little words that make me go weak at the knees.

Coffee. Shop. Ahead.

Joe’s coffee at Tarcutta NSW to be precise. Tarcutta is a pretty little RV friendly town (population 446) with plenty of spaces to pull up off the main road through town, just outside Joe’s Coffee and neighbouring shops.

Almost all of which were closed, including Joe’s Coffee. It looked like Joe hadn’t made coffee there for quite some time. In fact, I suspect that Tarcutta probably has a population of 445 now, because I suspect that Joe may be no more.

RIP Joe.

As luck would have it, a craft shop was open. A lovely old man ran the craft shop. He used to be a two-fingered typist until he cut off one of his fingers ”making one of those fruit bowls over there” … and the paramedics never found it.

We then learned that he had the hots for the Head Nurse at the Nursing Home where he worked, but she rejected his advances, but continued to flirt with him. You know where this is going, right?

They eventually got married in 2004 … so that means that he is waaaay to old to have any child-bearing stories to share, but he did share that he has spent the last 19 years winning over the step children. He lives at Wagga, which is only …. zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

If travelling with someone who is mobility impaired means that I have to hear everyone’s life stories, I’m going home right now!!! Here is 40c so you can call Lifeline – I’m sure that they care.

Here is another fun fact. Tarcutta won the Tidy Towns award in 1996 – about 27 years ago. Seriously, that was something to boast about in 1996 and 1997, and maybe even up to 1999 … but 1996 was last century! And they only got third place.

Onwards and upwards towards Albury again, albeit still uncaffienated.

Next stop was another very pretty little RV friendly town called Holbrook (population 1715) with a functioning – and open – coffee shop.

We stopped to have a look at the submarine HMAS Otway (nope, I don’t understand how or why a submarine is embedded in concrete at Holbrook, NSW either), then on to the coffee shop.

I probably don’t need to mention the weather, but it was cold again. In your bones cold.

We caffienated then did a quick walk around town to have a look in the local Op Shop to buy a couple of things that we really didn’t need – mainly some books. We also found a craft shop, and we all know how much MBW loves craft shops.

Spoiler alert!! We bought a couple of things for our most-recent granddaughter, and our very-soon-to-arrive other grandchild.

Having supported the local economy, we were back into Elsie and onwards towards Albury – less than an hour down the road … and almost out of fuel.

Staying at the Albury Showgrounds for a couple of nights to look around and see the sights.

First stop after setting up and having lunch was a trip into Victoria (only about 5 km away) because the fuel is much cheaper in Wodonga than in Albury. We then went to a very pretty little nature reserve called Yindyamarra Sculpture Walk where there is local artwork and sculptures installed, right alongside the mighty Murray River.

It was quite a distance to look at all of the sculptures, and frankly I didn’t want to be out in public with MBW any more than I needed to, for fear of having to listen to someone else’s life story, particularly if it concerns a medical condition or child bearing.

A few groceries from Woolies, and back to the showgrounds for some dinner. The showgrounds have some very new facilities but setting up on the grass was a challenge … because most of the ”grass areas” are actually mud. The only variation across the grounds is the depth and wetness of the mud.

If I go for a ”long hot shower” at the amenities block tonight, I suspect I will come back dirtier than I went.

Before I go though, I do need to say that I am concerned about Dolly. I know I’ve had a bit of a rant about Sydney streets, but it might be Dolly’s fault. I think Dolly is losing it.

This afternoon’s quick orientation of Albury took us down many back-streets, around roundabouts, through school zones … round and round and round. I’m going to have to see if there is another voice in our navigation system and give them a try. Dolly doesn’t seem to understand that we just want the shortest route between A and B.

Anyhow, despite everything it was a great day and I’m excited about going exploring Albury Wodonga tomorrow.

This is what today looked like. 198km and 4h 31m of driving.

PS: I was kidding about clean underwear day. Every day is clean underwear day. Some things are simply not negotiable.

Ciao

#RoadTripNSW2023

There’s a track winding back to an old-fashioned shack, along the road to Gundagai. That’s where we are tonight. Gundagai.

But before I can tell you about that, I need to rewind to yesterday. Last night to be exact.

We made ourselves beautiful and left the van around 4.00pm last night because we were going to the Sydney Opera House to see Keith and Krysten Getty perform Sing!

So off we went in Elsie. Because MBW has broken her foot, our transport options were pretty limited, so we booked parking at the SOH parking station. That meant leaving the relative safety of Lane Cove and going through that stupid tunnel again, and then across the Harbour Bridge.

I’ve never driven over the Harbour bridge before. It was pretty exciting.

I think it was Winston Churchill that said something like ”… those that do not learn from their mistakes are doomed to repeat them …”.

Dolly has a similar saying. Those that do not listen closely to her clear and well articulated directions are doomed to do a go-around.

And that’s what happened. I didn’t believe Dolly that I could turn left into that street, figuring that I’d turn at the next one, she would say ”recalculating route”, and we would turn a few corners and the world would be a happy place.

Alas, no.

If you don’t listen to Dolly’s instructions, she sends you BACK over the Sydney Harbour Bridge to do it all again. A bit like going to jail, not passing go, and not collecting $200 🙁 I felt like I was being punished.

So back we went to where we started …

… and then a few more ”left turn”, ”right turn”, ”take the fourth exit at the roundabout” and back on the bridge we go for another attempt at getting to the Opera House …

Now you may not know the Gettys – they have written some very well known Christian worship songs and they were doing a performance (aka a singalong) at the SOH. Funnily enough we have seen the Gettys in concert previously – last time we were in New York we saw them in Carnegie Hall. That was pretty amazing.

But last night’s show at the SOH Concert Hall was even more amazing, and better than last time. They performed with their band, and let the audience on a journey of Christian music encouraging the audience – 2,600 of us – to join in. It was very special, and I think I have a taste of what Heaven will be like!

Dinner at Wahlburgers with friends before the show …

… and a photo opportunity before the show.

I’ve never been in the Sydney Opera House before, and I have to say it is pretty amazing. Considering it was finished being built in the 1970s, it is a pretty amazing building with fabulous acoustics. Sadly MBW and I didn’t get seats together for the show …

The show didn’t finish until after 11.00pm and we needed to get out of the city and back to Lane Cove … but Elsie needed a big drink, and experience tells me that it is better to go looking for fuel when Percy is not on the back … so we fueled up and got back to Lane Cove some time after midnight.

Which brings us to today … although technically yesterday didn’t finish until well into today anyway..

We were up by 8.00am (with insufficient sleep) to officially commence Wednesday.

If I had to choose a theme song for today, I would be hard pressed to choose between “Love is all around” (Wet, Wet, Wet) … because it was raining, or ”Livin’ on a Prayer” (Bon Jovi) … but I’m pretty sure that Bon Jovi will win it because getting through the traffic with the van on the back, in peak hour, in the rain … we were living on a prayer!

I might have mentioned Sydney traffic in a previous post … I can’t remember … but they are a crazy lot. Roads that seem to go nowhere and everywhere at the same time, leaving you with a sense of confusion and being lost, combined with aggressive drivers, plus towing Percy, plus rain.

Quite a bit to deal with.

There are three little words that make MBW go all weak at the knees … Factory Outlet Sale … and we saw them when we passed DFO. We didn’t stop.

We kept going on an endless succession of turns, highways, motorways, main roads, back streets, neighbourhoods with speed bumps and ”Local Traffic Only – 40km/h” signs. Sorry officer, I was only going where Dolly directed me. Roundabouts and merging lanes. Right turn, left turn, take the third exit … ARGH!!!

Then finally Dolly said those magic words. ”Stay on the Hume Highway for the next 339km”. We were out of Sydney!!

It was tough going today. I think the mercury peaked at about 8 degrees, so we had the heater on in the car.

Get out your calculator and add this up for me:

Cold weather + heater going full pelt (warm and cosy in Elsie) + rain on the windscreen (white noise) + late night and not enough sleep + no coffee = ??

It equals a recipe for disaster, that’s what it equals!! I could easily have curled up in a ball and slept all day.

We stopped at Goulburn for a bite of lunch, plus the opportunity to drop into their Bunnings (a REAL Bunnings, not a pokey little shopfront) to buy a red Anderson plus. Goulburn is an ”RV friendly” town, but it is diabolically difficult to find somewhere to park Elsie and Percy for an hour or so and not block traffic.

After lunch we played the final game of Russian Roulette with trucks going at 110km/h in the rain to finally get into Gundagai at around 4.30pm. A quick dash out to see some of the sights before it got dark …

… and we were back at the caravan park to do some blogging, and have dinner. We really need an early night to catch up on lost sleep.

MBW has spent the night catching up on MasterChef, and I got dinner ready (if you can call reheating leftovers ”getting dinner ready” … but someone needed to do it).

This is a pretty amazing tourist park, with undercover parking for the vans. Very swanky. I’ll show you some photos of that tomorrow, along with some pictures of our adventures in Gundagai tomorrow.

This is what today looked like. 392km and 5h 31m driving.

Not a great deal of news again, sorry, but that’s about it for now.

Ciao

#RoadTripNSW2023

A day in Sydney today. Nothing much to do, and all day to do it.

It was cool again this morning. All things being equal it will be cold every morning … so how about you assume it is cold and I’ll let you know if it isn’t.

Had a nice sleep in this morning. MBW got up at about 5.45 and turned on the heater on her way from the bed to the bathroom (and back), and then we fell asleep again. It was warm and cosy in the van and we had nothing important to get up for.

We wanted to go and look at Bondi Beach today. Last time we were in Sydney we did a trip to Bondi and it was very cold and very wet. Very disappointing, in fact. Not a soul on the beach, and certainly no celebrity lifeguards to be seen.

So that was the plan for today.

It’s a funny thing how the van warms up so quickly with the fan heater on. You get lulled into this false sense of security.

Get up out of bed, get ready for a shower and open the shower door to find that the air in the shower cubicle is still freezing. Somehow the warm air hasn’t permeated that space, which is a shame because by the time you step (naked) into the shower, the last thing you really want is to be standing in a refrigerator.

Actually, that’s the second last thing you want. The absolute last thing that you expect happens when you get a handful of body wash that has been sitting on the floor of the shower all night and you apply it to your most … um, sensitive parts, and you realise how cold it is! Not an entirely pleasant start to the day.

Showers done, breakfast done, coffee consumed, and dishes washed. We were ready to head out into the day.

The road that we are staying on at the Discovery Park Lane Cove Caravan Park shares space with the Macquarie Park Cemetery and Crematorium. That means that nearly every time we travel along the short road, we pass either a long, black limousine with black windows (AKA a hearse), or a bunch of mourners. Or both, with the mourners following the hearse.

Anyhow we headed out past the dead centre of Sydney, and Dolly directed us onto a toll road that turns into a tunnel. And Sydney tunnels seem to go under the harbour, which is a concept that I really don’t like.

You feel like you are on a very long downward decline under water … which just makes me feel like I am going for a ride on the Titan but hoping for a better outcome. At least Elsie has a safety rating.

Then there is this loud ”beep”! I’m not sure if that is the eTag going off, or my smart watch telling me that I’m having a heart attack, but I’m pretty sure that either of those options will be unpleasant.

I’ve commented on Sydney roads previously, and I’m going to do it again. They seem to go in all directions, and with no real purpose. The constant turns and dips and changes of direction, combined with the perpetual roadwork that is in progress and the lunatics on the road make it interesting and confusing at the same time.

I don’t know how many people that Wikipedia says live in Sydney, but there was very nearly one less – some impatient tosser figured that he needed to be in my lane far more that I did, particularly because his lane had disappeared and he was in a big hurry. Anyhow, he got a very close look at my bullbar and decided to wait for me to go first.

I mean, we did win the State of Origin, so there has to be some benefits, I guess.

So we had a stressful an exhilarating drive through Sydney streets to finally arrive at Bondi Beach feeling exhausted ready to go exploring. Can you tell that I’m trying to work on being positive?

There is some serious money around that part of Sydney. There were a couple of giveaways:

• All of the expensive cars on the road, and
• The number of nail/beauty/fitness/coffee shops around which suggests that most Bondi residents don’t have a great deal to do other than visit these establishments.

On the way into Bondi there was some dude driving around in his brand new black Ferrari, which looked like his daily ride. Why you would drive a Ferrari around Bondi when you will be unlikely to ever get it out of first gear is beyond me … but then if I had a black Ferrari I’d probably drive it around too, just because I could.

On the way to Bondi we saw a bakery called ”The Grumpy Baker” and MBW (very unkindly) suggested that I would fit right in there. Nice.

We caught up with some friends for a coffee at this cute little coffee shop at Bondi, and then we headed off to Watson’s Bay for a look at the sights there. We saw some even more serious money at Watson’s Bay, and found some spectacular views of the city and Harbour Bridge.

I have mentioned previously how narrow some streets are, and when you get cars parked on both sides it becomes downright scary. And there are cars everywhere. Every street seems to be lined with cars. Everywhere you look. Some are also lined with trees.

I have also mentioned previously that the red Anderson plug on the van had a catastrophic implosion after being dragged along the road for 100km or so. Bunnings sell them so we went to the Bunnings at Rose Bay to get one.

Two things:

• They were out of stock of red Anderson plugs, which was a shame, but
• The Rose Bay Bunnings is not a super store like we are used to. It was a quaint little shopfront that doesn’t seem to stock anything that a self-respecting handyman would ever want to buy

The other thing that struck me as strange is that if you live in a $10M house and drive a $250k luxury car, why would you ever go to Bunnings anyway? But that’s a question for another day.

We found a Woolies and bought some staples for lunch, and got back to the van around 2.30pm for a ham, cheese and tomato sandwich and a rest before we go out to the Opera House tonight for a show.

Should be fun.

I’ll have to tell you all about that tomorrow because it will be late when we get back home to the van, and I’ll probably be grumpy again after having to navigate more Sydney streets with both Dolly and MBW shouting directions at me.

Ciao

#RoadTripNSW2023

It was cold this morning.

To be fair, we expected that it was going to be cold. The weatherman does get it right occasionally, and he was right today.

It would have been nice if it was a ”Look Mum, it’s snowing” kind of cold, but alas it wasn’t. It was more of a ”do you know how much the arthritis in my hands hurts in this cold weather?” kind of cold. The joys of getting older 🙁

Neither of us slept well last night. A combination of first night in the van, and a bed that is never really comfortable. I woke with aching hips, probably as a result of the cold, and not really being able to stretch out as much as I’d prefer.

I mentioned yesterday that we’d brought the electric blanket with us on this trip, plus a fan heater. MBW turned her side of the blanket off when she went to sleep, but I had my side set to “defrost” for most of the night.

I woke just before 6.00am and I was sore and cold, so I turned my up to ”toast”. I hopped up and turned the heater on too, and before you knew it the van was nice and cosy.

We did our ablutions and I had a realisation. There had been no photos of me yesterday so I can wear the same clothes again today and nobody will know!

We had coffee and a bite to eat, packed down the van, and we were ready to roll by 8.15am.

Now I have to say that the Kempsey drivers are very courteous. Lots of narrow streets in the Kempsey CBD, plus small roundabouts, and you need lots of room to turn corners. So I’m sitting in the right lane with my left blinker on giving myself plenty of swing space, and people just gave us the right of way. Very nice, and thank you Kempsey!

We were on the highway heading south by about 8.45am.

Sadly today was a bit of a repeat of yesterday (no news), with just a pinch more excitement. We have travelled this road previously (see last years blog) and it is just a highway that bypasses pretty much every sign of civilisation on the way.

We did stop very briefly at a little ”in-the-middle-of-nowhere” rest stop and I discovered that the red Anderson plug that powers Elsie’s ESC (Electronic Stability Control) had pulled out and dragged on the road for a hundred kilometres or so, and had suffered a catastrophic implosion.

So Elsie has no ESC for today’s trip. Will that be a problem? Maybe … it was windy. Very windy.

There are some sections of the road from Gosford to Sydney that have the most amazing rock cuttings. Those peeps in NSW may not be able to win the State of Origin, but they know how to cut through rock.

Some parts of the road between Gosford and Sydney are very open, and there was a vicious cross-wind. It felt like driving a dodgem car through a tornado. And no ESC!!

So we made a conscious decision to puddle along nice and slow – 80-90km/h which meant that every other vehicle on the road overtook us … including all of those Kenworths pushing a giant shockwave of air ahead of them, causing even more turbulence for poor old Elsie 🙁

Fuel economy was woeful today. A big number that you don’t even want to think about. You certainly don’t want to convert it to dollars/km, because that is just plain depressing.

But then if you wanted fuel economy, you’d have bought a pushbike. Or a Prius.

My other observation is that many of the highways are made of concrete, not bitumen. Hardwearing, long-lasting and solid. I’m sure that the roads will still be there after the apocalypse.

But they are noisy. Very noisy, and bumpy. You get this really weird harmonic happening where the car starts to vibrate and you think that you are about to shake yourself apart. You start to think that you have thrown a wheel bearing in the car, and the buzzing in your ears is deafening from the tyres.

Really unpleasant. I can only assume that someone in NSW Roads got a really good deal on concrete because they have used so much of it.

Once we got into Sydney, we just needed to find the Discovery Caravan Park at Lane Cove. That meant navigating the streets.

The streets in Sydney have very narrow lanes, and everyone travels so fast. Typically three (3) lanes wide, and barely wide enough for a horse and cart. Blinkers and stopping at red lights are an option. The signed speed limit is a joke.

I wouldn’t describe Sydney drivers as M&Ms. These ones were L&Ps. Lunatics and Psychopaths. That was one scary drive in from Kempsey into Sydney to Lane Cove.

We got in, set up the van and had a light lunch (at 2.30pm). Then we headed off towards the Northern beaches where we were to meet up with some friends for dinner.

Some spectacular views over the harbour and another pretty sunset. And a cruise ship heading out.

Dinner, gelato, then back home to the van for blogging and bed.

Tomorrow we are off for a drive to Bondi Beach and whatever other sights take our fancy, then dinner with friends (same ones as tonight, as it happens) and a show at the Opera House. But I’ll tell you all about that tomorrow.

Ciao

#RoadTripNSW2023