DOING THE GREY NOMAD THING

Currarong to Seal Rocks

Left Currarong on Sunday 24th October, raining as it always is when we leave on a holiday but who cares it's all good!

Sydney first stop to say goodbye to my mum and our girls, Carly & Kate. We love you! We love you too Alex but your living the dream and your not even a grey nomad yet.
Monday up at 4am for an early start. Still raining and cool. Arrive at Diamond Beach ( near Tuncurry) to meet up with our long time mates, Jeff and Karen, who had just picked up their Taj Mahal of a caravan. A 22’ Brentwood offroader. Wow what a beautiful beast, it made our little van look a bit weary.

Jeff with his Taj Mahal van

Karen doing the house work!!

We had a great night. Great company, roast lamb, a few bottles of red and a good game of Eucha, which naturally Jeff and I won.

Awoke to a beautiful sunny day. I got a few brownie points by saving SS from ripping out some electrical work he had just completed when he went to drive off in the ute with the plug still connected to the van. Lucky! Lucky!

We then back tracked 350ks to Gosford where we had to return a dodgy camp table and get some oil and a filter for the Suzuki. Only problem was when I googled “Suzuki dealer, Gosford” The address it gave me, ended up being for Suzuki cars not bikes. Now that’s not the end of it as there is a Mann Road and a Mann St in Gosford so as per Murphy’s Law the GPS took us to the wrong place first. After driving around in circles we finally got everything and ended up at Scott and Trudies at Gwandalan at about 3.30pm for a well earned beer.

The past 2 days since we left Sydney we have driven 750ks but we’re still only 150ks from Sydney. Doh!!!

We awoke hungover , to finally a beautiful sunny morning. Note to self: DO NOT drink with friends 15 years younger!

That morning we walked around Lake Macquarie and drove over to Catherine Hill Beach. This part of the Central Coast is unreal, nearly as nice as Currarong.

Then set off to Seal Rocks, our holiday finally begins.

Seal Rocks where as soon as we stopped we spotted a school of dolphins in the crystal waters.



Not a great photo but check ot how close the caravan park is to the beach

 Amazing views from our caravan, where we saw whales and dolphins passing by. What a top spot Seal Rocks Holiday Park is.

We had many morning and evening walks.


Next day we took off on the Suzuki checking out all the beaches and paid a visit to Kennie, a guy I hadn’t seen in 35 years. Isn’t it amazing how the years just drop away when you meet up with a mate from your glory days.

Back at the caravan, I had nice cuppa and a biscuit, when this cheeky kookaburra dive bombed me and stole the biscuit right out of my mouth. The little bugger left a small cut on my lip and then didn’t even eat it and a seagull gobbled it up!!!
This is the bastard that stole my anzac biscuit!! He even stole a T-Bone steak right off our neighbours BBQ plate as he was cooking it.

Friday was our last day here so we decided to walked up to the lighthouse. What awesome views and the lighthouse keeper’s house is now a holiday rental. It looks fantastic and sleeps 12-14 so I’ll definitely book it when I get home . Anyone interested?

This is the one of the lighthouse keepers house. What a view!

Tomorrow we’ll head for Laurieton so that’ll be in my next blog.

P.S. I love comments so say g’day in the comment section.

Phillip Island Moto Grand Prix Experience

7 mates and 4 bikes take off at 7.30am in light rain and head for  Phillip Island first stop breakfast at Batemans Bay. Then  to Eden but here we changed plans and instead of lunch we continued 70ks on to meet up with another mate, Paul,  at Cann River .

Big mistake, it wasn't 70ks but 120ks, two of the bikes run out of petrol within 10 ks of each other in the middle of no where! One being SS and I and the other Keith and Janine.

One hour later the cavalry, being Sparksie and I,  return after a 60k round trip with  10 litres of petrol on my lap.Now, Janine of the cup is always half full and look on the bright side of life,  found her cup empty and not a happy chappy!!!





We finally arrive at Lakes Entrance and after a shower, a feed and a few bottles of red we're all happy  and smiling again.

Lakes Entrance outside our Motel.

Thursday no rain all day and after a 360k ride waving at toddlers and school kids greeting  us "bikies"  we arrived at Cowes, Phillip Island. What a beautiful town and great party house. Combustion fire going every night, great food and the best company with laughs aplenty.


 


Me, SS and Marty up in the big house





SS and my LOVE SHACK, up the back of the big house.



Down at the Isle of Whyte pub we spot some postie bikes that had been done up  in racing colours. Bob and his mates had ridden all the way from Brisbane. Check these out they're amazing.



This is Bob who rode one of the postie bikes

 



Next 3 days at the track COLD, WINDY, FREEZING, MUDDY, RAINING and I'm not even into motor sports but come Sunday race day I have to admit  the atmosphere got to me and I actually enjoyed it. Casey Stoner might just be my new hero. What an awesome rider!!!

                                                                                      

                     I still think the best part is celebrating his win at the street bar. ( sorry no pictures)

Prank of the weekend goes to  Mad Marty who painted the toilet bowl  to stir up neat nut Caz. We were all like a bunch of naughty school boys laughin' & gigglin'. Shame she realised it was vegemite straight away.

Last day on the Island Sparksie, SS & I did all the tourist things like site seeing, visiting The Nobbles seal colony and seagull hatchery, the Vietnam Vets Museum and by far the best The Chocalate Factory! It's fantastic you can make your own chocolate, there's a chocolate (water) fall, a 1 tonne chocolate block even a mural of Dame Edna made out of chocolate and a  chocolate statue of David.

I can now tick MotoGP off my bucketlist but I'm sure I'll be back one day.



SS and I had a  great two day ride home via the Bonang Highway. OMG what a road!!! 96 kms of bends , I loved it the scenery was amazing, old native forests, deep gorges and bend after bend.... Stopped the night at Bombala then back to beautiful Currarong.

 

Next trip starts tomorrow when we're off on our 7 week adventure north NSW and SE Queensland. I will post again in about a week.

Cheers!!!



Roughin' it in a Bush Paradise.

Took off on a beautiful sunny Wednesday with no idea where we were going other than first stop Nerriga pub.

1st fight outside our home as I didn't read SS mind when he got out to check the van and I didn't flick on the blinkers & brakes. Bloody men!!! No worries all good from here on.

At the pub we heard about a free camp at Oallen Ford. What a beauty set up amongst the trees overlooking the upper Shoalhaven River. No tap water, no electricity, no toilets but we loved it.





Off we went exploring and came across heaps of wombat holes , one even had a wombat in it ( deadun that is!

 

 We headed off across the road and came across the absolute pick of camping spots right on a sandy bank on the river and the family who had that spot were leaving the next day. Naturally we got that spot. JUST MAGIC!!!

Now for the good stuff: Skinny Dipping ( but not so skinny!!) and doing what teenagers do but enough of that!

That night we had lobsters done on the BBQ with garlic butter, 2 bottles of red, and even entertainment by a local feral family who turned up in 2 utes full of kids and yobo parents. Country music blaring- even drowned out our Blues so off that went. Plenty of petrol on their camp fire, kids and Scrappy the dog racing around everywhere. It looked like a film clip by Jimmy Barnes " the riot at the Star Hotel"

Next day off to buy milk and more beer at a great little town Tarago. It has a top pub and would make a great bike ride out for a weekend. Anyone interested ? They have a band on the 1st Saturday of each month?

Just check out some of the beautiful scenery.

Maybe not so beautiful, but what a way to have a wash. It was bloody freezing!!!