Um, no, we haven’t upgraded from the Minibago. This is Chris’s bus, parked near us at the caravan park north of Coffs. It truly is a work of art and the end result of a painstaking and thoughtful design and construction process. As it is his and Jen’s home (even when they ARE home) it needed to be a home and it sure is that. Solar power means that they can live “off the grid” almost indefinitely and it has all the comforts of home, and I mean ALL the comforts.
While we were camping there we had lots of opportunities to discuss motorcycling, racing and life on the road and, obviously, we picked up many valuable tips along the way. Since we are actively contemplating fitting solar panels to the roof of the Minibago, the insights into the pros (many) and the cons (few) were worth their weight in gold.
As mentioned, the park at Sapphire Beach is small and family-run and wonderful. A little path about 50m through the sand leads you to this glorious (though unpatrolled) beach.
The surf conditions were quite treacherous while we were there so we just admired. The wildlife in the park was interesting, native ducks, ibises, brush turkeys and possums.
After a couple of restful days we started trekking home. By mutual consent we planned to avoid the tediousness of the Pacific Highway but there were place where we couldn’t do so and the roadworks are just as annoying as they have been every other time I have ventured north in the last 8 years or so.
The aim was Forster/Tuncurry for the night but we explored many side roads along the way. Forster was way too commercialised for our liking though we did catch up with this wonderful example of tiddler touring..After getting a refund of our fee for the caravan park (crowded, no shade, tiny spaces, everything that we don’t like) we headed south looking for somewhere else. Along the Lakes Way there are some wonderful spots and some great scenery. We were running low on food or we would have stopped at the NPWS campsite at The Ruins, and we will go back there, it looked great. But we pushed on, grabbed some take-away at a little village and ate it at Brambles Reserve, overlooking the Myall Lakes, idyllic.
Oops, I’m out of sequence. Before this we had taken another detour to historic Tanilba, on the southern shore of Port Stephens. When I was a child, we often holidayed there in an historic house that had been built in 1831 and I have often wondered, over the intervening years, if it was still there. Well, yes, it is, and not only is it still there but it appears to be substantially unchanged since we stayed there in the early 1950’s. Even the water tank, from whose sloped roof I fell off and broke my right arm when I was 5, is still there and it looks exactly the same. The house is open for inspections but, sadly, the day we were there, it was closed.
By now the decision had been made to head for the free camp site on the river at Buladelah. The Lakes Way is GEM, I MUST go back and explore it on a bike, it is grand touring country.
Before settling in to the camp site (river frontage, picturesque and free – but the toilets are 160m away across the bridge on the other side of the river) we headed north up the Wooton Way to see if I could find another house from my past. Brian and Jean Macpherson were friends of my parents and they lived at Tanilba back in the 50’s and moved over to Tahlee on the opposite side of the lake in the late 1960’s. They worked at the Bible College there, Brian teaching the practical and bush survival course and Jean working in the kitchen. When they retired in the 70’s, Brian built them a beautiful “A” framed house just off the Wooton Way. He started with a simple one, all hand built out of bush timber and they lived in that for some years until he built a much bigger house, again, all hand built and they lived there till about 10 years ago when they left (according to the lady in the post office) the house now belongs to another family.
Sadly they were away when we called in but I did get a few shots of Brian’s amazing house-building skills.
The house on the left is the “new” house and the one on the right is the “temporary” one.
So, free camping at Buladelah. We were wondering how we’d find the site but it really was quite easy!
And, after a refreshing night’s sleep we headed south, escaping the highway at Hexham and heading across to Cessnock where we visited Lenny and Pauline at the excellent Maindrag Performance Parts shop on Wollombi Road, then out onto the Putty and down to Grey Gums, our final night’s stay. You can free camp for 2 days at Grey Gums and the showers and facilities are free. The added bonus is coffee at your doorstep and the company of the lovely Kim who always greets us like long-lost relatives.
It was going to be hot again (it had been for the whole trip) so we bugged out early, stopped at Peppercorn at Mulgoa and then, by the tried and tested route, home via Picton, Mt Keira and home.
With all the side trips and backroads, I am guessing between 1500 and 2000 kms but, to be honest, we didn’t really take that much notice. A lot of the time I bopped along at well below the speed limit (taking care not to inconvenience others while doing so) and we just flew below the radar (literally) and had fun.
We encountered two guys doing a north coast tour on bikes. One was on a new BMW X1000R. Yummy, but a bit out of my price range.
Was it all fun? Heck, yes. Did we find that there were aspects of our preparation that were lacking? Surprisingly, no. Apart from the overheating issue on the second day, the van ran flawlessly and we had everything that we needed.
Solar conversion? Definitely, and soon, please.