Day 5 - 11/12/13 – Goulburn NSW -> Thredbo NSW

Not a very exciting day sorry! We headed south straight away and went via Queanbeyan to avoid Canberra and kept heading through Cooma and Jindabyne with our destination Thredbo to climb Mt Kosciusko. Unfortunately the wind was blowing too hard so the chairlift was shut. The nice lady who informed me of this must have felt sorry for me (or maybe it was my scent) and duly informed me that there were free warm showers in the information centre and we could stay in the car park no problem. It may be the only time I ever stay at Thredbo! The night turned verrry cold so we all layered up big time to get us through the night! The boys spent the afternoon watching Wreck It Ralph – thanks to Emily Berry, while I wandered about the car park try to get enough reception on De’s Vodafone phone to talk to the Telstra man to set up my emails. 1 ½ hours later and amazingly enough we had made no progress! Gotta love those telcos!

 

Day 4 – 10/12/13 - Hampton NSW –> (near) Goulburn NSW

We were up early and headed towards Jenolan Caves having to drop The Gator of at a rest area as vans weren’t allowed on the steep and twisty road down. I remember visiting the caves as a kid and thinking they were pretty awesome, however I think my mum and dad may have taken the cheaper option of the outside caves rather than ‘more expensive’ inner caves. I only say this as they were completely different to what I remember. While the outer caves stalactites and stalagmites were pretty impressive it was like comparing and beach in England to a Gold Coast beach (sorry Me Ma).

 

Outside Caves

 

Inside Caves

The Stalagmite above is about 9 meters tall. They grow at an average of 1cm per year - but that does not take into account the thickness of the stalagmite!

 

We had a tour of the Orient Caves during which our guide retold how when these caves were discovered they wrote a letter to the Governor General saying no words can describe the beauty of this natural wonder. I think they underrated it! It was incredible! The colours, formations and majesty of the many different formations took my breath away. Most people are familiar with the stalactites and stalagmites but I had never heard or seen straws, shawls, helectites all in incredible colours and variations.

A shawl or 'bacon'

 

The boys loved the shawls that looked like bacon and the intricate miniature environments like “The fairy’s toilet seat”, “The Austlian coat of Arms” and “Fairy’s Ice Skating Rink”.

Helectites are pretty cool - They grow in all kids of directions sidewards, downwards even upwards!

 

 

De and my favourite was the “Indian Head Dress” that is featured on the caves logo. The timelessness of the caves, with many of features being 10s of 1000’s years old made a real impact on me. Hopefully the pictures will give you an idea of the awesomeness of this place!

 

After a quick tour of the outside caves we headed back up the hill and collected The Gator. The next 4 hours were spent climbing up and down the hills as we headed south. A quick stop in Goulburn for water and food then another half an hour to one of the hundreds of rest areas in the ACT – they are every 20kms! Nana had given the boys an early Christmas present of a telescope so we set it up and had a good look at the moon, then of to bed.

 

Day 3 - 9/12/13 - Sydney NSW –> Hampton NSW

Our first real day on the road! After our last real shower for we don’t know how long, we took off from Ally’s around 9am to miss peak hour traffic – then we remembered we were in Sydney! I think the road engineers in Sydney have a different ruler than everywhere else as the lanes, even on the highways, seemed incredibly narrow and nerve wracking!

We headed west towards the Blue Mountains. One of the main drivers for me wanting to go this trip was the awesome memories I had of a trip my family did when I was 7 years old. I remember visiting the three sisters, the vertical train and Jenolan caves like it was yesterday. The Blue Mountains did not disappoint! We had a quick look at Wentworth Falls from the viewing area then headed to Mini Ha Ha falls for lunch and swim.

Well let me tell you this wasn’t no North Queensland water fall! The water was soooo cold it wasn’t funny. But amazingly enough De, who usually won’t swim at the Gold Coast in summer because it’s too cold, was first in! I think it was about the 10^th or 11^th count down by the boys but she dove in head first! The rest of us followed and beat a hasty retreat to the warmth of Izzy for the short drive to the Echo Point and the Three Sisters.

 

I am no literary genius but I am positive no matter how much I tried to explain the wonder of the view from Echo Point I would fail miserably – even more so than I failed year 12 physics! There is a massive paved open area, resembling Federation Square, leading up to the top lookout. As you get closer the valley below opens up more and more until you finally reach the edge of Echo Point where you have a 230 degree view of the valley. To the left proudly watching over are the Three Sisters, to the right the scenic skyway and other tourist attractions and in front of you are shear walls of a Blue Mountains climbing hundreds of meters vertically from the valley floor below.  The view was amazing but there was another lookout about 10 meters below that we agreed would have a better view. I usually don’t suffer from vertigo at all, but standing on a cement ledge sticking 3 or so meters out from a cliff that drops at least 100m made my legs turn into jelly! The Queen Elizabeth Lookout was sensational and horrifying all wrapped into one – a place that should be on everybodies bucklist.

 

Talking of lists, our good friends, The Hudson’s, gave Jack and Sam a book titled “Are we there yet” by Alison Lester for Christmas a couple of years back when they learnt of our plans. Alison documents the true story of her family’s trip around Australia especially when her youngest Billy asks “Are we there yet”. Needless to say I can now recite the book and the list of Australian Landmarks like the Sydney and the Three Sister they visit. So after we climbed down the almost vertical steps to the first sister we could tick that one of the list.

 

Time had snuck away on us so we headed for our first free camp of the trip just outside of Hampton on the road into the Jenolan Caves. If scenery was what we were looking for the Mars Explorer may have been excited. About million acres surrounding the site have been planted as lush pine forests, unfortunately this area had been completely cleared and burnt back about a year ago and reminded me of the lanscapes from “The Day After” (the nuclear bomb) movie. The boys had a ball as the loggers tracks were well graded and awesome to tear down on their bike and skid on. As we set up camp the winds stated to blow like no tomorrow with gusts up to 100km/hr – but at least we were safe as there were no trees to fall on us!!

 

Day 2 – 8/12/13 - Lennox Head NSW –> Sydney NSW

We were up bright and early, not because we had 800+kms to drive but because it was our youngest son, Sam’s seventh birthday. We had managed to snuggle a few pressies in which he was stoked about as we told him he was only getting a trip around Australia for his birthday!

 

 

I managed to totally stuff up the breakfast pancakes by doubling the flour mixture but kinda managed to save them for the adults – at least no need for a number 2 stops for a while.

After more hugs and kisses from Nana we were Sydney bound. To celebrate Sam’s birthday we had Maccas in Coffs Harbour and then bar a few toilet stops rolled into De’s sister Allison’s place around 7. We probably could have got there quicker but we decided we had better take the rig over the Harbour Bridge as part of the trip.

All was going swimmingly until I swung the truck around to set the Gator up to be backed into Ally’s narrow driveway. I think a half a second later and it would have been fine but instead my home made bike carrier attached to the back of the van had managed to take a nice swipe out of the back of a delivery van – Bugger! Oh well – good to get a (the??) major incident out of the way early and the bike rack still worked perfectly and – Just for the Forsyth’s sake – the bikes were unharmed and still attached to the back of the van!

Jack and Sam had an absolute blast playing with their cousins William and Sara who I am sure they would have been happy to stay with for the 7 months we will be away!

Ally made a great meal for us and had made an incredible ice cream cake for Sam that made him feel like a million dollars! Once the boys were asleep we had one or was it two more drinks, carried the boys to the van and had our first night on the road.... to the dulcet tones of Sydney Airport!

Day 1 - 7/12/13 - Brisbane Q –> Lennox Head NSW

Finally the day had arrived! It all started with an idea and a conversation 5 or 10 years ago and after years of planning and months and months of intense preparation the day had arrived! Just to make sure we had enough to do Jack and Sam both had their last cricket games of the season so...yep we took them to cricket! My mum “MeMe Ma” also came along to watch Sam’s game which was great as we won’t be seeing her for quite a while.

Finally at 11.30 we both arrived home and started the final packing. We were planning to roll out at 1.30 but had resigned ourselves to ‘whenever’ we are ready. As the clock struck 3 “Izzy” our truck backed onto “The Gator” our van and she was hooked up and ready to go. The neighbourhood all came out to wave good bye.

We were about to get some pictures when I asked De if she had my mobile phone. After a 30 minute search we eventually found it neatly tucked away in the safe in the van, which made it impossible to hear when we rang it. Another crack at having photos and we were away. I did feel a little emotional at one stage but the last 4 weeks had been so intense and hectic that at this point all I wanted to do was get in the truck and drive away!

 

De’s mum ‘Nana’ or ‘Lozza’ lives in Lennox Head so it was only a short 200k trip on the first day. On the way down we ticked of the first on our bucket list for the trip – three of the four points of the compass in Australia. We have been to the light house in Byron a few times so as the most easterly point in Australia is was a bit of a formality than a highlight. The Gator is a bit big to drag up to the lighthouse so we settled with Main Beach with the lighthouse in the background!

Nana greeted us with warm hugs and cold beers and wines. After a massive last supper with 2 roast meats and 10 veggies (which is an average number by her standard) a few more wines and even a couple of ports with ‘uncle spook’ we hit the hay (our last in real beds) – on our trip at last!

15 sleeps to go

Not long to go now and while the shed looks like a mess it is pretty organised at the moment. Most of the big jobs are done now just the 157 little things to do!

Testing

We are trying to test every thing before we hit the road.  As we don't have an oven in the van and De is an avid baker or roasts and pastry treats the webber seemed like the solution. Based on the results so far we should continue to be looked after by this master chef!