Coffs Harbour

Well, Here is a big photo update...

Where to start, we have found a great little caravan park, here at Emerald Beach. Sara and I have found our new home. We are actually about 20min north of Coffs Harbour and the place is very quiet. Even the locals are pulling in for a weekend stay.

We spent most of yesterday (Friday) at the not so Big Banana. Not much to say, the place is a bit rundown, with alot of attractions shut down, so we went on a non banana related Tobogan ride, and spent some time on the Ice rink. The Kids loved it so thats the main thing.

Today we went to the Pet Porpoise pool, which prooved to be a great morning. All the girls got a kiss from the Dolphins and the Seal. The show was also great, with Caitlyn being called up to feed a seal, and sing with the Dolphins on stage. After the show the kids got to feed some Fairy penguins.

Then it was back to the park for some pool time and a relax. Caitlyn and I have been on a walk every morning along the beach as well so we are al excercised up :)

On to the Photos...

Port Macquarie

Well, Port Macquarie proved to be an interesting stop. The caravan park, whilst nice and clean, was right by a main road and directly under a flight path :) a different wake up to Kookaburras.

Whilst on the search for local beaches we also found a lighthouse, only Caitlyn was nearly as tall as this one.

Anyways, we had our own jetty and our own camp kitchen as there was only about 6 caravan sites here. It was just an overnight stop.

First Morning - Coffs Harbour (Emerald Beach)

Well everyone else is still asleep so I went for a walk. We have Kangaroo's and bush turkeys walking around the van this morning and the beach is great. A nice way to start the day.

Port Stephens

Port Stephens, the place Sara has wanted to visit for years.

We arrived on Sunday afternoon after a great trip through Sydney on the Freeways. It was a very painless experience and even with all the hills the car and van went well.

We Setup at Bay Caravan Park in Anna Bay, which at the moment seems to be in a quiet period. We did however spend a lightly sleepless night worrying about the awning and the wind that cropped up around 1am. When we woke in the morning the van was still intact ;)

Anyways, the plan for Port Stephens was for us to go on a Dolphin Watch Tour, and with the threat of bad weather we braved the sea on the Moonshadow Dolphin and Whale Cruise. We seemed to be in luck as the Captain found at leats 3 Pods whilst we were out and we got some great photos. Bianca and Caitlyn loved it with Caitlyn spending most of the time below deck watching the underwater camera's. They also got to ride a giant net in the sea, attached the the rear of the boat.

The last photo below is of a Stick Insect that was trying to have a shower with Sara. Caitlyn saved it from drowning and spent the morning playing with it before releasing it to a large gum tree near the van.

The rest of the afternoon was spent by the pool with a BBQ planned for the evening

We leave for Port Macquarie in the morning for an overnighter before continuing to Coffs Harbour.

Day 1 - Mittagong Caravan park

So our trip has finally began. We have planned a trip to Coffs Harbour with some time in Glen Innes to fossick for saphires.

We left yesterday and stayed at Trek31 in albury. A very rundown park that has an ambitious development plan. We had a good night and the park served our needs.

We left early and after a few stops we arrived in mittagong in the early afternoon. The weather is nice and we are looking forward to Port Stephens tomorrow and dinner with Dennis.

Anglesea Getaway Feb 2010

Well, we finally got away in the caravan.

What a trial that was. We decided on heading down to Anglesea again, and booked in the same area we stayed in last year in the camper trailer. Prior to heading down i booked the van into Jayco for some warranty work.

Lesson 1 - the turning circle of the caravan is larger than the camper trailer :) I took out our Mailbox and put a small hole into the rear of the caravan.

We went down on the Thursday afternoon and returned on the Sunday. Two full days at the beach did us all good, with the weather being great. The caravan performed flawlessly and our list of missing /needed items ended up being very small. We are ready for the next Big (bigger anyway) trip.

Our time at the beach was spent around the caravan, in the pool and in the surf. I took the girls for a walk down on the rocks a few times, and on Saturday we went for a drive up to the Anglesea powert station, a Coal fired station with the Coal mine on site. It was here that Bianca found the Echidna shown below.

Next Trip.... Coffs Harbor

Homemade Pizza on the Weber Q

Easter 2010 Trip Plan

Well, Planning is almost complete now with only a few more bookings to go but the image below will detail our expected route..


The trip will cover approximately 3000Km and will see us visit;

Goulburn
Port Stephens
Port Macquarie
Coffs Harbour
Glen Innes
Peak Hill
Tocumwal

The New Caravan

Well, Its been a few months and i'm sad to say, the Tambo camper trailer has been sold. Yep, its gone but we did it for a good cause :)

We are now the proud owners of a Jayco Expanda 16.49-2 Cavavan, the Bunk model.

Photos of the caravan are below and we are in the middle of some trip planning now. More to follow...

Gemtree Update

Hi All,

Our trip finished safely with no real updates worth posting. This big highlight after the trip was receiving the cut stones from the gems we found at Gemtree. We had a pair of earrings made for caitlyn and a pendant made for Bianca. We also got 2 stones cut and left unmounted. The following photos attempt to show what we received and compare the cut Garnet to the raw stones we dug up.








Thanks for following our trips and we will have a new one posted very soon

Gem Tree

We spent two days on the way back staying at Gemtree Caravan Park. This park, on the Plenty Highway is one of the closest to the Gem fields surrounding Alice Springs.

Garnet and Zircon are two of the gemstones you can find in this region and we decided to go fossicking for Garnets as they were easier to find :)

We went on a "Tour" where a guide took us out to the claim owned by the caravan park, showed us what to do and then let us. We were the only people out there all day.

The Kids had heaps of fun getting very, very dirty.

The basic process was;

1. Dig out a bucket of dirt from the spot you have decided to work.
2. Fill up a sieve with a quantity of dirt
3. Rotate the sieve back and forward whilst holding it horizontal. This eliminated all the loose dirt leaving stones and clumps of dirt
4. Work the clumps until you only have stones left. The stones are then sorted and the non-garnets are removed. These are clearly not gemstones
5. Place the sieve in the water to wash the remaining dirt away. Again, you can eliminate any that are clearly not garnet such as quartz and ironstone
6. When the stones are clean, you hold the sieve up to the light, and if you are lucky, you will see clear red stones amongst the normal rock. This is your garnet.

You repeat this process "ALL DAY"

Upon returning to the camp the owners will sort through your findings and determin what can be cut. We managed to find quite a few cutters allowing us to get 4 stones cut, up to 6mm, with another 4 stones being cut for a 6mm ring, a 5mm pendant and a pair of 4mm earrings. We also still have quite a few cutable stones left.

Back at camp the site was great. We had a camp fire going basically two days straight and all our meals were cooked on it. The only issue was the amount of flies during the day.