Nuttbush Retreat to Smoky Bay

We had a nice stop over at Nuttbush Retreat, with only the road trains passing by late in the evening. We did not hear them for the rest of the night. After the evening being shrouded in clouds i was able to set the camera up for the first time this trip to try and take some star shots. I had some fun trying to get everything in to focus in the dark and ended up calling it quits as it got quite cold.



We awoke to a damp camp site in the morning and many of our neighbours took off early. We took our time and had bacon and eggs for breakfast. As it was my birthday, 37 this year, i received some cards and many messages on the phone.


Once we broke camp and headed off towards Iron Knob it got very foggy and stayed this way up until 11:30. We stopped at Kimba, near the Big Galah, before moving on again towards Streaky Bay. We stopped for lunch at a nice roadside stop, with a few other caravaners.

We had big plans of going out for tea in Smoky bay, due to it being my birthday , but as i suspected, it was not to be. The only restaurant in town, the local RSL, does not serve meals everyday and the two days we are here happen to be those days. Therefore it was off to the local “General Store” for fish and chips. It turned out to be a good meal in the end.
Upon arrival at the Smoky Bay caravan park, Caitlyn started getting a bit naughty due to being couped up in the car for so long, so once the camp was set up it was out with the fishing rods and off to the jetty. I managed to catch one nice Squid with Sara and Caitlyn getting plenty of nibbles but no fish. Sara did catch a nice big “something” but lost it when the fish bounced of the shark proof enclosure they have for swimming.

We went back out in the morning, Caitlyn and I, where i managed a second big Squid before we came back for breakfast. We will be heading out again at about 2pm. Dad has been happy to look for Crabs off the beach and purchase fresh oysters from the general store. He even managed to get Caitlyn and I to try them

Anyways, Sara hopes to get some nice sunset photos tonight before we break camp again tomorrow and head off to the Head of the Bight to see some wales (hopefully).

Mildura and Nuttbush Retreat

Well as the photos below mention, we have finally started our trip to Denham and back. We traveled from Melbourne to Mildura on the first day, staying for the night at the Big4 Mildura Deakin Holiday Park. Although it was just for an overnights stay the park is well kept, clean and quiet.

We made the trip up quite well, stopping only for fuel and lunch. When we arrived at the park we had two of our neighbors come straight over to inform dad that something was not right with his camper. A weird, concerning, sound was coming from one of his wheels. Upon inspection we found the wheel bearing dust cover had come loose and was floating around under his hub cap. We were lucky this was all it was but we will keep an eye on this over he next few days. Due to this we inspected all the wheels again on both my van and dads and found no further issues.

The customary first nights tea of slow cooked silverside was eaten by all then after a few quite drinks it was off to bed.

After an early start on day 2, 8:30am, we headed off to Port Augusta. Our first stop for the day was at Renmark where we went to a local bakery for brunch. We all had an assortment of pies, sausage rolls and a chilli kransky that was done up like a sausage roll. After a stroll down to the river and around the block it was back into the car as we still had a fair distance to travel for the day. One point for next time is that the Renmark Big4 looks to be nice park and will be the subject of a return visit in the future.

The second stop for the day was for fuel at Burra. Not much to say here.

We arrived at our stop for the night, Nuttbush Retreat, just out of Port Augusta as you head for Ceduna. The park is quite basic but the amenities are good and it's a quite enough park. We had our first barbecue for dinner, but we were left cooking in the dark due to the time we got in and set up camp.

The weather has been about 18deg with some rain in Mildura in the morning. The commodore has been running on mostly LPG with about 22 L/100KM. Although this might seem high, I am towing a caravan up some quite hilly roads at an average of 90KM/Hr.

Edit 10/6/11

As promised, here are two more photos i wanted to post, Bianca and Caitlyn enjoying the scenery

                    

Mildura Big 4

All set up for our first night. Blog post to follow

(see full image)

Sent from my iPhone

We are off ;)

(see full image)

Sent from my iPhone

5 Days left……

Well, the latest of our adventures is nearly upon us. We have only 5 days left before we leave. We had a look over mum and dads preparations today and noticed the new shelves in dads wardrobe in the Penguin. Not bad.

We went home and straight away removed the plastic bins we have been using and measured up for our own drawers. All the materials are now ready, after a last minute visit to Bunning's, and i will have them installed tomorrow after work. It will increase our usable storage space, in the wardrobe in the Expanda, by about double

The next post should be from Mildura, our first nights stop.

2 Weeks left – but who’s counting :)

 

Well, Only 2 weeks left to go before we head off on our next 6 week traveling holiday. The caravan has been serviced and packed, mostly. We just have to load food and clothing before we head off. Now for the long wait and the gathering of all the assorted things we have accumulated in the past 6 months that we think we need

I plan to keep this site updated, with daily photos, but that will be dependant on how we travel and if we have internet access. Leave a comment if you know of any must visit places or if you want any particular places photographed that we may be visiting.

Stars photo trial

Due to the fact we will have great dark Sky's when we travel on our next trip, i have been practicing at taking time lapse photos. One of the benefits of taking time lapse night shots is the ability to stack the resultant images. The photo below is a stack of 99 images taken at around 8pm at night. The camera is a Canon 500d at 18mm F3.5. 1600iso and 15sec exposure.

I hope you like it and i expect the photos in the coming months will only improve.

 

6 weeks to go

Well, we have only 6 weeks to go before we head off on our next big trip. As per the previous post, we are off to Denham, W.A. to visit some family friends. Just as with our Darwin trip, we will be going with Mum and Dad and Mums friend Corinda.
We will be driving a Holden Commodore Omega LPG and towing our Jayco Expanda 16.49-2. Mum and Dad will be driving their Holden Colorado V6 and will be towing a Jayco Penguin.
We have spent the last week repacking the van and i am now finished a few upgrades that will hopefully make the trip more comfortable, including

• LED lights to all of internal light fittings
• Drawers installed under the bottom bunk bed
• Privacy screen for the rear bed (front bed has had one for some time)

We are all really looking forward to this trip, including some whale watching (if we are lucky) at the head of the Bight, seeing the dolphins ay Monkey Mia, the sea horse sanctuary at Kalbarri and best of all, the wide open spaces and the amazing night skies the outback allows you to see.
Keep checking back here as we plan to keep daily updates, internet access allowing.

Perth 2011

Hi All, This is my first post for this year. We are in the final planning stages now for a trip to Denham in June. It will be a 6 week trip and we are all looking forward to it. See below for a rough route.

Shepparton

 

This year for the Big4 Camp free night we headed up to Shepparton for the weekend. Not much was done as again, the rivers were all in flood. We did have a relaxing time in another great park. Caitlyn had her first Chicken Parmigana at the RSL

                                    

           

Swan Hill

Well, i have been a bit Lax so here is a series of photos from Swan Hill. We travelled here from Mildura and set up right on the River. We took the kids on a tour of the Settlement display and a cruise on the Payap All in all a great park and a relaxing break

                                                                
                 

Mildura Day 3

We had a great couple of days, yesterday we investigated the town and went out to an other local town for a street market. We spent most of the day around the caravans and had a great BBQ dinner, around the camp fire.

Today was another trip in to town, as well as a walk along lock 11 and a drive across the river into NSW.

We bought the kids a new toy, a whistling ball. We have all had fun with it.

                

Mildura day 1

We had a great drive up to Mildura, stopping a few times for breaks and lunch.

We are staying at the Apex RiverBeach caravan park, but due to the floods the Murray river is up high and the actual beach is gone.















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Location:Pioneer Way,Mildura,Australia

Mildura Trip

Good news, another trip is nearly upon us. This time its a week away with Mum and Dad in Mildura and Swan Hill. We are really looking forward to this week away.


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