Anyways, as per the blog updates below we stopped at the following places..
Day 1 - Lakes Entrance
We arrived at the Big 4 in Lakes Entrance late in the day, and we had the rain follow us all the way from home. The caravan park was very nice and well laid out, but due to the rain and lack of concrete slabs on site we had a grass plot that was quite muddy. The night was a cold introduction to how this trip would be.
Day 2 - Merimbula
The next day was a nice drive through Eden and on to Merimbula. We again stayed at a Big 4, this one up on a hill overlooking the ocean. We did not pay for a site with a view, but we got a view anyways. The park was very quiet and we got the pick of sites, taking a nice concrete site with great access. It was not so cold here.
Fish and Chips was the meal of choice here with a great Traditional fish and chip shop in town serving hand cut chips and great fish. It was a very nice meal
Day 3 - Batemans Bay
We had another nice days drive to Batemans Bay. The weather as been great since the first day, still cold at night but sunny during the days. We had our first stop at the Bega cheese factory as Sara had been wanting to re-visit here for a while. Unfortunately the factory tours were no longer held so this meant the you could only do some taste testing of the various cheese products and then on to the gift shop.
We then had a great stop for lunch in an out of the way (down a dirt road) rest stop in a rain forest. We stopped here for a while and had a hot lunch. They even had a Forrest walk we ventured down a bit to a nice stream.
Arriving in Batemans bay in the afternoon we were met by Sara's mum and dad who were going to travel the rest of the way to Jervis Bay with us.
Day 4 - Huskinsson
We did not end up traveling with mum and dad as we went to the Mogo Zoo for the morning. This is a great Small zoo with White lions, Tigers and heaps of monkeys, some of which can fit in the palm of your hand. The kids had just as much fun as the natives.
We then set off for Huskinsson around lunch time and arrived to another great park site overlooking Jervis Bay.
Day 5-7
Caitlyn and i had been making a habit of being the first up and heading off for a walk whilst the "others" slept on in bed. The benefit of this is that we were able to see some great wild life. Whilst we were inspecting all the rocks at huskinsson we noticed lots of Dolphin Pods swimming close to shore in the bay. Caitlyn loved the fact we could now see dolphins and not need to be on a boat. the "others" missed out :) but Sara did see a pair a few days later swim past the van.
The main reason for the trip was to see Robbies Graduation from Creswell as part of New Entry Officer Course (NEOC) 42. We went out to the base on the Thursday night to witness the sunset march and lowering of the flag. This was very good with a great Navy band performance and all the recruits joining to march back and forwards and fire their Styre rifles all at once.
The next day, Friday, saw us all return to view the graduation ceremony. Each division formed up and had their formal inspection prior to awards and certificates being handed out. They had a Flyover of Navy aircraft and the Chief of the Navy was present to support them.
As this was our last day in Jervis Bay we went to the local RSL for dinner and prepared for the trip up to Sydney for a few days.
Day 7-10 - Sydney
We spent the Saturday traveling up the coast slowly to Sydney. We stopped at Kiama to see the Blowhole, and to visit the Kiama Markets, then on to Sydney. I must say i think i did well as TomTom felt i needed to be guided through quite heavy traffic. We arrived at Lane Cove caravan park just after lunch, and i can highly recommend this park to anyone staying in sydney. Its very close to shops and public transport, yet is in a national park with the bush and wildlife close at hand. The park is very popular with most sites full.
We set up and then sat down for some lunch when the welcoming party came in, a large flock of Rosella's. By the time i had my lunch safe inside the van, most of the top layer of bread was gone :) The Kids loved it and we ended up with the birds coming every day if food was about. We also went on a guided night spotting tour with a wildlife officer in the evening looking for the parks possums and bandicoots.
On Sunday we went for a trip into the city, catching their trains and ferries to get around. We had heaps of fun, visiting the Paddys Markets and Circular Quay but we missed out on Manly.
We spent Monday resting around the park and visiting the local shopping center where the kids went ice skating.
Sydney, at this time of year, turned out to be VERY cold, with the van and park geting down to around 1 degC over night. Still, we enjoyed our stay and even made time for a few bush walks.
Return Trip - Sydney to Melbourne
The return trip proved to be very un-eventfull, as they always seem to be. We travelled from Sydnet to Albury on the first day, stopping for breakfast at Wangatatta and a nice warm lunch at Gundagai. We spent a lot of time in the car, but it passed smoothly.
We arrived at a nice quiet park in Albury, in walking distance to the local Pub, so there was no need for us to cook tea. The site was a drive through site, so the pack up efforts in the morning meant we were back on the road early and back home at around 1pm.
All in all, this was a great little break, with some nice family time and a true introduction to winter camping. I think we found the experience a bit to claustrophobic though as we much prefer to sit outside and watch the world go by, with the cold weather and early sunsets, we found we spent too much time locked up in the van at night. This did mean we got quite a lot of UNO games in though :)
