Day 67-70 Windang to Albury to Home - 900 kms

We are home! Its hard to wrap this thing up and I'll miss posting.

Our plans to follow the coast home changed when we got to Nowra. We'd been monitoring fires online and spotted an out of control fire at Currowan. It spanned 80,000 hectares and was close on our coastal route. Re-checking the app now, its still out of control and has expanded another 5000 hectares. So at Nowra, we took a turn inland setting course for Albury, and shorted the trip by about 7 days. It was hard for me to say goodbye to a big chuck of our journey, but the danger was too much to risk.




The leg from Nowra to Albury was one of the toughest. It took us through Jerrawangala National Park, plenty of steep windy climbs and impressive rock formations. The 43 degree heat, ever present smoke and high oil temps on the car kept me on edge.



















Eventually the smoke cleared and we were on highways, sighing relief and patting Em on the back for choosing a safer route home.
















After 560 kms and a whole day of driving we arrived in Albury, set camp and had a quick dip. I went to bed very flat knowing this would be the last night. Tom was brimming. Heading home, back to school and his pets was something he'd been looking forward for much of the trip. Josh appeared happy to be coming home, but said he would much rather continue travelling. While Em was in two minds, pleased to see Tom so happy, but also sad its the end of an amazing adventure.






A special shout out to the Abbot family. From the moment we shared travel plans they have been in regular contact, sending us encouragement. They sent me this pic a few days back. Cam and Emily have been tracking us on a map, posting comments and following our adventures. Thanks also to our family and friends who have followed us with interest and urging me to continue posting. The aim of this blog was to keep you connected to our trip but just as importantly record the story for our own nostalgia.






Em and I just sat down and recapped the experiences and recorded some stats:

• We explored gorges, caves, sand dunes and rock art sites 
• We climbed rocks and ropes, stepped on a snake and were eaten by midgees - 143 bites!.
• We rode on railway, aircraft, boats, barges, bikes, paddle boards, sand boards, a sky rail, camels, water slides and roller coasters.
• We swam or snorkelled in 23 pools, 8 fresh water holes and 9 saltwater locations.
• Our 4wd chugged through dirt tracks, took a beating in deep sand and beach wash away's on Fraser. It conquered steep hills and crossed creeks on the Bloomfield track. It hauled our 2.7 tonne van across 7500 km's, often in extreme heat without letting us down.
• We explored the islands of Fitzroy, Magnetic and Fraser.
• We set up camp at 21 different locations and bunked in 9 different spots outside of the caravan.
• On Josh's birthday, we explored caves in the morning before a symphony orchestra gave us goose bumps in the evening. 
• We soared to 7000 feet over Tocumwul with a 4 time world champ.
• We posted 31 blog entries and to my astonishment, Quartermain Go has had 2,381 page views.

The time away has been more than a holiday. It's been a full on adventure packed with physical, emotional and educational experiences We've all learnt plenty and count ourselves very very lucky and... I can't wait for more.

I wanted a sign off with a single family travel pic... Of course, that was impossible:

Day 62-66 Sapphire Beach to Wollongong 712 kms

We've officially been spoilt! Lately some of the new and interesting locations have become... well kinda normal and vanilla. Gratefully, each time I pull together images and thoughts for this blog my sense of wonder is restored. The list of incredible first time experiences is so long I cant recap accurately without pen and paper. Here's a breakdown of our last 4 days travelling from Sapphire beach, just north of Coffs Harbour, to Windang on the southern side of Wollongong.

The journey from Coffs saw us pass alongside Taree. We saw plenty black trees, fire damaged sheds, building and street signs... and miraculously, some untouched homes standing amidst ruined sheds and fences-  evidence of desperate, brave and skillfull works from fire crews. My thoughts here were with an ex-colleague Tony and others who tragically lost their homes in the fires here.

Travelling on through the NSW Hunter region, I'm frequently reminded of the Telstra family I left behind. We maintained coms for just about all the large hospitals throughout this region from Gosford to Gouldburn. At night I actually dreamt of after hours hospital support scenarios - I woke up with mixed feeling of relief, but also of pride. I miss the people I'd worked with for over a decade. They are a resource bunch of clever and resilient people.

So back to the holiday... have you ever visited Port Stephens? I had no idea the sand dunes were so vast, it reminded me of scenes from the Dakar rally at times. There are approx 38km's of shifting dunes - the largest in the southern hemisphere. So of course, like gravity we were pulled toward camels and sand boards. 

I'd underestimated what was on offer here and regrettably hadn't charged the go pro fully -  I missed recording plenty of action on these huge dunes. Both kids and I went down the larger dunes, all had epic rides and wipeouts.

Next day we drove onto Wollongong, without any plans to stay..However the 700 odd km's and activities had taken a toll, we were truly tired and emotional. So were spending 2 nights here to recoup before our next bounce down south. I just had a massage a lazy day today. 

Here's Em posing in Wollongong just after we arrived in the main town/city - notice Port Kembla in the background - the industrial placings, whilst no doubt being very important, are a massive blot on the otherwise picturesque coastline.

And our camp and surroundings at Windang

Day 59- 61 Wet n Wild + travel to Sapphire Beach

Ok two theme parks down, time for a rest day. I always try to pic the best photo from the period for the first image. Em has an uncanny nack for taking the "cover shot" as I call it... The above image is a rare cover shot by me - Its our first venture onto Sapphire beach.

So what happened over these three days anyway? Here are less words than usual and more pics - im short of time (and energy)

REST DAY 59: Lazy morning, followed by 9 holes in the arvo with Josh. First day on the course for Josh and he did really well, in fact he's calling for a set of clubs from Santa - hello Gumtree.

WET n WILD, DAY 60: Don't think I can add much to these images, you know the score...

Here's Josh

And Tom - he's been wanting to have a go at one of these "waves" for some time

JOURNEY TO SAPPHIRE BEACH, DAY 61: On the way south from The gold coast we stopped in at Byron Bay. It was the place I proposed to Emma (by the lighthouse).The kids were totally uninterested in the romantic story, but they did enjoy a walk on the beach, shopping and gelato before we got back on the road.
 










Byron Bay shots








Sapphire beach is about 10 minutes north of Coffs Harbour. Toward the end of a long day on the road, we couldn't decide where to stay... until we drove past an enticing sign for Sapphire Beach. It looked great, sounded pretty, so we wearily rolled in for a closer look. And, we were rewarded with a sleepy little camp site practically on the beach and with a good looking pool.. Our fridge was empty after the van had been parked for 5 nights in the gold coast. The park attendant recommended a "cafe" about 300 meter walk down the beach. So after a suprise walk down the beach skimming rocks, we began to hear live music in the distance... Fantasic! So we enjoyed a tasty meal amidst, beer, and live soulful grooves while the kids left us for the park and zip line - geez we've fallen on our feet again with this spot, shame we cant stay longer.

There's a three piece band buried at the back of this shot, they really hit the spot - as did a well earned steak

This is actually a pic of the moon. Not a great iamge, but the smoke haze has been creating some curious moon images - last night the moon was bright... but not white.

Tomorrow its another 5 hour journey to Port Stephens. I previously wrote that we'd head to Tamworth. Due to the changing fire conditions, we scrapped that plan in favour of beach side towns. The route through the fire zones at this stage looks safest along the coast, unless of course if we headed west into central NSW, which is too far... And we've experienced that desolate zone already.

Day 55-58 Movie World and Sea World

We checked into Royal Pines RACV resort, careful parked our caravan in the secure parking lot and breathed a luxurious sigh of relief as we explored the room and facilities - very happy with this place. I'm writing this after 3 nights stay, everything so far has been fantastic... especially their breakfast buffet. When writing this we've now been to movie world and sea world - were taking a rest day today and will hit Wet n Wild tomorrow

Its off to Movie world on Day 56 and were up super early as usual. This was the view the greeted me... how do I get a round of gold in?!? (For the footy fans, it's Gold Coast Sun's Metricon stadium in the background).

Another hotel image - this place has lots to offer and I'd recommend it to anyone travelling to the Gold Coast, especially families.













We chose Movie World cos, well, it has the best rides, we love super heros and youtube told us to! I was thinking all about the big rides, but was pleasantly surprised how the smaller interactive sideshows drew the kids in - they spent just as much time playing around these as on the rides

Josh found his favorite ride - the green lantern. Although it was a couple stories high, it's smaller than most of the coasters. It does go upside down several times and takes you through an inverted dive which freaked me out a little. It was a Monday so the queues were pretty short, Josh rode the green lantern 4 times, and wanted more.

Tom loved the log ride the most - it was the only ride all of us could do together for a myriad of reasons relating to height restrictions and fear factor.
















Speaking of fear factor, Movie world houses Australia's tallest fastest roller coaster... or as they call it here a "hyper coaster". It is 62 metres high, travel 1.4 kms at up to 115 km/h. If your a real maniac you can actually pay to ride it backwards. I kissed my family good bye and stood in line for the next 40 minutes debating whether or not I should do it. Meanwhile friends were reminding me via text of the dreamworld disaster less than 12 months ago and that I have a crook back





This is me before (left) and after (right). I survived unscathed and feeling young again...! well sorta.



Later on I convinced Josh, without too much effort, to ride the "Superman Escape" with me. While not as high I ifound it much more enjoyable. Using a hydraulic launch, Superman accelerates to 100km/h in 2.2 seconds, rocketing instantly to 40 metres before diving and putting riders through 3g's of force (or 3 times your body weight). This pic shows the first ascent when you are literally fired into the sky.


During the ride I looked over and checked in with Josh whom I feared was crapping himself. He was in fact, doing it faarr better than I! Here's Josh debriefing:

What a day... 

How can Sea world top this??

Day 57: Its up early again, big breaky and lots of sunscreen.

While still a theme park and with much of it closed for construction, Sea World delivered a far more organic experience. I'm always captivated by dolphins and seals and just how high they manage to leap from the water. Something about the way they move... I cant look away. 

The team wasn't as captivated by the dolphin show as I was, they loved other stuff much more. They got a kick out of the dolphins and even more out of the jellyfish, stingrays, sharks and got to touch large gooey sting rays.

Em and Tom paid extra for a very special penguin experience.

The photos  here are great but didn't capture the playtime part. They were given a rubber chicken squeaky toy and soon the penguins waddled over to play - some wanted to eat the chicken's feet, some the head and others just wanted to squeak it. At times Tom had up to 3 penguins wrestling and interacting with him. They were also given bubble detergent and large wands. Apparently the eyes of the king penguins are tuned into the blue and purple of the bubbles - they become fascinated and follow the bubbles intently. The Gentoo penguins (smaller), were very playful and one tried to swallow the bubble wand to the extend Em has to rescue a ward before it completely disappeared down a penguins throat.

Em and Tom rate this experience the best in the Gold coast so far and will never forget it

While Em and Tom were exercising their happy feet, Josh and I were riding the two thrill rides on offer. One was low and very fast and has you sitting on a jetski carriage. Somehow, we dont have a pic of Josh on it, but it was easily his favorite, he rode it at least 7 times and simply couldn't get enough. Lucky it was mid week - no real queues to worry about.

We also rode the "Storm" which was a fun roller coaster, maybe 4 stories high and got us very wet.

A seriously action packed couple of days, we are totally exhausted and earned a rest day before Wet n Wild. As I write this on the rest day, I'm eyeing off that beautiful golf course. I just called the pro shop and it looks like we'll be on the course this arvo for a quick 9 holes... YES!  It'll be the first time the kids have been on a course.