26/02/14 move to motorhome
We left our beautiful, stunning apartment in north curl curl and headed via taxi (awkwardly racist taxi driver) to pick up the motorhome at Apollo in Sydney. We noticed the front off side tyre looking soft, "no no, it's noted as 66 psi on the log sheet" yeh, heard that before! So we had them pump it, it was actually on 45!! So, off we headed to Alex and Clem's to drop off a bag and the travel cot we'd borrowed, started the van to head off and uh oh... No battery! Couldn't believe it! So we had to wait for an hour (the guy at assistance said he'd try and get the branch to head out under the circumstances to save us waiting, if they couldn't, he'd arrange roadside) so roadside assistance appeared and changed the battery for us (it was a petrol battery on a diesel van) . So by 2 we were very hot, but well looked after by Suzy and Nick, Al's neighbours, and on our way! First stop, one mile beach, port Stephens. You can really tell the difference leaving Sydney, not as many super athletic amazing looking people, I bet I could find some fat mums if I went looking, just so different the the Presteigne Sydney. We picked up a great spot by the bar b q area, shower block, little park... Not bad at all. We headed for a nice refreshing swim which worked wonders, the pool has a slide in the centre which is great fun, it also has a kids pool and jacuzzi. We got back to the van to get dinner sorted, unpack, make up beds and the bloody tyre was flat!! FFS! So the guy a couple of spots over had a tyre company, helped Jim find the jack point and Jim changed to the spare. As you can imagine, dinner was fairly silent as the kids were still crying hot and tired and nothing was going right (Joey had also fallen out of the motorhome, no major injuries thankfully). We got the beds ready, everyone cried some more, kids sharing a bed at the back, obviously, they were a nightmare to get to sleep, Joey kept cuddling Ellie! We kept the table in the kitchen area up and we went to bed in the over cab bed. About an hour later Joey fell out of bed - again, without injury, but I then spent most of the night worrying! How crap!
The next morning the kids were up at 6:30 but it was a nice day, we managed to get through breakfast with no tears and actually was a nice morning. We'd made the decision to stay at the same place overnight again. As I was heading to the bathroom I hear a rustle in the bushes, thought it was a cat as it was a big rustle, avoided it, then it ran up the tree, a 1.5 meter monitor lizard! It was spectacular! I managed to get back to the van to show everyone and get hold of a camera, take pictures and video it moving between trees, definitely a highlight of the trip so far. We spent the rest of the day quietly, getting provisions and driving through a few of the earily quiet towns, it's a bit like hitting France at the end of their tourist season or maybe Florida low season...The one town, Soldiers point won "tidiest town in Australia 2012!!!" We swam in the pool again and then headed to the beach about a 3 minute walk over sand dunes. It's fabulous, I have never seen such a long undeveloped beach with so few people on it, we had a lovely time paddling and throwing Joey and Ellie around. The day had worked out far better, we are also getting into habits such as parking so we can get the awning straight out and tables and chairs outside (although Joey is having to go in his pram for meals) . The kids / Joey was a nightmare to out to bed, Ellie just wants to fall off to sleep but Joey keeps lying on her tummy with the biggest cat that got the cream grin! So cute, but I do feel for Ellie.
That night we left the washing out, canvass camping chairs, shoes... All of it out, I woke to a burst of rain, thought "ok, this will be over soon like last night" then it got worse and worse and worse... We woke to an absolute deluge, our van was like an island, I had to get waterproofs on Ellie and I, grab the chairs and put them undercover to drain off, take Ellie to the "amenities block!" And get the washing in off the line and put a wash on, this was full blown tropical rain that you can't see three meters ahead stuff! Excitement over and dried off, although everything in the van was a bit wet we headed up the coast aiming to catch up on our slow start as we had never planned to spend two nights so far south, so the plan was to get to Port Macquarie for lunch then South West Rocks to stay over. We got going and about fifteen minutes in I take a look on the floor behind me and I see some water, assuming it was off the wet coats in the shower room, look around again in three minutes and the whole floor was full of water! The van was leaking, we think up through the wheel arches, because of the volumes of water coming down and then getting kicked up again from the roads. So I mopped it up with a towel, put the towel where I thought it was coming from and we set off again, about five minutes later I turn around and we're flooded again! I mop it up as we're driving, wring the towel out in the shower, and there's more by the time this process is over, I do it again, take a look at the back windows and realise it's coming in through there and soaking the kids' bed and bedding! Jim pulls over at the next stop and we make a plan. Just as an FYI, where we were in port Stephens was at the end of a spit of land I guess, so we had to drive maybe 20-30 km back south to drive on the main road north, so in all this time, technically, we hadn't moved up the coast. We sit it out for a bit hoping the rain would slow, it doesn't, so we carry on for a short while deciding that we will try and make it to Forster and Tuncurry as our base for the night, this was about half way to Port Macquarie where we were hoping to be for lunch time! We came off the main road hoping that the side roads may be quieter and we could head more slowly in an attempt to pick up less water, but we were really shocked by the road quality, it's terrible, really patchy roads filled with pot holes, not great in a rather large 6 berth motorhome! We've learned an early lesson from this though (we think) it seems that by driving the coast road, we don't often get to see the coast or sleepy little beach towns, I had expected to essentially drive up the coast as if I were on the set of home and away! We definitely aren't! So we're going to use the main roads. This bit of the drive from the main road to Forster was awful, I spent my whole time sliding around the van on my hands and knees mopping up dirty road water and wringing the towels out in the shower, I am filthy, soaking, covered in bruises from slipping every time we hit a corner or hill and have headache as poor Joey is teething and tired because he can't sleep in his seat, a tad upset. We stopped for lunch in a shopping mall, bought some towels to try and keep the van dry, laid all of our newly purchased towels and headed to Halidays point where the holiday park was. At least it stopped raining when we got there so I was able to wash the floors, get washing on and dried (we had turned the van into a scene from entrapment in the morning to dry the washing left out the night before so amid the fun we were avoiding washing line and hanging towels in the back of the van) all the bowls under the sink needed washing, we somehow needed to dry the kids bed... Nightmare. Basically, we all fought the rest of the day as the kids cried, we were tired, it was all just a recipe for disaster... Until we put them to bed and we had a nice vanilla slice, a beer, a hot shower and rest!
Next day..... Rain... F**k! We needed to try and make up some distance as we'd travelled such a short distance in three nights so waste water emptied, 100 litres put in fresh water tank - an unneeded hassle in torrential rain! We headed off, towels everywhere, bedding all above the cab, cushions for the bed in the centre of the bed to avoid window leaks and everything that can be off the floor, off the floor we were going to go as far as possible with whatever drama was thrown at us! About an hour in (after being shouted at by a bunch of locals for parking the van in front of them! Nice! We drove off to avoid a scene for the kids) we were flood free, both kids were asleep, it was 120 miles to Coffs Harbour and we were going to try and go for it! We stopped at Nambucca Heads for lunch, a lovely river estuary meeting a beach creating some beautiful scenery, even if it was cloudy! Jim fetched us some fish and chips and we sat in the van with the view over Nambucca Heads beach, it was lovely and what I'd be hoping we'd be doing a lot! Lunch over, we headed to Park Beach Holiday Park in Coffs Harbour. At a bargain $32 per night it has a fab pool with babies area with lots of little spouts, slides, pirate ships etc, games room, a park, camp kitchen and bar b q s to use and we're right near the loos and showers which makes life easy! We have wifi but the tiniest little amount, it doesn't really work from the van, we need to head to the camp kitchen but life doesn't really give us time to head over there for half an hour and have a browse at stuff and catch up with messages which is a pity. We decide to stay on a second night and spend the next day not moving! I went to the bathrooms just before bed, felt a drop of rain on the way back to the van, literally closed the door and the heavens opened, you couldn't hear a thing inside it was deafening, such a lucky break! Maybe our van luck is changing!
We wake to no rain! Ellie had made a couple of friends the evening before when and from the moment she woke up she just wanted to go next door and see them, she hasn't learnt boundaries yet and literally, as soon as she meets someone she wants to move in! And also, she goes onto repeat! We did a bit of playing on the air pillow (trampoline style toy) went and did some shopping, beach, swim... That kind of stuff, a nice quiet day! It rained again quite heavily in the late afternoon so nothing else for it but steak, beer and an early night for the kids!
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