Darawank 2012 wk 3

February 14^th, Went out fishing with Wayne but didn’t catch any, the water is still very dirty. Elle had been putting down crab pots in the lagoon but did not catch any, so I offered to take them out in my boat and put them down in the River. The smell of the rotting fish heads nearly knocked Wayne and myself out so when we got back I told the group to keep all their fish heads for our crabbing pots. Val bought one of the pots from Elle so now it is a sharing venture. We all went to Black Head Bowling Club for dinner tonight and the food was good and the company great.

February 15^th, No fish, No crabs, low tide. What else can I say, we went shopping!

February 16^th, Lorraine & Wayne left this morning. No crabs, no fish, so decided to move the pots to the creek. Val has been busy with her quilting. We had a group BBQ at 7pm with our Caravaning neighbours.

February 17^th, Elle, Harvey and Andrew left this morning. We rang Steven for his Birthday. We went around to Terri & Patrick’s Place, in this Park, for Drinks, nibbles and Dinner. Patrick put on a nice Roast Lamb Dinner, with Terri’s help and we all had a great night. Patrick is going to come out fishing with me on Monday.

February 18^th, Didn’t catch any fish today and no crabs in the crab pot.

February 19^th, Had a day off fishing, the ski boats are still tearing up and down the river. They start coming on Thursday and the last of them don’t leave till Monday morning. I checked the crab pot and the bait trap. No crabs, However, in the bait trap I finally caught a small fish and a large shrimp. Wow! Live bait for tomorrow.

February 20^th, It stormed overnight but cleared up this morning so I could take Patrick out fishing. We went up the creek, where I have the crab pot, and Patrick caught a 40cm Flathead and all I could catch was 2 eels. Terri came around to keep Val company and brought lunch for all of us. When it came time for them to leave, their car wouldn’t start. Just imagine, we are in a Caravan Park with a car that won’t start, so we soon had a group studying the problem. It seemed that the cause was that the engine immobilizer would not switch off. We tried manual locking / unlocking, the dash light came on so we had power to the ignition switch (we assumed), the remote control for the door wouldn’t operate (must need a new battery) and through all of this the immobilizer continued to keep flashing its little red light. I decided to fiddle with the remote control and to my amazement the door started locking/unlocking by remote and the immobilizer light went and and ignition key when turned started the car (another miracle). Patrick and Terri quickly jumped into the car and drove the 300metres to their home at the back of the Park.

February 22^nd, Yesterday was wet, showers all day so didn’t go out fishing until today. Patrick came with me but we couldn’t hook anything. The rain started up again at 1pm and chased us in, so we just pulled the boat up on the sand and left all the gear to be put away later. It was time for lunch anyway. It bucketed down all afternoon and when there was a break in the weather, late in the afternoon, I went down to move the boat into the Lagoon. I couldn’t believe it but I had been using Val’s mobile and had left it sitting on the seat in the boat. Water had got inside the phone and the screen was blank, bugger. I had to bail the rainwater out of the boat before I could drive it into the Lagoon to tie it up and pack away the fishing gear. Val had the afternoon in Tuncurry with Terri.

February 23^rd, We sent a Birthday SMS to Greg and rang him late afternoon as well. We were happy that he had received our card and gift vouchers. I took Patrick out fishing, hoping to redeem ourselves, but no luck. We went out in the morning to fish in the creek and after lunch drove 15 minutes up the river to a spot where I was told there was a deep hole and fish galore, Hah!  No fish and no crabs.

February 24^th, Last chance today, we left at 10am with new bait and HOPE. Patrick caught a 43cm flathead within the first 5 minutes but unfortunately that was all for today. I took the boat out of the water and packed up ready to leave for The Entrance, in the morning. We have to be at Calga at 11am in the morning, to get a new roll out awning and our annexe walls fitted, so will leave the Park at 7.30am. Terri and Patrick bought Pizza’s from the Café in the Park and brought them up to the Van for Dinner.

Darawank 2012 wk 2

February 7^th, Went out fishing with Wayne (next door caravan neighbor) this morning and we went back to the spot where the fish were biting yesterday. The water is brown with a lot of driftwood, following the storms and flooding. Wayne caught a good size Flathead and Bream, I caught a whiting which Val enjoyed for her dinner. Another storm came through after dinner, just what we needed, Hah!

February 8^th, We had very heavy rain overnight and something had fallen off the huge trees we are under and punched 2 holes in our already damaged roll out awning. I went down to check on the boat, after breakfast, only to find that the river was up again and the boat was half full of water. 30 minutes later and I had pumped all the water out of the boat, thankfully I have a bilge pump. Had a fish off the boardwalk on the riverfront and caught a 27cm bream.

February 9^th, had a quiet day, caught a 30cm bream of the boardwalk.

February 10^th, Joan & Robert came up from Newcastle today. It was good to catch up and they delivered our mail. I took Robert out for a fish, in the tinny, but we didn’t catch any keepers. After lunch we played some “tiles” (Rumicube)  and Joan & Robert left around 6pm for home, only a 2 hour drive. It was a very enjoyable day and we finished it off by shouting ourselves a Pizza for Dinner from the Café here in the Park.

February 11^th, More rain overnight. While out Shopping Val put her bets on “Stompin”, which was running again at Ascot in WA. Unfortunately, having moved up another class it didn’t run a place. I caught a 31 cm bream off the boardwalk, late afternoon.

February 12^th, Another quiet day, watching the waterskiers and speed boats pulling their kids around on rubber rings. It’s a weekend activity on the river every week. We fished off the boardwalk in the afternoon then had a BBQ with the Caravanning group staying in the Park. Elle & Harvey with their son Andrew, Lorriane & Wayne, June & Bruce and us made up the group. It was bring your own everything, with a little sharing, and we all had an enjoyable time.

February 13^th, Went out fishing with Wayne and I caught a 29 cm Whiting.

Darawank 2012 wk 1

January 31^st, We left Parklea early this morning, so that we could make a detour into Salamander Bay, to pick up a few items from our storage shed. As we were driving along Nelson Bay Road, just approaching the Airport turn-off, a car pulled alongside me and was frantically waving his arms. I wound down my window and he said “your’ve lost a tyre off your Van”, so “thanks mate” and turned left into the road leading to the Airport and pulled to the side of the road. I’m wondering how the spare tyre could have come loose off the back of the Van. It had started to rain, so grabbed my little car umbrella and went to investigate. As I passed the spare tyre it was intact, no problem, so went to the left side of the Van to find that the front tyre was completely shredded and all that was left was the 2 walls with the rim sitting on the ground. This looked like a roadside service job (I thought), so rang the FORD Roadside Service number only to be told that my service does not cover the Van (Bummer). Fortunately, the rain had stopped and after moving some gear around the back of the Territory, I was able to get the trusty Ford jack out and just work it under the axle of the Van. It was hard going as I could only get a ¼ turn on the jack screw and in the flat position these jacks are pretty useless anyway, as you don’t get much mechanical advantage until it gets a bit of height. It is not the right jack to be lifting an 18ft Caravan. The progress was so slow that my next “bright idea” was to dig under where the tyre had to go, so that I didn’t need to jack the axle up so far. Seeing all my digging implements were in the storage shed, the best I could find was a paint scraper from my toolbox. I scraped away as much gravel as I could, but I still needed more height. A young fellow pulled up asked if I needed some help. He was on his way to the Airport to pick up some workmates and was early, so had plenty of time to spare. He quickly had the axle high enough to take the spare tyre, but when I tried to fit the spare it wouldn’t go, as the wheel arch opening is small. My next “bright idea” was to use the jack from his car to raise the body of the Van. This worked and with Spare in place and jack out, I thanked my helper and we both continued on our way. We had wasted a whole hour just changing a tyre! We stopped and Saxby’s Pie Shop for a clean up, some lunch and to put air into the tyres, at the ajoining Service Station. We carried on to the shed and were on our way, one hour later, with the items we wanted and travelled through heavy rain to reach Wallamba River Holiday Park at Darawank, just after 5pm. We didn’t know but they shut the Office at 5pm and as we drove in the front gate they rang us to see if we were still coming. The river was rising and the riverfront site that we booked was under water, so it took another ½ hour to find a site that we could use for our 3 week stay, without having to move. When I drove to the site we agreed on , it didn’t have a slab and the ground was mush, so I pulled onto the site next door (with a slab) and did a minimum set up to do us for the night.

February 1^st, Still raining and the River continuing to rise. The Manager came down this morning and said he would have done the same thing himself and we could have the slab site for our whole stay.

February 2^nd, Still raining and windy. After breakfast I noticed that our roll out awning had ripped away from the roller during the night. The rain finally eased off to showers in the afternoon so I rang NRMA Insurance and lodged a claim to replace the Awning and took some photos to go with the quote.

February 3^rd, Rain was gone today, we met our tourist neighbours ( total of 6 including ourselves) and we all had a fish off the riverfront boardwalk. They caught 5 bream and I caught 2, one was a keeper. We were all catching Eels, the river is full of them.

February 4^th, Val transplanted her carrot and spinach seedlings out into foam boxes while I got the boat off the car, set up and into the river. This is a big waterskiing river so I was glad they have a Lagoon coming off the river, where our tinny can be tied up. After dinner we fished off the boardwalk and I caught a 31cm bream around 9pm, when the tide started to run out.

February 5^th, We had another Caravan arrive today, on the site next to us, and after intro’s, found out that Wayne was a keen fisherman. I took the boat out today and found a channel off the river, away from the water skiers, but could not catch a keeper. There is still a lot of rubbish in the water from the floods.

February 6^th, I took Wayne out for a fish, in the tinny, and we found a spot in the River where the fish were biting. I caught a 42cm flathead and a 35cm bream, so was happy to come in for a late lunch at 2pm.

Sydney, end of Jan 2012

January 21^st, Travelled to Sydney Gateway Holiday Park, booked in and put the Van on site. Connected the power and then took the Girls home. They were keen to see Mum and Dad, so they said, but we believe it was to see the new pancake maker that Dianne had bought while they were at Batteau Bay. It was “hello Mum, let’s make pancakes”. After a cuppa and catch up with Greg and Dianne we went back to the Park to set the Van up for our 10 day stay.

January 23^rd, We settled into the routine of Dianne dropping off Jessica and Annaliese in the morning and Greg picking them up after work. We will be looking after the girls until Wednesday, then Greg has the next 4 days off for the Australia Day break. It rained all day, so we had to play in-door or in-van games to keep them occupied.

January 24^th, At 7.15am I drove up to Power Ford, at Castle Hill, to put the car in for replacement ball joints. I took one of my Westerns to read and 1 ½ Hours later was driving back to the Park, appreciating that Ford had done that job for me as a recall, so no charge.

January 26^th, Australia Day. We went to Greg and Dianne’s for a great Lamb BBQ lunch with Karina and her 2 kids. They put on a huge spread that we all enjoyed.

January 27^th, Greg picked me up at 6am this morning and we took his boat up to The Hawksberry River, for a fish. Val was left to look after Jessica and Annaliese at the Caravan Park. We tried several spots during the day, even ventured out through the heads but it was a bit too rough. Unfortunately we didn’t find any fish, our only catch was an eel that Greg caught, and we had rain showers off and on all day, but it was still enjoyable out on the water.

January 28^th, Steven rang to let us all know that Margarets horse “Stompin” was racing at Ascot in Perth, so all bets were on. We went to Greg and Dianne’s place for lunch and to watch the race on their big screen TV. In the afternoon, Karina did acrylic extensions on Val’s nails, ready for our Cruise, then Dianne took Val and Karina to the Bonds Factory Outlet, at Wentworthville while Greg and I minded the 4 kids. At 6.30pm we watched  “Stompin” run a great race, just got pipped at the post to run 2^nd. This was still a good result for the gamblers, as they got place money as well as the quinella, so everybody came out in front.

January 29^th, We drove into the City this morning, to locate the wharf where we will be boarding our Cruise Ship on the 28^th February and to check on the parking facilities. Of course, I got stuck on a ramp that took us across the Harbour Bridge and had to then come back. It was the scenic tour of the City but we did locate the wharf and Val chatted to the Parking Security Guy and got all the info we needed. We then made our way out to The Buckland Hotel, at Alexandria, for lunch with Steven, Ed, Lute, Ilkare and their new baby. We had a lovely lunch and went back to Ilkare’s place for afternoon coffee and drinks.

January 30^th, Big pack up day today, I had to put the boat back on the car and pick up all the gear I stored in Greg’s garage and repack the car and van ready to leave in the morning for the Wallamba River Holiday Park at Darawank, just north of Foster/Tuncurry.

Sydney, Bateau Bay, January 2012

January 7^th, Arrived back at Sydney Gateway Holiday Park for a 7night stay. Our pleasant task for this period is to look after Jessica and Annaliese while Mum & Dad are at work. Dianne drops the Girls off at the Park Gates every morning and Greg picks them up after work. I off-loaded the Tinny and stored it and as much gear as we didn’t need, in Greg’s Garage, until we leave Sydney on the 31^st.

January 11^th, Jessica and Annaliese have been having a great time with us in the Park, with Swimming, games, riding their scooters, swing park, making new friends. Unfortunately, the Jumping Pillow is closed down for major repairs, which was one of their favourite activities. We went to Ed’s place at Glebe, for Dinner, with Steven and Margaret. This is now my favourite place to visit, as at the back of Ed’s Townhouse is a strip of land, currently not belonging to anybody, where I was able to park the car. You would understand my elation if you have ever tried to Park in the inner City of Sydney. Ed took us on a tour of his Townhouse, which was a very impressive and nicely furnished home. Ed went to a lot of trouble to prepare a beautiful 4 course Dinner. After we had our appetizer and entrée courses it was off to the Local Pub and the TAB. Margaret’s horse was running in Perth and was favoured to win, so led by our most avid gambler (Val) were encouraged to not only put $10 each way but to take “Stompin” in a Quinella with the entire field. You can imagine the excitement, in the Local on a quiet Wednesday night, when Stompin, from a slow start from an outside barrier, blitzed the field and won in a photo finish for all places. Let me say that 5 people created an uproar as we celebrated and congratulated Margaret on her horse’s win. We then went back to Ed’s to continue Dinner, with Margaret, Val and Steven all $191 richer and Ed had his $20 for a place so was $78 up. Val had passed the Tip on to Greg and he had $20 e/w so was the biggest winner in our family with $290. The main and dessert were delicious, topping off a very pleasant evening. We drove Margaret and Steven home to Centennial Park before heading back to Parklea.

January 12^th, Dianne organized the tickets for the Girls and myself to see “Alvin and The Chipmunks” at Castle Hill Plaza. We all enjoyed the show, while I had a choc top ice-cream and the girls devoured a medium box of popcorn and a drink each. Greg and Dianne came to the Park for a BBQ, after work.

January 14^th, Dianne dropped the girls off this morning, with their holiday luggage, and we headed for “Blue Lagoon Beach Resort” at Bateau Bay. Jessica and Annaliese had such a great time at this Park last year, that they chose to come here again this year. We called in to Express Canvas at Calga, on our way, and ordered an Annexe which we will pick up on our way to The Entrance on 25^th February. After booking in and setting up, the girls were into the Pool and soon found a new friend. After dinner we went to the Caravan Park Hall and watched a movie, Mr. Bean as a Secret Agent, very funny. We were impressed with the kid’s activities available at this Park, starting at 8am each day, right through to 8 or 9 pm.

January 15^th, Carole and Rob came down from Charlestown with their 2 grandkids, Darcy and Sophie. We had a nice lunch and the girls had a great day, playing together. This being Sunday there were no organized activities at the Caravan Park.

January 18^th, So far everything was running smoothly, the girls were doing all the activities they could and having a great time. The 2.45pm activity today was a 2km walk to Bateau Bay Beach, collect some natural spring water and return to Blue Lagoon Beach, so I went along for the walk. The spring water was just running out of the rock face, very clear, good tasting and so we all filled up our drink bottles and headed back. As we were going over the rock flats a photo opportunity came up. Gavin, our Activity Co-ordinator, had picked up a crab, so the girls needed their ipods to take a photo. Annaliese was last to get hers out of the backpack and running through a water puddle, slipped over. She quickly picked herself up and went to take her photo and then she saw the blood on the rocks coming from a cut under the heel of her foot. I sat her on a large rock, grabbed the towel from around her shoulder and mopped up the blood then applied pressure, to stop the bleeding. It took a while to calm her down and assure that she was not going to lose “all her blood”, as she put it. I used my 2 handkerchiefs to make a covering over the wound then “piggy backed” her to the Park. Val took over and dressed the wound, but at the mention of the cut needing a stitch, Annaliese went ballistic, screaming “don’t stitch me just put on a band-aid”.

January 20^th, Annaliese had a quiet day yesterday but seemed to be recovering well, so was able to do some of today’s activities. Apart from the cut foot, I think the Girls enjoyed their holiday at Blue Lagoon. We leave for Sydney in the morning.