On the Road to Kangaroo Island: Day 3

 Lots of rain overnight in Goolgowi but we woke to a pretty sunrise.

The mornings drive took us across the Hay Plain which is notoriously flat.

Last time we travelled this way, on the way back from Western Australia there had been a lot of rain and in places water lapped at the road.

Not today!

Although it wasn't as dry as it has been.

 

The number of trucks on the road is noticeably huge!

May hay trucks heading east. From? Western Australia?

Morning tea and lunch: rest areas on the Sturt Highway.

Big thunderstorms around Balranald but we missed the worst of them.

There is a quarantine checkpoint near the Victoria/South Australia border and they are very strict.

I had cooked and frozen our remaining onions, capsicum and squeezed and frozen lemon juice, eaten all the rest of the fruit.

This is to prevent to transmission of fruit fly into South Australia.

They went into the caravan to check that we weren't hiding any forbidden fruits and veggies.

We topped up our shopping in Renmark and also gained half an hour of time!

Got to camp at Lake Bonney at 4pm. Camped right on the edge of the lake. There are 3 other caravans here and a car.

We remembered that we had been here before - just stopped for lunch and a guy in a caravan wandered over and we couldn't get rid of him!

It is quite windy and the water is lapping against the shore.

On the road to Kangaroo Island: part 2

Day 2.
It was soooo quiet in Gulgong.
After a shower and breakfast we hit the road. It takes us about 2 hours to get going, and we didn't even unhitch the caravan.

The road from Gulgong seems to follow the ranges through Wellington and onto Parkes. It's a bit of an up and down, winding road.
We caught up with friends Mick and Robyn in Parkes, people we knew from when we lived there 30 years ago.
An hour and a half later we continued.
Through Forbes and on to West Wyalong for lunch in a pretty park in town.

We have some not-very-good-memories of West Wyalong....when G was playing cricket for Parkes in WW he was fielding in close and, yep, got hit in the face by a cricket ball. It wasn't pretty and we spent the rest of the day in West Wyalong hospital.

Not such disasters this time.

A quick photo stop in Weethalle -

to admire the beautifully painted wheat silos.

We arrived in the cutesy little town of Goolgowi at 4.30.
A community-run campground with the cleanest showers. We hat to go to the services club to pay and get a key for the amenities.....so had to have a little pre-dinner drink too.

Distance: 469kms
Total time: 8hours 20 mins

On the Road to Kangaroo Island.

Day 1. 
Today was a bit of a long slog. First one of 3 long, for us, days. 
The intention is to cover a bit of ground quickly and get into South Australia soonish. 3 days. Towing the caravan we don't travel fast, between 80 and 90 kph. Yes, we are THOSE annoying people!
We left home a bit later than intended due to not being totally organised. What a surprise! 
In our defence we've had a busy few days. 
We left home at 8.40 First stop, as usual, The Greenhouse in Nabiac for coffee. That's about 1 and a half hours away. 
Lunch at the new(ish) rest area at Branxton on the Golden Highway that goes up through the Hunter Valley. 
Quick stop and change of drivers at Cassilis rest area. Last time we were here early last year it was just after a bushfire and the whole place was decimated. 
It looks better now as the picnic tables and toilets have been replaced but the bush is slow to recover. We pushed on to Gulgong, to the showground and our first campsite.

We love the showground camping and community campsites in these country towns. It's the next best thing after National Park and reserves.

Distance: 548kms
Total time: 7hours 50 minutes.
 

Where shall we go for lunch? Abundance cafe

 

We had to go to Wauchope.....long story!
And decided we needed to make a bigger trip of it and have lunch somewhere.
A bit of on-line research led us to the Abundance Cafe at Sancrox with its attached garden centre, or the other way round.

This is a particularly attractive spot for us as it has lots of interesting sounding vegetarian options and is reasonably priced.

We have been here before but only for morning tea and remembered that it is in a lovely setting overlooking the duck and turtle filled dam.

We also remembered how rich and filling their homemade desserts are!

We ate: Lemon myrtle and potato gnocchi with confit garlic, sauteed cauliflower, Jarlsberg crisps, parmesan custard and lemon myrtle syrup.

And: Wild mushroom pivithier, creamy truffled polenta, asparagus, pomegranate seeds and a ginger and lemon grass caramel.

We also managed to fit in a share of hazelnut and caramel cheesecake.
Oh, and they have good coffee.

 

We also bought something else! For the garden.
But I haven't taken a photo of it yet.

Abundance cafe is between Port Macquarie and Wauchope. To get there turn off the Pacific Highway near Cassegrain winery, to Sancrox and follow the signs.

 

Hat head bushwalk in wildflower and whale watching season

 

We went for a great shortish (7km) walk in Hat Head National Park.

It was a perfect day!

The sun was shining but it wasn't hot and there was a nice breeze blowing.

It's a great time of year as the wild flowers are out and the whales are moving back south to Antarctica.

The walk starts at The Gap which is on the ocean side of Hat Head rather than the bay.
There is a car park but no facilities. If you need the loo before you start you have to go to the caravan park.
There are two tracks here.
One goes around Korogoro Headland and the other goes south to Connors beach and beyond.

The path to Connors beach is a well-formed track up and over a little rise but then it gets a bit tricky.
Walk along Connors Beach and at the south end you will see a sign on the rocks.
Scramble up there and follow the well-worn foot pad as it winds in and out of a couple of gullies and past Third Beach.

Unfortunately the gullies and the track are getting a bit choked with nasty invasive bitou bush which makes it a little less pleasant.
National Parks and Wildlife Service are getting a round to spraying this but there is a lot to be done.

Fortunately there are lots of wildflowers in between - flannel flowers love this part of the coast!
There were yellow isopogons, assorted pea flowers, native violets, little tiny blossoms, and eventually we found some orchids! With the help of an orchid hunter.

Along this stretch we were entertained by a pod of whales! They hung around for ages. About five big ones and a baby,  they were quite close in.

After about three and a half kms you get to the grassy headland of Kemps Corner.
It was a strikingly clear day!
We could see Crescent Head, Big Hill, North Brother mountain and Tacking Point at Port Macquarie.
It's a great spot for morning tea or lunch.

You can also walk here from the road that goes past the Hungry Head camping area.

Then walk back the way you came.

As an added bonus you can swim at Connors beach on the way back.

 

Paradise. Better known as Lord Howe Island.

What a surprise!
Who knew that Lord Howe Island is soooo beautiful?

For those of you who don't know....Lord Howe Island is a little speck about 600kms due east of here.
It's part of New South Wales and hence Australia and is literally a sub-tropical paradise.

It's only about 11kms long but has two awesome peaks at one end and a few other little nobbies.

It has a coral reef!
Which is totally amazing.
It is the southernmost coral reef in the world.
It has this due to warm currents swirling down from Queensland and warming the waters enough for coral and some pretty gorgeous fish.

You have to fly on a little plane as there is only a little runway.
Planes fly from Sydney every day and from Brisbane once a week at this time of year.
More frequently in the summer and there are flights from Port Macquarie too I believe.

On the second day we went on a boat trip on the lagoon and did some snorkelling.

The boat people supplied us with wet suits and all snorkelling gear.

It was amazing!

There was lots of very pretty coral, all sorts.

And many many fish.

I wish I could remember them all. 

There was one that Ken our captain described as a Ken Done fish - it was so brightly coloured.

We even got a glimpse of a turtle.

G went on a guided walk (walk!) up Mount Gower which is the taller of the two big fellas.
You can only go on a guided tour.
G is a very fit fella and he said it was a tough day. There were ropes to hang onto and hard hats to wear to sidle under the cliff above.
It's a long 9kms, or an 8 hour day.

There are lots of other little walks though.
This one is to Kim's Lookout and Malabar Hill in the north of the island.
Good views, eh?

From here you can see Ned's beach on the left.

Which is where you can snorkel straight from the beach.
There is a little shed with wetsuits and snorkelling gear you can hire. It's a honesty system.
Great coral here too and lots of fish.

A couple of days later there was low cloud over Mount Gower, so G was glad he had gone up Mount Gower earlier.

This is Blinky Beach which is more of a surf beach, but there was no surf pumping when we were there.

But we did hire a kayak and paddle over the lagoon, first to North Beach....

and then to Blackburn Island.

As well a walk over Settlement Hill, we walked up Transit Hill where there is a good lookout over the island and you can see Ball's Pyramid in the distance but it was a hazy day.

The vegetation is very lush with banyan trees, kentia palms, big elkhorn balls. Lots of plants that are endemic to Lord Howe.

We even went snorkelling from our local beach, Settlement Beach.
It was pretty good.

We'll be back!