Still learning little bits and pieces here and there, and refining our skills in set-up and take-down/pack up.
Now, since it's still summer(ish) in Sydney, we decided to head back up to the Coffs Coast but try Moonee Beach, about 20mins south of Woolgoolga and 10 mins north of Coffs Harbour.
The water will still be warm, and the weather (hopefully) sunny and warm also.
We have had the van serviced and the addition of the levelling bubble. We have covered pretty much everything we planned to attend to after the last trip, so it's ready to go!
Dissapontingly, the weather is predicted to be wet for the week we are away, but that cannot be controlled so we will make do in any case.
We headed off on Wednesday morning around 6:30am and stopped for morning tea at Bulahdelah around 10am. As usual, getting out of Sydney is the hardest part, ut once we hit the NorthConnex tunnel, we were then cruising at 100kph. We stopped at a rest area around 1pm and made a couple of ham and salad wraps for lunch - just like grey nomads would!
We got to Moonee Beach around 2:30pm and were set up within about 40 mins.
The weather was good, so we went for a little walk to explore the place. The holiday park was very nice and had a perfect location. Ammenities were good and we had a concrete slab to put the van on.
On our first morning (day 2), we were visited by friends who were driving down from Lennox Head to Sydney and they stopped in to join us for breakfast and a catch-up around 8am. John and Helen have been dear friends for decades and we knew John for over 20 years before that too! After John and Helen left us around 10:30am, we decided to go for a walk out to the headland - about a 5km return trip. The walk was nice and the views well worth the effort.
The arrow above indicates roughly where the van is situated. We walked through the rainforest on the left and came out at the signed lookout area shown below. We continued on out to the headland where the white marker is located - it can be seen in the distane on the hill in the bottom photo.
We got back to the van for lunch and soon after, the skies opened up and the rain started.
On the morning of Day 3, the sun was shining and it was a warm clear day, so we went to the beach. - it was a great way to start our 33rd wedding anniversary. We walked right across the river to the sand bar and continued on to the furthest sandbar on the other side. At high tide the water is about chest height, but the current flows quite strongly. The water was warm and we spent a couple of hours in the water.
In the afternoon, we went for a drive through Coffs and down to Sawtell.
Sawtell is a really nice place with great beaches, shops and eateries. This is a place we will keep in mind for future trips. That afternoon, we visited our friends that live in Woolgoolga, picked them up and brought them to the van for a drink and catch up as we had not seen them since the month before when we caught up with them on our last van trip. In the evening, we drove back to Woolgoolga for dinner at an Italian Restaurant with our friends and they joined us for our 33rd wedding anniversary dinner!
Moonnee Creek flows inland a quite a few kilometers and the depth varies, but if you pick the right path, you can walk a couple of km through the creek and no get any deeper than chest height. Since Day 3 also had great weather, we headed off for another swim and then decided to walk up the creek about 1km or so before coming back again for lunch at the van. In the afternmoon of Day 3, we went for a drive once again but headed to Urunga, south of Coffs and Sawtell. We went for a walk along a nice boardwalk there, but there was a strong coastal wing blowing and we cut the walk short and decided to do an exploratory drive along the picturesque Bellinger River. Unfortunately, the car's UHF radio antenna makes a photographic debut! It is a pretty drive along the river.
Day 4 was another great day weatherwise and we went kayaking up the river for a few km. It was great fun and the scenery was beautiful. We have not kayaked in at least 12 months and certainly not since my accident, as such Stephanie did much of the paddling.
We were lucky enough to come across another person kayaking that was at the same van park as us and took our picture.
After our morning on the water, we went for a scenic drive into the mountains to Nana Glen and for lunch at Two Tails Winery. After a wine and cheese tasting, we had a tapas style lunch and the food was excellent. The restaurant was positioned with a nice outlook.
Back to the van late afternoon in time to beat the bad weather predicted for that evening. The wind and rain started around 6:30pm and the wind gsts were pretty severe. So much so, that we packed everything up that was under the awning and double checked the awning ropes to ensure we didn't have any issues.
The wind picked up and we saw one van lose their awning. Ours remained secure, though at times the awning caught the wind and it shook the van! We slept fine, but the rain and wind continued through the night. The holiday park was muddy with soft ground everywhere - luckily we were set up on a concrete slab!
The following morning, on Day 5, we found the rain had ceased pretty much but the wind was still around and gusting, but nowhere near as much. We decided to roll up the awning - just in case as we were leaving the van unattended to drive up to the mountains for the day. The plan was to go for a bushwalk to view some of the waterfalls after the rain.
We rolled up the awning, in about 5 minutes and then headed off.
Our first stop was Bellingen for lunch then on to do the Crystal Falls walk. Unfortunately, as we drove up the mountain, the rain set in and the 5km return trip through muddy tracks became unappealing. We stopped at a couple of waterfalls along Waterfall Way - which is the main road up the mountains. Our aim was to get to Dorrigo and then to Dangar Falls which is at 780m altitude. The clouds had come in quite low and gave the roads a wintery feel - which felt weird considering the temperature was still around 20 degrees C.
Upon reaching Dangar Falls, we found that the viewing platform was still under construction, so we culd not actually see it. There was a 20 minute walk down to the river along a muddy track, but it was drizzling and we decided not to do it for weather and safety reasons.
Back at the van, we spent the evening playing cards and watching a bit of TV before going to bed.
In the morning, we had breakfast and packed up the van to head south. We booked into a holiday park at Anna Bay - about 3.5 hrs from Sydney. We decided that there was no point arriving into Sydney during peak traffic time around 5pm and then having to drag a van through all that bumper to bumper traffic. Anna Bay was a just over half way and we took our time getting there as the weather was poor and it rained on and off.
We got to the Van park around 2pm and setup within 25 mins. There was no need to set up the awning and outdoor stuff as we were only staying for the night. As soon as we were set up, we jumped in the car, leaving the van behind, and headed to Nelson Bay to see what was new. It had been around 20 years since we were there last on holidays.
The place has got bigger, there are more suburbs, more developments but it's still a nice place for a holiday. We visited all the places we used to take our kids when they were little.
Places like Little Beach, Shoal Bay, Fingal Bay, Nelson Bay, Corlette and Soldiers Point.
The photos below are of Shoal Bay and the evening pic was taken from in front of the seafood restaurant where we had dinner in Nelson Bay.
A quick breakfast in the morning and we then packed the van, hitched it up and left Anna Bay around 9:15am. The van was in Sydney and back under cover by 12:30pm. It was a nice and easy run home.
The holiday was great, very enjoyable and the weather was kinder to us than predicted.
We found some great places along the way for shorter breaks and we will visit those in the future.
As far as the van went, there were no issues that we could see. The van went well and other than getting a spare set of ropes and pegs for the awning as a backup, that's pretty much it!
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