Candelo NSW - Batemans Bay NSW - Camden NSW Maps
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After Candelo we made our way to Batemans Bay where we visited Jack and Shelia Linquist, old friends of Frank and Betty's from their New Guinea days. We only spent 2 nights there at the Top Tourist park in Batehaven and we enjoyed the town of Batemans Bay. We had the best fish and chips of the whole holiday the first night so it started out impressive.
Our next stop was off to Camden near Sydney to see Fran (Andrew's oldest sister), Gary (her husband), Trish and Daniel (their adult kids), and we had the luxury to stay in the house and not have to set the caravan up in rainy weather. It was great to see them all because we hadn't seen Trish and Dan for about 6 years and the kids hadn't even met their uncle Gary. Fran and Trish were lucky enough to get a day off work to spend with us even though it was raining and cold and windy we went into the city for lunch at Star City Casino which is all that the weather allowed us to do and because we were a bit slow going in the morning we didn't get in there until it was lunch time anyway. We all ate way too much, but that's what happens when you go for a buffet!!! The kids enjoyed going on the train and the tram anyway and getting back to Fran's house was heaven anyway - she has kept all of Trish and Dan's toys from when they were little and Declan absolutely loved it. Dan set up his electric car set for him to have a go at. Kira loved Jeremy their dog and Toots their cat. Both showing a bit of age but Kira just loved the fact that an animal would stay still for her to pat and admire. She's still talking about them.
After Camden we made our way to Port Macquare on the highway and you really don't get to see anything along the way anymore with nearly everything bypassed. It would take you weeks to go in and out of every place that you wanted to see.
Port Macquarie was really nice, we stayed at the Big 4 caravan park right in town and on the water in one of the villas. The villa itself wasn't very well maintained with broken towel rails, broken switches, a hole in the wall, a torn sofa, and a broken kettle. In the end we got about a $60 discount per night for the 2 nights that we stayed there so it was worth it in the end. The caravan park is so well located but I'm glad we didn't set up due to the weather conditions because all the caravans were boxed in next to one another like sardines. A little bit over crowed for my liking.
While we were there we went up to Comboyne where the Hurrell family originates from. It was about 54kms up the mountains and a really nice drive. I think Andrew actually felt at home there. We had lunch at the Cow themed coffee shop (once I remember the name I'll update the detail) and the people were very friendly and great service. We tried to find other Hurrell's that are still living in the town but no one was home!! Apparently there are a few Hurrell that are dairy farmers around the area but we didn't really know where to look so we ventured back down to Port Macquarie.
Because the weather was starting to change for the worse with reported flooding for the Grafton area the next day (don't know if that eventuated or not) Andrew decided that we should head back inland towards Armidale and stay at a farm stay in the area. On the way up you pass through a lovely mountain range and it was all misty and partly rainy and hardly a car on the road. We stopped for lunch at a town called Walcha (pronounced Walca - silent h) at the RSL and we were the only ones in there for lunch even though it was a Saturday. I guess they don't get a lot of rain in their area and stay inside when it does come.
Our next stop on the way to our farm stay was back into Armidale to use up some of our time and to have a look at the place at the end of autumn. I can say that it would be a very dreary winter because in autumn it looks fantastic with all the autumn colours but by the end it's like they have overdone the autumn planting because it's very dull. It's a shame they didn't plan for a bit more all year colour.
Our choice of farm stay was Silent Grove which is just out of a small town called Ben Lomond in between Armidale and Glen Innes. It sits on the top of the great dividing range and gets snow in winter!!! It's true, we saw photos and I can say that it gets very very cold there. We woke to a 2 degree morning and we were just a few hours from the Queensland border!!! We had a wood fire place and we also brought in our little fan heater that we have for the caravan to help circulate some of the warmth. It was a nice stay where Declan got to feed a lamb a bottle and a bit of space for the kids to play.
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We ventured off the next day with the start of the day raining and being a Sunday we found that very little was open along the way. Firstly we went through Glen Innes which looks like a lovely little town and we would have stayed longer but like I said nothing was open and we didn't know what the weather was going to do and what we would do for the rest of the day so after a bit of a drive around and a look at their standing stones we headed off to Tenterfield.
Tenterfield was also a nice little town where we had lunch at heritage listed Stannum house that had great meals at great prices and a fire!! I was hoping to see some great big tribute to the "Tenterfield Sadler" but I didn't see any Sadlery place in town which was a real shame. The information centre was good and they had nice displays but I wanted more of why Australian's know the name "Tenterfield".
After Tenterfield we headed towards Casino and thought we would stay there the night but the prices were too high and we didn't like the idea of paying the asking prices so off to Lismore we went. We had the same problem there with accommodation prices and made the decision that we may as well go to coast. We had planned for only a one night stop over in a motel and up to Chinderah the next day so we were really looking for reasonable prices, but it's a shame that even around the $100 mark that doesn't get you much at all.
We found a caravan park at Byron Bay that had availability of a family room, which isn't always that easy with most not suiting us because of bunk beds, and also being somewhere that has ample parking space for the campervan.
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It was a very brief stay at Byron Bay with our adventure being going out to dinner to have pizza. The next day we didn't plan on going to the lighthouse but because of the caravan and no parking it didn't work out so we head towards Chinderah with a brief stop into Mullumbimby where we got some really yummy organic milk.
This time we couldn't get into the Chinderah Village caravan park so we booked into the Drifters Caravan Park Top Tourist just around the corner. Our first day was great weather with lovely sunshine to really get set up for our 10 day stay and to catch up on some washing. The kids enjoy being able to do their thing in the caravan and they know their routine really well now.
Believe it or not we are all calling the caravan Home!! Never though it would be possible!!
Nice hotel with great designed rooms and a beautiful city view. An easy walk to all the attractions of Byron Bay and not too far from all the shops and restaurants either.
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