Chaffey Dam

Chaffey Dam is approx 45klms se of Tamworth and is such a beautiful spot. They charge $5 per car or $2 each per night and there are toilets, showers ($1 each) and drinking water.We are camped by the side of the dam and Stephen just has to walk to the water's edge to fish. Which he has been doing every day. We were going to stay for 2 nights but it is so beautiful and sunny and warm that we are staying approx 6 nights before moving on towards Moree.

We went to Nundle yesterday and visitied Hanging Rock Lookout and then found out there was a quilt shop there which I am going back to visit Saturday morning to see if I can get a Sun Bonnet Sue Pattern.

Today we visited Tamworth to do all our food shopping and get my prescriptions, such a large place, didn't expect it to be this big and have all the shops that are usually associated with other larger towns.Also visited my Daughters house that is being built there and took a picture for her. Funny that the plasterers are from Brisbane. They told us that they bring all the plaster and stay there while they do the house and are still cheaper than local builders - doesn't figure does it.

Fishing on Chaffey Dam at 7.40am

Hanging Rock Lookout

Another view from Hanging Rock Lookout

2nd fish of the day (Carp)

First fish of the day which was actually larger than the second, it is just the way the picture was taken

Hopefully he will catch something we can eat as carp asre not for eating. There is a water skiing event here on Saturday so that should be fun to see.

Places visited whilst at Dumaresq Dam

We decided to stay at the Dam for another couple of weeks and we are leaving tomorrow for Chaffey Dam just below Tamworth. whilst we have been here we have visited some spectacular falls and Gorges even Ebor Falls where a gentleman fell to his death the day before we went to see it.

Apsley Gorge

Apsley falls

The swing bridge over the river to get to the other side of the falls

The next day we visited the following places

Ebor falls - The top fall area where the man plunged to his death

Ebor falls from the lower viewing platform where you can see two distinct fall areas

Bakers Creek falls

Wollomombi Falls

Stephen on one of the viewing platforms at Wollomombi falls

Dumaresq Dam

Well we are still at Dumaresq Dam just outside Armidale, the weather everywhere is either raining, blowing a gale or on fire so we decided to stay in this very picturesque place and wait until the bad weather went away.

We have been here for 11 days and have managed to fix some small anomalies on the caravan. we have found out why we are always thinking we have lost water (it's because the tanks didn't fill up in the first place) we also found out that a breather hole in the filler pipe has been filled in by the manufacturers instead of leaving it open and connecting to the overflow pipes (that's another one we will fix) then the tap between the two gas bottles broke so we had to fit another one, some of these are minor but if we were moving we would not have had the time to fix them.

We still need to give the wheels a check over which we will do before we move anywhere.

We went to Tamworth last Saturday just for a look. Nice town and lovely people

Tamworth - The Big Guitar

The Camp area at Dumaresq Dam

Dumaresq Dam

Picnic Area at the Dam

The weather at the Dam has been extremely changeable but we are high and dry and in no fear of flooding and can get into town for any things that we need. There have been some extremely hot days when I have had to put on sunscreen as I thought I was going to burn but there have been some very wet days too but we still love it here.

Armidale

We left Tenterfield on Friday morning and travelled to Armidale where we booked in at the Pembroke Tourist and Leisure Park for four nights - it is the dearest here ($36 a night) but is a beautiful camp over a large area where you can drive around and pick your own site and the amenities are clean and look fairly new.

Whilst here we have visited "Suamarez House" (pronounced summerez) this is a National Trust Property and the downstairs was built in 1888 and the upstairs added in 1906. Lots of original furniture still there and the farm and outbuildings are enormous too

"Suamarez House"

We also visited the "Visitor Information centre" in Armidale where we were taken on a Heritage tour bus of all the highlighted points of the town whichs was free, we also stopped at the art gallery and had time to walk around and look at all the paintings. Whilst on this tour we visited "Booloominbah House"  which was built by the white family in 1888 and is now part of the New England University.

"Booloominbah House"

We also visited the nearby town of Uralla as we wanted to visit a place called "Wooldridge Recreation and Fossicking Reserve as this is a free camp for caravans. We were not too keen on the area as there wasn't a level site left for the caravan, most of the area was on a slope. Whilst we were in Uralla we visited the lookout and Fred Ward's (the Bushranger Captain Thunderbolt) grave.

Captain Thunderbolt's grave (Fred Ward)

We are leaving this caravan park tomorrow and going to Dumaresq Dam, this is only about 30minutes away but it is a free canp and when we went to look at it on Sunday it looked ok. So we are going to chill out for a couple of days and then get back on the road.

We're off again

 We have had a fabulous time at my Daughters place and enjoyed seeing our grandsons again as well as loving every minute we have spent with my youngest daughter , her partner and her family too.

We finally set off again last Thursday 7th Feb and stayed for one week at Boyds Bay Caravan Park on the south Tweed Coast. We met up with my sister in law and brother in law as we hadn't seen them properly for a while. It was great to relax and catch up.

We are now at Tenterfield showgrounds for one night and there aren't a lot of people here - about 6 of us. It rained a little this afternoon and it is very cool - have had to get my jacket out of storage again. Not really a lot else to say except we are working our way down through NSW and then into Victoria and across to Adelaide then up the middle to Darwin and then home again for Christmas 2013.

We are not hurrying as we are not sure yet where my sister will fly into from England, it could be either Sydney or Melbourne, she is coming in April and might be bringing my other brother with her. Will have to let my brother know in Melbourne know or we will all be on his doorstep without him knowing.

The end of the first Journey

I know I haven't posted for a while but we have spent some time in places that we have visited before. We left Cania Gorge and went to Bargara to stay at the Absolute Ocean Front Tourist Park where some friends of ours are permanent residents. We stayed there for three and a half weeks and then carried on to Kingaroy for one night and then Killarney for one night (where we stayed at a friends place) and then onto Darlington Park (where we originally started off. We stayed there for four nights and we needed to put the annexe up so we could sit outside as the flies were atrocious for this time of year. While we were there our gas and electric water heaters decided to stop working and our outside light went on the blink, and we had something wrong with the water again as we seem to have lost some - although we don't have any leaks.We decided to go straight to my daughter's at Ormeau from there so we could get these things sorted out and do some alterations to the caravan that we want. We will be here until the end of January when the boys go back to school. We are down at Kirra beach for a week in a unit that our daughter organised for the first week of the boys school holidays and having a lovely time. We were playing Putt Putt at 8am this morning which is an improvement on the first morning as that was 7am. We have also been for a bike and scooter ride up the front and for a Gelati icecream which we promised the boys last night. They are now in the pool for an hour with Poppy while I make burgers for dinner and get the lunch ready. then I think we are going on the beach if the rain keeps off. One minute it is sunshining and the next the clouds roll in and it starts pouring down. Never mind we are all enjoying the time together. Have taken pictures of them on the beach but not downloaded them yet as they are on my phone. Will post some pics later.

Our Home "The Retreat Daydream Caravan"

We have been in Bargara for the past two weeks visiting some dear friends of ours and generally doing nothing but Fishing (Stephen) and making cards and crocheting (me) but my daughter asked me to post some pictures of the caravan. So here they are, these were taken just after we picked it up in July 2011.

Our home on wheels

View of the back end of the caravan

View of the front end of the caravan (to the right is the toilet and shower and to the left is my desk)

The sink and stove

The dining area

My desk