NIK `N` OFF: 2023

Aug 18, 2023

Fern Bay NSW

Our visit to Fern Bay Newcastle was a mix of tears, laughter and memories. With our van parked out the front of our friend Nerida’s house we spent two days just reminiscing and talking about our mate (Bro) Kimbo, Nerida’s husband who passed away nearly three years ago.

He was a life long firefighter with the NSW Fire Brigade and died due to him contracting cancer from the fire fighting foam. The chemicals – called perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS – were used in firefighting foams in the 1970s. With Covid years restricting travel this was our 1st opportunity and we are so glad we did. After saying our goodbyes with promises we shall all get together again we left Fern Bay and headed to the town of Broke. Here we stayed in a lovely bush setting, a camp fire and jaffle’s for dinner and an early night as the temperature dropped. Next day we had a decision to make as to whether we choose Putty Road or Bylong Valley Way .. we chose Putty Road. Both are very twisty and steep up and down. Being the driver I didn’t get much of a chance to site see but what I did get to glance at was beautiful views, unfortunately there are no places to pull over safely to take photos.

Some of the homes and properties we drove past were surely owned by the mega rich, huge homes with large immaculate gardens and views that went forever. We stopped at a bakery called the Grumpy Baker, an interesting shop mixed with a rural farm supplies. The Pies and large veggie rolls ranked up there with the best we’ve had. With the roads being steep and windy it takes longer to get places, we stopped at an interesting looking place called Grey Gum Cafe, this place hosts many functions, mainly of the motorcycle type, it was in a state of repair and not open when we stopped but could see it would be a ‘happening’ place when open. We took some photos and moved on, that afternoon we chose to stop the night at Lake Wallace around 80k north of Bathurst. It rained most of the night and all next day, we are staying at the Showgrounds at Bathurst for a night to recharge the batteries, refill with water and diesel and do some grocery shopping and move on to Lake Carcoar tomorrow.

Aug 13, 2023

Bingara - Fern Bay 13/08/23

Even though it’s only been a day I’ll take the chance to update the blog with today journey.

We left Bingara and headed to Tamworth and a camp site at Chaffey Dam, it’s also known as Bowling Alley Point Reserve, im not sure why ? But it’s a lovely area with the lake either side of the camping area. Cost is $5 pp with an honesty box & envelopes which is great value as there are amenities provided.

Chaffey Dam

Our camp at Chaffey Dam

Chaffey Dam

Around a dozen other campers scattered around the large area, we chose a place up high with water views from both directions. The last time we were here was in 2011 with Kimbo & Nerida and we received a phone call from home telling us that Vickie’s father was in hospital and not well. We chose to leave here and drive down to Melbourne where Vickie along with her sister Sue got the plane to fly back to Perth.

Jaffle iron in the campfire

Mmm yum. Love a Jaffle

This time we’re here to go visit Nerida tomorrow at Fern Bay Newcastle, it’s been nearly 3 years since Kimbo passed away very unexpectedly from non Hodgkin Lymphoma, caused by his job as a Fireman. He is deeply missed by all who knew him.

Kimbo, photo taken at Chaffey Dam in 2011

Aug 12, 2023

Bingara NSW 12/08/2023

Another 5 nights spent along the Gwydir River at Bingara NSW, yes we love this place !

We have go for drives around the district, Warialda & Inverell and visited all the shops in town. We even spoke to two elderly ladies who have lived here for 60 years and knew my Mum well, it was lovely to hear them speak so highly about her & Neil, we certainly felt the love. ❤️ We always visit the Batterham Lookout where both Mum & Neil’s ashes were scattered, you can see their old home from the lookout.

A lot of our time here has just been relaxing, watching the birds along the river. Other RV people come and go but majority of them keep to themselves, we have found that to be the case at many camps we’ve stayed.

We visited Myall Creek where a massacre took place with many aborigines were killed, an excerpt from a Govt website states:

[“Early in the morning of 18 December 1838, seven men were publicly hanged at the Sydney Gaol. They were the first British subjects to be executed for massacring Aboriginal people.

The Myall Creek massacre was neither the first nor last massacre of Aboriginal people in Australia but the NSW Supreme Court trials that followed set a judicial precedent. However, attitudes towards such massacres took longer to change.” ]

Tomorrow we head towards Newcastle area to finally get to visit our friend Nerida, wife of our mate Kimbo who passed away nearly 3 years ago. I’m sure there will be tears mixed with some laughs and reminiscing about our times together.

Aug 8, 2023

Deepwater - 8th August 2023

We can recommend an overnight stay and pub meal at the Deepwater Hotel - The Top Pub. Sugar & Grumbles Drew Kerr were our hosts for the night and did an excellent job. Thanks for allowing RV travellers to stay behind the pub 👍👍

The Top Pub at Deepwater.

Aug 2, 2023

Some photos of our few days since leaving Nanango Qld

The road I chose was in one way the wrong way, the map lead us up dirt tracks that ended up being No through roads, what was supposed to take us two hours turned into five and a half hours … the only good part about it was we found a chainsaw sitting in the middle of the track …. Not much chance of finding the owner so it’s now a new addition to the tools.