Tag: Places

U: Understanding Free Camping

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Views from our free camps

During our holiday in Truby we free camped. In fact of the 28 days that we were away we only stayed in a caravan park 4 times. For my husband and I this was a very new experience. We were taught the rules and how to go about it by other family members who had been doing it for decades. For anyone who doesn’t know what I am talking about, free camping is stopping anywhere to sleep the night that costs you nothing.

Sometimes in Australia there are designated free camping places. These are the ones my husband and I are comfortable with. However, there is a whole new world out there that we are only learning about. Some of the places we have camped recently include:

  • Beside lakes and rivers
  • Bush carparks
  • By the side of the road
  • Empty carparks
  • Industrial areas
  • Lookouts
  • On the grounds of motels/pubs with the owners permission
  • Picnic areas
  • Private land out of sight of the public

Once I got over the initial anxiety of whether we could or couldn’t park overnight somewhere I loved the experience. On one occasion when we were camped in a lookout the police did a drive by. Rather than ask us to move on they waved so we settled in for the night.

We can never hide very well

Now I am counting done the days till we can hit the road again to find more hidden gems.

T: Twelve Apostles

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The draw card of the Port Campbell National Park is the 12 Apostles. These rock stacks are spectacular popping out of the Southern Ocean. To me they look like they are standing guard over the shoreline. Initially, there were 9 of these rock stacks (never 12 as the name suggests.) However, due to the violent treacherous waves of the area, 2 have disappeared forever into the ocean. The first time our family visited was 20 years ago and there was a seal swimming around one of the rock stacks. The kids called him Sammy and would often talk about him.

Today the whole area looks very different. It is now a very large tourist attraction with a lot of development to really make the most of the natural beauty of the area and support tourism. The 12 Apostles are so internationally renown that the visitors centre is the first place in Australia that I saw an Asian style toilet. As we visited in the week that Australia opened its international borders again the tourist were slowly coming back.

B: Black Lighthouse Queenscliff

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The Black Lighthouse is one of only 3 in the world that are black. The black colour comes from using unpainted bluestone. It is part of Fort Queenscliff. Built high up shining its light to guide shipping and other vessels through the often treacherous water at the entrance to Port Phillip Bay.

It has a sister lighthouse known as the white lighthouse. This is found lower down on the entrance Port Phillip Bay. With the high and low lights working together those on the water can tell where they are.

Both were replacement lighthouses built in 1863. Despite their age they still look and work well today. Unfortunately, timing didn’t allow us to visit Fort Queenscliff so we couldn’t get up close and personal with this beautiful building.

A : Australian National Surfing Museum

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On our recent holiday exploring the Great Ocean Road and regional Victoria our first stop was The Australian National Surfing Museum. It is located in Tourquay at the start of the Great Ocean Road and Surf Coast. The museum is said to be the largest surfing museum in the world. And describes 100 years of Australia’s surfing history. I found this fascinating. Despite growing up on the coast I had no idea of the culture and history attached to surfing in Australia. This visit really put it in perspective for me.

I particularly loved the display of Gordon Stammers Storyboards. These are very quirky and fun to read. Each tells a funny story by runaway teenage surfer. He writes a letter to his parents on the front of the board. On the back is the response from one parent. They were so creative and funny.

At the time we visited it was hard to believe that the local beaches got the waves that were described in the surfing history of the area. Our experience on all beaches was flat surf. Bass Strait however has a history of being wild and untamed. Apparently it depends on the time of year. Personally I would love to see the big surf as described around the museum, in the hall of fame and on the historical surfing videos being shown. Easter ever year sees Australia’s biggest surfing competition held at Bell’s beach not far from the National Surfing museum. I think we must have traveled about six weeks early.

2022 A-Z Challenge: Recent Travels

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Wow I can’t believe it’s April tomorrow. Where has this year gone? For me, over a month was spent travelling around regional New South Wales and Victoria in Truby. (Our Iveco and Slide-on camper). It was our first trip and we had a great time exploring our country and learning about the grey nomad lifestyle. Despite being nearly 60 most of the places we explored I had never been to before. We found many interesting places, history stories, hidden surprises and the amazing natural beauty of Australia.

Initially our aim was to travel the Great Ocean Rd one of Australia’s and possibly one of the world’s most iconic roads. It was truly breathtaking. For our remaining two weeks we made it up as we went along and had a ball. We drove over 4500 kilometres.

Whilst travelling I decided the best way to share my experiences is by again joining the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge. This is a world wide blogging challenge that I first joined in 2015. It will be the fourth time that I have participated and each time I have grown as a blogger. The goal is to post every day in April except Sundays. Most people have a theme that connect their blog posts. This is only half of the challenge however. The other equally important part is to visit other blogs and connect through commenting. I love it and have meet some amazing people on my journey and am hoping to meet many more this year.

If you are interested in joining here is the link Blogging from A to Z April Challenge.

Colourful memories

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One of my favourite things when we visited St John’s Newfoundland was its colourful houses. They popped up everywhere, matching in style and blending in colour. Also known as Jelly Bean Row houses as their varied colours match those of jellybeans. It is said that the original reason the houses were painted in bright colours was because the sailors coming home from a long stretch at sea would like to look up from the harbour into the hills to look for their homes. As fog is a problem in St John’s the houses during these times the homes all bleneded together. So by painting them bright colours they could easily find their home.

I have no problem believing this as growing up I could see my home from the train. It was easy to pick out as it had a very large brick wall in front of it making it stand out from the surrounding houses. 50 years later I still look for my old house whenever I am on the train to Sydney. It’s an old habit I have no need to break even though its nearly 25 years since my mother moved out of my childhood home.

Thanks Kristian for your inspiring word today – matching.

Spoonville

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Have you ever seen or heard of something local and thought I’ve got to see that. What a clever idea! As you know most of New South Wales is currently in lockdown as we battle the latest Delta variant. So as a response to the frustrations of being in lockdown and the kids not having things to do someone came up with the concept of Spoonville.

Each Spoonville community is different. They develop a personality of their own dependent on the Spoony people that join the community. Local kids are invited to decorate wooden spoons at home and add them to the others as they get out of the house to exercise.

Spoonville rules are simple.

  • Place your Spoony person during your daily exercise
  • Make sure bits won’t blow off your Spoony person as we don’t want litter
  • Think about using natural materials in case they do fall off – maybe twigs for arms and legs
  • Make sure your Spoony person can take the rain – nail polish is good for our faces
  • Spoony people are not keen on dogs ( furry friends please stay back)
  • Come and see the Spoony people but don’t stay too long and no touching. Have fun.

I heard about our local community at Cooks Hill on the weekend and couldn’t wait until today to investigate. The only thing I knew was that they lived in Centennial Park. I was clueless as to where. Never fear I googled how to get to Centennial Park from my house and off I went. I had been there many times before but I always found it by accident and when coming home. The park is 2.2 hectares and was given to the city of Newcastle as a centenary gift in 1888. After about 15 minutes of following paths and generally exploring the area I saw them, Cooks Hill’s Spoonville. They were playing under a beautiful old Norfolk pine on the other side of the park.

As I spent time at Spoonville, I wished I had young children in my life. It would be so much fun helping them design and create their own Spoony person. I attempted to choose a favourite but each time I looked I would fine a new favourite so I gave up and decided it was all so much fun. I’ll be back to meet the new Spoony friends over the coming weeks.

Today’s post was inspired by Word Of The Day – Clueless.

Cooly Rocks On

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Every year in June Australia’s biggest Rock ‘n’ Roll and nostalgia festival is held in Coolangatta. Last year we were fortunate enough to attend. Cooly Rocks On celebrates everything that was great about the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. It was like a step back in time. Lining the streets were thousands of vintage cars of every make and model. I have never seen as many proud people as the men and woman showing off their piece of history. Everyone painstakingly restored with love and styled to the associated era.

I think my favourite was called Violet Crumble for obvious reasons.

Indian motorcycles were also a huge hit with crowds. They had their own dedicated area.

I loved the Goggomobil display. These micro cars were so cute. I loved how they were decorated. I had heard of these cars before however most car shows don’t include them so I hadn’t seen them before. They were also a crowd favourite.

You can’t have a nostalgia festival without the King. Yes Elvis was there in many ways. There was a specific Elvis precinct that we didn’t go into. The lineup to get in was huge. We were lucky enough to see several of the Elvis impersonators who were performing in the precinct wandering through the street. Also to add 50’s appeal to several of the vintage cars many had Elvis portraits painted beautifully on them.

Rock ‘n’ Roll music could be heard all over Cooly. You knew you were somewhere special and I loved the effort many people went to to look the part. Rock ‘n’ Roll outfits were everywhere. I especially loved the matching outfits the regular dancers wore. It was like a step back in time to old photos of our parents as youngsters.

And the best part. It was free.

Yarn Bombing

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Last week as I was walking around my local area I found this yarn bombing event. As I had never seen one before I was intrigued. Why? What was it all about?

For anyone like me who doesn’t know what yarn bombing is – it is a form of street art, like graffiti often connected to activism in some way. Another point of yarn bombing is to mitigate the severity of barren, cold public places.

This particular laneway I agree prior to the yarn bombing was boring, desolate and barren. I would walk down Devonshire Lane twice a week last year on my way to work and it had nothing going for it. The addition of the Deafblind Connect yarn bombing event has definitely brightened up the area. The colourful event has also brought attention to the Hunter’s Deafblind community. When I looked closely at the tree coverings I noticed many different textures especially designed for the blind to enjoy.

The event occurred during Deafblind Awareness week 21st -27th June as part of a global initiative in 22 countries across the world. What a fantastic idea to bring the community together.

Inspired by Word Of The Day Challenge – Mitigate

Newcastle’s Fairy Garden

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Today as we are still in lock down in New South Wales, I thought we’d share a takeaway coffee at a secret spot I only discovered last year. Newcastle’s Fairy Garden to my surprise is over 50 years old. I can’t believe I never heard of it as a kid even if then it was a private place.

Merv Moyle created the wonderland across the road from his house in the 1970’s for his children. Over the years he kept adding his new ideas to it until his death in his 90’s.

Imagine how special his children and grand children must felt to have their own fairy garden, complete with a fairy queen, animal friends, fairies and toadstools, not to mention the beautiful flowers and rainforest. As a child, I thought we were lucky as our dad had made us a cubby house. I am glad that it is now open for anyone to wander through and connect with your inner child at this magical place.

I hope you enjoyed our coffee and visit today. Thanks to Natalie The Explorer for hosting Weekend Coffee Share