Day One – Car Drama and Freezing Nights – sending the husband out in jocks to figure out how the new diesel heater works.
Day one of our trip also happened to be the day our car troubles began — and thus, our wing-it approach officially started.
Just my luck, it happened while I was driving along the highway. The car went bang and we lost all power. Luke, panicked, asked me what the hell I was doing and told me to keep driving. I could’ve cried. After that little incident, I refused to tow the camper for the rest of the trip. I hold no responsibility lol.
We stopped before dark in Gundagai, which turned out to be a surprisingly cute little town, and then made our way to Lake Wallace for a week of free camping in what turned out to be freezing cold weather.
We used Lake Wallace as our base while exploring the Blue Mountains and visiting Scenic World. It was way colder than we expected, so once night fell, we snuck inside the camper and enjoyed early nights together — 6pm for the kids, 8pm for us. Honestly, we’ve never had a better sleep schedule. We did get to enjoy the BEST Chinese food ever in a small town.
South west rocks, NRMA.
Oh its so worth the visit to a caravan park! Except whilst we set up, little miss 1 year old went for a really fast walk which was straight into the floodway zone behind our site (we arrived at dusk) and thankfully I found her before she went under – that was scary and within 1 minute!!! That set us up really quick to ensure that one of us is ALWAYS watching her. My hands still shake. Don’t forget to visit the old gaol. Seth made a friend asap of course, so we brought her along for some adventures too (she had lost her mum a year ago so we wanted to make it extra special for her).
Stockton, New Castle to Yamba.
Delays, Detours, and Unexpected Sights
We ended up extending our stay so FORD could look at our car — the waiting times were painfully long. In the meantime, we made the most of life with (and without) a vehicle: catching the ferry into town, visiting the lighthouse, doing a bit of metal detecting, and enjoying sunset strolls.
Unfortunately, poor Willa had caught Hand, Foot & Mouth before we even set off, and it really hit her during our time here. That meant all our plans for friend catch-ups were cancelled, and instead we stuck to quiet family time and exploring the local beaches.
One day, we thought we’d check out a free camp spot, which turned out to be… a nudist beach in Newcastle. To top it off, we got bogged. Sadly for Luke, the only naked people around were older men fishing — in nothing but socks. Yep, just socks.
After that adventure, we headed up to Yamba, stopping by Coffs Harbour big banana before arriving at a beautiful peach farm. Yamba completely stole our hearts. It’s where Luke had his first surf and where we flew the drone alongside dolphins for the very first time. The peach farm was a hidden gem out of town and we just had such fond memories here. And the kids are still asking for pet bunnies.
Byron Bay – One of Our Favourite Stops
Byron Bay quickly became one of our favourite towns on the trip. Visiting in winter meant it wasn’t overly touristy, which made exploring even better.
We might have hunted down Chris Hemsworth’s house (of course), eaten at a few of his favourite spots (of course), and then balanced that out with plenty of op-shopping, a trip to the crystal caves, and endless surfing.
We explored everything Google told us to, but also spent a lot of time just soaking in the atmosphere — no helmets, markets buzzing with life, barefoot locals, live music, and good food everywhere you turned. There’s always something happening in Byron.
Luke, for the record, claims his highlight was seeing more undressed women than anywhere else on the trip… which maybe thats why we went there twice. He calls it “wild boobies” haha. men….
I made a beautiful friendship at the caravan park, and she also came and photographed our family too. Such special photos to me because for once I was involved infront of the lens.
This brought us into June, where we had a timeline to be at Fraser Island with our friends by a particular date, so we started to scramble to get our car sorted – this entire trip so far had revolved all around the bloody car issues!!
Overall our first month on the road was absolutely incredible, different to what we expected but in its own way better? Kids travelled well, they were excited for new adventures every day and we really took it slow. My dad joined us for a week so the kids loved having G-pa time. I was still super organised at this point so our only concern was the damn car.
Im about to go do the school run – so if you have any questions for the above month so far, places we went, things we hated or loved? let me know and I’ll update the blog xx
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