We’ve been in Robinvale now for almost a week. Robinvale is on the Victorian side of the Mighty Murray. The Murray forms the border between the two states with NSW having laid claim to the actual river.

The first few days here were glorious, with temperatures around 30 most days. We went in the river for a dip one day, but Paul was a bit reluctant to venture far from the bank. There can be strong undercurrents here, so it’s wise to be cautious I guess.

Undercurrents aside though, I couldn’t resist the challenge of swimming from ‘Victoria to NSW’. There was a guy in the park who was swimming it twice a day. I approached him and asked of the dangers, explaining I’m a reasonable swimmer but more consistent than strong. He was thrilled to accompany me across and back, and I’m pleased to say we weren’t troubled by any undercurrents. So, I can now boast that I’ve swam from Victoria to NSW. I was elated to have done it, but really it wasn’t that far, or that hard. Paul’s just a bit of wus.

Our van is backed right up to the rivers edge almost. It’s stunning. The first few nights we were very lucky to have NSW retired farmers on either side of us. We shared happy hours and dinners with them on the banks of the Murray under the shade of a big weeping willow. They were wonderful people and we enjoyed their company immensely.

I must say, they blew the stereo type of ‘tunnel visioned’ country folk right out of the water. I’m used to being very cautious when I play the devils advocate and approach subjects such as boat people, refugee camps and length of processing time, drug legalisation and several other topics that have a tendency to create heated discussions on occasions. It was refreshing to meet people with whom these topics could be discussed openly and without reticence. I’m so used to feeling like I’m being attacked by a flock of Hitchcock’s birds most times when I put my point of view forward, so to meet like minded people was like a breath of fresh air.

That’s the real beauty of life on the road. You get to meet so many wonderful people from all different back grounds that you wouldn’t otherwise meet.

We leave here tomorrow for Pinaroo in SA where we’ll be doing a couple of months work on the wheat silos all going well. Hope we can tolerate it, but if we can’t we haven’t lost anything and will have had another of life’s experiences we otherwise wouldn’t have had without this trip.

We’re a little blown away by the clubs and pubs on the east coast. It’s hard to believe we’re in the same country. Perth and the west coast are so, so different.

This afternoon we joined three others from our caravan park with whom we’ve been sharing happy hour. We phoned the local Grafton District Social Club and arranged their courtesy bus to come and pick us up at noon to take us to the club.

While there we drank $3.40 schooners of Carlton Draft (or beer of choice), and dined on free sandwiches with a choice of fillings. There was hot tender roast beef and gravy, sausages, fried eggs, and fried onions. We could have any, or all in between slices of fresh buttered bread. Not gourmet by any means, but it was all nicely cooked, plentiful, and absolutely free.

While there we had a bit of a flutter on a few races and watched the races on TV. No wins though. Then we went into the entertainment room and watched the football. There was only the five of us and one other woman there watching the football, along with tonights backing group for Jon English who were in there tuning their instruments and setting up for tonights entertainment. We’d only been in there about 15 minutes when Jon English arrived. After checking in with the band he came over to watch a bit of the footy with us and to check out how the game had progressed since he’d left his hotel. Now you wouldn’t get that in the West, you just wouldn’t.

When we were ready to leave we arranged the courtesy bus to bring us back to the caravan park. So, free transport, free food, cheap beer and a brief chat with Jon English. How good is that!!

Damn, though I wish we’d realised the concert was on tonight. We knew John English was coming there, but we’d thought it was last week when we weren’t here. We still could have got tickets at only $35 each, but being out at mid day we didn’t like our chances of lasting until nearly midnight (yes, we’re that old!!!!).

The Black Sorrows played at the club last week. Apparently well known acts are common place, and once you have purchased your ticket, it’s much like going to the movies. You sit wherever you like, and first in gets best choice of seats. It bought home to us how the isolation of the west coast contributes significantly to not being able to experience a small venue concert with a well known artist at an affordable price, and on a regular basis.

Our first house sit in Inverell is now completed, and I’m pleased to say with no breakages or any other disasters.

It was a pleasant 10 days, and it took us again to another part of the country we otherwise would have been unlikely to visit.

We discovered Copeton Dam, which is the dam that supplies Inverell’s water. We were told it holds 2 1/2 times the capacity of Sydney Harbour, which caused a chuckle from both Paul and I. It appears there are many, many bodies of water throughout Australia, and the benchmark to compare them all to is ‘Sydney Harbour’. Sydney Harbour always comes off second best, and is leading us to believe that Sydney Harbour is a very small body of water indeed! One day I may start up another category called, ‘water sources bigger than Sydney Harbour’. I can guarantee it wouldn’t take long for there to be more than a few posts…

But I digress – Copeton Dam covers a huge area and gives the locals from Inverell and surrounding areas a fabulous water body at which to camp and enjoy fishing, water skiing, canoing, boating, swimming and a multitude of other nature/water based activities. It’s a massive area with several different bays and camping areas, and one that will certainly tempt us if and when we’re back in this area.

Other surprises in Inverell – the size and facilities of the town. Compared to WA, which for anyone who is familiar with WA, apart from a small area in the south west, once you leave the coast line there are virtually no real towns apart from mining towns. And mining towns are sparsely located, and with limited facilities. I guess so much of the population in those areas work on a fly in, fly out basis, so they can pick up what they need when they’re in the fly out part of their working cycle.

The east coast is so, so populated, and each town is well serviced with most needs being catered for. We’ve concluded the amount of good sized inland towns and cities can probably be attributed to the amount of accessible water. It’s hard to travel more than 100 kms without crossing another river or seeing a large inland lake. With such an abundance of this natural resource, it’s not hard to see how so many towns have thrived.

We enjoyed Inverell, but we found ourselves a little lost in the large house, and were pleased to get back to the confines of our little van. We missed our little home on wheels.

Our next house sit is for nearly a month and is nearby. However, we’ll have our van with us at the next one. Not sure if we’ll be sleeping in the van, but if not, it’ll still be nice to have our belongings on hand with nothing having been forgotten or left behind.

Apologies for sounding like a broken record, but Grafton amazes me yet again. Being here feels like being in a chapter of The Waltons. Perhaps preserving old buildings and trees helps preserve some of the values that were around at the times those buildings were erected, and the trees planted. Food for thought.

Our neighbours are in a motor home, so they take the bus into town when they can, rather than packing up their motor home. Yesterday, they went into town to see the midday showing of, The 100 Foot Journey (Helen Mirren movie), which we saw the day before – great feel good movie.

After watching the movie in the lovely old world type movie theatre, they waited for their bus. Ten minutes after the time they thought it should be there, they checked with a bus driver on another route. They had read the holiday time table by mistake, and in fact it was almost another hour till a bus was due.

Whilst still in front of the bus driver they discussed getting a taxi. The bus driver wouldn’t hear of it, telling them to get on and he’d take them home. He went a round trip of over three kilometres off his route and took them to the entrance of the caravan park. They had stood ready to exit the bus on the road opposite, he wouldn’t hear of that either, and insisted on doing a U turn so as they could alight right at the entrance.

Where does that happen! And in what era?

More like a botanical garden. One day I’ll count the gazebos, theres dozens of them in a multitude of sizes. There’s park benches under trees. There’s palm trees, jacarandas, moreton bay figs and native trees everywhere. There’s pots of colours and rose bushes. And there are birds chirping and singing everywhere.

The amenities have none slip matting and clean shower curtains. The cubicles are a decent size, so your belongings don’t get wet. They’re exceptionally clean and have stone vanity tops with a liquid soap dispenser at every basin.

Oh, and did I mention the price – $22 a night!!

Well, here we are in Grafton, a place that wouldn’t have been on our travel agenda if it weren’t for a couple of house sits we have coming up near by.

Since arriving here four days ago our travel agenda for the future has changed considerably. Our normal travel route would have by passed towns such as this, which in our mind were typical country towns without much to offer. Four nights here and we’re thinking we’ll most likely extend our time in and around this area to the end of October, which will be more than two months – yes, it’s that nice! And from now on, towns such of this will be high on our agenda to visit, towns that are away from the coastal rat race.

The mighty Clarence river runs through the town dividing Grafton from South Grafton. It’s Grafton that’s won our heart, not South Grafton. The town is laid out in such a way to make it very easy to find your way around, all with roundabouts and no traffic lights. It’s termed an historical city, and perhaps that’s what makes it such a quaint place.

At least half the houses are beautiful weatherboard, and most are well kept with pretty gardens on large plots of lands. The streets are all tree lined, some with massive Morton Bay Figs, but most with Jacarandas. Grafton is known as the Jacaranda capitol of Australia, and at the end of October they have an eight day Jacaranda festival. We’re hoping to still be here for that, and we imagine from the amount of jacaranda trees, that it’ll likely be one of the prettiest sights we’ll ever see.

We found our caravan park, The Gateway Lifestyle park, with the help of WIKI camp reviews. Five stars is the most that can be given to a caravan park, which is a shame. When we first arrived here we wondered if we had the right place. It looks more like botanical gardens than a caravan park. Everything about it from the gardens, the large sites and the amenity blocks indicate it deserves more than five stars. Add the price to that ($22 a night) and it deserves 7 stars at least. Mind you, that’s from the point of view of a grey nomad. Families may have a different point of view. No jumping pillows, no playgrounds, and only a small swimming pool – all added bliss for grey nomads, as it means any little blighters will be bored silly (causing their parents to take them elsewhere with any luck).

We’ve eaten out twice since arriving here, something we seldom do as we’re used to meals being overly expensive, and mediocre as far as quality.  We went out for a pub lunch the other day and both had fantastic meals which included vegetables, $12.90 each. Wow!! We’re so not used to that. Then tonight we went to the local RSL club for a smorgasbord. Soup, prawns, all the different roast meats, great veges, and all the other standard hot and cold fare, plus a big variety of deserts and coffee – $20 a head. By Perth standards we’re gob smacked.

We’ll be leaving here on Saturday next week for our first house sit. We have two coming up. The first is for 10 days and is looking after two cocker spaniels, budgies, fish and the garden. The 2nd one during September/October is also looking after two dogs, along with a rooster and his four lady friends, wild birds (of which they feed a multitude), and 26 cows, LOL!! It’s on 120 acres and they have quad bikes, tractors, ride on mowers etc. Should be an experience to remember – cows, ha ha, who would have thought…..We’re really looking forward to that.

We’re taking our camera out tomorrow to get some photos of both the caravan park and some of the things around this town that makes it an endearing place to be, so watch this space.

No, these photos are not taken at a bird park or zoo. These beautiful rainbow lorrikeets are everywhere in the trees around Port Stephens. They keep to the trees until you have something on offer. But beware if you walk outside with a crust of bread, as you can see I got mobbed!!!

After a whirlwind trip through the centre of Queensland and into NSW, we’re now in Newcastle awaiting repairs to our rig on Monday. Central Qld was an interesting experience. Drought stricken for sure, and different altogether to being on the coast. We love the coast, but seeing the interior was enjoyable  all the same. We most likely wouldn’t have chosen to go there if it hadn’t been for our needed repairs. So, I’m reminded once again that clouds tend to have a silver lining if you look for it.

We arrived on Friday and are staying at a lovely caravan park, with our van backed right up to the lake. We lay in bed this morning watching the horizon turn red as the sun rose over beautiful Lake Macquarie. Believe me, tucked up warm and snug in bed was the best place to be watching it from. It’s freezing. The sky’s blue and clear and the sun’s shining. But the wind cuts right through you.

We can’t take the van off the car until we’ve had the legs replaced. The manufacturers had loads of trouble with the legs we currently have on the van, so we’re getting them to replace them with the type they use now. While they’re doing the legs, we’re thinking of getting them to add a storage box to the undercarriage. These are now standard on all their caravans, and it’ll mean we can store our outdoor table and chairs there for travelling, instead of laying them on our bed. Until the repairs are completed, we’re travelling on foot. So, we’re having a few enforced, ‘Life of Riley’ rest days.

Paul washed the outside of the van today, while I gave the inside a good clean. Amazing how much red dust has found itself into every little crack. We think we have it all clean, but then when we travel the bouncing down the roads shakes more out. The joys of the nomadic lifestyle!

We’ve just been for a lovely, bracing walk on the banks of the lake. We both had beanies on, and I had trackies on along with a tee shirt and two polar fleeces. It took about half an hour of walking before I’d warmed up enough to unzip my top fleece. It was worth it though. There’s loads of black swans and mallard ducks, as well as other bird life on the lake, so really pretty. Even though we enjoyed it,  Paul says he ‘didn’t sign up for this’. I agree, our plan has been to follow nice weather. But as we’re finding out, our plans are fluid, extremely fluid. It won’t be long till we’re heading north again to find warmer weather.