Drive across Oz Pic Set #3 (Click on the Images to enlarge)

The days have flown bye and its now three weeks since we set out from Perth today.




Today (13th April )we are crossing Bass straight on the ship to Tasmania.



After we left the Gold Coast we headed to south with another lot of friends to see on the north coast of NSW before slowly making our way down the coast.



Just before kempsey we ran into our first lot of big rain since we departed Perth. It just belted down making driving very dangerous and one could barely see one meter in front. I tried to pull off the road, but, their were just no places to stop so we crawled along at about 25kmph and constantly checking that no one was going to run into us from behind. The van is really water proof as not one drop got inside. After Kempsey the weather fined up and the sun was out again.



NSW is not like other states, where one can get off the road in a rest area and stay the night, you must find a caravan park or some other suitable place like a state camping ground to stay overnight, Most rest areas have signs up saying no overnight camping or words to that effect.



North of Newcastle we headed away from the main highway towards a town called Tea Garden. At a view point looking out to the coast we met a very old couple enjoying the odd glass or two with their hand made sports car ( a Morgan ) parked behind them. When Teresa told them she knew there car was hand made and had seen one on the cruise ship Voyager of the seas, this really got the old fellow talking. we got some very good information out of them about where to stay. They told us about a camp spot in a national Park that was a good place to spend a night, they also told us to stock up at the Coles supermarket just down the hill before we headed out there. We drove past two or three high priced caravan parks and found the spot they were talking about. the place is called Mungo Brush National Park. To to get there you follow the road crossing the bridge then at the roads end at a T section turn left then a few KLM up the road you find the entry to this camping area on the left. You follow a track in to the river and you can back right up to the rivers edge to camp. Dolphins swam past and were told by the woman collecting the camp fees ($20 per night) they head up to the mouth every day to get a feed. All types of bird life were at our door when Teresa produced a slice of bread. the kookaburras also came in for a feed. it was such a delightful place to camp that it did cross ours minds about staying another night, but we knew that we had to keep heading south.