Back in business

After a while away doing other stuff I am back in business with some of the camping we have done while we were invisible.  So some pics, some words and some fun along the way...

At Christmas time 2010 we set sail to visit family in northern NSW and had a couple of days in the bush on the way up.

Our site of choice this time, mainly because we didn't have the dog with us, was Warrabah National Park.

Entry to Park

We had a fair sort of tour on the black top to get to the closest main town, Tamworth, which is about 80km away.  Near Manilla we turned on to Namoi River Road and followed that to the picnic area and campground.

Road in to Warrabah NP

It's a nicely set up park with composting toilets and picnic tables in the camping area.  The road in is unsealed but usually in good condition and is an easy drive for a 2WD.

Info sign

The entry sign also has an 'honesty box' set up so you can pay the $5/adult $3/child camping fee.  The signage also shows where you can camp and has the usual interpretive information about the park.

The Namoi was in spectacular flow.  It was a couple of weeks before Christmas in 2010 and there had been some significant rains breaking the droughts and filling up the rivers.

There were a couple of freshwater shrimp to be had in the shallow pools.

There are some 4WD tracks near the campsites

Which are well set up...

They just need someone to set up and enjoy...

We had a couple of very enjoyable days in Warrabah NP.  A little 4WD-ing, lots of eating, sleeping and relaxing.  Even a spot of fishing and swimming.  Do I recommend this one?  Yes and No.  It's a National Park so dogs are not welcome and there is a charge.  I don't like that...  On the up side we seemed to have had the entire park to ourselves.  Didn't catch anything, but enjoyed the couple of days before heading off up the road towards Grafton.

On the way up we decided to take a slightly different way, wanting to see a convict hand cut tunnel.

Impressive huh?

Next week - we returned home and then set off to Paddy's River Dam for a couple of days... Swing back this way for a look.

Still busy

As you can see life has been really busy and I've still not had time to do a decent update...  I will soon - I hope.

We have done a few cool things like a Sydney Harbour Bridge climb, and we are heading back up to Sydney for a 40th again soon.

Part of the reason that I have been busy is I am slowly getting the Land Rover ready for our next big trip.  Recently I have replaced the rear shock absorbers, and a universal joint, rewired part of the fuel gauge, done a quick patch up on the tacho sender and un-jammed the trip meter!

Shortly we are off on holidays to Norfolk Island, and then we are hoping to be able to go on the Lightning Ridge Police Bush Safari ( http://www.lrpbs.org.au ) if you are interested in checking out the details...  Having all these little (and not so little) things fixed up is a good thing, particularly as we are planning that trip!  It's a big enough drive to get to the starting point, much less the going from Lightning Ridge to the Gulf Country.

So, spare me some time and I'll get the November to February pics and stories up soon - promise.  Maybe even some of the trip to Norfolk Island.

We won't be camping ourselves for a couple of months yet - way to cold down here at the moment and a fair number of our favourite campsites are closed until the October long weekend.  Half your luck if you are in a warmer part of the world than I, and are still in camping season.

Making a come back

Other things have overtaken updating the blog recently.  Some good, some bad - all a part of living life I guess.

We haven't been off in the tent for a while now but have been around doing some interesting things outside of camping...  I have had three of my musical fantasies fulfilled recently.

John Williamson and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra late last year was an amazing show and we had fantastic tickets.

Then Jimmy Buffett came to Sydney so another run up the Hume Highway to see what was the most amazing show I have ever experienced...

The Alan Jackson popped into Australia for a visit.  We saw him at CMC Rocks the Hunter - a 6 hour drive for a two day music festival with Mr Jackson headlining.

At the moment the main computer that I use for photos etc is playing up.  I'll get it sorted shortly and share some of the fun.

Hopefully we can get up some posts about the last couple of camps we did in November/December, complete with photos and GPS Coordinates and I'm back on track.

Catch you soon.