Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly I have to say, the weather here is pretty lousy and looks set to stay that way for the next week at least – windy and rainy. There are waves about though and I’ve managed to score some surf and will hopefully get plenty more before we go home next week. Even if I don’t though, I’m more than happy just being in another caravan park in what has been home for five months. I adapted to and embraced life on the road very quickly and have grown to love it. Going back to living in a house again, let alone actually working for a living will take quite a bit of adjusting and I’m not looking forward to it. The temptation to sell the house and to just keep on going is huge. Perhaps we will.
And so now we are back where it all began – Gerringong. This was the first place I went to at the start of my long service leave, way back on 1 July. I thought that the best way to finish off this trip was to plant ourselves in the one spot for a good slab of time, no setting up or packing away, just relax and unwind until we have to pack up for the last time and go home. Gerringong is a beautiful place and is one of the towns we are seriously considering moving to sometime in the near future.
Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly I have to say, the weather here is pretty lousy and looks set to stay that way for the next week at least – windy and rainy. There are waves about though and I’ve managed to score some surf and will hopefully get plenty more before we go home next week. Even if I don’t though, I’m more than happy just being in another caravan park in what has been home for five months. I adapted to and embraced life on the road very quickly and have grown to love it. Going back to living in a house again, let alone actually working for a living will take quite a bit of adjusting and I’m not looking forward to it. The temptation to sell the house and to just keep on going is huge. Perhaps we will. From Wilsons Promontory we headed for another friends house in Nungurner, a tiny hamlet just outside of Lakes Entrance. We spent two nights at their place looking around Lakes and the highlight for me was the mountain bike ride Jen’s friends husband took me on in the nearby Colquhoun State Forest. The forest was full of fun, really technical single track which were full of jumps, deep gulley crossings and tight perfectly bermed switchback descents. I came back from this ride absolutely exhausted and was sore for days afterwards.
From Lakes Entrance our aim was to head to Mimosa Rocks National Park and camp for at least one night at one of my favourite camping grounds, Aragunnu. Unfortunately though, the ever present rain was ever present so we thought that Aragunnu would be too wet and unpleasant and that it would be better to have our overnight stop at a van park with hot showers in Tathra instead. We’ve been through Tathra quite a few times in the past but we’ve never actually stayed there. Which we now want to make up for by going back there again more regularly because its a really nice place. With two nights in Tathra, it became another location that we added to our long list of locations where we only planned to stay overnight but ended up staying for longer. The trip from Lakes Entrance to Tathra was a very strange one and evoked some very mixed feelings. On this leg of our journey we crossed back into NSW and saw the first road sign pointing to Canberra that we’d seen for nearly five months. It was very odd after nearly 20,000km on the road to know that we were now less than a days drive from home. Time for another update. We've spent a very relaxing week in the McLaren Vale and Adelaide district sampling great wine, beer and food. This is a lifestyle I've now become very accustomed to and only have four and bit months left to get unused to it or to find a sponsor or employer willing to fund this new lifestyle of mine on a longer term basis. I'm sure there's a benefit to humanity somewhere in all this and its up to some committed entrepreneur to find it. Apart from sampling wine and beer at various wineries and breweries, I managed to get a few rides in around the very picturesque rolling hills and vineyards around McLaren Vale. The area reminded me very much of parts of Italy we toured through two years ago. I rode up Wilunga Hill twice and part of this year's route for stage 5 of the Tour Down Under down to Aldinga Beach and along the esplanade. Also rode the 45km into Adelaide itself. This week was the last hit out on the road bike before its put away until our return to Canberra in December and I couldn't have been in a better place for training. My top tips for recovery after training rides in this region: Coffee, muffins and friands - Market 190 Cafe Pizza, Vale Ale and various red wines - Oscars Cheese and red wine - purchased anywhere in McLaren Vale, consumed in the campervan Beer, Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, Antipasto, pasta - Vasarelli Cellar Door And so, after a week it was back to Canberra to pick up our X-Trail from the smash repairers ready to start the next stage of the trip. After a week and a half of living in the campervan, the new camper trailer is going to feel like a mansion. We came home via Griffith NSW which is where my family moved to from Brisbane for 18 months when I was 5 years old. I started school in Griffith and was keen to see whether there was anything in the town that I would recognise after 43 years absence. There was and the overnight stay left me feeling quite nostalgic and realising Griffith's importance in my early development. Starting school here, this is where I received my first real training in how to stand out from the crowd - seeking attention through misbehaviour has stood me in good stead to this very day! Barbie visits the Dog on the Tucker Box Wilunga Hill climb. Wilunga Hill descent
With WiFi now available here in McLaren Vale and no digital dog to eat my digital homework I guess I’ve run out of excuses not to update my blog. So, here goes... Week one of our trip has taken us from Canberra to McLaren Vale with overnight stops at Hay, Lake Mungo National Park and Murray Bridge. We’re travelling in the Hiace campervan and not the X-Trail and campertrailer, thanks to some gale force winds, which is a good thing. The enforced closeness in the Hiace is an enriching experience, isn’t it Jen? There haven’t been any “camping holiday” moments at all. We got off to a flying start and being very conscious of the dangers of driver fatigue our first Stop, Revive, Survive coffee break was Yass. We eventually made it to Hay for the first night where much to Barbie’s disappointment we had no TV reception and therefore no Tour De France coverage (I wasn’t impressed by her sour mood that night – the Tour De France is not the be all and end all Barbie!). Night two and the next day saw us at Lake Mungo National Park. The drive in and out was spectacular. It might look like flat, desolate, salt bush country and nothing more from the car, but the plant and birdlife when we stopped and looked around was beautiful. There was no TripleJ reception on the radio but we didn’t need it. Aural entertainment for the 200km of dirt roads we travelled was provided by the sounds of the crockery and cutlery in the back of the van crashing and breaking. Lake Mungo was the venue for two field trips for me 30 years ago. The first was a Year 12 Archaeology field trip, the second a Uni Geomorphology field trip. Both trips live very large in my memory and both were quite instrumental in germinating the seed that became who I am today. Both trips also introduced me to the experience of drinking alcohol without adult supervision (yes, I was a very late starter) – when I say without adult supervision, I don’t mean to imply that adults weren’t present, because they were. Perhaps they were supervising and the teaching technique they employed was to allow us, blossoming adults that we were, to discover the unpleasantness of alcoholic poisoning for ourselves. Thanks to trip two, to this day I cannot even smell ouzo without my stomach somersaulting several times. Anyway, Mungo was fabulous. Seeing the woolshed, shearers quarters and the Walls of China where we were involved in an archaeological dig brought back so many wonderful memories. Murray Bridge was night three where we stayed in the same caravan park that I stayed in back in January when I came over to Adelaide for the Tour Down Under. The lady running the park remembered me from January but thought I was in the office as the husband of the 70 something women registering in front of me. One of us walked out of the office that evening with a spring in our step and feeling quite flattered and one of us didn’t! And now we’re in a beautiful caravan park in McLaren Vale surrounded by vineyards. We’ll base ourselves here for the next 4 or 5 days and sample the various wineries and cafes in the district. There’s also a number of bike rides we can do from here, one of which Jenny has just set out on that will take her down to the beaches. I’m about to do part of the Tour Down Under Stage 5 route and climb Wilunga Hill again to work off some of the pies, pastries, red wine and local beers I’ve been indulging in over the last few days. Not sure that my level of fitness has been sustained since we left Canberra really, so this could be interesting. |
Greg ShawGreg Shaw - spouse of Jenny, layabout, documentary film maker (most noted for working exclusively with his star subject, Barbie) Archives
November 2011
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