Heading down the coast to Camden

It has been a crazy holiday. Weddings, and then last Tuesday we took off to head to Camden for my cousin Bev's 50th Birthday. It felt really good to be on the road again with the van, and as Steve and I left Brissie, we couldn't help but feel a little excited. We got to Ballina on the first night and stayed in this great caravan park called Ballina Headlands Leisure Park at Skennars Head (on the road between Byron Bay and Ballina)
It was a great park, very very clean, great amenties, friendly helpful owners and we kind of wished we had a few extra days we could have stayed there.
This is the view that greeted us and we took off the next morning. Just a perfect day with perfect coastline. Mind you I am glad that we were there last Tuesday and not on the weekend.

I am so glad that we weren't there on the weekend because I would have hated to have been in this.Ballina had the biggest hail storm. The ground was covered in ice. If you didn't know better you would have thought it had snowed. I am glad our car and caravan was spared the damage. Mind you it was pretty windy and very wet in Camden on Sunday as well. That I can deal with.
We travelled this same stretch of road when we took off on our big trip this time last year, and it really did feel good to be back on the road. Only wish we were the grey nomads and could go for 4-5 months again. The country this year is nowhere near as green as what it was this time last year but never the less we enjoyed the drive. We drove though Coff's Harbour - the ocean was gorgeous. Felt like pulling in there for a few nights also, but we couldn't we kept going. Lots and lots of road works going on around Coff's. It won't be long before you will bypass it completely.
We headed through to Macksville where we stopped for some lunch. It is quite a pretty place. I love going over the river there and seeing this beautiful hotel with its lovely wrought iron verandahs. Just lovely.

We headed to here.
and spent the night at Port Macquarie. I love the Port. We have been here for holidays at least three or four times now, and I still love to come back. We didn't get in until close to 5pm, so we were quick to set up so that we could go for a drive down to the beaches. We arrived on Sunset. It was just beautiful. We found out on the Thursday that my cousin Cathy and her family were also in The Port of the same night. They realized the next morning when I left a message on Facebook. They came looking for us but we had left an hour earlier.

We stayed here
Not quite as nice a park as the one in Ballina, but they did have beautiful facilities, very clean, even if they were a little older. We didn't unpack much as we wanted an early start the next morning as we needed to get to Camden by that night. We decided to have a nice cooked breakfast using their camp kitchen. We figured that we wouldn't manage to get lunch until quite late, as once we hit Newcastle area we wouldn't have much of an opportunity to stop them until we got to Camden mid afternoon. We enjoyed a hearty breakfast and still managed to pull out of the park by 8.30am. and after getting fuel we left The Port about 9.10am and had a good run along the highway for a couple of hours when we decided to stop for a cuppa at one of the last rest ares we could find.
That is the beauty of caravaning. You can pretty much just pull up anywhere and have a break.
We were around Newcastle at lunch time, and then had another couple of hours ahead of us before we got to Bruce and Bev's. I was looking forward to the drive into Sydney along the F3 as the views are pretty spectacular. I was looking forward to taking photos, especially of the Hawksberry, but it was really smokey and hazy. I did manage to get some of these great shots of driving into Sydney though. I love driving up through all these cuttings.
We managed to arrive mid afternoon. So good to be back here.

Other exciting news this week. This very special friend of mine got good news the other day.
Her daughter in law YiiMei and son Garreth were expecting their first chichld in November. WEell Garreth and his cousin from America have been touring around New Zealand enjoying the Wordl Cup, when suddenly they get a call to say YiiMei has gone into labour, A mad dash to get back to Auckland, boook flights and get get back to Australia as soon as possible. Talk about drama. Garreth made it home with about 15 minutes to spare and was able to welcome this little bundle of joy into the world.

I would love to introduce the very special and much loved daughter and grand daughter of Garreth and YiiMei Phillips, and John and Barb Ross.

Introducing you to Bronte Isla Phillips
Born Monday 26th September 2011
5lb 8oz.
Congratulations Garreth and YiiMei
Congratulations John and Barb.

Well I need to hit the bed. I am falling asleep as I type this. Have heaps more to upload on Bev's Paty but I am thinking that it will need to be left for another. day.

Just had to add this photo today or the proud Granny and Mum with baby Bronte.. Isn't she just the cutest little Bub... I'm so excited for them. I can hardly wait to meet her.