Sunday 16 June
As we haven’t seen our friends Phil and Deb for a while, we set off to spend our first night on their property in the Blue Mountains. Even that has become a bit of a routine, either at the end or the start of a trip to have a good catchup. Deb has cooked a great roast dinner, and the fire is blazing as it is really cold here in the mountains. The heater is working perfectly in the van, and early in the morning there’s a huge kangaroo sunning in front of (or guarding??) the studio.
The air is clear and beautifully crisp – Phil & Jen go for an early walk along the local frost-covered properties. This is a first without any dog, after Millie passed away when we were there in December; and it really didn’t feel the same. Absolutely can imagine that it takes a long time to adjust when you’ve been doing this daily for years. We hear that no longer having Bud and Millie is giving the kangaroos free range of the property, and there are many, especially big males. There are regular fights, and several times Deb has postponed hanging out the washing as they can be very intimidating.
Monday 17 June
We’ve decided that we will have 2 nights in beautiful Mudgee, and as that’s only 2 hours west from here, we don’t leave Little Hartley until after lunch. We arrive at the showground, which is a great place, large grassy spaces, and we hook up to power and water for $26 per night. Mudgee’s Golf club down the road has a Chinese restaurant highly recommended by Phil & Deb, and in various other reviews. But it’s closed Monday & Tuesday, so we end up at the Lawson Park Hotel. If this hasn’t yet been explained in previous posts, ‘hotel’ is used in Australia for a pub with accommodation stemming back to the early settlers’ days, though some ‘hotels’ no longer have beds. The Lawson is named after Henry Lawson, a very famous Australian author during the late 19th, early 20th centuries who spent some of his youth in this area.
We enjoy a nice meal here, and when we get back to our lovely, just-over-a-year-old caravan, we discover some issues. Our power management system (called ‘BMPro’) displays that our battery (charged by solar or AC when we have power) is discharging, even though we are plugged into power. This is totally the opposite of what we expect; we are connected to AC and it should show that is either charging or full. This poses a bit of a challenge for us, as we intend to go off-grid on a regular basis during this trip. Part of the trip is during school holidays, and it’s high season in Queensland (as most southern Australian nomads head for QLD) which means high prices, and very limited availability in most camping places/caravan parks with powered sites. There are far more campgrounds where you can always find a spot if you are fully self-contained, so that gives us the flexibility we want (and less stress!).
We also discover that our tv is not working properly and that our water is not getting hot.
A bit of a setback and we decide to troubleshoot all the issues tomorrow.
The new Starlink seems to be working, enabling us to access the internet even when there is no reception, so some positive and Arno is able to watch yesterday’s formula 1 race.
A bit disappointed we go to bed, with worries about the power. The hot water system also runs on gas, so that’s okay, and no tv is not a drama either, as we can stream via the Chromecast making use of the Starlink.
Tuesday 18 June
It’s cold this morning… VERY cold, the temp ‘feels like’ -2 degrees Celsius. But the amenities’ showers are to die for with lots and lots of space and hot water. Arno sends an email to BMPro after telephone proves too hard. We manage to fix the television, which is just a dodgy coaxial connection, and decide to check out some of Mudgee’s great wineries today. It’s a beautiful day, and the countryside here is just stunning. We enjoy a winery or two and a gin distillery, where we buy some to take back.
We have a lovely salmon and vegetable dinner in the van.
Wednesday 19 June
Well, we’ve extended our stay in Mudgee as the BMPro issue is still not resolved, as we are still awaiting a response to our SOS.
Once again the weather is stunning, though cold start. We decide that this new caravan really is much colder than our previous one (clearly no wall insulation) and miss the removable carpet we used to have.
We make our way to the carpet place, and buy some offcuts, which we then spend a bit of time cutting to size to cover the middle of the van and bathroom floors. It is beautiful and soft.
We do a town walk, and we are now here on Wednesday, decide to have dinner at the famed Chinese restaurant at the Golf Club, which indeed is quite nice.
Thursday 20 June
There is finally some progress on the BMPro, and some troubleshooting means a wait for a full 24 hours to see if resetting everything (not a simple on and off switch!) has worked.
The Hot water system turns out to be connected to a dodgy (double) powerpoint which we only discover this trip, as the new Starlink has been plugged into the HWS (working!) side of the powerpoint. Clearly not a big issue now as Arno can replace this.
We drive up to Gulgong which we visited and enjoyed so much on our first caravan trip 4 years ago which we had to abort right after when the pandemic hit.
Again, the weather is just perfect, cold mornings, and beautiful sunny days where we can even wear shorts for a good part.
21 – 30 June – Mudgee
It is clear that the BMPro needs to be replaced, (while still in its second year of warranty, thank goodness) and we have to stay put while we await its arrival into the Mudgee post office. To be honest, it is not a hardship; we could have gone back home, as we are really only 4 hours from Booker Bay, but there is no reason to be home and Mudgee is great.
As it turns out we end up having to stay put for another 10days waiting for the arrival of the replacement BMPro.
We visit the hardwarse stores, there are plenty of good supermarkets, even an Aldi, and pubs to visit. We enjoy Three Tall Pines for lunch as well as Jumbuck where Jen has the best Singapore noodles in decades!
Mudgee also has some amazing cycleways along both sides of the river, and we explore those. We go to a few more wineries (Small and Walter) do a hike to The Drip (we also did this on a previous trip); we visit a cheese factory, buy some wonderful olive oil in Honey Haven Mudgee.
And so we enjoy Mudgee and add bits and pieces of comfort to the van as we see them. After all we plan to take the van on a much longer haul later this year!
Monday 1 July – final day
Today the weather is lovely, but a little windy. We celebrate as the BMPro arrives and after Arno installs it, all is looking good. Geri & Michael ring, they happen to be at the Sunshine Coast, and we organise to meet up with them in a few days’ time along our way north, and their way south.
We pack up for an early start tomorrow morning as we will finally say goodbye to our lovely home for the past 2 weeks.