With the upcoming trip to Antarctica next year, I decided that I needed a new laptop to take along for photo processing and photo storage. Currently, I have been using my iPad quite successfully on the Australian outback trips that I have been taking but felt I would need more for this trip as I expect to take quite a few more photos, since it is specifically a photography trip. For my home computer I seem to alternate between a desktop system and a laptop, with my current 27" iMac still doing a very good job. I've included a photo of my laptop purchases over the last 15 years or so.
Those with good eyesight will recognize a non-apple system in there. I used the Acer Aspire netbook (running WinXP) for mapping on several trips with it hooked to a Garmin GPS System providing the location information. When the Garmin broke, I started using an iPad with built in GPS as my main mapping system and I've been very happy with that. The poor old netbook would struggle when things got a bit demanding (I.e. Running more than one program at a time) and I haven't used it in awhile.
The Australian dollar has been going down lately, pushing up the price of imported electronics and also Dick Smith has said they will not be doing as many 10% off Apple days so when I saw that JB HiFi had a 10% off Apple computers, I just had to decide which of their laptops I wanted. The cheaper 13" MacBook Air was my first thought but after looking at the retina screens on the other two machines it dropped down the list. Couple this with the fact that the 10% deal only applied to the models in the shop and not the build to order computers which I would need if I wanted a MacBook Air with 8 GB of ram. So this ruled out the MacBook Air.
It was down to the new 12" MacBook and the recently updated 13" MacBook Pro with retina, both had retina screens (although the Pro's was slightly bigger) and 8 GB of ram and were roughly the same price ~$1620. The pros for the MacBook are it had a larger SSD (256 vs 128 GB) and was substantially lighter - in fact it is amazing how light this machine is. While for the MacBook Pro the main benefit was a substantially better processor, in case I wanted to do anything that required some computer power, like video editing. The MacBook Pro also had the advantage of having multiple ports and not requiring a whole heap of new adapters to connect to the single USB-C port of the MacBook.
In the end I went with the MacBook Pro with the smaller SSD (128 GB), because as a travel computer I don't need all the extra stuff I keep on my home computer so a small storage option wouldn't be too much of a problem. Then I went into the Robina JB HiFi store to see if they had a machine in stock and luckily they did. I think I confused the salesman a bit when I told him what I wanted and that I would take it now, he didn't even get a chance to get in his sales pitch although he did try to get me to buy some extras like extra warranty cover, Microsoft office, virus protection, etc. I suspect this is where they make their money when they have these discount sales.
Normally, when I have got a new Mac I simply hook it up to the old one and use the Migration Assistant to copy everything across to the new machine, so all my photos, music, bookmarks, etc. all end up in the right place but with 500 GB on my current machine and only a 128 GB SD on the new machine, this was never going to happen. The setup however was still pretty easy as once it was on my home wifi network I ran the system software updater to get to the latest version of MacOSX (10.10.5) and then connected it to my AppleID which let me download any Mac App Store purchases, synchronized my contacts, calendar and bookmarks. Then it was a simple matter to install Dropbox, Google Drive and Evernote which let me access the same files in the cloud and I was good to go. The boot time on this new machine is phenomenal and is not much longer than simply waking the machine from sleep, I think I will replace the old spinning hard drive in the iMac one of these days with an SSD. I'm sure there will be a few more things to get sorted out before the trip but I have a few months to work on that. 😄
We had a bit of a sleep in and a leisurely pack up before heading off towards Kakadu a bit after 9 am. There was a quick stop for fuel and a magnum in Pine Creek and then we headed into Kakadu, Dave had to stop off at the visitor's centre to fix up his pass and then we headed into Jabiru and checked into the caravan park for three nights. After a quick setup we headed into town for a late lunch at the bakery where I had quite a nice buffalo pie. We had a very lazy afternoon looking around town and then headed back to camp for a swim in the pool. Later that evening we were treated to fire works as it was Territory Day.
Another leisurely start to the day as we were heading off to see Jim Jim and Twin Falls after dropping into the bakery to pick up some snacks and lunch. The drive out to the camp site was very easy but after that it became a bit of a track. Then to go from the day use area out to twin falls we had to cross Jim Jim creek and it was showing about 0.75 metres on the markers, the cars made it with no worries and they all had a bit of a wash.
We hasn't planned it but we ended up catching the boat that connects to the Twin Falls walk and I'm really glad we did as the falls themselves were spectacular and it was a very pleasant walk. On the way back we saw a fresh water croc sunning itself on a rock as we cruised past.
We had a quick lunch at the car park day use area before heading back across Jim Jim creek and onto to Jim Jim falls. The walk into Jim Jim falls is much tougher than the Twin Falls walk, with lots of rock hopping. Unfortunately, there wasn't very much water going over the falls so we ended up heading back to the car park and then back to camp.
Back at camp my knees were not feeling so good, but a swim in the pool, some dinner and an ibuprofen or two and I was feeling much better. After some planning talk we booked a Yellow Waters cruise for the morning (9 am) and headed to bed for an early night. It was very warm that evening in the swag (about 24 deg at 10 pm) but to keep the mozzies at bay I had to stay in the swag.
We were up early and heading to Yellow Waters for a cruise of the wetlands. This was excellent and we saw heaps of crocs, Jabirus and other wild life. Lots of photos were taken.
After the cruise we went for a bit of a drive along some of the less driven tracks at the back of South Aligator River. It was getting a bit rough and closed in so we stopped for some lunch before we turned around and headed back to camp at Jabiru. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, having a swim, etc.
Then just before sunset we headed out to Ubirr where we walked around the Aboriginal Art sites and then went up to the lookout to see the sun set. The view was spectacular but there was tons of people so we headed off a bit early to dodge all the traffic.
Back at the caravan park we had quite a nice Barra dinner at the restaurant and chatted about our plans for the next day, when we would be heading off to Litchfield National Park.
It got quite cool overnight and there was a lot dew on the awnings and tents in the morning. We let them dry out a bit before packing up and heading north to Butterfly Springs. The camping ground here was much busier than where we stayed the previous night so it was good that we didn’t continue. I was very disappointed wth Butterfly Springs as I didn’t see a single butterfly. :( It was however quite scenic but a little chilly for swimming.
Then it was onto the ranger’s station to see if we could get the key to visit the Western Lost City, unfortunately no rangers around so I’ll have to save that for my next trip up this way. We kept heading north and went to look at the mouth of the Roper River where we had a bit of lunch before heading back into Roper Bar where the others refuelled their cars while I had a Magnum for afternoon tea.
We then continued onto to Mataranka where we checked into a caravan park with some nice hot showers and had a quite nice Barra and chips for dinner.
The next day we had a leisurely pack up before heading north towards Katherine, on the way we dropped into Cutta Cutta caves and took a tour.
Then it was on to Katherine for lunch and a restock at the supermarket before heading on a short drive out to the Gorge for a quick look. We picked up some brochures to have a look at, as we were going to stop in for a cruise on the way home. We had decided to head to Edith Falls to camp the night and we were lucky to get the last couple of spots as the place was full of Bloody caravans. After setting up camp we headed off for a loop walk to the Upper Falls which after a bit of a climb provided a great place for a cooling and relaxing swim.
A pleasant walk back down the hill to camp site almost tempted us to have another swim but we settled for going back to camp and having a hot shower before dinner and a few drinks sitting around discussing the plans for the next day.
We slept in a little as it was chilly but then just as we were about leave Phil broke the power connector for his fridge. This took a little bit of time to fix so we ended up leaving a bit late. On the way out we turned north at Lawn Hill station and headed towards Doomadgee. This crossed several different properties so there was a bit of gate opening and closing to be done but the scenery was nice and it was a pleasant drive.
We refuelled and had an early lunch in Doomadgee before continuing west. We made a quick stop at Hells Gate for an ice cream and then continued on to cross the border into the Northern Territory.
The road got steadily worse the further west we went and we ended up camping the night on a cattle property at Snake Lagoon. It was a bit rough but the sunset over the lagoon was pretty nice.
It was chilly the next morning so it took a little while for us to get up and get going. We continued west to Borroloola where we refuelled and had morning tea. A little bit out of town we took the turn off to Roper Bar and Limmen national park, once again the road seemed to get worse the further we went.
Around lunch time we got to the Southern Lost City camp ground and decided to stay for the night. So we set up camp and and had a late lunch before going for a walk around the Southern Lost City rock formations. They were pretty spectacular and many photos were taken.
It was back to camp for a cool drink and a restful afternoon in the shade.
The shade shelter took awhile to pack up but we were ready to leave the lagoon at about 8:15 am. We headed west but had to make some detours to get to the Savanah Way because of road works. The detour involved the opening and closing of several gates but was otherwise uneventful. We got to Burketown around lunch time so we refuelled the cars and then had lunch at quite a nice bakery. I tried the Barra pie which was ok but not wonderful.
Then it was onto Gregory Downs before turning west to Lawn Hill. The road was much better than when I was here at Easter last year and this made the driving much easier.
We got into the national park just after 3 pm and set up camp, as the car wouldn't be moving and there was a bit of wind I used the normal ASS setup.
Afterwards we explored the camp site and water for awhile before having dinner and chatting about our plans for the next day. Then it was an early night in bed.
We were going to go canoeing early but as the sun doesn't get up too early we delayed until it had warmed up a bit. In the meantime I inflated my kayak and then went for a walk up to the top of Island Stack to take some photos down the gorge.
At about 10'ish the others rented a couple of kayaks and we set off on a grand expedition up the gorge.
As always happens to me there seemed to be a bit of a head wind that we were paddling into.
Getting out of my inflatable kayak at the portage point to the next gorge was difficult as the water level was low and the kayak not as stable as the hard shell ones. Then the next gorge also seemed to have a head wind but the sights were worth the effort.
The stream into the third gorge was narrow so the water flowed a little faster making it hard to paddle this section but it wasn't too long until it opened out. We got to the far end where there were a couple of small waterfalls that meant we weren't going any further. Luckily I managed to turn around a this point without capsizing like I did last time I was here. The paddle back seemed to take ages as my shoulders were getting a bit sore but at least there was no headwind. We got back to the camp area just after midday and I setup the kayak to dry out so it could be packed up. As I was already wet I went and had a cold shower before having some lunch and a couple of ibuprofens for my shoulders. I then had a very lazy afternoon while the others went on a couple of the walks around the park. As we were heading off in the morning I repacked the car and had an early dinner and an early night in bed.
It had been cool overnight but no dew on the awning meant packing up was pretty simple after a brekky of bacon and eggs. We left Undara at about 8:15 am and headed out to the highway, turning west and heading towards Normanton. We stopped briefly at Mt Surprise for a refuelling stop before heading onto Croydon for lunch. Over lunch we planned out the next couple of days travel.
We decided to stay at Leichhardt Lagoon - a bush camping place about 20 kms south of Normanton and explore Normanton and Karumba the following day. We have a nice camp amongst the trees surrounding a lagoon which has plenty of bird life and supposedly no crocs. This time I set up my light weight shelter instead of the car awning but I probably don't need it as it is quite warm and dry.
Overnight there was no dew and I packed away the sleeping bag and blanket as if was too warm for them. We slept in the next morning and had a leisurely time around camp until leaving around 10 am. A quick refuel in Normanton and a few photos of the big concrete croc and the purple pub before heading north to Karumba.
We drove around the dock area of Karumba first and then headed over to the beach section. The caravan parks here were packed with tourists and boating and fishing seemed to be the main occupation. There was a pub right on the beach so we decided to have lunch here and I had an excellent Prawn Bucket.
On the way back to camp I picked up some fresh prawns and bread rolls for dinner. We dropped into the river opposite the camp site and saw a few small crocs but they were pretty shy and didn't really hang around for photos. Back at camp we relaxed for the rest of the afternoon and got ready to head off to Lawn Hill national park the following morning.
Slept in a bit as it was still a bit chilly and there had been lots of dew overnight so the awning was wet. Eventually got up, packed everything away and hit the road at 8 am. Drove into Springsure where I refuelled the car and had some brekky before heading north to Emerald.
Then there was a relatively boring drive north through Clermont and then onto Charters Towers which I got to a bit after 3 pm. Once again refuelled the car and drove about 40 kms North to Fletcher Creek, a free camping area.
This place is huge taking up three of the four quadrants made by the road and the creek. There is one set of toilets and there was way more than a hundred caravaners and campers. I set up an ASS camp (Awning, Stretcher, Swag) and sent a text message to Phil.
While I went on a walk along the creek Phil and his brother David arrived and easily recognising my red SWB Paj, started setting up camp.
After introductions and finishing setup we had some dinner and continued chatting for awhile, finally heading to bed around 9'ish. It was not as cold nor as dewy overnight and we had planned on leaving at around 8'ish which we didn't quit make. The road was mostly good and there was a bit more traffic, mainly tourist as we headed north. After a quick morning tea at Greenvale we continued onto to Undara and found Kemsley and Liese around lunch time. So after a quick setup (another ASS camp) we headed to the restaurant for lunch and a chat.
We booked in for dinner that night at the restaurant and headed back to camp to finish setting up. Then it was off for a walk around some of the tracks followed by a cool drink and some planning for the trip. After dinner (Barra and chippies) we got a fire going and sat around chatting until it burned out and then went to bed with the plan that we would leave about 08:30 and head for Normanton.
Had little bit of a sleep in before getting up to finish packing the car around 06:30. It took longer than I had thought to get the spare wheel tied unto the roof rack so I didn't end up leaving until about 08:00. A quick stop to fuel up at Mudgeeraba and then I headed north before turning off at Logan motorway and heading toward Toowomba. The traffic was pretty minimal and what there was disappeared around Dalby. I stopped in Chinchilla for some lunch and to top up the car around noon. Then it was onto Miles where I turned north to Taroom. Just past Taroom I turned off on the Fitzroy Development Road heading for Bauhinia and hit the first gravel road for the trip. It was in pretty good condition but I could see where there had been a bit of mud from previous rain.
I had planned on staying in Bauhinia but I still had an hour of daylight left so I pushed onto Rolleston. I checked into the caravan park and set up the awning, stretcher and swag before having a hot shower.
Then it was off to the pub for an excellent dinner of pork chops before relaxing for awhile. Back at the car it was getting chilly as there were no clouds and a cool breeze was blowing, so I climbed into the swag to keep warm, type up this blog and have an early nights sleep after a day of driving.
I started packing the car on Thursday night but as the rain started I had to stop and hope that it wasn't raining in the morning. Not a good omen for a weekend away camping. I was up at 6am on Friday morning and although overcast it wasn't raining, so I finished packing the car, showered, changed and headed off before 7am. A quick stop for fuel at the BP just over the border and then I headed south on the motorway before turning off to Lismore and then onto Casino where I had a late breakfast at Maccas. The weather continued to look horrible, overcast and drizzling as I headed toward Tenterfield and combined with the twisty road meant it was slow going.
Just before Tenterfield the rain cleared away and the roads were dry, there was even some blue sky. I turned south towards Glen Innes and the weather seemed to be getting better. After 30 odd km I turned off towards Torrington via a dirt road shortcut. Torrington was a nice little town, bigger than I expected. Then I followed the signs to the national park campground for another 15 kms or so of dirt road. At the entry to the campground I caught up with Greg, Debbie and their new camper trailer and after paying my camp fees followed them to the furtherest camping spot over the rocky creek crossing. Adam and Meagan were there and had spread out a bit to deter anyone else from thinking about staying in this spot. After a quick chat it was time to setup camp and have a bit of lunch.
I setup the new tent fairly quickly but I still need to find a better way to get the fly setup as it is a bit difficult for one person. I then thought I would try out the new wide angle zoom lens (Tamron SP AF 10-24 mm A-mount, my camera has a crop factor of 1.5 so in reality it is a 15-36 mm lens) I bought for my camera, so I took a few photos of the car and tent at different angles.
This is about 15 mm (in 35 mm parlance) and close things like the Paj's bull bar get quite distorted.
A bit further away and the lens at roughly 27 mm which is the widest my main lens goes.
And finally further away and about 36 mm. I need to play around with it a lot more before I take it away to Antarctica next year.
We'd just finished lunch when it started drizzling, so we all crowded under the camper trailer awning hoping the rain would go away. In one of the breaks I went and got my gazebo and we put that up to give us a little more room under shelter. Around mid afternoon the others (Kemsley, Josh and Phil) rolled into camp and they crowded under the shelter until there was a slight break in the rain and then they put their tents up. We then added the awnings on Kemsley's and Phil's cars to give us a comfortable area under cover and proceeded to have a few drinks and a chat for the rest of the afternoon. Cheese and dips and crackers sustained us until dinner, which was a communal affair consisting of several curries and rice. I was to cook damper for dessert but the weather hadn't been kind to the fire which Adam had been nursing along and there wasn't enough coals for the camp oven.
Sometime after dinner the rain stopped for awhile and we were able to sit around the rejuvenated camp fire.
This however didn't last too long and when the rain came back we moved under the awnings and then onto a nice warm and dry bed. Overnight the rain kept drizzling and things were getting wetter in the morning. After a sleep in, a leisurely breakfast and some more chatting under cover we took advantage of a slight break in the weather to head back into Torrington for their Easter Saturday fair. We had an early lunch at the sausage sizzle, followed by a nice coffee and home made dessert in the local community hall. Then it was back to camp for an afternoon of lounging under the awnings chatting, unfortunately there wasn't a long enough break in the rain to sit around the fire but after dinner I managed to make my damper with Kahlua soaked raisins using the Weber Bbay Q that Greg and Debbie had in their camper trailer. The consensus of opinion while sitting around under the awnings was that we would probably pack up the next day and head home early as it wasn't much fun camping in the rain.
The rain persisted down all night and that sealed our fate. After a quick breakfast there was a period were it wasn't raining so we all quickly packed up and got ready to leave. Greg and Debbie and Adam and Meagan headed home via the bitumen while the rest of us followed Kemsley on a magical mystery tour through the back roads to Tenterfield. We lost count of the creek crossings and the cars were covered in mud. At Tenterfield we got some lunch from the Fish and Chip shop and ate in the park as the weather had cleared up a bit. Phil then ended up heading home on the bitumen while the rest of us found some more dirt roads going past Boonoo Boonoo national park. Then it was through White Swamp and onto Rathdowney before a quick stop in Beaudesert to discuss the possible itinerary for a trip away during winter. Kemsley and Josh then headed back to Brissy while I turned east to Canungra and Nerang and then finally home. All up I had done just over 750 kms and was feeling wet and soggy but we still managed to have an enjoyable weekend.
Of course I had to unpack all the wet stuff from the car and get it set up in the garage to dry.
Luckily the next day was nice and sunny and I could roll out the car awning and let it dry as well.
The water proof tape on the seams of the awning had degraded to a useless state so I removed it and tried the old candle wax trick on the seam to try and weather proof it. Hopefully, next time I need to use it in the rain there won't be anymore drips coming through. 😄💧💧💧
Due to the rain persisting down all day Friday, I didn't get a chance to pack the car until Saturday morning. By this time it was down to just Shane and I as the plague had infected Jo and Ron's household and laid them low. The plan was for me to head down the highway to Lismore and Casino (Warning pies purchased at an Organic Hippy bakery are simply disappointing) and finally Tabulam before turning north onto Paddy's flat road and getting to the Clarence River from the south while Shane would head out through Tamborine and then south to Wodenbong and Urbanville before getting to the river from the north at around lunch time on Saturday.
Along the way I took a little detour into the Richmond Range National Park and there was some very nice views over the farmland, there was also a nice lookout at Mallanganee.
At Tabulam there was a very long one lane timber bridge crossing the Clarence River but because of traffic I didn't get chance to take a photo. A couple of kilometers west of Tabulam I took the north turn onto Paddy's Flat road which started out as a bitumen road before turning into quite a well maintained gravel road. I got to the river at about 12:30pm and stopped for a bit of a look as it was running quite quickly under the bridge.
Then it was across the bridge and a quick drive around the very empty camping area (there was only one other campsite at that stage). While I was walking down to have a look at the river Shane rolled in from the north and we selected our camp site and proceeded to get setup. About this time I realized the first thing I had forgotten was the UHF radio, the first of several things that I had forgotten. As I had a new tent (Coleman Instant Up 4 man tent) that I hadn't even unpacked, I decided to make a time lapse movie of the setup. So I set the iPhone 6+ up on a tripod and used the time lapse mode in the iOS 8 camera app. The app handles everything and produces the movie which I then uploaded to YouTube.
We had camp setup pretty quickly and it became obvious that only red cars were allowed at our camp.
As it was quite warm and no hint of rain we settled in under some shady trees with cold beverages and caught up on the state of the world since we had last been camping. As it got a little later in the afternoon we decided to go and find some wood for the evenings campfire but the supply in the immediate vicinity of the camp site was minimal so we headed off for a quick drive back along the road and collected suffient wood pretty quickly. I then started dinner cooking (lamb roast) in the Cobb Oven and had a few more drinks around the camp fire which wasn't really needed for heat but for visual appeal. Around this time the mossies made an appearance and they were pretty thick, so it was out with the Bushmans repellant which worked a treat but left that horrible smell of DEET.
Dinner ended up being sort of souvlaki, with roast lamb in a wrap with tzatziki, tabouli, tomato, lettuce and a squeeze of lemon - excellent, even if I do say so myself and the bonus was tons of left over lamb for later lunches and dinners. I also remembered why I don't normally get too fancy with cooking while camping as things are just harder to cleanup without a kitchen and hot and cold running water around you. Then it was back to chatting around the campfire while the clouds zipped by over head but there was no real threat of rain they just obscured the stars. We headed off to bed around 10 pm and it was still fairly warm. Over night there was a very heavy dew and the fly ended up quite wet on the outside and wet underneath from condensation however the inner tent was completely dry so I was glad that I had taken the time to put the fly up.
I had a lazy sleep in next morning and spent some time reading a book while Shane went for a walk around the ridges where he found a serviceable dunny but the redback spiders chased him out and he vowed to return with some insecticide and get revenge. Next up was my usual camping brekkie of bacon and eggs before a leisurely reading of a book under a shady tree. The sky was perfectly clear and blue and it was starting to get very hot, so I changed into swimming gear and packed the towel for a walk down to the creek. We found a fairly shallow spot under some shady trees and simply sat in the flowing water and cooled down nicely. I would be back here a few times through the day to cool down.
Then it was time for a walk around the south bank of the river to look at the old graves and the tank traps left over from WW2.
I stopped in to cool off in the river before heading back to camp for some lunch. It was feeling very warm and the thermometer in the car was registering 38 deg C. So I settled in for a lazy afternoon reading and trying to keep cool. I may have just dozed off for a little bit every now and then and Shane claims there was snoring coming from the tent but it must have been an echo from one of the other campers. 😄 It was back to the creek to cool off for awhile before a simple dinner and then we settled around the camp fire again. Tonight there were no clouds above us and we had a great view of the stars and of all the passing planes of which there were quite a few. It had cooled down a bit once the sun had set and we didn't get the mossies visiting us like the previous evening. There were banks of clouds to the south and east and they showed quite a lot of lightning activity but we couldn't even hear any thunder. We went to bed around 9:30 pm as we were exhausted from a tough day of reading, swimming and relaxing although I'm sure the hot weather also took its toll.
The next day started in a similar vein to the previous one for me as I had a little sleep in and reading session while Shane had launched his canoe and gone for a paddle. I had a leisurely brekkie and waited while the dew and condensation on the tent dried off so that I could pack up. About this time the low voltage cutoff on the fridge cut in and I started and idled the car for 15 or so minutes to put some charge back into the battery. This was pretty good, one and three quarters of a day from a 90 amp hour battery in very hot conditions while keeping the fridge cold. Once it was dry I packed the new tent up and of course had problems fitting it back in the bag it had come in, ended up leaving the fly separate and putting it in the car without trying to stuff it in the bag.
At about 10 pm Shane and I parted company, me heading to the north and him heading south to do a bit of exploring. Just before Urbanville I dropped into Tooloom Falls to have a look. There was a lot of water flowing over the falls and the campground was pretty full although it looked like quite a few people were in the process of packing up and heading home after the school holidays.
Then it was onto Wodenbong were I stopped on the eastern side of the town at a park where it looked like you could camp for a grand fee of just $5. I then headed towards Kyogle but turned off towards the Lions Road and then went exploring the Border Ranges national park. The camping ground at Sheep Station creek was virtually empty but it looked like it would be a reasonably nice spot to camp. Going further into the national park they had closed off the loop around some of the lookouts and picnic spots, so I continued on the main section of the road which eventually comes out on the Kyogle to Murwillumbah road. At this stage I could see where all the storms that went around us the night before ended up. There was a lot of leaves, branches and even trees down on the road. The Rangers who were clearing it all up said that a nasty storm had passed through the area over night. I stopped at one of the lookouts for a photo and could see some rain clouds heading towards me.
So I headed onto the Bar Mountain lookout picnic area where I had a quick bit of lunch before continuing out of the park and into Murwillumbah and then connecting up to the main highway and onto home. All up I had done just on 500 kms over the weekend and got some serious relaxing done. While it was quite warm at the camping ground we had the river to keep us cool. The camp ground was pretty empty with only 4 or 5 other groups there and we hardly knew they were there.
