I had all the camping gear out in my lounge room ready to pack into the car on Saturday morning. It took an hour so to get everything right, tie it all down and then put the tarp over top to secure it. Jenni got to my place about 8:15 am and we transferred her gear into the car and then headed off south towards Grafton.
It was a nice easy drive with no real traffic problems. We got to Grafton around 11 am and grabbed some pies from Hanks Kitchen and went and sat down by the river, very nice way to have an early lunch. We then met up with Ben and Laura at the Grafton Maccas before heading south, a bit before noon. The road was pretty empty and we made good time, stopping off in Ebor for a quick look at the waterfall. Ben wanted to get some fuel but the servo was closed.
We met up with the others, Greg and Debbie, Hitesh and Josh. Adam and Meagan had already gone to the camp site the previous day. Ben headed into Armidale to get some fuel while the rest of us headed off to Halls Peak campground. Once again a relatively easy drive on mostly gravel roads until we got to the locked gate. From there to the campground wasn't far but it was very steep down hill. I should have put Blute into first low range and tried out the hill descent but I didn't think of that at the time. We all made it safely down the hill except that Hitesh's hill descent over heated towards the end but he was past the really bad bits then. Adam and Meagan had a great camping spot and a fire going. The rest of us then got camp set up before coming back to the fire for a chat and some snacks. I am still in the process of instructing Jenni in the art of setting up camp.
Ben and Laura rolled in after their excursion for fuel and got setup. Then after a chat and catch up around the fire, we heated up the shared dinners and had an excellent meal. It had apparently been pretty cool the night before but once the wind dropped off it wasn't too bad. The sky was nice and clear and the stars easily visible. We had a good nights sleep and I was up fairly early to go for a walk along the creek and take a few photos.
Greg then coaxed some life back into the fire and we sat around with coffee as the others started getting up. After brekkie we had a lazy discussion around the fire to decide on what to do for the day and we ended up going for a walk along the river and watching the wild horses wander about.
It was a nice easy drive with no real traffic problems. We got to Grafton around 11 am and grabbed some pies from Hanks Kitchen and went and sat down by the river, very nice way to have an early lunch. We then met up with Ben and Laura at the Grafton Maccas before heading south, a bit before noon. The road was pretty empty and we made good time, stopping off in Ebor for a quick look at the waterfall. Ben wanted to get some fuel but the servo was closed.
We met up with the others, Greg and Debbie, Hitesh and Josh. Adam and Meagan had already gone to the camp site the previous day. Ben headed into Armidale to get some fuel while the rest of us headed off to Halls Peak campground. Once again a relatively easy drive on mostly gravel roads until we got to the locked gate. From there to the campground wasn't far but it was very steep down hill. I should have put Blute into first low range and tried out the hill descent but I didn't think of that at the time. We all made it safely down the hill except that Hitesh's hill descent over heated towards the end but he was past the really bad bits then. Adam and Meagan had a great camping spot and a fire going. The rest of us then got camp set up before coming back to the fire for a chat and some snacks. I am still in the process of instructing Jenni in the art of setting up camp.
Ben and Laura rolled in after their excursion for fuel and got setup. Then after a chat and catch up around the fire, we heated up the shared dinners and had an excellent meal. It had apparently been pretty cool the night before but once the wind dropped off it wasn't too bad. The sky was nice and clear and the stars easily visible. We had a good nights sleep and I was up fairly early to go for a walk along the creek and take a few photos.
Greg then coaxed some life back into the fire and we sat around with coffee as the others started getting up. After brekkie we had a lazy discussion around the fire to decide on what to do for the day and we ended up going for a walk along the river and watching the wild horses wander about.
After lunch we had a lazy afternoon around the campfire. I went for a drive down beside the river to a spot that I thought would look good as the sun set and took a few photos.
Back at the camp fire there was tons of snacks and nibbles and I didn't need dinner. Deb made some great sticky date pudding with caramel sauce and then we sat around watching Adam try to burn the entire pile of surplus firewood.
We decided we wanted to be leaving for the trip home relatively early, 8am so it was off to bed for a good sleep. Next morning we were up early and getting packed to go home. We strung out the cars for the trip up the hill and the only one to have any problems was Adam but after a quick stop and restart he got power back and had no further troubles. It was back into Wollomombi to the store to return the keys, Jenni and I said goodbye to everyone as they were heading back to Brissy the inland way while we would go the coast road. We made a quick trip to the Wollomombi waterfalls for a look and a few photos and then headed off to Dorrigo where we had an early lunch/late breakfast at the bakery.
Then into Grafton where we joined back into the main Pacific Highway and headed north. The traffic wasn't too bad until we got near Woodburn wher the merging of two lanes into one and then a slow trip through the town took around 25 mins. After that the traffic was good all the way home. There was some light showers of rain which slowly got worse the further north we went. We got back to my place around 3:30 pm and quickly moved everything off the back of the Blute before it got wet. The tarp system I had rigged up worked well and everything was dry.
All up I did about 920 kms over the weekend, and the new long range tank was still showing more than a quarter of a tank remaining. Blute cruised well on the highway and handled the steep entrance and exit to the campground well but looking at it next to Ben's Ranger it needs a bit of a lift and some taller tyres to increase the ground clearance.
