3am start.....

I set the alarm for 3am so that we would be ready to leave by 5am. Kevin was rather concerned that this was a tad early but I said that we would need all of that time to get ourselves ready.

Wow! at last we are on our way, we had a lunch to make in Murwillimbah and I did not want to be late as this was my first meeting with my new 1st cousin Elaine and her husband Greg.

We travelled down thru Allora, turned off on the Cunninghams Gap road and went down the range to Aratula and Beaudesert. Kevin stopped at the bakery and bought a lovely warm bread roll with pizza topping.Tuppy could not resist taking a bite and  she got in trouble. It WAS VERY tasty.

Leaving Beaudesert we went on thru Canungra and Nummingbahto NSW.
As we crossed the boarder it started to drissle and continued all morning.

I had done a Google print out of Elaine's address so with that and the GPS we found her location in Murwillimbah.

They live in a retirement estate and No Dogs allowed so we had to leave the dogs outside with the Ute & camper.

Greg drove us back to their house in his car and we had morning tea then Kev wanted to go back to the dogs.

He decieded to stay with them and not join us for lunch.
Elaine and I had a really nice time together and I was a little sad to be leaving so soon, but as I said, Kevin was back at the car with the rest of our little family.
Greg & Elaine drove me to  Murwillimbah showgrounds where we were to meet  Kevin who had taken the camper onto meet a friend, Douge who was already camped at the showgrounds.

By this time it was raining steadily. We parked near the grandstand so that the dogs would have a bit of dry!.

Once again it was dinner and an early night as it had been a looooong day and still raining outside.

Lennox Heads/Ballina

Today we meet up with David who is hoping that the winds will come good for a fly.
had morning tea and waited and waited. No go! A couple of the instructors got up with clients.
Brian had to abort two flights wit one of his clients and finally got a bit of a decent run on the third flight.
Dave gave it away till the following day but we could not hang about so left him at Lennox and we went on to Ballina. Stayed at a rest stop on the edge of town.
While we were in Ballina we met a guy at the beach with a surf kayak and he told Kevin about a bloke who would extend the draw bar on the trailer as it was way to short and the camper was coming up against the trailer when ever we made left or right turns.
We found the workshop and had the job done the following day before departing Ballina.

Alstonville

Sent a message to Dave to wish him a Happy Birthday and find out what his plans were for the day.
No go today was the reply, weather not good. I am a bit dissapointed but understand fully. Don't want him to take andy silly risks for me or for anyone when it comes to hang Gliding. He seems to be qiute sensible with this sport.
We went into town and got some groceries and then booked into the showgrounds where we were given a site under a HUGE shed.
Lovely, out of the wet!

                                                                                   Our view of the grounds from the shed.

Filling in time

It was now Tuesday and we had to wait till Wednesday the 6th so that we could meet up with David (my youngest son) to be with him to celebrate his 30th birthday. We had arranged to meet him at either Byron Bay or Lennox Heads where he was going to celebrate jumping off of a mountain. David is a Hang glider.
The weather was still overcast.
We spent the day driving around the local area, Tyalgum, Nimbin and Lismore where we camped in the showgrounds, $15 p/n toilets and Hot showers.

Tyalgum is a beautiful little town and I spent a lot of time in their local craft and coffee shop, "Flutterbies" Cottage Cafe.

Kevin spent some time chatting with a local couple  Michael and Rachael and their two children, Levi and Malachi.

Rain, rain and more rain,

I awoke about about 1am and the rain was pelting by this time, all I could think of was the doggies and was wondering about getting up to check on them. I knew that if I got up I would be bringing them inside despite Kevin's earlier statement that we were not having them in the new camper.
Next thing I hear Kevin stirring and stating that "SOMEONE aught to go out and rescue the doggies" He rolled out of bed and pulled on some shorts, opened the door and that's when we realised just how much it had rained. Toby was shoulder deep in water and Tuppy up to her tummy.
I grabbed our towels and Kev passed them inside. I rubbed Toby down and nursed him for some time till he settled down and stopped shaking. We settled the dogs on the towels on the mat and headed back to the bed. We lay awake for some time discussing our options, I was worried about the possibility of electrocution if Kev tried to disconnect the power from the power box, we finally fell asleep.
BANG, Bang, Bang!
GET OUT NOW!!!!
What a "wake up call" that was!

 It was the caretaker announcing that the water was rising and we had to get out while we could.It was 3am!, dark, wet and the water was now up to the draw bar on the trailer.




 

The caretaker had opened the gate nearest to where we were camped and we had to make our way out under torch and headlights. Kev drove and I walked ahead to test the depth. We made it to the road, what a night!

 
What to do next?
Doug suggested we follow him and he took us into town and the shopping centre car park. A cup of hot chocolate and back to bed.

We awoke about 8am and started the process of drying everything out, thank goodness it was a public holiday in NSW and we basically had the car park to ourselves.

By this time I had been suffering a bad bout of hives and was REALLY itching so I took a couple of Phenergan, bad thing!!! I was out to it for 2-3 hours.

When I woke I thought I had better ring Elaine and let them know how we were.  As I was looking up the phone No. they drove up beside us, afternoon tea together.

Before leaving they suggested that we go out to Uki and camp beside the river, high and dry.









We packed up and went out to check out the site, beautiful!, sorry we did not go there the night before.

Travel, family & friends

This blog was intended to be started when we first set out on this trip in October 2010, so I guess that there is some catching up to do.
This trip was initially planned so that we could attend the Port Maquarie motorhome rally starting 11th October thru to the 18th October 2010.
I was also wanting to meet two new cousins that I have found thru my research of the Bennett/ Stein family, and catch up with Kevins 1st cousin whom he had not seen for some years.
Prior to our departure Kevins sister had also contacted us requesting Kevins help on or after the 18th November, and we had agreed to continue on following the coastline down to Victoria and then up to Melbourne.
Getting on the road took some doing.
I had hoped that we would leave around mid day on Friday the 1st October as we were due in Murwillimbah at lunch time on Sunday the 3rd.
We were still packing up the slide on camper and the trailer at 6pm on Sat (2nd) night. We had dinner and  an early night as I wanted to be on the road no later than 5am.