Camp #48, Days 224 – 229, Trail Bay Gaol, Arakoon, NSW.

A big leap of 613 km south today saw us leaving Queensland and back into New South Wales. Looking ahead, we are going to be in Adelaide for the Tour Down Under cycling event in early January and we still have a fair distance to travel. So with that in mind, there will be a few big travel days ahead. With a deadline to travel to, and a few clear ideas of places we want to visit, it has made it easy to plan head, mapping out most of our camps along the way.

Today we broke the travel up with a stop at Tweed Heads just over the border for a roadside lunch. We love these little lunches in the van. Usually we find a nice little picturesque place to pull up and it feels like we get to visit another wee town.

We finally arrived at Trail Bay just on sunset, which was a cracker! However our camp site wasn’t the easiest to get onto, and after much to and fro-inv we opted to just pull up on another site for the night and face it all in the morning. It was now dark, the kids were all crazy and hungry from being cooped up all day and it wasn’t far of bed time. Not that they were tired after sitting in the car the entire day. Ahh the traveling life has it’s moments.

The next day was a lot brighter and less windy, but there were storms about and the sky was ominous looking at time. Despite warnings from other campers about the brewing weather and the slope of the site, Ken and I both felt confident that the Zone RV van could manage both without much bother, and it did.

We’ve had our issues with the van, but when it comes down to it she is well built and well engineered and we have great confidence in the product. Besides the view was too delicious to miss out on, we’re suckers for an ocean view.

Amongst the stormy weather we jagged an amazing day, 28 degrees, sunny and just a breath of wind. So we ditched school and made the most of the stunning location. We got the SUP (stand up paddle-board) out and the Packraft and played and paddled the morning away.

It was a super little camp, great facilities and kangaroos all around including on the beach. The girls enjoyed riding their bikes around until Charlotte got taken out by one of the roo’s. Just as she was riding past the back of our van a roo jump out of the bushes right into the side of her. Enough to stun them both but neither injured.

The historic goal on the site was constructed to house the convicts who were going to build a breakwater to create a safe harbour for ships traveling up the coast. Between 1863 and 1866, 90 ships and 243 lives were lost, so something had to be done. After years of construction, delays and difficulties with funding, hard stone and storms the breakwater and goal were abandoned in 1903. During WW1 it was brought back into service as a German internment camp, but now stands as a historic ruin and muesum.

The near by town or South West Rocks was windy but pleasant. We enjoyed a lovely lunch at Malt & Honey and a little retail therapy in the Rawspice boutique. What a little gem, mostly I don’t enjoy clothes shopping but loved this shop and with my new fashion adviser – Lotte – I left feeling throughly zhoozhed up.

We took a drive to nearby Hat Head. I’d seen stunning pictures of this area but that afternoon the moody, stormy, weather and clouds returned. It was still beautiful just dramatic, wild and cold. Still Ken wanted to fly Droney the 3rd. But with high winds and low battery, alas, Droney the 3rd was not to return. This news was met with a collective forehead slap and a roll of the eyes from us all, not again.

Ken immediately mounted an ill prepared for the condition rescue mission. At least with the GPS co-ordinates he knew where to go but soon realized the terrain was too tough and cold for shorts, t-shirts and thongs. With rapidly fading light, Droney the 3rd was abandoned. Although the tale doesn’t end here.

With that, by now all too familiar, empty feeling of in the pit of his stomach, Ken had not given up on recovering and reuniting with his little drone. Dispite the next morning being a travel day, Ken rose early and with all the necessities to aid a successful recovery mission he set off with great optimism and determination.

The new day had bought new luck and Ken found a track that led him close to Droney the 3rd with just a bit of bashing through the rough bush. This was very welcome news indeed and it wasn’t long before the mission was declared a complete success. After its night spent alone, lost in the bush, following a crash landing, Droney the 3rd was a little battered but seemed like he would live to fly again another day.

And they all lived happily ever after. 😊