Days 1 - 7

"When will you be ready to go", I demanded of Gerard for the 7th time that day. It was Monday 12th May and today was suppose to be D-Day for our long awaited trip. But as per usual, there were a few "things" that still had to be finalised before we could go, "things" that I did not understand about and definately "things" that I did not understand why they were taking so long. "I will not leave today if we leave after 12.00" I shouted, " I do not want to be setting up camp in the dark." Gosh I had become a nagging wife!

At precisely 2.30, we left. First destination was Stockton Beach, which was about 3 hours North of Sydney. We chugged into Stockton (literally, yet more problems with the Battered Fish which we are hoping will be resolved with time!) and stopped in the entrance to let our tyres down to drive on the sand. 5.45 we were ready to rock and roll - only problem, it was dark and we had no idea where we should set up camp. The advice from a local "fisho" that we found wading in the sea was "camp anywhere along the beach, just make sure it is above high tide mark." Where precisely was the high tide mark I thought and great advice, seeing as the beach is 32 kms long. I jumped back into the Battered Fish and told Gerard to find a clearing in the dunes to camp. Reverse parking the trailer up a dune and down the other side in the dark was fun!! We went to bed that night with a totally clear night full of stars and the sound of the surf pounding the shore - it was perfect.

We woke up in the morning excited to see where we had set up camp the previous night! We were not disappointed, the beach was totally desrted as far as the eye could see and it was a beautiful morning. We spent two fantastic nights camping on the beach, totally remote from anyone or any facilties. The camper trailer even survived a huge thunderstorm one afternoon. We were wondering during the storm how safe we were as we were in the middle of a beach in a camper trailer with metal poles - maybe best not to think about it!

Our next scheduled stop was to be Ballina - about 600kms from Stockton. However, we made an unexpected stop into Coffs Harbour due to a few "instances" - the ones of note being the handbrake breaking on the camper trailer and the Battered Fish not going above 1600 revs after we had stopped at road works. Ho hum!!

We eventually arrived in Ballina - ah, Ballina - what a beautiful spot. A gorgeous coastal town where the river meets the sea. We camped in a fantasitc place about 5kms out of Ballina on a beach called Flat Rock. Each night we would light up a camp fire and sit back in our chairs looking at the stars with the surf pounding in the background. Again, we were extremely spoilt to be in such a beautiful location. From Ballina, we made a day trip to Byron Bay and Cape Byron, where we walked to the lighthouse and to the famous Watagoes beach, which is millionaire row. The houses on the beachfront were breathtaking. Mental note - need to work harder, a lot harder, to be able to afford something like this!

By the time we were ready to leave to head towards Brisbane, it was time to find some waste veg oil to fuel the Battered Fish. We had not been having much success on the way up to Ballina in regards to getting WVO from shops as we have found that most shops have contracts with people who turn the WVO into biodiesl. We had been rejected about 12 times when Gerard went and asked in a fish and chip shop in Lennox Head - bingo - we were given 20 litres of WVO. That then followed by success in Mi Thai in Lennox Head, who said we could take as much of the WVO as we like. That evening, Gerard spent the evening filtering the oil which is a long process, especially as he did not have a pump to pump the WVO through the filter and had to do the process by hand. Me on the other hand had a lovely evening toasting marshmallows in front of the camp fire!

We are now in Brisbane for the next 3 nights where we are catching up with some of Gerard's aussie rules football mates and doing yet more minor tweakes to the Battered Fish and the camper trailer.

We have seen some major icons of Australia - the big banana, the big prawn and the totally unclassless Surfers Paradise!! Fraser Island is our next stop on Tuesday.

I have added a few photos of where we have been staying and some of the places we have visted along our way.

Hope you are all well and keep us posted with your news.

Rach and Ged x