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For those with limited reading time:

Highlights	Less of a high-light
Platypus spotting in Bombala - Kate	Being only slightly lost in Sydney - both
Autumn morning walk, mist rising, sun shining - Kate	Last caravan park before house sitting -both
Cooma Car Club Museum - Will	Economy of new ute – Will  18litres per 100km in hills while towing
Snowy Hydro Discovery Centre - Both
Comfort of new ute - Both

Never, ever did I think when I blogged in 2015, that I would being writing another eight years on. I couldn’t ever imagine Will being bit by the travel bug but it seems there has been a small nibble! And we’ve both realised that cold wet winters aren’t an environment we thrive in, so here I am, starting another blog for a new and different adventure. I can’t remember whether it was 2016 or 2018, but one of those years I took long service leave as Bill and I were going to go explore Queensland but somehow we ended up in Alice Springs! In about a week’s time we will get to Queensland!

Happy Birthday and See you soon - ish!!

Four days ago we packed our new ute and old van with our old map books (Thanks Janine, but time I upgraded, keep reading and you’ll know why LOL), boogie board, motorbike, push bikes and off we headed, up and over the Snowy Mountain Range. Such a beautiful area! We arrived mid-afternoon, on a perfect Autumn day, in Bombala and Will noticed the sign to the Platypus Reserve, a spot I said I’d like to visit. Rather than head straight to the campground we went platypus spotting and within just a few moments we’d watched a platypus frolic its way downstream. After parking up for the evening, we wandered in through town and headed back to the van for a quiet night.

After an early morning stroll, with the mist rising off the river and the sun shining on the Autumn leaves I returned to camp and cooked our breakfast. As we knew our next destination was nothing more than just a bed for the night (Bargo, south of Sydney so Will would be refreshed for that leg of the trip) we took the morning slowly. I’d noticed the Bombala Historic Engine and Machinery Shed during my morning walk, so we only went a few hundred metres before pulling up and checking it out. 

A fresh but beautiful walk.

As we travelled through Cooma an old valiant caught Will’s eye. “Hmm, what’s it advertising?” he asked, and of course it was a motor museum. So off we went and enjoyed looking through the Cooma Car Club Museum. Will looked at the cars and I looked at the signage.

Not more than a hundred metres up the road was the Snowy Hydro Discovery Centre and Café; a place we thought we’d like to check out – so we did. We watched a video, read some more signs, got some ideas for our favourite Alice Springs Museum and away we went. After a picnic lunch at Bredbo, town of Poplars, we set off in earnest for Bargo.

Of course we found a tractor!

After a sound sleep we headed off around 8am, me a little anxious about the city drive and hitting morning traffic but confident we’d planned our trip, M31, M7, M2, M1 – start at the highest number and get to the lowest number – what could possibly go wrong. Hmm, well, we don’t really trust sat navs so we used two map books - one 8 years old and the other at least 28 years old – seems you have a few funny numbers to get from the M2 to the M1, all suggested by Sat nav and ignored by us – but hey, we had a look around a few extra roads and still got through with everyone calm and relaxed. Just when I wanted to grab my novel (a sure sign I’m NOT enjoying the city traffic) the driver reminded me I was the navigator and to keep looking at the maps – eek! I did and we got through with just a short diversion.

I'll read the WikiCamp reviews next time!

Vegetation is changing - nice ute!

The pleasant estuary for crabbing.

Will and I hadn’t decided where to stay that evening but throughout the day it was decided we wanted to be within a half hour of our first house sit, just to be sure we’d be here on time. I rang a recommended caravan park in Sapphire Beach, right on the beach, walk to the coffee shop, beautiful, yaddaa, yaddaa, yaddaa. They didn’t pick up and their website wasn’t showing any availability, just like the next few websites I checked. A call to another spot – no, nothing available here. So, when I rang a park at Boambee to be told they had a site available, I was very relieved plus it was $30 cheaper than anything else I’d looked at. Now, a more experienced traveler might have become suspicious at that point, but no, not me! A short while later Sapphire Bay returned the call, very apologetic, their phone lines had been down. I chose not to ask if they had any availability and just said we were sorted.

Let me say, for the next few hours all I could hear was my dear dad say “She’s right mate, we can rough it a bit”, as I looked at the seats on a lean, the outdoor structure you wouldn’t stand under for fear of it falling and especially when visiting the amenities – 3 of the 5 toilets were out of order as were 2 of the 3 sinks. (There was a plumber on site when we pulled out the next morning) I skipped a shower the next morning, used our multipurpose bucket to wash my hair, shave my legs all while thinking ‘Yep, we can rough it a bit!” That caravan park is 98% permanent residence and whilst shaving my legs I was grateful that I had chosen to stay there, and I could choose to leave – I don’t know the stories of those living there but maybe they don’t have the same choices I have. It also made me think that whatever the house was like that we pulled up to house sit, I was pretty sure I was going to be grateful for it.