20140731 NSW Lismore, Gibraltar National Park, Inverell to Bingara

2014 0731 Next stop Lismore and we parked out of town and walked to the town center, were a bit over towns all we won't is a nice creek to park up on for a few days with a fire so we can try out our new camp oven.















I just had get a photo posing under this street name and this old truck set up as a pie cart doing a roaring trade on fresh home made pies.




We left Lismore and continued on through Casino (been there before) until we reached our next destination  "Breamer Park Rest Area" 28ks south of Casino and it's not a bad spot, a large reserve surrounded by bush land, yep this will do us for the night.  Des cooked salmon and veggies that night the we sat around a fire with a few drinks.

01-08-2014  Heading to Grafton for a shower then we heard about a Country Music Festival so we went to check it out, nop not for us we felt like the youngest ones amongst all the grey nomads so we promptly left.  Heading for the "Lollback Rest Area" sounds a bit like "Brokeback Mountain" a bit suss if you ask me.  As it turned out the rest area was next to the Mann River and not a bad spot.

The view from the Jackadgery Bridge on Mann River.

02-08-2014 Another lovely sunny winters day, if only our van inside was as warm as outside.  Our new destination after Des spoke to a couple of guys passing by is the Gibraltar Range National Park to hopefully camp up for a couple of days.

Our camp site for a couple of days with a great fire place to rest our camp over on, it's about time, now to experiment.

Now this is the life sitting around a fire reading my book with a glass of wine and when it's empty I call for my butler to refill.

03-08-2014  Waking to a drizzling night of rain hitting our roof  not to speak of freezing our arse off, O my god this van is so bloody cold and after talking to a couple of Kiwi's we meet they told us it is zero degrees, if that's what it is outside I have no doubt it's minus in our van. We did a short walk to the falls to try and get our blood circulating and after walking up and down heaps of stairs it was pumping. Spaghetti Breville's for lunch followed by a glass of wine, again.

Boundary Falls another National Park were the Bundjalung Aboriginal people used this country for thousands of years.  The water looks quit refreshing if only it wasn't so bloody cold.

04-08-2014 Des packed everything away last night so we could get an early start, were not staying here another night to freeze again.  We spotted a rest area (Swan Brook Rest Area) beside a creek so we stopped for some breaky and decided to stay the night.  Our cloths smelt of smoke so we got out our nifty little washing machine and close line and set to work, well! Des did, I certainly wasn't putting my hands in that freezing water, but I did help to ring them out and hang them up.

Desmond's washing machine and it works really well, we just fill it half up with water put some washing liquid in with some cloths put the lid on and while you drive along it washes them, pretty cool ha. 

Des collecting water to do our washing and trust me the water is freezing.

You gotta love the country scenery.

What are you doing in my home.

There were heaps of these little fellow's jumping round our van checking us out.

05-08-2014 Happy Birthday my Twin boys,Shane and Kenny.

On our way to Inverell in search of a laundromat to dry our cloths and pick up some supplies.  Inverell is larger than I imagined and it certainly caters for any travelers needs with it's many shops.  We were at the information center when Des said check out those guys on there mobile phones, there not guys there mannequins, are they said Des and walked over to check it out and nearly shit himself when they moved, well! I pee'ed myself laughing, but I did think they were mannequins.  The info lady said they sometimes sit there all day using the free WiFi.

 The Garden of Remembrance well done I thought.

What a shame, what use to be a grand old 1901 building and it's now burnt out.

Theirs no were to stay in Inverell so we left for a new destination 8ks from Bingare and we found the best spot on a creek with plenty of wood for a fire so we can experiment some more with our camp oven.

Look out here comes Des the axe man, in search of some wood, I just love sitting around a fire with a glass of wine and of cause we made the most of it.

The river we camped along if only we could have got the van down here, the area is all cleared and it's overlooking the complete river, magic.









07-08-2014  Des decided to give the fishing a go so he attach his lure to his line, which took him ages to work out but he got there but unfortunately no fish although we were told you can catch cod and Cat Fish but we haven't seen anyone catch a dam thing.

Jesus Des don't thought yourself in.

Now you must admit he looks like a fishermen.

08-08-2014  We left out camp site to book into the caravan park at Bingara for the night so we can blast the heater up and try to defrost when about 3 ks from town we say another great camp spot with many vans parked up, woow that looks like a great location, typical if only we had driven a little further.  Before heading to the caravan park we drove into Bingara to walk the town as we do and it is a lovely clean tide town with some great old buildings and murals 

Our dish cloth was as stiff as a board and our scour pad was frozen to the washing up water which Des left in over night, that's how bloody cold it is in Bingara.  

The main street of tiny downtown Bingara.

Bingara Murals were painted by David Hopkins on the side of significant heritage buildings depicting various cultural aspects of the area's historical past and this is just a few.

H.Fay & Sons store Circa 1936

The Chinese miner's contribution
to Bingara's history.

 Imperial Hotel

In 2009 Bingara received a $750,000 grant to restore the grand old Roxy Theatre which was once owned by Greek Immigrants and the inside just takes you back in time.

We made the most of the caravan park as you do and washed our clothes and our selves and decided to walk to town for dinner at the local Hotel then back home to a warm van bed. As our TV isn't a digital and we can't get the set top box to work I decided to catch up with my blog while Des slept.
09 to 11-08-2014  As we are in no hurry we decided to return to the camp spot we noticed coming into town and camp up for a few more days.

Our days are filled with lazing in the winter sun watching the little wren's hopping around our camp, chatting with the merry campers and sitting around a fire at night, what more could you ask for, "the bloody heater turned on"