V & C Impressions

Almost Grey Nomads caravaning around Australia

Author: Vincent

  • Coonabarabran Golf Club Campsite

    Coonabarabran Golf Club Campsite

    • Website: Coonagolfclub.com.au
    • Fee Catagory: Patronage at the club
    • Booking: No bookings needed
    • Dog Friendly: Yes
    • Amenities: Toilets during trading hours
    • Pool: No
    • Telstra: Data Flakey
    • Starlink: No problems experienced
    Coonabarabran Golf Club campsite
    Coonabarabran Golf Club campsite

    Our Opinion / Experience

    Coonabaraban Golf Club campsite – Coonabarabran is known as the “Astronomy Capital of Australia” due to its proximity to the Warrumbungle Observatory and the Siding Spring Observatory. Apparently, every year around Labour Day long weekend there is a StarFest. Could be worth a look so check out their website.

    This is a basic campsite with toilets at the club, which are available for use during club hours. Other than that you have to be self contained. There is plenty of space, no need to book. Great for Starlink.

    The club asks that you buy a beer, and/or a meal. We decided to have a Chinese meal at the restaurant located inside, which was a decent size. If you have a dog and want to eat at the club, there is an outside balcony area where you can sit. You just have to bear in mind, that by the time you pay for your meal and a beer, your free camp has just turned into an expensive camp.

    Also available is a shaded area with a bbq. Suggest you check if you can use this area first. Visitors can enjoy a game of golf as well.

    The ground is on a slight slope, which depending on your gear (and where you park) it may mean that you can’t get your van level. We couldn’t get level but close enough. Other than that, it was a good place with only a few minutes drive into the town centre.

    If you are driving through this area, then this is a good place to stay overnight – safe and quite.

    A couple of pics

    Coonabarabran Golf Club building
    Coonabarabran Golf Club building
    Coonabarabran Golf Club playground
    Coonabarabran Golf Club playground

    Have a look at our NSW Campsites to find more potential campsites.

  • Voting when on the road

    Voting when on the road

    Next year the Federal election will be held, and depending where you are there may be others. In Queensland we have recently just held the State elections.

    If you are travelling around Australia, or going overseas for an extended period of time, then it is possible to advise the AEC (Australian Electoral Commission) of the fact that you have no fixed address. What this does is stop the AEC chasing you when you inadvertently don’t vote at an election, which you may be unaware of, or may not even be able to vote at.

    This process is to inform AEC that you are an itinerant voter. Which means you can vote if you can/want to, but if not then you won’t get fined.

    As far as I know this applies to all elections, council,state and federal.

    Below is an explanation of how I have gone about this. It was not as straight forward as I thought it should have been as there is no direct link to the form you need.

    You need to use the People with no fixed address enrolment form.

    How I did it

    Go to this page on the AEC site and click on the Enrol to vote with no fixed address

    No fixed address enrolment form

    After that you land on another page, click on No fixed address enrolment form

    Select you state, then fill out the form using your last registered address., also make the selection as below.

    Enrolment options

    Once this form has been submitted, you should get an email confirming you are now an Itinerant voter, this may take a few days.

    Itinerant Confirmation letter

    confirmation letter
    confirmation letter

    That’s it, all done. One last thing to have to think about when on the road.

    I hope this information may be useful to someone out there, and if there are any corrections to be made, please leave a comment.

  • Faithful Bingara Riverside Camp West

    Faithful Bingara Riverside Camp West

    • Website: WikiCamps
    • Fee Catagory: Donation
    • Booking: First in, no bookings
    • Dog Friendly: Yes
    • Amenities: No
    • Pool: No
    • Telstra: Data Flakey
    • Starlink: Depends on site, lots of trees
    The family at Faithful Bingara Riverside Camp West
    The family at Faithful Bingara Riverside Camp West enjoying an afternoon drink.

    Our Opinion

    There are 2 campsites here, one on each side of the river. The bigger one is accessible off White Rd, while the one we stayed at is accessible off Gwydir Tce. Drive by the golf club on a dirt road, turn right into the camp ground. There are a few pot holes to navigate. This campsite is a lot smaller than the one on the other side of the river.

    There are other campsite further down the river, which would be worth checking out, they all seem to get positive feedback on Wikicamps.

    We enjoyed out time here, making some new friends with the campers already here. The river itself was flowing at a moderate pace, and we were right next to it. The site was level, the grass nice. You would normally pay for a site like this, we couldn’t believe our luck with this one.

    You do have to be self contained, as there are no facilities. There are a few dump points around town so that shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

    This is going to be one of our favourite places to be if we are in the area. Just depends how busy it will be on the day as mentioned earlier, this campsite is small, the other one on the other side of the river is huge. The town looked nice, we didn’t spend much time there.

    A few Pics from campsite and lookout

    Bingara bridge with the Gwydir river
    Bingara bridge with the Gwydir river
    The view of the Bingara town from H.F. Batterham Lookout
    The view of the Bingara town from H.F. Batterham Lookout
    The view of the Bingara town from H.F. Batterham Lookout
    The view of the Bingara town from H.F. Batterham Lookout
    Sign for H.F. Batterham Lookout
    H.F Batterham Lookout
  • Platypus Point – Northern Rivers

    Platypus Point – Northern Rivers

    • Website: WikiCamps
    • Fee Catagory: Paid
    • Booking: by phone
    • Dog Friendly: Yes
    • Amenities: No
    • Pool: No
    • Telstra: Data Flakey
    • Starlink: Depends on site, lots of trees
    Our campsite at Platypus Campsite
    Platypus campsite

    Our Opinion

    Platypus Point is about half way between Casino and Tenterfield, with both being abut 50 min to 1 hour drive away. The small town of Tabulam is about 10 minutes away heading towards Casino.

    After spending the last few months in caravan parks, this place was a definitely a change of pace. Quiet, plenty of space, and secure, we liked it. It was a little bit unfortunate about the weather, storms most afternoons, we would definitely stay here again.

    At $20/night, we consider this to be reasonable cost. You do have to be self contained though, as nothing is provided. The hosts were friendly and helpful, allowing us to walk around and pick the site we wanted as we were the only ones there.

    We opted, due to the unpredictable weather to stay up higher, closer to the road. There is not much road noise and the site was reasonably level. The track to the lower level by the river looks steep and tight for a caravan, the hosts assured us other caravans have been down there. Also the lower level will be sheltered from the wind, if you want the breeze then this is not the place to be.

    Starlink will have a few trees to dodge, we found a good location with a clear view of the sky facing south. We didn’t find Telstra to be very good, especially with the data, slow and dropping out. This may be a deal breaker for some people. Solar seemed to work ok, but due to the days being overcast, we could not confirm this.

    Overall, considering everything this campsite is highly recommended.

    Access to the lower level (river side) campsites at Platypus campsite
    Platypus campsite access to riverside camping
    Platypus campsite
    Platypus campsite riverside camping
    A picture of our campsite at Platypus campsite
    Platypus campsite
    Platypus campsite
    Shadow chasing ball
  • Kirra Beach Tourist Park – Gold Coast

    Kirra Beach Tourist Park – Gold Coast

    Kirra Beach Tourist Park
    Kirra Beach Tourist Park

    Our Opinion

    If you want/need a dog friendly park in this area of the Gold Coast, your options are limited, fortunately this park is an excellent place to stay. It is well laid out and run, and in a great location. Excellent clean facilities, which were cleaned daily.

    Only a 5 minutes walk to Kirra beach, which has Cafes, Gym, tourist shops. The site size/cost is average for this type of location, with all of the sites we saw being reasonably level.

    Being at the southern end of the Gold Coast means you are in the quieter area, with most activities being a 30 minutes drive north. Going south into NSW 45 Minutes drive to Byron Bay. Tambourine Mountain is another location worth checking out. Also the famous Surfers Paradise.

    Only thing to be aware of is the close proximity to the airport, with planes starting to take off at 6AM and going through the day until about 10PM. Didn’t bother us, others may be more sensitive to the noise.

    There are plenty of trees in the park, so depending on what site you get, solar may not work very well.

    We were here for 2 weeks during November, we would stay again and also not hesitate to recommend this park to anyone else. The big trees give plenty of shelter from the wind, as we found out as a few storms came through in the evening. Also the trees provide plenty of shade.

    Images from the Park and beach

    Kirra Beach Tourist Park sites
    Kirra Beach Tourist Park sites
    Kirra Beach Tourist Park on site Pizza
    Kirra Beach
    Kirra Beach with Surfers Paradise in the background
  • Galaxy Caravan Park – Brisbane

    Galaxy Caravan Park – Brisbane

    We’re a quaint holidaying destination located in Tanah Merah, Queensland. Nestled comfortably between Brisbane City and the Gold Coast, our caravan park boasts outstanding friendliness, a relaxed atmosphere and exceptional cleanliness. This is the perfect place to base yourself as you explore all that South-East Queensland has to offer

    Galaxy Caravan Park
    Shadow outside Galaxy Caravan Park

    Our Opinion

    This is a pretty good, well run park, with clean amenities, the park itself is quite, but warning here, the M1 motorway is noisy, so if peace and quite is your thing then this place is not for you.

    Location is excellent, being only a few kilometres away from Brisbane CBD, not too far from the Gold Coast, A major shopping centre on the other side of the motor way. Location wise, it is close to everything.

    Sites I would describe as sufficient for a caravan and car, with not much to spare, pretty typical for a caravan park this close to a city.

    Access to the Galaxy caravan Park is not difficult, Google maps got us there no problems. wether you are coming from the north or south, you should not have any problems.

    Directly opposite, on the other side of the motorway is the Hyperdome, here there are movies, restaurants, Cafes, Supermarkets etc. Also close by, there are the other useful stores, Supercheap, Repco, Bunnings etc.

    We have been here twice now this year, and would not hesitate to book again.

    Galaxy Caravan Park pool
    Galaxy Caravan Park

  • Farnborough Beach

    Farnborough Beach

    Great for Dogs, Kids, and a Lovely Beach Drive

    When travelling with a dog, you soon realise that many areas are not dog friendly. They are what I describe as dog tolerant.

    By dog friendly, I mean the ability to let the your dog run freely about, with you keeping an eye on him or her, of course. After all you do need to clean up after them, and also just as importantly make sure they don’t get themselves into trouble.

    Well, this beach is dog friendly, and to boot you are allowed to drive on it.

    It is about 10 minutes north of Yeppoon, easy to get on the beach with a 4WD, head north and find a spot to have a picnic. Bonus is, during the week your dog can be off leash.

    The beach is firm, so easy to drive on, and when the tide is low, there is heaps of beach for the dogs to run around.

    When we were there, it was relatively quite, a few other people with their dogs running around, but since the beach is so big, especially at low tide, it was easy to find a spot away from other people.

  • From House to Highway

    From House to Highway

    Embracing Full-Time Caravan Life with My Wife and Our Loyal Companion Across Australia

    This has been a long time coming, close to 5 years of planning, saving, dreaming. Now we have started, it’s kind of scary.

    The idea for this lifestyle, came up at the beginning from a trip we did 5 years ago to the Big Red Bash, we also added in Uluru, and Kings Canyon. 6 weeks on the road, in a camper trailer, and we loved it. Did not want to go back. When home, we discovered YouTube, and the various other people that were doing this lifestyle full time already, or starting to, that got us thinking, if they can, we can.

    It takes courage and determination to go ahead with a change like this. Leaving your comfortable home, job, life, to completely upend it to living on the road in a tiny home, with limited income.

    Catherine has managed to secure a part time role with her company working 3 days a week, I, on the other hand have left my job with nothing to look forward to work wise. Am I concerned? Yes and no.

    “You are confined only by the walls you build yourself.” — Andrew Murphy

    I don’t want to look back on my life and say to myself I should’ve, could’ve. We took a gamble moving from New Zealand to Australia 13 years ago, scary at the time, again leaving a good comfortable life behind heading into the unknown. Turned out the be a good decision, more doors opened, new experiences, and a better lifestyle emerged out of that decision.

    Why Now?

    Health, and tomorrow is never guaranteed. With various health issues creeping up on Catherine and I, we felt that if not now, then in the not too distant future it will quickly become a never.

    We were looking for a change. Both of us, perhaps more me than Catherine, were becoming bored with our jobs and looking for a change.

    World events, everything is going nuts, conflict everywhere, political distrust, cost of living, you name it, it doesn’t take an Einstein to figure out that this lifestyle we have embarked on may not possible soon, or at least not so achievable.

    Website Changes

    This website has been about my photography, birding adventures, due to the above mentioned health issues, and Covid, that ended up on the back burner, so nothing happened here for a couple of years. So, the new focus will be –

    • Our travel Blog, full of updates, hints, tips and experiences of our travels.
    • A Diary of my (our) thoughts on this lifestyle.
    • The highs, and lows of our experiences.

    So come join us on the journey and if you are travelling yourself and wanna do something together, get in touch.

  • Pic of the Day – Wall Art

    Pic of the Day – Wall Art

    A striking image at an entrance to an underground cafe. There sure are some talented artists around.

    Things have been a bit slow around here for the past year, hopefully now that society is getting back to normal, I can find more time to get active with the camera.

  • Pic of the Day – Taking Notes

    Pic of the Day – Taking Notes

    While walking around Vancouver on holiday I came across this lady sitting on the ledge, so I grabbed a shot.

    I happened to be shooting in Black & White as this was the middle of the day with bright sunlight.

  • Pic of the Day – Lone Tree

    Pic of the Day – Lone Tree

    While camping at Norval Park campground I took the opportunity to get up early and have a go at some early sunrise photography.

    The weather was not particularly co-operative with heavy clouds and rain forecast. The clouds did break at dawn with some nice colors to come through.

    This tree, or what was left of it was about the only item of significance on this beach, I thought it would match well with the moody heavy clouds.

  • Pic of the Day – On the beach

    Pic of the Day – On the beach

    This trip was a long time coming.

    Towards the end of our holiday, we met up with some friends, so we can go in a group to the beach, you know, safety in numbers, especially since we had never done beach/sand driving before. Byfield National Park was the place we stayed at for a few days, so we just had a short drive to the beach along some sandy tracks.

    As the Ranger suggested drop Tyre pressures down to about 14psi, low range, manual third gear and just keep on going. Our new Nissan Patrol did not disappoint, handling the sand with ease. Not once did we think we would get stuck.

    It was a good day out with the experience wanting use to do it again soon.