On The Road Again

2006-05-11T22:11:00.000+10:00

To celebrate the miraculous recovery of Cheeky Monkey from open heart surgery we got up early and tooled north along the coast road to Bermagui. Bermie was made famous back in the 30's 40's by the American western writer, Zane Grey. He loved to come here and go big game fishing.

Anyway, we motored leisurely northwards at 50mph and the usual line of impatient drivers appeared in our rear vision mirror - take no notice of them CM seemed to imply, you can never force a lady to move quicker than she wants to.

CM is particularly accommodating for my dog - 'Big Boy'. The walk through between the drivers and passengers seat seems to have been reserved by the dog. I can drive with one hand on the wheel and pat him on the head at the same time - not bad for a person not particularly fond of dogs - especially big dogs.... a bloody rottweiler for goodness sake!

Anyway, we stopped at a secret surf location halfway between my place and Bermie where I unleashed the hound from hell.

After terrorising the only other two people on the beach he had a crap. Very inconvenient because he had run up the beach a good kilometre or so which necessitated me having to chase him and dispose of said crap. Remember plastic bag next time.

2006-05-11T22:03:00.000+10:00

There has been a serious hiatus in reporting on Cheeky Monkey's adventures ever since my neighbour down the road complained bitterly that he couldn't see the road because of all the greyish smoke CM was blowing. Damn, I guess I had better take it into Ernie I thought.

Four months later, after 3 various rego payments, assorted birthdays, Christmas, Uni fees, I was able to accumulate enough small change (without the Chancellor of the Exchequer knowing) to get Cheeky Monkey out of hock. Ouch! near engine rebuilds aint cheap.

2005-12-15T08:27:00.000+10:00

Oh dear! It's registration time for Cheeky Monkey, and to make matters worse we have to transfer the registration from Queensland to New South Wales - it's the same country by the way but it seems different turf, different rules and additional fees.

QLD roads and traffic authority insist on a safety check before the seller can sell. Fair enough, but don't you think that would be good enough for the NSW roads and traffic authority? No.

Not suprisingly 'Cheeky' only needed some minor replacement but when we were told that we would need an engineers certificate saying that the pop top was safe, we were more than concerned. The nearest registered engineer was over 100kms away in a place called Berridale, made all the more difficult because 'Cheeky' would need to negotiate the long climb up Brown Mountain. 'Cheeky' was starting to show signs of wear and tear on one of her cylinders - a greyish telltale plume of smoke was beginning to appear - a bit like a dormant volcano suddenly getting the hots.

Anyway, we managed to get up the Brown, meet with the Engineer, get a tick on the sheet ($198 later) and all was well. Rego went smoothly after that but 'Cheeky' wasn't running smoothly, anything but.

2005-11-08T20:16:00.000+10:00

A howling north easter makes beach life nearby pretty much untenable - along the far south coast of NSW. When this sea-breeze, more like a sea gale, blows,its off to Kianninny Bay just south of Tathra for a bit of respite from the wind.

Now that ' The Rani ' has finished her secondary schooling, and waits for the much dreaded UAI (University Academic Index) result, much work has been happening around the place. 'The Rani' has even helped polish 'Cheeky Monkey' - hope it lasts!

2005-11-06T18:59:00.000+10:00

Cheeky Monkey on the road again, after a gruelling 3 months living in the HSC bunker where all normal life stopped for the period leading up to the exams.
To celebrate the end of this stressful period we took off to the Mumbulla Creek falls, actually not far from where we live - bliss!

2005-08-31T10:58:00.000+10:00

Cheeky Monkey's revenge - Smoke gets in your wires

On my way home from Bega, not long ago, I turned on the car radio and instead of soothing music I ended up with smoke pouring from the cassette deck - this looked serious. Feeling underneath the dash I noticed that the wires leading into the ignition were starting to get red hot. Time to make a dash for Ernie's. Ernie is the gun VW mechanic in the region and fortunately for us his workshop is only 20kms from here. I hope that our relationship is not a regular occurrence.

Three weeks and a couple of hundred dollars later things were fixed - I have learned my lesson and regret having referred to Cheeky as an overgrown sardine can!

2005-08-31T10:31:00.000+10:00

Early morning mist - Picnic Point

One of the things about camping out is that generally you can't sleep and therefore you are up earlier and more often than normal. Having said that, you do get to see some unusual sights.

'Dear Leader' suggested one afternoon that we should go and camp at Picnic Point, a cove not far from home in the Mimosa Rocks National park. Oh good, I thought! She must like this camping thing. After I had packed the car, made sure we had something to eat, remembered the bedding, chased up more water etc etc we set off. This time, not wanting to be humiliated with tent putting up, I took an older tent that I had successfully camped out in before. Sleeping in 'Cheeky Monkey' is fine - for one person only! I don't remember 'dearly beloved' snoring as much when we camped before we were married. Anyway, the sound resonates through what is not much more than an oversize tin sardine can (sorry Cheeky) and I needed to take my six man tent to have a quiet nights sleep.

During the night I got a bit lonely and tried to get back into Cheeky, however 'dearly beloved' had taken umbrage against my snoring comments, had locked the door of the Kombi and pretended not to hear me desperately entreating her to let me into the warmth of the van.

The upside of being an outcast was that as the sun came up I was treated to a most unusual sight - the cold air coming off the land and meeting up with the warmer ocean - amazing stuff!

2005-08-31T08:25:00.000+10:00

Wonboyn

Driving back from Saltwater Creek we spied this beautiful curved beach, which stretches southward from the Green Cape peninsula. In the background is Wonboyn Lake and further south is Nadgee, one of the few remaining wildernesses on the east coast of Australia. No cars are allowed into Nadgee and the number of visitors allowed into the reserve are limited.

Wonboyn certainly needs further exploration.

On our way home, the next day, 'Dear Leader' suggested that the turn off to the Princes Highway was to the right and that we should turn that way forthwith. Not wanting to upset the good vibes of the camping experience in Saltwater Creek I kept quiet and complied.

As we got nearer to the Eden chip mill the penny dropped and some excuse at wanting to take another look at the mill seemed to make the blunder OK. Unfortunately 'Cheeky Monkey' blundered into a line of logging trucks waiting to offload their precious loads of trees at the mill. I think the hard-boiled loggers thought we were the advance guard of a new logging protest because based on their body-language they were none too happy to see us. I suppose a yellow, pre-war (which one?) Kombi with imitation carnations sticking out of the bull bar did seem to be......dare I say it......hippy ish (or I would like to think hippish.) "Dear Leader" gaily waved at the grizzlies and suggested that she had seen enough now and it was time to be getting home.

2005-08-31T07:46:00.000+10:00

Saltwater Creek

As sure as the sun rises in the East I stuffed up putting up the tent in front of best beloved! How could I get it all wrong after endless practice attempts at home? The scorn on her face is obvious isn't it.

Anyway, after many threats, we settled down and began to enjoy this first of our camping experiences together - at least since we were married. Previous camps were in the Himalaya, Karakorum and Hindu Kush.....there was no hint of scorn then I seem to remember.

I thought that the possums and Kangaroos grazing around our tent were cute until I stepped in some possum poo some time in the middle of the night. Not good for my sleeping bag.

2005-08-22T16:38:00.000+10:00

You are not serious are you?

You don't expect me to camp out in this do you, best beloved laughed? Well actually yes I do....I said.... you will love it.....more in hope than in any real certainty because best beloved has been known to see through my previous hare brained projects.

Anyway, time will tell.

2005-08-22T16:01:00.000+10:00

The Annexe

The tent and annexe all came with Cheeky Monkey and I felt that this required some fairly serious camp outs in the weeks to come but first, not wanting to look like a complete goose in front of my beloved, I practiced for some time on getting the tent up - all went smoothly.

2005-08-22T13:43:00.000+10:00

Heading South - On the road again!

It turned out that the manager of the Dorrigo camping ground wasn't Anthony Perkins and my reluctance to take a shower that night was ill-founded. The manager turned out to be a VW enthusiast and we spent some time discussing the merits of this part and that, which made me even more confused, not being terribly technically minded when it comes to motors. I do now know however, that one has to watch out for tappet settings and get Monkey to the doctor at least every 5000 miles - hope she is covered on Medicare!

It was still raining as we set out for Armidale (the flood happening in the area was still about to happen) we thought that perhaps an overnighter there might satisfy our driving for the day...however.....the open road.....not wanting to stop .... etc etc ....made things turn out quite differently. We ended up only 1hour from home before pulling over through sheer exhaustion and to bundle oneself into the back of Cheeky Monkey.

Lismore and the Flood

2005-08-20T23:59:00.000+10:00

My daughter’s boyfriend Matt had been accepted to the University of Lismore in 2006 so why not go and have a look at Lismore.

Little did we know that the increasing rain was to turn into a major flooding of Lismore! Not a good idea.

As it turned out, we headed south towards Coffs Harbour with the intention of heading up into New England and stopping over in Armidale.

I suppose we have to get used to this new phenomenon of having a stream of cars lined up behind Cheeky Monkey because there is not much we can do – Cheeky will not be pushed around by anyone it seems.

The rain got worse so we kept on moving until Dorrigo where we felt that we should stop for the day and camp down for the night. We arrived in the dark, with the wind and rain lashing us, the sign of the camping ground banging against the trees and the only light to be seen was flickering on and off. Had we arrived in the Twilight Zone or was the motel manager's name Bates?

No sleeping out in the annexe tonight…it was lock the doors put up the shades and get into the sleeping bag. Only trouble is when you get a bit older you have to get up and go out to the loo a lot – Merde!

2005-08-20T23:07:00.000+10:00

It had started raining when I left Sydney on Rex regional airlines and as we landed in Ballina it took me back to flying commercial with JAT - Yugoslavian Airlines - I'm sure they were all fighter pilots moonlighting during their off hours - the plane came in low and fast and hit the runway at speed. I felt like clapping, as passengers regularly do on JAT airlines.

After first camp in the 'youhave to book you know' Byron Bay camping ground just had to wander along the beach to take in this beautifully breathtaking headland. Unfortunately the rain started again and my only clothes got soaked. Not a good start to a 10 day journey. Anyway we were determined to tuff out our first camp.

Breakfast next morning.

A bacon and egg sandwich, good coffee and a desire to be on our way down the road went down well before heading off to ...where was I going? Somewhere south I think.

2005-08-03T18:34:00.000+10:00

First Camp

'Cheeky Monkey's' first camping experience (in new hands) was a result of a desperate bid in finding somewhere to sleep after Katy and Patrick had signed her over into my keeping.

Not knowing Byron Bay at all we headed for the nearest camping ground, which happened to be right on the beach, and found a spare place and setup for the night. Having flown up from Merimbula earlier that day and finding oneself sitting in a Kombi campervan in a strange place it took some adjustment. Anyway all was well because 'Cheeky' was well setup and it didn't take too long to settle in.

The next morning there was a big sign attached to the windscreen demanding that we report to the office first thing in the morning. After a lazy wake up and fossicking around the campsite we noticed a strange man lurking around the place making out that he was doing some work there. It turned out that he was the Manager and was making sure that we did not escape the park without paying. The Managers wife was very curt and said that bookings had to be made. We escaped this 'camp' very quickly that morning.

2005-08-03T16:22:00.000+10:00

Why oh Why?

In 1962 I purchased my first car - a 1962 VW Beetle 1200cc which was selected because it seemed to be the perfect car to explore remote surfing spots in South Australia. Big wheels, rear engine, air cooled and an aerodynamic shape - it was a struggle trying to put board racks on that curving roof and the capacity of the engine left a lot to be desired. My current motor mower has a larger capacity engine than my first Veedub but then again the traffic was a lot slower and no one seemed to care too much about speeding.

Many journeys and 43 years later I purchased my second VW - a 1973 Kombi - aptly named 'Cheeky Monkey' by the previous owners Katy Lemay and Patrick. Katy and Patrick were visiting Australia and travelling around as backpackers do. I think they were sad to part with 'Cheeky Monkey'and they were concerned that it would be in good hands.