What are our most useful items?

We often get asked ‘what are the most useful items you’ve bought or use in your motorhome’ so I thought I’d compile a list. This is by no means an extensive list, just the things that we’ve found to be the most useful. Your list may look completely different to ours and that’s OK. Being different is what makes this world such an interesting one.

1. Muk Mats

I’m a huge fan of Muk Mats. We own four of them. We first purchased an Extra Large Muk Mat to use on the ground at our doorway. They are brilliant at collecting sand, leaves, grass, burrs and sticks from your shoes BEFORE it comes inside. We loved this mat so much we purchased two small ones to use as car mats in the cab of our motorhome. Recently Muk Mat announced they now make Step Mats so we purchased one of those too to replace our old ratty step mat. Love it! If you haven’t got a Muk Mat you can buy one from their online store.

2. A second water tank

Our motorhome came with only one 90L water tank and a 90L grey water tank. We found this would only last us for about 3-4 days so we had another 90L water tank installed underneath. This has now meant we can free camp for up to a week without running out of water.

3. 1000W inverter

Our Avida came with a small 150W inverter that was really only useful for charging our phones and iPad. When we had the washing machine installed we needed a bigger inverter and I went with an Enerdrive 1000W Pure Sine Wave Inverter. It runs our washing machine, my Bamix, our small slow cooker and charges our Makita batteries and Richard’s MacBook. I purchased our new inverter online from mygenerator.com.au.

4. Sphere 3.3kg Automatic Top Loader Washing Machine

I know, I know. It’s a family joke how much I love to do the washing. I get it from my mother! I’m a very happy Vegemite now we have our beaut little washing machine. I bought it from Campsmart.net.au online and our son-in-law and our RV Repairman installed it. It only weighs 18kg and uses about 20L of water on a full load. I only use wool wash so I set it to wash only, then spin only as you don’t need to rinse.

5. Versaline Traveler RV Clothesline

I can’t talk about washing without mentioning our clothesline. I purchased a Versaline Traveller RV Clothesline online and my son-in-law installed the wall brackets on the side of our motorhome. He glued and screwed them on and they have never moved. The Traveller Clothesline comes in its own storage bag and to put it up you take it out of the bag, unroll it, hook the ends onto the wall brackets, then put the spreader bars on to tension the line. Simple. Ours is long enough to hold sheets. I can hang about three loads of washing on it to dry. Packing it away is simple too. Sadly Versaline’s website does not appear to be working so I hope they are still in business.

6. Solarscreens

These were one of the first purchases we made after buying our motorhome. The Avida came with a curtain that clipped onto the front windscreen to offer privacy however we found that fiddly. I purchased the Solarscreen’s online. They make them to fit your vehicle and we have used them every day we’ve traveled in the motorhome. They are so quick to put up and take down. They roll up and live in their own bag and we throw the bag up in our Luton as we travel. They keep the heat and cold out and provide privacy. We recommend Solarscreens.

7. Safety Dave TPMS

We love our Safety Dave Tyre Pressure Management System. It has saved at least three tyres since we purchased it this year. To order one you call up Safety Dave and they will ask for details about your rig, how many tyres etc and then send you the appropriate monitor and number of sensors. The sensors replace the valve cover on each tyre and the monitor sits on your dash. The sensors send data wirelessly to the monitor and you can keep an eye on each tyre pressure and temperature. The monitor charges via a USB. If a tyre suddenly loses pressure the monitor lets you know immediately by making a loud beeping noise. You can pull up before the tyre blows out and causes damage. Brilliant device.

8. Adventure Kings folding fire pit

I bought the Adventure Kings Folding Fire Pit a few years ago for Richard’s birthday. I have to say he wasn’t very impressed when he opened it and set it up. He thought it was way too small for a good fire pit however he has since changed his mind and now loves our little fire pit. We use it a lot, especially when free camping and really enjoy sitting around a little fire at night.

9. Biji-Barbie
We’ve had our Biji-Barbie for a long time, long before we bought our motorhome. It has gone on many many camping trips. We love the Biji as it folds up flat and is so easy to store. It fits on top of our Adventure Kings Folding Fire Pit and also can be used on a fire on the ground. It has three folding legs and a long folding handle. When cooking over an open fire you can simply pick it up and move it away from the fire to turn your cooking over and you don’t get a face full of smoke. Biji’s come in 3 different sizes and our is the large 430mm/17″. We pack ours into a bag for storage.

10. Space Saver Saucepans

I purchased these stacking saucepans from Caravans Plus online store. They are Teflon lined and stack neatly inside each other. The handle is removable. We also purchased the frypan and lid with detachable handle. These have seen constant use since we bought our motorhome in 2016 and I am still very happy with the product. As they are square they fit well on the cooktop and it is easier to pack things around them in the drawer.

11. Intex Challenger K1 Inflatable Kayak

I love paddling so where to put kayak on motorhome was the challenge. I found the Intex Challenger K1 Inflatable Kayak on Amazon.com.au and it is a fabulous little kayak. It came with its own hand pump and only takes about 10 minutes to be all pumped up and ready for use. Packing it away takes a bit longer to get all the air out and wipe out any water. My kayak has been used on the Murray River, the Coorong, Lara, Wetlands, Lawn Hill Creek in Boodjamilla NP, Lake Pamamaroo, Lake Cargelligo, and our own dam at home. It does ‘waggle’ a little but having a skeg helps reduce that. It is not a ‘performance’ kayak however it is enough for me to get out on the water and enjoy a paddle.

12. Netgear Nighthawk WiFi Router

This has been a fabulous addition to our gadgets. I purchased an unlocked Nighthawk from devicedeal.com.au online and, at first we had an Aldi SIM, we now have a Boost SIM. Being on Boost we have access to the whole Telstra network and this gives us great coverage. For those occasions when we don’t have Telstra our iPhones on the Optus network provide us with a WiFi hotspot. As Richard is an avid trader of international portfolios he has found the Nighthawk to be an amazing gadget. It enables him to check his portfolios in the some very remote places.

13. Sandlewood sticks

This seems like an odd thing to include in this list but I love these little sticks. I buy them from Bunnings (usually in the BBQ section) and one or two of these will keep all the bugs away when we are sitting outside enjoying a fire and the night sky. A pack of 10 is about $5.

14. Makita Tools

I love my Makita Vaccuum. It is so quick to use to give the floor a daily clean. I hardly use the broom any more. Richard loves the power of the Makita Torch and he gets a lot of use out of the Blower keeping the fire going and blowing the leaves and sticks off our awning mat. We also carry a Makita Drill and mini Air Compressor so that we only have to carry one type of battery and battery charger. We have purchased all our Makita tools from Bunnings.

15. Air Compressor

After much research on forums and talking to other RV travellers we purchased an OUTBAC Portable Air Compressor 220PSI 12V 200L Tyre Deflator – Platinum Series from Edisons.com.au. This device enables us to quickly pump our tyres back to tar road pressure after deflating them to travel on gravel roads. It has leads to attach it to your battery. Our tar road tyre pressure is 70psi and before we hit the gravel we deflate to 50psi. It’s amazing the difference that makes to the shaking.

16. A second toilet cassette

To enable us to free camp for longer we purchased a second cassette for our toilet. We have room for the second one under our bed and we keep it there in the box it came in until it is needed. When the first cassette is full we take it out and store it under the motorhome (who’d steal a full cassette??) until we are ready to move and then it goes in a garbage bang and we just sit it on the floor until we get to the dump point. It gets a thorough wash and sterilise then goes back in the box under the bed. We purchased our second cassette from mygenerator.com.au.

17. Our folding aluminium outdoor table

Even thought here is a fold down table on the side of our motorhome we find that we tend to use that to hold our drinks and nibbles whilst we use the folding aluminium outdoor table to dine at. We were given the folding aluminium outdoor table as a gift so I don’t know where it was purchased but I found one at Catch.com.au that is similar. We use this table all the time.

18. Outdoor Connection Directors chairs

We have had many folding chairs over the years and we currently have the Outdoor Connection XL Director Chair. We both find these very comfortable and you can sit more upright in it to eat at the outdoor table. It is not the lightest of folding chairs but comes with it’s own carry bag and built-in side table and two of them fit in one of our outside bins.

19. Folding Beach Cart

The Folding Beach Cart is a useful addition to our camping fear. It is quite large and can carry quite a load. It has large wheels that can move across sand (useful in the desert or at the beach) and it makes carting your gear to camp or the beach a lot easier. It folds up neatly and stores in the outside bin with our chairs and table.

A washing machine in an Avida Esperance

One of the most common questions I get asked when we meet new people while out on our travels is where on earth we managed to fit a washing machine inside our 2013 Avida Esperance. It’s a bit of a story, so here goes.

Our motorhome is a 2013 Avida Esperance C7934SL. That means it was built in 2013, is a ‘C’ class motorhome with a bed above the cab (called a Luton), is 7.9 metres long and 34 is the model number. SL denotes that it has a slide-out. Our layout has a ‘dry’ bathroom across the back, then an east/west bed that lifts up to access a lot of storage underneath, then the fridge and L shaped lounge dinette on the driver’s side and the kitchen and entry door on the passenger side. Where could we fit a washing machine?

Firstly I did a lot of research into washing machines. I searched forums online and asked lots of fellow travellers what they had. I discovered that the lovely front loaders (I have had one in my home for years) are very heavy, weighing in at some 47 kgs. At the time we hadn’t upgraded our GVM so adding 47kgs was not an option.

Next I checked out twin tubs. I read and talked to a lot of people who carry one of these and store it in their shower. They are very light to move around and do a great job of washing and spin drying however I thought it would become very tiresome having to move it every time we wanted to use the shower.

So lastly I checked out small top loaders designed for RV use and eventually decided on a Sphere 3.3kg Automatic Top Loader that I purchased online from CampSmart for $369 delivered. This great little machine only weighs 18.5kg. It is 410W x 420D x 740H (mm) + 240mm with lid up. Now the challenge was where to put it.

At the rear on the driver’s side of our Espie is a large storage bin that we used to store things like our hoses, the wheel chocks, awning mat etc. It is a very large bin and can be accessed from inside by lifting up the bed. Luckily I have a very clever cabinet maker son-in-law who thought he could construct a box for the washing machine to sit in. This would also stop the machine moving around whilst traveling.

So the process involved emptying the storage bin, fitting the washing machine and taking the motorhome to our local RV repairer, Matt Best at Best RV Repairs, who plumbed in the washing machine to the cold water and drainage pipes. Then my son-in-law built the box around the machine. He cleverly lined the box with rubber matting so the machine does not move and keeps firmly in its place.

Next it was off to the auto-electrician to have the old 150W inverter taken out and a new 1000W inverter installed. The CampSmart website recommended a 600W inverter to run the machine however I went a little bigger in case we wanted to run other appliances in the future. Of course nothing is simple and the auto-electrician discovered that the new inverter could not go where the old one was as the cables are too thick to go from there to the house batteries, so the new inverter was mounted on the side of the new box built around the washing machine. Where the old inverter was is now a power point and two 12V plugs, one with two USB’s useful for charging our devices. A new power point for the inverter was installed under the bed near the existing double power point. The power cord from the washing machine can be plugged into it or, if we are on a powered site, it can be plugged back into the standard power point.

The box around the washing machine has made it really easy to stack items into the big storage bin as you can pack them up against the side of the box. What we store in each storage bin is a story for another day. That’s another thing we get asked about a lot.

So now we have a 3.3kg automatic top loader washing machine installed that I access by lifting up our bed. It uses 20L per wash for a full load and I use it all the time when we travel. I no longer have to use the, often dirty, washing machines at caravan parks or laundromats. The 3.3kg size is large enough to wash our sheets and these then get hung on our Versaline Traveller RV clothesline that Matt Best from Best RV Repairs installed on the slide out of our motorhome. Our son-in-law also installed a hanging rail above our dinette so that we can hang washing here to dry if it is a travel day or the weather is not good enough to hang clothes outdoors.

As we mostly freedom camp we are very careful with our water usage and usually only put the washing machine on if we will be filling up with water that day. Once while filling up with water at Menindee after camping in Kinchega National Park for a week I managed to do two loads of washing while we filled up. One of the beauty’s of the Sphere is that you can set it to do a wash only (this takes 14 minutes) then you can set it to spin only (this takes 7 minutes). If you only use Woolwash deturgent there is no need to rinse. So a full load of washing takes 21 minutes and uses 20L of water. The little washing machine happily runs on the inverter with no issues.

I really appreciated having it after our trip to the Big Red Bash in July. We arrived at the caravan park in Mt Isa afterwards to find the park chock-a-block full and all the washing machines in their laundry already in use. After being in the dusty outback everything needed to be washed and cleaned so the little washing machine did a mighty job. I did have to use the park clothesline as there was too much washing to hang out on my little clothesline. After a day of washing and cleaning we were ready to continue our travels.

So that’s it. With a bit of ingenuity we were able to find a spot to fit a washing machine in with plenty of power to run it when we are off grid.

The big storage bin. The white box surrounds the washing machine and the inverter is installed against the box.
A close up of the washing machine in its box. Note the rubber lining of the box.
Under bed storage with the washing machine on the left. Note the closest power point is for the inverter. The shopping bags usually sit on top of the washing machine.

Completely off-topic

I know this is off-topic and has nothing to do with motorhoming but I haven’t posted for a while and felt compelled to write. Yesterday was my birthday. I was 64 years old yesterday. I could say something like ‘where did all that time go’ but, really, it’s gone on a life well lived. What a life I’ve had so far. I was one of the lucky ones to have had a very happy childhood with wonderful parents, an adorable little brother and a large, loving, extended family. I met the love of my life at high school and we finally married when I was just 21. He was 23. That seems awfully young these days. We went on to have three wonderful children and they have given us 7 beautiful grandchildren so far.

My day began with birthday greetings from Richard and the gift of a voucher for one of my favourite places Eclipse the Essential Spa. I will enjoy using that. I received text messages, Facebook and Messenger messages, phone calls and even a FaceTime call. All with warm happy birthday wishes. And this was all before I left for work for the day!

I love how social media keeps us in contact with friends far and wide. This is the real power of social media. You may not be able to see those people for some time but a short post every now and then keeps us in touch wherever we are in the world. Those messages are always warmly received. Facebook reminded me that this time last year we were camped in our motorhome by the beach at Delicate Campground near Crescent Head on the northern NSW coast.

My work colleagues made my day special with a gift of lovely flowers and for morning tea we had delicious takeaway coffees from Peeches Coffee Lounge.

I left for work with strict instructions to be home by 5pm as Richard was taking me out for dinner. I did as told and as soon as I arrived home four little people (and their mothers) came to visit with lots of cuddles for me from them all and many ‘hapbirthday Gran’ from the 2 year old grandson.

Our daughter volunteered to drive us into town and drop us at the restauarant. I was not really surprised to be dropped at Limone. Richard knows it’s one of my favourite restaurants and chef Luke Piccolo and his team always make us feel special. I was surprised however by the large bouquet of flowers on our table when we were shown to our seats. Richard had been organised to have picked them up and dropped them off at the restaurant earlier in the day.

We enjoyed a six course degustation dinner with delicious wine and, as always, the food was amazing. It was a lovely evening.

The celebration continues today however with all the family expected at our house for an early BBQ dinner at 5pm. This has all been arranged by the family without my knowledge, although a couple of little people did let the cat out of the bag. They were excited by it being someone’s birthday. Why is at our house? Well, honestly, our house is a perfect venue for a BBQ dinner for 17 people (That’s 10 fully vaccinated adults and 7 children in case you were wondering). We can all gather together, there’s plenty of room for everyone, the table is large enough for all, the children have lots of room to play and we just love having them here.

Thank you to all of you who have helped to make my birthday a special one. I am truly blessed.

TPMS – are they worth it?

TPMS or Tyre Pressure Management Systems are they worth the money to buy one or not? I’d read about these systems that measure the tyre pressure and temperature of your tyres and wondered whether they were really worth it. Lots of truck companies insist on them being on all their trucks now as a TPMS can alert you to a potential failing tyre and you can do something about it before the tyre blows out and causes a real problem.

After a bit of research reading forums and such we purchased the Safety Dave TPMS online directly from Safety Dave. Our motorhome is based on an Iveco chassis and we have two front wheels and four rear wheels, two on either side of the rear axle so we needed 6 sensors.

The TPMS arrive quickly by Australia Post and we installed it a couple of days before we were due to leave on our Big Red Bash trip. The monitor goes on the dash and the sensors are attached to the valve of each tyre in place of the valve cap. They wirelessly send data to the monitor for each tyre. Very quickly we found one of our tyres was losing air so we took the MH to our local tyre dealer. The tyre was taken off however nothing could be found wrong with it so the valve was replaced in case it was a faulty valve. We were good to go.

We set off on our way and found the tyre was still losing air slowly so once we arrived in Hillston it was straight to the tyre shop. Again they couldn’t find anything wrong and said we were good to go. We set off towards Mt Hope but the tyre was still losing air. Something was still wrong. Back to Hillston where we had to stay overnight so we could visit the tyre shop the next morning.

Next morning the tyre came off again and again nothing could be found wrong with it. The valve was fine. The only thing it could be was possibly the valve extension and they didn’t have any. We would have to try in Cobar.

We arrived in Cobar and went straight to the tyre shop where we were able to get a new valve extension and yay…..this finally solved the problem of the leaking air. Without the TPMS we would not have known the tyre was slowly leaking. It would have just kept going down until one of us noticed that it was getting flat. We could also have had a blow out in that tyre that could have caused all sorts of problems.

Already I think the TPMS has paid for itself and we can confidently continue on our journey to the Outback.

GVM Upgrade – what’s involved?

Well, what a process this has been! We purchased our 2013 Avida Esperance in 2016. It had done 33,000km at the time. As we have traveled we have added things to it such as an extra water tank, removed the tiny 150W inverter and installed a 1000W inverter, added a couple of 12V points and fitted a washing machine under the lift up bed. We have also taken out the microwave and are having a cupboard made to fit in the space it left behind. We have also had the large bottom drawer in the kitchen rebuilt and fitted with heavy duty runners as the ones that were original were just not up to the job.

We have made these changes as we have found over time that we prefer to camp in more remote places, mostly off the grid. Nothing beats being in a fabulous spot all by ourselves camped by a river, on a point overlooking a lake, next to a beach where we can hear the waves crashing or just in the bush where we can sit around our little fire pit.

To camp like this we needed the extra water, the larger inverter and we never used our microwave as it required 240V power. Instead we used it as a bread bin! It will be better to have the useful cupboard space instead.

Another thing we have purchased, but are yet to use, is a second cassette for our toilet. We bought it as we didn’t want to be camped in a great spot and be forced to pack up and go just to empty the cassette. We find we only get 3-4 days out of one cassette as we use our toilet all the time. We were limited by the amount of fresh water we can carry but we now have 180L on board. At roughly 15L per person per day this means we can camp out for 5-6 days. We can even stretch this to a week if we are really careful with our water usage.

Having made all these changes we were concerned that we would now be overweight. The GVM on our registration is 4495kg and the tare is 3790kg. That only leaves room for a small payload of 705kg and this has to include us, all our water, our fuel, food and clothing, wood, tools, my kayak, the washing machine, wine, our two heavy ebikes on their rack and all the other stuff we think we need. On our last trip we were able to test this as we came across an unmanned weighbridge in SA that is free for travellers to use. This was too good to pass up and as we drove onto the weighbridge a digital display on a pole in front us gave our weight as 4890kg. Almost 400kg overweight! We had just filled up with fuel and water in the previous town so this gave us a really accurate measurement of what we truly weigh most of the time. It was time to investigate upgrading our GVM.

Silly me! I thought this would be a reasonably straightforward process. When Avida import the Iveco chassis they build the motorhomes on they can choose to have the lower 4495kg rating or the higher one of 5200kg. The Iveco 50C can be rated at either. I’m guessing it is to enable the motorhome to be driven on a car licence that they choose the lower rating. However then you come across the same problem we find ourselves in.

I researched the internet to find out what to do to upgrade the GVM and there was lots of information but most of it was conflicting. OK so first up I contacted Avida, the manufacturer of the motorhome. They helpfully replied and said I need to contact Iveco and gave the contact details. I then contacted Iveco and they forwarded my details to the nearest local Iveco dealer which just happens to be in Wagga Wagga 200kms away. The fellow there was helpful and completed an online form which then was sent to Iveco who then sent a Rating Confirmation Letter saying that the vehicle could be rated at either weight. The dealer suggested I take this to Service NSW along with the rego papers and they should be able to process the change. This Rating Confirmation letter cost $231.

Well going to Service NSW was an experience……..NOT. The lady I spoke to there had no idea what was needed and had to contact another department. Apparently they were all at a meeting so she suggested she give me call when she knew what the process was. I did some further research of the Service NSW documentation and found that I may need an engineers certification. After asking the mechanic who looks after our motorhome who in our area is certified to do an upgrade to Light Rigid he gave me the name of a local engineer.

Luckily, when I called the engineer, he was coming to Griffith in a few days and would call out to our place and do the compliance check. He did this, took lots of photos and would send the certificate and modification compliance plate once completed. This was duly sent along with an invoice for $650.

Next step was to take all the documentation to Service NSW along with a completed Change of Details form and have it processed. Sounds simple really! Alas a rule change has meant that ALL vehicles over 4.5t now have to have National Heavy Vehicle plates and the plates were on the motorhome which was down at the mechanics. So off to the mechanic to get the current plates from off the vehicle and back to Service NSW. Finally GVM upgrade was processed and new NHV plates were issued.

The next step was to get a heavy vehicle pink slip. Our mechanic was able to do that and, as the motorhome was in for a service, he was able to do the pink slip at the same time.

Back again to Service NSW and rego was renewed for another year. When we get back from our next trip I will need to order an Auxiliary plate for our bike rack.

As the motorhome will be rated as Light Rigid I will need to upgrade my licence to Light Rigid as well. Richard already has a Light Rigid Licence so I am able to drive it as long as Richard is in the vehicle ‘supervising’. This might be OK most of the time but there are occasions where I drive it on my own so an upgrade to my licence is needed. This involves sitting for an online Driver Knowledge Test at your local Service NSW. I downloaded the test questions from their website and practised the online test a few times before booking a test time online. I’m happy to say I passed that one with 100%. Really the only questions that I needed to learn were the ones related to trucks, loads, heights etc. The other questions are really just general road knowledge and if you’ve been driving for as long as I have you should know those already.

The next step is the Driving Test and that is booked at the time you pass the Driver Knowledge Test. You can take the test in your own vehicle so was able to do it in the motorhome. I’m happy to say I passed the test and now have a Light Rigid licence.

What a long winded process but I’m happy it is done now and we can travel knowing we are within our legal weight limits.

Apple TV in our Motorhome

On our recent trip following the Murray River and exploring the amazing Silo Art in Victoria we took our Apple TV with us. Neither of the 2 TV’s in our motorhome are SMART TV’s and in the past when we wanted to watch a movie or TV show on Netflix or Stan it was a complicated process to connect my iPad to the RV Wifi (on an old phone), connect it to the TV with an HDMI cable and then open Netflix app on the iPad and watch it on the TV.

The Apple TV has made this a much easier process. The Apple TV connects to the RV Wifi network and just plugs into the HDMI point on the TV. The power cord has to be plugged into either a 24V power point or the inverter power point. Then you just watch the Apple TV the same as you do at home. We found on this recent trip as long as we had at least one bar of mobile service we could watch something with no problem.

Our RV Wifi network is set up on an old iPhone that we had lying around the house. It has a data only SIM from Aldi installed which uses the Telstra network and we set up the phone as a hotspot for all our devices to connect to. This works quite well except the the hotspot does turn itself off if it is not being used and you have to reconnect again. For this reason I have purchased a Netgear Nighthawk M2 and will give this a try on our next trip. This should make it easier as we won’t have to connect to the hotspot all the time as the Nighthawk will continually broadcast. I will let you know how this works down the track.

Planning the trip is half the fun

Don’t you love planning a trip? I do. I am a bit of a researcher and love to map out a rough route and add to it the things we might want to stop and see along the way. My husband, Richard, always jokes half-heartedly when we arrive in a new place ‘tell me about this place Jen!’

I mostly use the app WikiCamps for planning our trips. This is a brilliant app for planning and saving your planned trips and you can even share your trips with your friends. It is available for download on the App Store, Google Play and Microsoft Store and is worth the small $7.99 price tag. I have it on my iPhone but mainly use it on my trusty iPad Pro.

However, as much as I love the planning and research, I also love being flexible and there is nothing better than coming across something unexpected and changing your route to take in a recommended ‘must see’ from a local with extensive knowledge of their area.

Being flexible was the reason we found Bald Rock National Park in northern NSW near the Queensland border. We had never heard of Bald Rock and were so glad we made the detour from our planned route to go there. The campground in the NP is a fabulous bush camp with well marked out, flat, gravel sites, most with fire pits and there’s even ‘free’ wood. What a gorgeous spot and one of our all-time favourites! The hike to the top of Bald Rock is fantastic and the 360 degree view from the summit is incredible. If you ever get to Tenterfield, do yourself a favour and check out Bald Rock National Park. It’s only about 30km from the lovely historic town of Tenterfield.

Speaking of planning, where are we going next?

We have a friend of ours turning 60 so we will be off to the NSW/VIC border town of Albury to help her celebrate. After a weekend of dining and dancing we plan to follow the Murray River Run from Albury NSW to Goolwa SA where the mighty Murray River meets the sea.

We have previously followed the Murray River from its small beginnings near Tom Groggin in the Snowy Mountains in NSW down to Albury so now we plan to follow it until we reach its final destination in The Coorong, South Australia. The trip home may include a journey along The Silo Art Trail in the Wimmera Mallee area of western Victoria before heading northwards across the Murray again and home to Griffith in the Riverina. The journey is roughly 3,000km and we have a whole month to do it.

Watch this space for the start of our next adventure.

Camped at Bald Rock NP