Picking up Our Caravan

When it finally came time to pick up our caravan, we were all really excited. After spending a week emptying and cleaning our house, we packed our car and left, heading for Melbourne.

The first night, we drove all the way from the Gold Coast to Dubbo. We stayed in a budget motel for the night which was an experience. This is only the second time we have used budget motel accommodation and are still not used to the term budget. When they say budget, they mean budget. In the room was a queen bed, a double bunk, a tv and a toilet and shower. There was barely any room to move around once we brought our belongings into the room, but it served us well for the night.

We left Dubbo early in the morning, so we could spend some time at the Dish near Parkes.

It was freezing there and a little bit wet, but we still enjoyed our time, reading about the Dish and watching it move twice.

The next day we drove to Wodonga and stayed at the Borderline Caravan Park. This is a Big 4 park, so we used our Big 4 Membership to receive our discount. We were a little disappointed with this park. The roads were very narrow and the cabin and furniture was very dated. Also, one of the hot plates didn’t work and the cord on the electric blanket was pulling apart, making it very dangerous. 

We arrived in Wodonga, dropped some things off into our cabin and then went for a drive to see the Murray River. 

We were at Noreuil Park on Ebden Street near the River Deck Cafe. We found a little beach area where we could put our hands in and touch the water in the Murray River (we had sand shoes on and it was too cold to take them off and put our feet in).

Our boys loved watching the tons of cockatoos flying in and out of the trees. The trees were magnificent, huge and the colours of the leaves that we falling off  were amazing. We spent some time there, watching the sun start to set, before taking the boys to the playground nearby. 

Oddies Creek Park has an amazing free playground.  You don’t see many playgrounds with this many activities for kids that are free anymore.

The boys played and played until it became too dark to see anything, then we headed back to the cabin for the night.

The next day, we headed for Melbourne. We arrived just after lunch and headed straight for Evernew Caravans to see how our caravan was going. The guys were still working on it, so we completed all the paperwork, had a quick look around and headed to Melbourne Big 4 Coburg. Again, we used our Big 4 Membership to grab our discount and took the opportunity to do some washing. This park was great! The roads were better, the cabin was awesome, and the games room was fun. The laundry was clean and they had quite a few washing machines and dryers available.

Early the next morning, we headed back to Evernew, through peak hour traffic, to pick up our caravan.

After having our thorough briefing on how everything works, we set off. As we were running short of time, we headed north to a free camp near Tocumwal, spending the night on the banks of the Murray River.

This was the view from our caravan door.

The next night we spent at a rest stop / truck stop just before Dubbo with a few other caravans and a couple of trucks.

The following day, we packed up, heading for Tenterfield. We were planning to stay at the showgrounds, when we came across a caravan park with great reviews on WikiCamps.

Craig’s Caravan Park is situated near a Liberty Fuel Station on the main street through Tenterfield. There is another caravan park beside it, behind the BP Service Station which can be quite confusing. We loved Craig’s as it was cheap ($35 for the night for the 4 of us in a powered, drive through site) and the owners were absolutely lovely. Hubby was guided into his spot by the guy, while I was talked through the details and given the key for the toilets/showers from the lady. We found this place very nice, the toilets were extremely clean and tidy and will be going back there again when in the area.

After leaving early the next morning, we drove through rain to arrive at the Gold Coast around lunch time. We see up our van in the Gold Coast Holiday Caravan, where we will be for the next 2 weeks while hubby finishes up work and we get the caravan organised.

Here are some photos of the inside of the van.