Ballina

Ballina is located approximately 12 hours from Sydney, near Byron Bay and is a beautiful township.

We stayed at the Ballina Lakeside caravan park and I would highly recommend this park especially for families.It has a beautiful water park suited to young children as well as a normal sized swimming pool.The jumping pillow is lots of fun for the kids as well as the adults.The Putt Putt golf course was a big hit and they also have movies on certain nights.

Putt Putt golf course.

Kids Pool Area

The park is situated near  the beach which is suitable for swimming.

While we were here we visited the Crystal Castle which is near Byron Bay.

The Crystal Castle http://www.crystalcastle.com.au/ as the name suggests sells crystals from all over the world.

It is a place where you can recharge your spirit by meditation, walking the labyrinth,  Budha or rainforest walk.
They sell inspiational cd's and books and you can have Aura photos taken and read.

Turon Gates

Turon Gates is located on Mudgee rd Capertee N.S.W

It is approximately 2.5 to 3 hour drive from the Sydney CBD and 25mins from Lithgow

The website for Turon Gates is www.turongates.com

It is a great place for getting away from the hustle and bustle of city life and relaxing in a nice country atmosphere.

The accommodation ranges from self contained cabins which are scattered through the 6000 acre property to camping along the river.

There is plenty to do from bush walking, canoeing, swimming, horse riding and even gold panning.

Glow Worm Tunnel - Lithgow

The Glow worm tunnels are situated in Newnes State Forest.
Turn of Bells Line of road near the Zig-Zag railway and follow the gravel road for 34kms.The road is called Glow worm tunnel road.The tunnel is approximately 5k walk from the car park.
The walk was quite easy for our kids, their ages being 10,8 and 6 and they really enjoyed walking through the bush.

The tunnels are fascinating especially in the middle where it is the darkest because the glow worms look like stars in the night sky.We took torches covered with red cellophane so the light wasn't to bright for the glow worms.We walked right through the tunnels and out the other side and it was amazing how the scenery changed. On the other side there were giant tree ferns and it looked very beautiful.Totally different from what we had walked through to get there.

I would love to go back here again and go for a longer  walk through the tree ferns.

Photo not taken by us.

Wombeyan Caves

Wombeyan Caves is located 180kms South of Sydney near Mittagong on Wombeyan Caves road.

The road to Wombeyan caves is dirt and narrow which makes it difficult to pass traffic coming the other way. The road is 65kls long passing through a sandstone tunnel and it crosses the Woolondilly River.

The tunnel was built in 1901.

This photo not taken by us.

The caves can also be accessed from Goulburn and Taralga. 

It is a very popular spot especially on long weekends.

It has a beautiful camping area as well as powered caravan sites and family cabins.

The caves are spectacular to explore with guided tours through most of them.

The Fig tree cave has a self guided walk that you can do at your own pace.
It is amazing just what nature can do even underground.

The kids had a wonderful time on the tour and they learnt a lot about stalagmites and stalactites.

This is one place that I would really love to go back to.

Photo of the lake not taken by us.

Wyangla Waters

Wyangla Waters is a state park 40kms from Cowra in N.S.W Australia.
It is located on Wyangla Dam which holds the water supply for Cowra and surronding areas.When full it can hold twice as much water as Sydney Harbour.

 We spent a week here and found it an excellent place to stay. We could have chosen to camp in the camp ground where they have powered and non powered sites but instead we chose to camp further down the road in the bush.The park is quite large and you can choose any suiable spot you like.We have a battery and solar power on our caravan so we can bush camp.It cost us $75.00 for the week.

The park has waterslides that are open certain times of the year and they have houseboats for hire.

The URL for Wyangla waters is http://www.wyanglawaters.com.au/

While we were there we went into Cowra to see the Japanese gardens.They are spectacular and well worth  the visit.

                                                                                         

Flat Rock

Flat Rock is a beautiful picnic spot near Tarana NSW. It is approximately 1hr 40mins from Richmond and 1/2 hr from Lithgow.

We found this place on a website when we were looking for free camping spots.

We decided to have a look at it without the caravan to see if it was a sutiable site for camping. We found that it was a beautiful place for a picnic but not suitable for us to stop at for a long stay. There are no toilets. Could be used as an overnight stay on a long trip.

It is located on Mutton Falls rd between Tarana and O'connell.

The name of the river is Fish River and was once a famous stream for trout fishing which had a reputation for producing very large trout.

As you can see from the photo's the kids had a wonderful day.

Lake Lyell

Lake Lyell is located near Lithgow and is another favourite camping spot of ours. It is a huge lake which is good for boating and fishing. The water from the lake is used for cooling Wallerwang  and Mt Piper powerstations.
My husband likes to camp here in the middle of Winter so we can have campfires. It is quite nice sitting around the fire and looking at the stars.
It costs us $10.00 a night for a non powered site for the 5 of us.There is a playground for the kids and hot showers which cost approx 40c.

SOME LOCAL ATTRACTIONS
Wallerwang and Mt Piper power stations
Zig-Zag railway
Glow worm Tunnels
Hassens walls Lookout

Kiama

On Friday the 19th of February my family and I set of with our Caravan to Kiama.On the way down our oldest daughter needed to go to the toilet but there wasn't any stops along the way after getting off the Hume Highway. We finally found a toilet at a petrol station just outside of Wollongong on the Pacific Highway.
We arrived at Easts Caravan park approximately 4.30pm and set up the caravan beside my husbands parents.The caravan park was set in a valley and rose up the hill on both sides.It had it's own beach which we could see from our site.

On Saturday we all went  to Minnamurra rainforest.They had a boardwalk around the forest which was suitable for wheelchairs and easy for the kids to walk around.Then there was another track that wound up the hill for approximately 1300 meters to the falls.The track was very steep but it was well maintained with paving.Our son who is 6 years old went on ahead with Nanna and Poppy and he did extremely well because he walked all the way by himself with a few rest stops.Our daughters who are 9 and 8 found it hard going.Our oldest daughter kept complaining and had to rest a lot.When we made it to the falls they could see it was well worth the walk.

On Sunday we went to the Kiama blowhole which is Kiama's claim to fame. All of us, especially the kids were very dissapointed to see not much happening.On the way back to the caravan park we took a wrong turn and found a sign that said Little Blowhole. We followed the signs and when we arrived at Little Blowhole we were very happy to see that it was blowing it's top.Little Blowhole Reserve is located on Bonaira street.Even though Little Blowhole wasn't as spectacular as the major Blowhole, it was still fantastic to see.

After visiting the blowhole we spent the rest of the day at the caravan park between the pool and the beach which the kids were quite happy about.

Newnes

Newnes is a beautiful camping spot near Lithgow in NSW.It used to be an oil-shale mining town that ran for 24 years from 1906 until 1930. Appoximately 2kms from the campground (easy walk or bike ride) there is a walk around the  ruins of the town which is very interesting to see.
The free camping ground is quite large and there is a shallow river that runs beside it which is nice for the kids to cool off.

Getting There

From Lithgow take the Castlereagh Highway towards Mudgee. About 11km from the highway traffic lights at Lithgow and just past the Wallerawang Power Station is a major road junction. Take the right-hand road here ("Wolgan Road") through Lidsdale to Newnes. Watch for "Lidsdale" on the advance road signs.

The drive from Lidsdale to Newnes is 35km and would normally take at least 45 minutes. North of Lidsdale, the road is bitumen to the foot of Wolgan Gap (12km), although sometimes narrow and deteriorating. From there to Newnes (23km) it is mostly gravel with some earth and clay patches. We have a 16ft caravan and we could get to the camping area without too much trouble. There is another campground on the other side of the river which is 4wd access only.