mother and son road trip

In January, My son and I set out on a 2 week driving holiday. My husband’s business is hectic over the school holidays so the boy and I decided to go it alone. We hired a camper van from the lovely guys at Driveabout Campers for two weeks and set about planning our itinerary. We had great plans and wanted to see everything that New South Wales had to offer, even hoping to get as far as Batemans Bay. Everyone we spoke to had ideas for us so we collected information, googled and borrowed books from the library.

The camper came complete with everything we needed, including a Satellite Navigation System (satnav) so all we had to know was the destination and follow the instructions! We planned to go down the coast and come home via the Western Plains Zoo at Dubbo.

Finally the big day arrived and we headed to Miami to pick up our camper. Driveabout Campers is owned by our mechanic, so we knew the vehicle was going to be reliable and get us to where we needed to go and back again. They also have the best insurance packages that allowed for accommodation and travel if the worst happened, e.g. break down, explosions or accidents. Now before you call me a drama queen, all of the above have happened to my parents while on driving holidays!

Driveabout Campers are located in Miami, the only campervan hire based on the Gold Coast and the prices are very reasonable. Peter gave us the low down on how everything worked, and we jumped in our home for the next two weeks and we were off. *
My first Challenge was to get used to changing gears and using a clutch again. My left leg was certainly going to get a work out. As our home is south of Miami, we stopped in at home to get packed up. As we piled our gear into the camper, the dog decided she would like to join us and managed to lodge herself as far back in the camper as possible. There was no way she was going to miss out on a road trip. When we were ready to roll, we tried everything to encourage her out of the camper, but finally we had to resort to the broom. Our dog hates the broom but she was even willing to face the wrath of the broom. Such is the allure of the road trip.

Finally the camper was dog-free and we were ready to roll. We live minutes from the New South Wales border with Queensland, so we felt we were well on our way within minutes. We trundled along the smooth new Tugun Bypass and quickly passed the large red triangle that signals the border. The camper travelled well along the smooth straight road, but I was unused to the way it moved in the wind. All vans suffer from this, and the bigger they are, the more they duck and weave in the wind.

At the 37 minute mark, The boy decided he needed to stretch his legs. I laughed. Was this going to be a long 2 weeks?

Passing Tweed Heads and crossing the magnificent wide Tweed River we
reluctantly wizzed past the exits for Pottsville, Kingscliff and Cabarita, and later the exits for Lennox Head and Byron Bay, my personal favourite. We were on a mission to make it to Yamba before night fall and we have spent so much time in those gorgeous coastal towns, we decided to head for parts unkown instead. Around Ballina the flowing traffic stalled to a carpark, so we pulled over and had a snack. Such are the joys of the campervan. I hoped out and streched my legs and discovered that my left calf was already feeling the strain. Travelling along the highway is fine, but constantly changing gears sitting in a traffic jam is quite annoying. I was also hoping that the stop start traffic wouldn’t affect the engine in anyway.

I was excited to get south of Ballina. While I have flown numerous times to Melbourne and Sydney, I have never driven further than Byron Bay myself, so I was eager to get into new territory. While we had left Queensland in brilliant sunshine, the further south we drove, the more the sky filled with clouds and we even felt a few drops of rain. We drove through the gorgeous town of Woodburn and made our first fuel pit stop. Over the next two weeks I would stop for fuel at least once a day, not because the tank didn’t hold a lot, but because I was paranoid about running out of petrol.

We crossed the Maclean River and made a wide sweeping exit onto Yamba Road. The van didn’t like to go fast with me at the wheel, especially around corners, and the line of vehicles behind me along Yamba Road was embarrassing, but we were all on holidays and should be enjoying the view, yes? I pulled over where possible to take the heat off. The drive into Yamba is gorgeous and feels a little like a trip back in time, but while Yamba is very laid back and old-school, it has everything you could possibly need from supermarkets and restaurants to boutiques and bars for just about every taste. I want to retire there. Tomorrow.

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Tags:

australia, camper, campervan, holiday, mother, nsw, son, travel and trip