2015.1 Snowy Mountains (NSW) Trip - Day 4

4/2/15 Coopernook State Forest

Back in telstra signal range.

Today was a long drive following Tom Tom directions towards Macksville, via a back dirt road route which ended up with us doing a big loop back to Taylor's Arm. Inaccurately marked roads down here are incredible, away from the main roads!

Lunch at Port Macquarie, and little else other than to buy an aerial which was lost on the back bush tracks around Taylor’s Arm somewhere.

Then further south towards Taree, turning off towards a small village at Coopernook: trying to find the camping area in Coopernook State Forest. Old Tom Tom directed us in the wrong direction, again, and went through many, many frequently used (by BIG logging trucks) tracks and rough dirt tracks which would have seen us driving all night trying to find the camp ground. Signage is impossible without local knowledge.

Thankfully we found a bitumen road near a house. The owner saw our plight, as one of many trying to find the campground. He pointed us in the right direction, and a few minutes later, we arrived at a pleasant and quiet camping area. A dozen or so other campers, some longer stayers obviously, were there. Beauty is, NSW State Forests offer free camping, unlike the State’s National Parks.


Missed out on a dinner of rump steak! Hours working out my camper has some serious electrical problems, and disconnected the house battery. Something to do with a faulty or blown diode between the Anderson Plug from the Prado, meaning the house battery in the Camper just ain't charging. Only power is now from Prado. I had just changed my auxiliary deep cycle battery to a 100AH beast: that should see me through the rest of the trip.

On dusk by then, busy getting a campfire going with wet and green timber. Then a younger fellow (and beautiful collie) asked to join us around our fire. His wife was too tired to join us. From Melbourne, travelling in a proper Jayco caravan, he's heading for a caravan park on beachfront south of Port Macquarie, where he’s been going to for years.

Anyhow, we chatted for hours. Wish I'd bought some beer along.

So, a couple of muesli bars for tea, wash down in little bucket of warm water, fire out and bed.