2015.1 Snowy Mountains (NSW) Trip - Day 1

Gidday family, friends and interested others. I'll be progressively adding photos when I get my album sorted.

I have been a bit reluctant to commit pen to paper (or finger to ipad) as some folk took serious objection to the truth when I exposed a fuel price scam on a trip last year. I hope the message got through before being redacted.

Over that now, and with a travelling companion, we planned a trip including various Towns, Cities, sites and sights on our respective bucket lists. These were to include the Ballina Naval Museum, Stockton Beach and Newcastle, Lithgow Small Arms Museum, Cowra War Cemetery, Australian War Memorial, Bateman's Bay, Bega, Kosciuszko National Park. We didn't count on Cyclone Marcia, which caused a rather abrupt end to the trip.

Following is a brief summary of the trip, areas visited, and places camped.

Day 1 - 1 February 2015
Glenugie Rest Area, Glenugie State Forest, NSW

Left home after leisurely morning at 0900 Qld time. Crossed into NSW and pulled up for good coffee at Kingscliff.

Refreshed, crossing many of the State's mighty rivers, next stop was the Naval and Maritime Museum at Ballina - $5.00 entry. Well worth the investment, and brilliant, historical maritime museum. Could spend many hours here, with very helpful volunteers - one was 88 year old ex-navy guy.


Talk about history which was never taught, we saw one of three "Las Balsas" rafts which drifted nearly 9,000 miles across the Pacific from Ecuador to Ballina in 1973. Crews wanted to prove South American Indians could have done it many generations ago. They did!

Also fascinating was the story of the large and fast MV Limerick, a large NZ merchant ship sunk by a Japanese submarine in April 1943. The wreck of the Limerick was only discovered by accident in 2013, about 18km off the coast at Ballina. For anyone interested in Australia's maritime history, spend a little time exploring the extensive range of exhibits, and chat to the knowledgeable volunteers. My companion identified the model of the vessel his father served on in WWII.


Camped just south of Grafton after interesting day. Unfortunately, the Glenugie Rest Area is just off the Pacific Highway, the stories about the incredible 24 hour traffic noise are so true.