My mouth's been watering thinking of the fresh tasty prawns we're going to get in Yamba, so you can imagine my excitement when we reached the northern rivers area and I was presented with this...
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| You want prawn? You got PRAWN |
Day One: We arrived at the Big 4 on Saturday just after lunchtime. After a quick check-in, we made our way down to the rivers edge to set up camp in one of only two sites that were powered and watered.
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| Welcome to Big 4 Saltwater @ Yamba |
Did someone mention wind?
For once the family were whinging about the wind and it had nothing to do with last night's curry...it was blowin' a gale! Which was challenging enough for us but demoralising for the family next to us who were trying to get a huge tarp setup over their camper.
The boys set about exploring, which included terrorising a washed up jelly fish, whilst we set about completing camp setup. Part way through set up the missus alerted me to a water leak in the van. We'd hooked up to town water and something's come loose at a join under the seat. Lucky she picked it up early! I think this is the first time we'd attached the hose since May, so clearly something has shaken loose in that time. We mopped up, filled the tank directly and carried on with setup.
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| The impressive Clarence River |
Once all the chores were taken care of it was time to start the refreshments flowing and think about hunting for the nights dinner. The Yamba Fisherman's Co-Op was the hunting ground of choice where we devoured some of the nicest prawns I've had in a long long time.
We settled in for an awkward evening of gale force winds with a scattering of showers. Lucky the prawns were so damn good or we may of packed up and went home then and there.
Day Two: When we woke I was worried the van had been picked up and dumped us elsewhere, - Wizard of Oz style. We'd spent the night being swayed and rocked so waking to dead silence was a little eerie.
I needn't have worried because we were treated to a gorgeous scene outside the front door...
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| A beautiful still morning |
That set the scene for a tops day. We did some exploring of the park, with the kids making a beeline for the jumping pillow. Then it was time to hit the pool before pausing for lunch. Then off to the water park - Salty's Cove.
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| Jumping pillows are a hoot for the rugrats |
The wind had started to pick up as the afternoon progressed but it would ultimately die off again leaving a relatively still night.
I was down for dinner duties tonight and the plan was to cook Boss Hogs Chicken Hotpot (recipe here). Unfortunately (depending on your perspective) I'd forgotten the onion and garlic, so the Weber was called off the reserve bench and we whipped up one of the best steak dinners I've ever had.
Day Three: Started with a slow morning for me. The head was a little worse for wear for some reason?? The girls on the other hand were keen on going for a kayak. To the park's credit they have 4 kayaks that are available for free. All you need to do is book at the office and collect, then return the paddles and vests.
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| Kayaking on the Clarence |
Some mates of ours were checking in today, so before they arrived I took a drive into town to stock-up on groceries and bevs.
Later back at camp we hired a couple of those pedal buggies and burned off a few calories before having a cold dip in the pool. Whilst on the subject of the pool, it's listed as an "Adult's Pool" on their website. Seriously?! it barely qualifies as a pool, let alone being specified for adults. It's only 1m deep and once a few families occupied it you almost needed to take a number to get wet!
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| Don't be fooled - for a pool this was one deep puddle. |
We threw the frisbee around and played some footy with the kids at twilight before settling into a relaxing evening and a delicious Boss Hog meal on the Ozpig (firewood is available to buy on site).
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| Beautiful Yamba beach |
It was also pretty weedy today so after a couple of hours we packed up and headed down to the coastal village of Angourie to check out the deep freshwater pools that sit within a stone's throw of the beach. Whilst not encouraged by the authorities, the locals and daring visitors love to jump from the quarried walls. The second jumper in this clip needed plenty of encouragement from his mates to take the leap. When he finally jumped he left a few hearts in mouths when he feigned floating to the surface - cheeky little bastard!!
We made it back to camp in time for happy hour and enjoyed a feed of damper courtesy of our friendly neighbours (Rob, Jane, Mike, Maree and their brood of kids).
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| Full moon rises over the pig |
Day Five: There was a bit of cloud cover around today which seemed like as good a reason as any to laze around camp. A few card games were the order of the day today and Stace had a new game called Limits for us to try out. It could of also been called BS because the aim of the game is to bluff your way through, needless to say I was a natural! We hit the
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| The view back to camp from the boat ramp |
Day Six: It was an early rise and shine for everyone today so we could pack up and have one more shot at the pool and water park before making our departure.
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| Skippy and his mates came to see us off |
It has been an great 5 days at Saltwater - but not for the reasons I had anticipated. We had booked into the Big 4 to take advantage of the caravan park facilities, but truth be known the facilities were average to OK. What was great about this place was the location of our camp spot. Right on the banks of the Clarence river and far enough out of town (and the heart of the caravan park) that it felt like we were miles away from anywhere. In fact if its the caravan park experience you're looking for then you might prefer the Dolphin Tourist park in Yamba itself. If however you're looking for something a little more camping-like then I highly recommend the camp grounds at Saltwater. So what did I think of the facilities?
- The Grounds: pretty good, they'd been mown recently and there was plenty of green space to run and play footy.
- Camp Sites: big sites, and since ours was one of two right on the waterfront with power - well, you can't ask for more than that! Caravan sites up in the heart of the CP looked typical of what you can expect.
- Camp Kitchen: we didn't use it, but this one looked impressive - even had a TV.
- Kids Activities: were pretty shabby. One of the reason we chose the Big 4 was because of their advertised structured activities to keep the kids busy. We tried a couple but they were largely unorganised and not a lot of fun for the kids. They were held in a large gazebo style tent where golf style buggies and a tractor were stored. The grass wasn't mown and there was a scattering of rubbish throughout.
- Toilets and Showers: In general these looked inadequate. There was one main block in the heart of the park and some portaloos scattered throughout. We'd bought our own toilet and shower, so were pleased there was a clean dump point to empty the "bucket of 1's".
- The pool: enough said.
- The water park: wasn't too bad, though there were some spouts not working. On our last day the pirate head had stopped dumping water. There was a groundsman doing his rounds but he didn't bother to fix it. On the positive side there's some excellent BBQ facilities and 3 new combined toilet/shower blocks as part of the facility.
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| Nothing worse than an unbalanced head |
It was great to get away before Christmas and the venue was just what was needed. But as always, it goes too quickly and we were soon headed north toward sunny Queensland. There was one last stop at the Macadamia Castle just outside of Byron where we enjoyed a feast of delicious pancakes (with macadamias of course) and a couple of average coffees.
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| "We can see his goolies dad" - said not my kids |
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