McCulloch Family Giant Leap: Trial Bay certainly tests the patience levels.

Tuesday was one of those days. You wake up and everything seems to be going well and yet your gut tells you something just isn’t right. Of course I just put it down to being a bit worried about Jason who has hurt his knee but I honestly don’t think it is anything too serious, it just needs time to heal. Our destination for the day was Trial Bay and as we couldn’t check in there until 12pm we were in no rush to check out of the van park in Port Macquarie. Hamish and I did a session of school whilst Jason and Kayla packed up outside and even though we were in no rush we still left just after 9am. I had rung the campgrounds to see if we could get in early and they said it all depends if our site was free earlier or not, but they had heaps of parking so come and park and enjoy the place.

Of course navigating to Trial Bay wasn’t so straight forward due to our navigator in the car not having the place, my phone one not working and well Jason’s phone wanted to take us a way my map showed there was no bridge to cross the river! So in the end we reverted to the good ole way of getting around and just followed the signposts! Can I just say we love the NSW coastline but they have not spent any money on their little roads. By this I mean off the main highway and even in town some of the roads are really shocking. Anyway we made it without any random turn arounds or getting lost, but the parking the lady had mentioned on the phone… well yes it was there but for the size of cars, not for anyone towing, be it even a trailer. So no idea what she was thinking giving that advice out.

Just taking up most of the space out the front of the old goal.

We could temporarily park just off to the side easily but for other people towing and wanting to check in I wouldn’t feel comfortable parking there for hours. Anyway once I had a map of our place I went down to see if the site was free and yes it was. However this was nothing to get excited about as I just looked at the size of it and thought there was no way we were going to fit. The lady had assured me it could fit an 8 ½ metre van on it so I told Jason on the radio to come on down and give it a go. Yeah it was a horrible spot and Jason had to go half up a little embankment to even get the van on the slab and then that is when we could clearly see our drawbar was halfway out on the road! So yeah technically we could fit but don’t ask me how anyone was going to get past on the road!

So we pulled out from there and gave the reception a call rather than walking up the hill. On the phone she offered us two unpowered sites… again I just don’t think the people in the office had a clue about caravans as neither of them could fit us yet alone how on earth we could get in there. Yes great for a tent but seriously these people need to be made to walk around and actually look at the spots! Their computer system also needs to be updated to make site 37P more like 7 ½ metres not 8 ½ metres! So we decided to drive up there and talk to them in person. This of course wasn’t easy as we went to take a turn and we heard a horrible scrape. Thankfully it was just our jack so we reversed a bit, removed it and then managed to get out, but as you can imagine this was just adding to our pure frustration of the place!

So around we drove and up to the reception. Jason went in whilst I stayed with the kids. That was probably a good thing as by now I was over the place and their poor customer service. This was made worse when Jason came back out and told me they don’t do refunds so they had given us another unpowered site to try. Umm how can you not give refunds when you stuff up as I always tell people when I ring up and book how long we are! I know I was 100% clear when I booked this one as the lady had said it should fit us so this makes me mad. How can you take $65 a night off someone when it is clearly your mistake? It also meant that since we weren’t getting a refund on the price difference of a power to non-powered site, it is one very expensive non-powered site. Mum and Dad you could make a fortune charging $65 a night for a patch of dirt!

Anyway we got around to the new non-powered site and it wasn’t really the best, well I mean I was looking at it from the point of view of ‘you want me to pay $65 a night for this’. So we opted to move a little to the right, yes we may be more in the evacuation gathering area but we don’t have a stupid ditch to deal with nor un-level ground so I think they can just put up with us if they have a problem with it. I must admit the one good thing that has come out of this is that we have great neighbours who are here with their grandsons. They are so nice and Hamish loves playing with their boys. We just have to get over the chip on our shoulders.

Just a bit of history.

Guess these guys were bad too.

Trying to find the way out.

So to try and make ourselves feel better we went and got our free tour of the Goal. Jason had negotiated that they let us in there for free since they weren’t going to refund our money for their mistake! Thankfully even though that was out of policy they allowed it but it would have been nicer if they had made the goodwill gesture. It was interesting to go through but unless you are into the history I don’t know if I would recommend families paying the price to go through. However in fairness this could be due to the fact we had a chip on our shoulders but also we had done the Freemantle goal and that by far is always going to be hard to beat.

Our caravan to the left of the goal.

Wonder what he has done this time.

Kayla escaping through the gap.

After lunch we headed down to the beach and it is a beautiful beach that is nice and shallow for the little kids. Hamish of course wanted to go way out with his boggy board to hang with the older kids so one of us was always out with him, but it was nice to get out and enjoy the sunshine. Afterwards we came back and decided to head out. Due to the power issues we are having with our battery, which we believe is due to the pump, we need to try and conserve all our battery whilst we can. We also thought having a happy hour and trying to make the most of this place would be a good idea.

Someone is happy about being able to swim again.

Not a bad setting at all.

Hamish collecting some water.

So we headed into town to grab some supplies before making our way back. Whilst heading into town I started to read the policies of the caravan park, and low and behold it clearly states that in the event of their fault they can’t offer you a spot you are meant to get a full refund!!! Liers! Actually in fairness I just think they really have no clue but still it is so annoying. I decided that I would take Kayla for a shower first, before the line ups got way too long. This is why we wanted the power and water, so we could just use our perfectly good shower, but instead it was packing up and to the shower blocks we went where you had to pay 20c for hot water. Again a fair price but they aren’t well maintained and some showers’ hot water doesn't even work. For once I was grateful there was a line-up because when I got there a young girl filled me in on what showers to avoid!

All was going well until Kayla decided she didn’t want to get out of the shower, nor get dressed and started screaming the place down. So yep one tired and over it mother had to drag a half-naked kid out of the shower blocks screaming and all the way back up the hill to our caravan. Talk about icing on the cake after a very long and testing day. Jason then took her for a drive to help settle her down whilst I finished preparing dinner and then started getting the nibbles ready. Finally Jason and Kayla came back and as she had been asleep was in a lot better mood and was happy to watch some cartoons whilst Jason and I finally enjoyed our little happy hour treats.

The view from the gaol lookout.

Looking the opposite way from the lookout.

Hamish took our picture up at the top.

Jason decided it would be easier to have a shower with Hamish the next morning as by now the line-ups would have been huge so after dinner Hamish played outside with the boys from next door until they were called in for their dinner. He was having heaps of fun and he certainly slept really well that night. I think we all did after that bad day.

At least our second day seemed to start a lot better, with the exception of the ongoing power issue we seem to have when just using our battery. I mean we treated ourselves to a nice cooked breakfast. Jason of course called Coromal in Brisbane and they were their usual not so keen to help out selves and if we haven’t heard from them by Wednesday to give them a call back! Gee talk about bad post purchase service from that dealer. Anyway trying to make the most of the day Jason and Hamish headed down to the shower block to have their showers. The first one they went to the hot water didn’t work and then Hamish slipped over on his way out. So yep it really wasn’t going too great.

Looking south from the lighthouse.

Bit of whale spotting.

Making our way up to the lighthouse.

Then the kids played with the boys from next door. We were more than happy to let school wait until later and let them have a decent play with their new friends. After a while they headed out fishing and we decided to head out and see if we could spot any whales from the lighthouse. We were in luck and managed to see quite a few from up there, even if the walk up to the top was a steep and not so easy one. Nothing like a bit of morning fitness to get us going. Hamish even spotted a goanna trying to sneak past us which was pretty cool. Once we had finished checking out the views and whales we headed back to the campgrounds to have some morning tea at the café nearby.

Not a bad spot for a bit of school.

Really we have to walk all the way up there.

Hamish's nature spotting.

It was definitely worth a visit and obviously not run by the NSW Government as the prices were decent, food delicious and customer service absolutely wonderful. For us to all have a drink and cake/scone for only $28 is really good value. On the way back to our site we decided to drive around to the back of the campground to the overflow section where they wanted to put us originally. Yeah it didn’t look good at all but at least we found the dump point. Just as we were heading back Jason spotted whales no more than 100m off the shore. So we all jumped out of the car to watch them pass us by. It was spectacular seeing them so close and the kids just loved it. To top it off, once they whales had passed, two dolphins then swam by.

Looking north from the lighthouse.

We then made our way back to our van to get changed and head down to the beach to hire some SUPs to take out. These are stand up paddle boards and the day before we had seen them for hire for only $20 an hour which really is the best price we have seen throughout Australia. Convincing the kids we didn’t need to take anything else to the beach with us was a little harder but we eventually got down there and out in the water. It was quite still with just a few little waves, so a relatively easy place to start out on. That being said, having a kid on the front that won’t sit still was a bit nerve racking. It wasn’t deep so had I fallen off it wasn’t a big deal except the fact the water was a bit cold for my liking. So I spent more than half my time just paddling whilst kneeling or sitting on the board just bobbing and watching the whales way off in the distance.

This was just off the shoreline.

Pretty awesome to watch.

Spotting them as they came up for air.

So blessed.

After our hour was up we headed back to the van to have some lunch before we were going to drive out and check out another little town that apparently is better than here. Well that is according to the guy who hires out the SUPs and lives there. In the end though we didn’t get there. By the time we finished lunch it was nearly 3pm and we just weren’t the mood to drive anywhere so we just hung around the van and the kids played outside happily. I was conscious of saving as much battery as possible so that we wouldn’t run low the next day. I think it was just one of those evenings where we were relaxed but not really in the mood to do much. So instead of cooking dinner we drove into town and bought a pizza to bring home and have. Kayla even fell asleep on the way home so that was an added bonus! The wind had picked up though so tv reception was shocking which totally annoyed Jason as he was looking forward to the Footy Show and it also meant we were outside packing up the awning so we could at least get a good nights sleep.