I bet this looks nice in the summer....

So life on the open road has begun again. After two weeks of sliding back into city life, it's back on the road, except this time I'm driving. The last minute garage tune up to the van has been a life saver especially through today's storms along the east coast. New tyres have stopped us from aqua-planing on a couple of occasions when cross winds have hit.

The east coast of Australia is probably the most known to backpackers who travel here. There are many tour operators and bus companies ferrying people from Sydney through Brisbane up to Cairns. The joy of having a campervan, even one which has a sticky 1st gear and is almost impossible to get into reverse, is that you can go to places off the beaten track.

Seal Rocks is one such place. Lying on a headland about 100km south of Port Macquarie, it's a beautiful little fishing village at the edge of a national park. It boasts one shop, a caravan park and a 19th Century lighthouse. It also has an excellent point break for surfing. Unfortunately for us there was no swell so we couldn't test out the body boards we'd brought along. It's an excellent little find and not for the first time in the Australian winter I've caught myself saying " I bet this place is brilliant in the summer..."

Life in the van is an interesting learning experience. It takes time to get to know what you can and can't do with a vehicle which is almost 30 years old and has done nearly 267,000 kilometers. They'll be a fair few more before we get to Perth. Looking at the map it's almost impossible to comprehend how vast this country is. I think it's about the same as driving from Glasgow to Istanbul. But then I haven't done that journey either.....