Where to park??

When setting our van life budget, we were anticipating staying in a caravan park once a week and free camping the rest of the time. One to save money and two, so we can experience different locations in all their glory, rather than be caravans deep in commercialised van parks! We were very lucky to stumble across an app named Camper Mate and also very thankful of my parents borrowing us 0ne of their travel guides, which outlines campgrounds (paid and free) all around Australia.

Merimbula, on the Sapphire Coast, was a place that I visited as a child, so we were keen to spend some time there. No free camps on the app or in our book, so we proceeded to call the 3 caravan parks. Two were a fair way out of town and we really wanted to be close so we could explore. They were also really expensive – even though we have a fully self sufficient van and only needed a place to park! The 3rd didn’t answer their phone twice… So, we spent the day checking out the coast line, van hopping from place to place, saw a fur seal frolicking in the warm water,  took a walk on the beach, explored the town, had a coffee by the water, then parked up in prime position by the harbour in an all day/night carspace, just in time to watch the sunset with some wine and cheese! In a way, our day was no different to if we had have been in a paid van park. We were able to explore during the day and relax in the van at night. The only difference really, was that we had a better view to wake up to, and it was free! Perfect for a night (no more than that though as we prefer to be stealth and respectful to where we are staying). We woke up at 5:50am to a pink hued sky, came within arms reach of a huge stingray in the shallows, saw fish swimming around in the early morning light and by the time the sun came up, we had already set off to the other side of town to take an early morning walk and have a coffee in a café we had stalked the day before!

We find the Ulludulla area another one without free camps and although the weather has been very average, our solar panels are almost at full charge, even after 5 days, so we really weren’t wanting to pay for a powered sight in a van park. We continue on to Mollymook and find an amazing beachside carpark which is a registered free camp in our travel guide. Perfect position!

So….sometimes the best experiences come from not having a plan and not being able to find a caravan park or listed free camp. But, in some cases it doesn’t work out so well, as we found all the way along the coast from Shellharbour to Sydney! After staying with some gorgeous new friends (@saltgypsys on Instagram!) we headed up the coast through Port Kembla, Wollongong and Bulli, stopping in Coledale to check out a beachside paid campground – no dogs. We phone 2 others in the area, only to find they have a 10kg dog limit?! What the?! We have dogs…not rats!! That’s fine, happy to keeping going (after a nice little café stop!) Over the Sea Cliff Bridge – WOW!!! Onto Stanwell Tops lookout and we keep going towards Sydney, as we only have 1 night before we stay with some friends and let Lucy have a little rest. We see on Camper Mate there is a red question marked free camp along the beach in Brighton le Sands. I guess this means it’s not a registered free camp, and judging by the comments left from other travellers, we decide to check it out and make a decision when we arrive.

Through Sans Sous, into Brighton le Sands and there are loads of camper vans in all of the carparks along the beach edge. There are BBQ facilities, toilets (even showers in one) park benches and water taps. Only problem….all the carparks have gates which are signed saying they close at night and the whole area becomes a no standing. I knock on the door of a van to chat to a lovely older man who politely tells me that everyone parks here during the day, does their thing and then moves into a side street over night. Ok then, guess we’ll do the same! Pouring rain, 8:00pm we move Lucy to a great spot out the front of café in the side street. The great spots ends up being on a lean towards the gutter, the rain sounds like the roof is going to cave in, one of our solar vents starts leaking water from the angle of the rain, 3:00am someone in the café starts some sort of construction work, 7:00am, bleary eyed, we get up to find we haven’t closed the sliding door properly and the couch is all wet!! Too wet to get out (and by too wet, I mean the roads have flash flooding!) we climb through to the cabin and proceed into Sydney peak hour traffic.

Arriving at our friend’s in Wooloomooloo, finding a doorstep carpark and being in an apartment was like an oasis!!

Who would have thought we would find such joy and such difficulty in finding a suitable place to stop?! And, as we leave Sydney next week, the question will no doubt arise yet again – where to park??!

JT xo