Wednesday...1 April 2015

Yesterday we took a drive up to Coffs Harbour.
It rained most of the way there and all they way back! And...... Although it is only 56 km, they are doing upgrades of the highway for all but a couple of km and this means the top speed allowed is 80 kph. There are signs all over saying it is a high crash zone. I am not surprised. Most drivers would lose concentration stuck in the snail trail it has become.
We went to the jetty for lunch. When in doubt always go to the sea front for local fish and chips, you are sure to get the best. And always go where the crowds are. It usually means the food is good. Not so yesterday. Maybe I was having an off day but the fish smelt like last weeks left overs and my potato cakes were inedible. They smelt and were overcooked and ultra greasy, one mouthful and I threw them out. The chips were alright but totally lacked flavour. Even with extra salt they were still bland. Himself said the fish was ok too but I could not eat it. I think he has a cast iron stomach!
Now something Coffs definitely has is all the big name stores. So we gave up on the tourist stuff and went shopping. We need a new outside table as the last one has died of old age. Two visits in the pouring rain to two big outlets and two times we struck out! Just not our day.
Maybe we will find what we need at the next town. Note to self, look out for the Big Banana as we go through Coffs again tomorrow on our way north

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Friday...27 March 2015

Yesterday we drove back down the road to Kempsey and Crescent Head.
Kempsey is the area where Slim Dusty grew up and they are building a new Slim centre there but just our luck it is not open yet so our visit to Kempsey was a bit of a dud. Was rather surprised that the local Information Centre is not making a whole lot of fuss about him.

From there we drove to Crescent Head. Nice place, very popular with the whizz bang set! They were everywhere. Lots of surf boards visible. Lots of rabbits visible in broad daylight too! Himself climbed up to the actual 'Head' but I did not have enough puff for the climb so I sat and watched the ocean until he got back. 

Then we went to the little shop and got a magnum each and guess what? Both of our magnum sticks said we had won a free magnum. Two at once, how lucky is that! I have the sticks in my bag for another day, I do not think I could have eaten two one after the other.

Thursday...26 March 2015

The park at Taree was beautiful, right beside the Dawson river, but it was also right beside the old Sydney to Brisbane highway and I thought, no worries, there is a beaut new dual lane motorway a couple of kilometres away so the majority of the traffic bypasses this country town. Wrong! Taree is a third of the way to Brisbane from Sydney. The old highway which also doubles as the main street is one long strip of motels. I was rather surprised to see so many of them still operating given that the town has been bypassed. Looks like Taree is the first night stop on the Sydney to Brisbane trip for most people. Anyway the point I am making here is that lots of traffic whizzed past the park and we were the van closest to the road in that park! Bit like having a built in alarm clock.
We have now moved on and are in a park that is half way between Macksville and Nambucca Heads. Once again a lovely big park with an enormous flat grass area just right for the big rigs. And right beside the motorway! I went to sleep last night (eventually) to the hum of trucks passing us in the night. And this morning we got new neighbours in a whizz bang (kombi van) with a very noisy engine and loudly spoken occupants! We sure are lucky campers!!!!

Tuesday...24 March 2015

We went to Port Macquarie today. We made a day trip of it from Taree.
What a pretty place. Large enough to have all the facilities and laid back enough to be a perfect beach side tourist town. No wonder everyone loves it.

We drove around the town and around the outskirts along Ocean Drive and found the Tacking Point Lighthouse. We met a very helpful fellow who let us park in a work site driveway as we were too big to fit in the tiny official car park. Over 20 shipwrecks occurred in the Tacking Point area before a lighthouse was erected in 1879. It is now listed with the National Trust.

Then we went back into town and had lunch at the main shopping area, did a spot of shopping. We found this koala near our parking spot. Great day out.

Sunday...22 March 2015

We had the most marvellous afternoon. We had a cuppa and visit with the most amazingly active and interesting 92 year old who has just been given the Order of Australia Medal for his services to the community. This gentleman is Himself's uncle and I found it fascinating to sit and look from him to Himself and back again. The family resemblance is quite striking. Both him and his wife are such lovely folk. So pleased we stopped to say hello.
This morning we travelled from Raymond Terrace to Taree. Short drive but a wet one. Taree had 6 inches of rain last night. I hope the Dawson River which is right next to in the caravan park does not rise too far! On the way back to camp we toured Taree township and liked what we saw. Tomorrow we will go to the Information Centre and have a better look around this area.

Saturday...21 March 2015

Went to Sydney today.
Did another of our rocking chair rides.
Came up from Nowra to Shoalhaven then turned and went across to Picton where we joined the Hume Hwy, M31 and followed it in until we hit the M7  and it took us into Pennant Hills and after a short introduction to the real Sydney traffic of about 7 km we turned off onto the M1 and bingo we were out the other side and heading for Newcastle. How easy was that?
Now the reality was just a little bit different, but I kinda like my version. In it I am a calm contented serene passenger who was not hurling abuse at cars around me and squealing like a banshee from go to whoa! Himself has the patience of a saint, either that or he was too busy with the traffic to take his hands off the wheel to throttle me as I am sure he would think of doing when I am being Nervous Nellie!
It took us nearly six hours all up but at least that is one of the hard bits done and dusted. We never intended to stop in Sydney, we were only going through it because we are trying to travel as close to the coast as we can manage with this rig of ours.
We have stopped for the night in a little place called Raymond Terrace, what a funny name for a town, sounds more like a street to me. Choice of two caravan parks, guess who picked the worst of the two? Just for once the book we use to make our choices had it wrong. Oh well it is for one night only then we are off again.

Friday...20 March 2015

A couple of nights ago, a camper here woke up in the middle of the night to find his caravan rocking even though there was no wind. The rocking continued while he moved around, turned on lights and called out with no reply, so he took his torch and walked around the outside of  his caravan. Still nothing to see but the caravan continued to rock, so he got down on his hands and knees and shone his torch under his caravan and there was the culprit, a wombat was using the under carriage of his caravan to scratch its back. Clever thing to find such a good scratching post!
Last night I was sitting here at my computer playing games as I often do before bed when there was an almighty bang and my caravan shook. Himself felt it too so he got out of bed and taking the torch went outside to see what had caused all the noise. Nothing visible but he could clearly see track marks in the long grass beside the caravan. We are assuming that the same wombat came past us and crashed into the back bumper or the back steps. We really should get this van wired so that we can monitor outside night time activity around us, it could be very interesting or very scary!