This entry is was posted on Saturday, May 16th at 10:09 am.
15 & 16 APRIL
Back on the road again and heading northwards. Decided to stop at Narooma where the Big 4 caravan park was right on the water and within reasonably easy walking distance to the shops. Once again a nice site – had a stroll along the waterside and the Jeff went off to explore on his bike. He found a beautiful spot at the rivermouth and we went there again just before we left for Moruya.
17 -19 APRIL
Another great campsite on the river at Moruya – this time a Top Tourist site. We managed to get Betty G parked right by the water and Jeff spent much of the time we were here fishing – didn’t catch a thing, but enjoyed himself anyway.
We visited the famous(?) Moruya Sunday Market – didn’t buy anything, but it was interesting anyway. Walked through the town a couple of times – several interesting woodcarvings set in the pavement on either side of the main street, and we actually met the carver, who was working on yet another masterpiece – nice bloke.
20 & 21 APRIL
Found a nice caravan park at Bateman’s Bay and actually parked up opposite a hairdresser, so I got me ‘air cut. Didn’t do much, just vegged out.
22 APRIL
Just a one night stop at South Nowra. The campsite was OK, but there wasn’t much to easily get to of interest.
23 – 25 APRIL
We liked Windang very much – right on the water – sea on one side, lake on the other. We walked along the beach and round the point by the river and the entrance to the lake and back to Betty. Jeff did some fishing again, with the usual result. I did some carving.
26 APRIL
Well, we finally arrived in the Sydney area and because I wanted to try to get to meet a Cavalier friend, we decided to stay overnight in the southern part of the city. I found a campsite at Rockdale (which is the suburb I lived in briefly when I lived here in the 60’s), but it wasn’t exactly the standard to which we have become used. Unfortunately, we couldn’t meet up with my friend, she was just not well enough to receive visitors, so we headed on to the Lane Cove Tourist Park in the Lane Cove National Park, which Marion and Terry had spoken so highly of.
27 APRIL – 3 MAY
Lane Cove Caravan Park is all that M & T said, apart from WiFi not reaching our site – had to go to the Campers Lounge to get online. We arrived just before lunch and I made our usual salami sandwiches. We were outside and got chatting to our neighbours – and had left our plated sarnies on the table. The next thing, a flippin’ kookaburra swooped down and nicked mine – he proceeded to kill the slice of salami. Cheeky sod.
The following day we went to dinner with a knotting friend, Madeleine and her husband. Had a lovely evening in their house which is packed full of all different sorts of musical instruments. The next day Madeleine arranged for us to visit the Garden Island Naval Base where she works. My goodness what a fascinating place.
I’d been brewing a cold for a couple of days which finally decided to make an appearance – I felt pretty rough so told Jeff he could just go and do whatever he wanted. So, of course, he took himself into the city and played on the ferries. He also visited the Sydney Fish Market, had a lovely lunch of crayfish and kept on telling me about it.
3 MAY – 10 MAY
Had a lovely few days with Jo and Roy at Mount Colah. As the road down to their house is so steep, and although Betty can take the hills OK, there are a few rather sharp bends. So we thought it would be safer to park Betty G a few hundred metres away before the steep bit. We had a good old sort out and left some stuff that we weren’t using at their place to lighten our load somewhat.
Jeff helped Roy with some awkward work in the garden, shifting some rather overgrown plants from the pond, but it just wasn’t quite warm enough to go for a swim.
We had dinner with their friends and neighbours, Wendy and Pete – great evening, and the following day was Jo’s birthday, so we had a celebratory dinner – yet another great evening.
10 & 11 MAY
We finally decided that we should be on our way northwards and left on Sunday for Newcastle. It started to rain so we decided to stick to the Pacific Highway rather than take the scenic route. We got as far as Belmont, south of Newcastle and found a lovely Caravan Park, right on Lake Macquarie. It was so nice we stopped for two nights – the sunsets were superb.
12 MAY
I rang my mate Julie with the Cavaliers in Newcastle to see if we could call in to see her – I wasn’t sure as she had only just returned from a few days away, but she assured me that we would be most welcome and that Mickey, her black & tan Cavalier was looking forward to seeing me again LOL. Once again, the road outside her house was very steep, but at least we wouldn’t need go back up the way we came in, and their drive was level.
It was great to see them all again and for Jeff to meet them (he went down to Sydney the first time I met them. We had a great, though short, stay, but I got a really good Cavalier-fix.
13 MAY
On the road again, having agreed to a longer stay on our way back to Sydney. We turned off the Pacific Highway towards Forster/Tuncurry as we had met a couple of knot-tyers the last time we were here. We had been told that one of them, Ron, had died, but Jeff still wanted to catch up with his friend, Dan. Jeff phoned, and found that in fact it was Dan who had died, so he had a rather awkward conversation with he widow. Unfortunately she didn’t know if Ron was still around. We tried to phone him, but couldn’t contact him at all, he wasn’t in the phone book either.
14 – 16 MAY
As we’d had no luck with Dan or Ron we decided to move on. Port Macquarie looked rather inviting, so we decided that this would be our next stop. Found another lovely Caravan Park (Big4), right near the town centre and the water – booked in for one night, had a look around and extended for another two straight away. We were parked near a couple of Belgian guys, Stefan and Phillipe and got chatting to them, well Stefan anyway. Poor Phillipe had a touch of Delly Belly after having an Indian meal the night before. Apparently Stefan was a chef on one of the English Channel ferries. Really nice guy, lived in Bruges. He shared some oysters and prawns with us (Phillipe was in no condition to eat anything at all!!), and we shared our pasta dinner with him. We always make much more than we need, so there was plenty to go round.
Jeff went fishing and I went for a stroll along the waters edge and there was a dolphin swimming by – smashin’. After that we we entertained by flocks of rainbow lorikeets, whizzing around, screeching their little heads off. As they twisted and whirled about the trees they showed the brilliant reds of their breasts. Apparently this happens every dusk until nightfall, then they all settle down for the night. Peace at last.
We walked around the shops, bought a few bits and pieces and then strolled along the ‘Breakwall’ This consists of huge boulders which have messages from Port Macquarie visitors painted on them – some obviously have returned many times over the years and have renewed their painting and added the latest date. I wanted to add something, but couldn’t find a space and I’ve only got watercolours with me – not much good methinks.
17 & 18 MAY
On up the coast, this time as far as Emerald Beach. We were going to stop overnight at Coffs Harbour, but decided that we had time to get a few more Ks done. Although we stopped at a small craft market where Jeff met an Aboriginal guy who braided leather – very nicely too. And I met a couple who were selling spoons made from Banksia wood – I just had to buy a couple LOL. We then went to the Jetty and called in to the Fishermans Co-op and bought some Moreton Bay Bugs, a small crustacean a bit like a horseshoe crab. Deeeelicious.
The Emeral Beach Big4 caravan park is in a lovely situation, right near the beach and with a creek running through it. Kangaroos visited as well as loads of birdies. We walked along the beach – lovely.
19 MAY
We had heard that the weather forecast for the next few days on the east coast was not good, so we decided to press on and stopped overnight at Brunswick Heads (Top Tourist site). We I book us in I usually do it for one night, but say that we may want to extend for another couple of days. Normally this is no problem and if we’re members (e.g. Big4 or Top Tourist) our discount in included for the subsequent days. For some reason, the Park did not do this. We would get our 10% discount for the one day, but not for further days, unless I booked and paid for them all on arrival. I just asked for the one day. We was not impressed!!! Jeff said that we would move on tomorrow on principle, even though the site was another nice one overlooking the river. That night it rained and it blew.
20 MAY
The following morning there were tree branches all over the place – a rather big ‘un about 4 metres behind Betty. As we drove out I called Marion and Terry who we knew were nicely settled in up on the Gold Coast, south of Surfers Paradise. We said that we would probably stay at Tweed Head, on the NSW Queensland border, and see them the following day. “What do you want to do that for?” Terry said, “you’re only about and hour’s drive from us” I’d thought that we still had quite a way to go DHUH. So I said, “Righto, book us in and we’ll be there ASAP” Well, this has been one of our best decisions. All around us has been absolute mayhem. Floods, incredible rainfall, galeforce winds. OK, it rained on the way up and all that night, and Betty leaked a bit, but we seem to have missed the worst.
21 MAY
Went for a walk along the lakeside and out to the shore. The high tide was up over the footpath, and the beach was just a mass of foam – looked like a huge washing machine had overflowed – amazing sight. The M & T took us for a ride around visiting various beachs to watch the huge wave crashing in.
22 May
Today the sun is shining and all’s well. The storm is moving slowly down the coast, wreaking havoc on it’s way. We have showers and sunshine forecast for the next few days, and then hopefully back to wall-to-wall sunshine again. We’re staying here until 27th, then we’ll decide where our next stopover will be. Eventually we want to get as far as Cairns, but as we have already been there, if we don’t make it that far, not matter.
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