Wydon Crafts

1 – 3 August

On our way down the Pacific Highway we decided to call in at the Australian Reptile Park near Gosford.   We’d passed signposts to it so many times as we drove up and down this road, but when we’ve had the time to stop it’s been raining, other times we’ve been in a bit of a hurry.     Anyway, the sun was shinin’ and we had the time, so we made sure that we stopped this time.

 

It was just a few Ks from the Highway and then down a bit of a track.   We wondered if it would be worth the diversion as the drive to it wasn’t particularly encouraging.   Anyway, we carried on, paid the entrance fee and entered the Park.   Well, our fears were totally unfounded.   What a great place – very well laid out, with all the animals in very impressive enclosures.   Once more we took loadsa piccies which will eventually get uploaded into Webshots.  

 

We then carried on to Mount Colah.

A few days spent with Jo and Roy.   Lovely to see them again, looking so fit and well.   Jo still painting up a storm and she still finds time to play tennis several mornings a week.

Had a lovely dinner with their neighbours Wendy and Peter.   The rest of the time there we sorted out our stuff – what was to be left in Betty, what we didn’t need until just before we return home, what we want to ship home and what we do need to last us the next 3 and a bit weeks.

 

4 August

Back down to Lane Cove Tourist Park and the krazy Ks, Marion and Terry.   It’ll be great to see them again.   They eventually turned up having spent the day with their very new grandson, and we had a great reunion evening starting with our usual nibblies followed by dinner cooked by Marion – yum.

 

5 August

Spent the day sorting, again, and tidying up.

 

6 August

A guy who’d phoned about Betty when we were on our way to Emerald, came to see Betty and, after a bit of bargaining, agreed to buy her.

 

7 August

Jeff’s birthday today and we all went to the Sydney Fish Market to celebrate.   What a great day out.   We took various trains to Circular Quay and then caught the Darling Harbour ferry.   We got off at the Maritime Museum and walked to the Market.   Had a lovely fishy lunch before returning to Lane Cove.

 

8 August

Had a visit from Madeleine and her husband, Neville.   Madeleine we first met in Hobart at the Wooden Boat Festival and then caught up with her when we stayed here a few months ago.   Whilst in Tassie we had bought a CD by a guitarist called Cary Lewincamp and as Madeleine is a musician, including playing guitar we thought she would like to hear the CD.   She liked it so much that she sent off to Tassie for the set of 4 CDs and the rest of the collection for us.   She bought them with her today so we’ve been playing them all the time.

 

9 August

Heard from Mervyn, our buyer, that he had paid $1000 deposit into our account just to make sure we knew that our Betty definitely had a new home.

 

10 August

I contacted Bill L, a fan bird carver, whose name had been given to me by Sally and David Nigh, fan bird carvers in the US.   Bill is their Aussie contact and is intent on awakening an interest in this beautiful art over here.   We arranged for he and his wife to visit us on Friday.

 

11 August

We had all intended to either take the Parramatta RiverCat to Parramatta, or drive to the Blue Mountains, but as the weather forecast was rain we opted to go to the movies instead – we saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.   It didn’t actually rain, but we thoroughly enjoyed the film.

 

12 August

Bade a sad farewell to Marion and Terry – they’re heading back up north to their home in South-East Queensland.   They have been such great companions ever since we first met them waaay back in Kunnunurra last October.   Sometime we’re travelled together, sometimes we’ve gone our separate ways, but have always kept in touch and met up whenever we could.   Thanks guys for your great friendship, companionship and kindness – see ya next time!!!

 

13 August

We decided that it would be best to move into a cabin today to give us plenty of time to make sure that everything that was meant to go with Betty, did, and everything that was our own personal stuff, didn’t.   It’s just as well we didn’t leave it all until tomorrow, it all took ages, especially as we wanted to make sure that Betty was spick and span.

Then we went to Madeleine and Neville’s for the evening.

 

14 August

Drove down to Heathcote, south of Sydney to deliver our Betty G to her new owner.   Once the money side of things was sorted out, Mervyn took us to the train station and we headed back to the city vehicle-less for the first time since we were married!!!   Very subdued we wuz too.   But I think Betty has gone to a good home.

 

Bill and his wife, June arrived for dinner and showed us some of his work – such beautiful fan birds, turned bowls and woodcarvings.   A lovely evening – June bought a trifle for dessert – Oh Boy!!!!! and cream!!!!!   Thanks folks.

 

15 August

We spent the day on the Naval facility on Spectacle Island in Sydney Harbourwith Madeleine, Neville and Dave G (another knotter we first met at the Wooden Boat Festival).   Dave actually lives on the island and sometimes works there too.    He builds superb replicas of many of the old workboats seen on the harbour.   He had also completely renovated an old working dog boat called ‘Atlas’ – she was a complete wreck when he bought her.   He took 16 months to restore her, and what a great job he’s done.   And……after a tour around the island he actually allowed us to go for a spin around the Harbour in her.   Neville was driving, cos he’s a ‘boatie’ and knows the Harbour pretty well.    We headed for the Lane Cove River, but spotted one of the Sydney Harbour Tall Ships unfurling her sails just this side of the Bridge.   So we headed off in that direction and did a ‘sail by’ around the Tall Ship and then back to the Lane Cove River where Madeleine and Neville’s little sailing boat ‘Jenny Wren’ is moored.   She was built in the late 1880s and is a lovely old lady of the sea.   We slowly returned to the Island looking at all the fabulous properties lining the water and the hundreds of boats moored close to the shores.    There be a lorra lorra money around this Harbour.   Back to the island for lunch and more things to look at.    Dave finally took us back to shore and we went for a little drive and walk in a nearby park which led us down to the old Woolwich Dry Dock.   This is not now used as a dry dock and there was a socking-great 3-masted gin-palace type yacht moored there.   We then headed back to the Tourist Park.   What a great day – thank you so much Dave, Madeleine and Neville.

 

16 August

Today’s forecast was for 28C and very windy so we decided to stay in the cabin, although Jeff did a bit of shopping in Macquarie Park while I actually managed to get this Blog up-to-date – WHOOPEEEEE.

 

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15 July

When we left Sapphire and Rubeyvale we thought we’d have a quick look at Anakie where the Gemfest is held every year in August.   Not a bad little place, but nothing outstanding.  

 We were going to head south from Emerald and then back to Wamuran to see Judy and Jim.   But I’d read something in a local brochure about being able to fossick for ‘thunder-eggs’ or geodes, at Mount Hay.   So instead of turning right at Emerald off the Sapphire Highway, we carried on back towards Rockhampton until we came to the sign for the Mount Hay Gemstone Tourist Park.   When I saw the road heading up from the Highway I wondered what we were letting ourselves in for – it was a rather steep and windy dirt road – and we all know how I feel about steep and windy roads of any surface.   But we carried on anyway and after a couple of Ks came to the Park.   Once we had settled in we had a look around.   One caravan in a corner and an couple in a trailer next to us – no-one else there.   We found that the fossicking area was right next to the park and that Don the park owner would just load up his JCB from the quarry down the hill behind the park every few days and dump piles of rubble in the fossicking area.   The reception/office also house a wonderful display of rocks, polished and unpolished, thunder-eggs cut and uncut and all sorts of other goodies.   On another part of the building are several rock-cutting machines.

 16 July

Jeff went to the office to pay our fossickers dues, $15, and Don took us down to have a look at the quarry.   As well as the thunder-eggs, which were formed within the magma of the volcano hundreds of thousands of years ago, there is a beautiful rock called Spherulitic Rhyolite, which is green and orange.  There’s also black volcanic glass.

 After our guided tour we Hi-Ho’d it 10yards out the back to pick out our pile of rubble.   Don showed us what to look for and we set to.   Slowly we got our eye in and after a while started to find lots of thundereggs ranging from pea-sized up to 2” across – plus some other interesting-looking bits and pieces.   We stopped briefly for lunch and the back to work.    Finally we decided that our backs could take no more abuse, so we lugged our bucketsful of goodies to the rock washing area, cleaned ‘em up and took them in for cutting.   Cutting 3 thundereggs is included in the price, but Don and his Mrs cut us a few more.   We didn’t have any really outstanding hollow ones, but some had centres of solid crystal, so we were pleased with what we had.  

 We were then taken on a tour of the rest of the buildings.   Shelves full of slices of all sorts of different rocks – beautiful stuff.   We had also spotted some little pewter figurines in the shop and now discovered that they were actually made here.   We were shown where the ingots are melted down and poured into moulds and then once they’ve cooled into another workshop where they are tidied up, polished and mounted.   A real cottage industry – no “Made in China” here!!!

 Had a drink in the evening with our next-door neighbours, Alex and Mark, a very pleasant couple who spend a lot of their time in the gemfields – discovered that they lived in Caboulture, near where we had our ‘farm-sitting’ time.

17 July

Finally managed to escape the area today – we really would have preferred to stay longer!!   Headed south and ecentually took a side road to Cania Gorge.   Found the Cania Gorge Tourist Park and settled in for a couple of days.    Lovely campsite – good facilities. 

18 July

We were going to take a walk around the Gorge but decided that we should start preparations for selling Betty G instead.   Had a good sort out and clean up, both inside and out.

19 July

Yarraman Caravan Park – just an overnight stop.  

20 July

Had to meet Ted B— who expressed keen interest in buying our Betty.   We arranged to meet in the town of Esk – on our way to Brisbane and not to far from where he lived.   He arrived with his Mrs and his son.   Both of the men were mechanics and gave our bus a right going over.    They seemed impressed and said they would talk it over and get back to us soon.    We then headed for an overnight stop in Brisbane.   We decided to take the scenic route via the Wivenhoe Lake and then through the countryside to Brisbane.    Unfortunately we disregarded a roadsign warning that the road wasn’t suitable for caravans.   Well, Betty’s not a caravan, and we did see some buses on the road so we assumed that we would be OK.   We came to a 15% – use low gear – hill with hairpins!!!   No alternative but to take it!!!    After a few hundred meters I said to Jeff “What’s that smell?”    That smell was the brakes!!!!    Jeff pulled into the side of the road and we could see the smoke coming from them.   Jeff had been using a low gear, but also using the brakes.   So we sat by the side of the road waiting for everything to cool down.   Then he put her into 1^st gear and we very slowly headed down the road again.   No more problems – phew.

We stayed overnight in Brisbane.   Some time during the day we had a phone call from Ted saying that he was sorry by the bus wasn’t for him.   He already had an older Coaster and was hoping to upgrade – but he had things like air-conditioning and hot water and it would just cost too much for him to get Betty G to the same state.   He did say that under different circumstances he would have been happy to buy her – ho hum!!

21 to 25 July

We decided to branch off the highway and spend a few days on the coast at Jacobs Well.   Just as we left the highway we had a call from a lady who said that she was a friend of Ted’s and that knowing she and he husband were interested in buying a bus, he had told her about ours and how impressed he was with her.    She would be telling her husband when he got home from work, and would contact us that evening.

We booked in at the local council caravan park and settled down for a few days by the sea.   Lovely setting, pub over the road, dinky little shopping centre with a nice bakers and chippy.

 Nice people all round – our neighbours were Anita and Frank.   We met Anita first, and she told us that Frank was in hospital having been diagnosed with cancer.   Luckily the prognosis was pretty good and he would be back in a couple of days.   They were travelling around Oz and lived in Perth.

 

Jeff did some fishing and actually took Frank with him the day after he returned from hospital.   If you read this, Anita or Frank, pleaselet us know how things are going – I didn’t get your email addy!!!

The lady who expressed interest in Betty didn’t phone back so we got her number from Ted and called her.   Jeff spoke to her husband who said that they wanted something a bit younger – nice of them to let us know.   We would have moved on a bit earlier if we’d known that!!

26 July

At Southport I had arranged to finally meet up with Doreen, my flatmate from years ago when we lived in Kings Cross.   The first time we went through she was about to head off for a holiday in China so obviously she didn’t need visitors.    Spent a lovely few hours catching up – then drove down to an overnight stop at the Miami Caravan Park.

 

27 July

Arranged to spend a little knotting time with Jim C at nearby Mermaid Beach.   We had been there about half an hour and met his grand-daughter, Lily, when he received a call from Lily’s Dad saying that her brother’s school had called saying that he was very unwell – some sort of tumm-bug.   Could Jim go to Brisbane and pick him up.   So we swiftly packed up and took our leave.   What a shame, but I do hope that the little lad is OK.

Stayed overnight at the Boyds Bay Caravan Park at Tweed Heads.   We had got chatting to a couple when we were staying in this park back in May.   They later told a friend of theirs, Jim   , about us because he was interested in taking up pyrography.   We spoke to him on the phone and said that we would get in touch on our way back down.   So I now I let him know where we were and arranged for him to visit later that evening.   He duly arrived and we spent a very pleasant hour or so in his company and hopefully answered all his questions.   He was moving into a smaller place where he wouldn’t be able to continue his hobby of carving so he needed another hobby, and pyro seemed to fit the bill.   Anyway I put him on to Sue Walters to buy all the goodies he needed and apparently he placed an order practically the following day.  Good on yer, Jim.

 

 

28 July

Left Tweed Heads, making for Grafton.   As we had missed out on catching up with Pete Drewett on our way north, I was determined to catch up with him this time.   So I called him a day or so ago and arranged to meet in South Grafton where we had met him some years ago.    It was great to see him again and he brought with him some walking sticks he’s been pyroing recently.   He wants to do about 100 – all different – so that he can put together an exhibition.   They were truly beautiful.   He showed us 4 or 5 out of the 34 he has done so far.    Beautiful random, freehand designs.   What an artist the man is.    We would have liked to have visited his home a few Ks south of Grafton, but for one thing we hadn’t really given him much warning of our arrival and to get to his place involves about 6km of dirt road, and we all know how our Betty just loves dirt roads!!!    So we had to make do with an hour or so of Pete’s company.   When we left Pete, Jeff said that Betty was making some slightly worrying noises so we looked around for a workshop to see if they could diagnose the problem.    We found a likely-looking place and pulled in.   The mechanic had a look underneath and said let’s go for a drive and I’ll see what’s what.   When they returned he reckoned that the steering hydraulics were running out of oil.   He thought there was probably a leak in the system and put in the best part of a bottle of the stuff. Jeff bought another one, just in case.   The bloke only charged us for the oil – not for his time – very nice man.

We then had to find somewhere to stay overnight.   I’d found an ad for the Grafton Gateway Caravan Park, so we thought we would give it a try.   Boy, are we glad we did – the best park we’ve stayed in the whole year.    Everything was immaculate, the Camp Kitchen was all stainless steel and very well fitted out.   Lovely place and we can thoroughly recommend it.    Although it is no longer a Big4 camp they still honour the members discount – this possibly applies to Top Tourist members, too.    Very pleasant staff, too. 

29 July

Sadly leaving the Gateway behind us we headed for Taree – talk about from the sublime to the ridiculous.   What a difference, funny little caravan park on the outside of town, but the people running it were really nice. 

30 July

Finally got to Newcastle and to Julie’s place.   I had been a bit concerned about imposing on her as I had read on the OzCavaliers Group that she wasn’t very well and was due to spend the day in hospital on Friday.   But she assured me that she would be most put out if we didn’t stay.   So we duly arrived and were welcomed by her and ‘The Boys’ – Mickey and Ziggy looking their usual cheeky selves and Kurli looking so much better than when we were here previously.   A change of medication has worked wonders – sooo pleased. 

On our way down I had phoned my old flatmate, Angie, from when I lived in Sydneywaaay back in the 60s and arranged to go to her place on Friday.   Jeff was going to go to the Maritime Museum – he wanted to have another chat with them about knots and stuff. 

I spent a lovely day with Julie and her daughter, Amy, – Jeff was fiddling about in Betty.   Julie’s husband, Andrew, came in from work and we had a lovely evening just relaxing in their company. 

31 July

Very sadly taking our leave we headed for Angie’s which was only about 15 mins away.   On the way Jeff said that he still wasn’t happy about the steering oil and decided that when he dropped me off he would look for someone to fix it and forego his Museum visit.   As it happened we missed the turning to Angie’s street and came upon a garage/workshop who were willing to have a look and try to fix it.   Brilliant!!!   So I toddled off for my visit and Betty was rolled into Theo’s Mechanical Repairs. Spent a lovely few hours reminiscing on all the things we got up to all those years ago and she filled me in on a lot of what has happened in the ensuing years.   Her daughter and grandson arrived and grandson stayed while Mum went off to the hairdresser.    Sweet, cheeky little lad. 

Later that afternoon Angie dropped me off down the road at Theo’s and stopped for a brief chat with Jeff.   Betty had been fixed – at quite a reasonable price too – so once again we set off in a southerly direction.   We decided to again stay at the Belmont Pines Caravan Park in South Belmontas we had stayed there on our way up the coast and knew that it was a good ‘un.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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