Thursday 19th October 2006

Our caravan sitting on the lagoon in Nambucca

A river near Repton

The view from a lookout in Sawtell

We started out this morning with the intention of seeing as much as we could around the Nambucca and Coffs Harbour area, so we started out from the caravan park at about 8:30a.m. and headed back out to the Pacific Highway and turned North toward Urunga.

About 5 or six kilometres south of Urunga we saw a tourist drive sign so we turned of the highway and made our way east along this drive to toward the coast, then started heading North however we had not seen the ocean until we came to a 4WD track that made its way in to a beach. There was little reason to need a 4WD unless there were plans to drive along the beach, but that was closed to vehicles when we arrived there anyway. The beach was very peaceful, with good clean almost white sand stretching as far either way as we were able to see. While on the beach an elderly lady walking her small dog came up to us and we had a chat for a short while before she headed back to the road where her car was and we did the same in the patrol after taking a few photographs of the ocean and the beach.

From here we continued on to Urunga where we drove around the river and then joined the Pacific Highway again for a few hundred metres to get over the river, then turned off to the east again and made our way through some very picturesque country along another inlet and river to Raliegh and Repton. After passing through Repton we turned onto the Old Coast Road and followed that through the Bongil Bongil Forest for a way, deviating at one stage to travel along 'Overhead Bridge' Road. which lead us deeper into the forest. We then returned to the Old Coast Road which in turn took us back out onto the Pacific Highway.

We continued on the Pacific Highway until we were about 10 kilometres from Coffs Harbour where we turned off the highway to the east once more and made our way along another tourist drive which took us in to Sawtell. We drove around Sawtell and found ourselves on a lookout at a small headland so we stopped there for a short time and more photographs were taken. Then we were back in the Patrol and making our way through Toomina and on past the airport in to Coffs Harbour. We drove around Coffs Harbour for a fairly good look at the place before stopping at the 'Clog House' where there is a small but very interesting miniature village that is made up of miniature replica buildings of some of the oldest and most well known structures in Holland or the Netherlands.

Just after leaving the Clog House we spotted a Coles Service Station so we called in and refueled the Patrol in readiness for tomorrows drive down to Port Macquarie. 'One of Us' then required a little therapy so we found the local Coles Shopping Centre and visited that store for a while, walking out with a full basket of goodies to last us another couple of days (Yeah... heard that one before!!) We also visited the Post Office where a letter and a cd that the 'Other One' had organised was dispatched to the respective recipients.

Our last visit in Coffs Harbour was to the 'Big Banana' where 'One of Us' enjoyed browsing around the souvenir store before she really enjoyed a banana split and a banana muffin as a late lunch. After a good look around the Big Banana, it was time to head off back to Nambucca and although we had planned to take the long way home via Bellingen, we found that time has slipped by too fast so we decided to return along the Pacific Highway, arriving back at the caravan at about 3:15p.m.

Tomorrow we move on to Port Macquarie for a couple of days before making our way out to the Hunter Valley. But tonight the next thing on the agenda is Happy hour.

Friday 20th October 2006

After two nights in Nambucca Heads and a good look around Coffs Harbour, it was time to move on again but as we didn't have far to go, we took our time getting organised and had a bit of a chat with our neighbours before hitching up and driving our of the caravan park at about 9:20a.m.

We turned south on the Pacific Highway and made our way down through Macksville, Cylbucca, Seven Oaks, Bellim and passed a school with the name Bopinni and we think that was the name of the community there. Next we drove through Kempsey, which was the birth place of Slim Dusty, then on through Frederickton and Kundabung before arriving in Port Macquarie around 11:30a.m. This drive was quite pleasant and took us through forest reserves, green pastures and over a number of large rivers or inlets that were very impressive

On arrival in Port Macquarie we made our way to the Sundowner Breakwater Caravan Park which is only a few hundred metres to the town centre, about the same to the Town Beach and the caravan is parked '75 Pammy steps' to the breakwater and river entrance where fishing and pleasure boats travel up and down an a regular basis.

Once we had set up the caravan we enjoyed a lunch of toasted chicken,cheese and mayo sandwiches before we took a drive into the town centre where 'One of Us' spotted a Coles store but then went into raptures and became almost uncontrollable because right beside Coles was a Liquorland (first one we've seen since we left home). She was in heaven whilst we wandered the aisles of Coles and then rolling around the racks in the liquor store, even finding a couple of bottles of McGuigan Riesling which just happened to pop into the basket before we departed the store. Whilst in Liquorland we made inquiries as to where 'The Good Guys' were in town and one of the staff (Chris) told us where Harvey Norman was and that his partner would give us a good deal if we purchased anything from there.

It was time to fix a problem we had trying to watch a DVD that we had purchased as it would not run on the lap top computer, so we found our way out to the local Harvey Norman store and found a Panasonic hard drive DVD Recorder/player that was on special at $599 and although it wasn't Chris's partner that we were dealing with, the staff member that met us did give us an additional $70 off this special price. On arriving at Harvey Norman, we noticed a mechanical service centre over the road and as the Patrol needed an oil change, we dropped it in with them and an hour later we picked it up again completely serviced, checked over and ready for another 5,000 km which should get us home from here.

Although we have only been in Port Macquarie for the afternoon, what we have seen of it has impressed us as far as friendly people and 'One of Us' loves the walks near the caravan park and close shopping centres within easy walking distance.

It was then time to return to the caravan for the evening, with plans for a pretty quiet day tomorrow.

Saturday 21st October 2006

After a very wet night filled with lighting and thunder, this morning dawned along with some blustery strong winds and overcast sky that threatened to dampen us down at any time during the day. This encouraged us even more to have a quiet day and rest up in and around the caravan.

Around 10:a.m. the weather appeared to clear a little so the washing was gathered and the machines in the laundry put in motion. After it was hung out to dry the weather seemed to blow up again but fortunately there was no rain in it and the clothes did eventually dry whilst flapping away wildly in the wind.

During this time we decided to book a powered site at a caravan park in the Hunter Valley, and after about half a dozen attempts to call them, we finally reached the reception desk of the park and booked in for four nights from Monday night through to Thursday night, but there was no vacancies from Friday on through the weekend as there is a Jazz In The Vines weekend happening next weekend. This should give us time to look around the Valley, visit a Garden and also have a little look around the town of Maitland which is only a short distance away.

As 'One of Us' has a birthday coming up next Wednesday, at about 12:30p.m. the 'Other One' strolled off into the town centre to see if he could find any little 'Pammy' presents for the big day. After walking through the main shopping centre several times and up Hay Street passing numerous shops for over an hour, he was still no closer to finding that little 'special' gift so the search started all over again.

This time he found a Dick Smith shop and although there was nothing in there that would suit Pammy, there was a cable to fit the new DVD recorder there that just had to be purchased. Then it was back through the clothing stores, Target, many jewelry stores and many more until at last an object was spied that Pammy should like to be the owner of, so with that the search was concluded.

On his return to the caravan park, Pammy had to go for a short walk whilst the object was stowed away, then the last of the washing was removed from the lines and Pammy pulled out the trusty old iron and smoothed out a few items as these machines placed a few creases where creases were not meant to be.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing around the caravan and not doing very much at all, just preparing for happy hour and another quiet night. Tomorrow may see us have a look around the surrounding area and be a little more like the tourists that we are.