Welcome 2026
December 2025 – 1 February 2026
I was going to have a bit of a “blog break” but I figured since it is predominantly our travel journal, I really do have to keep it up to date. Now, I touched briefly on Christmas and New Year with mum at the end of the last post, but no details. So, leading up to Christmas Peter and I spent a week at Ramsgate Beach (Sydney), with our good friend Chris. And thanks to his generosity and great cooking, we gained about 7 kilos between us. 😊 We also had a couple of nights shopping in Newcastle with mum and were well and truly worn out after that. For an old duck mum sure loves to shop. 😊
Not only does she love to shop, but she loves to host parties. In this case she invited everyone on her street for a Christmas party.
When it arrived, we enjoyed a wonderful Christmas morning with heaps of gifts. Whoever says you need kids to have a fun Christmas hasn’t met my mum.
Lunch was a wonderful affair with mum, me Peter, Lee and John. (Mum’s friends from across the road). We couldn’t have had a better day.
New Years Eve was quiet. But with the help of a few bevies, and some heated games of Uno, we managed to make it to midnight. New Years Day we went to Bellangry State Forest, high up on a hill, and had a great picnic lunch. We did this last year as well and I think we might make it a new tradition. It’s a fantastic way to welcome the new year.
We left Port Macquarie on the 14th Jan 2026, our first stop…one of our favourites. Cobrabald River.
It rained most of the time there, but not bad enough to get us bogged down, but we loved it. Cool enough to have fires. So, Peter was in his element, he should have been a wood chopper.
We woke one morning and thought we were under attack. There were loud thumps against Chunky Bum, and she was rocking at an alarming rate. We needn’t have worried; it was just a herd of curious cows checking us out. They visited us regularly, which was lovely, except, Arnie and Chunky Bum were covered in cow slobber by the end of our visit.
The water level was quite high this visit, and we saw no platypus. However, there were bugs a plenty so that kept me busy.
I’ve never seen such vivid colours on flies before. Quite stunning.
Then there was a variety of other bees and bugs, including the European Bee.
Not to mention a few birds, a turtle, and thousands of Field Grasshoppers, all around our camp.
The area was massed out with Queen Anne’s Lace or wild carrot flowers. They are very pretty and I spent many happy hours photographing them.
On the 19th we arrived at an old RAAF buddy of Peter’s, not far from Tamworth. Ralf and Jennifer were perfect hosts, (more weight gain) and they took us into Tamworth where the Country Music Festival is warming up.
Up until then our plan had been to go to Mungo National Park (NSW) but after checking the BOM and seeing temps of 42, 45, 46, 48, 47…we thought, well I won’t tell you what we thought but we’re not going there now.
The areas around Murray River were cooler so that seemed like a good Plan so started to head in that direction. After two overnight bare camps we landed in the little town of Manildra on the 24th, checked the weather again and agreed that the Murray River Run was on.
We should have remembered that plans are not our friends. We drove out of the Manildra show grounds (a great place to stay by the way), cut a corner, most unlike Peter and ran into an exposed chunk of concrete.
This resulted and a loud bang, unpleasant bump, and big hole in the side-wall of one of Chunky Bums tires. Hmmm!
In the 37 degree C heat, we changed our tire. The caretaker there was very helpful, she even helped me lift the damaged tire up and fix it onto the back of the van, while Peter finished tightening the bolts on the spare.
At first it seemed as though the tire was the only victim, but as we began to drive it was clear that there was more damage than we had hoped. With the wheel slightly askew and squeaking in protest we hobbled a slow 49 kms to Orange, the closest major town in the area, hoping to get it repaired.
We arrived on a Saturday, tomorrow’s Sunday and the next day is Australia Day, I think we’re going to be here for a while. We had no luck finding anyone to help repair the wheel in less than six weeks. For more than one reason, that was not an option. Peter checked under the van, assessed the damage and we decided to try to drive the four hundred and eighty kilometers, carefully, back to Port Macquarie, and get any repairs needed done there. You never know, we might get lucky… or not.
And that, my friends, is why we are currently sitting on the side of the Great Western HWY, at Little Hartley, waiting for a tow truck to come get us tomorrow.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
Always entertaining. Not enough bird photos!
Hi Jo n Pete sorry to hear the outcome with the van but I enjoyed reading your blog and the pics.
Lots of love Les
Mum looks like a character !