Old Friends and New

19^th – 26^th June 2024

We called in to Port Macquarie long enough to say hi to mum, drop off Chunky Bum, then drive down to Sydney on the 1^st June. Our singular reason for the visit was to catch up with a good friend of ours. Chris, as always, was the perfect host. Home cooked meals, a chance to catch up with some other friends which was lovely and a big night out on the town where we experienced the “Vivid Festival of Light”. A spectacle where the area around Sydney Harbour, including the bridge and the Opera House, were blanketed with lights and images. Luckily the rain had cleared by then.

This was a lovely surprise for Peter and me, as we had no idea it was even on, or what in fact it was.

It was a short but sweet visit with Chris, as we had to be back in Port Mac by the 6^th June. We had to take mum up to Kevin’s in Kingscliff on the 8^th. Mum and Kevin were headed to England to spend time with family and they were due to fly out on the 10^th.  Also on the 10^th  I had an appointment with my eye specialist in Brisbane (all good and out by 3:10). Our plan from there was to was to drive straight back to Port Mac.

However, there was a bad accident on the Pacific Hwy between Brisbane and Kingscliff which threw a spanner in the works. I sent Kevin a text joking he’d be in England before we got to Port…I wasn’t far wrong.

It was close to 6pm before we got past Kingscliff. The usual hour and a half drive took us three. We drove another hour, then called it quits at Ballina, booked into a motel and wandered over to the local Sporties club for a meal, and a very nice one it was too.

We arrived at Port late the next afternoon, after stopping at Coffs Harbour for lunch on the way down. As it turned out, we arrived at Port Mac only a few hours before Kevin and Mum called to say they’d arrived in England.

We had a week of leisure at mum’s place, a few beach walks, a lot of washing and a bit of shopping and cleaning, before packing Chunky Bum once again and heading back to Cobrabald River, but this time we wouldn’t be alone.

We’d met Joey and Gaz while crossing the Nullarbor last year,. They were camped next to us at Bunda Cliffs and we really hit it off. We’ve kept in touch and were finally able to meet up. We had a lovely few days with them, and while we saw plenty of Rakali, the Platypus were quite evasive.

The beauty of having the freedom of time, is that you can stay longer hoping to see more and the day after Joey and Gaz left, we had a platypus parade. This one’s for you Gaz.

I think if he could, Peter would stake his claim here; yes, it is that nice. Anyway, after one of our drives into Walcha (we’ve been told its pronounced Walka) Peter wanted to play in the mud but he underestimated how wet and slippery it really was and promptly got us bogged. The car really was bogged and digging it out and packing the slippery track with bark and timber was not an attractive job, so I left Peter to it and walked home to make dinner. I was going to video him driving out but I was standing behind the car and too busy trying not to get covered in flying mud.

While Peter was playing with the car, I was playing with this little fellow. He was camped just outside the caravan.

This really is a great place to camp, and there were a couple of other overnight campers along the river this time. We walked further, following the river as it meandered through the country, and were surprised to see this foxy lady.

The other animals didn’t seem bothered about her at all. After all, she was very pretty.

It was cold here this visit. Usually one to two degrees centigrade overnight. Not to mention a couple of minus two and minus three degrees. For a couple of sooky Queenslanders, that’s pretty darn cold. But there is always a silver lining and those cold nights resulted in some beautiful misty mornings.

Of course we made the most of the cold with our fires and camp oven cooking, even Peter took a turn in the kitchen.

And in between all of that wood chopping and cooking, Peter and I still found time to explore.

We hadn’t decided when we would leave, but we woke up on the 26^th and it looked like rain. We were a bit concerned about getting the van bogged (I don’t think Peter’s bush skills would have been much help with that) so, we made a snap decision, packed up our home and were on the road within an hour.

We felt really good about our decision to leave, chatting about where we’d spend the night, and were generally having a great day, but then…it all went pear shaped.

See you out there somewhere

On tow and on the go!