Happy New Year !!!. 

It’s been such a long time between posts but I can assure everyone we are still alive and kicking.  We haven’t drowned in the floods, been eaten alive by mozzies (although they try) or had any other catastrophies happen so far.

So let me try and bring you up to date on what we have been up to.   We spent New Year’s Eve with Ben’s son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren in Toowoomba and then headed off down the Great Dividing Range.  I refused point blank to tow the caravan ( what I mean is to be a passenger while Motley1 towed) down the Range from Toowoomba, so worked out an inland route to follow.  We stopped in Tenterfield and had a look at Peter Allen’s maracas (stop the snickering right now!!!! ) and headed on to Casino and then Lismore. We should have gone down the Range from Toowoomba because we ended up with a 39 kilometre twisty, hilly drop down from higher than we were above sea level in Toowoomba. 

We arrived in Lismore in bright sunshine but we should have been a little more knowing than we were at that time as the caravan park was a little soggy underfoot.  The following day, a little soggy turmed into a quagmire and on day three we watched the river rise rapidly.  The rain just never halted, day or night.  I’m sure many of you saw the television coverage of the evacuation of caravan parks etc.  We stayed put but kept a wary eye on the river all the time.  I will post some pictures later of the streets around Lismore and you will be able to see why we had to stay where we were.  The driving conditions were horrendous and the roads had potholes big enough to swallow semi trailers.  We had planned to do the market at Brunswick Heads but it was cancelled.

Motley1 turned on the computer to do some work and the monitor went bang which in a caravan was LOUD…..disaster….no monitor means no work.  So off we set to replace the monitor.

Byron Bay market went ahead despite the weather and we had quite a good day.   We did some sightseeing around Byron Bay and drove up to the lighthouse and then walked to the most eastern point of mainland Australia at Cape Byron.  We watched the dolphins from here while battling the wind.  The weather looks great in the pictures though.

We left Lismore as soon as the rain had stoppped, the caravan park was by no means the best we have stayed at and we were glad to be back on the road.  We headed for Coffs Harbour and the hope of some dry if not sunny weather.  It is Summer, isn’t it? We arrived in Coffs mid afternoon, sun shining, no rain ( =big smiles ) and set up in the Coffs Village Caravan Park.  Small park, very neat, nice amenities. 

Do I have to tell you or have you guessed already, during the night it started to rain, by the next morning we were up to our ankles in mud.   I swear if one more person had said  “we need the rain”  I would have been committed for trial for murder.  I would have pled insanity by virtue of a waterlogged brain !

We booked into the market at Woolgoolga on the Saturday and Coffs Harbour on the Sunday but without much hope between us that we would be attending either.

We enjoyed Coffs, rain or no rain, we enjoyed walking, the library had really good internet access and we had a little family of ducks to take care of.  The river behind us was full of water dragons and the biggest eels we have ever seen. 

We met some really nice people here, everyone in the park was very friendly, a couple of young girls who were parked next to us even went out and brought us back takeaway Thai food because we had offered them a cuppa as they had no cooking facilities.

Coffs Returned Soldiers Club was very nice too but we had the worst Lambs Fry ever here, overcooked would be a huge understatement.  For anyone not in Australia, Lambs Fry is liver usually served with bacon and onions.

Saturday morning and we set out for Woolgoolga.  What a beautiful setting for a market.  The park was right beside one of the nicest little beaches we have seen so far and the sun was shining.  We had a great market day.  We never stopped all day long and were worn out by the end of the market.  We packed up and left the car parked where it was and went for a “paddle” , as near as I’ll get to a swim.  The water was wonderful, blue, clear and warm.  A very successful and unexpected day.

The Coffs Harbour Jetty market sounded nice but was in fact in the underground carpark of the shopping centre.  Great for an all weather market I guess but not very preposessing to look at before the stalls were set up.  It wasn’t a bad day though so we had had a great weekend market wise.

We had thought of heading off on the Monday but it had been such a successful weekend and we were enjoying Coffs Harbour (apart from squelching around in mud outside the caravan) that we decided to stay longer.

We went for a drive along The Waterfall Way to Bellingen and Dorrigo.  If you ever get a chance to do this drive, you will love it.  Not a suitable for drive with a caravan attached though!  The waterfalls alongside the road are spectacular (after all the rain they were in full spate).  The little towns of Bellingen and Dorrigo are full of interesting craft shops and cafes.  We carried on to see the Danger Falls and although the rain was drizzling for most of the day we had a wonderful day out.  Motley1 had the biggest vanilla slice either of us has ever seen in a cafe in Bellingen.  It was a triple decker but he still managed to polish it all off.

Bellingen had a market day on the Saturday so we booked in for that and for Coffs Harbour again on the Sunday.  We had to get busy and make some more bookmarks.  The new monitor is really nice and I had just started on the bookmarks when the printer gave up the ghost.  Oh well, off shopping again, this time for another printer.

Bellingen and Coffs markets were both fairly good, a great market atmosphere at Bellingen with buskers, drummers, bands and lots of things happening throughout the day.

 No visit to Coffs would be complete without a visit to the Big Banana so of course we did the tourist thing and visited.

We decided to head down to Port Macquarie for a few days.  The muddy caravan site was really beginning to get on our nerves, so we said our goodbyes to our neighbours in the park with invitations to join them next year as they all spend Christmas and New Year there and headed off.

We were driving across the bridge over the Wilson River and Motley1 mentioned how the wind was quite strong when all of a sudden the towing mirror flew off the door and disappeared.  My heart stopped beating, here we were on a bridge with lots of traffic and I felt sure the mirror would hit the car behind.  It was a terrifying thought as the poor car behind would have no where to go to avoid being hit.  We got the the end of the bridge and pulled into the side of the road.  The traffic kept flowing with no sign of damage to any other vehicles.  A huge sigh of relief.   We did a Uturn and went back across the bridge to find out where the mirror had ended up and there it was laying on the side of the road virtually undamaged.  We drove off the bridge and parked and Ben walked the half mile or so back across the bridge to retrieve the mirror.

With the mirror fitted back on the car we set off again for Port Macquarie.  We stayed at the Melaleuca Caravan Park, a very well maintained park, nice wide sites.  The park was full of teenage basketball players as there was some sort of training of players from all around Australia happening in the town.  We stayed two nights and it was heaven to have no mud under our feet every time we stepped out of the van.  No ducks here but rabbits everywhere.  Domestic rabbits must have got freed around here and bred.  There are lots of them and they are very tame even eating carrots out of our hands. 

We set off for Forster, I used to live around here so it felt a little like coming home.  Still love the drive over the bridge from Tuncurry to Forster.  We stopped in Tuncurry to say hello to friends who live there and then headed out to the Lakeside Caravan Park.

We booked in for  a few days and were given a welcome pack and given a site as near to the water as they had available.  A few steps away   The sites here were really big and so well looked after.  We expect it will get busy in the park as this is the Australia Day long weekend.

Woke up this morning another year older

Couldn’t stay miserable though…the sun was shining, the lake looked wonderful, we had breakfast sitting outside the van, a perfect start to a day.

We went to see a few places around town and enjoyed the sunshine.  We drove out to Pacific Palms and Smiths Lake.  The Frothy Coffee Shop was full so we decided to give it  miss and head back into Forster.

We went out to tea at the Forster Club where I had a delicious plate of curried prawns and a couple of glasses of wine.  Motley1 had Hawain Chicken.  All in all a very pleasant birthday.

We booked a site at the Pacific Palms market for the Sunday, giving us another two days to enjoy the sites around Forster. 

The weather remained fine and we went to Burgess Beach and climbed around on the rocks.  The sea is pretty wild around here but it is never crowded and we enjoyed paddling around and wading through the rockpools.  We drove up to Bennetts Head and did the Rotary Walk to One Mile Beach.  We drew the line at walking up Cape Hawk as the last time Ben did that climb he spent two days not able to move his legs.

Pacific Palms market was a lovely market under the palm trees as the name suggests and we did reasonably well.  As the following day was the public holiday we thought we would get an early start so packed up the van after the market, hooked up and were ready to leave the next morning.  The sunsets over the lake here at Forster are incredible as you can see here and here.

Our drive down to Sydney was very hot, not too much traffic although we had a couple of hold ups for roadworks.  There are always roadworks on Bank Holidays!  When we arrived in Sydney it was 36 degrees and despite the best efforts of the GPS to get us to our destination, we took a wrong turn.  My fault though I talk louder than the GPS ever did and sent Motley1 off the freeway 1 exit too soon.

The next day we picked up the supplies we needed and visited the doctor to renew our prescriptions, arrange for blood tests etc. etc.

All these tasks taken care off we arranged a market for Saturday and Sunday,

Yesterdays market was undercover, a huge market which reminded Motley1 of Caribbean Gardens and we had a fairly ok sort of day.

Today, Sunday. we set off to what is regarded as one of Sydney’s most successful markets.  We had only been set up for about an hour when the thunder and lightning and RAIN started..oh boy did it rain.  We were very quickly up to our ankles in mud and rivers were running between the stalls.  Everybody dejectedly packed up their stalls in the pouring rain and loaded up their cars and vans with soaking gazebos and stock.

The joys of a hot shower when we got back ..soaking wet and shivering.  Now we have to dry everything out and hope the rain stops long enough to get the tarps and gazebo dry.

Motley1 has to go back for a blood sugar test tomorrow as his levels were a little high ( 2 hours of doing nothing but sitting in the doctors surgery).

So now you are all to date as we prepare once again to head off into the wide blue yonder…ok it is nice and blue till we get there and then it become the wide grey yonder

Till next time..

P.S. If you read this before I get the chance to add the pictures come back soon and have a look.