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| The first stunning butterfly we saw |
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| The kookaburra wood carving we fell in love with |
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| A visitor Richard spotted close to our caravan yesterday - lucky Sally didn't spot it! |
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| A beautiful Male Ulysses in the display cabinet |
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| Beautiful Sawtell Beach standing outside the cafe on the hilltop |
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| The beach cafe behind Sawtell Surf LifesavingClub |
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| Panoramic view looking right on the hilltop lookout at Sawtell |
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| Another vista on the hilltop lookout |
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| Looking left on the hilltop lookout at Sawtell |
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| The patient during therapy |
Monday 19th Forgot to mention in our last blog about the $10 Steak Night at The Coast Hotel (Budgewoi local). Boy were we very pleasantly surprised – a beautiful thick, moist steak, chips and salad - mine with yummy home-made Dianne sauce. What fantastic value!! Tuesday is the same deal but Schnitzel Night. Wednesday is $15 Seafood Night and Thursday $12 Curry Night. So there’s the week almost taken care of food-wise. The curry is very good value also – deep dish, basmati rice, huge crispy pappadams, yogurt and succulent soft meat curry (choice of 2). Dessert is $2 worth of M & M’s from the machine – I almost feel embarrassed going to the machine without any kids in tow, but I do love M & M’s. Needless to say Richard’s nowhere to be seen at this time.
Wednesday 21st – Finally went to see the movie The Help. I’d heard so many conflicting reports but decided to go and see it for myself. It was quite a long movie and you quickly became involved with the story and characters. It was surprisingly good, even Richard thought it was much better than he was anticipating. The fact it was a true story was quite horrifying and I’m sure the treatment the maids received was very much toned down for the movie. Nevertheless, it was very confronting and poignant. It had been stinking hot before we left to see the movie so we left the air conditioner on for Sally. When we came out from the movie the sky was black and there were fierce winds howling about and the temperature had dropped by at least 15 degrees. Poor Sally was frozen when we got back and huddled in her basket trying to keep warm poor thing.
Saturday 24th Spent the day shopping at Tuggerah with my friend Katriona (Kiwi Kate for short) and having some girlie down time which I don’t get much of any more. Richard hates shopping and only goes when it’s absolutely necessary and then is in and out asap once he’s got what he went for. He can’t understand why women like to browse around (and not necessarily buy anything).
We went to the Ocean Thai for dinner and then onto the pub to check out the band. Kate was meeting us later to have some drinks and watch the band. The band were very good but unfortunately half way through their fourth number there was a total power black out which lasted for 2 hours. The pub couldn’t serve any more drinks as their tills weren’t working, so we had to go home – end of a big night out without kids for Kate!! I’d no sooner got back to the van and put on my pyjamas when the power came back on. I couldn’t be bothered getting dressed again, so the rest of the night was spent watching tv. The funny thing was that the band were called CHOAS – haha.
Sunday 25th Back on the road to Sydney
Monday 26th Richard’s appointment is at 12.30 for his post-op check up. When we got to the surgery we were surprised to find it empty and the door locked. The receptionist looked confused when she saw us but unlocked the door saying “Didn’t you get my message?” We said “No what message?” The doctor was operating and had cancelled his appointments for the day. We discovered the message had been left on the work phone Richard had with Invocare (he had forgotten to up-date his details). Well that was a wasted trip and had delayed us heading off to Queensland
Tuesday 27th Yeah we’re on the road up north again. We left at 8am as it was a 6 hour drive up the mid north coast to Maelstom near Urunga (1 hour south from Coffs Harbour Maelstom North Beach Caravan Park Queensland as fast as we can to make up lost time (by rights we should now be almost at the top end of Queensland Bellinger River
Wednesday 28th We went for a drive to Urunga, Repton and Sawtell. Urunga is a lovely small town with a cycle/walking path flowing around the river. There’s a long bridge going over the river into the National Park. The Ocean View Pub is the centrepiece of the town and overlooks the river. It’s an old pub in it’s original state with plenty happening every day. The caravan park is right on the river/beach but they don’t allow dogs as it’s close to National Park –such a pity as it’s ideally situated with everything within walking distance and would be a beautiful place to stay.
Sawtell was a total surprise. I was expecting the usual run-of-the-mill town. We were both blown away by just how pretty it was with rivers all around and a stunning beach. It’s a small historic town. We were looking for somewhere to have lunch and saw a sign in front of the Sawtell Surf Lifesaving Club saying “café open”. We were expecting a kiosk on the beach and were stunned to find an up-market café on the hilltop overlooking the beach. There were tables and chairs and umbrellas and the place was absolutely packed. The food was really good and reasonably priced and our waitress was very friendly and helpful. We had a lovely lunch there and said we’d be back another day, which we did do 2 days later. After lunch we drove around to several lookouts and the views were panoramic and stunning. We’re surprised how many magical gems we come upon unexpectedly and Sawtell is definitely one of those.
Friday 30th It’s a beautiful sunny day so we’re taking advantage of it and spending lots of time walking on the beach for sand therapy for Sally as well as us. The park is filling up for the long weekend but is by no means crowded.
We went to Coffs Harbour Butterfly House. It’s an amazing place with lots of varieties of colourful butterflies. They’re kept in a large glass green house and fly freely around, frequently landing on you. We couldn’t believe how big some of them are. Our guide was a very informative young girl who was very passionate about butterflies. She led us through their life-cycle and we were surprised to learn some of them are only alive for 3 weeks, some survive a few months, such beauty for such a short time. Our favourites were the electric blue Ulysses and the male Green Birdwing. The Butterfly House have around 12 species on display at any one time, most of which are supplied from butterfly farms. Some interesting facts: A female can lay upwards of 200 eggs singly or in groups. The largest Australian butterfly – the Cairns Birdwing has a wingspan of 15cm. The largest in the world is the Queen Alexandra Birdwing with a wingspan of around 28cm. Butterflies flap their wings about 20 to 30 times per second. It was a very tranquil setting inside with a waterfall, but quite hot as it’s temperature controlled. You can wander in and out as many times as you like, depending on how you cope with the atmosphere.
There’s also an interesting wood turning section with really good quality wares for sale. We fell in love with a beautifully carved kookaburra. I would have bought it but don’t have anywhere to display it. There were intricate butterfly design secret boxes and bowls on display.
Saturday 1st October – AFL Grand Final Day. A very mixed weather day, starting off with rain, fining up mid morning and then torrential rain and black, black skies. We went to Maelstom markets at the back of North Beach Bowling Club. Nothing particularly interesting there, except yummy home baked cakes which I just couldn’t resist. We’re going to North Beach Club for dinner tonight and hear they’ve got a pretty decent restaurant. We’ve spotted the Riverview Terrace undercover area and plan to sit out there tonight to eat dinner.
Next week we’re going to do our first free camp at Yalgum overnight on the way up to Yandina where we’ll be catching up with our grey nomad friends Paul and Janet Henstock stationed at Nambour. We’re looking forward to seeing them again. We first met them at Shellharbour Caravan Park 4 years ago. They’ve now been on the road about 6 years. They’re from Melbourne
Hope you all had a lovely relaxing long weekend. Log in again next week to hear all about Yandina and our free cam experience.
Love for now Marian and Richard
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