LIFE AT LAURIETON

View from the  lookout at Big Brother at  Laurieton looking down over the town


 

 Another view from the Big Brother lookout

Two of the many lorikeets around the caravan park .  They're quite tame unless Sally's around to chase them

away or steal the bread we leave out for thm

 The 6 Amigos having a fun filled evening together at Tony and Chris' place

 North Haven Beach where we take Sally for a long walk each morning

  

Another  view of North Haven Beach

The board walk from the end of North Haven Beach going back to the town

View from the footbridge looking towards Big Brother Mountain

  

Some of the 10 salmon caught on North Haven Beach favourite spot by Richard

This is our second week in lovely Laurieton and thankfully the fierce winds and dreadful rain have gone away for now.  It’s absolutely glorious now and the ground is drying out nicely and not boggy and squishy under our feet as it was last week. 

In our last blog we were going up to Ricardo’s Tomatoes which we did last Friday and bought jars of homemade strawberry jam on special 3 jars for $16. They grow hydroponic strawberries that you can pick.  We went off under the strawberry shelter, armed with a bucket and 2 scissors to cut the strawberries off the vines.  I must say it was such fun and different to the back-breaking strawberry picking we’ve done before.  There are rows and rows of plumbing pipes in an A-frame, with holes up each pipe where the strawberries grow through. We were told to only pick the reddest strawberries and that to fill the bucket we had was probably 1 – 1 ½ kilos of berries at around $15 per kilo.  We were amazed looking at the rows and rows of strawberries and how quickly we managed to fill up our little bucket.  Of course we ate quite a few before we went to the pay counter and they were absolutely delicious and juicy.  Totally different to the ones you buy at the shops, even the most expensive. The bucket cost us $20.

That night we went up to North Haven Bowling Club for the Monster Meat Raffles -  $2000 worth of meat each Friday night.  I have honestly never seen so much meat raffled at one time.  We did manage to win a lovely tray of 5 huge t-bone steaks and sausages which we bbq’d the following night and they were delicious with a capital D!!  We had the biggest serve of herb crusted roast beef and yorkshire pudding on special for $13.90 each.  We were totally bloated and our only complaint was that we couldn’t manage the homemade sticky date pudding that we’d had the previous time.  The chef is quite a young guy and comes out to walk around the tables and talk to the customers during their meal.  We told him it was the best beef we’ve ever tasted and he said he gets it by special order form 1824 at Port Stephens and that everyone raves about the meat there.  So if you ever want a great feed for a great price that’s the place to go.  They have 3 specials on the menu each Friday.   Their normal menu is sensational also and he’s constantly looking for new creative ideas to serve up. Can’t wait to see what’s on the menu tonight yum yum.  Will let you know in our next blog.

Our friends Kate and Jeff and their 2 boys Mitchell and Reece came up from the Central Coast to stay overnight in a cabin at the caravan park last weekend.  Thankfully the weather improved dramatically and they were able to get out to the beach.  Richard took Jeff and the boys fishing off the beach and they had a ball.  Jeff caught a huge fish and was totally thrilled as he’d never caught a big one before.  They could have had many more but put them back in.  The boys enjoyed reeling in their first fish too.  It was great to catch up with them and we had a lovely bbq that night.

Our other friends Paddy and Mary arrived from Sydney for a week’s holiday this week staying with Chris and Tony that live up here permanently.  It’s been great catching up with them again and enjoying the opportunity of the 6 of us being together once more, as it’s been over a year since we were all last together. “The 6 Amigos” have had a hectic week of eating, drinking and telling yarns and lies and we’re going to Yamba next week to start drying out and cut back on our food intake.   It has been great fun though.

Back to the fish tally:  Each session has produced a bigger catch and bigger fish.  Yesterday Richard excelled himself by catching 10 big salmon off his favourite spot on the beach.  Our friend Paddy caught 1 and was totally amazed at Richard’s tally, saying to me later that night “He’s a very good fisherman”.  All the park residents are brim full of freshly caught fish.  He’s packing his rods away until we get up to Yamba now!!!

It’s now 2 months since we moved out of our house at East Hills and the time’s flown by.  We don’t miss it one bit and are really enjoying our newfound freedom.

In some ways it will be strange for us being at Yamba as we’ve had friends to visit and catch up with at each of our stops so far, which has been lovely.  Oh well there are lots of new friends to be found along the way.   Look out all you folks in Yamba – the Winters are in town next week!!

ANOTHER WEEK ON THE ROAD

Starting off on the track at  Buff Point

High up at Buff Point

Tuesday's big catch

Tony  carving roast pork - Sunday dinner for us

 

The bike rack/tool box have to go alas

Laurieton with the mountain mist backdrop early morning

Back to the original bumper bar and safer towing!!!

We’re getting into the swing of life on the road.  The days are flying by and we’re enjoying lots of walks along the beach where Sally loves chasing stones – yes even our dog is a Rolling Stones fan  (haha)!!  She refuses to chase her ball and insists on us finding stones and rolling them along the beach, whereby she revels in chasing them and leaping on top of them when she finds them.    Richard started this game some time ago when we forgot to take her ball with us one day.  Now it’s a ritual every time we go to the beach.  

We’ve also been walking along the cycle/walking path that goes from Budgewoi right through to Charmhaven –  20 kilometres – about a 40 minute bike ride for Richard and a good few hours walk for me (I didn’t’ actually walk the whole way as I’d start from a different  spot each day).  There was some stunning scenery along the way along with many pelicans, beautiful birds and butterflies.  Richard caught his first fish of the t rip and was very proud coming back with his big catch of the day, which we bbqd that night.

We had out first roast dinner in the caravan oven which we didn’t ever think we’d use much.  It felt strange not cooking for a whole crowd plus extras which was normal back at East Hills. It’s also very strange shopping only for 2 people. Money sure goes a lot further when you only want 2 potatoes, onions, bananas etc.. I’m still finding it strange to go from bulk buying everything to buying the smallest portion I can.

Thursday 14^th July – Bastille Day – was the 33^rd anniversary of the day we arrived in Australia and also our last night at Budgewoi, so we went up to the local Thai restaurant for a meal which was delicious as usual.

We left on Friday morning heading up to Laurieton –near Port Macquarie - about 3 ½  hours up the Mid North Coast.  Fortunately the caravan travelled much better without the bike/tool box on the back and we’d also taken all the heavy items from the top cupboards for the journey as Richard had read on one of his many caravan forums that could be a contributing factor for the van swaying whilst travelling on the road.

Now we’re at lovely Laurieton visiting our friends that settled here 6 years ago after they spent 18 months travelling around Australia.  They’re very happy to see us again.  That night we headed up to North Haven Bowling Club for their monster meat raffle.  We didn’t win anything but had a good time and a lovely meal.  It’s the biggest table full of meat trays we’ve ever seen. Oh well there’s always next Friday night!!   The following night we had a bbq with meat from the famous “Wiggly Tail Butcher” – absolutely scrumptious.  We’ve been told people come from Coffs Harbour and further at Christmastime for their famous hams. They’ve also won many awards for their home-made sausages.  We had divine pork medallions stuffed with spinach and feta with a yummy glaze another night – it’s a tough life slumming it like gypsies on the move!!!

Now to the fishing expeditions – well Richard’s been fishing away to his heart’s content using his new ugly stick courtesy of  Invocare and more gear he purchased with the voucher the boys gave him for his birthday at Boating Fishing Camping Warehouse in Port Macquarie.  He should be able to catch the entire ocean of fish with the equipment he’s now got.  Tally – Monday – 2 big salmon off the beach that he gave to residents at the caravan park.  Tuesday - 3 larger salmon off the beach (same spot).  No-one at the park wanted the fish as they’ve all got full freezers of freshly caught fish.  No problems, we bbq’d them and ate what we could last night and I flaked the remainder ready to make loads of fish cakes today.  Our freezer is now full of fillets of fish, pumpkin soup and fish cakes.  Dinner tonight was fish cakes – very scrumptious.  Laurieton has a shop at the Mid-Coast egg farm where you can buy a tray of 30 eggs for $4-7 depending on size and quality –some of them are double yolkers.  So we had to make a trip there today.  We’re off to the famous “Ricardo’s Tomatoes” tomorrow where you can pick your own strawberries as well.  All in all, life’s pretty damn good here. 

The park has a backdrop view of Big Brother Mountain which is covered in mist in the early morning.  It backs onto the sports oval which meanders along the river and some spectacular scenery.  Everyone’s very friendly and helpful here. Some of our friends from the Central Coast are coming up to stay in a cabin on Saturday night and other friends from Sydney arrive next Tuesday for a week.  We’re looking forward to seeing them all.  We’ll be here now until the end of the month and then moving up to Yamba - about a  4 hour drive further up the Mid-North Coast.

We’ve had beautiful weather up until lunchtime today.  Now we’ve got ferocious winds and heavy rain.  The grass outside the van is like a swamp. We’re bunkered down for now and hoping the monsoon conditions will soon improve.  Lucky we’ve got lots of DVD’s to watch and are well stocked up with food.

Thanks for logging in.  That’s all the news for now.  Talk to you all again soon.

Regards Marian and Richard

OUR FIRST WEEK ON THE ROAD

Sally's favourite spot in the carvavan amongst many others

Dick is finished work and is celebrating with a welcome cup of tea in his mug  a present from the girls at work  

Daniel and Adam at our "farewell" dinner

Daniel and Min

Hayley and Adrian

Merv and Woody entertaining us all at Christmas in July

Yippee Dick's caught his first "on the road" fish.  Having yummy fish cakes for dinner tomorrow

Jane and Lorraine enjoyng a wine or three!!!!

We had a lovely farewell dinner with the family and friends at our favourite thai restaurant in Milperra on the Thursday night before we left on our road trip.  It was a bit emotional saying final farewells to the kids but we'll all keep in touch.
We set off on our trip early Friday morning, 1st July.  It was a lovely sunny day when we left, but the weather turned a bit grim along the way.  We had to stop a few times as the caravan was swaying which was a big worry and quite scary to be experiencig.  Dick rearranged a few of the heavier items inside the van to see if it made any difference.  We covinced ourselves it was the weight from all the alcohol we were carrying, as we'd generously been given more supplies by our wonderful friends to add to the stock we already had. We finally got to Budgewoi and set up before it bucketed down with rain which it did for most of the remainder of the day. Oh well, it could have been worse.  At least we 'd set up and were inside nice and warm and snug.  We went out for an Italian meal that night as it was our wedding anniversary.  It's called "Little Italy" and is above Budgewoi Pub.  We  had a lovely meal there and d idn't have far to walk home.

The next night we were invited to a Christmas in July under the camp kitchen at the caravan park.  It went from 5-9pm. They had gone to a lot of trouble to set up the tables with festive cloths and decorations  throughout the area.  Santa visited us all with handfuls of yummy chocolates. We were entertained by a duo called Woody and Merv - two talented funny musicians that took requests but didn't know any Rolling Stones songs. We soon forgave them as we really enjoyed their music.They cracked many jokes throughout the night and when asked if they had any groupies, they replied "no at our age, we have carers". Corny but funny.

Dick  spent many hours pondering the problem of the caravan swaying and finally decided it was due to the tool box and bike rack that he'd spent many hours designing and making. So Sunday was spent taking if off the back of the van and rearranging everything in the back of the car and tool box and front box of the caravan.  Fortunately we still had the original one stored in the shed at Jeff ad Kate's. Now it's now restored to it's original  state and the bike will have to travel inside the van until  we get a bike rack for the top of the car.  Hopefully, our trip up to Laurieton next Friday won't have any sway at all!!

The park is fairly quiet considering it's school holidays. They have kids club activities at the camp kitchen twice a day.  They have been laying rabbit bait, so we have to be careful of Sally off her lead.  The park is plagued with rabbits  that  mainly come out at night.  During the day there are loads of ducks and black swans roaming around and swimming on the lake. We've got  an uninterrupted view of the lake from our kitchen window.

We've been checking out a few of the other caravan parks in the area.   They are all really good, but we decided to stay here for another week.  We're making a rough plan of where we want to go.  After 2 weeks at Laurieton we're going to Yamba to try out a new caravan park Yamba Waters that now takes dogs.  Quite a few more now take dogs from 1st July this year.   We'll probably head up to Tweed Heads after our 2 weeks at Laurieton, but it's very flexible.

So that's our first week completed.  We're enjoying lots of gorgeous walks along the beach each morning and Sally loves the freedom of being off her lead and chasing seagulls.  It looks like I might need a cookbook of 101 ways with fish!!!!

Take care everyone and thanks for logging on to share our adventures. 

Love for now Marian and Richard/Dick