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

LIFE AT MIRANDA

This is our 5th week living at Miranda and I'm really enjoying being a temporary "Shire" person.  I go for long walks along the cliff path at Cronulla every day with Sally.  We're 10 minutes walk to Miranda Fair a huge shopping centre that I've only been to with the girls before a few times. They have an Aldi store there which seems really out of place in the Shire.  I usually go to Southgate, the local shopping centre which is 10 minutes away by car for groceries and anything quick.  

We've had lots of farewells on this week, Richard's had lots with work, both lunches and dinners. His bosses bought him a voucher for a fishing shop at Drummoyne.  He's already redeemed it for an Uglystick and hopes to catch lots of dinners with it (will get back to you on that one!!). It will take pride of place in his collection that he has to sort out when we get to Budgewoi.  They're all currently stored in our storage shed at Kate and Jeff's house.      

We went to Kirribilli RSL with my first boss in Australia Vance and Julie last Wednesday.  It overlooks the Harbour Bridge and  Luna Park.  Had a lovely meal there.  Friday night we farwelled with Bryan and Margaret Jones (an ex boss of Richard's from Email).  Another great night was had with Martin and Jane there also.  Saturday night we went to a Vietnamese restaurant in Marrickville with good friends Sue and Jeff  Dougas.  Yummy salt and pepper squid, caramelised fish and claypot slowcooked pork were part of the food we tried. 

On Sunday  Hayley, Daniel, Karina and Adam came over for lunch.  We went to Zimzala Cafe right on the beach front and were seated next to Larry Emder (host of The Price is Right - don't know if it's still  on). Had an all day breakfast - knew I shouldn't have as we were going to another farewell dinner at 6pm - this was at 1.30 and I was really full up!  By 6pm I was still rather full but Jeannette that  Richard worked with at Email had gone to so much trouble and the food was beautiful  and I couldn't say no.  Oh well, diet starts Monday!!!

This is our last week at Miranda and the count down is on.  2 more days to go until we leave.  We're having  a farewell dinner with the kids and friends Lorraine, Cliff and Jane on Thursday night - Red Hot Chilli at Milperra - one of our favourite local places when we lived at East Hills.

Friday 1st July the day we leave for Budgewoi is our 33rd wedding anniverary so we've booked a lovely Italian Restaurant over the pub called Little Italy.  We haven't been there before but were recommended by friends. We've been invited to a Christmas in July celebrtion at the caravan park on Saturday evening.  It wll be held under  their big camp kitchen.  It's  being put on free of  charge and we  only need to bring wine - at least it wont  be far to stagger home.

CRONULLA BEACH

We've been in our new home at Miranda for a week now. We've survived very heavy rainfall a lot of  the time.  I've managed to take Sally out for walks inbetween the showers. The rain eased off yesterday and I went for a lovely long walk along the cliffs at our now local beach Cronulla. It was fabulous walking amongst the Shirefolk of all ages jogging, walking with strollers, dogs, friends.  Everyone enjoying the sunshine and making the most of it.  I stopped at a dog friendly cafe on the way back and was entertained by 2 of the regular retirees who swim there every day, then have coffee and read their papers before heading off  to their hectic retiree schedule.  I promised to catch up with them again next week. 

The place was buzzing with the annual trials for Shark Island surfers competition.  Photographers and  stalls and on-lookers filled the clifftops surrounding Cronulla.  The hopefuls were in and out of the water, hoping to catch the right wave to get them noticed by the talentspotters.  It as all so fascinating to watch.

We're enjoying being close to the beach and going for long walks along the dogs off leash are as often as we can.  Sally's enjoying  her new lifestyle and meeting up with lots of new doggie friends.

Dick finishes work on 30th June so we're heading off on our new big adventure officially on 1st July - which appropriately enough is our 33rd wedding anniversary.  We're going to one of our favourite spots at Budgewoi for 1-2 weeks.

LAST SUNAY ROAST AT BROE AVNUE

We had to have the last of the ritual family Sunday roasts before we left the house. No-one's every declined an invitation to join in the Sunday tradition.  We've introduced the kids' friends and many of our friends to the delights of roast beef with compulsory yorkshire puddngs over the years.  Many of them had no idea   
 before tasting a yorkshire pudding exactly what it was or how easy they are to make (once you master a few tips on how to perfct them). We've enlightened many Australians palates to their unique tastenover the years and hope they'll remember us for that if nothing else!!!

We're trying to keep up the tradition in the last few weeks before we head off.  Daniel and Min did a superb pork spit roast one week.  We're off to Hayley and Karina's tomorrow night for roast lamb - my particular favourite.

FAREWELL DRINKS AT BROE AVENE

1. 
   We had quite a few people over for farewell drinks.  They all commented on  how bare the house was and how sad it was that they wouldn't be coming over again.  We've had many many gatherings, parties and special occasions to celebrate in our 23 years here, as you can imagine. We had a great time reminiscing with our friends and telling them all the new things we're looking forward to seeing and doing and sharing with them through his blog.

SOLD AT LAST

It's April and the sold sign has gone up.  23 years of living here about to come to an end. Endings and a brand new beginning for us all  about to happen.  It felt strange pulling into the driveway to see that sold  sticker on the for sale sign for the first time.  Quite confronting that our dream was about to become a reality!!