Got up for sunrise this morning or rather Darren got up and then woke me up for sunrise. Got some good photos of it rising over the sea through the clouds. Tonnes of Kookaburras around here and also saw a massive lizard hanging of the side of the tree about 4ft long head to tail. A morning spent on the beach playing Aerobie or rather recovering the Aerobie from the sea before it got washed away.
Went for a drive through the local area to Wonga, Bellingin, and Bowerville before chilling out by the edge of the river. Doing things on the cheap we BBQ�d and played scrabble in the communal space until the lights went out at half nine (nice) and then listened to England snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by losing the 2nd semi-final to Australia in the VB Series by 6 runs in the last over.
Sunday 26th Jan
Nambucca Heads to Dunbogan
Australia Day! 102 years since the colony threw off the vicious oppressors and declared themselves independent from the British Empire. And good luck to �em I say, they can keep their sunny climate, interesting animals, great beaches, natural mineral deposits�..errr hang on a second maybe that wasn�t such a good idea�.
Almost on the last part of our journey back down the coast and a short drive to Dunbogan south of Port Macquarie visiting on our way Trial Bay Gaol and Port Macquarie itself. Trial bay was built in 1886 and held prisoners for about 35 years and then was later used to house resident Germans who were in Australia during the Second World War. During the early convict days the prisoners would be forced to do hard labour, which consisted of building the breakwater to the bay beyond. There is a record of how much was build each and year and how much got washed away and destroyed. I noted that one year they build 44ft and 41ft was washed away. Must have been rather depressing.
Port Macquarie was buzzing as the Australia Day celebrations were in full swing with an old sailing ship tied up at the harbour and a massive fate/funfair going on in the background. There was even a guy who was hacking big carvings out of tree stumps of owls and the like with a chainsaw! Only in Australia.
Dunbogan was a dinky little place with a nice campsite where we played scrabble under the stars (DB winning once again), also caught a very nice sunset from the mountain in the North Brother National Park just down the road.
Monday 27th Jan
Dunbogan to Sydney
A fairly straightforward drive back to Sydney broken by a quick stop at the last �big� thing on our list the Big Oyster, which it turned out had be converted into a Nissan Dealership. A welcome collapse back into comfortable mattresses in normal beds!
Tues 28th to Thurs 30th Jan
Sydney
Once again back in sunny Sydney and in an effort to save money not doing very much. I have booked flights to Tasmania in Feb (11th) and then back to Melbourne (25th) so will have two weeks there - then catch up with Sniper and see Melbourne again. Having been quoting League of Gentlemen for the entire holiday up the coast I took the chance to reacquaint myself with Series 1, 2, and 3. Aside from that not a lot!