Category: Travel

After spending an hour watching the ocean waves at Flynn’s beach, we hit the road again.  Not too far out of Port Macquarie I spied the signpost for Timbertown at Wauchope, and remembered it was something that had appealed to me in the tourist brochure – seeing as the weather was relatively good at that stage, and it was coming up to lunchtime we decided to drop by … we had a wonderful time in there. Although it’s quite a small site compared to places like Sovereign Hill in Ballarat, they have done a great job of it. It’s designed to show what life was like 100 years ago, and buildings have been set up like a small town with businesses and houses displaying items from that era.

We also got to see a bullock team in action pulling a two-tonne log (they were exquisite creatures, and personally a highlight for me was seeing them) – they were regularly walking through the township, with an actual show in the afternoon.

And of course there were a few more animals to delight young children (and those not-so-young, ahem).

Not to mention the odd bit of wildlife not part of the display …

There is also a steam train that runs every hour around the township and forested area … plus rides in a horse and carriage.

And a rest stop just wouldn’t be a rest stop without the infamous scones … although a baby magpie was hanging out next to us just waiting to join in the feast! (Shame he has to grow up, as he was really cute – adult magpies are most definitely NOT so cute!!) 😉

All-in-all we loved our visit to Timbertown … but unfortunately during our last minutes there the heavens started to open again.

It turned out that the remainder of the drive home was the worst drive I’ve had to do in many many years!! It was raining so hard the windscreen wipers were on full speed and still couldn’t cope – you could hardly see two feet in front of you for driving! Mum was so uncomfortable with the whole thing that she suggested we pull off and stay at a motel for the night and drive in daylight the next day (by now it was night-time) – personally I just wanted to get home to the comfort of my own bed … but today my back and shoulders are really feeling the strain of driving for almost 5 hours in the dark fighting torrential rain. My lower back, especially, is really uncomfortable and I’m not in a hurry to do any long distance driving for a day or two now … in fact it’s so bad I’ve just cancelled my ticket to see Michael Buble in concert tonight – I can’t stand the thought of driving for 1 1/2 to 2 hours to my friend’s place, then another 2 hours in a theatre seat … what a monumental waste of money, but better for my state of physical health, I think 😦

Even though the trip had its nightmares (especially the drive home again), we still had a good time away – as always we can usually make good of a bad situation and appreciate the positives … but I’m really glad to be home!! 😉

This ended up being our final day on holiday … we’d decided after such an abysmal day in Coffs Harbour that there was probably no point hanging around and thought we’d head home early instead.  When we got up, though, there was blue skies and only a little bit of wind.

We checked out of our apartment then headed across the road to Flynn’s Beach, where we spent about an hour watching the huge waves crashing in – it was absolutely spectacular, and we could have spent the entire day sitting on that beach watching the ocean.  Instead, we went for a walk up both sides of the beach and took some (well, actually LOADS of) photos before we hit the road back to Sydney.  Here are a few photos of the waves and beach:

When we woke up on Tuesday we were not thrilled to see gale force winds and pelting down rain to greet us (although we’d had a few insights into that with the noise during the night).  It still didn’t perturb us, though, and we packed up our raincoats to head into Coffs Harbour for the day.  The ocean was really rough, but I couldn’t be bothered getting soaked to the skin to take a photo …

I have to admit we didn’t enjoy a lot of the day, although as always we still had some fun highlights to save the day from being a total disaster.

Our first port of call was Fredo’s Pie Shop (thanks Alison, we managed to find it) – this is written up in all the guide books and tourist papers apparently due to its huge array of pies to choose from.  Here is a selection of their menu (you may have to enlarge the piccie to read it), along with a photo of a few of the more “exotic” flavours!  I had a kangaroo pie just to be different, while Mum had a sausage roll, then we headed next door to sit and eat them while I tried to drink the worst coffee I’ve had in ages … the pies were OK, although I have to admit I’ve had better elsewhere (namely Mascot).

Back on the road again we headed to Bellingen, which is where I had my heart set on driving to.  We stopped off at the Old Butter Factory which is a craft co-op with individual little craft shops – this was a wonderful place to spend some time wandering around and admiring the wonderful crafts for sale.  Unfortunately the items I fell in love with were a tad out of my price range, so we left empty-handed.

Next up was the ultimate destination for me – The Yellow Shed.  This is another craft shop which had all sorts of things in it, including a lot of new age things.  The reason I wanted to go there, though, was to replace my mugs that I’d bought on a previous visit.  I absolutely adored my mugs, which are by a Queensland potter called Albert Verschuuren – unfortunately, though, my previous male flatmates Fraze and Andrew managed to break one each so I was left bereft of my favourite mugs.  Thankfully there were some on sale still, so I stocked up once again for my big splurge of the trip 😀

At this stage the rain was phenomenal … there were rivers of rainwater rushing down the street gutters, and lots of fields were showing signs of flooding, but we kept plodding on and getting out and about.  After one more stop we turned back towards the highway again and drove up to Coffs Harbour where the rain was pouring off and on.  We drove straight to the Big Banana just to buy some banana honey and have a banana split – the banana split was devoured, but alas no banana honey for sale 😦

After we’d finished eating at the Big Banana, the rain closed in once again … and my walking shoes had finally died, with holes and gashes now letting in water.  We headed over to a local shopping mall where I found a cheap pair of runners, along with a pair of much-needed dry socks, before we called it a day and headed back home.  At 4.30pm it was already dark thanks to the hideous weather – and I have to say the drive back to Port Macquarie was sure as heck no fun whatsoever, proven by the tension and stress felt in my back and neck muscles by the time we got home again!  I was very grateful to see that apartment sign in the distance so we could sit and relax while watching NCIS (we just got home in time to heat up dinner and settle in to watch it).

Bright and early on Monday morning we hit the highway to head up to Port Macquarie – by the time we called past my PO Box to check my mail it was 7.30am when we were earnestly on our way.  After taking an hour to get to the other side of Sydney proper, we headed up the Pacific Freeway where we couldn’t see a thing for an eternity due to fog … as it turns out that was to be an indicator of the weather throughout the entire trip!

Eventually the fog cleared, to be replaced with a smattering of rain every now and then … and I have to say I’ve never seen so many roadworks in all my life – they went on for km’s and km’s!  Eventually we decided to drive off the main route and take one of the tourist drives via Stroud and Gloucester, and I’m really glad we did, as I enjoyed driving that way much much more – the scenery and drive was much more interesting.

Unfortunately one of my windscreen wipers died a horrible death during the journey, so we called into a wee NRMA garage on the drive through Stroud and had it replaced, before stopping for a rest stop further down the road in Stroud township to have scones with jam and cream, and a coffee for me at a small quaint cafe.  Very unusual for me to show scones on this blog, I know haha.

As we were walking back to the car we noticed a craft store selling home-made crafts by local artisans … I always try to buy a little something when I go through these places, even if it’s something little, especially in small townships, so I came home with a hand-painted doorstop, painted blue with white daisies.

We enjoyed seeing a few displays of autumn colours still on the trees here and there …

And this is just something that the non-Aussies out there might enjoy … unfortunately during the drive we didn’t see any koalas this time.

We did, however, see a kookaburra along the way and just had to take a photo … it’s always nicer to see the Australian wildlife “in the wild” and not in a cage somewhere (although the same can’t be said for some of the reptiles or arachnids! hmmm).

After our slight detour we continued back to the main highway where we were greeted with yet MORE roadworks.  The weather started turning in even more, but we braved the elements and took a few photos of the Lighthouse and ocean at Lighthouse Beach while trying not to get blown off the hilltop by the high winds. 

Five minutes up the road and we found our apartment, but we decided to continue driving and go shopping in Port Macquarie first where I found a T-shirt just perfect for my new pyjama bottoms Mum has made me.  Once we returned to the apartment we checked in and settled in with a Christmas ornament to stitch – thanks to over-catering the previous day at the stitching get-together we had plenty of nibbles to munch on for the night … although the next day I had to frog-stitch all that that I managed to stitch that day! Oops 🙂

In case anyone’s interested, we stayed at the Beaches Holiday Resort – it was a very reasonable price for a beautiful 2-bedroom apartment … although away from the “main” part of Port Macquarie, everything was just a short drive away.  Our apartment was almost bigger than our apartment here in Sydney!

Rightio, now where was I up to when I posted last???  Better go back in again and find out …

When we arrived in Bermagui, we decided to get a motel room as opposed to a cabin – and arrived just in time before the heavens opened up and it poured down with rain.  There was a fish and chip shop/restaurant directly across the street from us, and once the rain eased off a bit we walked over to find at 7pm they were closed for takeaways … what the?  Anyway, we then took a short stroll in the drizzling rain into the main township and found another place for fish and chips, so we decided to sit in and eat before heading back to the motel room.  Unfortunately I personally have to say it was the worst fish I’ve had in years … it was marketed as Blue Grenadier, but when questioned what sort of fish that was we were told kiwis may know it as Hoki – I had reservations, as I was sure Hoki was one fish I’m not keen on, but ordered anyway … and was proven right, it was bl**dy horrible!  The chips and salad were nice, though, and we still cleared our plates as we were so hungry – I definitely wouldn’t go back there again though 😦

The next morning we re-packed the car and had a quick look around the area of Bermagui.  It is only a very small little hamlet, but very very pretty.  Straight opposite the motel was the harbour of fishing boats (I won’t bore you with too many photos, but let’s just say I took a fair few photos haha), and it was a wonderful sight to see.  After going photo mad for a while, we drove just around the corner to look back at Bermagui from the ocean inlet and took another photo.

From Bermagui we started our trek back up the coast again.  We took a small detour just up the road to see Camel Rock – and spent a short time watching the surfers catching a few waves.

The next detour we took off the main highway was to go to Pebbly Beach – on a lengthy unsealed road, it was a lovely drive through Murramarang National Park to get there, and we had stopped and ate our ham-filled bread rolls under the trees.  A friendly crimson rosella flew over to see what was on offer, but unfortunately we didn’t capture him on film as the camera was in the car.  Anyway, I was thrilled when he hopped up on my knee, then started walking up my chest … I put my hand out and he sat there for ages … all the while trying to get my filled roll!  We had fun watching him each a grape, then he pinched the last inch of my bread roll from my fingers, the little sod – it was great fun!!  Not so great was when a great big black bird of the raven family started to try to do the same thing, and trying to take the entire bag of grapes … at that point I decided it was time to stand up and leave!!  We did manage to see one female kangaroo and her joey near the beach, which Pebbly Beach is quite famous for.

In fact a great thrill for us on the whole trip was the different amount of native wildlife we saw on the way – we had an echidna, a wombat (unfortunately the victim of a car accident, I think, as it was laying on the side of the road with one paw up – I don’t think he was trying to hitch a ride), a snake (thankfully half-dead on the road, also the victim of a car), kookaburra, galahs, pelicans, rosellas, kangaroos, and koalas (Mum saw them while I was driving).  It was wonderful!!

Anyway, after Pebbly Beach we pretty much drove straight up the coast, and just had a short stop in Woollongong.  While we were driving we saw a wonderful temple on the skyline – when we saw tourist signs giving directions to get there, we thought “what the heck” and took a quick detour.  I’m so very glad that we did!!  What a gorgeous place – unfortunately the temple itself was due to close in a few minutes time, but we could still have a quick look at a small part of the gardens.  I definitely want to go back again and spend more time there.  They have a website, so you can see more of it there – it’s called the Nan Tien Temple, and it’s a Buddhist temple … it’s just exquisite!! 😀

It was then back on the road again – we looked at the map and decided it was easiest to miss the final hour of coastal driving into Sydney itself and headed over to the Hume Highway, as that then linked to the M7 which took us up to where Brenda and Nigel live.  We arrived about 7pm, and after chatting for a while we popped around to the local Outback Restaurant where we had dinner.  It was wonderful to see them again, and we’ve had a lovely week here with him so far.  I’ll go more into what Mum and I got up to during our two days free before I started work in another post … right now I need to get dressed and head over to the other side of Sydney to look at a flat! 😀