Port Macquarie and North Haven

We left Sydney, again, and headed across the Harbour Bridge, and a last look at the fantastic harbour, for a few months. It still feels sad and strange, without April on Carol's lap, head out the window and into the breeze, heading up the highway, but we are soon into the traffic of the F3, and past Newcastle, on our way to our first stop at North Haven. We've got the stereo on, and Bob Segar is in fine voice, as the miles fly by.

We had to change our travel schedule for the trip north. It would now be 10 days instead of 3 weeks, so we decided against lots of short stops, and would spend a few days at both North Haven/ Port Macquarie, followed by Kingscliff, and a short 2 day stop at Mt. Tambourine, a place Carol has wanted to visit for years. Unfortunately this meant no farm stay at Gloucester on the way north. This we will defer until the return journey in January.

North Haven from
North Brother Mountain Lookout

North Haven is the new chosen home of our new found friends from WA, Julie and Ron. We met them on the road in March, and they told us of their plans to settle on the east coast. They had a list of possible areas, but didn't get past the first stop at North Haven! They had sent us photos of their "Tree House", so we were eager to see it.

The area is only 40km from Port Macquarie, and includes the nearby townships of Laurieton, the main shopping area, Dunbogan, Camden Heads and West Haven. It is a very pretty area with ocean, river and lake. We stay at the Jacaranda Holiday Park, on a large grassy site, out the back among the paperbark trees and the lorikeets. It is really peaceful and quiet. Across the road from park it is a short stroll to the breakwall, and a lovely walk either out to the river entrance and surf beach, or back along the river into town.
First night is dinner at Julie & Ron's new house. It is an amazing house. Architect designed as a holiday house, it is high set among the trees, with all the living space and bedrooms upstairs, with separate guest room underneath with the car parking. There is a huge under cover deck off the upstairs living room, which looks out over the reserve that they back onto, and the river beyond. It is all steel beams and louver windows, and reminds us of our Lilyfield home. And of course, there is plenty of room for the caravan. We are certain they will love living here. We enjoyed a lovely meal of chicken casserole, with a few wines, and headed back home at a respectable hour.

Hail storm at North haven

Next day we took a drive around to look at the sights. What is it with us and weather! What started out as beautiful day, finished up with a hail storm! Apart from the hail, we had a great day. The area has grown tremendously since we last had a stop here, about 20 years ago. It is still a quiet little holiday town, with beach and fishing as the major attractions, as well as the fantastic scenery. The view from the lookout at North Brother Mountain, is 360 degrees, and really shows the varied landscape of mountains to the sea. We enjoyed another couple of great evenings with Ron & Julie, at both the Laurieton United Services Club (LUSC to the locals, but Carol preferred LUST), for the $13.50 T-Bone and Schooner night which was pretty good value, and a lovely meal at a little restaurant called Relish.

We moved a short distance up the road to Port Macquarie. Here we checked in at the Sundowner Breakwall Caravan Park. It is a big park with over 300 sites, and is in a wonderful location beside the breakwall and surf beach, and right on the edge of town. The main reason for our visit is to catch up with Charlie and Marg, the original owners of Gaymoir Products. We love their company, and there is much reminiscing about the 2 generations of Gaymoir, and we all share the nice feeling that the third generation of Mario & Cheryl, will continue the tradition. We shared a couple of nice meals at each others' places, walked the breakwall and the coastal walk, and generally had a great time. Marg is into everything, line dancing, folk dancing, clogging, bush walking, table tennis, badminton and I'm sure there is more! She took Carol to badminton, and as only Carol can do, she soon had them asking her back for more fun!  Carol had a ball. Three days later, and Carol is still feeling the muscles she had forgotten.

Sunday, after a beautiful, if not a bit pricey breakfast at The Fig cafe, we took a nostalgic trip up to Crescent Head and South West Rocks. We took the back road, taking the old cable ferry across the Hastings River, and following the mostly dirt, Mariah

Old Lodge Gallery & Riverside Cafe

I said it was beside the river!

We headed on to South West Rocks, and along the way stopped in the lovely old coastal river port town of Gladstone. Most of the old buildings, from the boom timber times of the late 19th century, have been beautifully restored. The old pub with its lacework around the verandah is a classic. We found a gorgeous gallery and cafe, for morning tea. The gallery was excellent, and the cafe at the back was right on the banks of the Macleay River. The sign said "Famous" Devonshire Tea, all home made. Imagine the let down when the waitress said sorry, the Bikies came through this morning and ate all the scones! Come on, Bikies don't do scones! They are tough and mean. Can you imagine huge, leather clad, hairy men covered in tattoos and body piercing, sitting down sipping tea from fine china, with pinkies perfectly extended, saying "Oh Slugger aren't the scones divine, so light and fluffy? Yes Bruiser, and isn't this Earl Grey tea beautiful? Don't you just love these pretty little cups?" It's the most far fetched excuse I've ever heard! Anyway, the Hummingbird cake was a pretty good second choice.

On to South West Rocks, where we found the bikies doing what they are supposed to do, drinking schooners at the pub and devouring huge hamburgers with sauce dripping off beards and elbows! Carol was having a good old reminisce also. No, not about the bikies, but holidays, long ago with Bev. The two of them had driven up to the Rocks in Carol's old Vee Dub. Bev met Fred, he took her out to the old gaol site to show her his etchings, and the rest is history! We took a drive out to the old gaol, which has been restored, and now looks great on the hilltop looking out over Trial Bay. There are lots of walks and lots of plaques, nothing about Bev & Fred though. He told me he was famous at The Rocks! We took a note of the Horseshoe Bay Caravan Park, right in town, as a good site for a future visit, and generally drove around, being amazed at how much the area had grown over the years since our youthful holidays.

We headed back to Port Macquarie. The sky was looking very stormy, and sure enough we got another hail storm. We sheltered by the side of the road. The hail was small, and not damaging to the car, but I was secretly hoping that those bikies had been caught out in it!

The 60's Silver Bullet Retro Van

We arrived back at Port, and started talking to our neighbour. He was one of those surfers left over from the 60's. His van was a silver bullet retro job from the 60's and he was pulling it behind a 1968 Valiant Station Wagon, complete with venetian blinds and the number plate SWELL. Two long boards strapped to the roof, he and his girl were reliving the dream big time! His rig was in fantastic condition, and attracted an endless stream of onlookers. The sky was again looking ominous. He took a look at the sky and boldly predicted that there wouldn't be much in it. Three hours later, we were about to find out if the Silver Bullet could float!

Monday morning we hitched up and hit the highway, headed for Kingscliff. It had dawned a beautiful clear morning, and the temperature gauge is slowly rising.