Port Macquarie and Crowdy Head

We spent the Friday night, on the 1^st Oct 2010, at an overnight rest area near Kundabung on our way to Port Macquarie.  Port Macquarie was settled in 1821 and is one of the oldest Penal settlements outside of Sydney.  On Saturday morning about 10.00 we arrived at St Columbus School in Port Macquarie, one of the many staging areas before the Rally.  After a cuppa and a catch-up with Peter and Julie we set up for the duration.  The weather was wet and miserable and is still wet and miserable with only one good day amongst it all.  It was beginning to look rather like a bog out our way and we were surrounded by water and slush, so on Thursday they brought us and everyone at the Wauchope Showgrounds into the Rally site 4 days early.  They also brought some more in on Sunday (today) as Wauchope was again full to the brim with Motor homes as the other staging areas had to be closed due to the muddy conditions.  It was perhaps a good idea as Port Macquarie is quite a large town and it would have disrupted traffic too much if they brought us all in on the Monday.  There must be at least half of the expected patrons settled in here now.  On Sunday we dove over to Wauchope to catch up with friends Lance and Kay and have lunch for $5 at the local RSL Club.  Wednesday we drove to Taree and caught up with the boys from Jacana (They fitted out our bus) with the plan to see what costs are involved in fitting out a smaller bus for our future plans. 

On the way back we took the coastal route and drove through Harrington and had a lovely lunch at Crowdy Head where we visited one of the Tacking Point Lighthouses. 

 The beaches here were lovely of course.  We drove through Laurieton, North Haven, Bonnie Hills and Lake Cathie arriving back at the school for happy hour. 

The famous 3 Brothers mountains

 Yesterday we explored the beaches around Port Macquarie, namely North, Town, Flynn’s, Nobbys, Shelly Miner’s and Lighthouse Beaches.

  At Lighthouse Beach (north of Watonga Rocks) was the historic Lighthouse which was built in 1879.

 The 25^th National Motor home Rally officially starts tomorrow so a whole week will be spent on catching up with old friends and making new ones, attending the odd seminar and craft workshop, visiting the trade store for new toys and enjoying the many food outlets and nightly entertainment.  There is a Governor’s ball on Saturday night and Frankie J Holden and the Ol’ 55 will be the entertainers for the evening.  So lots of fun to enjoy in the next week.  On the minus side the weather is predicted to be much of the same for the next week so we look forward to more and more rain.

Talk again soon