Jan 13th - Port Macquarie to Maclean - or Utopia, as it turns out...

So we arrived in at Lesley and James' house in Maclean late, of course.... Got there about 10 to 6, just in time for hugs and hellos all round, followed by beer in hand and the news on the TV - had to see if we were on it after being filmed in Port Macquarie and we were!!! On the TV in Australia!!! Kids were well impressed.

As soon as we arrived, James (junior), Will, Ella and Caitlin formed a Gang of Four and disappeared off to get up to gang-like shenanigans. They weren't seen much in the next three days. The adults decided that there was nothing else for it but to drink - quite a lot, actually, which seemed like a good idea at the time! As you can see, Phoebe joined in with the beer... And yes, that is a beer cooler/stubby holder with boobies.
They're classy, those Aussies...

Spent a very long evening catching up on old times - haven't seen L and J since before they left the UK 18 months ago (funnily enough, that involved drinking too) and we managed to convince ourselves that really we hadn't changed much since our university days. Yeah, right...




Loved Les and James's house - green and lush surroundings, verandah most of the way round for watching the local wildlife, and across the road from the primary school, where their daughter Caitlin starts in January. Not likely to be an arduous walk to school in the mornings! Also loved being out of the van for a few days - although we slept in the van at night, it was great to have a bit more space to relax in - and other adults to talk to!



Discovered that Maclean has a long-running rivalry with Glen Innes in NSW about which town is the most Scottish - well, I can tell you all that from our point of view, Maclean wins hands-down - every single lamppost in the town is painted with a different tartan and her is a picture of me with mine - for anyone who doesn't know, my maiden name was Russell...

Just as an aside, the Spar in Maclean also has a Visitors' Book. And loads of people write in it. To be fair, I think it's more a Visitors' Book for Maclean, rather than one where you can record your innermost thought abour Spar per se (Lovely buns, please could you stock alphabetti spagetti etc), but I was tickled by it - never been in a supermarket quite like it before...


Anyway, the next day (in spite of niggling hangovers) we headed off to Maclean's outdoor pool - didn't really expect what we got in a town of 2000 people - an olympic size main pool, huge kids' pool and a water slide... So Les and James, remind me again why you like living in this friendly, lush, tropical riverside town with great amenities?





Can't remember what else we did that day, but I am sure the evening involved James barbecuing on the deck - I can say this with some certainty as I have the picture to prove it. I'm willing to bet the evening also involved beers. I don't have the pictures to prove this, either mental or photographic, but it would seem like a fair assumption.

Next day was baking hot, so we hid indoors - in this picture Les is getting ready to bake a quiche which involved a fair bit of preparation... and was sadly doomed from the start, but more about that later. Note more beers on the table...





We decided to soak the children in lieu of another pool trip (and obviously so we didn't have to travel too far from beer central) and once they were wet and cool, we decided to soak them again - this time in the bath....I'm not sure whether it had any actual effect on their dirt levels, but they had fun!


You'll gather that there are no water restrictions in Northern NSW. It was so nice to be able to turn a hose on the kids as we just can't do this in Geelong - in theory, we can't even fill a paddling pool in the garden, unless we do it with bathwater... And it was so great to see green again - it really brought home to us how brown Geelong is.

So, Les popped the quiche in the oven and off we went out to dinner in Yamba, about 15 minutes down the road on the coast. Great laid-back restaurant with a huge climbing playpark onsite for the kids - which of course made for a laid-back dinner for the parents! And more beer...



So we headed back to Maclean, and as I was getting out the van back in Les and James' driveway, I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye... And there, perched on the side moulding of the van door was the biggest spider I had ever seen. Now, let me say up front that (a) I don't mind spiders in the slightest and (b) I had been warned about Huntsman spiders and how big they were. Fine, thought I, a really big spider, but Huntsmans are not poisonous, so I figured seeing one really wouldn't bother me. What I was not prepared for was the ... well, meatiness of it. I mean, a good butcher could have gone to town on it. And it was sort of hairy - grey, unnattractive hairy like a rat with eight legs. So I very gingerly, very quietly got out the van and shouted on Nick to come and see it, which he did, and then I left him in sole charge to go and get Les, James and a suitable removal container.

This was a Very Bad Idea. By the time I got back outside to the van, Nick had lost the spider. Conversation went somewhat as follows:
'Where is it?'
'Ummm - I dunno'
'You what? (Voice rising)'
'Ummm - I turned around to speak to the children and...'
'You did what? (Voice becoming hysterical)'
'I turned ar...'
'So where 's the bloody spider?' (voice now stratospheric)
'Well, it went across the back of the seats and then I lost it'
'INSIDE THE VAN?????????? INSIDE THE VAN?????????? WELL YOU'D BETTER FIND IT OR I'M NOT SLEEPING IN THAT VAN AGAIN.'

So James, armed with a flip flop, and Nick, armed with the knowledge that he would be spending a lonely night in the van with only Helga the Huntsman for company, set off hunting in manly fashion.

I went inside, where Lesley was surveying the charred remains of a once-promising quiche. Something to do with new oven, unfamiliar timer and leaving the house in a rush, but I can confirm that a quiche which has spent four hours in a hot oven is, in fact, beyond consumption.

Within minutes, the boys had done the job and Helga was no more. I really wanted to take a picture of the beastie, but poor Helga had had such a furious flip-flopping that she wasn't the creature she used to be... I did spend a reasonable amount of time inspecting the remains to be sure they had, in fact, once been a spider, and weren't part of some cunning ruse dreamed up by the boys to get an early night...

So off we all went to bed, drama over, and can I just say, I'm really proud of the way I kept my cool during the whole event, never once becoming hysterical or unreasonable...

Sadly, the next day it was time to pack up and get going again - not without a tinge of sadness. It was great to catch up with old friends, great to do not very much for a few days and great to see Maclean. But all good things come to an end, and we had more catching up with old friends to do in Queensland.

First though, a photo opportunity for gratuitous flag waving atop Maclean's lookout point... Nice eh?

Jan 11th – Sydney to Port Macquarie – or I Think We’re Finally Getting the Hang of This Thing

On the road by 7am again and managed a good couple of hours of driving before stopping for breakfast, then on the road again till lunch. Scenery up this end of the country is stunning – deeply forested and every colour of green, with every coastal town built on a river mouth as well, so full of blue and boats and beach and bridges – so pretty, would love to explore properly one day.

Arrived in Port Macquarie mid-afternoon – staying at a small park on the outskirts of town, but feels like we are in the tropics – surrounded by palm trees and bakingly hot! Parked next to a family from Hoppers' Crossing, about half an hour north of Geelong...

Other indication of having entered the tropics - went to the toilet block for a shower after dark and passed a cockroach the size of a cow on the way in, then was just putting my towel on the bench when a large spider appeared from underneath. Resisting the temptation to run screaming like a girl from the building, I gingerly grabbed my stuff and picked an alternate cubicle. I really prefer my nature outside when I'm inside...

This park had two friendly rabbits who would beg round the caravans for food, which made a change from the park at Sydney where there was a huge rat behind the van one day... The park in Sydney couldn't have been cleaner or better maintained but there was a big concrete storm channel running through it, so I guess there would be rats... Ella thought it was a squirrel though. We didn't correct her...

Went straight to the pool where Ella re-confirmed her status as The Fearless One – down the waterslide again and again. James is now very water confident – not swimming prettily, but effectively, loves swimming underwater and diving to the bottom to retrieve things. Will is still very clingy and unsure in the pool, but then he’s been clingy and unsure about a lot of things in life, so we’re hoping he’ll grow out of it. Phoebe is a little fishy who loves to push away from whoever is holding her and tries to go off on her own. Nick has been doing all the techniques from the Geelong lessons with her, so lots of time being ducked and popping up grinning.

Spent some of the next day in Port Macquarie itself – a really beautiful town – fairly sizeable with all theshops and services you could want, but also a choice or river activities and about half a dozen great beaches. Came back to the park to cool down with a swim in the pool.

Before leaving Port Macquarie the next day, went off to Town Beach with the kids in the hope of tiring them out for the drive. Usually a very calm beach apparently, but it was a full moon the night before and we're assuming that's why the waves were mental...

Did lots of wave jumping and James tried out his new boogie board. He was really good at it too! Also got filmed for Prime news on Channel 7 who were doing a story on skin cancer - filmed our kids as an example of being well covered up! Unlike many of the Australian children whom the 'Slip, Slap, Slop' message seems to have bypassed entirely. Left later than planned (obviously) and headed off to see Les and James in Maclean.

Jan 7th – Merimbula to Sydney – or Why You Should Never Move Motorhome in 40° Heat

So buoyed by that resounding endorsement, we set off the next day for our longest stint – just under 500km to Parklea, one of Sydney’s North West suburbs. Left ridiculously early about 6.30am and made good progress north.

The journey north was through some of the most beautiful countryside we have ever seen – green rolling hills, blue mountains, flowers, pretty little towns... Would definitely recommend anywhere between Merimbula and Kiama for a holiday.

Had read that Hyams Beach near Jervis Bay supposedly holds the record for the whitest sand anywhere in the world, so obviously we had to go there.

Jervis Bay looked really stunning too and these pics show the kids on Hyams Beach (or very nearby – it’s hard to be sure we were on the right one...) so you can judge the colour of sand for yourself...

Great rock pools and stunning shells all over the beach, and we would have loved to stay longer if it were not for the fact that we had arranged to swap the van overat the Sydney Kea depot.

Needless to say, trying to keep to any deadline with four sandy, cranky, tired and hot children was never going to be easy and by the time we got to Sydney, it was 4.40 and in theory we only had 20 minutes before the depot closed – so we lugged stuff from one van to the other, yes, really in 40° heat. It was one of the most unpleasant things I have ever done, and I have to say the depot staff were pretty shocking - reminded us we had to do the transfer quickly, and then did nothing to help...

Anyway, we finally got to our campsite about 7pm, and discovered two things – (1) the DVD player did not work and (2) I had left ALL of my clothing (all, really all – had a pair of pyjamas and a swimsuit to my name) in the other van. Swore. A lot. Probably in front of the children. Considered returning to Geelong again, though quickly dismissed this due to lack of suitable travelling attire...

So, again felt better after a good night’s sleep, phoned the depot and arranged to have the stuff sent over in a cab, along with a portable DVD player. Won’t tell you how much that little moment of absent mindedness cost, but it was a lot...

Had a quiet day investigating the park – a bit of a hidden gem really, with its weird suburban location, but a busy place too with loads of other hired motorhomes in the middle of North/South drives.

Kids loved the two aviaries in the park, and the pool with the Jacuzzi in the middle, and I loved how spotless it all was – and the cracking sunsets!

Went by train in to Sydney on Friday 9^th and met up with Peta whom we met in 2001 when her husband Pete was doing a fellowship in Edinburgh – these are her two children making silly faces with our three...

Took the obligatory pictures of the bridge and

opera house – last time we were in Sydney as a family, James was three months old... so needless to say, our agenda this time was a little different – a little less parent-centred, shall we say...

So we had a long trek across town to the Powerhouse Museum to see the Star Wars Exhibition – it was a really good exhibition which we all really enjoyed – James did actually insist on being photographed with every single costume on display, but I won’t show you them all here...

Left there, went on a round-Sydney tour on the Monorail, then found a Wagamama’s (probably Nick’s and my favourite restaurant ever and 4 blonde children again a great source of interest for the oriental wait staff) ) on the way to get a train home.... which we eventually did and finally made it home about 9pm.

On the subject of blonde children, it seems there may be an aberrant gene somewhere in our collective ancestry as Phoebe is showing signs of... well, a slight... strawberry tinge to her hair. This has been suggested to me before, and I have dismissed it, but the longer her hair gets, the more I am confronted with the incontrovertible truth – Phoebe’s a ginger.

Now let me make it clear that we know lots of people with red hair and red haired children (you know who you are), and we even like some of them; it’s just that on previous form, we weren’t expecting one of our own... So Nick and I are now playing Hunt The Ginger Gene in our family histories but so far haven’t come up with much – though I’m wondering if my maternal grandfather was maybe a bit reddy blonde – I’d ask my mother, but have no internet access here and am not phoning Scotland on and Aus mobile. Maw – comment please?

Went on Saturday 10^th for lunch with Jill who used to share a flat with me and Nick in Edinburgh in 1993 – haven’t seen her since then, so much reminiscing was done. Kids seemed to decide that a house with no children needed some serious ‘noising up’ and did so with gusto – so we didn’t subject Jill and her husband to our holy terrors for too long – Back to the caravan park for a swim, pack –up and early night in preparation for the next stage of our trip...