Stuarts Point August 2014 week 3 on

August 12^th, Very strong winds again today and very cold, so not a fishing day. Val went to the Workers Club for Bingo and won a $6 voucher and met some local ladies, who have invited her to sit with them next time. The vouchers can be spent at the Club Bistro or at any of the 5 shops in Town (by the way, there are only 5 shops in this Town).

August 13^th, Still windy with a few light showers during the day. A whole lot of workers and equipment turned up today and started laying down a “hot tar” surface on the roads in the Park. The Annuals were very excited, as some of the roads were full of potholes and I heard comments, ie, “It’s about time the Council did something”. At the end of the day they packed up their equipment and left, after completing few sections of the road.

August 14^th, A truck arrived with 4 workers and did a tidy up of the road work completed yesterday. We were all set to head into Kempsey to do some shopping and the car wouldn’t start. Fortunately a neighbour had a “battery booster” and was able to get us going. We didn’t have any more starting problems, so enjoyed lunch and a bit of retail therapy in Kempsey. I have worked out the reason for our flat battery, as I have been very lazy and driving the car to the shops, many many times, when it’s only an 8 minute stroll.

August 17^th, the last few days have been overcast, windy and wet days. We had heavy rain all last night, so that should please the locals.

August 18^th, The rain was gone this morning so we decided to go for a drive and check out the local area. We drove up to Grassy Head, which is where the Maclaey River ends. It used to be the mouth of the River but 7 years ago a storm filled it in with sand and “the powers to be” decided to put in a new entry down at South West Rocks, instead of opening it up again. There was a Caravan Park at Grassy Head but no shops, so we carried on to Scotts head. We did the few shops and walked through the Caravan Park to the Beach. It’s on a small Bay, nice sandy beach and a good surfing and board riding spot. There were a few hairpin bends in the narrow road between Grassy and Scotts Heads, so I wouldn’t like to be towing a Van along that stretch of narrow windy road. As we came back into our Caravan Park at Stuarts point, a new arrival was blocking the road ahead, so I took the back street to get to our site. We unpacked our Shopping and the phone rang. It was Carole, our friend from Charlestown, who we knew was touring around Queensland with her Hubby, Rob. When I said “where are you?”, and Carole said “site 16 at Stuarts Point”, I looked up the road and got a wave from Carole. What a SURPRISE, it was them blocking the road when we came in. They called in to visit us and were staying 4 nights. We had a few drinks and played “Tiles” until 12.30am.

August 21^st, We have enjoyed our time with Carole and Rob, it was great to catch up. I was disappointed not to get to take Rob out for a fish, but the cold winds were blowing up the River every day and rob had a touch of the Flu anyway. We played a lot of tiles, which we all enjoyed, and had most of our meals at our place. As this was their last night with us, Carole and Rob took us to the Workers Club for Chinese. We all enjoyed the meals so much, that we couldn’t praise the Cook enough, everything was delicious.

August 22^nd, We saw Carole and Rob off this morning, on their way to call in on Terri and Patrick, our mutual friends at Wallamba River.

August 26^th, I had to pump rainwater out of the boat this morning, again. This will be the 3^rd time I have had to do this in the last 4 days. It has rained every day, with strong wind and a thunder storm one night (terrible weather). We did get an email from Bevington Shores to tell us that a possible home may be coming on the market soon, so that will change our plans and now we will head back to Budgewoi to check it out.

August 27^th, Still showers today, so we went in to Kempsey to do some shopping and I needed to replace my mobile phone (so I thought). It just stopped working and I assumed that it had somehow got a bit of moisture into it. I went to the Post Office and bought a $50 Telstra pre-paid phone, exactly the same as the one I already had. I went back to the car and decided that I should try my new phone, so put in my sim card and the new battery and it still didn’t work. I thought, it’s no good going back to the Post Office, so I went back down the main street to the Telstra Shop and found out that the phone was OK and the sim card was the problem. They gave me a new sim card and instructions to ring Telstra tomorrow and get the sim card validated with my current phone number. They would have sorted it all out in the shop but I gave them the wrong number (seniors moment), so they couldn’t find me on the system (I also saved myself the $20 fee for the shop to validate the sim). I now have a spare new phone which will be on hand when my next phone disaster happens.

August 28^th, I had to pump water out of the boat again this morning, so decided that while the rain had stopped, it was a good time to get the boat out of the river. I knew this wasn’t going to be an easy job, as one of my clamp on wheels was busted. I picked a little sandy spot in the camping area and pulled the boat up to the edge and took the car down to pull the boat up onto the bank, so I could load it onto the boat rack. As soon as the strain was taken by my tow rope the LH back wheel started spinning in the soft ground. No amount of rocking, plastic mats or rocks helped, I simply got bogged deeper with each try. I called on my neighbour, who brought his 4 wheel drive down and we were soon on solid ground again. I loaded all the boat gear into the back of the Territory and put the boat up on top of the car. I was buggered, so time for a wine and I’ll finish of packing all the gear tomorrow.

August 30^th, This week-end Stuarts Point is buzzing, as the Yarrahapinni Festival is on, so lots of activities for the kids, Market stalls, Hot Rods, Dog and Owners swim across the river (Unusual), Arts and Craft Display and The Op-Shop Ball as the Workers Club. We bought tickets to the Ball when we first arrived in Stuarts Point, so the idea was to purchase an item to wear from the Op Shop. I had a long sleeved Op Shop shirt and Val put on an OP Shop style house dress and pink clogs. I thought we were well dressed for the occasion. The locals got into the spirit with some great outfits, as you can see in the photos. We weren’t at the Club long when we were enticed to buy a $2 Op Shop tie, to add some proper dress to the occasion. The meal was Chinese, very good, and the Band was loud but enjoyable. All the prizes were from the Op Shop and were wrapped in newspaper (very classy). I won 3 prizes, lucky door, best tie and the 100 board game where you bought a number for $2 and they did a draw for the lucky winners. We had a good time and enjoyed the night with a couple from Nambucca Heads.

September 1^st, We left Stuarts Point this morning and drove down to Budgewoi Holiday Park. This was a change of plans, as we had intended to go further north, but when we got word that Bevington Shores had a home coming on the Market that might suit us, we wanted to be down there to get in a first in look.

This is where we intend to settle, so our travelling days have drawn to an end and we have decided to make this the last blog post. We have enjoyed our 8 ½ years as “Grey Nomads” and seen a lot of this big Country of ours.