We went country for a while

Port Macquirie & Walcha

After two nights on the coast at Emerald Beach, and spending lots more money, we headed back inland. On the way inland we stopped off into the town of Port Macquarie. It was a little old fashion town right on the coast and a good little place to stop for lunch and then keep going.

We drove through ranges on our way inland and it was a long and windy drive! And even though it took us forever to just get to the top, passing nothing along the way, we were surrounded by lush forrest which was beautiful!

Our destination for that evening was a free campsite just outside of the town of Walcha. We arrived in the afternoon, saw the spot was empty except for a caravan and thought before setting up then we might check out the town.

We searched for somewhere to have a drink and as it was around 4pm not much was open in a country town, except the pub! We walked in and all eyes were on us. Alex got a beer and I was difficult and ordered a long black. The bar tender had to ask someone drinking to make it as he hadn’t used the machine before, I felt bad, but I needed a coffee or I’d fall asleep.

With a little warmth from our beverages we left the pub and headed back to set up camp. When we arrived the caravan was still there. Although what we had not noticed before was that those inside the caravan were yelling at each other. And it was not just your average yelling, if that’s even a thing, nope it was full blown yelling. This elderly couple were flinging f*** and c*** bombs at each other continuously. At first we were concerned that they were yelling like that at each other, and then we were concerned that they noticed we were there but didn’t stop. In the end it seemed harmless and somehow there thing, but it didn’t stop us making a little extra noise to drown out there filthy mouths and laughing a little when we actually listened more to there conversation. It seems they were arguing about destinations and where each thought they should go next.

Anyways, all the while this was happening we set up our tables and chairs, as well as starting a fire. Alex loves making fires and it was a bonus it was cold, so we had a need for one. We cooked by the fire and then enjoyed its warmth until it got too cold and started raining.

We slept well, the yelling stopped but the rain didn’t. It rained all night and the next day we realised it had soaked through to our mattress because it was pressed against the side. We took all we could out of the tent and closed everything up, hoping the next destination we went to we could dry everything out.

Besides a rained on bed and a funny couple, our one night stop in Walcha was really nice, reminding us that some free camps are just awesome!

Gunnedah

We are out in the New South Wales country side, which calls for a stop in the countries music capital of Australia; Tamworth, the location of the big guitar. The guitar was maybe not as big as we were expecting, but it was another ‘big’ item to tick off the list. We stopped into Woolworths for supplies, had a coffee and then continued on to the town of Gunnedah.

In the middle of nowhere we found the town the be a little oasis. It was so lovely, with big wide streets, trees everywhere and funky cafes all along the main street. We checked into the towns caravan park and secured a powered site for an awesomely cheaper price than what we had been experiencing at some other locations. And just like the town, the caravan park was beautiful. In fact we liked the town and the park so much that we ended up staying two nights.

When we arrived, as mentioned in our previous blog, we needed to air out our bedding as it had rained a lot the night before and soaked a little through. Luckily it was nice and sunny in Gunnedah so we laid everything out and it dried in no time. We also did a little washing after a lovely older couple lent us $5 as we had no cash or coins. I think they thought we needed the help and we greatly appreciated the coins. When we went to pay them back they had left…#opps.

The day in between our nights in Gunnedah were spent pottering around the car, taking long showers and then sitting at a café in town for a few hours using their Wi-Fi to blog. We do that sometimes, use up serious amounts of a café’s data just to upload our blogs. We brought lunch there so that compensates right?!

For the rest of our time in town, we went for walks and went out for dinner.

It turned out to be a really lovely stop, and as said before an oasis in the middle of nowhere.

Dubbo

Dubbo was the first ‘big’ town we would have stopped into for a few days. We arrived and checked into the first caravan park we saw, it was the last day of school holidays and so we were in luck for a space and there were no children anywhere to be seen.

The drive into Dubbo was like driving into the storm, it began raining as soon as we left the last town we had stayed in, Gunnedah. So with it raining outside we thought it best to position ourselves inside. Coincidentally the Formula 1 was on and Alex wanted to watch it. We found a pub, they put it on for him and while he watched I did some typing. It was a productive afternoon for both of us.

After that we cooked dinner while it rained and then we went to bed. Only when we went to bed did we notice that there was a reason behind the caravan park being barb wired. Lets just say there was some angryish people hanging around on the other side of the fence. It definitely was not as scary or entertaining as our experience in Kununurra, which you can read all about in one of our other posts. But it was definitely a nice little reminder of that particular memory.

The next day once the rain stopped for a few minutes we packed up our tent and then got on the road and drive to our next destination.

Our stay in Dubbo was really eventful, some serious fun was had….

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