Blogs from Bulahdelah, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania

This morning we woke to yet another beautiful sunny day on the NSW coast. We have been so lucky with the weather, we really could not have asked for it to be any better. After breakfast we set out north (-ish) to drive back along The Lakes Way so we could visit yet another lighthouse! Between Myall Lake and Smiths Lake we turned onto Seal Rocks Road to drive out to the ocean. Our first stop was at Number One Beach where we stretched our legs and took a couple of photos. We watched a couple of black oystercatchers looking for their breakfast off the rocks. One was scrabbling around at the base of a rock between waves – it didn’t seem to want to get its feet wet? – and eventually succeeded in digging out ... read more

Day 6 Tour abandoned. Stuck in Bulahdelah today with no known way to get all the way back to Brisbane. The only option is to get to an XPT train stop station. We have a tentative booking for tomorrow night’s train from Dungog but they won’t confirm the booking because we need to have our bikes boxed which would be almost impossible to source. They are possibly able to send empty boxes on an earlier train but expect us to be able to meet the train & receive the boxes as the station Is unmanned. We cannot physically be there in time as it’s going to be a gruelling bike ride up into the hills. Regardless we have to go there as it’s our only way out but may take an extra day.... read more

After finally getting a transfer case from US for the GMC Sierra from Performax Motors at Gympie, we headed off & spent the first two nights of our trip at Esk Caravan Park. Very nice park with a resident koala nestled in a tree above our van. It's the first time in 40 odd years in Oz that we've seen a koala that isn't in a zoo.Esk is a friendly town and had nice warm weather. The next night we spent in a rest area just outside Glen Innes in NSW, gale force winds all night then a thunderstorm but the morning was clear & cold, 9 degrees!!!! We've been to Glen Innes before so wanted to move on.As we drove through the area we commented how much it reminded us of the Salisbury Plains area ... read more

Nov 10. (continued) Drove to Scotts Head. Twelve waratah. Jan and Russel. Tea and Sandwich. All in readiness. Sublime swim lee shore. Life giving view, beach stretching away to Nambucca Heads. Green hills behind. 'Whale Table' in park a gem. Photographer local paper did photos. Such a warm welcome. Jan's moussaka marvelous. Such a splendid place. Evening gathering. About 35 attended. Very on-side group. Enjoyable. Interesting input. Many wanted stickers afterwards. Nov 11. Jan's garden of natives attracting numerous birds. Mother and two calves slapping and breaaching. Calves got so far out of the water it looked like they were standing on their noses, tall straight up. Successful spruik at beach. Dinner with Russel, Jan, Mike and Melanie. Nov 12. Intense feeding offshore. Great rushes, splashes and leaps. Couldn't make out participants. Maybe dolphins. Later fish ... read more