Left Home 3

 I feel like we are marking time till we can see the house we want to rent. Even so we have been filling our days. We take Heidi for a walk each day. It has been on the beach for the last few days. This morning we went to MacMasters beach, as we did on Monday. It is a surf beach with a stream running into the ocean from a lake. Yesterday's beach walk was at Pearl Beach. There was also a stream running down it which is something you rarely see in WA. There was also a view of Lion Island and loud and splooshy waves with lots of foam. Heidi sensibly stayed out of the water, except for the stream where she had a drink. It must have been fresh water. On the way to Pearl Beach yesterday we visited Patonga. We had to drive through the Brisbane Water National Park and there were wildflowers out!!! Unfortunately Heidi had to stay in the van and it was coming on to rain so I only got out for a couple of minutes and only got a couple of photos. I'm itching to get back there. The roads wer...

 We have moved again! This trip has certainly been a very moving experience. Now we are staying in a pet friendly holiday house at MacMasters Beach.    It is a beautiful part of the world and looks warmer and dryer than it really is.    The rain doesn't just slip right into the sand like it does in the West. It makes mud and puddles and squooshy slopes and flats. The water also helps make potholes in the winding roads. Doug and I have been jokingly playing pothole putt putt. You score points for missing the potholes - not as easy as it sounds. We went to church at Terrigal this morning and took Heidi for a walk up the skillion afterwards (with every other man and his dog) Heidi stayed in the van during church so she needed a run. It was a 'dog off lead' park on a slope running with water and oozing with mud. Anyway the edges had bushes and interesting smells so she had fun. Happy Sunday  

It is raining, it has been raining and will continue to rain here. Everything is soggy.   We are staying at the Umina Beach NRMA Resort and Caravan Park and our tent had a spectacular fail in terms of being waterproof so we are now in a cabin. In the meantime we have looked at 6 houses to let and the one application that we put in was going to be accepted but we have found something better that we would really, really, really like. It isn't available till 5 August so we are in a bit of a quandary. https://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-nsw-kincumber-434851183  It even has feature brick walls and archways to make us feel at home. Keep watching for the next exiting installment of our relocation.  

 We slept in this morning and got up lazily. Breakfast was late and we pottered around. Then I pottered with 3 loads of washing. It was a joy to do washing on a sunny, breezy day when it got dry easily. Later we took Heidi for a walk on the beach.   There is a small creek that runs into the ocean/inlet or whatever it is. Heidi had a lovely wade in the creek.  We have been looking for houses to rent. Tomorrow we hope to go and see 4 possibles. We'll let you know how we get on.

 We have arrived - almost 2 weeks to the hour from when we left. We pulled in to Umina Beach caravan park at about 3.40 pm on Saturday16 July. We set up and then went and had tea with Doug's parents. The trip from Cowra was variegated, interesting, tiring and I'm glad it's over. It was -2 when we woke up in Cowra - feels like -5. Doug scraped the ice off the tent and I wiped it off the table before we had breakfast. I was glad of all the warm layers I had brought including the scarf. I had to keep jogging to keep my toes from freezing. We travelled through Bathurst to Lithgow for lunch. VERY nice! Foodies please note that the Tin Shed in Lithgow is a place to go. Then we took 'Bell's Line of Road' to get to Parramatta and then the new Motorways to here. Bell's Line of Road is very pretty and very windy (as in a lot of bends) and there were lots of potholes. It was quite trying!  We stopped in a park by the river in Parramatta and we could see where the Hawke...

 The morn was cold and frosty The grass was white and crispy ... (now you can finish the poem)  Even Heidi had her coat on this morning We had a variagated ride today. The road was bouncy (is that another poem I hear?). It started very flat and somewhat boring till we discovered the sheep in the long paddock that we had seen warnings about. There's always one ... Then the tress reapperared on the roadside and we started to see interesting things like yellow flowers and apostle birds and choughs (as well as the usual formal night mob - ravens, magpies, mudlarks and willy wagtails all in black and white)   Later I also saw blue winged parrots and then eastern rosellas . There has been a lot of rain in the area and there was lots of water bt the raodside all around West Wyalong and further east.    The Lachlan River here at Cowra is well up and covering the low level bridge. While I was out taking Lachlan photos for my grandson (Lachlan) I also saw some pretty bird...

It is 2 degrees in Hay and feels like -5. I'm glad I brought my long woollen undies (or base-layers to be polite).   Yesterday we travelled across Victoria and entered NSW after lunch. We spent a whole 1.5 hours in Victoria, quite a bit of it walking by a very full Murray river.   Then we crossed into NSW to drive to Hay and bought some really nice fresh mandarines from a roadside stand.   There was lots of cotton on the roadsides and we could see where it had been harvested. We also crossed a VERY full Murrumbidgee River   And here we are. Only 2 days travelling to go to get to the east coast.  

 The last of  Spear Creek.  Yesterday we had a slow day and fairly ordinary for all of us except Heidi. Firstly she found a lamb leg bone in the bushes and brought it back to munch on instaed of going for a walk. Then we went into Port Augusta to have our window replaced. We left the car with them and walked into town looking for coffee and lunch. We found them at the cafe on the Pichi Richi railway station. Heidi found a lady who loved dogs and had treats in her bag. Of course she was very cute and was given lots. Later on we were walking along a sealed pathway and when I looked down Heidi had a dead spotted dove in her mouth. Where did she get that from!! Fortunately she was willing to open her mouth and we discarded it. Good grief! This is NOT a 28. This is a Port Lincoln Ringneck!     Today we packed up and left. It was slow because of the rain in the night but we finally trundled off and made our merry way southish and eastish. We lunched at Burra. It was s...

 This is one of our favourite places to stay. This caravan park might be at the end of 12 km of 'interesting' road but it is in a little bush valley.  There were interesting visitors to our campsite today!   A variegated fairy wren Adelaide Rosellas We also organised for our car window to be fixed tomorrow and went for a walk up deep creek. There are lots of interesting things to see and Heidi was really keen,  She saw and smelled rabbits, goats and kangaroos and all sorts of other things that only a dog nose can detect. Can you see the kangaroos in this one??  There were also rocks to climb , flowers to admire and wonderful big old gum trees. Tomorrow our window will be fixed and Wednesday we will be on the road again.  

 We left Ceduna late-ish and, after we had filled up with fuel, we started off down the road. After about 1 km a road train coming the other way flicked a stone up and the driver's window disappeared with a crash letting in a blast of cold air. We turned around and went back to Ceduna and discovered tha all windscreen repairers are closed over the weekends. So we went to an auto shop and bought a temporary windscreen and taped it in place. The trip to Port Augusta was very noisy!! We had to stop a few times on the way to effect running repairs. Heidi always enjoyed an outing till one time we stopped in a patch of double gees.     We were very glad to arrive in PA at about 5.30 and camp for the night at Spear Creek. It was cold!  Today we rang the  the insurance and the glass place and have 1 answer - but not enough. Tomorrow the glass place opens at 8 and then we'll know what we're doing. So with having an extra day we went to the Arid Zone Botanical Gardens. Un...