Grumbles

Tuesday 22nd September 2015.

 

I am feeling that we done the wrong thing by coming home when we did.  It has been cold with a fair amount of rani since we came home.

We have both had some type of illness that causes a lot of dry coughing and headaches.

 

After about a week at home we went to Lansdown Road Cundletown (about 8 km north of Taree)  and property sat for 12 nights.  It was nice to have a nice rural scenery to wake up to.

We used to come home for a few hours during the day and go back at night and sleep in the motor home.

 

During this time I upgraded this laptop to Windows 10.  Big mistake.  Microsoft had said that this computer was compatible with Windows 10.  I now know that Toshiba say that it is not.

Have now wound it back to Windows 7 Professional and still can’t get the CDDVDW to be recognised. Have tried many suggested fix's with no success.  Am now considering buying an external one as our Asus tablets do not have CDDVD driver.  A big thank you to Microsoft (if you are eaves dropping) for stuffing things up yet again.  I am not letting the tablet upgrade after reading a lot of comments on the net about the trouble that Windows  10 is causing.  I think that I survived a lot better than some.

 

Trusting you are all well.

Regards,

Des & Bev.   

To Home

Wednesday morning 2nd September 2015

Home at Taree. (And b...dy cold!) 3 deg. overnight!  7 deg. at &.30 am.

We arrived home yesterday at 1.00 pm.

Smoke signals were sent from the top of Middle Brother Mountain at Johns River to announce our imminent arrival at Taree.   Thank you who ever arranged this gesture.

The trip from Macksville was fairly slow owing to the vast amount of road work being carried out. There were long stretches of 80, 60 & 40 kph stretches with some lollipop men thrown in for luck.  This resulted in our best fuel economy for the whole trip, 8.39 ltr/100km or 33.67 mpg.  Actually, there are big road works happening from Brunswick Heads to just below Ballina.  Because we went inland from Grafton we did not see what is happening from Grafton to the Raleigh intersection where we re-entered the highway. More works started there   and continued through to south of Nambucca Heads, Warrell Creek, Eungai and nearly to Clybucca.  Can’t say that no money is being spent on the Pacific Highway!

We travelled a total of 15,868 km. used $2,415.75 worth of diesel at an average cost of $1.407 per ltr. Returning averages of 10.90 ltr/100km or 26.10 mpg. .15 cents per kl.

The cheapest fuel was at Ceduna @ $1.209, the dearest at Renner Springs and the 3 Ways @ $1.74.

Well I had better get back to doing something usefull now.

Best regards from Des & Bev.

To Gumma Crossing Reserve

Tuesday morning, 1st September 2015

Gumma Crossing Reserve

Yesterday we travelled from Nymboida, (where the hydro electricity station no longer operates), through more of our favourite winding roads through hilly country.

Passing through Billy’s Creek, Dundurrabin and Tyringham before arriving at a lovely spot for morning tea, Frank Gilbert Memorial Park, at Bostobrick.  This is on the old school site of 1918 to 1970.  By now the temperature had dropped to 11.5 deg. Bostobrick is about 14 km west of Dorrigo.

After morning coffee we went on to North Dorrigo and had a chat with an old fellow about the earlier times here and learned that the mill was completely gone now and only an area of bladey grass remained.

All of the old railway steam engines and carriages are still in the railway yard at Dorrigo.  A lot of the passenger carriages have had heavy “plastic” coverings put over their roof.

A lovely lunch was had at the Dorrigo Hotel before leaving for Bellingen. We thought about staying at the showground there but opted to go to the Old Butter Factory for a banana smoothie. YUM! We then continued on to Gumma Crossing Reserve about 7 km east of Macksville.  We had stayed here wit Mike, Sue and Rosie about 2 1/2 years ago.

There have been improvements done here with a dump point, cold showers, solar lighting in the toilets, BBQs and fire pits.  Only $12 per night for 2 people.

Time to enjoy some sunshine now !!

Regards,

Des & Bev.

To Nymboida Canoe Centre

30th August 2015.

Nymboida Canoe Centre.

We departed Ocean Shores at 9 am today and our first stop was the Ferry Park rest area cafe for a lovely cappuccino.  They make what is probably the best on the highway.

As usual, when we visit Grafton we call on Tom & Jodi at the Fitzroy Motor Inn.  We found out today that they had left about 2 years ago!

Our plan was to come to Nymboida to see what was up this way.  It is about 35 km along the Armadale Road from South Grafton.  There is about 40 acres of camp ground here among the gum trees.  Powered sites $25, unpowered $20.  There are a number of various sized cabins/cottages, toilets and hot showers, picnic shelters and fire pits, BBQ, shop with free WiFi. & probably more. There is a great walk along the creek/river where canoeing & kayaking, rubber tube events are conducted.

Something like a bigger version of the area at Ellenborough.

Not sure if this email will go out in the morning if I stop at the shop on the way out.

Goodnight for now from Des & Bev.