I never tire of the beautiful beaches near where I live.
It's a dream come true that we have been able to live here. I know it's only been 8 months since we actually moved here properly, but I hope I never tire of these scenes.
Saturday, June 27, 2015
Surf's up!
I never tire of the beautiful beaches near where I live.
It's a dream come true that we have been able to live here. I know it's only been 8 months since we actually moved here properly, but I hope I never tire of these scenes.
Thursday, June 25, 2015
We finally get to Bowraville.
Bowraville is a little gem of a town in the Nambucca Valley.
It used to be called Bowra, but people got confused with Bowral! (Which is about 600 kms away)
It is lately famous around these parts for having an indie theatre which shows movies and live gigs.
It has got a pleasant art deco facade and looks neat inside when we peered through the doors. We'll have to go back when there's something on to have a good look.
Apparently it was closed in the 1960's but was restored by the local community. Good on them!
Bowraville has a pretty quaint main street.
It is wide as many of the towns built in those days were - designed so that bullock teams could turn in the street. In this case the bullock teams were carrying red cedar logged from further up the Nambucca Valley.
Bowraville was the port where the logs were taken downstream. Hard to believe these days as the river is silted up - this is what it looks like now -
This was once a busy port!
Of course there were pubs, and this grand example survives -
When you visit Bowra, you just have to go to the folk museum.
Apparently it is "one of Australia's best"!
And it does have an eclectic collection of, well, just about everything.
Including a german mine -
And some rather freaky models!
There are a couple of shops worth poking around in -
At the top of the hill is the Phoenix Art Treasures with some great, so cheap, handmade crafts by local adults with disabilities.
There's a lovely little garden cafe - The Mad Hatter Tea Garden, where we had lunch.
The main street has plenty of photo ops of the charming old weatherboard buildings, some a little unloved now.
This time we missed out on the Frank Partridge VC military museum....maybe next time, or maybe not.
Anyway we have now been there, done that and as I say we may be back to catch a show at the theatre or for a drive further into the hills.
Bowraville is about 20 mins drive from Macksville to the west of the Pacific Highway. took us about an hour from Kempsey.
It used to be called Bowra, but people got confused with Bowral! (Which is about 600 kms away)
It is lately famous around these parts for having an indie theatre which shows movies and live gigs.
It has got a pleasant art deco facade and looks neat inside when we peered through the doors. We'll have to go back when there's something on to have a good look.
Apparently it was closed in the 1960's but was restored by the local community. Good on them!
Bowraville has a pretty quaint main street.
It is wide as many of the towns built in those days were - designed so that bullock teams could turn in the street. In this case the bullock teams were carrying red cedar logged from further up the Nambucca Valley.
Bowraville was the port where the logs were taken downstream. Hard to believe these days as the river is silted up - this is what it looks like now -
This was once a busy port!
Of course there were pubs, and this grand example survives -
When you visit Bowra, you just have to go to the folk museum.
Apparently it is "one of Australia's best"!
And it does have an eclectic collection of, well, just about everything.
Including a german mine -
And some rather freaky models!
There are a couple of shops worth poking around in -
At the top of the hill is the Phoenix Art Treasures with some great, so cheap, handmade crafts by local adults with disabilities.
There's a lovely little garden cafe - The Mad Hatter Tea Garden, where we had lunch.
The main street has plenty of photo ops of the charming old weatherboard buildings, some a little unloved now.
This time we missed out on the Frank Partridge VC military museum....maybe next time, or maybe not.
Anyway we have now been there, done that and as I say we may be back to catch a show at the theatre or for a drive further into the hills.
Bowraville is about 20 mins drive from Macksville to the west of the Pacific Highway. took us about an hour from Kempsey.
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
The Rocks - as we call it around here!
If you live in Sydney then The Rocks is THE Rocks, so we were a little confused when we heard people around these talking about going to The Rocks for something - turns out they mean South West Rocks.
Now we are locals we can say The Rocks and know that we only have to drive about 40 mins to get there.
There is much to recommend The Rocks - a very nice cafe down by the river (The Boatshed), lovely north-facing beaches, Horseshoe Bay which is perfect safe swimming for kids, another lovely cafe overlooking Horseshoe Bay (Malt & Honey), and a more than reasonable Thai restaurant (Thai on the Rocks), it has a cinema (The Roxy, of course), and there is camping right on Horseshoe Bay.
I'm sure we'll discover more of its charms in the weeks to come but this is for starters.
Now we are locals we can say The Rocks and know that we only have to drive about 40 mins to get there.
There is much to recommend The Rocks - a very nice cafe down by the river (The Boatshed), lovely north-facing beaches, Horseshoe Bay which is perfect safe swimming for kids, another lovely cafe overlooking Horseshoe Bay (Malt & Honey), and a more than reasonable Thai restaurant (Thai on the Rocks), it has a cinema (The Roxy, of course), and there is camping right on Horseshoe Bay.
I'm sure we'll discover more of its charms in the weeks to come but this is for starters.
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Trying to get to Mount Banda Banda
I the hills behind Kempsey at the altitude of 1260m is the grand peak of Mount Banda Banda.
It beckons.
But getting to it is another matter altogether.
It is a lovely drive of a couple of hours up through the foothills to a patch of rainforest in the headwaters of the Wilson River.
There is a picnic area and some little walks through the rainforest to a waterfall.
Massive trees abound, some of them have fallen and make a nursery for other plants to grow on.
If you look closely you can see G at the end of this fallen giant -
Had we taken our swimmers this would have been a great spot to cool off.
Anyway, that's about as far as we got as the road towards Mount Banda Banda was blocked off and entailed a loooooong drive to get around.
Another time G went by himself and took his bike to ride to the mountain, but there were too many fallen trees.
Maybe another time we'll go and camp up in a camping area near there, in Werrikimbee National Park I think and do a bit more exploring.
It beckons.
But getting to it is another matter altogether.
It is a lovely drive of a couple of hours up through the foothills to a patch of rainforest in the headwaters of the Wilson River.
There is a picnic area and some little walks through the rainforest to a waterfall.
Massive trees abound, some of them have fallen and make a nursery for other plants to grow on.
If you look closely you can see G at the end of this fallen giant -
Had we taken our swimmers this would have been a great spot to cool off.
Anyway, that's about as far as we got as the road towards Mount Banda Banda was blocked off and entailed a loooooong drive to get around.
Another time G went by himself and took his bike to ride to the mountain, but there were too many fallen trees.
Maybe another time we'll go and camp up in a camping area near there, in Werrikimbee National Park I think and do a bit more exploring.
Wooli wanderings
We spent a very interesting day round and about the small township of Wooli, which is encased by Yuragir National Park on the north coast.
G discovered the wonderful photographs of Roger Welch while seeking to identify some wildflowers he had seen on our travels.
Roger pursues elusive flowers in the northern part of NSW and SE Queensland, his main joy being to photograph and identify them. He very generously uploads his stunning photos to a gallery that you can find here.
Roger very kindly invited us to go wildflower searching last weekend so we took ourselves off to Wooli and picked up our friends P and D on the way.
D is as crazy about flowers as G is - P and I went along for the ride.
It was a glorious day.
The river estuary at Wooli was looking gorgeous.
Roger brought along spotter and neighbour Bruce who is an orchid fanatic.
Much consulting of plant books followed.
And lots of getting down on hands and knees to photograph wee blooms.
We foraged by the road sides and scrambled into drains!
G took lots of photos but they are not available yet.
Bruce and Roger even supplied morning tea which we consumed at sweet little Minnie Waters. Then we shared lunch back at Roger's place.
The view from Roger's place is to die for!
We just had time for a dip in the river before this happened.
But we'll be back!
If you would like to check out Roger's very entertaining website look here - Beyond Eye Level.
G discovered the wonderful photographs of Roger Welch while seeking to identify some wildflowers he had seen on our travels.
Roger pursues elusive flowers in the northern part of NSW and SE Queensland, his main joy being to photograph and identify them. He very generously uploads his stunning photos to a gallery that you can find here.
Roger very kindly invited us to go wildflower searching last weekend so we took ourselves off to Wooli and picked up our friends P and D on the way.
D is as crazy about flowers as G is - P and I went along for the ride.
It was a glorious day.
The river estuary at Wooli was looking gorgeous.
Roger brought along spotter and neighbour Bruce who is an orchid fanatic.
Much consulting of plant books followed.
And lots of getting down on hands and knees to photograph wee blooms.
We foraged by the road sides and scrambled into drains!
G took lots of photos but they are not available yet.
Bruce and Roger even supplied morning tea which we consumed at sweet little Minnie Waters. Then we shared lunch back at Roger's place.
The view from Roger's place is to die for!
We just had time for a dip in the river before this happened.
But we'll be back!
If you would like to check out Roger's very entertaining website look here - Beyond Eye Level.
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