Heading for Port

Manda writes:

Ian and I packed our stuff away and left the campsite fairly early this moring. We'd found this campsite in Mount Seaview late last night in pitch darkness. In the cold light of day we could see that, apart from the beautiful scenery, there was nothing else around. The campsite consisted of a small amenities block and our neighbour, another caravan. It had somehow seemed more manic the night before, with all those flying creatures stuck to the van window, drawn to our indoor light!

The campsite in the middle of nowhere [the campsite was to the right, the dirt track continued for 4kms to reception, then there was another 2kms until the main road].

We were keen to get Ethel going as soon as possible in case she needed a push start - at least, we'd still have our neighbour to ask for help should we need to (the reception was another 4km away). To our delight, Ethel was back on form. In fact, she has been behaving herself very well recently (touch wood!) and has not let us down. It would appear that her tantrums have finally subsided!

From the valley, we looked up and saw the hills that we'd travelled through the night before. We immediately got a greater appreciation of the steep drop-offs we had driven so closely to in the dark. On hindsight, it was a good idea to stop at this remote location as we would have had another hour's drive to get to the next town. I'm sure this stretch would have taken longer in the dark too - not to mention the possible dangers of kangaroos jumping out, offering themselves as road kill!

We arrived at a place called Port Macquarie at midday. The temperature had risen to around 40 degrees celcius. We found a campsite and just took things easy for the rest of the day. It was too warm to stay inside the van and so we went over to the pool and communal lounge area. We watched 'Finding Nemo' on DVD. What a luxury - watching a film in decent quality, with no ad breaks. Many popular films are shown on Australian terrestrial TV but the downside is the ad breaks - there are lots of them. Furthermore, there doesn't seem to be any clear definition as to when the ads are about to come on and when they have ended; they kind of merge in with the film. The other day I watched 'Mrs Doubtfire' on TV and from start to finish, it took three hours.

At 6pm, the temperature had not dropped much and remained around 39 degrees. The toiletries in my bag were extremely warm, having been slowly 'cooked' during the day, inside the van. I had to wait for the blob of shampoo to cool down, occasionally blowing at it to try to speed up the process, before applying it to my hair.

We drove to a fish and chip shop in the town centre for dinner. 'Macquarie Seafoods' had been recommended in the Loney Planet and did not disappoint. Having pondered over a vast choice of calamari, scallops, crab, seafood sticks etc, we settled for some fish and chips, with the odd scallop thrown in too. I haven't had fish and chips since I left the UK. With lemon juice and salt applied liberally, it tasted delicious. It reminded me of home!