New Brighton to Broom's Head

Some of the produce from New Brighton Markets - on every Tuesday morning, from early o'clock.  It's almost worth the drive down from Brisbane every Tuesday just to pick up such wonderfully fresh produce.

Beautiful bananas

Doesn't this look almost too good to eat?  (Sorry Katrina, they didn't have any Brussels Sprouts!)

The view from our motorhome.

I've already lost track of the number of days we've been away, but we've spent a relaxing time in the front yard of Ann and Ross' home, walking the beach, eating and drinking too much and generally tidying and ordering the motorhome, finding niches for all the extraneous junk we threw in at the last minute.

This morning was New Brighton Markets, and I only wish I could put in all the lovely photos Ray took.  There was one memorable sight of a young girl walking along with a backpack on, with green veges sticking out both sides, and another with a beautiful young girl in a push-chair with the top groaning with veges of all descriptions.  The sights this morning were enough to make me want to take up photography!

We bypassed both Lennox and Evans Head, heading for one of our favourite spots on the NSW coast.  Broom's Head is only 25km from Maclean, a lovely old-fashioned "village"surrounded by Yuragir National Park, home to around 200 permanents.  We saw lots of wallabies along the way and, my old favourites, emus.  Brooms Head was originally known as Cakora Point - I rather prefer the story that the name was changed in 1870 when a broom, thought to have come from a wreck of the schooner "Eureka", was found washed up on the beach!

We intended to stay here for a week or so before heading inland, but on arrival discovered that our hot water system had died and we need to go to Grafton to have the whole thing either repaired or replaced - one hour there, one hour for diagnosis and goodness knows how long to get the part in from wherever these things are located.  That just means that we can come back here until the part arrives, and then drive back to Grafton for its repair/replacement.  Luckily the facilities in the caravan park are first rate so not having water in the van will only be a problem for washing up - nothing we can't solve with a little goodwill.

Right now, the sun is going down pretty fast and we're just about to try our new BBQ for the first time, with some luscious looking meat from a butcher in Maclean, and fresh salad from the markets this morning.  Reckon we'll probably be in bed pretty early tonight, with the accompaniment of waves rolling in on the nearby sand.

Ray groaned "Oh no, not another travelogue" when reading over my shoulder, so apologies to all those who thought that it'd just be a couple of paragraphs a day - I can't write short!

Day 1, New Brighton, Northern NSW

OK, here we are, only 24 hours into our Great Turning Left Tour and already we’ve landed in the best camping spot of all – Ray’s sister and brother-in-law’s house at New Brighton, just a stone’s throw from the beach.  We plan to be here for the weekend, after which we shall Turn Left yet again and meander down the coast until we find another perfect spot.

We missed our deadline yesterday by 6 minutes, driving out of Ormiston Springs at 12.06, after a couple more farewells (thanks Paul, I don’t REALLY think we’ve had more farewells than Melba!)  After a visit to Moreton Shores Nursing Home to say au revoir to a couple of friends (Ben and Mick) and unfortunately missing Margaret at Victoria Point, we headed south on the M1.  All went well until we neared the Gold Coast when the traffic became much thicker and slower – the only impediment we could see was that everyone had slowed down to watch a painter decorating a huge wall with sea pictures – there was no other obstruction on the road.  Reckon the Council should have erected a barrier so no-one could see him!

All went well until we neared the Yelgun turnoff, at which time we got stuck yet again.  Evidently there’s a HUGE music festival here this weekend,  and to cut a long story short, He Who Shall Be Nameless was asleep in the passenger’s seat when he should have been my eyes, and I managed to turn left into the Festival traffic instead of taking the second road (unmarked I might add) to New Brighton!  After a slightly heated discussion about whose fault it was that we now had to drive 7km at a snail’s pace before we could turn, I spotted a couple of  traffic supervisors at the bottom of the hill.  As we reached them I informed them that I was about to do a U-turn and go back up the hill.  They weren’t happy about it, but you’ve seen the motorhome; would you argue???   I managed to do a 3-point turn (go me, on a narrow road) and trundled back up the hill and the 10 minutes to our destination.

We’ve repacked the van to accommodate all the last-minute items we threw in and plan on spending a lovely Friday night with drinks and nibbles on Ann and Ross’ back verandah.

The van is working perfectly, we’re comfy and cosy and really looking forward to the next however-long we’re on the road.

Thanks to all and stay safe and healthy while we’re gone.

Sally (and He Who Shall Be Nameless)

Farewell to Ormiston Springs

Thanks to all those who helped us celebrate our last Sunday at OS.

The pics tell the story.

When all else fails read these suggestions

I am hopeless with new computer networking tools.  So I need to thank our good friend Linda for all her help in setting up our little blog.

For those who don't have grand-children to help I give the following advice:

The most recent posts are at the top.
Sally and I do the posting and we will try to put something on each day (good intentions pave the road to....).
If you want email notification each time we post you can enter an email address in the box on the right side.  (There is an unsubscribe option on each email just in case you get sick of getting emails from RAPTOR.
We welcome comments from you.  The blog is only available to those who know its address so it is fairly private.  We also welcome emails for the more private or non publishable thoughts.  To see comments you need to click on the word comment at the base of the post.  When you submit your comment you can verify yourself in a number of ways - the easiest is if you have a gmail account.  If you choose anonymous can you please include your name in the comment so that we know who is saying what.
To submit you will also need to do one of those dreadful word recognition things to prove that you are not a robot - good luck.

Hoping your days are everything you want - scroll down and COMMUNICATE please.

ps If you click on a photo you get a gallery of all photos from that post.  The esc key gets you back from the gallery

Welcome

Those of you who have visited this blog have no doubt wondered at the strange posts.  Well the initial  design stage is getting close to finished.  Our plan is to leave home next Thursday 25th July and turn left out the gate.  If you want to know where we are going you will have to follow our posts because we haven't made any plans except to take the ferry to Tassie on 28 Sept.

Our departure has been delayed and I'm sure our house sitter will be pleased to see the back of us.

I can't guarantee that I will not keep playing over the next few days but hopefully things will settle down soon.