Step 9 Nelson Bay - Tuncurry

Wednesday 1st December - 177kms driving
Another rainy night and the roof survived with no leaks - apologies to Herb, looks like Kiama might have been an anomaly Mr FixIt has fixed it. Fingers crossed.

The day started with another lesson learned:
    if it has been raining all night
    and it is raining when you wake up
    and it is completely overcast
    and you need to load the bike on the trailer, pack up and move on
    and it stops raining

   DO NOT go next door to the coffee shop for a "quick" cappuccino

OK seems obvious now but at the time we REALLY needed a coffee and the day before it was raining and then cleared up.

So anyway, we finished our coffee, the rain started and we packed up in the rain. Character building I say.

Rain followed us up the highway but we stopped at the bakery in Nabiac for a couple of meat pies (just one each) and because they looked so good, bought a cream bun for Steve and a Apple & Strawberry turnover (with cream) for Di. Hard to believe it but we are losing weight.

Nabiac is also home to the Australian Motorcycle Museum which turned out to be fantastic. Over 800 bikes from vintage to 1990's. Well worth a visit, particularly for this biker dude and his moll.

Inspired by Steve

With the rain still persisting down we decided to skip V & H's recommendation of Seal Rocks as a destination and drove into Tuncurry. Living dangerously we again ignored Vicki & Herbs advice and recommendation of the Great Lakes park and stayed at the Tuncurry Beach park. Mainly because it was closer to the shops and Bowls Club (and given the weather forecast we thought that wiser), but also to show our independence and that we are not slavishly following the Hertaegs :-)

Did the standard, chat to the first person we met, and was told that according to the forecast the weather was set in for the next four days. Not to mention that the only part of NSW where it is not raining is to the North West of Broken Hill ! Aaah well a relaxing few days in the MM ahead, didn't bother unloading the bike from the trailer.

Thursday 2nd December - Day 31
Surprisingly it wasn't raining when  we   I woke up, so off I went for a walk out on the breakwater to try and work off some of that cream bun.

   With the weather still overcast, but warming up it was getting quite steamy - so I told Di to behave herself and we went out for a day trip. Given the forecast we decided not to risk the bike and took MM out, without the trailer. Having had a quick look at the budget we grabbed a couple of rolls at the bakery to make up our own lunch today.

Decided that completlely ignoring V & H is never a good idea so we headed on down to Seal Rocks to check it out. A good choice that turned out to be, the coastline up here is just spectacular and after the pleasant walk (apart from the last bit where they should have had a ladder instead of the path) the view from the lighthouse was fantastic.

Personally though I think it's about time they renamed the place "used to be seals" rocks because according to the sign ( and distinct lack of seals) they haven't been here for quite a while.

"Used to be seals" rocks

But lunch in the van overlooking the little bay was wonderful. It actually has me thinking that touring in just the van might not be such a bad idea. We'll see.

Stopped off at the big Stockland shopping centre on the way back to the park because we hadn't been in a shopping centre for several days we needed a couple of things, including floor mats for MM whose floors are suffering from the rain and muddy ground. aah, gotta love the Reject shop. Also managed to find a reasonable cappuccino while we were there as well as stocking up on some wine with the Woolies 30% off if you buy six offer - don't know how we will manage to drink SIX bottles of wine, but we'll see how we go.

Friday 3rd December
Weather still a bit overcast but no where near as bad as the predictions.
Well today was a Personal Best (PB) for Di, 53 minutes and 40 secs for a trip to the amenities block. No, don't panic it wasn't the NSW water or Steve's cooking, thanks here are due to Ernie. Ernie has taken a bit of a shine to our Di, and Ernie likes a chat and Ernie could chat for Australia if it was an Olympic sport. Unfortunately for Di, Ernie is travelling with his wife, so all good chats must come to an end and we wandered into town for some bread rolls for lunch. Deciding that this bread roll for lunch idea is not going to completely solve our budget concerns, we headed up to the Bowls Club for a quick drink and an attempt to win our way back on target on the Pokies. Predictably that didn't work so it was back to MM for Vicki's favourite tea - Chili con Carne with rice - mmm mmm.

Day was somewhat marred by a Headhunter calling to get me to apply for a job - noooooooooooooooo. Funnily enough Di also received a call from a head hunter this week so hopefully they still remember her when we get back next year.

Saturday 4th December


Very lazy day today, although we did manage to see some dolphins in the river when we went for a bit of a walk. We did also manage another couple of hours chatting with Ernie, Di has started checking the area before heading out of MM.

Also had a couple of frustrating hours trying to book flights to the UK to visit Elke. I am seriously considering rewriting the entire internet.  I cannot believe how hard even the simplest things are on some of these websites. Damn you Bill Gates - ok I know Bill Gates isn't responsible for the Internet per se but I am sure he did something that it is making it hard for me to do things!
Editors note: looks like Steve hasn't completely unwound from his IT career yet