On the road again

We were on the road again on Monday - heading out of Canberra and 793klm  along the  Sturt Highway towards the VICTORIAN BORDER (but not quite!!) - to Gol Gol, just across the Murray from Mildura. We were picking up Rod from what is now a very restricted area adjacent to a COVID closed border - and he was going to join us on a little road trip adventure to outback Broken Hill on our way back to Canberra together.

We made it to Gol Gol on Monday in about 10 hours - to a very warm welcome from Julie and Kev, which was just as well as our planned departure for Broken Hill the next day didn't work out. Apparently there is a film crew in Broken Hill this week and accommodation for our planned 3 night stay was tight.

So we stayed in Gol Gol yesterday for an extra day - which proved to be quite delightful.

Yesterday Julie arranged a private tour for us of the beautiful Ampelon Gardens in nearby Gol Gol N Road. The property has been home to the Mills family since 1959 and Margo and Dennis Mills started their married life here from the late sixties. In those days the property was just bare pony paddocks on riverflat clay soil but over the past 5 decades Margo (mostly on her own) has converted it into two sprawling hectares of beautifully designed, romantic, "garden rooms" - a beautiful seasonal garden of lush old fashioned roses, woodland plantings, hedgerows and an extensive vegie and herb garden. Understandably Ampelon is a very popular venue for weddings, outdoor concerts and celebratory events in the district but Margo was all apologies today because "the garden doesn't look its best in winter".

The pic below is of the most stunning area of the garden - not at its full glory today with the water lillies in winter hibernation the willows with no leaves and the bulbs not out yet! But we could see how it must come to life in other seasons!

Even the vegie patch looked a bit bare today although there was plenty of silverbeet and broccoli to pick.

I loved the "doorway" cut into the vegie patch's olive hedge which gave us a glimpse of the family's extensive (commercial) cultivation beyond. Apparently pumpkins will be planted next in these fields  after a few seasons of watermelons.

This looked like early Manchurian Pear blossoms to me.

Margo and Dennis prepared country (classy) style morning tea for us in the sundrenched front room of their charming home. They are both human dynamos - especially Margo who as well as establishing and maintaining this extensive garden keeps her pantry full of preserves, writes for gardening and lifestyle magazines and maintains their home in magazine worthy condition...WOW!

Rod took us to see the Trentham Estate (Winery) and Cellar Door afterwards. It's in a beautiful position on the river and is normally pumping with crowds of people enjoying a wine under the trees or a beautiful meal in the restaurant. However COVID has put a stop to all that and all we were able to do today was try to imagine how buzzy it must be (and buy a few bottles for later from the cellar door (3 people only at a time)).

With nearby Mildura cut off from us this visit Rob and I decided to take a walk in the afternoon - along the river again. We're playing with fire here as that is Victoria on the other side of the river - where no one wants to go at the moment! This is about as close as you'd want to be.

We said goodbye to dear Julie and Kev this morning and set off northwards, via Wentworth, on the Silver city Highway towards Broken Hill, 300 klms from Gol Gol (Mildura).

This is outback NSW we're visiting and today we really knew it - with stiff winds and LOTS of dust around (despite all the recent rain).

We got into Broken Hill with the skies clearing, but still very windy and COLD.... and visibility not great either.

We haven't got a grasp of this place yet... but there is no doubt this is a mining town! The pics below show the huge tailings mound that dominates the townscape - and a corner of the old Palace Hotel - one of the unique settings used in filming "Priscilla Queen of the Desert". Two iconic sites in Broken Hill.

The glory days of Broken Hill were the last few decades of the nineteenth century and the beautiful old buildings from that era predominate in the town centre.

Just around the corner from our motel we found the mysterious film crew trucks and their catering set up. It's a big crew with separate make up, costume, AV and technical trucks but then there are the actors' dressing room trucks too. Who are Wayne, Steve and Mira we wondered????

 This Broken Hill visit is going to be more challenging than we expected. We can't visit or book into anything without phoning/registering beforehand (bloody COVID) and the tours we hoped to join are all booked out because they can only take reduced numbers!!

More from Port Mac

Yesterday dawned sunny and clear, perfect for our morning walk and coffee at Flynns Beach - always a great way to start the day at "the Port".

We were lucky enough to be invited to our friends Barry and Dorothy's house for lunch yesterday. Barry cooked a fabulous meal: sorrel (from his garden) soup and a tender slow cooked beef cheek dish. Dorothy made one of her quince tartines for dessert. 

We met Barry and Dorothy when we first moved to Canberra - we found them inspiring then with their creativity, love of food, art & travel and zest for life ... and they haven't changed a bit in the years since.......

We went for a walk together after lunch through the golf course adjoining their block and then skirting around the wetlands you can see as the backdrop to this rather regal portrait of Barry and Dorothy.

We took away some great memories, plant cuttings, recipes and inspiring images of Dorothy's writing and art work from our lunch - what a wonderful couple they are!

The skies didn't look as clear this morning when we woke, but on our last day at the Port we were pretty keen to do the final stage of the "famous Port Mac 9klm Coast Walk" from Shelly Beach to the lighthouse at Tacking Point. We got started, parking the car at Shelly Beach and set off - around the first rocky headland ....

I love a healthy coastal pandanus plant - it always reminds me of happy times at the Sunshine Coast........

Looking south to Miners Beach....

walking through the edge of the Sea Acres Nature Reserve ..........

..and looking back to Miners Beach (an unofficial nude bathing beach apparently but no nude bathers today - it's TOO COLD!!)

....... then deeper into the beautiful Sea Acres Nature Reserve ......

... finally emerging at Little Bay and Tacking Point and the lighthouse beyond.

We love the beach rocks at Port Mac.

And this little lighthouse (only 8 metres high) is an absolute charmer!!

Built in (VR) 1879 it is Australia's 13th oldest lighthouse. However this has been a wonderful whale watching spot for thousands of years before that! We tried as hard as we could today - but still no whale or dolphin sightings for us this visit!

 Coastal Walk mission completed .....

 

 It started raining on our 2.7klm walk back to Shelly Beach and the day has deteriorated further since then. We only attempted the short sprint from the back of our apartment block to the next door Bowlo Club - through howling wind and freezing rain - for a delicious lunch at the club's Drift Bar Cafe. Those local oysters (from the Hastings River) were truly memorable!

 We have really enjoyed our change of plans stay at Port Macquarie. The walks have been stunning, there is so much variety in the landscape, food has been great (mostly) - and we have loved being close to the Pacific Ocean again. It's been a real mood uplifter after the last few difficult months of the "new normal". We would love to come back!

Saturday in Port Macquarie

We headed back to the river for our morning walk today - right to the start of the "famous 9klm Port Macquarie Coastal Walk"- at Westport Park near the Port Marina (on the Hastings River). We ended up near the Sails (by Rydges) Resort (a fave of Josh & Jody's) and decided to order breakfast at the nearby Seasalt Cafe on the Marina. The day had started cloudy and grey, but nowhere near as cold as yesterday.

We don't get "styled up" for our morning walks - but Rob wears it better than I do!!

Seasalt proved disappointing - mediocre coffee - really bad zucchini fritters - but the best part was watching all the fish (bream?) gathering below us in the river and seeing all the oysters growing au naturale on the concrete walls of the marina as we turned our noses up at the breakfast offerings .

 The pic below is our view of Town Beach as we approached it from the breakwall at the entry to the river. I disapprove of the Council's decision back in the nineties to allow people to paint their (mostly tacky) "artwork" on the rocks of the breakwall..... but I am sure not many locals would agree with me.

 We took a drive to Wauchope in the afternoon, 19klm west of Port Macquarie. Wauchope was famous for its timber forests (famously used in the construction of the Sydney Opera House), now with most of its forests cleared it's mainly farming and (quiet) tourism. The Hastings River runs deep and wide at Wauchope.

We headed south out of Wauchope along the windy and hilly Bago Road through the beautiful Burrawan State Forest ...........

... until we got to the home of "Old Bottlebutt" an enormous and ancient Red Bloodwood tree (the biggest recorded example of it's type in the world!) in an area of remnant rain forest near the Burrawan picnic area. It wasn't too easy to get to ... there was about 3klm of dirt track and lots of pot holes involved in getting here.......

But in the end it was an easy (300m) walk through the rainforest to find this amazing tree .........

They say it could be over 200 years old - imagine it being around long before settlement times in this area?

There'd been a heavy shower in the forest before we got there. It was quite magical to walk amongst the trees while they shook and dripped on us, with the clearing sunshine making everything sparkle. It smelt wet, green and dank.

More styled up for a walk in the rain forest - but  a bit out of focus ....

On the way back we called in to see old friends who made their home in Port Macquarie 20 years ago .... they packed up their Canberra home and lives for the warmth and space of a coastal lifestyle. My friend Dorothy never stops creating: poetry, painting, textiles, sculpture ...... now she's preoccupied with her coronaviruses. While the rest of us are obsessing over our fears about this deadly virus Dorothy is taking it on one plastered loofah segment at a time. 

I took this pic of her in (one of) her studios in their beautiful back garden bordering the golf course.