Tuesday - Day 14 - 9 May 2023

This is the view as I'm writing the blog this afternoon. We are staying at a motel in Kempsey - we've stayed here before and only once have we not had a room on the river front. We love the view, the serenity and, hopefully, wildlife and a moon rise later this afternoon/evening. There used to be a jetty here and one night we fished and kept hooking eels (not our favourite) and on the last casts Sooz had something large - which she kept hoping would flip itself off as eels do, and we shone the torch over to look, just in time to see the biggest flathead she had ever hooked jumping off her line. As she said, as we were remembering it on the drive in today, it was good it got away because there was nothing we could have done with it anyway!

We left Bulahdelah at around 10 this morning, after breakfast at Robyn's Cafe, the #1 restaurant (of 4) according to Trip Advisor. It was good, and a bit quirky, which we always take as a good sign. We listened to a program on the ABC yesterday afternoon which talked about "cash or card" and which you prefer, and were there any places that didn't take either. Well, just as well I still had some cash left over from the trip because Robyn's Cafe only does cash or direct debit. The direct debit wouldn't have been an issue, but I was glad I had cash. And glad I had a bit more so I could help the woman whose coffee was made before mine - she thought she had some cash secreted away in her wallet, but she did not. I'll shout you one, I told her, and after some protestations on her part, she let me. The woman behind the counter told her to make sure she payed it forward!

The only disappointment at breakfast this morning was that I could hear the jets from Williamtown base roaring somewhere overhead, but I could not see them. Did the tea party on the lawn, the assorted tea pots behind the counter, the giant koala and the tiger seat make up for it ... a little.

 

Our next stop was Nabiac, not that far up the road. It's cute but it would have been cuter if all the arts and crafts stores had been open so we could have a longer look at - and seen a bigger selection - of what was on offer. One of the stores is opened only a couple of days a week, staffed by volunteers, and quite quaint.

We were in Kempsey by 1pm, too early to check in to our motel, so we parked underneath Kempsey Central, were amazed by the mural there, and went upstairs to see what else the centre had to offer. The Depot overlooks the river, and that's where we had lunch - but not before we saw the lamb (real! ) in a shopping cart down the other end of the centre. Who knew they could be so loud close up - and we wondered if it was louder because it was just across from the butcher! They have a cinema in the complex and they are playing "Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3" - which we are seeing with friends on Thursday and luckily managed to resist the urge to fall in to see it today!

 There was no more snow today, but the day did start with a Telstra mobile phone outage. I managed to fix mine by turning Airplane Mode off and on (always good for making sure you are connected to a tower) and this was the fix they were recommending to customers - as I found out later today when I read an article about the outage. My sister had the same issue and I recommended she do that as well - although I did first ask her if she had turned the phone on and off again - which would have had the same effect.

I was hoping to see the moon rise over the river tonight but it is a bit overcast so that's not a goer ... but the stars are amazing!

Did I mention that we loved our dinner at the Bulahdelah Motor Lodge restaurant last night? Yes, I know we were rushing a little to make sure we didn't miss MasterChef but the steak and parmesan mash was lovely, especially when followed with lemon meringue tart!