Day 264 - Tuesday 19 September - Minnie Water and Wooli

Day 264

Tuesday

19 September 2017

Grafton – Minnie Water – Wooli

After thinking I was feeling on the mend yesterday, I went back a few steps today.  Neither of us had slept brilliantly so had stayed in bed until 8.30am when we finally went in for a shower. Glenn still looked terrible too and Cheryl didn’t sound much better.

We had a shower and then returned to the van for breakfast that I couldn’t finish. Not wanting to waste another day, we packed up our things and made for the coastal town of Minnie Water. By now I was feeling a little tired, so I had spent some of the time with my eyes shut, but as we pulled in to the main street that ran parallel to the water I was happy to take in the view.

We stopped, walking across the small parkland to the top of the cliff, overlooking the beach below and the few people that were out enjoying various water activities.  Rows of chairs had been set up in a couple of spots providing a great place to come sit and enjoy the serenity.

We wandered back to the car and then did a drive around the town, it took us 2 min, before driving back out to the campground at Illaroo. There were a few people set up and enjoying the free camping right by the beach, it would certainly be a great place to hang out.

We then made our way on to Diggers Camp. We pulled off the main road and onto dirt that was in dire need of grading. We didn’t expect the small, off-grid settlement to be so far off the main road and after jumping and bumping our way over the dirt track, we finally emerged among the elaborate beach houses. There wasn’t much, other than 20 or so homes and the beach to admire, so after our quick run past everything, we returned to the bouncy road and finally the bitumen.

We followed the road into Wooli, which from the outskirts we could see was a larger settlement.  A river runs to one side while the other has the sea. We drove the car to the river mouth and parked. We watched families enjoying the calmer water of the river before parking by the rocks so that Paul could try his luck once again with the fishing rod.

I took up a spot on one of the large, flat boulders and basically flaked out in the sun. From my spot I could see plenty of fish swimming around below us. Paul could see them too, but with his bait falling off too easily, he wasn’t having much luck. It was a good excuse to hang out in the sun though.

When he had exhausted his bait, we returned to a picnic area for lunch. A couple of friendly magpies made themselves known looking for a feed; in fact one was right up in my face, it was rather intimidating.

I didn’t eat much lunch, so the magpies were in luck. We returned to the car and into town. Paul had read that Wooli had its own oyster industry and we saw the oyster beds laid out in the river as we drove along, so he was looking forward to finding the seafood coop and grabbing some to bring home. Boy was he disappointed when the big sign outside the shop said “NO oysters”.

We made our way from the town, passing the small sports ground where preparations were underway for the “Goanna Pulling” championships. I was horrified when I had seen this sign earlier in the week only to find out it is a bit like an arm wrestle, but with bungee cord around two opponents heads who lay on their bellies and try and pull the other over a line.

Paul then made the 45min drive back towards home. We stopped in at the shops along the way before finally home at 3pm. I was so exhausted that I wasted no time falling on the bed where I stayed for the next couple of hours.

At 5pm, we made ourselves known to Glenn and Cheryl, who were out tending to the animals we then joined them inside to hang out. Sarah was holed up in her room feeling sick and Glenn was still quite unwell so it made for quite a quiet get together.

We watched TV for a bit, before Glenn wanted to show us a music clip on Youtube of Sounds of Silence by Disturbed, this lead us to showing Jaden’s video. It wasn’t long after this that Scott rang his folks and while he chatted to Glenn we continued to chat to Cheryl, before finally deciding we should retreat back to the van for dinner.

I still wasn’t wanting a lot, but figured veges should be consumed to help boost my lethargy. We steamed up a heap of different bits and then ate before cleaning away and making our way back to bed. I read for a short while before finally deciding to roll over for the night.