DAY 40 - Thurs 29 July
- Baby Hunter had surgery at 8am. All went well although he seemed to be in pain whenever moved and was quite unsettled... who could blame the poor little guy? Poor Corina had not had hardly any sleep over the past few weeks too. The photo below is Hunter a few hours after surgery...
DAY 39 - Weds 28 July
- Geoff was organising and sorting out a few things that needed doing in Port Macquarie
- Amanda spent the day at Gosford Hospital with Corina and baby Hunter, Jacko (Corina's husband) and her mum.
DAY 38 - Tues 27 July
- We left Dungog and headed back to Port Macquarie and arrived there around 2pm.
- Just 6 hours later Manda and her mum jumped back in the car and headed back down the coast to Gosford. Hunter, my sister Corina's 6 week old baby was not well. He was admitted to hospital needing surgery for 2 inaugural hernia's.
- Geoff stayed in Port Macquarie.
DAY 37 - Mon 26 July
- Today we went on a picnic with Geoff's parents to Chichester Dam, just west of Dungog.
Along the way we noticed this caravan up a tree... what a cubby house hey!
- On the way home Geoff learnt a new respect for moss! We were slowly heading down a rather steep, narrow dirt road with banks dropping down either side of the road. Next thing we know the car was spinning sideways heading towards the steep ditch lined with trees! Heather let out a yelp, Tony made sure his ticker kept ticking, I left some claw marks either side of my seat and Geoff, with his heart racing, managed to get the car back under control before we careered off the road... Apparently our tires went over some moss on the side of the road and the rest is history... We were all praising God for keeping us safe and the car on the road and for our new off road tyres! (which helped us gain control of the car).
DAY 36 - Sun 25 July
- We spent the day in Dungog with Geoff's sister Naomi, her husband Luke, their kids Grace, Maeve and Jude, Geoff's brother Tim and Geoff's parents Tony and Heather. It was great spending time with them all and playing with the kids. They all left that night to head back home.
DAY 35 - Sat 24 July
- We left Port Macquarie and drove to John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle to visit Sarah and Ben and their beautiful new daughter, Honor Violet.
Manda and niece Grace checking out the new addition to the family...
I think after our crazy drive I must still have been a little tired... I look a little 'special' here...
I think Geoff must have been a little delirous also as he is holding Honor like a brick or piece of 4 'b 2!
Our gorgeous nephew Jude...
We then made our way our to Dungog to spend some time with Geoff's Family at his parents place.
DAY 34 - Fri 23 July
- We slept most of the day today trying to catch up from our crazy drive.
DAY 33 - Thurs 22 July
- Sleeping in the car proved to be a little challenging as only one of the front seats would decline (the fridge was behind the passenger seat). Manda slept quite well in the drivers seat from 2am till 5am. Geoff managed to somehow contort his 6 foot 2 frame in the middle backseat but was so uncomfortable didn't sleep well. We swapped spots at 5am but then manda couldn't sleep... so at 6am Manda drove for a few hours while Geoff slept. Geoff said it was the WORST sleep he ever had which is quite a call from someone who I believe has a supernatural power to sleep anywhere, anyhow, anytime.
- On the early morning 6am driving shift I drove past a big kangaroo dead on the side of the road. As I drove past him, it lifted it's head and looked at me!! Totally freaked me out...
- 2289 kms later, and 35 hours since we left Wonga Beach, we arrrived in Port Macquarie...
DAY 32 - Weds 21 July
- Today was D- Day ("Driving Day"). Wonga beach to Port Macquarie. 2306km or so. Cant wait :(
- At 5am Ben called to say Sarah had delivered a little Girl, Honor Violet. What good timing on the day we planned to head back!
- We were finally ready to leave at 10.30am. It took us awhile to get the van ready for storage and pack the car.
- We dropped the Caravan off just north of Cairns at a Storage place.
- After the first 100kms Manda was keen to throw Geoff's golf clubs out the window cause they rattled SO much... only 2206kms left of rattling...
- We drove and drove and drove, tag-teaming...
- I'm afraid Geoff's co-pilot wilted by 9pm but he pressed on to Rockhampton arriving at 2am, after doing around 1200kms. We pulled in behind a servo to catch a few hours sleep in the car.
- Along the way Geoff saw 15 wallabies, 2 roo's, 4 rabbits, and 1 fox. Praise God he kept them all out of our way.
DAY 31 - Tues 20 July
Geoff spent most of the morning and late afternoon trying to fix the Solar on the van. It had stopped working at some point a couple weeks back... a few of the grey nomads offered help. Owen below was especially helpful (I'm being serious here). Finally Geoff discovered that a wire on top of the van wasn't actually connected to the Solar... sorry Jayco not a good wrap.
At the Wonga Beach Pinnacle Caravan Park there were quite a few peacocks getting around. Their colours are just amazing...
DAY 30 - Mon 19 July
- We were up early and drove 40 mins south to Port Douglas to do our tour out to the Barrier Reef on the SilverSonic.
^ This is the boat we decided to head out on... apparently it also had some fandankle super sonic stablising soft ride mumbo jumbo technology to ensure a smooth ride out to the reef...
^ On our way out to the reef... it was such a beautiful day (too bad it didn't last). You can see in the next photo the rain in the distance... that's where we headed!
We got to our first snorkel spot and it was pouring rain, windy, rough and miserable. We jumped in tho and the reef and fish were amazing! We saw big parrot fish, very big hump-headed maori wrasse, white tip reef sharks, barracoota, a school of squid, many nemo's, just to name a few... At our 2nd dive spot the sun temporarily came out which made the coral even more beautiful. There is no doubt that there is a God!
Unfortunately, the fandankle super sonic stablising soft ride mumbo jumbo technology to ensure a smooth ride out to the reef didn't work for poor ol'Geoff. He felt pretty off esp. by mid arvo.
On the drive back to Wonga beach, quite a few farmers were burning off their sugar cane fields. We stopped and talked to one of the farmers and Geoff had all his questions answered...
Geoff riding a WW11 missile that was dropped in the area... sorry, not a very patriotic photo but we had a little giggle over this one...
DAY 29 - Sun 18 July
- We left Cairns and headed 100km north to Wonga Beach
- Along the way we stopped at Generations Church. It was a friendly church and we met a guy called Matty. He had some great stories including this one... He often swims from the beach at Cairns about a mile out to sea to a reef to spearfish (and I might add ON HIS OWN). Last week, on his solo swim out to the reef he somehow missed the reef and so stopped to rest on a bombie. As he climbed onto it to a large shark fin swam past belonging to a big hammerhead. After half an hour he couldn't get rid of it so he decided to head back to shore swimming on his back with the spear gun between his legs watching underneath and behind him. At some point he turned to face the front and there was the shark right in front of his face! He decided that would be his last solo spear fish! Crazy stuff - not to mention it being croc infested waters also. Matty also said he might be able to show us around cairns sometime and take his to his Gold Mine lease. We hope to see him and his wife again sometime.
- We arrived at Wonga beach and set up camp before being invaded by friendly grey nomads wanting a chat.
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