Sawtell

Saturday 31st Aug
We spent the morning eating this amazing cake that Emma-Jane bought for us ( with all the kids it didn't take long for it to go!).

 It looks good and it tasted fantastic!

 Emma-Jane strummed out some tunes which was very nice in our forest setting.

And she showed us some photos she had taken of the area.
Eventually we packed up and said goodbye and headed to Sawtell. We got to the caravan park at lunch time. Unhitched, had lunch then a few of us went shopping. My hate for the GPS was fueled after my shopping. I used it to get to the shopping centre which was in Coffs Harbour and it was lucky that I took notice of where I was going as when we had finished shopping I tried to start it up again to get me back to the caravan park but IT FROZE ON ME! Ahhhhh. Grrrr. #&*!#**! So I had calm and used my homing pigeon instincts and praise God we got back okay! Not long after we got back my parents turned up. Everyone was very excited to see them as we hadn't seen them since March.

They had to listen to 6 kids try and tell them all at once about the exciting things they had done in 5 months! Dad mentioned that he thought it was a little hot as they had come from SA where it had been cold and wet. We said we thought it was a little cool coming from Darwin!

There were some resident parenties in the caravan park and they were very friendly but didn't let you get any closer than 3m from them. They were a bit slow and really only wanted to sun bake to get warm! We made sure we kept the swags zipped up and the tent done up. Would not be fun going to bed with one of these!

Half Way Creek

Friday 30th Aug
We had to stay another night here as we were booked into Sawtell caravan park on the Saturday. The kids did some school work and some exploring in the trees. They made a cubby house out of whatever they could find.

This is what Baylee made and he even found the glove to complete the look.
At tea time Emma-Jane came to catch up with us which was fantastic. A lot of talking was done until we were all turning blue with the cold and decided we would continue in the morning!

Lawrence

Thursday 29th
In the morning we packed up again and headed further south. We were planning to stay at a free spot at Lawrence and that took us off the highway and we got a better look at the country and the farming. We also got to go on the ferry which everyone thought was great. Once the car and caravan were on and the car turned off, the ferry started moving and Manning realised that this was a little odd and said " Are we moving". Even though we had been on a few ferries this still was a funny feeling as the car was off. We got to Lawrence in time for lunch and it was a nice little town but it had all these signs around saying camping there was prohibited. I went and asked in the local shop and they didn't really know but thought it should be fine if we were only staying a night but we eventually decided to move on. As we drove off after a good lunch and play on the platground this is what we saw!

This house looked like it had nothing holding it up! As we drove passed it it was held up just in the centre! Amazing!
So we drove on in search of another free spot. We drove through Grafton where Emma-Jane Budarick was working and out to Half Way Creek roadhouse. Out the back of the roadhouse there is a huge grass area which caravaners are welcome to stay. The roadhouse is open 24 hours so if we felt peckish at midnight we could just join the truckies and have a meal! 

It was really nice weather, out in the sun!

 

Burringbar Park

Wednesday 28th

This was the last thing we saw as we hoped into the car to head home Tuesday night. This was my favourite ride.The Green Lantern.  Check out the drop that goes back on itself! The adrenaline junky family was leaving it all behind!
We packed up in the morning and headed into NSW and into a slower pace of life. We didn't go very far. Stopped at  Murwillumbah ( try and say that!) to do some shopping. Then onto our free spot for the night at Burringbar. It was a nice little town. The camping spot was right in the middle of town and the kids enjoyed playing in the trees near by.