Wed, 11th Oct, 2023 Linda & David’s place, Annangrove to Wingham Riverside Reserve, Wingham, NSW

Nice 16 degrees this morning. Cloudy but the sun is peaking through.

Joined Linda and David for breakfast. Said farewell for now and hopefully we will see them in January at the beach.

Programmed Girlie to get us down to Pennants Hills Road then onto the M1 (Pacific Motorway) to head north to Newcastle. Lots of cuttings through the hills to flatten out the drive.

Across the Hawkesbury River again as it heads towards the sea. David & Linda took us boating along here on our last visit.

Winding our way up and down through the hills. If this road went all the way up the coast it would make travelling much safer. No stress when you have two lanes in one direction.

Stopped for a cuppa at the Motorway Rest Area. No camping allowed at any of the NSW rest areas, though I suppose they can’t stop you from stopping for a sleep if you are tired! Safety first.

Continued on - easy driving but the road got a bit bumpier.

The motorway ends ahead. David had warned us that trucks were being delayed for ages at the roadworks for the next section so we found another way around it by going west towards Maitland then up another road to Raymond Terrace.

Through new housing divisions then flat open paddocks with cattle.

Across the Hunter River. Open farmland continues.

Stopped at a park at Raymond Terrace for lunch by a lagoon. The trees were full of flying foxes.

Back onto the Pacific Highway continuing northward. Across another wide river - missed its name. Through rolling hills of grazing land then across the Myall River where I spotted house boats moored along one side - just got one in the photo.

Back into the hills, past Bulahdelah. Fuelled up at Coolongolook as David had said it was the cheapest ($2.155/L). Continued on then turned off to Taree. Road lined with Silky Oaks I think going by the golden blooms.

Over the Manning River.

Continued on over rough country road to Wingham. Sad to say these towns have the worst roads in the towns - nearly all patched up pot holes its hard to see where the real road is.

Through town then down to the Manning Riverside Reserve where we can park up for the night on the grass near the boat ramp area. Very nice and quite. A bit windy now.

One of the actuators has played up again so Steve pulled it off. They are supposed to be water resistant but obviously not for heavy rain that we had recently so water has gotten into them. He will drill some holes in all the bases to let the water out.

I went for a walk along the riverside and found some locals.

There is a nice open grass area but I saw a tent erected down the end where it says ‘no camping’ so didn’t venture down there. There is a boardwalk through the brush so I followed that instead. Lots of information boards, Bush Turkeys guarding their huge ‘nests’.

Into the flying fox section and there were hundreds of them. All starting to make noises as it was late afternoon.

A bit of history of the timber days too. Some lovely bit tall trees.

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Great information. Cute Kookaburra. There are lots of different birds sounds once you get away from the flying fox area.

Not much left of the original tree now.

More info as I reached the end which is actually the start of the walk as it had all the information.

Walked back to Steve. Very nice spot. I googled up what flying foxes are in Cairns - Spectacled Flying Foxes.

A chap had called by and gave Steve some brochures about the local museum etc.

I said there was an historical wharf further along but I hadn’t gone down that far as there seemed to be someone living in a tent there (where they shouldn’t be). Steve came with me. Nice memorial chair.

The old wharf but no other information.

Someone is living in the tent as there is fresh oranges and bread outside for the ducks etc. Sadly this is why the free camps are being closed because people do the wrong thing.

After dinner we heard a car pull up near us and loud voices saying there is a big snake heading towards us. We had a look and it was a lovely big python (2m). Obviously heading down to the river for some ‘frogs legs’!

There is a lot more to check out in this area so we will come back.