Red Rock – great life – got nothing on

Warmer Winter – 3

We are now in Grafton visiting our daughter and son in law. Grafton is famous for its Jacaranda Festival. Our daughter had her wedding beside the Clarence River nearly 8 years ago during the Festival – so colorful. Today has been a brilliant blue sky day, just like it was for the wedding.

A revisit of Sharlee and Paul’s wedding site.

For many years, the town has been in need of a new bridge to join the north and south regions. The government completed a new bridge a year or so ago beside the dual purpose bridge; the north-south railway shared the crossing with motor vehicles. Traffic chaos reigned at peak hour on the vehicle section with a couple of bends along the way.

Landscaping work is nearly complete with the new bridge in place.

We’ll stay here through until Sunday.

Yesterday, we took a short trip to Yamba, north of Grafton but on the coast. The town shares the mouth of the Clarence River with Iluka. There are a lot of cafes and up market shops with up market prices. A lighthouse stands on the headland up from Yamba. The sunshine made the sky a brilliant blue so we are happy with the photos of the day.

The headland at Yamba is inviting the tourists that turn up in droves in season.

When our daughter married Paul, she found that he was a “keeper” of both fish and feather. Paul has a large fish tank and cares for many little fellows. The plecostomus spends a good amount of time puckering up to the glass as if he’s searching for a long drawn out “pash”. At first the bird aviary had to be constructed for a good stock of bush parrots and quaint birds. The numbers decreased a year or so ago from a disease and they haven’t been replaced. Harry is still the king of the aviary and often welcomes us with a “hello. Whatcha doin?”

Paul’s fish tank

Plecostomus

I have for a long time, wanted to venture into drone photography. Now I can say I’m a happy owner of a DJI Air 2S. It is so easy to get going compared to the $250 drone I bought from China which never worked properly. Just a couple of shots taken at Red Rock so far show what will be my photography and movie work in the future.

One of the main reasons we have come to Queensland is to repair some damage done 18 months ago when driving to Sydney for a funeral. An overtaking motor home cut us off and “pushed” us off the highway enough to brush with a white plastic post. The motor home also needed a service done to many of the components that make living in a Paradise worthwhile. It will be next week before it is ready to continue the “warmer winter” series, so we are having a different kind of luxury for the week in Surfers Paradise.

Red Rock NSW Australia

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151022 Trip North to Mullumbimby

As I mentioned on Facebook a month or so ago, my sister, Margaret passed away after a 13 month battle with throat cancer. I am off to attend the event in Mullumbimby. With Lyn in France on a Scenic Tours Travel Agent’s ‘famil’, I’m on my own and so it takes that much longer to get ready each time I leave a stopover spot.

I left home at 7:00am on Tuesday morning after a successful Garden Club Spring Flower Show on Monday evening. I managed to reach Ourimbah by 8:00pm for a well-earned night’s rest.

Along the way, I was being followed or chasing Leigh who was heading north. He delivers motor-bikes up and down the Australian coastline. Would you believe we never met but were in contact via messaging services.

The weather has been fantastic until last night when a cracker of a storm passed through shortly after sunset, and today has turned out overcast. Yesterday, I called into the Halliday’s Point region and with the sun so brilliant, I decided to stop here for the night. What a great place this is to retire. Who knows? It may become our retirement destination.

I took the time to check some of the equipment out on the motor home and found one storage bin quite damp and all the chairs, travel blanket and hammock, needing to ‘hang out to dry’. I’m the only rig in this part of the park and so used the space to lay out and dry all the wet stuff.

I also found the entrance door has a problem and through Paradise Motorhomes Facebook Page, have found out that a tiny spring has broken preventing proper closure of the door. I plan to drive up to the Gold Coast on Monday after the gathering, to have this and a couple of other problems seen to and fixed.

Today, I will drive to Grafton to spend a couple of nights with Sharlee and Paul before Sunday’s gathering.

Memories of our daily morning walks along the beach at Valla when we used to camp for annual holidays have come back after last night’s beach walk and this morning’s view of the sunrise. The only problem? the lady in the red dress was not with me. I hope you are feeling jealous, darling.