Catching up at Camden Haven
20 November 2013 | Laurieton/Camden Haven
all seasons...
The wind has finally calmed down and the rain has stopped –and the forecast is looking OK for us to push on south tomorrow.
On Sunday, friends Rob and Cathy Cribb and their 2 kids (who live in the area) drove to Laurieton to meet us for lunch at the Laurieton Pub. We were able to sit outside, the rain held off and we were out of the wind – they do a nice lunch here, lots of choices and we had a country style singer who played guitar and ably sang some classics in the background – a very pleasant Sunday afternoon and great to catch up with them.
Monday we walked along the river front towards the ocean – a decent distance requiring a stop for a little ‘retail therapy’ at North Haven. We decided to lunch at the Oasis cafe – very nice and a good local beer. We left well sated, with a new dress and a fairly weighty nautical door stopper (it matches the one we procured in Mooloolaba) – they provided great biceps exercise on the walk back. It became wet, windy and cold as the day went on so a quiet afternoon and an early night.
On Tuesday the weather was still wet, cold and windy - we decided to go to the local movies – yes I know ‘tight arse Tuesday’ but at our young age we paid full fare. The local ‘Plaza Theatre’ is worth seeing - a classic ‘art deco’ style old theatre (complete with digital sound they say) and we saw a great movie ‘The Butler’ with popcorn in hand – we thoroughly enjoyed it. Then it was time to go to lunch at a nice little cafe on the main street.
That morning Leanne’s friends (going back almost 37 years!!) Cindy and John phoned and said they were thinking of driving up to see us – they were reading our blog the previous day and made a snap decision to drive up for the night. We weren’t going anywhere the next day as the weather was still unfriendly – so it was a wonderful surprise to meet up with them. We had a terrific evening catching up on the last 8 months or so over dinner and some good reds on ‘Echo Beach’.
This morning they drove us to the lookouts on top of North Brother – the steep 500 m hill behind us that has been shrouded in cloud almost constantly since we have been here. The view over Camden Haven, the waterways, surrounding areas and the coastline - for 50/60 kilometres or more in every direction - is quite spectacular. Thanks Cindy and John for making the trip - we really enjoyed catching up. Later in the morning we thought another walk was in order, and this time we walked in the other direction up the river - past a dozen or so old fishing boats, across the bridge and to Dunbogan – as they so ‘you haven’t really been here if you haven’t Dunbogan’.... We stopped at the Dunbogan Boatshed which is really quite quaint on the water with a cafe on the jetty among more old little boats – very laid back and nautical.
We have quite enjoyed this port in a storm – it’s pretty, the river is calm in bad weather, it’s very quiet and laid back, good book reading as the wind howls past and apparently good fishing - although this hasn’t been personally tested...
We are now readying for the final two legs of our big adventure with fuel, water, etc. and weather permitting, we will untie from the sanctity of the Laurieton United Services Club jetty around 8am tomorrow as the tide rises and pushes us out over the Camden Haven Bar (ocean bar that is, not the club bar..) for the 11 hour journey south to Port Stephens.