DAY 284 - 27/11/2010 - Port Macquarie, NSW

The day began quite overcast and a little windy. By mid morning the day had improved so we decided to drive down to Crowdy Head to see the Gap and have a swim.

Half way there I had realised I had forgotten my camera which annoyed me but luckily I had my video camera, so all is not lost.

We follow the signs to Crowdy Gap and walk through a track onto the beach. Here we discover there isn't a gap here and after speaking to the local ranger on our way back to our cars we are informed that the gap is called "The Split" and its way back at Diamond Head.

So off we go and return the way we came and head for Diamond Head. As it turns out we wouldn't have had to do the unsealed road if I had done my homework first. I just assumed Crowdy Gap was named after the gap in between the two rocks but the name is misleading and as mentioned before its known as "the Split".

The Split looks different and not as big as it looks in the travel brochures. Nevermind we came to see and we conquered. Alicia, Taylah and Warren climbed to the top of one of the rocks which make the split. Its a steep tricky climb but they get up there quite quickly.

I downloaded this picture off the internet

We sat on the beach for a bit while Josh and Taylah went in for a boogy board. The wind has really picked up and is blowing a gale. Its making it really uncomfortable for us to sit here for too long as we can taste sand in our mouths and its whiping our bare skin. We cannot take this any longer and leave.

Back at camp for dinner and drinks. Waz and Adam stay up the latest tonight and witness these young locals theiving the schoolies grog esky's. Waz and Adam took control of the situation and chased them down the street. The kids dropped the esky's and bolted. Then they came back pretending to be residents of the van park and acted like they wanted to know what was going on. We played along with their charade and asked them to help us find these kids while I suggested calling the cops. They shit themselves and made excuses and walked off in a hurry. Very funny. They wouldn't have been older than 13 or 14 on the hunt for some free grog. Funny enough we never saw them again.

DAY 283 - 26/11/2010 - Port Macquarie, NSW

We intended on going to Crowdy Head for a day trip but as it turned out, Adam's car broke down on his way to work and he was stranded at the service station near by. Waz went out to help him and took some time to get back.

Plans changed. We went to visit Aunty Jen and Grandma Trish at Aunty Jen's place in Bonny Hills. She lives directly opposite the beach in a highset home and has some great ocean views. It was very nice to catch up with them. I've never really sat down with Aunty Jen and she's a really lovely funny lady.

Back in time for a late afternoon swim in the pool. I got the kids racing each other and swimming relays in the hope of tiring them out.

Its a tie between Alicia and Caleb

Lilly racing no one

Tonight we had another huge communal bbq for dinner in the camp kitchen. Thats 2 nights in a row of excessive eating.

The caravan park is very quickly filling up with schoolies either in tents or in cabins. They are louder tonight but there are no dramas and they don't bother us at all.

DAY 282 - 25/11/2010 - Port Macquarie, NSW

Waz and Rod popped out for a bit this morning to run some errands and returned with new wheels for Taylah's rip stik and a new scooter for Lilly. She was stoked. She kept thanking him over and over again.

Hanging out in the camp kitchen

We packed a picnic lunch, heaps of water, snacks and headed for Elands to see the Ellenborough Falls. Its apparently the second largest falls in the southern hemisphere with a drop of 200m.

As soon as we get to Elands we have lunch and then we checked out the top lookout and then made the decent down to the base of the fall.

The walk was easy going down but can't say the same for the return trip. I nearly died of exhaustion a couple of times. I did the walk in my thongs which really isn't the appropriate footwear either. Love the thongs.

We can see the waterfall thru the trees

Uncle Adam arrived this afternoon and is staying with us for a couple of days.

Tonight we feasted on a communal baked dinner fit for a king and then had a late night drinking session in the camp kitchen. We got in trouble for making too much noise and the caretaker had to shoosh us. Its schoolies at the moment and apparently we are noisier than them.

DAY 281 - 24/11/2010 - Fingal Bay, NSW & Port Macquarie, NSW

We arrived in Port Macquarie today and found a great little caravan park near Flynn's Beach called Flynn's Beach Caravan Park. The guy at the information centre put us onto this place.

We are really happy with this location. Its a koala corridor so theres lots of tall trees around and to top it off, its very peaceful. I am sure there will be a lot of relaxing going on here.

Other than driving here and setting up we don't do much else except for taking the kids down to the beach for a play and a late afternoon dip.

I wouldn't let them go too far in because it was pretty rough, the lifeguards had finished for the day and I was not interested in doing any rescuing.

A quick stop at the bottle shop on the way back to get some wine, cooked and had dinner, then kicked back for the rest of the evening playing cards with friends.