We had arranged to cat sit for Val and Les Kerr at Ashby while they go to Christchurch for Les's daughter's wedding.
We set off towards Ashby and decided to go via Urbenville and Bonalbo as we hadn't been that way before. It was something of a mistake because the road from Urbenville to Bonalbo isn't much better than the road from Legume to Woodenbong. We took it extremely slowly and stopped at Bonalbo for morning tea to recover a bit before pressing on. The rest of the drive to the Bruxner Highway was a bit better.
We called in to Mallanganee which we had last seen when we were new travellers and had remarked on its sad state. Since then there has been something of a revival. The garage is open again, the tennis court is usable and the town looks much more prosperous than it did when we first visited.
As we were leaving Mallanganee, I noticed that we had no tacho, no engine thermometer, no fresh air fan, and more significantly, no exhaust brake. This last was something of a problem as there is a long steep downhill grade on the road east of Mallanganee which would normally have been a breeze but, without the jake brake, I had to go down very slowly in very low gear holding up anybody unlucky enough to be behind me. The problem was obviously with one of the fuses and we hadn't lost any essential services so I pressed on to Casino where I got out the truck wiring diagram and located the site of the fault. Unhappily the fault had cleared itself when I stopped so I can't be sure it won't happen again. At least I know where the problem is and have confirmed that nothing else is affected so if it recurs I will be able to attend to it quickly.
We reached Ashby at afternoon tea time and had a very pleasant evening with Val and Les, catching up on what had happened to us all since we were last here.
Les and Val went to Lismore and we went to Maclean to do the laundry and the shopping. We bought fish so that we could feed the Kerrs but they had eaten a big lunch and couldn't face a cooked dinner.
Les and Val left for their flight to Christchurch and we veged out in the Motley.
Joe obviously is OK with our looking after him. He visited us in the Motley.
We went to Yamba to look at some real estate. We don't intend to buy here but Jean wanted to look at a development set up with manufactured homes. When we got to the sales office there was a sign asking us to take our shoes off before entering. I decided that anywhere that doesn't survive people is shoes probably isn't worth looking at so we left and went into town for lunch.
I had planned to check out the sites in the Yuraygir National Park but I didn't feel like the extra driving so we returned to Ashby.
I spent the afternoon working on the self-containment scheme. I got most of what I had plannned to write drafted and sent it to my colleague for comment.
I went into Maclean to get the weekend paper while Jean took advantage of the dining room table to some dressmaking.
Jean stayed at Ashby to do more dressmaking while I went to Wooli to check out a some sites in the Yuraygir National Park. I had underestimated the distance to Wooli and finished the day with 260km under my belt.
I needed to visit the northern end of the Yuraygir National Park to check the last two camp sites. We drove towards Brooms Head and checked out the sites. We met a couple in a little motorhome having their lunch. We stopped to chat and found that they come from Dee Why and are on a three week visit to the north coast visiting with friends from Inverell.
Having found nowhere to eat in Brooms Head, we drove back to Maclean for lunch and to do the shopping.
While at lunch we overheard a conversation about an accident between a semi and several cars waiting to cross the Harwood Bridge which is presently working only one lane. The crash was said to have blocked both lanes of the bridge and had called out both ambulances and fire trucks. Before we left Maclean, I went to the Police Station to enquire if the bridge was still closed but was assured that it was clear again.
Jean was keen to see the manufactured homes at Oyster Cove so we went back. I managed to rouse the sales lady an she invited us into the display house which had the "Please take off your shoes" sign. I ignored the sign without getting ticked off.
The display house was quite impressive. It had am em suite bathroom and a huge walk-in wardrobe in the main bedroom, a very nice living room and kitchen with the best equipment, and the finish was of a very high standard. We were told that this model wouldn't be available until next year and we later found out that it would cost in the vicinity of $300,000!!!! The current ones range from $170,000 to $190,000. As the deal is that you only buy the house and the rent for the tiny piece of land is close to $100pw it all seemed a bit pricy. There are the common area facilities including a swimming pool, a bowling green, tennis courts and a club house which were all very nice and free to uses and all the grounds maintenance is done so there is no need for lawn mowing so I guess the rent is moderate at the current rate.
The sales lady took us for a walk around the estate to look at some houses which were being sold by their present owners. The site isn't much more than a caravan park with a minimum of space round each house. She said that the regulations require the site to be at least half as big again as the house but this only leaves room for a 1 m (3 ft) wide path between houses and a tiny back yard for the clothes line.
The older houses were pretty ordinary but the more modern ones were very nice inside. The prices being asked were extraordinarily high considering the availability of new ones at much lower prices. Obviously the housing price bubble hasn't passed this kind of place by. We both agreed that for any of the prices being asked, old or new, we could get something much better out there in the open market. We are not ready for caravan park living just yet.
Les and Val had returned late on Monday and we spent the morning catching up with their wedding and their trip. They obviously enjoyed the wedding even though they hadn't taken enough warm clothes. Val found four hours in a Virgin Blue seat too much even for her small body so what it would be like for us, heaven only knows.
I had bought some timber o make blocks for the game of blocks and I took the opportunity to borrow Les's docking saw to get it neatly cut up into cubes. I hadn't got any of my other outstanding tasks done during our stay. It's a good thing that I have all the time in the world!.
We went to The Spice Rack for dinner. Mick, himself, was the chef and the food was as good as ever. Sadly we were the only customers so it's hard to see how they keep going. They only open from Wednesday to Sunday but if they only get four customers they might have to close on Wednesday and Thursday as well.