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Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 16:10:53 +1000 (EST)To: studio@toysatellite.org From: Don Pattenden <dpattenden@pegasus.com.au> Subject: Moonlight & Tinsel; Surf, Sandflies and a Rough Road Hello again, from a sunny Kempsey. 20 degs max today, but with a very cool breeze (more on that anon). I'm typing this at the ABC Radio office here so I don't have to pay this time, thankfully. Time is still limitted though because someone wants to use the computer soon. My host here is Steve Macdonald who I'd previously made contact with. He drove down to Crescent Head (where I was camped yesterday - Sunday) especially to do an interview with me to go over the local ABC radio station. As I've told you before, I'm a real ABC junkie so I feel privileged to be here in the middle of of a hive of frenetic activity and to meet all the local radio personalities. Made my day. A mixed bag of adventures since departing Port Macquarie, but mostly positive. As always, it's the downs that make the ups worthwhile. Moonlight and Tinsel I sent that last Newsletter from the Internet Shop in Port Macquarie and a pretty penny it cost me too. Didn't realise I'd clocked up so much time. Doesn't time pass quickly when you're using computers? It was getting dark outside when I'd finished. They said I'd been thre 90 minutes & charged me accordingly! Only seemed like 30 to me! Didn't realise they'd be so literal about it; in Taree they only charged me the minimum ($2) and I must have been there a good hour. So now I'm in for a really skinny fortnight; I'm going to have to camp in the bush a few nights to stretch it out. Well, by the time I got to the caravan park, just down the road from the shop on the road to the ferry across to the North Shore it was quite dark, so I had to put my tent up in darkness; my little forehead torch really came into its own. Cooked my evening meal in the laundry; this is a regular trick of mine. I assume it's OK unless anyone tells me otherwise and noone has ever complained. They way I see it, if they charge money for a tent site, it's up to them to supply proper camping facilities (like a camper's kitchen) and if they don't I feel entitled to "improvise". Anyway I have to backtrack a bit here. While I was in PM one of the many things I did there was to make contact with a friend from high school days. We hadn't set eyes on each other since the mid 50s, so that was interesting. He drove me around the town and showed me many of the local attractions inc. Harry's Lookout [an interesting story here which I don't have time to do justice too. Harry is a local character. Years ago (1960 I think) he drove his caravan into the (then) bush near the beach. He like it so much he stayed, and he's still there, still living in the same caravan. I talked to him briefly. He was drinking flagon port at 12 noon! He built the lookout (with some help from the council) and a little garden there to make it more attractive. Also a walk from the lookout down to the beach. My friend (Trevor Muddle) gave me a huge sheet of tinsel twice as big as my tent, with the idea of providing some insulation from the damp that tends to seep through when the ground is wet (which it has been most of the time, even when it's not actually raining.) He has lots of tinsel because his wife uses it to wrap her paintings. It's very light of course, and compact, so no problem to carry. Well, that night, after leaving the Internet Shop was the first chance I'd had to try it out. I laid it out on the floor (folded over) before putting in my bedding and other things. Wonderful stuff to handle; gives out a very cheery crinkly sound, reminding one of Christmas time. As it happens it was a full moon that night, and the sky was totally cloudless. So the effect was quite spectacular - moonlight filtering through the ceiling reflected in the tinsel gave the entire interior a sort of magical fairyland feeling -- reminiscent of childhood in some mysterious way. Wonderful. And it worked. Not a touch of damp came through. The point is, my Thermarest mattress is only three quarter length so there's always a worry about the sleeping bag touching the floor down at the feet end. The tinsel fills the gap quite perfectly. But it's big enough to cover the entire tent area so it insulates everything else as well. A good innovation. Learning little tricks all the time. [Another trick is freezer bags (smallest size) outside the socks, inside the shoe, to keep the socks dry when tramping around on dew laden grass, or in rainy conditions. Got that one from a cyclist I met in Orbost, Victoria, but only decided to try it out recently. That works too though haven't yet tried it while actually riding in rain -- as that cyclist did.] Next day there were showers around which was a worry because I knew I had a really rough ride ahead of me after taking the ferry -- the road through from the North Shore to Crescent Head, via Point Plomer. OK as it turned out. Only a few light showers, and they'd cleared up by the time I'd had some luch on the other side. That road was rough alright. Many people had warned me, but assured me it was worth it (most of them!) The roughest road I've every riden, with or without a load, and with the load I've got it was murder. Only about 16 km but it took me all afternoon to get to Delicate Nobby (the only camping area where there was drinking water, and by far the pick of all the camping areas along the way.) Some parts were worse than others; the best bits were still badly corrugated. The worst were really deep potholes full of sand; had to drag rather than push my bike through. I'm getting windup signals here so I'll have to finish off quickly. Stayed 3 nights at Delicate Nobby just to reward myself for the rough ride. Wonderfull place. Waves breaking on rocks (which I can't ever get too much of) - sound of the surf while I slept plus lots and lots of birds -- wonderful!! AND I HAD MY FIRST SWIM OF THE SEASON. IN THE SURF!!! First time I'd been in the water since last summer in Melbourne. And it was great. Had a really vigorous swim through the waves to give myself some excercise to make up for the lack of yoga just lately (nowhere to do it, sadly) To use different muscles from riding. After that rode the rest of the way to Crescent Head camped there the night (also a nice place, but more commercialised; Delicate Nobby is really unspoilt). Then on Sunday an easy ride to Kempsey. Pleasant ride but as soon as I stopped, the wind hit me. Ouch. The iciest wind I've yet had to suffer. And had to cook my dinner in the open (in a so called barbecue area, without any shelter whatever. Really the coldest I EVER encountered on the entire trip.
That's all for now. Still enjoying it and wouldn't have missed it for
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