Travelling New South Wales Oct-Nov 2010

The itchy feet started and I had a good excuse to go traveling. It was 50 years since I had finished my training at Prince Henry in Sydney.
I took a slow trip down the coast, stopping at Macksville my old home town for a night. A motel in the centre of town has replaced some neighbours houses, I walked around the block and enjoyed the view of the river, next morning I went to have breakfast at Short Order cafe and read the paper, if you're traveling through, they do serve a good coffee. I also visited an Italian lady, 40+ years I had delivered her live baby boy after 9 miscarriages and we share a special bond, Her husband died earlier this year and she is all alone.

I had a sudden flash as I was driving near Taree, I had walked out of Short Order and forgotten to pay. Perhaps I had had a psychic message when they realised I had walked out. When I arrived in Gosford my next stop, I phoned them and said I would send the money, they appreciated my call. I always stay in Gosford for a few days, its my place of birth, and I decided to do some exploring and did a drive from the Entrance North to Norah Head, I may have been there when I was very young, but its not a memory so I really enjoyed my walk around the lighthouse and beach. The rocks there are all small pebbles in solid stone.













Then I drove on to Sydney, lucky I have a cousin there and can always stay. It was my 50 year of finishing my nursing training, I had tried to get the others from my group to come, one lives in Gunnedah, I had only recently found her on the internet but she can't travel now, one of our group had died about 4 years ago and the other two who live in Sydney, had other reasons not to come. Fortunately I've always been friendly with the group above and one of them lives at Tamborine, so we had met up several times over the years when we have had small reunions at the Casino in Brisbane.











After the reunion I took a walk around Little Bay and the Golf Course on the headland, the Golf Course area was always off limits to Nurses, but this time I decided to check out the rocks and was pleased I did, The beach at Little Bay is much cleaner and there are now steps down to the beach. On my way back from my walk I found a very small sea urchin shell to add to my shell collection












On the Sunday I went to the State Library for a while and caught up with some of the graduates for a lunch in the city, then I was off exploring Campbelltown where some of my mothers early relatives had left their mark. My family history line dates back to the first fleet from my paternal grandmother and I have three convicts who arrived on the 'Asia' in 1820, William Bursill, Joseph Preston and John Ferguson. Over the years I have researched all these families and can still find some surprises.














I was unsure where to stay next, I was heading to Rylstone, but a phone call to Chris who was in Canberra working for a few days, caused a quick detour to Canberra to see her, We had a magic Italian meal and next morning I was off again, On the way into Canberra I had noticed water in Lake George but I was too late to stop for a photo so on the way out I stopped. Its years since there was water in Lake George, and its probably much more with all the rain they have had since. I'll need to go again to check it out.