Hallidays Point – Dec 2019 – Yeoval

In hindsight I’m very glad we made this trip.

Days 5 through 10

Hallidays Point

This wasn’t the last time we saw dad, but it was the last time he seemed (somewhat) healthy. As it turned out, he wasn’t healthy at all, but he kept that from us. His legs, particularly his knees, had been weak for quite a while, so his lack of mobility was no surprise, but he was willing to get out of the house a couple of times. We got him to the bank and to his doctor, he even came to Forster with me to pick up Aunty Jean (mum’s sister) to join us for an early “Christmas lunch“. Looking back, there were signs of the health crisis to come, but at the time it was easy to dismiss them as he seemed relatively OK, and his typically stubborn attitude to his health meant he wouldn’t let us help him anyway.

Big Things

While we spent most of the week hanging around with dad or working, we did get to a couple of nearby big things so we could check them off our list. The first was the Big Sea Turtle in Forster, and the other was the Big Oyster in Taree. I’m not sure if the Big Oyster counts any more as it is no longer a tourist attraction and now serves as the offices of a car dealership. Taree is also on the I’ve Been Everywhere list.

Day 11

Hexham

Eventually it was time to head home again. First stop was straight down the highway to the Hexham Bowling Club, home of the Big Mosquito.

Pokolbin

From Hexham we headed west along the New England Highway and Hunter Expressway, exiting into the Hunter Valley wine region and the town of Pokolbin. Here we saw the Big Wine Bottle and some not so large cows and a pig. Like most wine regions, the Hunter is a lush, green and beautiful area.

Merriwa and Gulgong

Leaving Pokobin we were soon back on the Golden Highway and headed back towards Merriwa. We stopped here for a break and noticed something we missed on the way over… Merriwa is a stop on the World’s Largest Virtual Solar System Drive, although as Merriwa represents Pluto I have to wonder how the town felt about its demotion from planet status? I have now added these locations to our list of destinations. How would it be to travel the whole solar system?!

We left the Golden Highway between Merriwa and Dunedoo, heading south towards one of the I’ve Been Everywhere towns of Gulgong. We meant to hit this town on our outbound trip, but missed it due to our wrong turn out of the Parkes Observatory. Gulgong looks like a pretty little town, but this was a long driving day and we didn’t have time to do more than stop for fuel.

Yeoval

Our destination for the evening was a paid camping spot at Yeoval Showground. At $10 per night for water, power, toilet and showers, it was hard to complain.