Day 104 Friday 16/9/2022 Nambucca Heads to Maitland, warm 24

It rained all night, but thankfully stopped at 6:00am and became warm and steamy.

We trundle down the Pacific M1 freeway and arrive at the Maitland turnoff around noon. There is much evidence of the recent floods and debris caught in the fences.

Maitland has a population of around 90,000 and was a convict settlement in 1818. This and the Hunter Valley is an area we haven’t explored and is known for its coal and wine. We won’t have time to explore it now though.

We feel assaulted by the traffic noise and of being back in a city after all these months. Cars, coal trains, and sirens.

The Showgrounds are a little soggy but the caretaker gives us a good spot all to ourselves. It’s a fair walk to town so Woody heads off to check out the CBD. VeeWee whose back is still giving grief and I (and little Nic) walk around the nearby streets and marvel at the tall skinny heritage homes, small cottages, and an imposing church which seems to have morphed into an early learning centre. Maitland Park is nearby with a band rotunda and copper boilers that were used for boiling water for picnicker’s tea in days gone by. Dwarfing them and nothing short of ‘over the top’ is the Richard Alexander Young drinking fountain. It’s enormous and qualifies as one of the most elaborate public monuments in the state. They must have been a thirsty lot back then or just maybe there was a shortage of brewers?

Note: The mayor of West Maitland, Richard Young died in office in 1893, it was his work that secured this land for the construction of Maitland Park and a grateful community.

Accom: $25.00 power, water, toilets

Fuel: $112.64 (189.9c/l) NRMA Discount

Towing Kms: 337kms