Day 51 Monday 4/8/2025, Uralla to Mannering Park, sunny 19 (by the afternoon)

The power and phones are still out. The snow has melted and we pack up and get an early start. As we drive through town we see that they now have power. The highway has been cleared leaving the roadsides a mess of gum tree branches pushed into the melting snow drifts.

Just before Tamworth we leave the tableland, as the highway drops steeply down the Moonbi Hill. The Peel River is dropping, but we can see where it has been as the debris is strewn through the fences. The roads are pot-holed again and we follow the A15 down through the Hunter Valley. Mistakenly we bypass Scone and its heavenly pies, expecting to grab something further on, in Muswellbrook. We park the car in what is no longer the main street and trudge along. Nothing is open except we see a bunch of rotund blokes wearing fluoro scoffing, that’s right scoffing, bacon and egg rolls outside a decidedly stale smelling shop. Across the road, a couple of drinkers flick cigarette butts from the upstairs veranda of a seedy pub. Then and there, we decide to forgo lunch.

Continuing down the valley through more coal mines we eventually pick up the M1 Pacific Motorway. By Morisset we’re tired and of course, hungry. We pull into the showgrounds where we’ve stopped on several occasions, but the site that we’ve booked and paid for by phone this morning is wet and just a trifle seedy. It becomes apparent that bookings here are handled by a caravan park 25kms away and staff aren’t familiar with the state of things.

Giving up on that one we continue on.

This time it’s the Ingenia Holidays at Lake Macquarie at Mannering Park. We’re given a less wet site, but the tap is leaking and unusable. We’re too tired to complain but a maintenance guy helps us lift our van legs out of the mud. This area has copped a deluge of around 200mm from the recent cold snap and down on the lake shore there is evidence of flooding. The park is well situated on the lake and there are birds everywhere. We just need to remember not to look to the south at the concrete chimneys of the power station.

Lake Macquarie, the sunset reflecting on the clouds

Dinner is leftovers and the TV decides to work tonight…without even putting up the aerial! We stay awake long enough to see the quarter final of Masterchef.

Accom: $37.00 (showgrounds)and $47.00 (caravan Park).

Fuel: $66.97, Towing Kms: 392Kms