Lake Leslie to Home

Monday 16th March

 After a pleasant break in Stanthorpe we moved on to Tenterfield for the final 2 nights of our trip. Once set up we wandered down to the information centre, which turned out closed at 4.30. One of the volunteers heard us rattle the door and invited us in, gave us some brochures and had a bit of a chat. Turns out he was an old Lismore boy who knew Michael's dad etc. Country hospitality at its best.

 It was a little drizzly so we elected to stay home, play cards(I finally had a win) and an early night. For the first time I was pleased we had packed our doona, with temperatures dropping to single figures..unfortunately it was under the bed so I spent the night with very cold legs.We remembered to fish it out before the next night though.

 Tuesday dawned clear and bright so after a stroll around the backstreets and the Tenterfield gardens Michael decided he would like to revisit Glenlyon Dam. He and Duncan had had a 'boys weekend' there 20 odd years ago and I had never been so we packed some lunch and off we went, back in time again, as the dam is in Qld. 
Oddly the emus were at the front of a well kept lot with no building on it: Tenterfield sunset
Although the dam levels were much lower than on Michael's previous visit they have gone from just 3% a few weeks ago, to 13% today. It must have been a very depressing sight at 3%! 
Dam levels 13%:  Lots of dead fish
































We had our picnic lunch at a spot looking back towards the wall and we noticed quite a few dead fish near the base of the wall. On our way back we stopped in at the camp area shop for an icecream and got chatting with the manager. His ears pricked up when we mentioned the dead fish, and after looking at my photos, he locked up, got his camera and zoomed off. He was very keen to get evidence to present to the Qld authorities.

Apostle Bird: White-bellied Sea-eagle: Double-barred Finch
































By the time we returned to town we decided to finish off our food supplies and watch the sun go down over the hills.

 Wednesday 18th March
The last leg home to Ballina took us past Crooked Creek, where we had spent a night off-grid, in January. Although the road in has deteriorated somewhat since then it is wonderful to see the bush regenerating in such a short space of time. The area had been devastated by fires in November but there is now water in the creek and plenty of birdlife in the surrounding trees.

Left: area in January. Right: same area in March

Postscript 1
When we collected our mail on Thursday morning we found a missive from the RTA informing us that we had handed the plates to our van in and it was no longer registered! We hadn't, and we had paperwork that showed registration until September 2020. After a long time on hold and some discussion the RTA admitted that someone in  admin had accidentally ticked the wrong box oops! Despite it being their problem we had to fix it so Michael spent some time on Friday morning at the understaffed RTA office in Lismore, the Ballina one being closed due to no-one turning up to work. Luckily we were not pulled over on our trip as that would have been difficult to explain.

Postscript 2
The 'series of unfortunate events' that occurred on Day 1 of our trip has resulted in a        $6000+ repair bill. Just as well we are grounded for the foreseeable future!

Comments

  1. UnknownMarch 31, 2020 at 3:43 PM

    Beverley..thanks herbie. I am stunned at the amount of damage@!!!!!! Anyway sounds like a really cool adventure for you and michael. May there be many more to come.

    ReplyDelete

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