Sat 21st and we joined the great Christmas getaway. To get to the pacific highway we had to go back towards Sydney before heading north. After thick traffic for about 3kms through Sydney's north eastern suburbs the traffic trickled to not alot and we could keep going. It would be fantastic if the UK had that kind of holiday traffic. We broke our journey to Valla beach stopping briefly at a farm stall for mangoes and cheap avocadoes before turning off to Nambucca heads for a look see, dipping toes in the lagoon while admiring the scenery and wishing we were staying here. Our Valla beach cabin was only a short drive from the heads and had beach, bbq , pool and lagoon which we were more than happy with. Most of the places we passed on this route were named after Maquarie and Blaxland two of Australia's founding fathers we think. For dinner we headed past Macksville in search of the Pub with no Beer (Taylors arms) highly recommended by Bill Bryson. After about 30kms driving through rural Australia we found this gem. The pub got its name when soldiers drank it dry in times of rations during the Second World War. Since then a poem by Dan Sheahan and a song by Slim Dusty have been written about it reinforcing its fame. The food was gorgeous and locals friendly, we ate outside with our conversation getting louder trying to drown out the noise from the cicadas. Driving back through the winding dark roads we prayed we didn't break down with no mobile signal being at the mercy of the Australian bush.

After Saturday's long drive we slept late, went boogie boarding before being joined by Rich, Val and James for a bbq who were staying in nearby Coffs harbour. It felt like the old days ,men standing round the braai, the wives' chatting and drinking wine, these days though we have the new younger family members spending the day in the pool playing Marco Polo. The children had a giggle at a family dubbed the sun cream family who had smothered themselves in thick white sun cream which did not soak in. Mom, dad and the two children spent the day in the pool looking like they had been involved in a paint factory accident. At least they won't burn and peel or suffer skin cancer in later life. It feels like we're being stalked by Santa as in true ozzie style he arrived on a fire engine throwing sweets to the children. Before we knew it we were saying our farewells.