Scott's Head, NSW - 21-27 March 2014

We had a lovely, relaxing 6 days at Scott's Head. The first 2 days we relaxed, doing a good walk each day, and spending the rest of the day reading, and in my case, sewing. We only had spasmodic internet reception and for my phone calls, I had to walk up the track to the beach which took you on to the top of the sand bank.

 

Scott's Head is just south of Macksville and about 12kms off the highway. Neither Bruce nor I have been here before. The caravan park is separated from the ocean by a large sandbank, covered in trees, shrubs and grasses. It gives good protection from the onshore winds, good shade and plenty of bird life. We even had a huge goanna – about 2 metres long – crawl along behind our site. Apparently there is quite a few around but he was the only one we saw. We also saw a wallaby with a joey in her pouch, on the sandbank just behind us as well.

There are a couple of great mosaics at the park at the entrance to the headland and there is also a table covered in mosaics in the shape of a whale. Very creative.

 

The caravan park is clean and tidy. Over the weekend it was quite full, but you didn’t get the feeling that there were lots of people there, even though it is quite a large park. There are a few toilet/shower blocks throughout the park, with the main one across from us newer than the others and containing the laundry. We didn’t find it a very friendly caravan park. You would go to say hello to people as they walked past and they wouldn’t look you in the eye. We haven’t come across that before. We did have one couple parked next to us for 2 nights and they spoke to us the morning they left. We had been out the day they were there. They had spent 6 months travelling over to Perth and back and were heading home to the Sunshine Coast

 There are quite a few houses in Scott's Head, with a Bowls Club, butcher, bakery, pharmacy, supermarket, real estate, cafe and tavern/restaurant (Greek). There is also a primary school. There are a few headlands, with Scott's Head the main one, and Elephant Head another one. The main beach is in a protected little corner of the bay and it attracted a few surfers on the weekend.

 Scott's Head is good for walking as there are a few hills here to help give you a good workout.  It is quite a good size town and it looks like it has grown in the last 10-20 years looking at the style of houses, with a few fibro cottages as well still remaining from years ago. There are quite a few holiday homes overlooking the ocean. The town is still expanding with building still going on. In our time here, we would have walked around the whole of Scott's Head as well as out along the beach and back through the bush.

 

On Monday we went for a drive. Just down the coast from Scott's Head is Grassy Head and Stuarts Point so we had a look at them. Stuarts Point has a nice looking caravan park which we might stay at on another trip.

 From there, we drove to Macksville. We have stopped here many times on our travels, usually to use the toilets and have a cuppa from our thermos. We parked the car and had a good walk round town. We had morning tea before Bruce went to buy a few groceries and I went to the patchwork shop where I bought a great earthmoving tractor and truck panel.

On Tuesday, we drove to Nambucca Heads, about 30kms north of us. We went to the movies and saw Monuments Men, which we thoroughly enjoyed. After that we drove out to the main part of Nambucca Heads, which is off the highway, and had a wander through town, stopping off at the Red Cross Cafe for a lovely toasted sandwich for lunch.

 There are a few empty shops in town, but the town supports an RSL Club and a pub. The police station is reasonably big and probably covers the whole of the Nambucca Valley, from Nambucca to where Kempsey takes over. Outside the police station along the footpath is another mosaic featuring the shape of the waves and sharks and fish and other sea life. Very well done, using broken tiles, broken cups and all manner of odds and ends.

We had fish and chips for dinner last night at the Takeaway just across the road from the van park. We were talking to the fellow who owns it and he was saying he had nearly halved his weight in the last few years. His heaviest weight was 198kg and he is now 102kg. He wants to get down to 80-90kg. He runs most days and swims 1 km in the surf every second day. He has done well considering he runs a takeaway food place.

The weather has been overcast, and showers most days, the whole time we have been here except for the first day, last Friday, which was sunny. On Monday, we had a very heavy downpour in the afternoon and Tuesday night it rained the whole night. The rain has been a good test for the van. We have found we still have a small leak. The water is not getting as far as Bruce’s bed, so that’s good, at least he is staying dry. It is just in the top cupboard above his bed. We are getting our 12 month service at the end of April so will mention it to them.

We were able to pack up the van this morning without getting wet, which made it easier. We got a reasonably early start and made it to Hawk’s Nest by about 1.30. We had showers during the day, but it was dry when we stopped at the Old Bar Crematorium, where my Dad is buried, to see if his site needed a clean-up. It was weed free and well looked after.

It didn’t start raining till we had nearly finished setting up the van with Bruce finishing it off in a light drizzle. We are staying at the Hawk’s Nest Caravan Park and it is quite a big park. It seems to be clean and well looked after. It is not too crowded today but no doubt over the weekend, it will fill up a bit.