The forecast of impending storms and hail and the rest made me doubt I could burn enough time in the region until Kate was back in Brisbane next Tuesday. Also Dave was heading up that way, so we agreed to meet up somewhere along the track. For these reasons I packed up at The Channon after another cold shower, and while waiting for the fly to dry out after last night's rain I got chatting with a lady who stayed last night with her husband in a camper truck across from me.
The roadworks made for a slow and boring ride down the Pacific Highway to MacLean, where I met up with Dave. Given the forecast of storms etc., he suggested I try to find an AirBnB place near Nambucca, which took some setting up; after that it was easy to book Christina's Guunuwa, at least tentatively. I did all that after a big lunch (bacon, eggs, beans, mushrooms, bread, ...) at the Coffeeart cafe (same as going up). The owner-couple were very chatty: the Vietnamese chef is from Huế, and told me she couldn't get unground Vietnamese coffee shipped to MacLean. Her husband is a robust Aussie bloke who spent thirteen years in various parts of the country.
Christina's place: Guunuwa.
The ride down to Nambucca-ish was windy but mercifully quick. I fuelled up at the BP south of Coffs Harbour along with loads of local boat owners. Arriving around 5pm, I introduced myself to the dog (who is always aggressively friendly but only barks at people he hasn't met) and only got to exchange a few words with Christina as she was heading off to Bellingen for a "five rhythms" dance class (until 8:30pm-ish). The house is a bit amazing: it's the old nurses' quarters from the Bellingen hospital, and there is so much stuff. Notionally it's a macadamia farm. There are all sorts of plants here, and chooks.
Very soon after I arrived I met Shane and Mick. Shane has been living here in a tent for a few months, working on his car (a classic red VW Karmann Ghia convertible) and other odd jobs around the place. Mick was gardening, and lives in Nambucca. Shane generously cooked us both dinner — bacon, fresh eggs, beans, i.e., the same as lunch — and provided a couple of Asahi cans to wash it down. The dog insisted I throw his ball around until I got wise and threw it where he couldn't find it. One of the long haired cats caught a rat. I crashed at 9pm and got to sleep by 10.30ish.