Lillydale NSW

Day124 (Nov 17) to Day 145 (Dec 8) Lilydale Home sit.

The couple we were house sitting for cooked us dinner on the Saturday night before they left. A nice B-B-Q and some red wine to go with it. We got the low down on what they wanted us to do while they were away, mainly watering the plants and gardens around the house and feeding the 3 horses, cockatoo, rooster, chook, dog and cat. It didn't rain particularly badly that night but the next afternoon, at about the time we would have been arriving, it absolutely bucketed down so it would not have been much fun getting there and trying to get settled in. 

 

Our Home for 3 weeks

Looking back up to the owner's house

Inside

The Bed

 

The horses proved to be a bit of a challenge, there's 2 mares and an 18 month old female as well. The younger one was pretty frisky and you had to keep your wits about you when you went into the paddock to get the feed bins and check the water. 

The Horses

 The dog and cat were easy to look after, they even came down and stayed with us while we were there. There was also a Lace monitor wondering around, not huge but big enough that you had to keep an eye on it. Basil the cat would chase it if he saw it, never mind that it was about 4 times his size. He chased it into the shed one day and to be honest, I didn't think he would come out again, but he did. Normally the Lace Monitor would head up the nearest tree and hang out there until basil got bored waiting for it to come down.

Lace Monitor checking out the Garden

The place was off grid, the house had it's own solar panels as did the shed we were staying in and the workshop as well. We had a few times when the inverter in the shed we were staying in started beeping, I guess from low battery level but it wasn't too bad. We had an interesting shower and toilet to use, both outside although they did both have a roof and walls.

Shower

Loo with a view

The nearest town of any size was Grafton which was about 35km away. Could be quite congested traffic wise because from the south there is only a 2 lane bridge over the river in and out of town. There's a new one under construction but I was told that it is only 2 lane as well which seems a bit crazy!! We took the opportunity to change our drivers licences to NSW as well as the car and camper registration. It was a relatively painless exercise, although we did have to get both the car and camper inspected and get a Blue slip before we could get 3^rd party insurance. A good job to get done and nice to be able to get it done at a service centre that was quiet.
We didn't do too much in the way of exploring. We did a day trip to Yamba, which we'd been to before 

 and another one to Woolgoolga which we hadn't been to before. 

It seems like a nice place, we went up the coast a bit and had a look at the camping ground at Red Rock . That looks nice as well, with the surf one side and the Corindi River on the other, one to put on the list of possible places to visit for a few nights.

Three weeks was certainly long enough at the house sit and it was good to see the owners home again on Saturday the 8^th. We had dinner with them again, they'd bought us a bottle of scotch duty free which was nice of them.  Not too late a night, they were tired and we were on the road again tomorrow.