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Woolgoolga - East Australia
Gap Year Travel Journal

(3rd - 7th May) Woolgoolga
We spent 3 fantastic days with Mike’s Nan in Woolgoolga. We hadn’t seen her for 5 years, when she last came over to visit her family in the UK, so it was lovely for us to be able to visit her in her home town. She lives in a superbly located flat right on the main high street, a short walk from all the shops and cafes. Woolgoolga is a great little town which has everything she needs and she certainly does lead an active life! Her social life puts ours to shame! What with church, Australian history classes, a creative writing course and lots of trips out with friends she is busy nearly every single day, not bad for an 89 year old! We spent a lot of time just sitting in cafes talking as we had so much to catch up on and we were blessed with amazing weather so we made the most of it. Nan kept us entertained with stories of things she has done in her life and her travels – I think this is where Mike gets his wanderlust from! We were even entertained by a saxophonist on one occasion and Nan’s friend Audrey came to join us. “Molly and her Trolley” outpaced us as we walked to the beach, the cafes and a restaurant. We went for a Chinese meal one night and all agreed it was one of the best Chinese meals we had ever had – even bringing a doggy bag home with us! It’s the only place in the world where you can have a Scandinavian “smorgasbord” or French “a la carte” in a Chinese restaurant (very confusing!). Jo now knows where Mike gets his sense of humour from because the banter between these two never stopped. The group photo was taken in Nan’s sun-drenched back garden where she tends to her flower beds and collection of potted plants. The beach at Woolgoolga is stunning – a very deep curved bay and one afternoon we gave Nan a rest from us and went for a walk out to the lagoon at the end of the beach and back. Up on the headland to the south of the bay we looked down across to the other beach, Woolgoolga Back Beach to the south – completely untouched and natural. It was really sad when we had to say our goodbyes and continue south towards Sydney but we were so happy that we had been able to spend some quality time together and get to know each other better. Thank you so much Nan for looking after us so well, we truly appreciated you letting us stay with you. Let’s hope we can come back to visit again soon, but watch out Nan, because we’ll be practicing Scrabble for the next time we meet, just so we don’t get so soundly beaten next time!