DAY ONE IN DAVISTOWN

 Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragement, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak.

 

Thomas Carlyle

P:-) and I spent the last few days at Davistown, near Gosford. on the NSW Central Coast. We camped in the backyard of an old house that has been in P:-)'s family since 1920. P:-)'s maternal grandmother had been a head mistress back in the 1920s. She bought the old cottage as a holiday house and then it was inherited by P:-)'s mother, an only child. P:-) spent much of his childhood here with his mother, father and two older sisters. The place has many special memories for him.

After P:-)'s mother died the house was sold to P:-)'s father's brother who has since died and the house has fallen into decline. It is now owned by P:-)'s cousins who are planning to sell it, but are having trouble getting the price they are asking. Little or no maintenance is being done on the place which P:-) finds quite depressing.

House at Davistown

The house with the green roof is the old family cottage and the brick one to the right belongs to P:-)'s cousin. We camped in the back yard in a gazebo. We didn't take our caravan as we took the boat instead.

Exterior of gazebo

Inside gazebo

The lush grass made a lovely carpet inside the gazebo. P:-)'s cousin provided electricity, so we took the fridge and TV out of the caravan and camped in luxury.

I slept in the van and the first thing I saw each morning as I pushed the door back was this beautiful grape vine climbing over the wall of the house.

View of grape vine from inside the van

Grapes ripening amongst leaves on the vine

Looking down side of house to park and water

This was the view across the road from the house on the first morning.

Boats across the road in the morning

Across the road from the house at Davistown

The water was so still in the early morning.

On the first day we took the boat out on the Brisbane Waters.

Looking towards Iguana Joe's restaurant at Gosford

Bubbles on the water

I bought a big bubble wand in bubble solution and enjoyed sending bubbles over the water. The photos don't really show the lovely effect, although P:-) was a bit bemused. He couldn't really see the point but I thought it was beautiful.

Oyster leases

Pelicans at Ettalong

 We spent about three hours motoring around the bays and inlets. The day was sunny and hot and we had a wonderful time. The only hitch was that as we neared the boat ramp at the end of our trip the motor stopped. On close investigation P:-) found the propeller had picked up some rope which had completely twisted around it. Attached to the rope was a chain and then further down was an anchor.

I had visions of us having collected a boat's mooring rope which left the boat floating haplessly around the water. But P:-) said this would not be the case. It was more likely that someone had cut the rope after being unable to pull up the anchor, and then we had picked it up.

Interesting sites

1.

This elaborate house has been built to fit the Australian beach landscape. I can't quite see it. Click here to read more.

2.

These are photographs of children from all over the world. To see their bedrooms and those of more children  click here . This is really fascinating

3. 

After floods in Pakistan spiders were forced up into trees where they cocooned them in webs. Click here to read more