Side Trip to Visit North Arm Cove and Namesake village - Carrington : January 13 2023

Packing and tidy up time for going home. Morning warmed up fast - not fun for packing a car. Drive home did not start well - left my sandals behind. 3 kms u-turn to get those. Hit the Pacific Highway at closest point to get home. My wife saw the turnoff for North Arm Cove. She has a friend there - we drove the 4 kms in and toured the mesh of streets.

North Arm Cove is on north side of Myall Lakes opposite Port Stephens. We did not find Mark - my wife left a message

Did find crucifix orchids where the selfie was taken

Drove down to Carrington - my surname and named after a former governor of NSW - more selfie time

Sign with only one Carrington in it. Village we learn has 19 residents - an eclectic bunch of people we learn

No call back - so we hit the Pacific Highway again and had passed the next main junction to Karuah when the call came. Mark is home - turn around - more kms added to the journey.

Mark and my wife worked together - been years as friends. Was a great catch up. His place is remote - has views over the water and water access to launch a kayak - his passion. Learned that North Arm Cove was short-listed as a candidate for Australian capital. Burley-Griffin did the layout designs and signs are there with a labyrinth of semi-circular roads

There is a track behind the house going into native bush. Went looking for orchids after a sandwich lunch. Hyacinth orchids aplenty but none flowering

Some colour - seeded ginger flowers

New life growing out of a cut down tree

Found hyacinth orchids budding on the way down the hill

Some differences but probably all dipodium variegatum - look for the spots

A bit of droop - maybe virus or fungal attack

There will be new ones next year as this one has seeded - also dipodium variegatum

Pleased we stopped by as we have not seen Mark for a long time and he was very isolated through Covid times.

Traffic was busy crossing the Hunter River - 45 minutes for 20 minutes. Had to make a side track to get fuel - more unnecessary driving.

Then we heard there was a big accident on the freeway going South. I mapped a route to avoid it from well before and rejoining after going up Yarramolong Road. We moved all the time but it was a lot more kms.

We did get back to freeway after the accident - traffic was still slow. We did one junction and came off. When we rejoined over the Hawkesbury River, my wife recognised a car that had been at the point we first left. I did not recognise any. My sense is we did get in front of the schmozzle. Was a big day driving but safely done

At home, the tiger orchid has been late flowering - two flowers open but past their best

Stanhopea tigrina - there is one bud soon to open. Smell is like jasmine

The other stanhopea is also flowering - much smaller

Stanhopea hernandezia - 2nd year of flowering

That ends the holiday - was good being away from the Xmas and New Year grind. Was good to see my grand daughter. Rough that my wife was sick all the time. Sure pleased I shook off the cold quite easily

Did some garden tidy up - it is a mess after 3 weeks away

Dinner: Simple stuff on first night back - bbq under the stars.
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Daily Activity, Gardening, House Chores