The theme of the day was rain. Rain. And more rain.
The forecast for Port Macquarie was 80-120 mm of rain, with heavy bursts, developing into thunderstorms in the afternoon. But the morning had some dry spells, allowing us to get breakfast and then take Scully out for a run in the park near the hotel. Although by the time we got back from the park it had started raining.
We lined up a few wet weather activities. We started by driving out to the suburbs of town, where there is a small craft shop that my wife was keen to check out. After that we went to a large craft warehouse, where my wife bought a bunch of different material to use for her sewing.
Following these, it was my turn to choose a destination. So we ended up at the Wicked Elf Brewery… where I tried some of the beers and we had a lightish lunch. They did a tasting paddle of four small glasses of different beers, which I ordered, selecting four of the different ales. The woman who poured the beers completed the four glasses, but then said she’d accidentally done a glass of another beer that I hadn’t ordered, and she said rather than pour it down the sink, I could have it for no charge. So I got a free (small) glass of beer.
It was a very nice place to sit for a while out of the rain. My wife wanted a coffee, but they didn’t make coffees there. However, she saw across the street a place that had a coffee sign on it, and so walked over, while I waited with Scully. She returned with a cup of coffee and a story…
She said that the place across the road was actually a warehouse for espresso machines, but they also ran courses to train people to use them. So they had a row of machines set up. She had poked her head into the warehouse to see what was inside, and someone had asked her what she wanted. She said she thought it might be a place to get a coffee. The staff member said no and explained it was a warehouse and training facility… but then said he was just about the clean the machines and he could make her a cup first. So she ended up getting the coffee she wanted, and didn’t even have to pay for it! So we both ended up with a free drink.
We drove back to the hotel, and decided to go for a walk through the shopping area of town, to see what interesting shops were around. We looked at some crafts and homewares and my wife checked out some clothing. I found an old record and collectibles place, which had some cool comics and books and other stuff. We returned to the hotel, through increasingly heavy rain.
For dinner we had a reservation at a nice restaurant in town, a few blocks from our hotel. Because we had Scully, we needed an outdoor table, and we hoped they had one under cover well out of the rain. They did – there were tables against a wall under a large awning, so we were about two metres from the rain. We enjoyed a good meal, and watched the rain fall…
Until it got REALLY heavy. It absolutely pounded down for several minutes. Despite being well under cover, we both got soaking wet, our dining table got wet, we had to pick up Scully’s cloth mat from the ground as it was getting soaked.
Fortunately this downpour didn’t last very long, but the damage was done. I was soaked through my clothes to the skin on one side, and my wife as well. We finished our meal, and then had to walk back to the hotel in the heavy rain. Now we’re here, and we have entire sets of clothes including socks and underwear arrayed around the room to dry.
Tomorrow we drive home to Sydney. The forecast is for 120-200 mm of rain here in Port Macquarie, and up to 120 mm of rain in Sydney. I think it’s going to be a very wet drive.
