The Wild Reed: Australian Sojourn

Part 8: Return to Guruk

I’ve spent the past three days in the New South Wales coastal town of Port Macquarie, which for the Birpai, the Indigenous people of the area, is known as Guruk.

My mum, Margaret, lives here in an assisted-living establishment. I spent time with her (right), and with my brother and his wife who live just south down the coast.

I also once again climbed Grants Head (above), a favorite coastal headland of mine at Bonny Hills, just south of Port Macquarie. The last time I climbed Grants Head was in 2023 – with a young Frenchman!

Above: Mum (left) with her longtime friend and former neigbour Heather – Tuesday, May 5, 2026. I'd recently caught up with Heather and her youngest daughter Jillian when visiting our hometown of Gunnedah.

This past Tuesday, Heather was visiting Port Macquarie from Gunnedah. I actually just missed seeing her as she visited mum an hour or so before I arrived into town from Gulmarrad. Heather’s son Troy took this lovely picture, and Heather later shared it with me via Facebook.

Above: Mum and I with a number of her friends and fellow assisted-living home residents.

We had just finished playing a word finding game. We were given the word “Countryside” and ended up with 130+ words that contained letters from it. These words had to have three or more letters — “Destiny,” “Iron,” “Ruse,” “Outer,” “Coin,” etc. . . . What other words can YOU come up with? 😁

Above: Mum with a number of her friends from outside her assisted-living facility. It's great that she stays in touch with these friends and lunches with them every Tuesday.