Finally got my 2 working but at a sacrifice! they will only work at 1mbps or 2mbps.
i setup an esp8266 as a gateway and had to add:
#define MY_RF24_DATARATE RF24_1MBPS

Here is the addional code i used on th rf-nano sketch;
#define MY_RF24_CE_PIN 10
#define MY_RF24_CS_PIN 9
// #define MY_RF24_DATARATE RF24_250KBPS
#define MY_RF24_DATARATE RF24_1MBPS

Its a shame they wont work on 250kbps as i need the distance for a project i am playing with. oh well.
Hope my findings help someone.