The Hunter Region - Lake Macquarie to Gloucester - Feb 2018

Thursday 8 February 2018

It was a short drive along the coast, between Tuggerah Lake, Budgewoi Lake and Lake Munmorah to Swansea which is right next to the channel linking the huge Lake Macquarie to the Tasman Sea (or is that Pacific Ocean).

I had booked in at Swansea Gardens Lakeside Holiday Park on the peninsular sticking out into the lake, alongside the Swansea Channel in from the Lake Entrance.  Another huge park right next to the water, where I was lucky to get a spot as they were close to fully booked for the weekend.  In most of these coastal and tourist attractive locations, there are either no or extremely limited free camping area, where leaving the van would likely be a security issue.  Swansea and many of the towns and villages around the Lake are almost Southern Suburbs, or easy commuting distance from Newcastle.

On Friday I drove into Newcastle to have a look at the local Caravan and Camping Holiday Expo.  I have now been to quite a few of these, at home, in Adelaide and Brisbane.  Lots of new vans, campers and all sorts of stuff.









It was another scorcher of a day, with intense sun, so I did the full protective cover up, with hat, long sleeves and sunscreen.  Another rare excuse for a stern looking selfie.  Takes concentration to get it right.









 I managed to find two things to buy, before fleeing back to the van and turning on the air-con full blast.  One was a small cover for an "Anderson Plug" connector and the other was a replacement 12v internal fan for the caravan to replace one of the 2 existing units.  One had developed an intermittent fault and had stopped working most of the time.  Not too difficult a job for me to replace it.

On Saturday morning I took a long walk around the peninsular before it got too hot.

Beautiful by the lake in the cool of the morning.

I then took a drive into the Newcastle suburb of Charlestown, which has the most enormous shopping centre that I think I have ever been in.  Quite daunting as many entrances and huge parking areas underneath the centre.  Impressive, with 3 stories of shops and a large cinema complex, which was what had attracted me.  I went to see "Molly's Game", a reasonably new American movie, which I thought had pretty good ratings and also Idris Elba (of "Luther" and "The Wire" fame) in the male lead.  It was OK, but not worth writing home about.

On the way back to the Park I drove a little further South an had a look at Caves Beach, where another cool change was underway.

Nice looking beach, still with plenty of people in the water, despite the strong (coolish) breeze that had developed.

  
On the other side of the headland was a much more rocky coastline with caves undercut into the cliff line.







On Sunday morning (11 Feb) I crossed over onto Coon Island at the end of the peninsula near the park for my walk.  Just a few people walking their dogs, some interesting habitats and a bit of history to absorb.

Yet another beautiful early morning albeit with a few showers in the distance, but still quite warm.

In my outing to Charlestown yesterday, I noticed that "Three Billboards outside Ebbing Missouri" was also showing at the cinemas.  So back I went and this is a movie I would highly recommend.  Interesting unusual characters, a story with a number of twists and turns and for me totally immersive.  Not a 10 out of 10, but probably North of 8.1/2, which is pretty good for me.

I attempted to do a bit of a scenic drive around Newcastle but it wasn't very successful and no photographs to show.  The combination of many people "Sunday driving" plus a whole lot of blocked off areas due to works for a new light rail system, just made it too hard.  However, what I saw looked like a nice City, now undergoing significant recovery and regeneration since the closure of the Steelworks some years ago.

Monday 12 February 2018.

Time to hitch up yet again and another not too long journey to the North and East to the Port Stephens Area on the other side of Newcastle.

This time I was booked into the Halifax Holiday Park close into Nelson Bay and next to the prominent inner lighthouse hill, between the "normal" beach and Little Beach.  A very nice area, but the park was full and sites were all quite tight, with not a lot of breeze between trees on one side and the hill on the other. 

 Spectacular Yacabba and Tomaree Heads from the Inner Lighthouse Hill next to the caravan park.

The "main" beach at Nelson Bay looking towards Shoal Bay and Tomaree Head.







 On Tuesday, or was it Wednesday, I did a bit of touring around, including a visit up to the Gan Gan Lookout a very prominent hill between Nelson Bay, Salamander and Anna Bays'.

 At the top of the lookout are a number of huge telecommunications towers (who is worried about Microwave transmissions) and spectacular views in all directions.

On Thursday I did some more touring around, including Birubi Point and Beach (pictured) near Anna Bay.  The beach seemed to go on forever, with extensive sand dunes in the background.

Further back into the Port is Soldiers Point, where this picture of the Yacht Club / marina is taken.

 Fishing is popular off the rocks at Soldiers Point.
 

 


In the late afternoon, the old keepers cottage & the marine rescue centre at the Nelson Bay Inner Light is bathed in sunshine

The Little Beach boathouse and restaurant is in a beautiful location close to the caravan park,

and Little Beach is perfectly sheltered for safe swimming with a number of shady trees and grassed area next to the beach.  There is a boat launching ramp near the point which is the base of the hill up to the Inner Light.

 The Nelson Bay Marina looks great from the hill up above the busy township. 

On Thursday night I had an excellent meal at The Little Nel Cafe on the ground floor of the Nelson Resort close to town.  It was recommended as number one restaurant in the area by Trip Adviser and I certainly agree that it was well above average.  No food porn pictures this time, but a salad including cured ham, fresh fig and creamed cheese as an entree and a main with scallops and tempura stuffed zucchini flowers was pretty impressive for a cafe.

Port Stephens and Nelson Bay is a beautiful area, but being close to Newcastle and not that far from Sydney it is a very busy holiday destination.  Even though school holidays were over, plenty of older folks, grey nomads and international tourists filling the parks and accommodation.

Friday 16 February 2018

Time to give up the coastal humidity for a few days and head inland and further North to Gloucester, a farming area and gateway to the impressive Barrington Tops National Park.  Another recommended place to visit from Andrew Davies.  Pretty good record so far.

After the crowded coastal caravan parks with small sites, Gloucester was a pleasant change with heaps of room, with a cow paddock next door.

The park was also alive with rabbits, as surprisingly were a number of the coastal parks, including Nelson Bay.







On Saturday, I took the drive up to the Barrington Tops, which rise up to around 1500 metres above sea level.  Quite a spectacular drive, first through increasingly hilly grazing country, into dense and steep rain forest, with snow gums and alpine swamp areas on the high plateau tops.

A number of fires were burning in the steep hills near Cobark and the Barrington Tops State Forest

 Thunderbolts View out over the edge of the escarpment was very impressive.

The walk into the view was relatively open snow gum country on the tops of the plateau.

The nearby Devils Hole view, also looks out to the edge of the escarpment, but down into a particularly steep valley or hole.

A little further on is Polblue Swamp, very different again and not far before the road starts descending to the West of the Tops.

On Sunday (18 Feb), I took a drive first back to the South, then West to have a look at the Gloucester River Valley and then the Gloucester Tops, which also forms part of the Barrington Tops National Park.

The road had a number of (concrete) fords across the river, which I suspect would be very interesting after heavy rain in the hills.

Again the road begins in grazing country with quite a few dairy herds and then climbs steeply into the rain forest country.  The Gloucester Tops Road follows the bed of the River, climbing up to aroun 1400 metres.

On the way back down, I had an interesting incident with the Landcruiser.  On a section of fairly bad corrugations, the rear end started swaying violently. 

 The rear suspension panhard rod (or trackbar) which connects and secures the axle to the chassis had come loose.  A bolt and nut attaching it to the chassis had vibrated loose and disappeared.  Fortunately the bar was still securely held on the axle side and did not fall to the road below.  I was able to limp the 30km or so back to town at a very slow pace to stop the axle sway building up.

Fortunately no other damage appeared to have happened & on Monday morning I was able to find a local mechanic who sourced a high tension bolt and re-attached the rod.  For a test drive I took a short drive outside the town.

 The nearby Buchan Buchans (or Bucketts Mountains) are a scenic backdrop to the town.

Tuesday 20 February 2018

During the morning, a cool change came through with some welcome rain showers.  I did know it was coming, so had time to hook up the van and take a last walk around the town without getting very wet.

Today I headed back towards the coast and the Great Lakes Region, which includes the twin cities of Forster and Tuncurry, which will start the next chapter of the blog.

NSW Central Coast - Feb 2018

Saturday 3 February 2018

After safely navigating the Sydney Metro Area, I checked into Toowoon Bay Holiday Park, not far from The Entrance, on the New South Wales Central Coast.  The park is very large with many "permanent" vans and annexes that appear to only be used occasionally. 

Once set up, I contacted Andrew Davies, who lives close by to the South at Brooks Hill near Wamberal, and not far from Terrigal.  I paid a visit mid afternoon and it was great to catch up with Andrew, Sue, Josie and Nikki, who I had not seen for a few years.  We had a cuppa and a bit of a gossip, then Andrew took me for a trip around the area, including Terrigal, Avoca, Copacabana and the Captain Cook Lookout over the three capes looking South towards Sydney.  Silly me didn't take any photos, so a return visit will be on the cards.

On Sunday, I was invited for lunch and caught up with Nikki before she had to head off to work for an afternoon shift.

 Nice family photo of Andrew, Josie and Sue after lunch.

 I was treated to an excellent home cooked fish and chips with real green vege.  A very enjoyable time, followed by a late afternoon nap, back at the van.










On Monday (5 Feb) morning, I took a decent walk around the area, including the nearby Toowoon Bay Beach.

A beautiful beach and somewhat sheltered from some of the large Pacific swells by a rocky headland and rock outcrops.  Many houses have direct beach access and in some areas, public access is not easy.  Quite different to WA, where nearly all housing is separated from the beach by road and public access.

After the walk I spent most of the day catching up on the previous chapter of the blog, which was just a tad overdue and watched a bit of the US Superbowl football game.  Very strange spectacle for me, set up to allow maximum TV coverage and advertisements.  I was hoping to see some of the clever US advertising created specially for the Superbowl, but unfortunately local boring ads prevailed.

Tuesday morning I had another hour long walk around the local neighborhood, with an excellent coffee on the way back from a small local cafe, which is likely to get a visit tomorrow morning for breakfast after I saw some very good looking scrambled eggs being served.  Once I got my act together, I then set off to do some exploring around the area and revisit a few of the spots Andrew had shown me. 

After another roundabout drive back through Terrigal, Avoca and Copacabana, I climbed up to the high point and stunning Captain Cook Lookout.

This is the fabulous view to the North past Terrigal.

The lookout is at the top of a very steep hill overlooking the rocky headland.

Cook was taken with the three prominent points and by the looks of it spent some time tacking in the area to make headway?

Two of the points can be seen in this view to the South past Copacabana, with Sydney in the far distance.  Visible to the eye, but not through the camera.


On the way back I had a closer look around Terrigal where Elizabeth (Davies) has an apartment and usually spends some time during the hottest part of the WA summer.

Terrigal is a very busy holiday destination with many hotels, apartments and a busy tourist strip around the bay and sandy beach.

The Haven is protected by Broken Head and has wide boat ramp and protected anchorage off the beach.

Next to the boat ramp is the Haven Beach Cafe Restaurant, which Andrew recommended and where I had an excellent coffee on the shaded verandah with great views out over the bay.

Another feature of the Bay is "The Skillion" with a sloping grassed slope up to a shear cliff to the rocky coastline below.  Lots of people walking up to look at the view.





I continued my drive up to The Entrance where there is a bridge over the channel linking the sea to the large Tuggerah Lake.  Again a very busy tourist area with lots of shops, restaurants, cafes, accomodation and you name it.

I returned to the park for a short afternoon nap and late afternoon Andrew & Sue came by to have a look at the caravan.  We then travelled back to The Entrance to meet the girls and have a meal out together.  Unfortunately the family favourite Italian and Pizza Restaurant was closed, but we had a walk around and were lucky to find another Italian based Restaurant right next to the water, with great views across the channel and sandflats.

 This time I managed to get a photo including Nikki and her Boyfriend Tyler.

Dinner turned out well, with some very good pizzas, great salads and excellent company.  A very pleasant evening for me.  Andrew & Sue dropped me back at Toowoon Bay and we said our good byes for this trip.  Was great to catch up with them and the girls, and meet Tyler as well.

Wednesday 7 February 2018

I had another beachside walk in the morning and did a bit of a review of the Super Fund share portfolio after the large (5%) correction to our holdings yesterday.  Fortunately about half that loss was cancelled by a bounce in the market today, so I can (at least temporarily) call that a correction that was long overdue on Wall Street.  I then did a shopping trip stocking up again at Long Jetty and Bateau Bay for my next short journey to the North.

Another beautiful sunny day with temperatures in the mid 20s (C) and a nice cooling breeze in the warm afternoon.  In the morning I will continue North to Swansea, where there is a channel linking the very large inshore Lake Macquarie to the Sea.  Stay tuned for the next chapter......

 

Melbourne to Sydney from 18 January 2018

Thursday 18 January 2018

Another scorcher of a day.  I caught the bus from the Lilydale Caravan Park to the local Toyota dealer in town and picked up the Landcruiser after a 90k service.  All good and they appeared to have done a good job, along with an excellent wash and clean out.  Did some shopping and then retreated into the caravan with the air-con running for the rest of the day and night.  A minor disturbance of some sort in the park during the very hot evening with Police in attendance, but I didn't bother to find out what had happened......

On Friday morning I headed South and East, back to Sale.  It was again very hot, so I decided to spend another night there and be able to cool down the van.  Had another visit with Bryan & Leonie and talked about maybe going to visit Dargo in the high country.  The forecast was still pretty hot and fire danger high, so I was advised to postpone that trip for another day.

Saturday 20 January 2018

Packed up and continued East towards Lakes Entrance, with a diversion from Bairnsdale to do a round trip to Paynesville on the coast to have a look.

As you come into Lakes Entrance from the West there is an impressive lookout, before you descend the hill into town.

Beautiful waterways all around the township, with many wharves, commercial and privately owned vessels of all shapes and sizes, plus a large selection of restaurants and cafes.

   




Across a walkway from the town and close to the caravan park I stayed in is the town beach, which is nearly the Eastern end of the 90 Mile Beach.

Nice beach, which continues endlessly on from the other side of The Entrance, but then mostly requires a boat to access in the immediate area.

Speaking of the Entrance, this is what it looks like, looking inwards towards The Narrows, with Bullock Island and the town on the right. 






On Sunday, or was it Monday, I walked into town and took the three hour Eco Cruise along the waterways back to the West.

The Lonsdale is a steel vessel built in Queensferry as a Queensferry - Sorrento Ferry in the 1960's.  An interesting history, then restored and brought to Lakes Entrance just a few years ago.

 The "new" Entrance looking out towards Bass Strait.  It was constructed in the early 1900's and completed around 1914.  It requires regular dredging to remove regular sand deposition from the Ninety Mile Beach.

A really interesting commentary with lots of information on the cruise, as well as huge scones freshly baked on board with jam & cream.  Highly recommended.

 This particular cruise goes as far as Metung, which is at the start of Lake King, extending to the West.   






Metung is a really pretty village, with a good pub that does good lunches and a number of picnic areas with a large range of tourist accomodation, marinas and Yacht Club.  I had vistied previously on a day trip from Sale with Bryan, Leonie and Otis.

On Tuesday 23 January, I took a drive back through Swan Reach and Bruthen to the Great Alpine Road.

 Driving away from the coast the terrain is initially heavily forested, becoming increasingly steeper as it climbs towards the mountains. 

Further into the drive there are extended cleared valleys that have been heavily grazed in the past.

I went as far as Omeo, which is where the road splits, with Mount Hotham to the North West and Corryong in the far North.






Omeo was very quiet in the mid morning, with a pub, a few local shops, cafe and some tourist accommodation.  I returned to Lakes Entrance with a diversion through the old gold mining area of Cassillis on the way back to Swifts Creek. 

On Wednesday I took a lunch cruise to Wyanga Park Winery, located on the North Arm of the Gippsland Lakes, not far from Lakes Entrance.  The 45 minute cruise was quite pleasant but unfortunately the winery was a disappointment.  The place was quite run down and the wines were pretty awful.  As an example, they had a Rose that was described as a mixture of the Gerwurztraminer and Cabernet, which was exactly what it tasted like.  I was at least spared tasting of their pinot as it was out of stock.  The lunch at Henry's Cafe in the winery was quite limited in choice, but fortunately the bruschetta followed by scallop bisque soup and home baked bread was not bad.  Coffee was very ordinary for Victoria.  Not a cruise I would recommend to anyone visiting Lakes Entrance.

On Australia Day (26 January), I set off to the East again and at Orbost on the Princes Highway turned South to follow the Snowy River to the Sea at Marlo.

The photo was taken on the Estuary where the Snowy meets Bass Strait.  The area was busy with boaters and families on a day out. 







Marlo is very small & was packed with campers for the Long Weekend, so I retraced my steps to Orbost and continued on to the East again.  Just short of the border with New South Wales, I diverted to the coast again to have a look at Mallacoota.  A pretty coastal village amongst rolling hills with some grazing and some forested.  Larger than Marlo, but it too was packed for the holiday weekend, so again I continued to the North East on the Princes Highway.

I took a couple of breaks along the way and rang ahead to see if I could find a van site near Eden.  I was successful at Eden Beachfront Holiday Park located on Twofold Bay, near Quarantine Bay, a few kilometres short of the town.  The park was very large and also close to full with the holiday weekend, but was in a beautiful spot with the beach below right at the front of the park.

A lovely sheltered beach, just a few minutes walk from the caravan.

I spent three nights in Eden, with a little exploring of the immediate area, including a visit to the very interesting Killer Whale Museum on top of one of the many hills in the town.

The story of "Old Tom" a leader of the Killer Whale pack who used to cooperate with the land based whalers in hunting larger migrating whales is quite amazing. 

 





There is an interesting range of displays and exhibits, and

 

the view from the front of the museum is pretty spectacular as well.







Very hilly town with extensive beaches, surrounded by rainforest and a very deepwater harbour.

There was large P&O cruise liner in Port over the weekend, with small vessels ferrying passengers ashore during the day for activities and time in the town before moving on during the late afternoon.

On Monday 29 January I headed North again, with a stop in Bega at the Heritage Centre for a good coffee and a generous bacon & egg roll with local chutney - wot no cheese....

A nice stop along the way North and not far off the main road.  Bega is at least one Australian Dairy Company that appears to be doing well.  They recently bought back Vegemite and Peanut Butter brands from Kraft after many years of foreign ownership.

I also stopped in at Bergamui, another pretty coastal village, home to a deep water game fishing fleet and a nice little marina. 







I spent a couple of nights in Batemans Bay in a very well run Big 4 caravan park.  Finally an end to several days of extremely high humidity and clinging nights with a lovely cool change with some rain showers.

A little gloomy after the showers, but so nice to be cool again.  Very busy holiday spot with a large new shopping centre and heaps of tourist shopping development.  It also had a well rated Indian Restaurant, which I sampled for some takeaway.  Unfortunately the dishes I chose, including a goat bhuna and dhaal were disappointing for me.  I still miss the "Indian Restaurants" in Scotland and the rest of the UK.

On Wednesday 31 January I towed the van North again, with a diversion to look at parts of Jervis Bay and a small look around in Nowra, which is quite a large regional town.  I booked into a beachside park at Shellharbour, just South of Port Kembla.  Ended up right on the waterfront at South Shellharbour Beach.

A beautiful spot with old seaside village now surrounded by kilometres of suburbs.  The price of development.

A beautiful sunrise at Shellharbour on Thursday morning.  I did a bit of touring around the area, including an excursion to Port Kembla.

The sandy beach was impressive, large and almost deserted on a Thursday afternoon.






 I also wanted to suss out the Visitor Centre at the Bluescope Steel Plant in the Port, where I booked a place on the weekly public tour for Friday morning.  The caravan park was fully booked for the weekend, so on Friday morning (2 February) I packed up and towed the van to the Port Kembla steelworks.

I was surprised by the scale of the Port and the works.  Much larger than the operation at Whyalla and more comprehensive, beginning with coke and iron production, leading in to steel production and also including "Colorbond" production for roofing, sheeting and fence manufacture.  The tour was exceptional value for $20 and ran for about 3 hours.  It included a video introduction, minibus tour around the site and a walk through of one of the steel blast furnace facilities and a slab production and rolling mill.  The guide Danny had worked as a mechanical hand in nearly all parts of the works and the commentary was excellent.  We were all geared up in protective clothing, hard hats, eye protection and a hearing protection cum headphone system that allowed communication in noisy areas.

It really was a great tour, which I would highly recommend to anyone interested and passing through the area on a Friday.

Extensive works, which appeared to be well maintained and surrounded by a suprising amount of greenery to help with dust suppression.






The Bluescope Steel Company is another spin off from BHP, but they have done reasonably well, despite never quite recovering production levels from prior to the Global Financial Crisis around 2008/9.  They have however remained viable and have the capacity to expand operations to meet further demand for good quality Australian Steel.

In the afternoon I towed the van to Corrimal Beach, just North of Wollongong where I had planned to spend the night.
 




A very pleasant park, operated by the local Council and fairly busy over the weekend.  Right next to the beach.












Another impressive sandy beach, on which I enjoyed a good afternoon walk.

I came across a jellyfish in the sand.  First I had seen on the Pacific Coast.












In the evening and Saturday morning there were a number of showers which again brought a cooler change and relief from the humidity.

Saturday 3 February 2018

I packed up the van yet again and set out this morning for my first transit of the Sydney Metro Area.  On advice, I headed up into the hills above Wollongong, quite a steep climb with the van and along the Picton Road towards the M31 (Hume) Motorway and Highway from Canberra. then North along the Motorway to the outskirts of Sydney then on the M7 Eastern Toll Route, followed by the M2 through to Pennant Hills, South West of Hornsby.

Here unfortunately the Motorway system ends for Northbound travellers and there is about 8 km of very busy three lane road through the suburbs with many traffic lights and packed solid with traffic most of the time.  At either end, massive tunnel works are underway to "eventually" make a link to the M1 Pacific Motorway to the North.  I understand the cost of this link will be massive, and over course it will be a Tollway which will no doubt be expensive "forever".

I survived the transit with the van and was pleased to get onto the M1 heading North towards the Central Coast.  It is an impressive road through hilly country with huge cuttings through solid sandstone.  Construction during the 1980's must have been a huge undertaking.

I continued on past Gosford, exiting the Motorway near Ourimbah and then heading South West to Toowoon Bay, South of The Entrance.  I had made a booking for several days at Toowoon Bay Holiday Park near the beach and that will be the next chapter of my blog.  Hopefully it will be updated a bit more promptly than this extended journey.......