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| Newcastle is a lovely area on the Tasman Sea |
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| At Swansea, NSW, you have to schedule a bridge opening to enter or leave Lake Macquarie. It is too shallow for us. |
It is now Spring and moving into Summer. We have had some
107 degree days here in Newcastle, NSW already. It doesn’t last too long as a
Southerly Buster blows in with cold air dropping the temperature 30 degrees
within minutes and shifting the winds 180 degrees. You can actually see it
happening!
For us, the problem is that it is too hot to go to the Outback until
next April. So we are heading to Tasmania in December and have been told that
it is chilly down there and to take our woolies! It might be a welcome change
for a while.
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| Lake Macquarie. Not even close to Michigan lakes! |
We have started exploring the New South Wales coast area, in
addition to the places we went with the Down Under Rally. One of our local
excursions was to find a shopping center and Bunnings, which is like a Home
Depot or Lowes.
Dennis is finding the driving similar to New Zealand as it is a
right-hand drive car and they drive on the opposite side of the road as we do
in the USA. The biggest difference is that they drive faster and cut in and out
more than the Kiwis.
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| Coal is the major product around Newcastle. There is very little dirt or pollution due to modern techniques. |
We are not buying a car here as the distances are too great
between the sites we want to see. Instead, we will do Fly & Drive trips to
the selected areas. The bus and train systems are very good here. And the
walking areas are boardwalks and sidewalks with room for bicycles and they go
for miles along the beaches. If you like walking, you can walk for miles and
miles.
We drove south to Lake Macquarie, which is a large inland
saltwater lake with a channel in from the ocean. The entrance is too shallow
for us to enter so we drove all the way around the lake. It took a couple of
hours, but is nothing like the Great Lakes.
Maybe put Houghton and Higgins
Lakes together and you have the same size. Or maybe only Houghton Lake! We see
no reason to go there to sail. Plus you have to call the draw bridge an hour
ahead and wait for a time for it to open.
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| Dunes just south of Nelson Bay. |
A drive to the north along the ocean took us to Nelson Bay
and the Port Stephens area. Along the way we found a road to the beach and were
delighted to see where were: at the north end of the 18+ mile beach that starts
just across the river from the marina here in Newcastle!
The sand dunes at that
end are awesome. They give Sleeping Bear Dunes a run for the money! The beach
is enormous, but I think Sleep Bear Dunes are higher.
Lunch is always an adventure on our road trips as we like to
find places where the locals eat. The experience at Lake Macquarie left much to
be desired. In fact, neither of us felt like eating dinner and I still felt
less than good the next day.  |
| The Aussies live at the beaches: surfing, swimming, biking and walking. A real outdoor lifestyle here! |
However, we hit the jackpot in Nelson Bay. We ate
at the Rock Lobster Seafood Restaurant. Dennis was like a kid with a super
happy meal! He loves his seafood! The food was really good and we were so full
that no dinner again, but this time, no crummy feelings either.
Then we topped it off with ice cream which is a real treat
when sailing. I am not sure the sundae was called for, but appeared to finish
off the “happy meal!” I found a new favorite flavor of ice cream: Baily’s and Almond. Really
good!
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| We have seen several of these chess sets in parks. |
So far, Australia has shown us some really special things
and then some ho-hum ones. I guess we are lucky to have so many wonderful
places in America that it takes something outstanding to top it. There is no
place like home, but we have seen some pretty amazing places!
Next exploration: We will go to Sydney for the holidays and to Tasmania by air for a driving trip along the east coast.
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| The harbor at Nelson Bay |
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| Great lunch stop |
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| Dennis' critter lunch |
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