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Published: October 4th 2006
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Leaving Victoria!
After driving up from Victoria, we drove right through Sydney and continued north. The first night we stayed in a crappy park, but at least we were warm! The next day we made our way to Newcastle, stopping in a small beach town called The Entrance. It is the pelican capital of Australia! It was nice there, lots going on because it was Labour Day weekend. There were some amazing views along the way almost all the way from Sydney to Newcastle, and tremendous amounts of rock that had been removed in the making of the highway! Quite remarkable. After all of the hoops we jumped through to get the van roadworthy, it felt like we were now free and able to get on with our trip. We don't really want to be staying in parks most of the time, to be able to save the $18-25 we had been paying a night.
Ocean Lookout
CAROLYN: On Sunday morning we drove to Newcastle. We stopped at a small look out, where apparently you could go handgliding, if you were so inclinded.
After stopping in at the Tourist Office, we were told that there
were no caravan sites available for about a 3 hour drive! We didn't mind, because we didn't really want to pay any more, plus it was gettng warmer. We settled in in a semi-hidden parking lot over the Mereweather Ocean Baths, right by the ocean. It was beautiful! Joe went in for a quick dip in the cold pool. It is built right on the edge of the ocean, and holds ocean water. This pool was huge, people were doing their lengths the short width of the pool!
The next morning, we woke up and the van was really hot! Outside there were already a million people exercising - running up the stairs, swimming laps (in gross speedos). We made breakfast, then made our way into town and towards the rest of the beaches.
JOE: We parked the van at the base of a hill overlooking the ocean and a public swimming pool built into the surf. The pool was an easy 50m x 100m which is very large - and is of course salt water. I went for a swim and found that the local's sense of 'warm' is very skewed! The water was freezing cold! I could
hardly stay in for a minute before jumping out. Carolyn refrained as she was still battling her sinus infection, although delighted in watching me jump in and out! We made some dinner in the camper and read before going to bed. We have a bit of a library in the van now (books we've collected and ones that we left by Steve), so we are both reading quite a bit. The lights inside the van are quite bright, so life continues as normal after the sun goes down. We have been going to bed quite early though - 10pm is considered quite late for us (dark between 6-7pm).
The sun is quite hot here - even on a cool day, so you need only to get in the shade to be able to cool off. I am careful with the sunscreen, and am starting to hold a tan! Carolyn is very brown, although starting to peel on her legs quite a bit.
Newcastle
Once we parked the van closer to the harbour in Newcastle on Monday morning, we climbed a tower that is in the Harbour - 180 steps, so it is no CN tower,
Mereweather Ocean Baths
I don't understand how Joe braved the waters for a quick swim. It was neat - a pool built right beside the ocean, and it was HUGE! but tiring none the less. After this we took a ferry over to an island and walked around the shore. Near the entrance to the harbour, there is a breakwater that you can walk out on, and is formed around about a dozen ships that were wrecked on a shoal there about 100 years ago in the span of about 10 years. There is still the steel hull of one that is fully visible protruding from the rocks and huge concrete blocks. A sign posted describes some of the terrible wrecks and recountes of many lost souls.
Music!
Before we left, we bought a radio adapter for Carolyn's IPOD, so we have this playing through the radio. There are 3 speakers build into the back of the van - as well as the two in the front, so the sound is quite good. There is a deep-cycle marine battery that we use to power all of this - isolating the main van battery so not to kill it. It easily power's us all night, and then charges during the day while we are driving. There are 600 songs on the IPOD, which translates to about 30hours
Our "camping" local
We camped up here for the night. This is taken from beside the ocean baths when Joe was swimming. Great view in the morning, even if we were surrounded by people running and swimming! of music. Carolyn is having lots of fun playing them in different orders (alphabetic by song, band, etc). We have 11 songs titles that start with 'All', and nine with 'Every'.
Bikes and Runners!
We left our lookout and headed up to Taree (Tuesday Oct 3rd), where we had the Van looked at again by a mechanic. The guy in Wodonga had advanced the timing too far, so we were gettting a bit of engine knock, 'pinging'. He adjusted it back and had a quick look at the oil leak.
We had been talking about getting bikes since getting here, and after all the walking we had done so far, it seemed like a necessity! We found some new mountain bikes for $99 - I asked the guy why they were so cheap, and he gave a pretty sketchy answer. But we each have a sweet bike and helmet, and for another $80 I installed a hitch on the back of the bumper. We then went to the running shoe store, and each bought a new pair of runners. I have been itching for some real exercise since getting here, and this was something that was holding
Newcastle
We climbed up a tower for a better view of the city and one of the beaches. Joe got tired out...lost that CN Tower training I guess! me up. It really is going to be great getting up at 6am and going for a run, then a quick swim in the ocean. We drove out of town after checking our email (sorry, tried, but couldn't update the blog!) and headed for Crowdy Head, a small surf town tucked 19km off the main highway.
Crowdy Head
We drove by a number of caravan parks, and by a bunch of rest areas that said 'no camping' until we reached the very end of town which was up on a hill right on the ocean. We were the only ones up there, and there were no signs around, so we camped right by the lighthouse. The sun was almost down, but you could see that where we were was almost completely surrounded by the ocean. About 20° of land was all that connected the peninsula we were on to the mainland. What a view! Unfortunately the camera cannot do it justice.
Bike Ride on the Beach
The next morning (Today!), we got up at 7:30am and went for a bike ride on the beach. The beach stretched around a huge bay and we probably road a
Shipwreck walk 1
They used the remains of several shipwrecks to help build the breakwater off Stockton. good 5kms before turning back. There was a huge hill to ride up at the very end to get back up to where the van was, and Carolyn proudly made it to the top without having to stop, albeit quite out of breath! She has a really nice bike - 18speed aluminum alloy frame, with shimano grip shifters. Mine is a little more standard, but very functional just the same! After breakfast we noticed two whales splashing their tails out a ways from the shore. They were making huge splashes in the water and even though they were so far out, you could still hear the thump of the tails hitting the water. This show went on for about 10 minutes. It was very cool. Our camera doesn't have a good enough zoom, so we weren't able to take a picture.
We keep driving north along a scenic route that follows the coast and had lunch at a rest area just before the town we are in now - Port Macquarie. Our plan is to get up to Brisbane after a few more days in these beach towns and start to look for some picking jobs. Looks to be
a lot of harvestor's needed, and they have more work than workers. From what we have heard, you can make good money - something that we could certainly use, but that it is also hard work! An experience worth looking forward to for sure!
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MJ
non-member comment
pretty exciting!
Great to hear from you guys again. Looks like fun and pretty interesting,,,Can't wait to read the next blog! Cheers!