Advertisement
Published: February 19th 2013
Edit Blog Post
We left Emerald Beach on Wed 13th Feb and continued South along the NSW coastline. The roads and traffic were good and the driving was going smoothly, apart from a small incident of road rage involving the driver of a road train who I unfortunately cut up!
There was only going to be one winner in that one!
We stopped overnight at a place called 'Bonny Hills' on the coast. Again we had no pre-planned accomodation anywhere so it was pot luck although it was another site belonging to the Big4 chain.
We were dissapointed with it really and the facilities (no internet, no shade etc) but we hadn't asked the right questions at check in so we needed to wisen up to that.
Please note that I am no longer able to say how many kilometers we had covered as the clocks changed when we entered NSW from Queensland and 'someone' re-set the tripometer by accident instead of the clock!
The site was adequate and the next day we set off for a place that the Irish couple had told us about on Monday called Port Stephens.
It was going to be a long drive but we were in
View from Bonny Hills, NSW.
Not Benny Hills as Annie called it!! no hurry and stopped off several times at beauty spots, look out points and small towns.
The van was comfortable to drive and it was great to just pull up on a beach and have lunch or a coffee.
We had discovered that it was easier for madam to drive and I would map read. She will say that she is a better driver which I would take an issue with but I am definately better at reading a map.
The only problem with this arrangement is that she doesn't like being told what to do!....For example, if I said 'turn right here', she would make excuses not to turn right or make out that she had already decided to turn right before I said it!
On one occasion she took the map and the guide book and identified a camp site ahead that she said looked nice so she rang them to book us in for that night. Unfortunately the place was 3 days drive ahead of us or only accesible by a river!!!
That afternoon we arrived at Port Stephens and found that it was a headland consisting of about 5 beaufiful sandy bays.
We opted
to stay at a bay called ' one mile beach' and looked at a couple of camp sites as we passed on the road. The first looked nice and we could see that it was right on the beach but carried on along the road, passing another couple until we settled on the last site situated at the end of the bay.
Unfortunately the bay bent round and the road hadn't followed it so after we set up and walked to the beach we also realised that it was also a one mile walk to the beach!
We need to get wise with the questions that we ask when we book in and ensure that we are in the shade, near the beach and ameneties etc.
Port Stephens was very nice and just how the Irish couple had described. It was a beautiful location to spend Valentines day.
We celebrated the evening with a romantic BBQ and red wine sitting outside our little van under the awning watching the stars!
The next day was raining so we drove around the area looking at the bays and beaches and spent some time in Port Nelson.
It was great just
pulling the van right onto a beach and sitting with a coffee enjoying the view. There is nowhere in the UK like it and I spent most of the day fishing from a jetty whilst Madam sat reading in the van.
She would pop over with the occasional cuppa or a beer or to look at the fish I caught with the help of a local Aussie who showed me how to catch snapper and bream.
The afternoon brightened up and we spent our last day there on the beach. We loved Port Stephens, it had such a lovely feel to it and it was very picturesque. It is somewhere I would go again as we felt that we didn't see it all. Our only complaint involved a resident iguana who wanted to root about in our bin everyday. (Check out the photo, it was huge)
Port Stephens also had the cheapest red wine known anywhere in the world.... Sovereign wine - 12% at $10 a box of 4 litres plus 10% extra .... That is 4.4 litres of vino, 42 glasses in a box = 24 cents (or 18p a glass) No wonder Madam was enjoying her travels!
On Sat morning we set off again passing through Newcastle a huge industrial port and heading south intending to stop outside Sydney but couldn't find anything at all.
So, we drove on towards Sydney, through the suburbs and into the City crossing the famous harbour bridge. We thought that it was a fantastic adventure but the Aussies drive across it like we drive up the Bedworth By-pass. I wonder if tourists feel the same passing through spagetti junction?
It was now late afternoon and we decided to stay overnight so we started to look for a site. We had no idea so headed for Bondi beach where we thought we could settle down for the night with other backpackers, campers and surf dudes!
Unfortunately there were no camp sites and the City Council are well switched on to campervans staying overnight and there were 'no camping' signs everywhere, with $1000 fines!
It was now dark and I couldn't see the map so Madam took charge & we got lost and ended up in an area called Watson Bay which is right at the Southern most tip of the harbour.
We found another van with a couple of
youngsters in it parked on a car park and they said that it was ok to park there as long as we didn't make any noise and annoy the local residents.
Well, we were used to being in bed at 8pm so it was unlikely that we would disturb the residents so we parked up for the night and slept in a car park in a residential area.
The next day we woke up next to the beach...looking across at Sydney City... and were able to see where we were properly. The houses around us all started at about 6 million quid and it was absolutely beautiful, right on the beach and in view of the City.
I can only imagine the thoughts of the residents opening their curtains on a fine Sunday morning to see the Nesbitt's in their campervan parked outside!
We moved to a slightly more discreet location and discovered that there was a ferry terminal nearby that would take us into Sydney so we spent the day in the City Centre. We returned to Watson Bay that evening and enjoyed the place so much we decided to stay another night. We had a romantic meal of
steak and mash and a few glasses of vino and watched the sunset over Sydney..... absolutely priceless! Oh wait... it actually cost us nothing!! I even tried my hand at a few 'arty' photo's to capture the moment.
Watson Bay was beautiful and a very exclusive area, after two nights we decided to move on before someone called the police and had us removed!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.082s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 13; qc: 34; dbt: 0.0447s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb