Blogs from Port Stephens, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania - page 4

DAY 43 20th December 2008 It blew gale in the night, I didn’t hear much of it, and Caroline said the wind was bouncing the trailer a little. We had a usual morning routine, tea, brecki and the like, then went out in to Salamander Bay, to do some internet/blog update. We had an appointment with Faye and Graydon, the couple who own the house in which we are doing the house sit, we just wanted to meet the owners, and just have an induction through the house and to make sure we know what time they want us. They are very nice people, from Johannesburg originally and they have been over in Port Stephens, for a little while. The friends that were with them, Tim and Louise were onward bound to the UK from 28TH ... read more

So its our last night in the motorhome........maybe we should have done a before and after photo, after all we should look relaxed, tanned and chilled, shouldn't we?? Well, as for the tan, thats kind of faded over the last few weeks because although the weather has been pleasant its not been hot - but then we have travelled along way from the tropics now. I would also say that we have eaten a treat too many, cause i think that we have all gained a few pounds! Anyway I'm dreading emptying the van, because we have bought and accumulated so much stuff, I'm not sure how on earth i'm going to pack it into the suitcases! I think that we will all be sad to see it go (well it has been our home for ... read more

Day 284 (05.01.08) After yet another fantastic brekkie we packed up the van and had fond farewells with Valerie and Bruce. Hitting the road armed with a map Mark set off on the magical mystery tour he'd planned, with Chrissie still in the dark as to where we were off to. We'd decided to take it in turns to organise wedding anniversary treats and Mark had pulled Year 1! Who knows where we'll be next year! North on the road out of Sydney, the secret destination had remained a secret so far. It was only when we missed the junction off the main road and with a couple of expressive uses of the english language from Mark that our destination was given away - we were headed for Port Stephens. Port Stephens is a renowned region ... read more

First stop, One Mile Beach in Anna Bay, which is in the Port Stephens area which is about 2.5 hours north of Sydney. Port Stephens is home to one of the largest pods of dolphins in Australia, and has really great snorkelling and scuba diving and some great surfing on the eastern side. All of which we didn’t do any. Not because we didn’t want to, but the sun in these pictures was the only sun we saw for 4 days! After that it was so rainy and windy we hardly saw anything! Didn’t we leave the rain at home in Vancouver?? Sydney has got more rain this Novemeber than it has in 24 years. At least we weren't in a tent, and the trailer is working great. All the comforts of home with our $34 ... read more

Fri 5 Oct: Laz being a sleep monster and myself not, I got up early and drove down to the beach for a run. I was aiming for One Mile Beach, estimating that it was prob about a mile long (can you see what I did there?!) and was about the right distance to start running again, down to the other end and back. Well, I ended up on a different beach where I couldn't even see the other end so there went that plan! But check out the views, they are truly breath taking. I also discovered that behind the dunes, there are more dunes! You may think this is not a great discovery, but when I found out that you can 4WD all over them it was game on, lets see what Sheila can ... read more