Bulahdelah to Terrigal

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This morning it was cloudy, yes, cloudy! Although there did seem to be a patch of sunshine hovering over the motel. The big worry was, looking south in the direction we were about to set off in, it was positively gloomy. Oh dear, our good run of weather might be over?

We set out on Bulahdelah Way and soon merged onto the Pacific Highway. Hmmn, as anticipated, it wasn’t long before a light drizzle misted the windscreen. So light that Bernie had to activate the wipers to clear it because it hadn’t set the sensor off. Two or three intermittent wipes later the drizzle (heavy mist?) was done and the weather just continued to improve as we drove towards Newcastle. Lucky, eh?

Before we reached Newcastle we took the turn-off for Maitland where we made our first stop this morning at our friend Gloria’s place. We met Gloria on our South American trip in 2016. Some people you can just pick up the thread with no matter how long it is since you spent time together. We made friends with Gloria’s dog, Cecily and made short work of the yummy scones Gloria had whipped up for morning tea! LOVE a scone with jam and cream. It was great to catch up with Gloria and hopefully it won’t be seven years before we see each other again.

From Gloria’s we set off for Kurri Kurri which is only about 17 kilometres south from Gloria’s house. Before leaving home I Googled ‘Big things in NSW’ and discovered that there is a Big Kookaburra in Kurri Kurri so we had decided that we would make the detour to check it out. Really, after travelling via Gloria’s it didn’t end up being much of a detour at all. The Big Kookaburra was kookaburra No. 5 for the day! We had spotted two before our stop at Gloria’s and another two on the short trip between Maitland and Kurri Kurri. Co-located with the kookaburra is a statue dedicated to the pit horses that worked the Greta coal seam. Created by Brett Garling, the statue was installed in 2021 after many years of raising funds to create a memorial.

We set the SatNav to take us back out to the coast via Belmont. We made good time on the M15, A15, A37 and A43 (Pacific Highway). We took the turn off onto Flowers Drive to head out to Catherine Hill Bay. As we drove through Middle Camp we were quite taken with the quaint cottages lining each side of the road. Hmmn, definitely look like they started life as workers’ cottages?

We pulled in at the Catherine Hill Bay Surf Life Saving Club to stretch our legs. The car park was just about full and we were lucky to get a spot. It looked like it was a very popular spot for families on a sunny Sunday. We took photos of the old jetty, an old coal loading jetty that is no longer used. The information board on the side of the surf life saving club also confirmed for us that the cottages were ones that were used to house the coal miners working the pits in the Catherine Hill Bay area.

Leaving the beach behind us we drove up Clarke Street which was also lined with (in the main) beautifully refurbished miners’ cottages. At the top of the hill we had to take a right turn onto the Montefiore Parkway to drive back to the Pacific Highway. The parkway is needed to service yet another HUGE housing estate that has been established in what used to be a lovely, quiet little seaside village. Thank goodness all the cookie cutter homes are being built on the other side of the hill from the original miners’ cottages.

A few more Ks on the Pacific Highway and we turned off onto Elizabeth Bay Drive and onto the Budgewoi Peninsula. But for the tea trees we would have been able to see Lake Munmorah on our right and Cabbage Tree Harbour on our left. In Bedgewoi we turned onto the A49 Coastal Highway. Oh, hum, another day, ANOTHER lighthouse, this time at Norah Head. Once again we were lucky to get a park as there had definitely been an EVENT at the lighthouse today involving a craft market (mostly packed up) and live music.

Annoyingly for us the stage for the musicians was still set up in front of the lighthouse rather spoiling our photographic opportunities. When we arrived at the lighthouse we were glad that we had taken photos from further away with the banksia trees or the lighthouse keepers’ cottages concealing all the stuff going on closer to the lighthouse! We also managed some shots with the flag locker in the foreground to conceal the sound stage and from down on the beach.

Ugh, down on the beach a couple of irresponsible dog owners had their dog do a big dump the minute its paws touched the sand and THEY LEFT IT BEHIND! The poo, not the dog. And dog owners wonder why they are barred from so many beaches. It’s because of inconsiderate dog owners like this!!!!! I gave them a pretty good stare down, but I don’t know that they really gave a …

After the lighthouse we continued south through The Entrance, Long Jetty and Bateau Bay before turning off at Wamberal to drive into Terrigal where we will spend two nights. Reception closes at 1.00pm on a Sunday so our room key had been left in the key safe for us. With the car parked in a bay next to the office we walked around to have a look at our room. Oh, no, the car parking height limit is 1.9 metres. Will the truck fit in? There were two bays for large vehicles, but one was already occupied by a BIG 4x4 and the other was filled with garbage skips. That’s annoying.

After walking through the car park we noticed that the 1.9 metres height limit seemed to be based on the bulkheads that only protrud over half of the driveway, the inbound side. Hmmn, if we drive in the out lane we can probably get the truck in??! So, I guided the aerial under the height guide/barrier and it was looking good until the Max Trax mounting pins proved too tall to go under. Damn, so close! Determined to get the car parked Bernie unlocked the Max Trax and removed them so that the mounting pins could be folded down. Then we drove in the out lane and parked the car on the side of the car park unimpeded by bulkheads. Not ideal, but why, WHY do they have one of the their large vehicle car parks filled with all their garbage bins??

For dinner tonight we walked (too hard to get the truck out!) to the Terrigal Beach Fish and Chip Co on the Esplanade. If it had been a lovely summer’s evening we would have bought them to go and eaten them across the road on the beach. Since it was well dark at 6.30pm on a winter’s night we purchased them to eat in. Damn it, we found a gelato shop on Terrigal Esplanade so we HAD to have ice-cream again. We have eaten way too much ice-cream on this holiday. Oh wait, is there such a thing as too much ice-cream?

Rather weirdly they seem to have a Christmas tree down on the Esplanade. They have one of the Norfolk pines rigged up with bud lights and baubles … although only one bauble seems to be lit up. Maybe it’s too much trouble to undo all the lighting between one Christmas and the next? Maybe they light it up again during July for Christmas in July? Who knows, but it seemed strange to us to be seeing a Christmas tree at this time of the year.



Steps: 9,790 (6.64kms)

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