An early start and we were headed to our next stop which was Lake Macquarie we had booked a campsite in Munmorah National Park. After a fairly uneventful drive and a stop for a McDonald's 30c cone each we had arrived. We couldn't figure out where we were supposed to camp and realised we had been allocated spot 10 in our email. With nobody to check in with we started putting our tent up. Luckily our spot was in the shade which was nice as it was a blistering hot day! With the tent thrown up as quickly as possible we took a trip to the local beach in the park called Birdie beach. We had a brief look around and with clear blue sky's had a paddle in the water. We didn't go much further as the waves were HUGE! We watched wind surfers and the like for a while and Myles debated whether to come back for the night to take star trail photos. We decided this was a good idea and headed back to camp for some tea. We had both been looking forward to our tinned rations we had bought in Nowra. We stocked up on Heniz goodness because it was all reduced to 90c a tin which is very good value out here! We each had a tin and some toast and we were very happy. We got ourselves ready for the evening getting changed into warm clothes and packing the camera equipment. This was very fortunate as when we got down there it was blowing a gale! It was so cold Myles dug a hole for us both to sit in...
We sat in our hole as it started to get dark and cracked out the laptop. We decided to watch Ted as we hadn't seen it in a long time. We also confused a bloke who was walking on the beach and could hear noise but couldn't see us! All good fun, think he was a bit confused though! The hole did a superb job at keeping the wind off us and we did a successful 2 hours of continuous photos without freezing to death. This was followed by a good nights sleep!
We were awoken to our tent being rather hot! The sun was streaming through the tent making an oven of us by 9am. A quick breakfast and we had decided to check out the rest of the beach and have a relaxing day on the sand. We walked along the sand towards the rocks at the other end to check it out to find that people up that end of the beach didn't regard clothes too highly... With that we went back down the other end of the beach to sunbathe! After an hour we were frazzled and made our way into the waves. The beach was unpatrolled so we were very cautious and didn't go to far to start with. But had good fun jumping in the waves. We got back and had more tinned dinner and chilled out until bed time. More star trial photos followed this time over our campsite which made sleeping and staying warm easier!
We awoke the next morning nice and early again and were feeling a little sore.. The sun had done work on us an we were a little pink in the face and a little sore on our legs!
Never the less we creamed up and had a last few hours on the beach firmly under the umbrella today.
We were headed for Newcastle today to visit blackbutt reserve which is a free animal sanctuary. We had a good time there looking at all the Ozzie animals. Laura got particularly excited seeing the koalas so close. This then was followed by a discovery in a tourist information centre of a place called the bogey hole. We loved the name and the picture looked wicked so we went. Essentially it was a man made rockpool you can swim in. All over Australia there are 'ocean baths' which are swimming pools that are filled with seawater and the waves crash into it which is lovely. The bogey hole was even better because the floor was all seaweedy and it was down in the rocks. Bit of a walk but very much worth it. We had a brief swim as it was freezing and by that point lunch was the focus. We grabbed the marmite and bread etc out of the fridge and walked into the park next to where are car was and made a picnic at the tables. It was a gorgeous day and the sun was filling the park. We relaxed watching the families in the park and the world go by until it was time to leave knowing we had to drive to our next campsite.
After Newcastle we pressed on further to Diamond Head campsite which was right on the beach (sea a theme here?)
Shit (this is Myles' input into the drive to this campsite.)
It was the WORST road we have ever driven on. The national parks website said it was an unsealed road. This was true, but unsealed roads generally aren't bumpy to the point where they caused 6inch Ruts between each bump! The poor Subaru coped very well unlike its owners who couldn't handle the rattling of the poor car any longer!
We eventually got there after what seemed like an eternity ready to refuse to pay the park entry because we were so cross and Laura feeling car sick by this point. The man inside was so friendly we didn't feel so angry anymore. We had a chat and went to set up our tent. Once the tent was up (we have mastered this tent already so it's pretty easy! When I say we I mean Myles he does most the hard work.)
We took a walk along the beach, it was pretty nippy by now but all Myles could think about was driving on this beach as it was allowed. We saw something on the water line and went to check it out. Laura was convinced that it was a plastic bag with some seaweed caught in it. Myles tapped it with his trainer and it wobbled.. At this point we realised it was a HUGE DEAD JELLYFISH😰 Laura ran away swiftly and Myles just laughed. That was the end of that beach experience! We then realised we hadn't gotten anything for dinner so it was a depressing third night of beans.. Myles spiced it up with some instant noodles and spicy Myles sauce that Deb got Myles for Christmas. They were SOOO spicy! But a very nice change. Myles went and chatted to some other campers about there cool van with tent attached to the top whilst Laura washed up. After this we saw some wild wallabies in the camp and took a few snaps before heading to the tent. We played a few games of rummie before Myles got bored and called it a night. Still sore from sunburn it wasn't a fun nights sleep!
(We have been keeping a tab on our distance since we left deb and Ian's heres how we are doing so far!)
Distance since last blog - 120miles
Total distance - 400miles
No comments:
Post a Comment