We
had a great time in Lake Macquarie. I love being able to sail in 20-25knot winds
and no swell. We had a good explore but you would need a lot longer to check
the whole area out properly. One of our favorite places was Wangi Wangi. Here
there are two clubs that have jetties out the front and allow the use of
showers.
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| Club jetty at Wangi |
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| We thought these corellas were amazing |
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| Until they started chewing the ropes |
Our other favorite spot is the Morriset Psychiatric Hospital. Wendy
and I actually had our wedding reception here over 20 years ago. We figured if
we drove each other mad on the wedding day it would only be a short walk for
our honeymoon. It really has lovely grounds. Acres and acres of waterfront
where you can hand feed the kangaroos and enjoy a picnic.
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| Cute |
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| Back where we had our reception |
Another place we spent a lot of time was Dora Creek (I had
my first boat moored here probably in the late 80’s). We were hiding in there as
a bit of wind was forecast with an ex cyclone that was causing havoc down the
coast. There was 50 knot winds predicted but only came to 25. It was a great
chance to pop in and see one of the two readers of this blog, Aunty Ed (the
other reader being Grumps). Dora Creek is also on the Sydney-Newcastle train
line so Kathleen caught the train up to stay with us for a few days.
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| Navigating the shallow waters of Dora Creek |
I don’t know why we
moved away from Lake Macquarie 20 years ago, it has everything. Another spot to
go on the retirement list?
Just before we left Lake Macquarie we spent a night anchored
near my brother David, and his wife, Vinnie’s house. The kids love catching up with their cousins and
we had a nice lunch and game of cricket
near the sailing club.
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| Longmuir lunch |
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| Howzat |
Now we are at Newcastle. We are spoiling ourselves and
staying at the marina. It is a couple of minutes walk from Wickham Railway
Station. We are really enjoying being so close to the city and public
transport. There is a nice walk from here to Nobbys Beach along the foreshore,
about 3km’s one way. In the morning we all run there in back. We want to work
our way up to running to the end of the break wall, 10km’s return. So far our
bodies are holding up.
We had a tour of Fort Scratchley which is highly
recommended. We had a great guide, which helps, and we were the only ones on
the tour. The fort was built to protect Newcastle in the 1800’s and was manned
up until the 70’s. We were a little disappointed that you can’t run around the
tunnels like you used to be able to but it’s probably better that you can’t.
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| Now fire |
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| Rolly polly race at Fort Scratchley, I think I won |
Wendy has had a couple of interviews for nursing work. She
wants to get an idea of how other emergency departments work. So we think we
will be here for about another 3 weeks or so before heading further north. We
don’t want to be north of Bundaberg before the cyclone season finishes at the
end of April. For now we’ll enjoy the city life.
