Leaving the lake, now in Newcastle

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.

Club jetty at Wangi

We thought these corellas were amazing

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.

Cute

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.

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.

Longmuir lunch

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.

Now fire

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.