Our first roo and koalala
Trip Start
Jan 16, 2008
1
43
49
Trip End
Jun 30, 2008
Port Stephens,
Australia
Thursday, June 5, 2008
We arrived early evening and had to get a dominos as everywhere was closed. The two couples who run Malaleuca Backpackers, Michelle, Pete, Mick and Jeanette, are lovely and friendly. They were really helpful and made life easy. We spent our first evening with Jerome, a comical Dutch guy, watching Mr and Mrs Smith.
Becky was sick twice in the night, fun fun, no idea why, it was a bit odd.
Up fairly early to go on a sand dune tour with Jerome. Stockton Bight is the longest moving sand dunes in the southern hemisphere, it stretches 35km to Newcastle, it's widest point is 2.5km.
The dunes began to move at the same time 'white man' came and cleared the bushland from the coastal edge. The dunes move inland 5-10metres each year, covering more bushland, it cannot be stopped. The highway is only 1/2km away and in 70years it will be under sand, no one knows what to do about it
Becky on One Mile Beach
. We drove along the sea-edge for a while before heading up into the dunes behind. On our way upto the highest sand dune (55m) the 4wd in front of us got stuck in a patch of soft sand and we had to tow it out... then we nearly got stuck. We drove along to Tin City, a small group of tin shacks which started out as a fishing village. Now most of the buildings are used by the fishing clubs, there are a few semi-permanent residents. No changes are allowed to be made to this area, no new additions and the current buildings must constantly be dug out of the sand.Our guide was very good and even told us that Hawaii is the biggest importer of their sand because Hawaii is a volcanic island with no natural sand. So all those picture perfect white sandy beach postcards from Hawaii actually have Australian sand, haha.
At the end of our trip we got to go sand-boarding. This involves sitting on a wooden board, like a small snowboard, and shooting down the dunes. You have to stretch your arms out behind you and run your fingers through the sand to keep balanced. You get a faceful of sand and the trek back up makes you puff but it's great fun! We've got some video to show you when we get home.
That afternoon we wandered down to One Mile Beach, just 5mins from our hostel. It's a beautiful beach and we watched the surfers.
Becky sandboarding
We had a great nights sleep thanks to the family staying in the dorm room next door. The building has open eaves and the walls are incredibly thin. These country folk were pretty loud, we had women moaning about the men being out, phones ringing, the men coming back, the women having a go at them and just to top it off they got up very noisily at 7am! We had a long lie in to get some sleep and had a good moan about them over a late brekkie with the American girl who was also in our dorm. Saturday morning, lots of people arrived, it was quite strange going from 4people in the whole place to loads. Eventually we decided to catch a bus and climb up Tomaree Point for a bit of whale-spotting and a good view. However whilst waiting for the bus we realised it was infact Saturday, not Mon-Fri, and therefore our bus was not coming for another hour. We sighed and walked down to One Mile Beach to eat our sarnies, the sun even came out for a quick hello.
By the time we caught the bus and arrived in Shoal Bay it was at least 3.30pm and it started to rain. Used to rain after Sydney we decided to brave it.....for about 5minutes, it got so heavy by the time we'd turned around and got into the pub our trousers were soaked through. We killed an hour and a half in the pub waiting for the bus back.
That evening we made lots of new friends and had a great time
Luke on our whale-watching cruise
. It was a long weekend in Australia due to the Queen's bday (yeh our Queen, where's our long weekend eh??)which was one reason for the influx of people. It was also the Bluewater Country music festival that weekend, there were two bands staying over (one the family who had kept us awake all night). For this reason there was also alot of country singing in our hostel's lounge/kitchen area. We got on particularly well with a group of young Australians, a couple of English guys (ENGLISH!!!!! YAY!) and a witty older Ozzie drug counsellor bloke.Sunday, we decided to go whale watching with the British guys but then they decided they would go watching further up the coast instead. It was drizzling a bit but we thought, 'Hey, rain's never stopped us before', apart from yesterday. We were on a largish catamaran, we took the seasickness tablets tat were provided to be on the safe side, donned the big fisherman raincoats that were also provided and sat down on the top front deck, ready to face the waves. The waves were pretty big, it was rather choppy out there and we got a liiiiiittle wet. We only found one juvenile humpback whale, about 7-8m long, 2-3years old. We followed him for a while and got some pretty good views of him coming up to breathe, unfortunately he didn't breach (jump) or filck his tail out. But..... our last sighting just before we turned back was spectacular enough for us, he surfaced about 10-15metres from the boat, right in front of where we were standing. Pretty damn cool.
Went back and shared a $12, 4litre red wine box with the English guys and played card games all night with everyone. Luke and Neil (english guy) decided at half10, when we ran out of alcohol, it would be a good idea to cycle for half an hour (2.5km) on the pavement, in the dark to the nearest bottle shop. It was pitch black, no streetlights, but don't worry, Luke only fell off once. The bottle shop was closed hahahaha.
Monday we caught a bus to Newcastle, where we got on our overnight bus to Brisbane. xxxx
