We drove the easy 180km from Denman to Lake Macquarie on Sunday. We tend to stay on the main highway and there is always a bit of debate about this. It is certainly much easier towing a van on the wide roads with passing lanes but the offset is that you don't stop at the little towns that are detoured off the main highway. What we have found so far is that it is a great idea to stay 5-7 days in an area, park up the van and do day trips from your central point. That is what we decided to do in Lake Macquarie.
When we were here twelve months ago to pick up the van it was the middle of Covid lockdown. You may remember that we had to seek special permission to drive down here to pick up the van. Of course there was no time to have a look around the area and even if we did almost everything was shut. So it is with relatively new eyes that we are back in this area to play the tourist. We stayed in two different van parks as I couldn't find one that could take us for six nights. It is heart warming to see so many people taking advantage of the amazing places in this great country but gone are the days where you could rock up at a van park and think you might get a site.......particularly on the east coast!
So, how did we fill in our time. Walking of course! Many, many kilometres! I always do lots of google research before we arrive in a new place and have our days mapped out. Our first day we spent walking around the Belmont area that encompasses Lake Macquarie. We followed the pathway around the Lake as far as we could. It was a glorious day and there were a lot of people out and about. We even saw someone walking their cantankerous sheep on a lead. I tried to get a photo but they were a bit too far away. It certainly had all the kids excited.
The following day was the van service and we had to be there by 7.30am, so once we unhooked we made our way to the little cafe in the industrial area that we were directed to on our trip last year. It is a great little establishment run by a greek family and they make the best bacon and egg rolls. The coffee is always double shot (yess!!!) and comes to you with a little slice of chocolate cake sitting on top of the lid. All of this for $6. We got talking to the owner and another patron and they gave us some good suggestions for places to walk. So on their advice we made our way to Merewether Beach and then on to Fort Scratchley (that was closed) and finally to Nobbys Beach in the heart of Newcastle. We walked along the ocean pathways and we were totally smitten. It is a very scenic place.
Newcastle is such a surprise to me. In my mind it conjured up the vision of coal mining and steel construction as we were taught in school. It is no longer the industrial hub of yesteryear but has somehow retained some of its former glory by some keen historians who have documented the area and turned the old to new. The turn of the century buildings have been restored magnificently and most of the existing hotels (of which there are many) have also retained their old charm. We went along to a talk at the caravan park by one of the local historians who gave us a remarkable insight into the history of the area. The slideshow he presented was extremely interesting and gave us ideas about our next walk. The Fernleigh Track.
So, we are leaving Lake Macquarie today and heading further south to Kiama. We have thoroughly enjoyed our time here and we feel that we have covered the area adequately. Of course you need many weeks to explore in depth but hopefully we will get to return to this lovely area another time to do just that.
Judi xx
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