Karen and Malc's Gap Years: Heading back to Melbourne.....

Wi-fi in Australian campsites was either non-non-existent or poor quality which is why I'm completing the blog on Xmas eve back in the UK!

2^nd and 3rd December – Stockton (near Newcastle).

Newcastle is a huge coal mining area on the coast and Stockton is opposite on a narrow peninsula. We stayed in Stockton, which was very quiet, and got the ferry across to Newcastle for a day. Malc tried to get his pensioner’s discount on the ferry but failed as he wasn’t an Ozzie pensioner (quite rightly…but it didn’t stop him trying on many occasions!). The ticket guy refused and said “if you Pommies can afford to travel half way around the world you can afford $2.50” – good answer!

Newcastle had a great Art Deco sea swimming pool as well as a lovely beach and Malc thought he might do a bit of life saving while he was there…..

Sea water swimming pool in Newcastle

4^th – 7^th December - Shoal Bay, Port Stephens.

Port Stephens was one of our favourite places so we stayed for a few days. It was a fantastic bay and had a huge sand dune nearby where Malc went sand boarding…..I was too much of a wimp!

Campsite across the road from the beach

Fingle bay oysters.....park the van at a nice view point, glass of wine from the fridge....perfect!

"Dune bashing" and sand boarding...

8^th Hunter Valley and Sandy Hollow.

This was our hottest day at 34 degrees and the first time we used the air conditioning in the van. We travelled through the hunter valley wine region and did some wine tasting and then stopped between the valley and the Blue Mountains for the night.

9^th & 10^th Katoomba, Blue Mountains

Whilst the Hunter valley was the hottest day, the temperature plummeted as we drove to the Blue Mountains and overnight it was 7 degrees and the heating was put on for the night!

Sadly, the rain caused low cloud and we couldn’t even see across the street let alone the beautiful mountains and canyons. We saw a glimpse of what it was like the next day as we started to travel down from the mountains.

The famous Three Sisters

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11^th Shoal Haven Heads.

We spent a night here on a campsite between the river and the ocean (7 mile beach).

The river

7 mile beach

12^th & 13^th Broulee; 14^th December: Snowy River.

Two days at the beach to warm up before heading of through the famous Snowy river and a spot of free camping by the riverside.

Snowy river camping

15^th & 16^th Cowes, Phillip Island.

Phillip Island was a great place to stop. The Island has places named after the Isle of Wight….the weather was better though! We spent the first evening watching the little penguin parade where about 3000 penguins all come out of the water at the same time to head for their nests. No photos allowed though – sorry!

Cowes

We also visited the Koala conservation park and got to see a few up close from the boardwalks that have been put up through the forest. They eat so many tree leaves that they literally eat themselves out of a home and have to be moved to conservation areas.

17^th Mornington Peninsula.

The last night before heading home was on the Mornington peninsula - 60km south of Melbourne. We both wished we had left more time to spend a few days here.