Sydney had one last farewell for the Shah's as they navigated Sydney Airport and the inner suburbs in their newly minted campervan on a busy mid-week morning (is there any other kind in Sydney?) Jenni drove the campervan around and around the Sydney Domestical terminal in an attempt to pick up Michael who had dropped the rental car off. Then we returned to the depot to check-out a strange beeping that turned out to be the cell-phone. Having mastered that, we took to the roads and made a strangely misguided decision to take the bridge (for scenic reasons and to avoid the toll) and followed the Britz directions which involved driving through the very congested and narrow inner suburbs, making two wrong turns, and then finally farewelling Syders by travelling over that Big coathanger. At this point, it would be fair to say that there was an amount of (exhausted) confidence in the driving abilities.
The campervan pickup & pack and care drop-off thing took an absolute age so we abandoned our original plan to go to the Blue Mountains and instead headed north until we found an easy spot, which we did near The Entrance at a beach called Bateau Bay. The camp ground there also had a great pool so we had a play around and set up house for our first night. It felt like setting out on a second holiday. We figured out all the cupboards, storage, awnings, gas, power, beds....you get the picture. Actually it was quite straight forward and not unlike being on the boat - a wee little home with small versions of everything which all need to be stowed before weighing anchor in the morning.
The next morning saw 24hrs in the campervan without a single dent. Cool. 90 min later we were in the Hunter Valley where we flew through dinky little Cessnock (reminded me of Taumaranui) and stopped at the Hunter Valley Gardens. What a great spot, with a shopping village full of local produce (including Hunter Valley Chocolates), a playground (very important), and then the gardens themselves which were beautiful. The kids loved the Story Book Garden in particular.The camp ground in Cessnock was not too bad, and the pool had a spa which was great! The birds were something else though, and were so loud we had to move inside and raise our voices just to hear each other. The morning was louder, if that was possible, with the gallah's and a million budgies all going off at once (a little like a train of supermarket trolleys going by for a very long time).
Another 90 minutes down the road and we side-swiped (not literally) Newcastle on the way out to Port Stephens. First stop was Fighter World who share a fence with the Air Force base there. We got an upclose and very loud display of the afterburners on the training jets as they came and went, and the jets in the hangers (off all shapes and sizes) were quite interesting. Half an hour later and we were in Nelson Bay, another playground, Red Ned's Pies (Wagu beef, onion and cheese) and then a quick trip to the next bay (Shoal) where we swam and camped for the night.All is quite groovy really, and I like that the 5-star-Shah's are quite content in their wee little bus.
No comments:
Post a Comment