Exploring the Central Coast

This week we started to explore further afield.

Firstly Catherine Hill Bay - what a beautiful little historic mining village that is about to be spoilt :(
Entering through Flowers Drive you encounter lots of old miners cottages lining the street (only the one street) and real old world charm. It is the oldest continuous settlement in the City of Lake Macquarie.
Once you reach the crest the views are amazing.

Beach & Inlet at Catherine Hill Bay

Catherine Hill Bay beach

Overlooking the rocks near Wharf

The wharf was closed in recent times and sadly now no public access

Looking back towards the wharf & surf club

The settlement was first made in 1865 and served as a base for coal mining.  More recently it has become popular as a surfing beach.

The sad part is that if you go a couple of hundred metres beyond the surf club there is now a major new house & land development.  We are talking a 550 lot subdivision.  Whilst there has been a separate entrance created off the highway into this development - you can only hope that the new residents don't use Flowers drive as this will spoil the nature of this small settlement. (when the new residents come as it is still all vacant land- although all the streets & kerb/guttering has been laid)
Catherine Hill Bay residents opposed the development and it was held up in the courts for 10 years.  In the end - although they didn't stop the development they certainly made the covenets worthwhile to maintain some of the integrity of the area.

 Next was a bike ride from Eleebana around to Marmong Point and return.  This is around the top of Lake Macquarie and takes in Warners Bay.  It is a lovely ride and we enjoyed lunch at Pippi's @ Speers Point on the way back.  Ah it's a hard life!

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Checking for fish

Time for a trip to Newcastle.  We had heard that Fort Scratchley was worth a visit and they were right.  Overlooking Nobby's beach it is 1of 5 lines of defence that Australia had in the Newcastle area.  Entry is free to the Fort and they is 1/2 dozen little museums set up that have some interesting artifacts and stories.  For $20 you can do the underground tour which lasts around 1 hour and again worth taking the time.  What we did learn was that they actually build the 'tunnels' on top of the rise that was there and then they put dirt on top creating the hill.   When Newcastle was bombed by a submarine in WWII - they sadly missed the opportunity to take out the sub when a fog rolled in and obsecured their line of fire.  Some of the cannons have been restored to working order and at 1pm daily they fire off one cannon blast (just powder no blast as local residents complained).

Fort Scratchley overlooking harbour

Knobbys Beach

Looking out from the tower

Ship leaving port

Looking at the Fort from the carpark

About to fire the Cannon

Next was lunch and we were lucky to catch two acts from the Newcastle Fringe Festival which is on this week.
Africa Entsha sung in gospel style in both Zulu and English - amazing and no back up music!

Africa Entsha

Stimela The Gumboot Musical

Stimela is a celebration of song & dance with song and stomping feet! It was born out of the oppressive gold mines of South Africa. 

Next was Anzac Memorial walk - stunning views

View South

Anzac Memorial Walkway

Enjoying the view

Thursday was our long awaited Fernleigh Track ride.  We had hoped for a clear day but settled for grey skies and no rain (we hoped)
The path runs along the old railway track from Belmont to Adamstown. 15km each way - we did it easy and thoroughly enjoyed both the ride itself and the beautiful bushland scenery. 

Thru the old railway tunnel

Time to turn around and head back

Enjoying the ride

Today - just enjoying time with Rob, Lucy, Alby and Frankie. 

Alby enjoying the park

One more week at Swansea and then heading North.
For those that haven't already heard - after Easter in Kingscliff we are headed off to the Mary River Roadhouse near Pine Creek in the Northern Territory for 4 months work. 

Swansea

Swansea on the Central Coast of NSW - what a lovely place.  Although I am sure if it ever stops raining it will be even more lovely!   That said there have been periods of sun and although the humidity is through the roof we have been able to get out and do some exploring.  We have been increasing the distance we ride on the bikes each day, getting ourselves ready to do the Fernleigh Track (Belmont to Adamstown & return) when the weather clears.  One of our rides was to Murray Beach - what a beautiful little spot but the hill getting in there was probably a bit more that what we were ready to tackle.  Oh well not ones to give up we made it and enjoyed the ride back down!!

Rob at the Foreshore @ Murrays Beach

Murrays Beach wharf

We enjoyed the walk out to Galgabba Point which is between Swansea & Murrays Beach and is a significant bushland area.  Beautiful walk and so much to look at whilst your walking through the bush.

There was some beautiful sights during our walk

Caves Beach is aptly named for all the caves in the cliff face overlooking the beach.  These are only accessible from the beach at low tide.  Last Saturday, along we Rob, Lucy & the boys, we decided to investigate.  Alby just loved it and I have to say it was pretty special to look at and walk through some of the caves.

Caves Beach looking towards the caves

Entry to a cave

Looking out from one of the caves

You can walk through some of them

Caves Beach

And one more

Looking towards some of the caves

The rock above was also lovely to look at

Now which one was the way back?

Ah Rob made it!

A few days later we did the Caves Beach Walk which follows along the cliff line.  Spoon Rocks features the remains of a breakwall constructed to load coal into waiting ships before the Newcastle port was created.  You walk up again to Quarries head which gives an outstanding view and although I couldn't capture it well enough on the day - we counted 18 ships lined up going to (or from) Newcastle.  We then continued into Wallarah National Park finishing overlooking Pinny Beach.  I say fnishing - we then had to walk back but it was well worth it.

Looking back at Caves Beach

Beach at Spoon Rocks

Breakwall at Spoon Rocks

Starting to climb

Quarries Head

On our way up

Quarries Head

Overlooking Pinny Beach

Loved some of the native bushes

What goes up must go down

We also enjoyed the Green Point foreshore walk (well until it started to rain on us). You get an amazing view looking over Lake Macquarie

Green point foreshore looking towards Belmont

Oh here comes the rain :)

With the rain came a rainbow

So pretty looking through the tress

Sorry one more

We've also enjoyed catching up with some friends.  Lew - it was great to see you and I hope Rob didn't lead you too astray!
Lynn - it's hard to believe we haven't seen each other for years, it was just so easy to catch up and looking forward to spending some more time with you before we go.  Helen - I wish you were here with us!
We have 2 more weeks here so hopefully I will be able to show you some photo's with blue skies soon.....

Central Coast NSW

Ahh the beach - oh how we missed you!!

The first glimpse of the water and sand and I had to at least get my feet wet before we travelled on to Rob & Lucy's.  What a great week we had, enjoying spending time with not only Rob & Lucy but Alby and Frankie.  They are both such cuties and we loved every minute.. 

Ettalong Beach

Looking across the water to Wagstaff

Frankie & Alby - so cute xx

Lucy played tour guide and took us around the Avoca Beach/Bensville area showing us the local sights.
It is such a pretty area and each day gave us further insight into why so many people want to live on the Central Coast. 

We also enjoyed a couple of nights with old friends - Paul & Denise Robinson at Kariong. 

One of the things we have found since we started this adventure is that it is nice to have time to spend with family and friends and where we want, without having to meet any deadline, other than those we impose on ourselves.   It's a great feeling






Next step - our first "house sit" experience.  After Jen & Garry recommending aussiehousesitters.com.au  we decided to give it a try.   First step was to register and create our profile.  Next was decide on what area / time we wanted and then just wait and see what becomes available.  Low and behold - Swansea on the Central Coast for 3 1/2 weeks.  SCORED.
Kathryn, who so kindly agreed to accept us without any prior experience, wanted to spend some time with her family and needed someone to look after her garden.  After meeting with Kathryn and finding our what she needed done - off she headed onto holiday and in we moved.  Oh what a lovely home and the location is just beautiful.  Our front verandah for the next 3 1/2 weeks overlooks Lake Macquarie 😃

Bit more living space than our van!

Love our bedroom

When Kathryn purchased the house it was an old, small, fishing cottage.  She has done an amazing rebuild and now has a beautiful comfortable home. 

Another living area in case we get sick of each other.

And our view!!

She has created a stunning garden, both front & rear.  Rob was so looking forward to having a beer and watering the garden each afternoon but sadly it has rained every night so far since we got here.  Oh well still plenty of time yet..










This is our favourite spot.  Cup of tea in the morning or a beer in the afternoon - there is always something different to look at and most days we can see a flock of Black Swans on the Lake.

Our bikes have come in handy and we've been exploring both Swansea and Caves Beach for the past week.  Such a pretty area and we are loving getting out and exploring.
I'll share some of our favourite spots next week - till then xxx