We have been here for 2 days after spending 2 days at Tuncurry.
We arrived at Tuncurry on Saturday and set up at the caravan park. It was a huge park but was probably only about 25% occupied. The proper name for the area is Forster Tuncurry. They were 2 separate towns at one stage, on each side of an inlet into Wallis Lake, and it was only in 1959 that a bridge was finally opened connecting the 2 towns and as such, they are now known as Forster Tuncurry. For reason not known to me, Forster has definitely been the town that has taken off. I could not believe the number of 10 - 15 storey holiday apartment blocks in Forster, whereas its little brother of Tuncurry, seems to have only 3 - 4 storey blocks.
We went for our customary tourist drive on the Sunday, with our first stop being the lookout at Second Head. Not that exciting, as you could only see the ocean and the cliffs. We took a walk along a track until we came to an area known as Pebbly Beach. This is pretty typical of NSW beaches, with it mainly used for surfing. It also had a huge sand dune, which, in the right circumstances would have been great for skidding down on a boogie board. Being about 35C already, it was not time to go sliding down a sand dune.
Our next stop was at the tiny village of Tiona. The only claim to fame of this place is that it is the home of the Green Cathedral. This is an outdoor church, complete with ministers stand, speakers and wooden benches for the congregation to use. It is used for church services, as well as for weddings and other church related tasks. To get to it you have to walk along a track through the forest, and when you get there, it has the back drop of the Wallis Lake. One of the photos taken, with Deb giving a bit of a sermon, has a mystical look about it, as if she is standing in the clouds. It is a great spot. Sorry, but no leadlight window photos here.
We then headed to a market at Pacific Palms, a small coastal town. It was typical of all of these sorts of markets, with local produce and arty type stuff. Nothing took my fancy so it was now off to check out Cielo's Beach. This place looked great on the tourist brochure, YES, I KNOW, you idiot. Well, the brochure was half right. There was a nice boardwalk down to the beach, as for the incredible sand dunes and rock pools, well, say no more. The most exciting thing about it was taking a photo of a little blue wren attacking itself in the side mirror of a car in the car park.
We seem to have a bit of a penchant for Lighthouses on this trip, so it was off to Sugarloaf Point Lighthouse, at Seal Rocks. The walk from the car park is about 650 metres, and on the way there is a really cool area about 30 metres below you where the ocean comes through what looks like a small cave. Looks great from above. I wonder what it would look like if I could get down to shore level??
Anyway took some shots and continued up to the lighthouse. It was a great view, and you could see the treacherous rocks out in the ocean that claimed many ships back in the 18 and 1900's before the lighthouse was built.
Time to head back down and had to stop at the earlier photo spot of the water coming through the cave. I couldn't resist and had to make my way down to the bottom, to get you an even better photo. It was tough going through the really steep scrubby side of the sandy cliff face. Deb will allege that at one stage I slipped and fell on my backside, but, I cant remember that happening. There was a pretty rough track, that other idiots had obviously taken before me. I was just hoping not to find their bones down at the bottom, unable to get back up again. After all that, the photos were no better.
It was then back to home base for a rest. I went out again, intending to see if there were any surfers in the water at Tuncurry, but I never made it. There is an inlet about 250metres long where the ocean tries to come into Wallis Lake. At the same time, Wallis Lake is trying to get out into the ocean. The result is, an awesome stretch of water that has huge waves, rips, undercurrents and dangerous rocks. It would not be possible to swim in this area, and I don't know if a boat could even get through this rip. Whilst mesmerised by the water, I was just captivated by a pod of about 8 to 10 dolphins swimming in this area. They appeared to ride the waves into the lake, before swimming underwater out to sea and then going through the same ritual over and over again. I just lost track of time and before I knew it, I had been there for an hour.
Monday morning it was off from Tuncurry and towards Cessnock. On the way we stopped at the small towns of Tea Gardens and Hawks Nest. We didn't look around too much, as we had the van on the back, but there were both pretty little towns on the ocean, with a large inlet going through the middle of the towns. Probably a good place to relax, with mainly water based activities and walking tracks.
We arrived at Cessnock where we were staying at the Showgrounds. There was a contained bushfire in the area, with lots of smoke but nothing to worry about. You choose where you want to set up, with the main consideration being the location of water taps and power boards. We headed up the main street to check out the town, with the main shopping strip very quiet. There were lots of empty shops, with a couple of little plaza type shopping centres. It was a strange set up, as you would have your major supermarket, surrounded by about 10 little businesses. Maybe the 3 plazas we found would explain why the main street is a bit deserted.
Come Monday night, we headed out to check out the Hunter Valley Gardens at Pokolbin. There are 60 acres of gardens, including 10 internationally acclaimed display gardens.
These gardens supposedly had a million Christmas lights spread around the gardens. Our main reason for going was to check out the gardens, with the lights being a bonus. We arrived at 6.30pm and were disappointed to find out, after paying our entry of $54, that about 50 acres of the gardens were closed. The only part being open, was where the lights were. We spoke to several other people there, and they were also disappointed, as we all thought we could see the main gardens before the lights came on. Bit of a bummer really as the lights were just for kids. p.s. I am sick to death of that song from the movie Frozen.
Tuesday morning up bright and early, probably more so because we had a power problem with the van and the temperature was predicted as being 38C today. Just awesome.
After solving our problem it was off on a tourist drive. We headed down to the town?? of Wollombi. There was probably about 20 buildings in the total area. Took a photo of the historic police station, with the prisoners exercise yards on the side of the building, in full view of the passing pedestrian traffic. Just awesome.
On the way to Kurri Kurri, we had a detour and checked out a water garden. Took lots of photos of beautiful water plants, before continuing on to Kurri Kurri.
This is the town of murals in NSW. There are supposedly 52 murals in the town. It is a nice little town, with a couple of pubs and a good size shopping strip. The public toilets, in the main street, has a great mural on all sides. The police station even has a mural on its wall, police related of course. In the garden of honour, in the main street, is a GIANT KOOKABURRA, which, of course, I had to get a photo of.
We have had enough excitement so it was now back to home base before heading off tomorrow to Goulburn.
Bye for now.
Barry and Deb.
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