Day 10

10 February 2013

Woke up this morning to a calm river and boiling hot morning!

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha I am lying in bed typing this blog and Joel has already dosed off. He just woke up suddenly and said "Nah, you can't do that" and I said "What?" And he said "Play the didgereedoo for an hour!" Hahaha made me laugh!! I tried to continue the conversation but he just said "Oh, I don't know" and now he's back asleep!

Anyway where was I, so we got up and mosied around and packed up the camper, by this time it was 9 o'clock and the ranger still hasn't come for his money so we left happy... First night free camping!

Headed down the highway towards Port Macquarie to a place I had found only last night called Stony Park at Telegraph Point, it is also a water ski park so sounded right up Joel's alley.

We pulled in and it was very well maintained and everything looked new (I think it is fairly new). $22 a night so a little more expensive than our free camping! But that includes use of all their facilities, BBQ area etc and you can go to either of the lakes and watch people ski. We set up, checked out the amenities (brand new, look good) and then walked down to the lakes to check out some waterskiing.... Obviously there is not always people on the water but this weekend there is a man camp so there are plenty of pretty good skiers to watch. You can waterski here yourself but it is quite costly, $160 to hire lake for 1 hour; however this does include all your gear and they will teach you how to etc.... would be good if you had some friends that wanted to ski as well.

We had some lunch and headed into Port Macquarie. It is about a 20km drive from here. Stopped in to get some supplies, one of which was a new shower tent! (More on this later) and drove out along all of the beaches. The coast is beautiful really wherever you go, but Port's rocks in the water and surrounding the beaches add a point of difference. The water was also so clear you could see straight through it, would be good snorkeling etc here I would assume. We then drove to the Tackings Point Lighthouse and did a little walk around the lighthouse and down to a viewing platform. Great views from up here!! All along the coast were little spots to stop to get great views so you won't miss them!

We then headed to Lake Cathie which was about 20 km down the road. It is home to the big bowl (lawn bowl that is) so thought it was worth a look. The big bowl is on the way into town and while it's big compared to a normal lawn bowl, it's not that BIG! Joel actually didn't believe me that this was one of the big things.... I also wonder whether it made the list as it weighs two tonnes... Anyway another big thing ticked off the list! Haha. The lake here is nice for a picnic, swimming or canoeing.



We then headed back to camp for something to eat and to get ready to catch some big fish!

Out on the boat in a little river just down the road from camp called Maria River, it is fresh water which is not really our forte (if we even have one) but felt a little glimmer of hope when saw a couple scaling some fish at the boat ramp. Well that glimmer of hope faded over the next couple of hours as barely a bite was too be had the whole time! I think we really need some fishing lessons! Joel did however catch something.........Introducing the new turtle man!

After our catch we decided to head back to camp, make dinner and relax. Happy to report shower was awesome as well and hot. Joel then decided he might test out the new shower tent, from our last story we threw our old one out, it was one of the pop up ones, which are great on the pop up, not so good on the pop down! So this time we bought one with poles.... Well I have never seen so many different components to one little shower tent, small poles, big poles, three different material components and pegs. It was quite funny watching us opening it and going WTF are all these poles for! Haha oh and of course our instructions were missing from the box! Anyway we did manage to work it out, we think... I'm not sure this will be a faster solution however we can feel good about the fact that it will go back into the bag eventually!

Joel whipped us up another awesome pizza for dinner only to find that the Weber was out of gas! Found a fault in the Weber, after you use it every night, lunch, breakfast the gas will eventually run out! Plan B, spaghetti.

Carly & Joel

 

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