Day 14

14 February 2013

Woke up and it was a little chilly this morning so we decided to hang around in bed watching some tv! Once it warmed up a little we crawled out of bed and headed for our first adventure of the day - Tomaree National Park walk.

There is a few different tracks you can take, we decided to do the summit walk which suprisingly enough takes you to the summit! It is quite a strenuous walk, (however on the nsw environment site, they say its an easy stroll, I would beg to differ with this) it is easy in that the tracks are well paved however it is quite steep, I would compare it to climbing something like Mount Coolum. There are steel stairs and boardwalks that make some of the steeper sections a little easier... I was sweating by the end, however again you forget about the walk when you get to the top and take in the view.

WOW would be one pretty good word for it, it is 360 degree views with a few different viewing platforms you can look out. There is also interesting information about Port Stephens along the way, e.g Tamaree Lodge used to be a military base but was built to look like a fishing town, (sneaky aussies) it was then turned into a pychiatric hospital and is now a disability recreation lodge....and at the summit is ruins of an old radar that used to detect enemies within 120kms of it. I found these things interesting.

Another interesting thing to look at on the viewing platforms is all the padlocks attached to each pillar of the railings, each padlock is engraved with someones name, or a couple that was engaged there etc etc, it was quite cute, unfortunately we did not get the memo about this so we were unable to add our engraved padlock to the others there....maybe next time.

If you look out you can see a big sand bar between the two land masses (as seen in photo below), on low tide you can walk across here and go and visit the ruins of the PS lighthouse, I think this is pretty cool but unfortunately we didn't have time to do it!

We then walked back down and back to camp which all round was about a 2 hour walk. We then were running a little late for our next adventure, the dolphin cruise! so we had to jump in the car and head down to Nelson Bay and we had just enough time to order and eat fish and chips before hoping on the cruise. When we arrived at the bay we were a little concerned that our boat would be crowded as there was a lot of tour buses parked on the road. However we chose the right boat, because there was only about 8 people on our boat compared to this.......on the other boat!!!!! Right boat chosen - tick!

We headed out to the dolphin region, while you are travelling you can take a quick dip in the spa and have a Jim Beam if you like ... don't mind if I do....



Now this looks super nice and relaxing however the photo does not depict the temperature of the water which was FF (that is a technical term for very cold) as it was sea water. There was a few moments whether we wondered whether the dolphins had decided to leave for the day but of course as if on queue they showed themselves!!! Love dolphins, so great to watch them, dolphin cruise complete for me.... however fun not over!

Dolphin sightings equals boom net down to get the oppurtunity to get closer to the dolphins. Yes please we are in, again the water was FF temperature, however it was worth it and it became warmer the longer you sat there, unfortunately no dolphins wanted to swim with us but was still an experience.

And lastly the waterslide on the back! We were already FF temperature so why not ride the slide into the FF water below! I would highly recommend to anyone attempting the slide that you hold your nose before heading down the slide.... it is quite steep and you are really rocketed into the water, which results in water rush up your nose in your mouth, in your ears and this can result in somewhat of an ear ache!! Once was enough for me, Joel went a couple of times but again it was an experience.

As there was only a few people on the boat we had a bit of spare time so the driver took us out into the Tasman Sea and around to the opposite side of the Tamaree National Park Walk to this awesome cave, he actually drove right into it while waves were crashing around which was somewhat scary but he had obviously done it before! We were hoping....

This is where we climbed to this morning.

Then back to the dock and we were both happy with the ride, it was good fun and would highly recommend it for the cost of it, it is well worth it! After this we had once again worn ourselves out and settled into camp for an early night and dinner. We also had a chance to chat to our neighbours who were lovely people and gave us a few pointers for getting to our next destination.... Katoomba.

Carly & Joel

 

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