Thursday 15 Dec – Sunday 18 Dec – “Big Lake, Big smoke, Big day out…”

Once we sorted out where everything was being packed away, now that we had the canoes, we were on the road to Lake Macquarie, near Newcastle.  Once again – we did not have a definite plan of where we were going to stay, however, our plans changed from a camp close to beach to a camp on the lake, so we could paddle, paddle, paddle!

After negotiating my way around the west of Sydney, (Can’t simply bypass via freeways – still have to ply your way through pennant hills built up area on sydney’s notorious narrow 3 lane carriageways) we were on the road up to the central coast, where we pulled up at the Belmont pines camping ground.   This is a council run park and it is immaculate and run the way a park should be.   It’s located on a ‘pimple’ of land that juts out into the lake and we snagged a primo sheltered spot right on lakes edge – perfect.    Tell you what – we have been jagging some good spots lately….it pays to just wing it a bit when travelling, and that’s exactly what we’ve been doing since leaving Sth Oz a month ago.

We caught up with friends and went out on the lake in their boat for a look around, beached at a sand island for lunch before heading ‘home’.

That same day, Karen went to the shops for some supplies while I stayed back with the boys.    Then – ‘the phonecall’….   ‘Honey – someone’s just run into the back of me – the other cars a mess!”      Hmmmm – stay calm ‘are you ok…’    good.  ‘Is the ute ok….’  (heart pumping now…)    “yeah – there’s some damage”     By now, I’m not dealing with vagueness too well…..

Anyway, it’s all sorted with cops & insurance, and the damage is minimal  -  the rear bar on the ute is quite solid and not plastic, and saved major panel and light damage, so can be repaired when we get back to Cairns.  The other car (Suzuki swift) was a tow away job (insert evil laugh here)….

Sunday saw us take advantage of the Sydney public transport network by doing the ‘family funday Sunday’ where, for $2-50 each, we could ride trains, trams, ferries etc all day.   Soooo,  we trained into Sydney on the intercity (2hrs, tram to darling harbour, have pancakes for lunch, then ferry around to circular quay, then Manly ferry return trip, train back into town, tram around to Darling harbour for an early tea before the train trip back to Lake Macquarie.     I thing we got our $10 worth out of Sydney transit!    Slept well that night!

(photos coming....)