Gismo Queen and her King

Day 17 - Lake Liddell to Manning Point (278km)

The last six days have all been driving days, which can get a bit wearing after a while. Given our music festival was cancelled, we had been exploring what we could fill our time in with. We had decided to head towards the coast at Newcastle and explore along this section of the NSW coast, none of us having done it recently or with vans. However, not being fans of caravan parks at the best of times, we didn't want to land at a commercialised, overpriced park just because of where it was. So last night's research led us to this rustic charmer. And with a beach like this alongside the park, who can complain?!

Neill's favourite geese were on hand to greet us this morning at Lake Liddell. I did see a peclian while I was having my coffee so that made me happy. In extraordinary timeliness on our part, we were ready to leave by 9:14am! On the road, and we knew most of our driving today would be on freeways. As we skirted Newcastle and headed north on the M1 Pacific Motorway, it did occur to me that this was my first time on a freeway since I left Berwick!

Elevenses was in the suburb of Beresfield - not quite where Jude had wanted us to go but we ended up at Cafe on Lawson in this lower socio economic suburb. The coffee was reasonably good, the banana bread also OK and we felt good for supporting a small business run by two young ladies who were giving it a go.

Up the freeway to Bulahdelah for lunch at the Showgrounds - and far fancier showgrounds they were compared to our campsite in Koorawatha the other night.

Back on the freeway for our last 95km and we turned off the freeway just near Taree and took some rather ordinary roads out to this peninsula. It's a fairly remote little town, with not many facilities, and a rustic caravan park (that still manages to carry the Big 4 brand!). After setting up, we went for a 3km walk along the beach and what a stunning beach it is. I'm looking forward to lying in bed listening to the waves crash all night long. So happy with our chosen site that we've decided to stay 3 nights. So, here's to sleep ins and walks along the beach.
 

posted by Tracey @ 9:33 pm