ON THE WAY HOME

Since leaving Hervey Bay we have been slowly wending our way home.

Our first stop was Caloundra were we spent five days lounging around the caravan park and having the car serviced.

While we were waiting for the car to be ready we went to the Sunshine Plaza Shopping Centre at Maroochydore. This is a very big shopping centre which straddles Cornmeal Creek and has around 220 shops



The caravan park was at Dicky Beach a suburb of Caloundra and is right on the water. Dicky Beach is the only recreational beach in the world to be named after a shipwreck.










And as you can see there is not much left of it.











 Fishing off the rocks on the point at Dicky Beach.
                                        
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Ballina was our next stop were we spent a couple of days resting before continuing our journey.





Ballina is situated where the Richmond River reaches the sea.

Sunset over Shaw's Bay where our caravan park was.





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 Next stop is a little place called Repton, about 20km's south of Coffs Harbour where we have been camping beside the Bellinger River. This is quite a peaceful place except when the trains cross the river, which thankfully is only a couple of times a day.






We went for a drive to a little town called Bellingen further inland on the Bellinger River. It is a very hippish type of town with lots of art and craft type shops. It also has a lot of it's original buildings.

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Our next stop was Teralba, situated on the northern most tip of Lake Macquarie which is an outer suburb of Newcastle. Lake Macquarie is one of largest coastal salt water lakes in Australia and is four times the size of Sydney Harbour.

There are many little bays like this all around the lake.



We went into Newcastle for the day and I would have to say that we were not very impressed with the CBD area. It is very old and not at all busy. It was also very hilly!

To be fair I think they are in a huge rebuilding phase since BHP left town. The foreshore area has been re-developed and looking quite good. The picture opposite is of the old Customs House.

Of course Newcastle is still the busiest port in Australia with shipping of coal to China and other countries it's main export.














Some visitors whilst we were having lunch at the foreshore.






This picture is of Nobby's Beach and the Lighthouse at the entrance to the Hunter River.

We took a tour of Newcastle in this tourist Tram to see some of the historic sites around the town.




 We had a day trip to Caves Beach as you can tell by the name has lots of caves which are only accessible at low tide.

This was taken from inside the largest cave on the beach.
                                         
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After having navigated through Sydney without any hassles our next stop was Kiama. This is a lovely seaside town with it's main claim to fame a Blowhole discovered by George Bass on his coastal explorations in 1797.

The day we visited, it was blowing but not at it's best. None the less still quite impressive.

 

The caravan park we were staying in afforded some great views over the surf beach and towards Blowhole Point.

 It was also fairly full as there was a Hot Rod Show on in town and there were quite a number of fabulous looking cars in our park as you can see by the following photos. The little caravan was being towed by a black hot rod car and what about the matching green car and caravan.

 

There was a vintage hearse and it's owner had a great sense of humour. The number plate as 'Ghooly' and he travelled with a coffin in the back!

 

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 Our next to last stop was Narooma. We have always driven through this little seaside town but this time we decided to stay a couple of days to see what it has to offer. It is situated on Wagonga Inlet and has quite a maritime history. Just of the coast is Montague Island which is home to seal and penguin colonies as well as many varieties of fish.




We stayed at a caravan park which overlooked the surf beach, and next to the Narooma Golf Course which looks like it would be a real challenge to play.
Below is the view half way down the seventh hole!

There is also a hole in a rock near the entrance to the inlet that resembles a map of Australia. The locals call it 'Australia Rock'.

Our next stop was Merimbula where we stayed for a couple of days before finally heading for home. We are now spending the night in Bairnsdale and will complete our holiday tomorrow when we arrive home.

We have had a great holiday, travelled around 7,000 km's and have been to many interesting places and seen many beautiful sights.

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