Newcastle to Port Macquarie

I woke up at 4am on Tuesday and began to edit and upload yesterday's photos. Drew woke at 6am and I made the usual teas for us both, Drew's cough seems to be improving, so the Lemon and Ginger must be helping.

Breakfast

We went down to breakfast at 7am, the opening time here at the Holiday Inn Express, Newcastle. The breakfast here is excellent - yes, of course not as big a range as that of the big City Holiday Inns in Perth and Sydney, but a very good selection.  

Drew's Breakfast

My first course, porridge with cinnamon - fruit, seeds and nuts

My main - the absence of the ubiquitous beef sausages from previous places is noticeable. I miss them already.

The Route

We went back up to the room after breakfast and agreed that Drew would pick up the driving today as we were no longer in the big city. This is the route we planned:

On the Road

As we had only been out of the hotel in the dark, we took the opportunity to start the day by driving down to the Newcastle Seafront to take photos of the sea and coast including Nobbys Headland where the Kangaroo lives! (see yesterday's post for more details). 

We left Newcastle Beach at 9.01am with me still driving and we pulled over in a quite roadside park in Karuah at 9.50am, so that Drew could use the park carpark to try out the car before taking over driving. 

All set up Drew leaves Karguh at 10.05am and we drive on to Forster and Tuncurry where we stop at 11.40am. Forster and Tuncurry are two coastal towns which are separated by a very large concrete bridge across Wallis Lake. The twin towns sit to the north and south of Cape Hawke Harbour, the entrance to Wallis Lake which stretches for 26 km down the coast. Forster-Tuncurry is a typical holiday resort with lots of accommodation; plenty of takeaway food and local seafood cafes; pleasant fishing, surfing and swimming areas; and a seductive and lazy holiday ambience. We stop at the Rockpool in Tuncurry, with great views back to Forster and have a coffee. Tuncurry Rockpool Coffee Shop.

Leaving Tuncurry at 12.45pm we arrive at the Comfort Resort, Water’s Edge, Port Macquarie at 2pm, just as check in starts.

[Co-pilot's note: The more observant of you, dear readers,  will have noticed that the car is facing outward. This is not a trick, my parking over here is just as bad as back home and myself and Captain Jack had some assistance with parking, which finally led to the Pilot - doing it himself!!!]

A brief sidenote on hotels

As you will have seen from all of the hotels to date I have kept with IHG hotels as far as possible, both for the quality of the hotels, even the express ones, and the benefits of the rewards scheme. But not all of our route is covered by IHG hotels. For many years in the US and Canada we have made use of Choice Hotels, not as high standard as IHG, but well above some of the local motel places. I already had the Choice Hotel app on my phone from those previous visits, so when I couldn't find any IHG hotels in an area, I have chosen Choice instead. Like Holiday Inn, Choice is a franchise, so the individual hotel is often owned by a person with only one or a few hotels. Unlike Holiday Inn, which has a strict brand relationship approach which includes colour schemes and tea/coffee brands and soap and shampoo brands - Choice tends to have a more eclectic approach - with some of those features shared at some of their hotels, but never all of them at all of them.  Therefore it was nice to see that the Waters Edge wasn't kidding, they are set right on the water of the Hastings River and while the beds are a lot softer (a polite way of suggesting worn-out) than the IHG ones the rest of the faculties are of a good standard. 

Port Macquarie

Having settled in to our room in the Comfort Resort at 2.30pm we went for a walk along the riverfront down to the sea. 

This panorama gives a good perspective on the river.

As we walk along the riverside we begin to see some painted rocks which lead up to and along the breakwall at Port Macquarie, they have clearly been developed over years.

This then leads onto the quiet town beach at what the locals merely call Port.

Back to the hotel

Avid readers of the blog will have noticed that when we did our last laundry in Sydney I said:

It will be in Ballina before we do out next wash.

Well at that time we had factored without the fact that we ended up 'dressing up' for dinner on four of the days in Sydney - our plan was to have 7 days worth of 'day clothes' and two days worth of 'eating out clothes' but exceeding that in Sydney meant that we would run out a day or two before Ballina, so, seeing that this hotel has washing facilities and they were right next to our room, I went down to reception to explore their use. 

It turns out, much to our surprise, and contrary to our experience to be included in the room rate - i.e. free. What a bonus, the lady of reception even had some free laundry powder a rep had left her, which she gave to us. We set up the first load of washing to wash, then when it had finished filled the tumble dryer while loading the next wash. The tumble dryer, to make it accessible to people, is upside down, as if it wasn't the controls at the top would be outside the reach of people less than seven foot six. However, unknown to us, the machine controls had been inverted - so what looked like it should be 60 minutes was in fact 90, so we had to wait until after dinner to complete the second load.

Dinner

We decided to be radical tonight. Since we have arrived in Australia, especially in Sydney, we have noticed that dining times are significantly ahead of UK dining times. For example we eat at 5.45pm on Monday and at Porkfat on Sunday we were warned at 8.30pm that the kitchen would be closing in 15 minutes, so if we wanted to order more we would have to do it now. Looking for restaurants in Port Macquarie we noted that at least half had 7am to 3pm schedules - i.e. breakfast and lunch and of those who did open in the evening most had their last sitting at 7. But when we were out walking, just above the beach, we noted a restaurant called The Stunned Mullet that took bookings until the late hour of 8pm. So, on getting back to the hotel and putting the clothes on to wash we booked online, as is customary here, selecting 7.30pm as our dining time.

We left the hotel at 7pm and walked the 30 minutes to The Stunned Mullet.

We began our meal with mocktails. In my case a non-Alcoholic Manhattan, which was fascinating in having all the flavours of Amaretto, without the alcohol. The ingredients were sourced from Lyre's an Australian company who specialise in this area  

Drew opted for a non-alcoholic Amaretto Sour

For starters I had Lamb Cutlets, this was a White Pyrenees lamb with aji verde, patatas bravas, ajo blanco, orange, fennel, red cabbage - The lamb was tender and juicy the two sauces were exactly how they would have tasted in Spain, a real delight.

Drew went with King Prawns, these crisp king prawns were in a wonton wrapper with a shiso, shiitake, yuzu miso and fragrant oat flakes - Prawns in a Japanese style - a perfect mix of flavours that worked so well.

I decided to continue with the mocktails rather than the more normal sparkling water with a Non-Alcoholic Negroni. Never having had a alcohol infused negroni I can't compare the flavours, but they were herby and delicious.

Drew's main was Gnocchi, a desiree potato gnocchi with pumpkin, kombu, scamorza, cavolo nero, leek and pine nuts - An unusual choice for Drew, but he says that it was lovely. Soft and buttery gnocchi with a really cheesy sauce. 

I went with Moreton Bay Bug, this was a linguine of Moreton bay bug, de-shelled with garlic, roasted chilli, lemon, parsley, pangrattato - bug is somewhere between a lobster and a langoustine, very soft, but with a bold flavour. The garlic, chilli and lemon were enough to lift the whole dish and the pasta was cooked to perfection, exceedingly yummy.

Not knowing how big the mains would be I had opted for a side-salad of radicchio, witlof, pear, smoked hazelnut and orange mustard dressing - bitter leaves with a sweet dressing, a good combination. It was wonderful, crisp and tangy, but we probably didn't need it - still it would be rude to leave it, so it all got consumed. 

My final drink of the evening was a Lime and Jalapeno Soda, sharp and tangy, I really enjoyed it.

Drew completed his meal with Japanese pepper gelato with strawberry, dacquoise, cremeux, sesame, coulis and matcha - Drew really loved it.

I had the cheese plate of Manchego and Gruyere with pear these were two lovely cheeses and the biscuits were also delicious with sesame seeds and salt. The Gruyere in particular was very tangy and perfect for my palette.  

We finished the meal with an espresso each. It is worth noting though, that in common with our experience since we have arrived in Australia all the Australians, apart from the staff had left the restaurant by 8.30pm. When the couple of Irish ladies left at 9.00pm we were on our own while the staff prepared the tables for tomorrow. Having finished our coffee we left at 9.20pm 

Back to the Hotel

Walking back to the hotel was somewhat surreal, it was a lovely evening, we were in shirt sleeves and it is worth noting that it was now only about 9.30pm - but it was as if there had been a warning not to be on the streets, is it vampires, zombies or werewolves that get Australians to their beds by 9.30pm or something else. As people who go to bed at 10pm at home we are often considered peculiar for going so early. But for the whole of our half hour walk we saw three young lads walking ahead of us and one elderly lady, otherwise NOTHING. Even more amusing, arriving back at the hotel we saw the sign saying reception was unmanned between 9pm and 7am. It wasn't a problem as our room key opened the hotel late-night entry door, so we went in, dried our second load of washing and were in bed by 11pm.

Newcastle - Mulubinba

At the end of the last post we noted we had arrived in Newcastle which is also known as Mulubinba in the language of the Awabakal people who lived in and cared for this land long before any Europeans arrived. Their name for the town reflects the sea fern that grew here and the roots of that fern, which unusually for a fern, were very edible, once cooked (as some Europeans found, less edible when attempted raw). 

Indeed, Newcastle has had many names since the arrival of the Europeans: initially it was known as Coal Harbour, then it became Kings Town (named for Governor Philip Gidley King, the third governor of New South Wales) for a short period and then Newcastle, the great coal town of that period in England. So, it was clear that the British interest wasn't in the lands flora or fauna, but in its mineral wealth - Coal.

Why are we here?

Unusually, the reason we choose to stop off at Newcastle is not one or two, but three.

The first and most obvious is that Newcastle is a big town a short distance north of Sydney and a reasonable drive on the day we pick up our hire-car, so aren't travelling as far as we might on another day.

The second happened after I had started my original draft of the holiday, which included a stop here. My youngest nephew, Cian, had decided to study Engineering at the University here. He began in a civil track but at the end of his first year has transferred to Mechanical Engineering. Newcastle is one of the world's top ranking universities in this discipline - well done Cian!

The third is Covid related. During the first lockdown, when Drew was working 18 hour days in the front room of our house building some system critical software, I decided that sitting reading, as fun as that is, wasn't satisfying enough - so I signed up for a series of free online courses with Future Learn. I ended up doing 42 of their courses during that period about a wide range of topics (A spreadsheet of the ones I did is available for anyone who wants to know😂). But the one that made the greatest impact on me was the one produced by the University of Newcastle, NSW called "Great South Land: Introducing Australian History" an updated version of the course is still available on the Future Learn site. The story of Nobbys Headland or Whibay-gamba was one that struck me particularly.

‘Whibay-gamba’ (Nobbys Headland) has always been a prominent focal point of Mulubinba (place of the Sea Ferns) and its significance has always been understood by the First Nations People who lived in this area.

This important site is home to the Dreaming story of the Giant Kangaroo who is said to inhabit the rocky outcrop of Nobbys after hiding here to escape judgement for a crime committed to a female Wallaby. To escape punishment for this crime he was forever unable to leave. Frustrated with his self-imposed isolation, he would crash his great tail against the earth causing the whole area to shake.

This Dreaming story recognises both local Indigenous social control and importantly shows us cultural understanding by revealing a significant environmental hazard – one that Indigenous knowledges have known for thousands of years – that Newcastle has always been prone to earth tremors. Source

So, here we are

Dinner Arrangements

I'd made arrangements to meet with Cian while we were in the town via my brother, David. David had asked if Cian could bring some friends with him. This seems a reasonable request, the last time I had seen Cian was the weekend before the family left Wales for Australia, seven years ago. Cian was only 12 then, and apart from the fact that I have resemblance to my father, who Cian and his siblings knew far better than me. He would only have heard from me in birthday and christmas cards. So, it seemed perfectly reasonable to me that he bring some moral support to meet his uncle for the first time in all that while.

I still had no suspicions when David confirmed the table was booked for 5.45am - a very early time from my perspective, but not from the New South Wales perspective, more about that in a future post. David said Cian and his mates go bouldering on a Monday night, so would be heading there afterwards. I had to google bouldering, so I have shared the explanation above.

Surprise 

So when Drew and I came down from our room in time to walk to the restaurant for dinner, it was less than a mile away. I was stunned to find my brother and sister-in-law sitting in the lobby of the hotel.

It turns out Cian's two friends are his parents who had spent the weekend visiting him in Newcastle, before staying to meet with us, a week and a bit earlier than we had expected. 

What a tricksy, yet clever surprise about which Drew and I had not the least suspicion. It was a joy to catch-up with them both for the first time in seven years, but even more of a joy because of the surprise element.

Dinner

Cian arrived twenty minutes later and drove us to the restaurant which was called Light Years. Like many places in Australia its dining style was relaxed and its menu an Asian fusion. With dishes from Thailand, Malaysia, Mongolia, India and China.

It was a lovely meal, as the conversation followed so smoothly and it seemed like we had only been talking a day or two ago, not seven years.

Elaine began her meal with a Pickle Plate with a wonderful selection of a wonderful collection of pickles - daikon radish, red cabbage and cucumber.

I opted for Hot and Sour Cucumbers that is what the Americans would call Dill Pickles with Chilli and Sesame. They were crunchy and tasty and delicious.

For Drew's starter he had a Prawn Roll which had a Yuzu Tartare, Lettuce, Tobiko and Furikake in a Brioche Bun. He really enjoyed it.

For my main I had a Mongolian Style Lamb Rump, with cubes of lamb with a capiscum, Celery, Onion, chilli and cumin sauce - Rich and flavoursome. 

Cian had Bao Buns with Spicy Korean Fried Chicken with Cucumber, Ranch dressing and lettuce. He really enjoyed them and was persuaded by his mother to share some of the chicken which was very tangy. 

Elaine had Cumin Spiced Cauliflower for her main, the menu says this is Cauliflower with Strange Flavour Sauce, Coconut, Dill, Mint and Crunchy Things! Whatever was strange about the flavour it was very asian and nicely spiced - there were plenty of nuts and seeds as crunchy things! I was sitting next to Elaine, so managed to enjoy sharing some of her cauli. 

For his main Drew had Crispy Masterstock Pork Belly with sticky chilli caramel, charred pineapple and herbs. He quietly sat and eat his way through it, which is evidence it must have been tasty.

David choose Wagyu Beef Rendang for his main this was Beef malay style with Thai Basil, Lemongrass and Coconut Cream again it was reasonably spiced. 

Drew managed to be persuade to have a dessert - Custard Bao Buns, these Deep-Fried Custard Bao with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream, Szechuan Caramel and Five Spice Sugar meant Drew had both a spice and sugar rush at once.

Cian having headed off for his bouldering, Elaine, David Drew and I walked back to the hotel. Here are some of the images - there are as ever more on Flickr 

Elaine, thoughtful as ever, had bought a supply of sugary treats for Drew to help him keep his sugar level up on the journey. He was very grateful and felt they were very on brand with Australia's wildlife. 

On the Road - Sydney to Newcastle

So, the road trip which is the next part of our visit to Australia begins today, but before we get into the details, here is how the day began.

Morning

I wake at 4.30am and get up and upload the photos from yesterday evening, quite a lot of them to get done, given all the wonderful night shots of Sydney. I can't resist taking another photo from the window at the hotel as dawn starts to creep over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House.

Drew wakes at 6am and after a cup of coffee, a Lemon and Ginger tea and our ablutions we head down to breakfast at the Holiday Inn, Potts Point for the last time this holiday. 

Drew's First Course

My first course

Drew's Main

My main - note I'm still eating beef and chicken sausages,
even after suggesting the latter were an abomination

We go down to breakfast at 7am and are back in the room by 7.45am. We have a few more cups of tea while we wait to depart and I complete a blog post from last Wednesday and start another one. 

One final picture of the view

and we leave the hotel at 9.45am heading for the Domestic Airport at 11am, when our car is booked - we will be early! No surprise there then I hear many of my friends and family say!! The route was as follows the 9.56am T4 from Kings Cross to Central, arriving 10.02am. The 10.10am T8 from Central to the Domestic Airport Station arrive 10.20am.

We go up the escalator to the Avis desk we saw last Wednesday and arrive at 10.30am, only 30 minutes early. There are six customers or groups of customers ahead of us, but with the staff members increasing from 2 to 3 we get served at 10.40am. 

We are away from the desk having filled in all the forms and scanned the credit cards and driving licences a few times by 10.47am. We walk outside to the shuttle transfer and it pulls up immediately. Three of us get on and by 10.58am we have arrived at the Avis Parking Lot where our car is in parking space I03, which I initially read as 103 - but worked out when I saw the markings on the bays a capital i is so much like a 1!  

Drew photographs the car and puts our bags in the boot. 

Of course, Captain Jack, our travel companion, is in the seat of honour at the back.

It is a very large vehicle compared to the Honda E we drive at home. I get into the driver seat to set up - we struggle to work out how to open the side mirrors. With every button in the car pushed we end up reading the manual - it turns out, much to our amazement, given how high tech, the rest of the features on the vehicle are that the wing mirrors fold in and out manually!! Who would have thought of that, apart from every generation before us since Mr Ford created his passenger vehicles! Once they were opened the controls for the mirrors were all electric, very easy to adjust and get the angles right. 

We head out of the car park, after hunting for the mirror switch at 11:20am.

There is a toll road out of Sydney, but when we realised that choosing the non-toll version of the route in Google, we would only add 20 minutes to our journey, we opted to follow this route.

One of the great excitements was that the route took us over the Sydney Harbour Bridge, so much a part of this holiday already. I couldn't believe the pleasure it gave me to be driving over this bridge which we have seen out of our hotel window for the last five days and were now on!

Once we are out of Sydney driving becomes very much like US driving, except on the other side of the road, Australians still drive on the left. Though the fact the car is on the same side of the road, but the indicators on the opposite side from cars back home does mean that, I often wiped the windscreen when planning to turn for the first hour or so!!  It hasn't caused any harm, so far! 

The issue of driving on the left caused an amusing incident for me earlier in the holiday. The first day we arrived in Perth I was walking up to a crossing and my mind had defaulted to: 'I'm in a foreign country, the cars will be on the other side of the road'. It was only at the last moment that I spotted that cars were coming 'the wrong way'. Note to brain - it is the same here as back home!

Drew in his co-pilot role is taking in the views and notes that there are not as many fun/crazy adverts on the side of the road here in Australia as you see in the US, when one business or another is advertising itself 70 or more miles before its location. In this Australia is more like Canada, or vice versa with much more subtle signage. 

We do see a site we'd not seen before. A vehicle on fire on the road - the driver had got out, but clearly the heat or sun had caused something he was carrying to combust. At this time of the year in the UK any damage to vehicles is likely to be water penetration from the rain, not problems with overheating!

The Entrance

In preparing for the holiday I'd read a number of books and online sources, be they travel guides or blogs. One of the things they all agreed on was:

The striking 900km stretch from Sydney to Brisbane will take you across some of the most iconic stops on the east coast. Some of the most popular stops include feeding pelicans at The Entrance... Source

So the Entrance was our first destination and first stop - 117km out of Sydney we arrived at the Entrance at 1.30pm. The Entrance takes its name from the narrow channel which connects Tuggerah Lake here to the ocean. What strikes you first is the size of the river and next is the amount of Pelicans that live on it. One of its great attractions is that due to the narrowness of the Entrance the water here is shark free, unlike most of the coastal regions where they proliferate. 

This selection of photos capture the location well:

We stopped for a coffee in The Entrance and were surprised to find that Australians seem to have a predilection for a pie. No not a sweet tart that the Americans would call a pie, but a traditional and not so traditional selection of meaty fillings. Here is the choice at the, busy, pie shop in The Entrance

Swansea

From The Entrance we continued to head north, taking a slightly side route, to make sure we travelled through Swansea. This makes my third Swansea, the one where I was born, the one in Massachusetts where we stayed in 2011 and now Swansea, New South Wales. [Captain Jack's Note: Belay this visiting Swanseas, you scurvy dogs.]

We didn't stop in the town, but enjoyed taking photos with references to its name.

Newcastle

We arrived at the Holiday Inn Express in Newcastle at 3.50pm

The room was somewhat smaller than the two rooms we had become accustomed to in Sydney, but was modern and well laid out.

It also had the same branded shampoo, conditioner and body wash as the other Holiday Inns.

More about Newcastle and the various reasons we are here - and the surprise we get, will appear in the next post.