On the road again looking for the sun and fun. Heading south we stopped in at Port Macquarie for a quick look and found it to be a very pleasant place, it is a city of approximately 50 thousand, a large river and of course lovely beaches. We went to the river mouth onto the picnic area we noticed that there wasn't a sandbar across the mouth that made it a lot safer for the boats coming and going, the pressure wave formed well away from the mouth.
We set up camp at the hawks nest holiday park then took adrive around the local town and the adjacent town of Tea Garden, both are small town but overflow this time of year.
Port Stephens is a large bay and river system with little towns all around the real estate prices are huge as people from Sydney buy holiday and retirement homes here, there is also a lot of investment properties that are rented out during holiday periods, the price for caravan parks are also inflated, big4 charge over $100 a night for a camp site.
Next day we picked up some bait and ice and thought we would give the fishing a go the ramps are good so that wasn't a problem, , it was too rough to go out even though it was quite safe to get in and out the weather out was pretty bad we have had rain wind and storms every day nearly for weeks. We tried to fish an old wreck but the wind was howling so we came back after a couple of hours.
While we were at Hawks Nest we walked the beaches, both sides there is a surf beach and a sheltered beach in the bay, they are both great walks up around the headland out to the mouth.
We took the boat out again on another day and went out through the heads, the weather wasn't too bad but it was threatening so we joined all the other boats and fished around the heads, it began raining so we went in a little to try for a whiting as we had only caught a shark, it rained quite a lot and we only caught undersized pink snapper and whiting but we stayed out as it was better than being in the caravan park.
We went fishing twice on the beach at night and had better luck, no size but a least flathead and tailor along with the shovel nosed sharks. A guy fishing down there one night we were there caught the biggest salmon I have ever seen and nice bream.
Christmas day when we got up we went to the beach for a swim, because we had been getting bad weather the surf was too big for me to chance but Merv went in for a little while, then back for breakfast and down to Jimmys beach, a sheltered area where we both went for a swim.
Late lunch was prawn cocktail, roast chicken and ham with gravy, roast potatoes, beans and carrots, to finish christmas pudding with brandy custard and cream and of course a couple of drinks.
One of our days of exploring was to drive around to the other side to Nelson Bay, another really beautiful area it was a bit hard to find parking, while we were there we were talking to a marine and fisheries guy who told us that we weren't likely to catch anything size in the bay.
We walked to the top of the headland to a lookout, quite a walk but worth it what a veiw, then back down to lunch at the RSL, you really can't beat the RSL for good food and great quiet atmosphere.
The day before we left we went up the Myall Lakes National Park. This park has a huge lake and river that runs up adjacent to the coast.
Our first stop was Dark Point, we walked up the path, which was a sand dune, only to be faced with what looked like miles of sand dunes, there was a number of people sand boarding. We walked over the dune to the beach that was very close to Broughton Island a large marine park. We stopped off at hole in the wall a picnic area near the beach and several other camping and beach areas on the lake. We had our canoes with us but it was hard to get parking and the lake didn't do much for us it seemed very shallow even though people were in it, the water had a green look around the edge like algae not very inviting.
We stopped at Boomeri camp site and walked out to Johnsons Beach approx 8 km return walk, very nice but the lake was no better, there is a campsite there but if people want to camp they have to carry their gear or as most do, bring it in in their boats, the lake is used a lot for water skiing and sea biscuits.
On the way out Merv was pulled up and breath tested then everywhere we seemed to go the police was there, on the way back the police followed us all the way back to town, all we could think is that there must be a lot of drunken carry on out there.
I will be glad to leave as the park is one where people go year after year for their annual holidays so theyare packed in, all around tv blaring, people talking to the top of their voices when drinking and the kids shouting and screaming, lucky if you get 5 hrs sleep, the trick is go to a tourist park not one where people go for annual holiday.
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