Tuesday August 31st: We all got up early and set out for our walk through Glen Rock State Conservation Area. Glen Rock is a large area quite close to Newcastle, and has a cool walk through it. We took 2 cars - Kel and I took the Beast while Mum, Dad and Liz jumped in Bil. We all went to Merewether first, which was where we would be ending the walk. After deciding to leave Bil at the end, we all piled into the Beast and went back to the start of the trail. Starting out we could hear and occasionally see Bellbirds. Not far into the walk we crossed paths, literally, with some kind of stick insect, which Liz took some photos of:
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The walk must have been annoying for some of the walkers, as Liz and I kept stopping to check out birds, insects and the like... there are kookaburras all over the place, but we still wanted photos of them when we got the chance.
Glen Rock has had some work done to it since the last time I was there, and we seemed to be walking along a newer trail. The older trail, as I remembered, seemed more rugged, and so when we saw something that looked familiar to me, we turned off and went the more fun way. It took us down to a rocky area, which had a small stream running over to it. Looking downstream I saw a new bridge, and before telling Liz to look at the bridge because it was new and we would have gone over it, I realized Kel was mooning us from the bridge. I instead warned people to look away. Taking the path less travelled was cool, because we saw the stream, more cockatoos and also a currawong:
While we were hanging out, watching the birds Kel and Dad opted to take a break at a picnic table. We were probably 1/3 - 1/2 the way through the bush part of the walk, and there was still beach walking to go, so it was probably good that they rested while there was the chance.
Following the newer trail again, we made our way to the lookout, passing some very dry waterfalls on the way. Once we got to the lookout we got our first view of Glen Rock Lagoon and the ocean beyond it.
Family photos are awesome...
We continued towards the sand, and saw a tree on the way that had been dramatically hollowed out. It was large enough for Liz and I to stand in, and here's proof.
Not too much further along the trail I found another reason to stop. I love mimicing signs, and found a hiking sign to copy.
Within a few, well, probably 20, more minutes we had made it down to the beach. The view from both directions is cool - one way you have cliffs, the other way the sand stretching towards Merewether, and the waiting Bil.
There used to be a mine (colliery) near the beach here, so along the way you could see old, rusted out relics of the mine which were pretty cool. There was also some animal life that caused some havoc. Liz and I had fallen behind, and Mum started walking back towards us with her hat in her hands. I knew she would have something in the hat, but I didn't know what. Putting the contents on the sand, we saw a crab. Taking some photos, I was totally engulfed and not concentrating on what was going on. Mum and Liz tried to warn me, but I was too distracted - the wave broke closer than the others and my legs ended up pretty wet. In an effort to get away from the water I ended up stepping on the crab... but it was on sand, I'm sure the crab was fine.
Crab - you got me wet!
Mum continued her tour of the ocean's animals when she found a cuttlefish further along the beach. It was the biggest cuttlefish I had even seen, and was so new to the beach that Mum had to strip it's skin off:
Getting closer to Merewether, the sandy beach was starting to give way to cliffs, rock ledges and shells. Mum and Liz scoured the beach for shells, so while they were doing that I walked out on to the rocks. There were some Oystercatchers out there that I took a couple of photos of, but I was more interested in the waves. Figuring I was already wet, I got as close to the edge of the rocks as I could without endangering the camera. The waves breaking weren't the biggest I've ever seen, they were far from it, but the splashes were cool.
Oystercatchers
After I had taken a lot of photos of waves and gotten my feet ever further drenched, we figured we should try and catch up with Dad and Kel, who would have been at the car by then. Along the way we stopped to see a sea slug before jumping in the car to head back to the start of the walk.
Once we got back to the Beast, Liz and I went to Wicked Chocolates while Mum, Dad and Kel went and got themselves some lunch and went home. Wicked Chocolates is a chocolate store that we used to go to while they were in downtown Newcastle. They moved though to Warners Bay, so we wanted to get some dairy free chocolate and see what the place was like. When we arrived though a sign on their door told us they were only open on Saturdays, so we disappointedly started heading home. In Eleebana, the suburb next to Valentine, the Beast started to shake violently approaching a red light. When we stopped, so did the car, and it refused to start again. The light went green, but the Beast still sat. Liz waved people around us, but only one car went. After 4 failed attempts, the Beast roared to life and burned rubber (more just squeaked it's tyres/tires) as it hauled away from the light. It shook again turning in Valentine, and then stopped when we made it home. After that we decided not to go anywhere in the afternoon...
Wednesday September 1st: One of the places Liz and I wanted to go for a day trip while in Australia was Myall Lakes National Park, which is about 2 hours north of my parent's place. The two of us went with Dad, and headed for the parks information office to get some maps etc on where we could go hiking and what we could see and do. The parks office ended up being past the national park, so we had to drive a little further to get there. They showed us some places we could walking, all in the south end of the park. We noticed a "Be Dingo Aware" pamphlet, and asked if there really was a risk of encountering dingoes. The lady told us that if we were going back to the park we were pretty much guaranteed to see a dingo. Kiss of death, that one - "never give a guarantee" is what I thought. Before getting back in the car Liz and I quickly checked out a beach, Booti Booti, which looked nice.
We headed for the south end of the park, going to a small area known as Seal Rocks along the way. We had to go past an HR (hazard reduction) burn along the way. I say HR (hazard reduction) because that's how the guy directing traffic referred to it. Dad and I talked a bit after that about why you abbreviate if you're just going to say the whole thing afterwards. Seal Rocks was cool - a few houses, a store and some caravans near the beach, with lots of rocks off the coast. In the not to distant distance, we saw the large form of a White-Bellied Sea Eagle flying over the water, which was cool. We headed for the lighthouse, which we all thought could be cool. We parked the car in the lot and started the walk, which was along a bush road. We started to hear birds, which meant Liz and I were scouring the trees. While we were scouring, Dad announced "Dingo." We both turned just in time to see the dingo walking quickly down the path we had just walked along. Tempted to run after it I thought better of it and kept going with Dad and Liz. Before the lighthouse was a cool island type thing of cliffs with water all around them, then a walk up a very, very steep slope.
The lighthouse itself was really cool. It is the shortest lighthouse I had ever seen, but when you see where it is you can tell that they didn't need a big lighthouse, the cliff provides the height. They then explained that on an informational display around the lighthouse. People with binoculars were pointing out to sea, at first I thought whale, but I didn't see anything, save for an osprey flying near the lighthouse.
Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, there were no more dingo sightings on the walk back. We jumped in the car and went further south to The Grandis - the tallest tree in the state of New South Wales. The Grandis is 76m tall, which is around 249 feet. The was a viewing platform quite close to the tree, which made it hard to take a photo to show how big the tree was.
By this time it was early afternoon and the snacks we had brought weren't easing our hunger. We stopped in a small town called Bulahdelah to see what they had to eat. Deciding against stopping at the first store we saw, we drove closer to the highway, and to what was the bustling main street. Dad got himself something from the bakery while Liz and I went store to store to see what they had. Only one place had stuff that we either could eat or wanted to eat, and they had turned off their grill, so we wound up going to the supermarket. It was a typical small town, small chain supermarket, and it was great. We got ourselves rice cakes, peanut butter, potato chips and, best of all, a gluten-free, dairy-free cocoa puff breakfast cereal called Cocoa Orbits. They were absolutely delicious.
We left Bulahdelah, Liz and I eating in the car on the way. We didn't have utensils, or at least I didn't bother to check if there were any in the car, so we were spreading peanut butter on rice cakes with our fingers. The peanut butter stopped me from getting a shot of a pheasant coucal that was crossing the road in front of the car, but at least we saw it with our own eyes. After 20 minutes of driving we were stopped at a ferry/barge, the shortest that I have ever seen. We had to wait, and while we were waiting we ran around with the camera and binoculars, seeing cormorants, a spoonbill and also a raptor I haven't identified yet.
The best part of waiting for the ferry though was the old man. He and his wife (I assume) were towing a caravan and waiting for the ferry as well. Liz got out of the car when we first arrived, cocoa orbits in hand, munching from the box. The old guy walked up and asked if she was going to eat all of them on her own, and went to reach in and take some! Shocked, Liz recoiled and pulled the box away. She asked if he wanted any, and he formed his hand into a bowl. Liz started to pour into his hand, but he apparently wasn't happy with flow, and went to put his hand in to hasten it up. Not wanting old man hands touching the precious cocoa orbits, Liz again had to take them away. The wait for the ferry was about 20 minutes, and the crossing took about 2 minutes. I checked on Google Earth - the water we crossed was, at most, 100 yards across.
After the 2 minute crossing we drove to Mungo Brush to go for a walk. We saw some Yellow-faced Black Cockatoos and some Brush Turkeys. There was also a squeaky old windmill that I liked the look of during the walk.
It was starting to get late in the day, so we drove to Hawk's Nest and took a quick look at the beach. We jumped back in the car, I drove this time, and headed back home, ate some dinner and then went to bed.
Thursday September 2nd: Records from this day are non-existent. We took no photos, and honestly can't remember what happened. I think we took it easy given that we had had a couple of big days before this, perhaps did more laundry or something...
We headed for the south end of the park, going to a small area known as Seal Rocks along the way. We had to go past an HR (hazard reduction) burn along the way. I say HR (hazard reduction) because that's how the guy directing traffic referred to it. Dad and I talked a bit after that about why you abbreviate if you're just going to say the whole thing afterwards. Seal Rocks was cool - a few houses, a store and some caravans near the beach, with lots of rocks off the coast. In the not to distant distance, we saw the large form of a White-Bellied Sea Eagle flying over the water, which was cool. We headed for the lighthouse, which we all thought could be cool. We parked the car in the lot and started the walk, which was along a bush road. We started to hear birds, which meant Liz and I were scouring the trees. While we were scouring, Dad announced "Dingo." We both turned just in time to see the dingo walking quickly down the path we had just walked along. Tempted to run after it I thought better of it and kept going with Dad and Liz. Before the lighthouse was a cool island type thing of cliffs with water all around them, then a walk up a very, very steep slope.
The lighthouse itself was really cool. It is the shortest lighthouse I had ever seen, but when you see where it is you can tell that they didn't need a big lighthouse, the cliff provides the height. They then explained that on an informational display around the lighthouse. People with binoculars were pointing out to sea, at first I thought whale, but I didn't see anything, save for an osprey flying near the lighthouse.
The lighthouse and rocks behind it
The beach next to the lighthouse
The steep slope was much better on the way down
Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, there were no more dingo sightings on the walk back. We jumped in the car and went further south to The Grandis - the tallest tree in the state of New South Wales. The Grandis is 76m tall, which is around 249 feet. The was a viewing platform quite close to the tree, which made it hard to take a photo to show how big the tree was.
The Grandis
By this time it was early afternoon and the snacks we had brought weren't easing our hunger. We stopped in a small town called Bulahdelah to see what they had to eat. Deciding against stopping at the first store we saw, we drove closer to the highway, and to what was the bustling main street. Dad got himself something from the bakery while Liz and I went store to store to see what they had. Only one place had stuff that we either could eat or wanted to eat, and they had turned off their grill, so we wound up going to the supermarket. It was a typical small town, small chain supermarket, and it was great. We got ourselves rice cakes, peanut butter, potato chips and, best of all, a gluten-free, dairy-free cocoa puff breakfast cereal called Cocoa Orbits. They were absolutely delicious.
We left Bulahdelah, Liz and I eating in the car on the way. We didn't have utensils, or at least I didn't bother to check if there were any in the car, so we were spreading peanut butter on rice cakes with our fingers. The peanut butter stopped me from getting a shot of a pheasant coucal that was crossing the road in front of the car, but at least we saw it with our own eyes. After 20 minutes of driving we were stopped at a ferry/barge, the shortest that I have ever seen. We had to wait, and while we were waiting we ran around with the camera and binoculars, seeing cormorants, a spoonbill and also a raptor I haven't identified yet.
The ferry we waited for - you can see the other side...
A cormorant
A spoonbill
The raptor
The best part of waiting for the ferry though was the old man. He and his wife (I assume) were towing a caravan and waiting for the ferry as well. Liz got out of the car when we first arrived, cocoa orbits in hand, munching from the box. The old guy walked up and asked if she was going to eat all of them on her own, and went to reach in and take some! Shocked, Liz recoiled and pulled the box away. She asked if he wanted any, and he formed his hand into a bowl. Liz started to pour into his hand, but he apparently wasn't happy with flow, and went to put his hand in to hasten it up. Not wanting old man hands touching the precious cocoa orbits, Liz again had to take them away. The wait for the ferry was about 20 minutes, and the crossing took about 2 minutes. I checked on Google Earth - the water we crossed was, at most, 100 yards across.
After the 2 minute crossing we drove to Mungo Brush to go for a walk. We saw some Yellow-faced Black Cockatoos and some Brush Turkeys. There was also a squeaky old windmill that I liked the look of during the walk.
Brush Turkey
Yellow-faced Black Cockatoos
It was starting to get late in the day, so we drove to Hawk's Nest and took a quick look at the beach. We jumped back in the car, I drove this time, and headed back home, ate some dinner and then went to bed.
Thursday September 2nd: Records from this day are non-existent. We took no photos, and honestly can't remember what happened. I think we took it easy given that we had had a couple of big days before this, perhaps did more laundry or something...
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