Confusingly for us, Newcastle isn’t up North. Its actually nearly as far South as Sydney – which is probably roughly equivalent in Australia as everything is upside-down in the southern hemisphere! Even more confusing was that Newcastle is in New South Wales, and has suburbs called Swansea and Cardiff! Now as I come from Neath that’s just weird – we kept on seeing buses and signs to ‘Swansea Heads’ and so on. If we’d come straight here from Asia the inverse culture shock would have been really bad!
Anyway, Newcastle Oz is a coastal town with a big shipping port - specialising in coal export according to one friendly local who didn’t’ want to stop talking to us. So if you walk along the river / sea front you see lots and lots of large ships being guided in and out by tugs. It’s a nice place for a drink in a nice bar at sunset. We spent a lot of our time wandering up the river towards the coastal headlands from here, where large waves break against the rocks and teenage blokes try (pretty unsuccessfully) to surf into the nearby beaches. Australia is dashing quite a few of our expectations – again, the sea is pretty chilly, and most Aussie men we’ve seen wrestling with surf boards don’t seem to be able to ride waves very far. I thought they were all meant to be natural boarders before I came out here! And of course it’s sunny and warm all year… maybe not.
To be fair to Newcastle, it may have been a bit chilly, but the sky was beautifully blue each day we were there. Perfect for wandering around the sea spits and beaches, or through the nice little nature reserve 10 km or so from the centre of town. This was very exciting – we saw our first koalas! Along with lots of other wildlife native to Oz, including kangaroos, emus, possums, and lots more. Loads of peacocks were wandering around for instance, completely unconcerned with the hoards of kids playing nearby. But my favourite were the koalas. They look so unbelievably cuddly! Small, fury, lazy – with fantastic fluffy ears! Lovely. Although most of the ones in the nature reserve were completely uninterested in anything but sleep, despite having a hoard of juicy fresh eucalyptus leaves supplied for nibbles.
Anyway, our next stop is Sydney, where we will meet up with my Mum. She is very sensibly skiving off work for a few weeks (unpaid leave they call it) to come and join us for our last few weeks in Australia. I can’t wait to see her, but also can’t help wondering what her jet-lag is going to be like after a 20+ hour set of flights. Poor thing!
Anyway, Newcastle Oz is a coastal town with a big shipping port - specialising in coal export according to one friendly local who didn’t’ want to stop talking to us. So if you walk along the river / sea front you see lots and lots of large ships being guided in and out by tugs. It’s a nice place for a drink in a nice bar at sunset. We spent a lot of our time wandering up the river towards the coastal headlands from here, where large waves break against the rocks and teenage blokes try (pretty unsuccessfully) to surf into the nearby beaches. Australia is dashing quite a few of our expectations – again, the sea is pretty chilly, and most Aussie men we’ve seen wrestling with surf boards don’t seem to be able to ride waves very far. I thought they were all meant to be natural boarders before I came out here! And of course it’s sunny and warm all year… maybe not.
To be fair to Newcastle, it may have been a bit chilly, but the sky was beautifully blue each day we were there. Perfect for wandering around the sea spits and beaches, or through the nice little nature reserve 10 km or so from the centre of town. This was very exciting – we saw our first koalas! Along with lots of other wildlife native to Oz, including kangaroos, emus, possums, and lots more. Loads of peacocks were wandering around for instance, completely unconcerned with the hoards of kids playing nearby. But my favourite were the koalas. They look so unbelievably cuddly! Small, fury, lazy – with fantastic fluffy ears! Lovely. Although most of the ones in the nature reserve were completely uninterested in anything but sleep, despite having a hoard of juicy fresh eucalyptus leaves supplied for nibbles.
Anyway, our next stop is Sydney, where we will meet up with my Mum. She is very sensibly skiving off work for a few weeks (unpaid leave they call it) to come and join us for our last few weeks in Australia. I can’t wait to see her, but also can’t help wondering what her jet-lag is going to be like after a 20+ hour set of flights. Poor thing!
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