Aus Day 4 - Newcastle

A fractured night's sleep meant my mental capacity unable to cope with anything less than one word responses. We'd got up a little earlier to climb a local hill of Tomaree Head to enjoy the vista of Nelson Bay and its many coastlines. It took about 30 minutes to walk up whilst freaking ourselves out at the massive spiders and their webs along the way. The Scalp Spiders weren't poisonous but just looked nasty like something from the dungeons of a Zelda game. Past the spiders and we spotted our first kookaburra just perched on a branch above our heads just ignoring us. At the top of the hill was indeed the impressive views of Zenith, Wreck, Box and yesterday's beach, Fingal.

A quick shower back at home then back out to Newcastle. The weather had clouded over as we approached the coal and mining town. We drove past massive piles of coal being moved by huge scooping machinery either onto the already long row of train trucks or for the container ships we would see later.

Newcastle reminded me of Southampton and Bristol in terms of the old and new style ports. For lunch we headed to the port-side restaurants and bars ordering two starter meals to save money (at $18 each). After lunch we walked along the port side towards Nobby's Head where tug ships were guiding out a tanker of coal then came across two groups of surfers on either side of the walkway. The waves were really crashing on both sides but the port side getting better results though in dirtier and more congested water.

Drove back to Corlette stopping off at Woolworths (Australia's equivalent of Tesco') for some evening BBQ supplies. The Wagyu burgers were delicious!
Local radio news report: "Some thieves had broken in to a 'bottle shop' (off-license)and had only stolen some 'smokies' (cigarettes). Weather for this 'arfo' (afternoon) will be cloudy with potential showers."