Hunter Valley to Port Stephens – 23rd Dec

We decided that we would waste no time and head straight to Port Stephens having seen enough of the vineyards and cheese-making places of the region.

However we were persuaded by the guide book to stop by one last vineyard that allegedly had great views over the Hunter Valley. It did indeed have great views and also had the added bonus of a new road sign for our collection.

Barring us the place was deserted (this seemed to be a similar theme for a lot of vineyards, they certainly do not directly make money by opening up their doors). This and the fact that we had basically exploited them for the view made us feel guilty and we ended up purchasing a fizzy rose that would be more than adequate as the Christmas Day bottle.

An hour and a half later we pulled into the campsite in Lime Tree Passage, Port Stephens. The first thing that struck us was a deafening buzz. It turns out it was not the electric power-lines overhead but an insect, or about a million of them, called a cicada that were frequenting the nearby forest. The 'buzz' was the mating call of the male as they rubbed their back legs together.

This was only the second campsite of the trip so far but we were already seeing a couple of trends... one, to get a good spot you need to have booked a year in advance, ideally two years; two, Aussie campers do not travel light. They bring everything including the kitchen fridge/ freezer, assorted fishing rods, multiple BBQs, cool box after cool box of beer etc. etc.

We checked in at reception and true to form we had probably the worst spot on the campsite, by the playground and the forest full of cicadas.

View from the van, can you
see the Koala?

In the afternoon we went exploring Port Stephens (after a couple of games of Yahtzee). It is a very big place and our site's location meant that we had to drive a fair way to get to the beach. We visited the town of Nelson Bay before settling on a beach walk a little further down the road in Shoal Bay. We then returned back to Nelson Bay and had a walk along the harbourside whilst having an icecream and a quick trip to the local lookout.



Shoal Bay



View from the lookout

We then made our way back to the campsite via the supermarket. This was followed by a couple more games of Yahtzee, an Only Fools and Horses episode and a pretty impressive sunset.