Newcastle Excursion. 20th June 2012

This was our first extended excursion using our $2.50 all day public transport travel perk.  We boarded the Inner City train at Eastwood at about 9.45am on a fine sunny day and arrived in Newcastle about midday. Then it was down to the Queens Wharf to catch the ferry to Stockton to have lunch at the General Washington Hotel. After lunch it was back on the ferry to have a look around Newcastle on foot as this was really the first time we have been to Newcastle proper. We went along Hunter St then up Watt St to Fletcher Park, then down along Shortland Esplanade past Newcastle Beach, the pools, Nobby's Beach to Horse Shoe Beach. From there it was back to the station via a walk along the foreshore, a distance I worked out to be of just over 6kms. Bad timing had us missing the 3.30pm train back to Eastwood by 2 seconds, oh well this gave us time to visit the old convict timber yard and to have a coffee and cake (yum) before the next train at 4.40.

On our first sea trip to Tasmania the ship we were on had to stop in Phillip Bay to have a sick patient taken off by a medical team, and on this train trip we had to wait at Gosford station for a medical team to take a sick person of the train. Seemed a bit funny that they also needed 3 railway police as well.
Thanks to Lorraine and John for the travel tips.
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Looking over Brooklyn towards the road bridge over
the Hawsbury River

Newcastle station

Customs House

Observasion Tower (closed for maitanence),
 Queen St wharf and ferry.



Leaving Newcastle to cross the Hunter River
to Stockton.



Walk-way over rail tracks to Hunter St.

Wall art in Morgan St.



Wall art in Morgan St. with Christ Church Cathedral
in background.



Newcastle Post Office,opened in 1903.

Looking down Watt St. towards the river.

Newcastle's Ocean Baths. Dredge (?) leaving river.

Old terrace houses in Church St with 
Christ Church Cathedral in background.

Looking south from Newcastle Beach. Old houses
in The Terrace.

Ocean baths

In the tube, Nobby's Beach.

Australin Pelicans

Looking towards Nobbys Lighthouse.

Looking back towards Fort Scratchley (on hill) and Newcastle.

We received a flypass.

Vivid Sydney 2012

 We picked a clear, full-moon lit night to go and see the lights of Vivid Sydney. The night before (when we were supposed to go) was wet and miserable and the night after was wet with 100kmp winds.                            

The atmosphere of the crowd was good and there were more people than last year when I went. All the lights were good.....except for the Opera House which, in the past, has been very colourful.  I have heard others say that it was boring, I'd say boring, bordering on annoying....very disappointing except for about 40 second when the sales appeared to be flapping in the breeze. My lack of Opera House photos will testify to that.

    

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Mothers Day May 2012

 A big breakfast at Lake Parramatta with the boys, their partners (Zane had to work) and granddaughter on Saturday was the only chance for nearly all to get together. With breakfast out of the way Lynn and I headed of to Mt Tomah Botanical Gardens as the weather was too good to waste . 

 

It was then onto Mt Wilson to check out the autumn leaves

THE END

CBOC Outing to Palmdale 9.5.12

This CBOC mid-week outing was to a private property at Palmdale. The trees along the road near the property and also along their driveway gave the appearance that we were in the Blue Mtns at Mt Wilson or down in Bowral than the rainforest habitat at Palmdale. Morning tea was the first thing out of the way and then we walked back along the road to check for birds along the rainforest edge on one side and gardens and fields on the other. Not a great number of birds but enough to keep us occupied.  Good views of some Gang Gang Cockatoos and some were lucky enough to see some female Regent Bowerbirds, unfortunately the males eluded us. After a fruitless quick walk around the property it was time for lunch. It was then onto Ourimbah to check out a spot where a Noisy Pitta had been sighted recently. No Pitta but a Green Catbird, a bird I haven't seen for a long time, was seen. A good day with some good people.

Autumn leaves

Gang Gang Cockatoo

Gang Gang Cockatoo

Gang Gang Cockatoo

Fungi

A fiendly local