Sep 23, 2012 - Birding Trip Gloucester Tops and Visiting Nelson Bay

Having successfully viewed the Rufous Scrub-bird, we were able to "sleep in" this morning. On the road, shortly after 5:00 am, we set out to see as many birds as possible between Gloucester and Phil's town, New Castle. When we said our goodbyes under the Hunter River bridge in the Hunter River National Park, our total number of birds for the weekend was 137! We had a wonderful time with Phil and highly recommend him to anyone who wants "special attention," enthusiasm and expertise for their Australia birding experience. Spent the night at...

Jul 23, 2011 - Port Stephens

The sunshine sparkled in the puddles outside of our motel's window when I peaked out this morning—it looked like it may have been the end of the rain. Izabella woke us up a few minutes before the alarm and she was ready to get going. And so was I. I was looking forward to today's excursion to the Port Stephens region—the Dolphin Capital of Australia—and taking a Dolphin & Whale Watch tour out of the Nelson Bay harbor. We were all keeping our finger's crossed that the weather will allow us to go onto the ocean. The television news, however,...

Jul 20, 2011 - Cold and Wet before the Journey Begins

I woke the crew at 5.00 am, it was cold and overcast by the time I had showered. After breakfast, a torrent of rain started to fall from the heavens. Seven o clock saw us filling the fuel tank. Almost a disaster when the wrong fuel was almost put in. Lucky for me Brian picked up the mistake. (Haste makes waste) Then we were off for a new adventure. Leaving Port Stephens was a fantastic feeling. The wind was coming from the South East and we made good time. Tony picked up a Benito, lucky for the fish I wasn't fast enough with the catch...

Jul 15, 2011 - Port Stevens - Birubi Beach

Wir hatten heute Scheiß Wetter, es hat den ganzen Tag genieselt und so kam es das wir nur vereinzelt Wale geguckt haben. Aber wir haben welche gesehen, Humpfback Wales!!! Als wir dann zum finalen Strandspaziergang angesetzt haben stießen wir auf einen Seelöwen, mit einem faustgroßen Loch am Bauch. Ein paar Männer hatten schon den Tierarzt gerufen und so kam es das wir mit ein paar Leuten aus dem Dorf das Spektakel verfolgten. Als dann der Tierarzt sowie der Range kamen wurde beschlossen das Tier liegen zu lassen und der Natur seinen Lauf...

Jul 14, 2011 - Waesche waschen in Port Stevens

Uns hat es heute nach Newcastle verschlagen, allgemein ist hier alles sehr Englisch… Windsor,Liverpool,… Im Lonley Planet Reiseführer stand: In Newcastle gibt es nichts zu sehen, aber genau das macht es irgendwie interessant. In Newcastle gab es wirklich nichts zu sehen, bis wir auf dem Strandparkplatz unser Mittagessen zubereitet haben und sich uns gegenüber ein Surfer umgezogen hat, komplett! Ein Hoch auf die getönten Scheiben. Nun sitzen wir in Port Stevens, welcher von Walen und Delphinen bewohnt ist. Wir hoffen darauf welche...

Jul 12, 2011 - Retuning new crew and new electronics

Another sailing adventure in the offering, my crew to Mooloolaba (Tony, Brian and Will) were full of anticipation and excitement as were left Sydney harbour in a NW wind of 15-25 knots. An Albacore tuna caught by Tony soon became an important dinner guest. The plan to sail directly to Mooloolaba came under threat as the wind came up and gusts up to 38 knots with 3 - 4 metre seas. In 25 knots Tony and Will raced to the mast to reduce the sail size by reefing the main. In the pitch black with only a small head lamp each they worked hard to...

Feb 8, 2011 - Port Stephens

In Port Stephens at the moment. Its absolutely gorgeous. Its a really small seaside town....very quaint. Its so quiet everywhere closes at 10pm even the pubs!! Went out on a dolphin cruise yesterday. It was unreal they came so close we couldnt believe it....they were too fast to get any proper pics of them though :( Goin out on another cruise tonight. Its a twilight dinner cruise. Should see even more dolphins on it. Got absolutely fried to a crisp yesterday when I was on the boomnet on the boat. Had factor 50 on and we still burnt goes to...

Mar 18, 2009 - Nelson Bay

Wednesday March 18 While we were having breakfast outside of the campervan, the noise of the Rainbow Lorikeets was almost deafening at times. After watching them for a while through the binoculars we discovered that they were living, and presumable nesting in holes in the Eucalyptus trees around the campsite. Because of their predominately green colouring, the lorikeets are really hard to see in the trees, but we did manage to capture a few reasonable photos. In the late morning, we went for a dolphin watching cruise in the harbour. There...

Mar 17, 2009 - Our last campervan site in Nelson Bay, NSW

Tuesday March 17 We left the vineyard area of the Hunter Valley this morning and headed back to the coast to stay a couple of nights in Nelson Bay, a small town on the shore of Port Stephens, our last port of call before returning to Sydney. On the way in to Nelson Bay we explored along the coast and took a photo of Stockton Beach from Birubi Point. Stockton Beach has a claim to fame as being “the largest moving sand mass in the Southern Hemisphere”. It is quite remarkable how almost every place manages to find a unique aspect to boast...

Aug 30, 2008 - places in between

Hello my Legion of adoring fans. I come to you today with a paradox. This has nothing to do with my use of my phrase “Legion of fans” as even I know only 2 people read these things and they gave birth to me and Shell respectively. Paradox explanation time. The only reason they read is because of some parental obligation that they find hard to resist. This is also the reason no one else reads it because we have to leave out all the juicy, dirty, depraved, illegal bits because we don’t want them to know what were really getting up to. Oh the...

Sep 6, 2007 - Nelson Bay

Sydney was hosting the APEC annual confrence while I was there and as a side product of the resulting carnage everyone in Sydney got the Monday off as a bank holiday. Me and Layla hired a car on Thursday evening and I drove up to Nelson Bay, by Port Stephens for the long weekend. We had been hoping to miss some of the traffic by leaving Sydney at about 4pm but were soon ensnared in a traffic jam on a key motorway out of the city and so it took about five hours to drive the 150km to our destination. (It didnt help that we got slightly lost...

Aug 7, 2007 - Seal Rocks to Nelson Bay, including a journey to the Hunter Valley.

Jeff The reputation of Seal Rocks as a wonderful place to watch wild life had not happened for us. Even the fishermen were reduced to eating only chips. Had we stayed longer in this very nice place it could have been different. On leaving the caravan park we drove the short distance to the headland, parked at the entrance to Myall Lakes National Park, and walked through to Sugarloaf Point where there has been a lighthouse since 1875. We took in the standard beautiful views from infront of the lighthouse before climbing the very steep slope...