Blog 11; 'you just killed yourself with the vacuum cleaner!'

This is going to be a very short blog, as all we did today was drive the almost 6 hours it took us to get from Jervis Bay to Newcastle. To be fair, we only picked this place because of its name, so we did not have high hopes, but I am jumping ahead and should start with breakfast.

Huskisson/Jervis Bay is by far the nicest place we have been to date, it is quaint, friendly and a little niche. I was confused by the ‘no gang tats to be on show’ sign at the entry to the bar last night - it did not seem to be gangland territory – but we were only there for one night!

This morning we went to the 5 little pigs café for breakfast. (What3wrords;plants.nuptuals.cots ) It was recommended in the Lonely Planet or Trip Advisor, and rightly so, it was delicious! So good that we also bought a muffin each to eat on the road.

As we were eating, we were sat next to four ‘ladies that breakfast’ and I could not help but overhear their conversation, especially when one was saying that when she was nine years old she kept birds, and she named her favourite two for her grandparents. Sadly, one of them met an unfortunate end; the cage was dirty and her granny decide to hoover out the bottom…enough said. She decided to take it to school for show and tell so she could share how sad she was, mortifying the teacher when she asked what was in the box! Her parents were called to the school as it was thought inappropriate and when the 9 year old self got home that night she also got a row from her Granny, to whom she said ‘well you just killed yourself with the vacuum cleaner’ – honestly, I nearly spat my coffee out, I was crying…..

The drive was quite uneventful, just long. We arrived at Newcastle, (What3wrords;toasted.fries.weaved) and had a slight hiccup with getting into the hotel as they had texted the access codes to my UK number and I have that sim safe and sound in my suitcase as I have an Ozzie sim in my phone. Access finally granted and we dumped our stuff to go and explore as we were sick of being in the car.

We walked down to the beach (What3wrords;camera.saying.hasten) and once again it was pretty – but just that.

There were lots of people photographing the sunset, (from what3words;enforced.dating.deck) but as this is the first really industrial place we have been to, the sun was setting over cranes (mechanical variety) – I took a pic, you can decide if it was worth photographing.

It is hard to get the feel of the place, by the sea it has a very small town vibe – think Silloth for my Northern friends, but then you turn around and there is a massive town!

I did find this ship to photograph

The sun was down, which makes our bellies think of dinner time, so we called in at a quite swanky place for dinner (in our shorts) – only to find it was only 4.50 and the kitchen did not open until 6pm. Undeterred we opted for a drink and a sit in the beer garden, where the locals were in puffa jackets and huddled round the heaters and fire pits. There was only ONE choice of cider for me and about 20 Lagers for Emily to choose from! I guess they don’t drink a lot of cider here, and then the barkeep added ice and a lime to it! Actually, once I had stopped being affronted, it was quite tasty.

We decided on a fish and chip supper and an early light as we plan to leave here by 7 am tomorrow and went in search of the google recommended place. Almost there we passed a bar that had live music coming from it – of course, like bees to a honeypot we found ourselves with drinks in hand grooving along to the man and guitar – he was really great, played an eclectic range of music and we stayed for his 3 full sets. I was very impressed when he broke a guitar string, he just made a loop of the beat to keep the song going, and restrung and tuned the guitar without breaking stride!

Fortunately the bar also served food so we did get our fish and chips. The bar also offered games to play such as scrabble, chess, checkers, connect 4 etc., so Em and I played scrabble – I am convinced that I won, but a good marker beats a good player any day – just saying.

Time for an early night – told you it would be a short one – only a 6 hour drive tomorrow 😊

Night.