We are staying with Brad and Anthony in their lovely bungalow in Aberglysslyn near Maitland. It is great to be in a proper house and to be able to come and go when you want and do your washing!! This is Claire after a game of touch rugby! I know - we never thought we would see the day either! Next to her is Gordon with his new friend Gus, Claire and Anthony's 8 year old lab.
The nearest town in Maitland. We visited it on a Sunday so we could be arty and avoid the shops! Very pleasant town; good centre with several antique shops - a good place to live (don't worry we are coming home!).
Just to prove that it does not always shine in Oz!! We have had about 3 or 4 big thundery down pours in NSW - and we have only been here a week!
The nearest city is Newcastle - and we think it is great. A variety of lovely buildings; cafes; quirky shops; art fairs; and gorgeous beaches. You will probably see more photos later in the year.
We visited various small towns in the area. The ones that stood out were Morpeth and Lorn. Morpeth has a lovely old shop rather like Scotts in Margate - you so desperately want to buy something, but nothing is quite right. It had been the workshop of a joiner in the same family from 1838 to 1968! The other picture is of a solicitors in Lorn that Gordon thought was too good to leave off the blog!
We went to Blackbutt Nature reserve in the centre of the city of Newcastle where we saw many of the native creatures we had already seen in the wild close up. We got to see our first wombats though they were both asleep! It is a cross between a badger and a bear with stumpy legs. On the rainforest walk we saw even more flying foxes; this time there were 15,000 altogether roosting much nearer the ground for a better view....and one even pooed on me!!
At 2pm we went in to the animal enclosure to have "An Encounter with a Koala". Michelle, the keeper brought out Jarrah, a 6 month old girl. She talked about her and answered all the questions we had. Then - best thing ever, we had a stroke. She was so soft and sweet and gentle - as long as you stroked her back. I don't suppose she would have liked being poked in the face.
One of best beaches we have been to was near Anna Bay in New South Wales. Birubi Point is a massive expanse of beach that is solid enough for 4WDs to go on and is backed by huge sand dunes that must go back a mile inland. Absolutely fantastic. We could not even see the end of the beach where we were as it is the largest moving coastal sand mass in the southern hemisphere.
I couldn't make a snow angel for you this December, so will a sand angel do instead!!
