To (and at) Newcastle

Packing the car was completed with relatively few problems.  We have always employed a division of labour under which Frances packs all the items into containers and I fit the containers into the car.  Of course having  car available (even with the back seat occupied by a small dog means we get to take a fair bit of stuff with us).  This image shows the unpack at Mullaway.

 The sink and washing machine aren't ours!

The day started a little strangely as we had to go to Queanbeyan to pick up the modem for Virgin Broadband, in the expectation that it would work somewhere along the way.  The background to this is discussed on my other blog. 

Another strange part of the day was that I had only scored about 3 hours sleep the night before and as a result was not feeling too flash.  In fact I felt rather rats faeces (isn’t it interesting that faeces is OK, but a word meaning the same, but beginning with ‘s’is rude?).  A brewing sinus didn’t help!  However I pressed on and the drive to Sydney was pretty reasonable.

Surprisingly there were no cop cars visible on the drive up to Sydney.  The only noteworthy thing seen was a people mover coloured pink and apparently belonging to Susie (as per the number plate) of the St George Dragon Girls (as per the lurid text over the rest of the vehicle).  The 8km of roadworks around Campbelltown was a pain in the gluteal region (isn’t it interesting that gluteal region is OK but a word meaning the same, but beginning with ‘a’is rude?).

We filled up with petrol in Pennant Hills and appeared to be getting >33mpg!  Is this a side effect of the new Cooper tyres?  We moved right along towards Newcastle which Frances navigated us through – displaying great lateral thinking in realising the importance of the location of Mater Hospital in getting to Stockton Bridge.

The business at Stockton was birding. I was initially pleased to see a hide and despatched Frances and Tammy off to other parts while I birded.  Then I found the hide to be locked.  Drat!  On noticing the number of beer bottles and bongs around the place I could understand this. Despite most of the shorebirds being on breeding duties in the Arctic I added a few species to my year-list and got the trip-list kicked off. 

On to the B&B which we found easily in Hamilton.  After a minimalist install there we went for a wander off to Beaumont St to get some tea.  We concluded this area was the equivalent of Paddington. With a horde of restaurants and at least 6 pharmacies in 500m all our needs were soon satisfied (including a snorter for the sinus).

Due to my tiredness I was not awake for long after getting back to the B&B: some of the take-away Green Chicken Curry was to accompany us when we departed.  I got into bed about 1845 and sacked out immediately.  Despite a few disturbances as Tammy was agitated by another guest pooch I slept until about 5:30 the next morning.  I felt a lot better!