Jimmy’s Beach to Mannering Park

The next leg of our roadtrip was from Jimmy’s Beach down to Lake Macquarie. Again the Myall River was very still and good reflections of the scenery could be observed as we drove over the bridge near Tea Gardens.

Within fifteen minutes we had rejoined the Pacific Highway.

Sadly drizzly rain started soon after. Approaching Newcastle we had to be sure we were in the correct lane and quite happy, towing our caravan, to not be next to a truck going over this narrow bridge.

Our trip continued without any problems following the right route to reach the Lake Macquarie Holiday Park at Mannering Park by noon. We were soon set up but due to the recent rain in the area found ourselves on a muddy site.

Next up was lunch, before we took a quick walk along the edge of the lake at the bottom of the caravan park.

Rathmines

Apart from staying in another nice location the main reason we had diverted to Lake Macquarie was because during WWII my Dad had served in the Air Force at nearby Rathmines. So off we drove. Our first stop was at the Rathmines memorial,

which is opposite the Rathmines Memorial Bowling Club.

Much of the infrastructure from the Air Force base is still intact but has been repurposed by local groups. So we headed off on foot along the edge of the lake to check out the little town and these buildings. The area was, and still is, known as Catalina Bay.

It was where Catalina flying planes came in to land. Dad was one of the crew that serviced and refuelled the boats.

Here are a couple of the buildings we saw. They are now used by the local Classic Boat Club.

The area and its history was well described by these information boards.

It was hard to imagine, looking at this peaceful little town, how Rathmines could have been a hive of frenetic activity during wartime.

Lake Macquarie

The weather wasn’t that warm so after having a good look around we returned to the caravan for a hot drink. After that we took Mel for her late afternoon walk along the edge of the lake.

She was more interested in the ducks swimming on the lake but we did convince her to walk after a while.

As you can see the water was quite choppy on the lake.

Time for a quick selfie!

When we came to this point we began our return to the caravan – we could see the Mannering Park power station, probably not that scenic, but essential to the area.

Next post we hit the ‘big smoke’ , Sydney, where we catch up with our youngest son, Jay.