Lake Macquarie – Sydney

Having not spent time with our youngest son, Jay, for five months, we were really looking forward to catching up with him in his new place. He’d spent the previous five and half years studying and working in Japan and he’d only been back in Australia for a few months when he secured a job in Sydney, which is 900 kms from our place! So dropping in on him as we returned home was a good idea. It wasn’t that far from Lake Macquarie to Sydney. The tricky bit was we needed a dog friendly caravan park. The most convenient one was in Dural, about 45 minutes from where he lived in Crows Nest, an inner northern suburb of Sydney.

Anyway, first things first, the trip down to the caravan park took just over an hour and a half.

The freeway was relatively uncrowded and the road construction through hilly terrain impressive.

After about forty minutes we reached the outskirts of Sydney.

Even though we were using our Hilux’s navigation system it was good to have good road signage to re-enforce things, as the navigation system occasionally gave us weird directions.

Once checked in we set up the caravan and drove to Jay’s apartment. Karen was going to have a quiet afternoon, perhaps a walk with Mel.

Distance travelled – 104 kms

Northbridge Golf Course

Jay and I were keen to play a quick game of golf so we headed off to nearby Northbridge Golf Course for a hit. The weather was cool but sunny. The first couple of holes went well.

This one provided a challenge hitting over the lake to the green.

To get from some holes there was a bit of a walk through well treed areas.

It was quite a hilly course. This hole had a great view but we hit blind down to a hole well below.

Never did find Jay’s ball on that hole but at least I was happy with making the green.

In fact that became a bit of a theme. Jay managed to lose quite a few balls in the rough so by the end of our game I had him well beaten. On a few holes his putting saved him.

At least we could share a smile at the end.

This is the view from the clubhouse.

Crows Nest

The next day we had a lazy day. After driving in from Dural we started with a walk in nearby St Leonard’s Park.

Next up we went across to Manly for lunch. Sadly we abandoned our plans to take the ferry to Sydney as it began to rain. So we took the bus back to Jay’s and played a new board game he had bought. Dinner that night was fried chicken and salad from a nearby chicken shop.

Next day we came in from Dural again in the Hilux after breakfast. After deciding what to do we walked up to Crows Nest. We found a dog friendly cafe and had a nice lunch and a good chat.

One of the bars we passed had a very colourful mural on it’s wall.

Another walk in nearby St Leonard’s Park followed. Love the root system on the fig trees.

To conclude the walk we made several attempts to have a selfie together. This is probably the best of them. People do say never work with children or animals when making movies and the same applies to taking selfies!

That night we thought about ordering Japanese from the restaurant opposite where Jay’s apartment is but there was already a queue at about five o’clock

so in the end we ordered Thai from the restaurant just up the road.

Next time we hit the road again. Just two more stops before we return home. First up, Canberra, to catch up with an old friend of Karen’s.