Day 1 – Wednesday 10th
A quick week away over the summer holidays. Months ago, I looked to book in at Myall Lakes again, but all the sites were booked out. Then some friends from the Wonderland Facebook group put up a post about an annual reservation they have at Jimmy’s Beach (Hawks Nest) that they can’t use this year. We ended up grabbing it, so now have a week here. It’s about the same distance as Myall Lakes, on the north side of Port Stephens, opposite where we stayed at Nelson’s Bay a year or so back.
As we don’t want to leave till after the bulk of the peak hour, we finish the packing and hitch up and are on the road around 9:30. This is the first time with the van on navigating the new interchange down at the Cresent. Between that, the harbour bridge and the new roadworks at the Warringah freeway, the start of the trip is a bit more exciting than usual.
Traffic on the M1 is not too bad and we make good time arriving around 12:30. We find the site, and the area is crowded with other campers, a lot in tents, so it’s a bit of an effort to get the van in. The site’s not terribly level ether and as we’re here for a week we take extra time to position the van right.
A full setup. It’s pretty warm day, but at least there’s a fair bit of shade from the trees and there is also a nice breeze.
After a bite to eat, Justine and the kids go for a swim in the great pool they have here. Unfortunately, there’s not heaps of shade over the pool so in the middle of the day it a bit hot.
We’re on the northern peninsular of Port Stephens, so between the Ocean facing Bennett’s Beach and the harbour’s Jimmy’s beach.
We take a short walk down the small beach track to Bennetts, along the way Caitlin, who, like the rest of us is in thongs, is bitten or stung by the largest of bull ants, the thing must have been about 2-3cm big. Obviously, it’s stinging like hell, as we’re just about at the beach we convince her to continue on and hope that the cold salt water might help, it does, but only just.
The beach is nice, but it’s a bit rough and the water appears to get very deep very quickly. We can see just under 1k up the beach the surfclub and the patrolled section of beach and that sure seems busy.
Back to the van, Justine and I go for a lap of the park to check out the place and sus out the other camping rigs.
The park is not big, but it is certainly packed and we notice that the sites in front of us are all unpowered. So, while there are a few vans in there, most people are in tents or camper trailers. That must be interesting.
We get the fairy lights out, oddly enough no one else seems to have any hooked up. I think it adds a bit of festivity, I know I smile a bit when I see them up.
Dinner, and while the kids watch some TV, Justine and I relax and chat outside. With the breeze it’s so much cooler out here. I guess we could run the AC, but if it’s not 100% necessary is better just to be outside.
On out last trip, we created a makeshift curtain from a tent pole and sheet between the bunks and the kitchen, both to separate off the bunks from our bed, but also to make a bit of a private area to get in and out of the shower. It proved super useful. So, a month or so back I ordered some ceiling mounted curtain track and we bought a cheap lightweight curtain from Ikea. A week or so back we cut it to size and Justine hemmed up the edges. Works a treat….. (why didn’t we think of this years ago?)
It’s a hot night, we ideally don’t want to run the AC, it’s not super cool and it’s quite noisy cycling up and down. So while ok, I don’t think anyone has a great night’s sleep.
Day 2 – Thursday 11
A bit of a nothing day, just start to relax and do not much at all.
Mid morning, we take a quick trip into town. A visit over to the main Bennetts beach Surf Club we spotted yesterday, but there’s no chance of getting a parking spot anywhere near the place.
We take the beach access road a bit further north, we pull over at the carpark just before the beach. I couldn’t be bothered to let the tires down today, so with the family hibernating in the AC’d car I take a short walk on the track to see what it might be like to drive in the next few days. It seems an easy beach access track. On the way in I’m passed by this old guy riding a horse, the horse seems like such a gentle animal.
Back via town and I can’t help but to stop at the Bakery for morning tea, one chunky steak and pepper pie for me and it’s pretty damn good [USR 4.0]
Oddly there is a take away joint next door to the bakery, but the best we can tell is doesn’t open till after 10 and then closes again at 2pm! At this time of year you’d expect them to be open longer, but they must have their reasons.
Back to the park and Caitlin is happy to ride the bike around a bit, just before lunch we visit the pool, it’s warmer than I expected, so pretty pleasant, if not super refreshing.
Another hot day, but it’s at least bearable under the awning with the sea breeze.
Later in the afternoon we take a walk to the other side of the park and Jimmy’s beach, we think this may be better for swimming and to take the Kayak.
We’re just out of the park, crossing the public carpark and we spot this Dingo, I need a double take as it’s wearing a collar, but on closer inspection it seems to be a radio tracking collar. Unlike Fraser, the dingos here appear to be a lot more timid and less likely to attack, this one seems keen enough to keep to himself.
Over the dune and to the beach, not quite what I was expecting, the beach is nice and the water is pretty calm, but the water appears quite shallow and the place is full of seaweed. We wade in a bit, it’s not the nicest of spots and it would be near impossible to get the Kayak down the walkway. We’ll need to look for some other options.
Day 3 – Friday 12
Another warm night, but it seems we’re getting a little bit more used to it.
The plan today is to drive up the beach to Dark Point. We did this last time we were at Myall Lakes. This was the beach we didn’t get bogged at!
With the awning, car fridge etc, we think we can make a bit of day out of it. So, food and drinks packed we head out just after 10. High tide is meant to be at 10, so we figure if we can make it up, coming back before the low of 4pm should be a cinch.
After yesterday’s scout around, I’ve realised we can get into the beach a few streets north of the surf club, but we elect to drive a bit further up Mungo Brush Road and hit the beach at Lemon Tree Road, this will save some beach driving until we know the conditions better. I’ve packed both sets of Trax this time just in case! On the way up Mungo Brush Road, we see a sign indicating he Ferry at Bombala Point near the Myall Lakes Caravan park is out of service. That would be a bummer if we were staying there, as coming over this side of the lake and to the beaches is one of the attractions of staying there (after the lake itself).
Into Lemon Tree Track and there are a few other cars parked up where we pressure down just before the beach access. Over the dune and onto the beach, there are tracks all over the place, so there’s obviously not really just one line better than any other. We make our way over towards the surf side, if nothing else the view is nicer.
A few cars start catching me up, which is impressive as I’m going pretty much as fast as I dare. It’s not like we’re in low range or anything. As the opportunity arises, they come around.
Just before we arrive at the end, we spot a Dingo leaving the beach and heading towards the dunes, it’s got something in its mouth. As we get closer it seems to be a fish, and a damn large one at that. There is a guy fishing nearby. We’re unsure if the dingo stole the fish as it’s unlikely they’d be able to catch one, and you’d hope the fisherman didn’t give one to the Dingo.
With all the traffic, I’m expecting Dark Point to be packed already, I’ve seen photos with dozens or more 4x4s lined up, not quite Frazer’s Eli Creek standard, but getting there. But no, maybe 10 cars or less. We find a spot park up, get the awning out and hold on for grim death before we get the pegs in and guy ropes attached. We don’t want a repeat of Awning 1 on Frazer! The new screw in pegs do a great job considering they’re not really sand pegs.
It’s a hot day, but under the awning with the breeze it’s not too bad. Warm enough though that everyone decides it’s time for a swim.
The surf on the beach is has been pretty rough, that’s one of the reasons for coming up here. As near the headland it’s a bit more sheltered and the surf is not quite so bad. Only trouble is there is all this seaweed, not regular stuff, more loose leaves, like swimming in a huge pot of green tea!
We find a clearer section and once past the breakers right near the beach, most of the waves are pretty OK with just the occasional large one that we need to jump over, Caitlin needs a bit of help on some of these.
We’ve been in, I dunno, maybe 30-40odd mins and it seems time for a break. Liam has moved further south, away from the headland. The surf is clearer, but a bit rougher there. The rest of us are kinda heading out when one of those large breakers near the beach hits us all and we’re dump into the sand. Caitlin, so hard it rips the mask from her hand and dumps her shoulder first into the sand. While trying to grab her as the water rushes back out, my mask is ripped from my hand. It must have been a huge wave, as the tea leaf seaweed is all around us now.
Hurt, Caitlin rushes back to the car. I find one missing mask (not by any skill, the thing hit me on the foot, and freaked me out before I realised it was the mask). The second one is lost to the sea!
As we get back the car, Caitlin’s hair is covered in sand and this seaweed, she looks like a drowned mermaid…. Liam is helping calm her and pulling leaves from her hair. She’s quite upset and hurt.
We have some lunch. Having the car Fridge, while a bit of overkill certainly makes this so much easier. Once again we realised we’ve forgotten plates, we have spare cups stored in the car, might be time for plates too!.
I’ve got to say, while hot, sitting here under the shade looking out at the ocean is really nice. It been a great way to spend part of the day. The beach drive is just some extra fun for me.
After lunch Justine goes back in for a bit of a swim. At this point we notice the seaweed has mostly cleared, there still some right at the north point, but the rest of the beach is now rather clear. Amazing how it’s changed in such a short period of time.
Justine and I would love to explore the headland and the beach to the north, but it’s just too hot. So, after a little bit we decide to pack up and head back.
Like the way up, I’m just so surprised how hard the driving is, it’s not as if we’re likely to get bogged, so that’s a relief. It’s just the car needs to push through the sand the whole time, much harder than I remember last time here or even that of the Simpson. So hard in fact, that we’re averaging around 40l/100ks
We again try high on the beach, then down near the surf, both are just as bad as each other.
Past the Lemon Tree track and continue down the beach to the exit just before the surf club, maybe a further 5ks or so. It is an easy beach exit and we find a shady place to park up and re-inflate the tyres, I hook up the air compressor to the battery and boy is it hot under the bonnet, the car must have been working hard.
- Google doesn’t know about the beach road
Given taking the kayak down to Jimmy’s beach near the caravan park is not really an option we take a detour around via Winda Woppa to see what this end of Jimmy’s beach is like. There sure are some flash houses here, they must love the summer influx of tourists! While it better over here, it’s still not ideal for the kayak.
After resting up a bit in the late afternoon, I realised after today’s beach adventure we’re a bit low on fuel. Trouble is the only fuel is on the way into Tea Gardens, so as much for something to do as anything else, we take a trip over and fill up.
On the way back we pick up a roast chook and some other supplies and have an early dinner
As it is still early, Caitlin and Liam go for an evening swim and as it starts to get dark we need to drag Caitlin out.
Showers to wash the sand and salt off us and as it’s kinda early we have a movie before bed. We have the AC on for this…..
Day 4 – Saturday 13th
Slow start, so it just before 10 before everyone is up.
We think about driving up to somewhere on the Myall river or Lake to use the kayak, but we’re just not organised enough so figure we’ll do that tomorrow. So today just seems to be a day of lazing around. Suits me.
There is a bakery over in Tea Gardens called Two Fat Bakers, that is meant to be pretty damn good. After the pie in Hawk’s Nest the other day, I’ve got to give it a try, figuring not much else is on the agenda today, I suggest going over.
Liam and I take a drive over, on the way I take another detour over to the river side of Hawks Nest, this seems protected and there is boat ramp here, so it might do as a kayaking spot. Over the river and into Tea Gardens, Pies purchased we race back.
I must say the pastry top was sensational and the filling not bad, but the base was just so soggy, Liam ended up needing a knife and fork to finish his. Hard to give it more than [USR 3.0] in this case.
I spend a bit of time Blogging and early afternoon the kids go for a swim. They quite like the pool here, it’s nice that it’s pretty close, Liam likes that it’s not too cold, Justine thinks is too warm!
Snags off the barby for dinner and afterwards Caitlin asks if she can go back int the pool. Justine and I take another lap around the park before picking her up.
So, all in all a pretty lazy day.
Day 5 – Sunday 14th
Liam gets up early, not sure why. I’m awake and unlikely to go back to sleep so get up to.
Bacon and eggs off the barby and we not organised quite as early as I expected.
Today we’re planning on driving north up into the National Park. We’ll try and find somewhere on the river or lake to launch the kayak and have a swim.
Around 11ish we pull out. A quick stop at the bakery for some bread rolls and some treats for after lunch.
Into the National Park and all the turn offs to the river seem to be closed. Past the Lemon Tree track to Bennett’s beach we took a couple of days ago.
We reach Mungo Brush, the first of the campgrounds at the bottom end of the lake, it’s OK, but pretty crowded, we’ll keep on going and see what else we can find. Past Dees Corner, and we finally pull into White Tree Bay. This is one of the smaller campgrounds and the picnic/day area is off to one side. There is only one other car here at the moment, although no sign of any one. Access to the water seems easy enough and there is plenty of shade from the trees, so it seems this will do.
Chairs and stuff out and I get the kayak down. Liam and I go in for a quick swim first, while not cold, the water gets remarkably warmer about 3 or so meters from shore when we get out of the shade of the trees, just goes to show how much the sun warms the water up.
It’s about this time we realise the water is very shallow. We can see the clear lake bottom out for 100mts or so, as Liam walks out to this point, he’s still only really up to his knees. Oh well, we’re here now and that’s fine for the kayak. Justine does go a bit further into the weeded area and it does start to get a bit deeper, but not by much. This reminds us so much of the sailing club on Wallace Lake up at Forster.
We each have a quick paddle around. So at least the kayak got used.
Another family group turn up, they’ve got a box trailer loaded with kayaks.
We have some lunch and our bakery snacks. Justine goes out for another kayak, but the wind has picked up and bit and it’s a little bit rougher out there now.
So, while we’ve only been here for a couple of hours, we pack up leave. Before returning we drive the last 5 or so k’s up to the Ferry at Bombah point, oddly the sign we passed earlier seems to suggest the ferry is operational today, no idea why it was out of action a couple of days ago.
Cars appear to be queued up on either side, but the ferry doesn’t appear to be in any rush. We stop for a bit and they start loading cars on the other side. I initially decide to wait, partly to see the ferry cross, but also as I intend on stopping to sus out the campgrounds on the way back the last thing I want is a group of cars following me, but for reasons unknown the ferry just sits there for 5 minutes or more, so we make our way back.
The small Wells Campground is absolutely packed, we know that White Tree looks great, just the shallow water would make it less than desirable to stay. We pull into Dees Corner, as this looked like one of the better options. It’s OK, but again the water is pretty shallow. Into the large Mungo Brush. The lake area around the boat ramp seems deep enough. The camp area is huge. The vans are really packed in to the northern area, although you’d really want to be in the first row or two to have any view at all. On the way out we drive though the southern camp area, but this seems to be more for tents and walk in camping. I must admit, I thought these campgrounds would be nicer, but I dunno, today I’m just not feeling it.
In the end it appears the campgrounds/picnic areas on the river seem only accessible by boat. So that’s out for us.
When we get back Caitlin gets ready for a swim in the pool, she loves it there and generally finds someone to play or talk with. Given it not super big and there are always heaps of people around we’re a little more comfortable leaving her there. We pop down every 15min or so to check she’s still ok.
The kids are playing on their devices, it’s nice and cool as the afternoon wears on, I suggest to Justine a walk down the beach, why not!
The track is fine, but we come across a lot of groups coming back from the beach, I guess it’s time to come back and start getting dinner ready. We’re near the end of the track and two really young girls, I’d say 5 or 6 tell Justine “A ‘huge’ storm is on it’s way” ah that’s so cute. We arrive at the dune over to the beach and another family is leaving “there’s a storm just off shore”, sure enough at the top of the dune we can see this rain storm right in front of us. OK we’ve seen the beach, time to head back. We’re only about ¼ of the way and it starts raining, not super heavy, but enough to get pretty wet. By the time we get back, we’re not drowned, but need to change into dry clothes. Mmm, that worked out well.
The rain clears and we end up with Pizzas off the BBQ, we’ve looked in town and most places are only breakfast and lunch, only a few places serve dinner and none of them seem great, just not sure they can deal with the influx of people and keep the standards up.
We end the night with a movie, at least it’s a bit cooler tonight.
Day 6 – Monday 15th
I’m up early, but everyone else sleeps in. A few groups left yesterday and a few more seem to be leaving today, so the park looks quite different when it’s less crowded.
As we have no plans I suggest a walk down to the Yacaaba Headland, oddly there are less grumbles that I expected. It should only be 4-5ks, but a lot of it appears to be on the beach so will be a little harder going.
Down the beach path then we start trekking down the beach, as expected it more difficult that a regular track. We’re trying to walk in the wet harder sand, but as the tide is coming in (it’s nearly high tide) we have to look out for the odd large wave that comes further up the beach, and are nearly caught out once or twice. To top this off the wind is blowing a gale so you get that real buffeting in your ears with the occasional sand blasting to just round out the experience.
We reach the headland and there is a track up to the summit, or a shorter one around the base to the bays side. I figure I won’t push my luck and we take the shorter easier track. This is a vehicle track, so while it seems banned now, you used to be able to bring 4x4s down here, and I guess some people still do!
We find a huge vine hanging from the trees and the Kids have a go swinging from it, brings out the primate in Liam!
The view is nice enough, probably not worth the effort of the walk, but we all needed to get out and do some exercise.
As it would require rock hopping to get from here to the bay side beach, we return down the track, back on to Bennett’s Beach, up a few 100 metres we can cross over the spit and onto what I guess is Jimmy’s beach, we walk 500 or so metres up and we can see a section where the sand is all washed away and there is no beach. We think about taking shoes off and wading through, but I have jeans so find a way over the dunes.
Around this time, walking the soft sand just becomes a slog, we’re all over it. Then just to add to the enjoyment it starts to rain. No super heavy and we don’t get soaked, but it’s just uncomfortable. I guess one positive, at least it’s not hot!
Finally, we reach the exit near the caravan park and walk over the dunes and back to the van. I don’t think I’m very popular for suggesting this walk! I must admit I didn’t quite think there’d be so much sand walking and that the sand would be sooo soft.
Lunch back at the van and we all rest and relax.
A few more groups start to arrive and setup camp.
We have a visit from a Kookaburra, who perches himself on the bike and ends up finding some bugs int the grass. They’re obviously not too frightened of us.
Late afternoon, Caitlin goes to check out the pool. There’s a sign saying closed for cleaning, but she says there is no one there cleaning it. We think it may be a “code brown” cleaning exercise. She goes down a couple more times, but it’s still closed, we figure it may be closed for the day now.
A quite night and the is a cool breeze so that helps
Day 7 – Tuesday 16th
My nephew and he’s two kids are coming up from Newcastle for a visit today, so we’re just relaxing and killing time.
More groups seem to be packing up to leave.
Nick and the kids arrive, and after a bit of lunch we walk down to the pool. The kids love it and have a ball. It rains on and off, but as we’re all wet it makes little difference. We’re in for probably around 45mins or so, but the cold is slowly getting the best of us, well, all except Caitlin of course.
We get the kids dried off and changed around 4ish it’s time for them to head back home.
Later in the afternoon, Justine and I leave the kids behind and take a walk down to Bennett’s beach. Wow, what a green mess. The water is so dark green. We’re sure it’s these seaweed leaves, but we’ve never seen anything like it. Dark Green Soup, yuk. You couldn’t swim in it….
Day 8 – Wednesday 17th
It’s a warm morning. We start the full packup. As we’ve been under these large Eculyptus trees, everything is covered in sap, the small yellow flowers and bird dropping, so we clean as best as we can as we go.
We leave the water to last and have a quick shower so we’re not a stinking sweaty mess on the way home. Just on 10 some guy arrives to ask when we’re leaving. He’s already in the park, in another spot, but needs to move to this spot today. Normally we’d be fine, but it had to be today someone needed the spot at 10. I guess at least he walked up first and didn’t arrive with van in tow!
We’re finished and drive out around 10:30, so not too bad. A good drive home.
A nice break away. The spot was OK, but Myall Lakes might be our preference (if I book in time)