Newcastle beaches

As you may remember, house exchanges have played a large part in my retirement. When we arrived back in Oz on 2020, we were offered an exchange in Newcastle, about 100 miles north of Sydney which we accepted. Covid intervened and finally we are doing the exchange.

We took the 4 hour train trip to Brisbane and followed up with another 12 hour train trip to Newcastle the following day. It was a pleasure to walk a couple of blocks to see this view.

The coastal area around Newcastle is not familiar to me so we headed north to Nelson Bay and this is Tomaree Head.

Nelson Bay is now lined with units and is a popular destination.

Fifty years ago, I drove from Brisbane to Melbourne and along the way I stayed the night at a motel at Budgewoi that backed onto a beautiful beach. The motel is gone but a few miles south lies Pelican Beach.

When you see a beach like this you understand why Aussies are not overly impressed by beaches overseas.

Lake Macquarie at Nord's Wharf.

It hard to take a bad photo on such a beautiful day.

Later in the day we walked up to our local beach to see the Merewether Ocean Pool.

Driveway down to the pool.

There are two pools, a shallow one for kiddies and a deeper one further out. It's the biggest in the southern hemisphere.

Path in front of the Surf Lifesaving Club overlooking the pool.

With such strong waves, dangerous rips will easily carry unsuspecting swimmers out to sea. It is essential to swim between the flags since that area is patrolled.