Not a great night's sleep for me with the lorries rumbling past, though Foxy fared slightly better. we could smell fried chicken from the car, which was most unpleasant first thing in the morning! We performed a walk of shame through the McDonalds/Subway/KFC fast food hall to the showers, but felt much better for it afterwards.

We considered testing out another service station coffee, just to add variety to the blog (they can't all be good you know), but elected instead to go to Taree to pick up a coffee for breakfast. It's a Sunday, but even so Taree feels like a ghost town. We cook breakfast in Musico Park (chosen for the name alone)!

We intend to visit Port Stephens this morning, before heading on to Newcastle. However, we are persuaded by the guidebook to spend an extra 30-odd minutes take the "Tourist Drive" along the Lakes Way, rather than take the Pacific Motorway. It's misleading. There is very little lake to be seen through the trees next to the road, and we were unlucky enough to have a number of terrible drivers in front of us, one of whom inspired red mist rage in me for not pulling over and allowing the train of cars behind him to pass... So we decided to skip Port Stephens and head straight to Newcastle.

On arrival, we finally succumbed to cheap(ish) eats in the Hogs Breath Cafe, which we've seen all along the East Coast. It seems to be like the TGI Fridays of Australia. A friendly waitress asked:

"Where are you guys from?"
"London."
"Oh cool, I used to live in London."
"Oh really, whereabouts?"
"Well, um, Wales. I just say London. I used to live near Swansea."

Right.

Anyway, after that, as it's currently 37 degrees C (one of the hottest days so far) and we're melting, we seek air conditioning in the Newcastle Museum. There are some interesting exhibits in here; bits and pieces on Newcastle's history - the earthquake 1989, and various Novocastrians' (no Geordies here) sporting prowess. There's also a tram to explore, and an old Gumdrop car :)

Suitably cooled in the museum, we walk on towards the City Hall and City Council. The City Hall and its clock tower are beautiful, even though it's currently undergoing renovation and surrounded by scaffolding on one side. By contrast, the City Council building is an ugly 70s monstrosity. It all looks rather industrial and uninspiring. On other side, however, is the Civic Park and its fountain, which seems glorious relief in the hot sun.

We wander over to a nearby church, but the service is starting shortly and we spot a guitar, so we get out of there pronto before we're sucked in to a singalong. We're beginning to feel the whole town has been abandoned. Like Taree, even for a Sunday there just don't seem to be cars on the road or people milling on the pavements. Or in the park. Or in the train stations, which are all closed by the way.

We give up on Newcastle for the day, but first drive up to Christ Church Cathedral, positioned beautifully on top of the hill - you can imagine the bell ringing out and echoing down to the docks below. It's an Anglican church, and everything from the building to the music list is familiar and oddly comforting. There's a sung evensong at 6pm, an hour away, and we're sorely tempted. After a wander around the building however, we decide to be sensible and head to our campsite to get settled before sundown.

On our way out, we detour to drive along the coast and discover that this is where everyone was hiding - the beach is packed! Which makes sense for a Sunday, I suppose.

We drive 40 minutes to tonight's rest stop - another service station, but far enough from the Pacific Motorway that we hope to avoid too many lorries coming and going during the night. After a slightly awkward detour through an actual caravan park, being stared at by the inhabitants and feeling very conspicuous in our bright green and purple Jucy camper, we find it. We park up and soon enough we're joined by a Hippie Campers campervan. They follow us everywhere!

It's still ridiculously hot, having "cooled" to 34 degrees by this evening. We buy ice creams from the service station and take a stroll, followed by stir fry for dinner. Finally, batting off the mosquitoes, we settle down for a hot night.

AB