Day Five - July 11th 2013
Port Stephens
Waking up to the sounds of nature is amazing. But not as soothing as Hollywood portrays. The squawks of the many many birds in the trees surrounding us led to a rather disheveled rising this morning - but wonderful all the same.
Some porridge and a cup of tea later, we headed out of the campsite to explore. I leave most (ok, all) of the navigating to Elliot, so it was a nice relaxing walk. The beaches are beautiful white sand, and the water is crystal clear. What more could you want? Well, apparently a lot of things, according to Elly. So far on the list: a speed boat, a kayak and a massive house on the water. Best start thinking about getting a job and saving.
We walked from Soldiers Point along Wanda beach until we hit Wanda Wanda Head Reserve. It looked to me like a disaster waiting to happen - grown over paths, no human in sight, plenty of hiding spaces for deadly creatures, that kind of thing. Elly clearly saw something different and coaxed me in. Very quickly I lost all sense of direction, and once we hit a completely overgrown section of the path, I demanded we turn around and get out of the reserve. We reached a fork in the road, and chose the opposite track to the one we followed in, thinking it would be a shortcut. As I pointed out earlier, I leave the navigation to Elliot, so what I'm trying to say is, this was all his fault. We submerged ourself deeper and deeper into what can only be described as terrifying forest, before admitting defeat and retracing all our steps. One hissy fit later, and I think it's assured we shall not be attempting anything like that again.
Being scared witless does great things for my appetite, so we settled down for our lunch once we hit the beach again. Superb views of the water, with pelicans skimming the surface and landing expertly really make sandwiches more exciting.
Once we arrived back at the campsite, we extended our stay for an extra night (3 in total) after some research showed that the new camp ground we were looking at is actually $20 per night per person - seeing as we are paying $30 per night for the both of us, we may as well stay put without the hassle of packing up our lives. We then headed towards Nelsons Bay and into the shopping complex where we discovered K Mart. After being in Australia for almost 7 months, I'd forgotten what low prices were. This place was like heaven. We splashed out on a wind up lantern for the tent as well as a few other bits and bobs. After a quick whirl around Woolworths (that's a supermarket in Aus), and spending a few of the vouchers which my Mum loaded us up with before we left home, we headed back to the campsite.
We're both keen runners, but since we've been on the road time hasn't been on our side (remember, it's winter here - it's dark by 5pm and generally we've been pulling into new towns or finishing a long walk at that time of day). Elliot clearly wanted to run quickly and suggested we went separately (not great for my self esteem - but he does run marathons so I guess he has a point). I set off for the direction of the beach we found earlier today.
It's so peaceful to run on sand as the sun is setting, and it felt great to have that free feeling again after a few days without it. We are currently coming to the end of a '30 day squat challenge', so I completed my 230 squats, and returned to the campsite an hour later, just in time to catch the glorious sunset.
Once we'd showered, we cooked our supper in the communal eating area - third time lucky for the curry, to which Elly added some chicken, and came back to the tent. The birds are at it again, but we managed to see a handful of possums scurrying about! One is very brazen and sat by our tent for quite a while. There is an opossum that lives in a tree outside my bedroom window in California (commonly known as 'The Lopper' in our family), so I'm feeling both homesick and happy tonight. Hopefully these possums don't attack our tent like the one at home attacks my fly screen, or we may wake up in shreds.