Sun, 7th Jan, 2024 Pete & Marion’s place, Forster to Andrea & Steve’s place, Wahroonga, NSW

Slow start to the morning - no birds to wake us in the house and even young Henry has slept in.

We had breakfast then went down the street to check out the huge sand dune. Kids could have some fun on this. View over One Mile Beach and around. Steve counted 23 dogs to 30 people along the water’s edge!

Walked further onto the point. Looking back to Wallabi Point, I think. Then back over the beach again.

Steve spotted some dolphins then another pod closer in. We watched them for a long while. I am impressed I even managed to take a photo of some.

Walked back up the hill to the house.

Pete said the dune has been slowly crawling its way across and is a lot higher than when they first started coming here. Played a game with Henry.

Had a late cuppa then signed the visitors’ book that Aunty Val started in 1986 when they bought the house. Another tradition is a photo on the letterbox.

Said bye as they were off to the movies with Henry - joys of grandparenting. We headed back over the bridge. Very busy below us - everyone enjoying the lovely weather.

Through Tuncurry and back to the Pacific Highway or is it motorway - seems to change all the time. Stopped for lunch in a rest area - no camping allowed - too noisy any case. Looks like an exhaust bracket has broken again so Steve got that fixed while I made lunch.

Continued on - easy driving for Steve with the dual lanes.

Oops - I wonder how that happened - a fire in the middle. At least it shouldn’t go too far.

Across the Hunter River.

Through roadworks for the new Freeway connection near Newcastle. Very confusing. I remembered when we came up last year David said to avoid this area and I thought it would be ok now - wrong. We crossed the old bridge over the South Arm of the Hunter River.

Then we had to do a hard right through some lights then crawl along on the New England Highway towards Maitland till we got to the turn off back onto the Sydney-Newcastle Freeway.

Now things are flowing along nicely then for some unknown reason we were all down to a crawl for a kilometre or so then back flowing again. We wondered if the front people just slowed down for the fun of it as there were no exits/entering traffic or anything to make it go slow.

As much as Sydney is crowded all through here is thick with trees.

Across the Hawkesbury River - choppy with the strong wind blowing. It is amazing engineering and all the hard workers that made these roads possible and we quickly forget how it all came to be.

Programmed ‘girlie’ to get us to Steve’s cousin’s place in Wahroonga. So lovely to see Andrea again. Unfortunately her husband Steve is up at their place at Hawk’s Nest - golf and he can work remotely so he didn’t have to come back like Andrea. Meg and her boyfriend, Logan, were there so it was great to catch up see her again and meet Logan who seems a great chap - loves camping etc so very keen to check out the truck and camper.

We parked in the driveway for the night.

We had a wonderful time chatting over a delicious dinner and dessert. Its been 9 years since we were here last so Meg has grown up a lot and is a wonderful young lady. Sam and Emma are doing well with their jobs and lives too.