North Haven and Port Macquarie

We had a five week interlude to Sydney, Port Macquarie and surrounds from early July to mid August due to family reasons. It was weird to fly in to the chaos that is Sydney and navigate those roads (fortunately towards the end of peak hour) to the F3 northbound after being on the Stuart Highway. There is a HUGE difference in the amount of people and vehicles crammed into, or onto, these two roads. Gone are the three trailer road trains, replaced by  small sedans and Prius'. Gone is the slow pace, friendly smiles and relaxed atmosphere, replaced by people grumpy and frantic and just wanting to get home after a long day (I understand that having grown up in Sydney and also working 9-5, or 8-5 or 7 -6 or whatever was necessary). It was hard to get out of the habit of waving at other travellers and I couldn't help but wonder what people in Sydney would think if we waved as we went passed.

We had a lovely catch up with friends in Newcastle and then a couple of days in Sydney while Pop was having surgery. Sydney put on a beautiful sunny winters day for us on the one day the kids and I took a break from the hospital and we got to enjoy beautiful Dee Why. I thoroughly recommend The Beach Shed at Dee Why. I had the yummiest ever strawberry milkshake I think I've ever had and their chocolate fudge brownies are delicious too.

We stayed in the Camden Haven region while Poppy was recuperating and while some of the time was spent catching up on school work and visiting him in hospital, once he was home again we also got to play tourists. Most of the days were warm (jeans and 2 layer) and quite pleasant to be outdoors, despite being mid-winter.

I recommend The Pancake Place in Port Macquarie. You can get pancakes with sweet and savoury toppings and at lunch time they also serve crepes. Tilda's best friend and her family were visiting Port Macquarie on the last weekend of the school holidays and so we had lunch at the Pancake Place and enjoyed a nice couple of hours with our wonderful friends. It made Tilda's day, although she was sad to see Gracie go.

There are many wonderful beaches to visit and the river at North Haven is often the place to see dolphins. One day we saw 12 dolphins in two different pods. The kids loved it and the dolphins hung around fishing and playing for so long that we moved on before they did!

  A mum and bub dolphin

 North Haven Beach

Grants Beach

Two perfectly circular holes eroded in the rocks with little vignettes inside them

Sunset beginning at Grants Beach

Of course there was an obligatory visit to the Big Axe at Kew. OK, not really, as we haven't been going out of our way to visit any "big" icons of Australia. But we did go to the Big Axe at Kew so we could catch up with our great friends Michael, Melissa, Willow and Sakari on their way back north. As always, it was wonderful to see them and time flew way too fast and it wasn't long before they had to hit the road again.

We also made the most of the sunny days and Poppy's recovery and took his boat out for some family fun.