04/05.2023 Loop de Lake

 Back in 2018 Roger cycled from Brisbane to Newcastle, an adventure on which he has dined out ever since, and which involved acts of cycling derring-do such as pedaling down pristine beaches and nearly perishing in wild forgotten forests. Given that we were heading to Queensland anyway we planned to follow his 2018 route in reverse, riding all the best bits and skipping the pesky bits that involved highways and boring stuff.

We escaped Sydney mid-morning after a long and leisurely breakfast saying goodbye to our son and daughter-in-law who fortuitously live within walking distance of Lane Cove and have a very nice cafe at the bottom of their building.  We  traveled all of 80ish km and set up camp in Stockton which is really Newcastle, just the quiet over-the-other-side-of -the-river bit.

On the way we stopped off at Tuggerah and cycled almost all the way around Tuggerah Lake.  It was a beautiful day for bicycling.

Right, let's go!

The ride finished over there beyond the sparkle.  It looked like a long way.

Water birds festooned the edges of the lake, enjoying the sunshine..

 

 

 

 

We intended to meet, going in opposite directions, somewhere beside Wyrrabalong National Park but what with separate paths on either side of a very busy road and me perhaps taking an unplanned detour through some back streets, we didn't see each other at all.  Thank goodness Roger had his new phone so that we could make contact and confirm that both of us were alive and no-one was being dismembered and carted off in a refrigerator, or even just crashed into a tree and nursing broken bits. 

A brief stop at The Entrance, sandhills at the entrance proper in the background.

Bridge photo, before going over said bridge.

There are always some bits of cycling that aren't fun.  This bit was not fun.  thankfully it didn't last long.

Contorted eucalyps in the Wyrrabalong NP.

I knew I was back on the east cost when I found lantana thriving beside the trail.

And more birds,

...and swans, feeding in their multitudes in the shallow waters.

By the time we finished riding and got ourselves all sorted time was tight and we had to hightail up the highway to Stockton. Stockton might be just a short ferry ride across the river from Newcastle, but getting there by car was quite the trip through Newcastle's industrial north and over various branches and channels of the Hunter river. As we made our way down to the end of the spit opposite Newcastle we were treated to spectacular industrial sunsets.

 

My, look at the pretty pollution!

And to top off a very nice day we watched the almost-full moon paint the sea silver as it rose.