Epic Round The World Trip Adventures! Stunning Photos & Articles - A fascinating gap year travel journal covering every stop of their journey.

Nelson Bay - East Australia
Round The World Trip Journal

(9th - 11th May) Nelson Bay, Port Stephens
Port Stephens is not so much a town as a region. It describes the huge mass of water which is 3 times as big as Sydney Harbour. We came to the northern side first and stopped off at Tea Gardens (yes it is the name of a town!) and Hawk’s Nest (yes really a town name too!). Twinned towns linked by the Singing Bridge (which apparently sings in the wind) across the Myall River. We drove out to the headland at Hawk’s Nest called Winda Woppa (how do they dream these names up eh?). Great views across to the southern side of the waterway to Nelson Bay. This area of water is known as “The Dolphin Central of Australia” because they have about 130 bottlenose dolphins living in the bay and dolphin sightings are really common (although there are no dolphin feeding sessions). And yes, we did see some – playing with each other at Winda Woppa (lots of tail slapping and leaping) and swimming on by us while we had lunch at a waterside restaurant at Tea Gardens. Just for the record, our campsite at Hawk’s Nest had the worst decorated amenities block we have seen on the whole of our trip. Hideous brown and cream 70’s psychedelic tiles that gave you a headache as soon as you walked in – absolutely hilarious! It took us an hour to drive from the north to the south side of Port Stephens bay and we spent a night at Nelson Bay. All the photos here were taken at Nelson Bay because it was just so lovely. We had our brekkie at the waterfront (in the photo with Priscilla at the shore) and Jo ventured into an automated toilet here. After a traumatic experience in La Rochelle in France a few years ago where she confused the toilet into accidentally going into cleaning mode too early, blasting water all around the cubicle and onto her feet, causing her to rush out screaming with her knickers round her ankles, all to the amusement of onlookers, she was obviously a little bit cautious this time. No major drama this time thankfully, but Mike was on the other side of the car park and could hear the toilet belting out a piano version of “What the World Needs Now is Love Sweet Love” – he came up to pound on the door to ask why I was playing the piano in there – Jo was just thankful that that was all he could hear! There is a lovely little marina in Nelson Bay where we idled away some time over coffee and then at Shoal Bay we had to stop for lunch since it was such a beautiful beach – very Caribbean in style. A little further round we called in at Fingal Bay and saw dolphins on the far side of the little bay. This whole region is so gorgeous that we really did want to spend more time here than we had – we didn’t do it justice at all but Sydney was beckoning and we had to make the last drive south to our final destination.