Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Myall Lakes

This weekend's trip to Myall Lakes National Park was absolutely amazing.

It all started with a rather interesting trip to the rental car store, where the owner didn't have the car we reserved but he had this V6 car, but we weren't supposed to drive it cause we weren't 24, but he said 'I guess you fellas look alright' and finally let us have a car, all the while joking around with us and acting like we weren't gonna get a car. After putting up with the rental guy's jokes, the real challenge was trying to drive on the wrong side of the road. Chris had to be the driver since he was the only one that was 21. It was hilarious trying to get around Newcastle to get back to the apartment to pack up. Chris kept asking 'When we turn here, I go on that side of the road...right?' and I was trying my best to figure out how to get us back to the apartment.












Once we finally got on the road to Myall Lakes we stopped and got some McDonald's for lunch and bought some groceries for the weekend. We finally got there around 3ish and stopped at an information center to figure out where to go and what to see. They told us to go along the road we were on, and stop and see Dark Point dunes. The sand dunes at Dark Point are the biggest dunes I have ever seen, and they were right next to a great beach that was mostly deserted. We had some fun writing messages in the sand, and then headed on down the road.







A little ways down the road we had to cross this tiny cove on the lake by barge, which was pretty cool.



After we crossed the lake, and on our way to our first campsite, we passed a few farms and I saw my first kangaroo hopping across the road. Of course we all jumped out of the car and took a hundred pictures and went nuts. I hope there weren't any Australians watching, cause we probably looked like complete tourists.



After all this everyone was pretty excited and really glad we were camping and not at Gay Mardi Gras. It seemed like the day couldn't get any better. We finally got to Violet Hill about an hour before dark, and set up camp. As we were looking for a place to set up our tents, we stumbled upon a Goanna climbing a tree near the lake. Once again we were all shocked and took a hundred more pictures. Here's a shot of the little guy.



On the way into Violet Hill we noticed a sign for a lookout, so after we set up camp we looked for it. The trail up the hill/mountain was pretty rugged and we kept getting off the track, but we finally made it to the top. When we got there, we were a little disappointed because we couldn't see anything for all the bushes, but I looked around and found this gum tree that looked like it had been climbed a lot, and when we got to the top of it, the view was amazing.



We went back to camp to eat and chilled by the lake until we were ready to go to sleep.



Saturday morning we woke up, packed up camp and headed to Grandis, the tallest tree in New South Wales, then we headed to Seal Rocks, a part of the park that is along the ocean and has some great beaches. We hung out around the beaches, checked out the lighthouse, and found a campsite at Yagon beach. We went for a swim at Yagon, which we pretty much had to ourselves, and we were wishing we had our surfboards, because the waves looked incredible. Here are some pictures from Saturday.



The Grandis



Seal Rocks


The view walking to the lighthouse


At the lighthouse


Saturday night we met some Americans who were traveling the east coast in a camper. One of the guys had studied at Newcastle several years ago and knew a lot about the area. These guys were really nice and showed us around Treachery beach on Sunday morning. They had found a great jump rock on one of the cliffs that was only about 15 ft tall, but it was a lot of fun. My camera died on Saturday, so I don't have any pictures of Yagon or Treachery, but I'm gonna steal some of my roommates' pictures and put them on here. We left Myall Lakes about midday and drove to Nelson bay for some lunch and much needed beer break. Nelson bay reminded me a lot of Charleston, and had a big marina in the middle of town.

We were all really worn out when we got home, but since we had a car, we wanted to go out to eat at the Lone Star Grill and get some American food. The country music was pretty up to date, but they didn't have sweet tea, and the steaks weren't that great.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Philip,
The pictures are incredible...
But I cannot believe there is not a picture of the lighthouse. You know how I love lighthouses.
Great to hear from you.
Have fun and be careful.
Teri