Newcastle

Tuesday we arrived in Newcastle! No, not New Castle Pennsylvania, Newcastle Australia.  This town was a 3 hour train ride north of Sydney, and we’re already feeling more relaxed with the slower pace.  Fun fact -it’s biggest export is coal and there are lots of shipping vessels coming and going.   There was also a renovation of their industrial riverfront in the 80’s where you can now walk and dine outside.   Maybe this is the Pittsburgh of Australia???

Newcastle has a beautiful beach and Surfest competition every March.  Here’s a pic!

Along the beach, there were also several half pipes, and I could not get over how CUTE these little ones were.  This Mom was patiently helping her sons skateboard.  They couldn’t have been older than 6 or 7.  They were so cute with their little helmets and boards hanging out by the beach.

So, Australia has all these funny animal and plant combinations that I’ve never seen before.  You look at an animal or a plant and think, “I know what that is!”  But when you look closer, you’re amazed that it seems to be a combination animal or plant.  What do I mean??? Here are some pics.  Like this one.  It looks like a dandelion, but WAIT, it’s not, it also looks like a daisy.  Now I’m not a botanist, but could this be the Daisylion?

And this bird. It looks like a swan when swimming, but WAIT, it also looks like a pelican when flying.  A swanican maybe???

Those are just a few of the funny plants and animals we’ve seen.  There was also the giant fox head bat.  His head was a fox, but he hung to the tree and sounded just like a bat. And the orchid tree.  And the tropical rose bush. 

It seems like every day, I am saying, “Well, that took longer than I thought.”  On Wednesday, we headed to the Blackbutt Reserve.  It of course took hours longer than we thought.  The website told me, “short walk to reserve from the train”, but it ended up being MILES away.  When we finally arrived at Blackbutt (it’s okay to giggle – we did too), it smelled like Vicks Vapor Rub from all the eucalyptus trees.  I was excited to see some kangaroos and some koalas!  The koalas are nocturnal so they were fast asleep. 

Dunkaroos, dunkaroos

Looks like a fuzzy popple!

Our next stop is the Gold Coast for almost a week. Looking forward to some beach time.  Cheers!