The first day’s destination was Newcastle. Things didn’t start well, though! A flat battery threatened to derail our itinerary immediately. A jump start from a friendly neighbour got us on our way again, and we hoped that a nice long run up the highway would see us safely able to restart after our first pit-stop.

After a brief and tasty lunch at a Chinese restaurant in Pennant Hills, we made it to Newcastle mid afternoon, checked into the Executive Inn a few km outside the city center, then made our way into town.

I hadn’t been to Newcastle for a long time, and it is much nicer than I remember.

After driving along Wharf Rd where many new apartment complexes are clearly livening up the area, we parked, and walked out to the end of the breakwater past Nobbys Beach and Lighthouse. This is a popular jogging and walking spot, and I can see why. It was a calm evening, and we spied dolphins feeding in the swell off the end of the end of the breakwater, and got to witness a nice sunset over the industrial peninsula to the North as the fishing boats headed out.

We headed toward downtown to get some dinner. As the twilight settled in we climbed the Queens Wharf tower. Unfortunately the view from the tower’s observation deck of the city and the wharf itself are marred in the viewing by scratched in graffiti all over the glass. Newcastle Cathedral holds a dominant position in the city: it’s an imposing dark stone building hanging onto the steep-sided ridge that the city centre nestles against.

Across the nearby pedestrian bridge, we headed toward downtown to get some dinner. Since it was now dark were hoping to see the City Evolutions projected images on Watt St as we wandered in search of somewhere to eat. Unfortunately, they were missing in action, despite the web site proclaiming they were on every day. Presumably they mean every day in summer, not in the middle of the winter school holidays.

In the end we couldn’t find anywhere in the dead centre of town that met all our complicated dietary requirements, so we ended up back at Queens wharf where we had a delicious meal at 6 degrees. Vegetable pizza of pumpkin, pine nuts, fetta and spinach, kids schnitzel and grilled chicken meals, and a beef salad with fries.

 
Snapped the above photo of a very cool doorway on the way back, where there seemed to be some sort of reception taking place inside.

The car has started every time so far in the warmer coastal weather, so, hopefully the battery will be OK from here!