Finally some fish!

Day 21  Port Macquarie to Booti Booti National Park

We left Port Macquarie and headed south along the highway in the general direction of Tuncurry-Forster.  Along the way we stopped at Crowdy Head, another gorgeous beach.

It sits opposite Harrington which is on the Manning River and was our lunch stop.

Driving through Tuncurry-Forster, the water looked beautiful, as good as we've seen.  Crossing the main bridge between the two towns over Wallis Lake looked so sensational we knew we would have to spend some time there. But not this time, we headed further south to Booti Booti National Park.

After checking out a few options for the night we settled on the Ruins Camp, a bush camping site which is quite popular and sits right next to the beach.   Once we were set up for the night, we headed to the beach for a swim. Unfortunately the beach was quite dangerous and unpatrolled so ankle deep was as far as we went.

It was time to try fishing again, the eternal optimists we are!  So we headed off to nearby Wallis Lake (it's a huge lake).  After trying a couple of spots, it seemed our luck was still out but the kids had fun throwing their lines in over the jetty edge.  Mitch fed the toad fish around the jetty,  Stewie just dropped his bait in and out of the water and Maggie has a float now and she's not allowed to reel in unless it goes under the water (otherwise she reels in constantly).  Even though the fish weren't biting, there was at least mud to play in (that's Stewie having a great time).

Day 22  Booti Booti National Park to Halliday Point

Today we backtracked north again to find some good surf and hopefully some fish.  The caravan park at Halliday Point looked good so we headed there.  When we arrived, the inital site they gave us was a nightmare as it had a huge slope, so we reallocated ourselves and got setup.  Then straight to the beach which was much better than yesterday and everyone had a great surf.

The beaches here are as I remember them as a kid (having spent the first 10 years of my life in NSW/ACT) - lots of rocks and consequently rock pools to explore.  They are quite different to Queensland beaches, but still beautiful.  I love rockpools and we've had a lot of fun discovering all sorts of creatures living in them. The day was finished with $10 pizza night at the local tavern - we've missed our pizzas!

Day 23

Steve and I declared today a rest day, so nothing too strenuous happened, apart from a quick shop and swim in the pool.  Even the kids enjoyed having a chance to just slow down a bit and potter around and do their own thing.  Here's a shot of the beach at Halliday Point:

Day 24  Halliday Point to Forster to Cessnock

Following a 'rest' day, today was always going to be a big one.  After packing up, we headed straight to Forster where we'd hired a boat for half a day to try our fishing luck on Wallis Lake.  Wallis Lake is filled with oyster leases...

and is truly spectacular water - clear, blue and full of sea life.  And guess what - today the fish were biting!  Happy days at last.  Everyone got a piece of the action and caught a fish, some bigger than others.  We initially used our new red fishing net to pull the fish into the boat, but it went the same way as our yabby net.  Again, thanks to Maggie, it disappeared into the blue beyond.  Here's the net on it's first and last outing...

Mitch caught the fish of the day, bagging a mighty flathead all by himself.  It was fantastic to watch his face light up as he reeled it in.  There is nothing like catching your first big fish and we have no doubt this catch sealed his 'fishing addiction' already inherited from both parents.  Here's his catch...

Maggie also chimed helping her Dad catch a flathead (a keeper) and pulling this one in herself (a bit undersized)...

Stewie caught a little beauty too. We're not sure what it was but we sent it back to grow up a bit more...

We could have stayed out on the water all day - with such beautiful weather and fish biting it was pure heaven for all of us.  However, we had to turn back eventually and driving the boat is serious business...

Once we'd cleaned our catch (total of 2 flathead), it was time to say goodbye to this part of NSW and head inland again.  Plus, the wine cellar is running low.  Hunter Valley here we come!

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