And suddenly, the rain stopped! Clouds were still around, but we could do outdoor activities. The scuba diving session was cancelled due to limited visibility, so we went to explore the gigantic dunes of the eastern coast of the Tomaree peninsula.

We first went to the dunes at the back of Samurai beach – 10 min walk in an exotic forest – Jurassic Park style, including the soundtrack, then a 20m climb to get to the top of the dune to discover a landscape resembling Tatooine.

We went back to the car and drove to Big Rocky, a more… rocky coastline. We found beautiful shells. The waves were quite strong so we didn’t get too close to the sea.

After lunch, we went to Fingal beach, not too far from Tomaree Head. The beach extends almost all the way to the Shark Island – it is sometimes possible to walk to the island, but not today.

Back home, we watched the Minions movie together, and planned the start of our road-trip – we’re off to Brisbane tomorrow.

Today we ran out of things to do in bad weather. So we just took it easy, and decided to try painting aboriginal inspired art. We went to the library to get inspiration from art books. They had a seed section at this library – you can “borrow” seeds, meaning you take them, grow plants, then harvest the seeds and… bring these back to the library. We also bought canvas and paint for everyone.

We got started with the paintings after lunch. Matilda painted « People Around the Fire », Timo « Newcastle », Hugo « The Immortal Mask », Tom « Nine over Newie », Sarah « Spider », Guillaume « The Roots of Daytime», and Alfie « Sun – Flower ». Nathalie made cinnamon rolls while we were painting – strangely enough, they looked closer to aboriginal art than any of our paintings.

We watched an Australian animated film (Back to the Outback), and played card games. The rain never really stopped today – we’re hoping for nice weather tomorrow as we have planned to go scuba diving – we’ll see.

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Another day with heavy rains and flood warnings everywhere, here but even more in the Sydney area. On the one hand we would have preferred sun, on the other hand it’s experiencing the reality of the climate here. We had anticipated bad weather and had booked a visit of the local Ugg boots factory, Mortel’s.

So we drove there, under a downpour of rain. The news on the radio were all about floods and evacuations.

We got a tour of the factory by the owner himself, Tony Mortel, who peppered the technical explanations of the making of a ugg, with anecdotes and jokes. Fun fact: Ugg comes from “ugly”, according to Tony himself, the son of the boots’ creator.

We had lunch there, or… breakfast really, as they served breakfast the whole day. We tried to get a pic of everyone next to the oversized Ugg sculpture outside, it turned into « run and take the picture as fast as possible », to avoid becoming completely wet.

Tom and Nat then took us to the Regional Art Gallery in Maitland, where we saw mostly modern/contemporary and aboriginal art (Nongirrna Marawili).

Diner was at Mike’s today, shrimp on the barbie!

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It was quiet when I woke up this morning, no rain hitting the roof. The storm had passed. Tom and I went for a morning ride on bike, along the seashore.

We left mid-morning to Newcastle. Tom and Nat first took us to the Newcastle Memorial walk, a nice promenade along the shore. We ate lunch at a restaurant on the beach. After lunch, we visited Fort Scratchley, built to protect the Newcastle harbor. We finished our day in Newcastle with the Newcastle museum, presenting the short history of the city and the steel plant that closed in 1999, but was the main employer for 9 decades.

According to Nat, the city has changed a lot since the plant closed, or even in the last years. It’s quite obvious that the city is modernising at a high pace, with high buildings replacing the more traditional, almost far-west looking narrow, 2 storeys shops.

I wrote yesterday that the weather was really bad. Well, it turns out it was just fine… compared to today. Pouring rain in the morning causing local flooding of the fields, strong winds, dark clouds. In Sydney, a bit further south, some areas were being evacuated. These floods made the news all the way back to Europe.

Naturally, we had to adapt the program. After lunch, we went to Fighter World, at the local air base/airport. Two hangars filled with old RAAF fighter planes (F18, Mirage III, Spitfires etc) some of which were in use just a couple of years ago. Great for kids of all ages, especially after having watched Top Gun.

We had a quick walk at Boat Harbour, a nice outlook on the shore. The waves were enormous, too powerful for anyone to even envisage getting in the water.

After diner we stayed in the quietness of Tom and Nat’s home. Everyone watched High School Musical, while I was still struggling with jet lag.

Nat picked up the breakfast today, we got to try something that looks like a chocolate pastry, but actually is Vegemite pastry. It’s best to be aware of it before eating it. It’s very Australian, not bad but… surprising. I prefer chocolate.

The bad weather came for real today, with heavy rain throughout the night. As soon as it stopped, we went for a short hike on Tomaree Head, one of the two tops at the entrance of the estuary. We saw dolphins just below us, near the shore, and whales in the distance.

Back home, we had a relaxing afternoon. Sev and I went to watch the new Top Gun, something we hadn’t had the time to do in Norway.