Day 6 Saturday 13/6/2026 Stockton, sunny 20

We enjoy a quiet, lazy morning. Whenever a ship is passing, we hear the blast of the horn.

Now here are a few facts from the Port of Newcastle (pon.com.au). For regular readers you’ll know that last winter we drove through the Hunter Valley passing many coal mines. That coal is hauled by train to Newcastle for export and according to the website, the port can handle 10,000 ship movements and 200 million tonnes of cargo per annum. The Hunter may be a river, but it is also a wide, deep-water port. And according to Wikipedia this is the world’s largest coal port.

Forgetting that it is Saturday and sunny, we decide to take a drive down to the lakes and beaches south of here. The traffic is heavy, we spend more time trying to navigate the twisty roads than we do enjoying the scenery, and in total frustration we give up. We spot a shopping centre and decide to stock up on groceries. What we don’t realise is that the shopping centre is built on a slope and, well the best way to explain it is that there are two ground floors. Any wonder the centre’s touch screen map does us in. Two heavy bags later and we exit on the ground floor only to find that the street where the car is parked is above us near the other ground floor entrance. We trudge up the hill glad to be away from the noise and crowds. We’ve never ever enjoyed shopping centres.

Mrs Google winds us back through the ‘burbs to peaceful Stockton, to the moaning of Woody “They drive differently up here!” Like hello! And “Don’t they have any straight roads?” I reckon the convicts gave ‘em goat tracks as revenge. Oh, give me a drink!

Dinner is sausages cooked on the park BBQ.

Accom: $38.00

Fuel: $91.77 (1.939) 47.33 litres

Footnote: From what I’ve read, we didn’t have convicts as such in Melbourne. Though that is more a matter of terminology. When researching one of Woody’s family, the ship dropped the ‘convicts’ in Hobart and the ‘exiles’ in Melbourne. Our bloke, Aaron Norris was exiled, never to return to England, for stealing a sheep. Aaron was a butcher by trade, and it seems that rustling was only a minor offence in Melbourne. Yes, he improved the profits of his butchery business on several occasions by knocking off the odd beastie.