Tahlee - a surprising place to stay.

Waaaaay back in July last year......6 months ago, how time flies!!....we took the caravan to Wollongong (it's a long story!) and it's actually quite a long way for us to tow the caravan as we are slow-coaches when we are towing.
So we decided to stay somewhere on the way back to break up the trip....because we can!

Thank goodness for Wikicamps.
Without it we would never have stopped at Tahlee, we would never have known about it.

Tahlee is an historic property that is owned and run by a christian organisation. But anyone can camp there on the northern edge of Port Stephens. There is a small fee and there are toilets and showers.

Tahlee was established in the 1820's as a base for the Australian Agricultural Company.
It changed hands over the years with some improvements such as landscaped gardens, a ballroom and billiard room.
There are some charming houses and a rocky boat harbour. The horse-drawn tram to transport guests from the port to the house has sadly disappeared....

There was a conference on when we stayed there so we were unable to have a tour of the buildings.
But there are some little bushwalks around the property.

This fine old stone church was for sale in nearby Carrington. It has been used as a hostel but would be an interesting reno.

As well as camping there are cottages available - find out more here.

Clarencetown camping

The night of the awfully-big-adventure at Treetops Adventure Park we camped next to the river at Clarencetown.
It's a nice flat, grassy area with lots of space but I imagine it could get busy in holiday times and weekends.

It's not actually a free campsite, you pay at the adjacent caravan park and there are toilets and showers there so that is OK.

It would be a good place to bring the canoe one time and paddle around on the Williams River.

It would be a good base for exploring this part of the Hunter Valley. Morpeth is not too far away which looks like a cutesy little place.

Seal Rocks. In which we explore another gorgeous section of the NSW coast.

There are so many little places tucked away along the coast.
You know when you travel up the Pacific Highway, you see all those signposts to places like Woody Head, Tea Gardens, Diamond Head and you wonder what is there?
A lot of these places are one road in, one road out - never on the way to anywhere, so you never stop.

But now we can!

After our little adventure at Trretops Adventure Park we popped on over to Seal Rocks.
I think we dropped in to Seal Rocks once before but don't remember much about it.

There, of course, is a lovely beach.
Unfortunately it was very, very seaweedy.
But we did have a quick dip.
The water was freezing!

There is also a lighthouse at Sugarloaf point.
It's definitely worth a visit because there are always great views from lighthouses.
And lighthouses are generally very photogenic.

You can stay in the cottages at the lighthouse, which would be amazing!
We stayed at the caravan park in Seal Rocks, which was fine, just across the road from the beach.
It had good facilities and nice grassy sites.

Walking along the beach revealed some oystercatchers and some amazing rock formations.

There's not much at Seal Rocks - a little shop and a coffee caravan which serves Holy Goat coffee..

And a bit of quirkiness

There is also camping nearby at Treachery Camp or in the Myall Lakes National Park at the Yagon campground.
If/when we go back we'll probably head for the Yagon campground as that is more our style of camping. There are just pit toilets and you need to take your own water. But there are several nice sites which would fit our small caravan or the tent if we decided to travel light.

What an adventure!

Some people have strange ideas about having a good time!
Our friend E is the adventurous type and has some adventurous pals so maybe it was natural that she would chose Treetop Adventure Park to celebrate her birthday.

There are 96 "challenges".
Challenges indeed!!
They are grouped sections and get harder and harder as you go along.

I thought - yeah, OK, I can do ziplining!
But this is so much more than ziplining!

You are clipped on all the time so there is no danger (apart from heart failure!)

There are things to walk along, things to swing from and a million wobbly bits of timber to negotiate!

I must admit I piked after the first course as I was a mess!

Did I mention it is all above ground?
Along way above ground in some places.
Not good for those with acrophobia!

I actually have a fear of the wobbles - don't know what that is called.

Anyway the birthday girl and the other 5 had a great time.
It took several hours and they climbed, zipped, wobbled, stepped, stretched, clung over four courses. the hardest being the black which was very high and had some really tough obstacles.

I became official photographer, which was most useful.

It was a really hot day and we didn't take enough water although they do sell water there.
There were also mozzies, especially for the official photographer near the ground.

There are Treetop Adventure parks in Western Sydney, on the Central Coast and the one we went to near Newcastle.
I believe there are courses for kids as well.
A fun activity for the whole family! haha!