Annual Newcastle junket

[kiwisue]

My reenactment group is largely Sydney-based but we do have many members who live in other places. Newcastle is one of those places. We originally started to develop this group tradition a few years ago by going up for a combined drill day at Fort Scratchley. After one slightly disastrous year when the car carrying the pikes was involved in an accident on the freeway the enthusiasm faded. Then, 3 years ago, someone suggested a social gathering at the Queens Wharf brewery. The Brewery serves a rather nice alcoholic ginger beer, a so-so lager and a good dark beer. The food's good as well.


So we've been doing this late-summer jaunt for 3 years now. It's very enjoyable. A bunch of us catch the Newcastle train from Sydney or Hornsby, chat/relax and eat whatever nice snacks people bring along (we have several members of Overcaterers Anonymous in our group, so we never go short). We get to Newcastle about midday and meet with the locals. Sometimes random friends and members of other reenactment groups drop by. We drink pints and eat food, followed by a walk around the foreshore. Pleasantly merry, we catch the train back to Sydney in the evening.

This year's list of attendees: Me, Spike, Puppy, Wayne, Glenda, Vic, Andy, 2 sproglets, Richard, The Captayne, Mary, Helmut, Louise. Guest appearances by Ben & Cathy.

The Brewery Our goal - the Bluetongue Brewery at Queens Wharf, Newcastle.

The 'Cape Conway' Newcastle is a major working port. All day, every day, there are ships constantly entering and leaving the harbour. They line up out to sea - when we walked over to Nobbys Head we could see about a dozen of them waiting.

Afternoon After a few ginger beers and lunch we went for a walk. This photo was taken looking back at the wharf and brewery.

Bluebottle There were swarms of these little stingers in the water off Nobby's Head. We couldn't even go wading.

Crab F (8 years old) spotted this fellow and asked if she could use my camera to take a photo. Not a bad job!

Newcastle Street A lovely mix of old and new.

Comments

[empty-mirrors.livejournal.com]

Ahh, pikes in road accidents. The police get dead funny about that over here. Can't imagine why. :-)

Looks like you had a good time. Very pretty. And also very very flat.

[kiwisue.livejournal.com]

Ahh, pikes in road accidents. The police get dead funny about that over here. Can't imagine why. :-)
Thankfully Andy did a good job of lashing them to the roof racks so they didn't hurtle off - *shudders to think of the possible consequences of that*. And he ran off the road rather than impact the other car but after the trip into the scrub his car was going nowhere. No injuries at least.

There is quite a lot of higher ground that springs up from the sandy promontory, it's just not shown in these photos. Further along the coast there are cliffs.

[nimmy.livejournal.com]

I'm so disappointed I missed you all ... maybe next time I won't have a wedding to go to. It was a nice day for the trip though, albeit a bit warm.

It's nice to see piccies of our lovely town.

[kiwisue.livejournal.com]

There was a beaut breeze from the sea where we were. Yes, it's a lovely town. For some reason the 'feel' of the place for me is one of yearning. Not sure why, or what for. Anyway, it appeals to me.

Hope the wedding went well.

I finished the Alien/SW story you recc'd. Enjoyed it a lot.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Liked the pics - thanks. Make me feel quite summery (which is tricky at 6.30am when it's -10C or so...)

And I gotta admit your reply down below about the pikes on the roofrack hurtling off? Well, since they didn't can I chuckle loudly?

[kiwisue.livejournal.com]

Summer... I'm over it. Bring on a nice pleasant autumn and winter.

Chuckle away. We did, once relieved that it wasn't too serious.

[mab-browne.livejournal.com]

Nice pics, although I suppose I had better confess that I now have that damn song in my head (Don't you ever let a chance go by...)

[kiwisue.livejournal.com]

... Oh, Lord...

No, I'm not smiling, or humming along. I have friends there y'know. Friends with big pointy weapons.