Friday 21st May 2004, Day 251/366 - Charlestown, New South Wales.

Sandboarding

Off to Port Stephens. They were talking about the Eurovision song contest on the radio. What's all that about?

At Anna bay we'd booked a 4x4 tour of the sand Dunes ($30). It's the largest moving sand mass in the southern hemisphere. 32kms of beach. We did a spot of sand boarding. basically find a large dune with a steep side, sit on a waxed board and push yourself over the edge. At the bottom you either stay upright or get a mouth full of sand.

We drove up to the highest lookout and got a terrific view along the whole beach. The beautiful white sand is growing and moving all the time. It's shipped out to Hawaii to make there beaches. So Jack was right.

It's amazing to think that the Japs were planning to invade here. How do you defend 32 kms of beach, let alone the whole east coast. They could land and you wouldn't know for weeks.

In a hollow in the dunes is a 'Tin city'. people just living out in the middle of the dunes. We chatted to Alwin from the village who was cleaning the fish he'd caught today and was having for dinner. It's a self contained life.

Beyond Thunderdome was filmed on these dunes. It was an interesting 2 hour tour.

We lunched in Nelson Bay which is a tourist destination.

in the evening we watched the Turks beat the Socceroos. 3-1