Newcastle Long Weekend

I have started to think seriously about an exit plan from work or at least not doing a regular full week 40 hour week. Especially after the factory where I have worked for years as a contractor has lost a lot of it's full time staff recently and I ended up having to do extra shifts not less.

Anyway the factory finally got some more staff so we booked an extra long weekend away to Newcastle. We flew down early Friday morning for a bit of a new city/beach break short holiday.

As usual for us we also like to pick up a new parkrun event, as there are over 400 now all over Australia.

So Saturday morning after catching the Newcastle Light Rail from our CBD Youth Hostel Accommodation we are walking along the Throsby Creek to Carrington (the location of our Newy parkrun adventure) when I spotted a cool looking ship with 77 and Steve Irwin written on it.

I didn't think much about it at the time as I was thinking more about the 5 kilometre parkrun ("Is it going to rain?"... "Should I start at the back?" - as my ankle was playing up and I did not want to get too excited and over do things at the front with the faster people - and of course, "Where would we get coffee and breakfast?")

The parkrun went well but I could not stop thinking about the 77 Steve Irwin ship. (Steve being a famous Australian animal and nature activist who tragically died filming some sting rays and made Australia Zoo what it is).

Then, over breakfast and coffee I remembered Greenpeace and the Rainbow Warrior ship and the conservation work it used to do. Both the Steve Irwin and Rainbow Warrior did lots of conservation work.

Luckily @consciouscat didn't mind a slight detour on the walk back and I was able to get a few more photos of the now retired Sea Shepard MY Steve Irwin.

A quick Goggle fulfilled my inquisitive mind - it seems some lady saved the ship from the scrap metal yard. She bought it for $10, refurbished it as a museum and it had been on show in Melbourne until covid hit. Now it's just parked (moored) here in Newcastle awaiting its next adventure.

Thanks for reading my weekend experience. Hope you had a good one too.