Their Fate Was Sealed

Day: 395

Towns / Cities Visited: 305

Countries Visited: 31

Steps Taken Today: 13,376

Steps Taken Around the World: 6,111,203

Why is it that when we stay somewhere for any length of time, it is always on the final morning that the tent decides to be in its wettest state? It’s like it knows we want to pack it down and it’s being petulant just to spite us. Of course, that is nonsense, but it didn’t help us any. The pack down was only made harder by the fact that the bottom foot of the exterior was dusted with wet sand from the abysmal weather we’d been faced with over the past couple of days in Port Stephens. Still, adventure was calling us north and we were more than willing to oblige.

It was just under two hours later when we reached the carpark of the day’s only major attraction: Sugarloaf Point Lighthouse. I know, we should be sick of lighthouses by this point, but something about them continued to entrance me. Thus, we grabbed our jackets to ward off the chill and began the hike towards the clifftop peak upon which the beacon was situated.

The wind soughed through the forest lining the path, and I took a deep breath, letting nature soothe the stress I so often carry in tensed shoulders. Eventually, the sound of crashing waves reached us and a break in the trees revealed a view down to a natural channel eroded through the rock, the waves forcing their way in the break in the cliffs in a flurry of white-wash. Both of us…