Heatherbrae’s Pies
It’s the first day of our road trip holiday. It's been a long time since our last holiday, with COVID-19 having nixed travel plans in 2020. And we still can't leave the country, so we decided to do a bit of a road trip.
We left home this morning after baking some fresh sourdough bread, which we took with us to give to my mother along the way. She lives in Gosford, an hour north of Sydney, and we stopped to have morning tea with her on the way. The bread was still warm when we handed it over.
After that we continued on, stopping at Heatherbrae’s Pies in the Port Stephens suburb of Heatherbrae for lunch. This is a famous pie shop on the highway north, with a high reputation. I wanted the pepper steak pie, but they were sold out and told me it would be a 20 minute wait for the next batch, so I switched to the pie of the day: Beef and Guiness. M. had a spinach roll, while I had a beef and Guinness pie, a sausage roll, and a vanilla slice. Unfortunately it didn’t quite live up to the hype. The food was good, but not really exceptional in any way. I wrote a review for Snot Block & Roll.
Heatherbrae’s Pies |
We continued on, stopping at Taree for petrol and to stretch our legs. We walked around a block and then let Scully run free in a park along the Manning River to get some exercise. Then it was back in the car for the final leg to our destination: Port Macquarie.
We arrived at Port Macquarie and checked into the Ibis Styles Hotel. M. found this place, which allowed dogs to stay in the rooms. Any room can have a dog in it, but they restrict it to a maximum of eight dogs at any one time.
 View from our hotel window in the Ibis Styles, Port Macquarie |
We went for a walk into town to get dinner. Being a Monday night, a lot of restaurants were closed, and of course we needed somewhere with outdoor seating so we could have Scully with us. We found a Turkish place called Zahara. We ordered some stuffed vine leaves and falafels for M., and I tried an iskender kebab, which turned out to be sliced lamb meat mixed with chunk of fried bread, all in a tomato-based sauce, with yoghurt on the side. The food was okay, but not exceptional at all. It was very filling though.
 Dinner at Zahara |
Next door was a gelato place called Blue Cow, which looked good. So I had to try some of the gelato for dessert.
I ate it while we walked back along the river shore, as the sun was going down over the Hastings River.
 Scully enjoying the sunset |
The sunset was spectacular, made more so by the swarm of thousands of bats flying out from their daytime roosts across the river to the north to feed in the night.
 Sunset over the Hastings River |