Port Macquarie

We awoke in an oven the next morning. By 8 we were out of the oven and were packing it away before breakfast had even been started. As Myles had been the camp stove king since we left home he taught Laura the ways of the stove and she created pan toast with chocolate spread for breakfast whilst he put the tent down. This was a pretty speedy effort as some huge black clouds had started to spit on us. Luckily no rain and we set off down the death road once more. Why the satnav couldn't have taken us on the road we left on I don't know! We had about 1k rather than 6 of horrible road and then beautiful Tarmac! We will never complain of a road again because that was just awful! It wasn't long till we arrived in our next destination of Port Macquarie. We were both looking forward to coming here as it was Debs home town and we had heard such nice things about it. We found ourselves in the main town centre looking for information. The information centre is in a huge glass building which was rather pretty. Information found Laura had one thing on her mind and that was the koala hospital, and also wifi. A brief stop at McDonalds for wifi and we had a phone call with deb to find out all the best places to go and see! After this we found our tummies rumbling and to your surprise it wasn't for McDonald's there was a rather busy pie shop just opposite and we had watched lots of happy people buying & eating pies and wanted to check it out for ourselves. Myles had a steak and mushroom of course and Laura had a sweet chilli chicken. Both were very scrumptious especially as they were eaten by the river. Whilst there Laura spotted one of the things deb had told her about. In the opening of the port along the coast were huge rocks. And all the way along to Town Beach they had been painted by people of the town, travellers and holiday makers as little memorials. Some were funny, sweet, beautiful and just weird. Here's a few we liked:

We walked all the way along the coast looking at the rocks and by the end had decided that we wanted to do one too! (The royal we meaning Laura) a trip to bunnings and office works and we were ready! As time was getting on and Laura was getting sad we finally went to the Koala Hospital. Laura had seen this in her lonely planet before we had even left England and knew she wanted to go. It's the only animal hospital in the world solely dedicated to the care of Koalas. We arrived a bit early for the walk and feed so had a look around the gift shop and read a few of the koalas stories. They were lovely and a bit sad at the same time. During the walk and feed we had a guide who explained about each koala and the work that they have done with it as well as their background story. One very odd looking Koala (Jerry I think) had scoliosis and had the strangest looking spine almost 3 humpbacks. Supposedly this didn't hinder him too much but he couldn't be left in the wild so is in full time care for the rest of his life. We watched oxley being fed and this made us think of Deb. She was very cute and kept grabbing the hand of the keeper who was feeding her. We were sure that she would fall off her perch but didn't. It was lovely to see them all so upclose and Myles got some lovely pictures of them which we will put in the gallery ASAP. For now here's a iphone photo 

We had a lovely time there and on the way out went to the Roto house. Which was an old house that the Flynn family owned which stretched all the way to the beach. We found this out from one of the volunteers who was there. She was a lovely lady but wouldn't leave us alone as she used to be a pommie! We now know her life story and didn't really look at the house so we don't know much more than that! After we escaped we plotted Into the satnav our new campsite. The best thing about this one was the HOT showers (and pool) we were very glad of both things when we arrived. After a quick trip into Coles to stock up food supplies we found out site very easily. We had a letter stuck to the office door as the had gone early with our camp location. Tent up and we were good to go. We treated ourselves today after many days of beans to burgers! And cheese and onions all in a very nice crusty roll... All very yummy! Dinner was soon devoured when Myles realised we were on a powered site and fired up the laptop! Not a lot happened after that mainly sleep. Oh and a bit of rain. 

Day 2 was started grumpily. Turns out the road by our camp site is a bus route and a lot of trucks go by! This resulted in an early morning. A positive because we got lots of hot water for showers and a negative because we were tired. After showers and being beautiful again breakfast and we booked another night in our campsite as we still had things we wanted to do in port. Firstly we headed back to the stones to start our paintings. We did the background layers and then took a drive around the coast whilst those dried. We went to see the lighthouse which was very nice and then to a rainforest. We went down into the indoor exhibit which was about aboriginal culture and we found some light boards with sand trays on top. Laura instantly started playing an drawing in the sand.  Myles followed but had a different approach on how to use the sand/lightbox. 

I followed the instructions and did animals and such whilst Myles did a palm tree and postman pats van. 

Never mind. This led us into the gift shop where we had a poke around before buying our tickets into the forest. We got a concession rate as Myles charmed the lady at the counter which saved a few $$.

We were also offered a guide to show us around which sounded like a good idea. Turns out he was a volunteer and showed us all the different plants and animals in the park. The first thing he told us was that there were huge disease carrying Mosquitos and to 'murder' them if they landed on us as they would make us feel very poorly! Anxiously we continued. We spent a good hour and a half in there and it was so cool! We were really surprised, we thought it would be muggy & hot but it was lovely. It was really interesting and we learnt lots about local trees, plants and indigenous culture. (Myles input, oh it was very nice) 

We toddled on back to our paintings to finish them which took another few hours but we were happyish with the results.

(Our rock photo is only on the camera so will be in the gallery later sorry!)

The second painting was a tribute to the Tara for Deb and Ian, which turned out much better and we were 

Once they were finished Myles took his rose bay scooter and scooted to the playground nearby to show me his favourite ride. It was a swingy turny seasaw thing which was fun but scary as we couldn't stop it. 

A shorty journey later and we were in Coles car park where Myles ran out of the car to look at a BMW bike that he wants. Which then led to chatting to the owner who was such a boring geeky bike person. Mince was then purchased for the pasta dinner and we were back at our campsite. Whilst cooking pasta Myles suddenly informed me there was a koala I did not believe him because 10 minutes before I was talking about how cool it would be to see one in our campsite. But low and behold if you want to see a wild koala our campsite is the place to be! 

Very excited we told our Ozzie neighbours who's tent the koala was above and they seemed more excited than us as they too had never seen one in the wild! He was very cute and making a slow climb up a tree for some leaves. We carried on cooking and they watched him for a good 45 minutes longer! Time was pressing on and washing up was done followed by a swim. Best part was the pool was heated! It was just right and we had a long swim Laura doing lots of lengths for once whilst Myles relaxed. This was disrupted by the putter patter of rain! 

A mad rush to secure the tent by Myles before Laura even knew it was raining. Car locked and laptop in the tent it was a film evening. We tried to watch a film but it kept jumping so instead we watched the Avengers which was good but we felt like only seeing Iron Man before we should have seen some others as there was lots we didn't quite understand.. (Sam you will need to supply information and films when I get home!) 

Regardless we enjoyed it even though it was hissing down with rain. Shortly after sleep followed. 

Night all! 

Since last Blog - 294.3 miles 

Total mileage - 693 miles