Sundowner Breakwall Tourist Park Port Macquarie

Das ist unser erster Stopp auf der Ostkuestenreise. Port Macquarie ist ein kleiner netter Kuestenort, Hier haben wir das Koala-Krankenhaus besucht und eine 3-stuendinge Strandwanderung gemacht.

After a deep 10 hour sleep we both wake refreshed and ready to hit the road. The weather is much better today and it is hot and sunny. We leave Lemon Tree Passage and head straight to the supermarket for sun cream and mozzie bite cream - the local wildlife had had a feast on our fresh English blood during the night!

Back on the Pacific Highway to Buladelah, we take a turning for Pacific Palms and follow signs to Bluey's Beach. As we drop down the hill, we get our first view of the oce...

Another night of not much sleep for Lynne, as a group of people decided to talk noisily in the corridor, right outside of our door until the early hours. When the conversation ran out, they apparently then started going through each ring tone on their mobile and any music that they had downloaded on their phones too. Fortunately it would take a nuclear explosion to keep me awake at night, so I woke up at 8am feeling fully refreshed. Despite her lack of sleep, Lynne still managed to get up whe...

The first rainy day that we've had since being in Australia, pulling back the curtains this morning revealed a grey day and horrible fine misty rain. This was a shame, although it did strengthen the impression that we were staying at a holiday park in England. I braved the rain and walked over to the shower block and thinking that I already missed having an en-suite bathroom. Still the showers were clean and were very hot, so I suppose you can't ask for much more than that. Our plan had been ...

Although it was very misty this morning, we managed to pack our tent away dry. We set off for the start of our road trip. I am a big fan of road trip movies and I've always wanted to drive (or in my case be driven) across a big country like Thelma and Louise. We got the radio on and I was singing along to it, it was easy to find the Pacific Highway which is the highway that goes straight up the East coast, all the way to Cairns. The Pacific Highway is a lovely road to drive on, there is barel...

At last a really good sleep, possibly thanks to the wine and it being a little cooler today. However, I was awoken or at least became aware of a noise around the van at about 6am. At first I didn't think anything of it, but after a while and as a came round a bit more I checked things out and the attachment of my gas canister was untightened. Now as I've not used this yet I have no idea if thats how it always was or whether someone had been pilfering (or swapping) cannisters. It seems a bit o...

Just an overnighter at Port Macquarie but we got to see alot of the town in the afternoon and the kids even got to have a play at Flynn's Beach which was a great little wave for learning to surf. Of course we have to have icecreams before venturing down to the sand. A few surf schools were training in the late afternoon whilst we were there, what a great activity for kids after school!
We were amazed at how much money must be around Port Macquarie, there was loads of huge beautiful houses ...

2/7 - 13/7/2008 Finally got out whale watching whilst in Port Macquarie. It was just amazing. We spotted two close up and followed them for quite a while. Saw them blow several times and then they did tail flips for us. It was an awesome experience - we were the required 100m from them - they are just so enormous! Apparently some whales come closer to the boat, but if they don't come then the boat must stay the required distance from them. We watched them for about 15 or 20 minutes as the boa...

Day 13: Saturday 18th July. After some repairs to a damaged window we travelled to Nelson Bay north of Newcastle. Lunch on the edge of the lake at Shoal Bay.
Progress was good so we travelled on through Forster with its interesting bridge across the lakes entrance to a tourist drive past the Myall Lakes and on to Port Macquarie.

Day 14: Sunday 19th July. Up at dawn to see the sunrise over the Pacific horizon. A relaxed start to a sunny day in shorts and T shirt. Coffe and Sunday pa...