The Observatory Port Macquarie

... babies. She was great and I enjoyed my time hanging with her and her two kids. From her I learned patience, truly.
The first day I drove around with them in the mini-van all day, played with the kids at the mall, and visited her mother's house in the country. The second day I just hung out in the house (it was still raining) and watched movies, chatted with her, went on-line, and relaxed.
She dropped my off in town at about 9pm and ...

... when a group of dolphins swam past us, leaping out of the water. There were so many of them and they came so close! It was amazing! Saw some whales in the distance too - the water coming out of their spouts.

Altogether it's been a physically exhausting week! Lots of muscle ache! We are in Byron Bay tomorrow, ready to start our Oz Experience up the East Coast. Will be quite bizarre to be going to all these new places and not staying put.

Love to you all
xxx

... ended up staying in what was advertised as a "boutique hotel ", it was a simple but nice hotel with great views of the bay. We ventured out at sunset to buy some beers to accompany the remainder of our pie stash. Buying beers was harder than anticipated as I could not find any that were worth drinking... seriously a hard task in Aus... so we opted for a ...

... the quick way which entails springing up on the board in one fell swoop. I practiced that a couple times and was waiting around to learn the easy way... but Gnarly Wayne was kinda in lala land. I asked about the easy way, and he said - just go try the quick way. Um OK.... but why tease me with talk of the easy way? Back to the water. I got up on my knees, got many nose fulls of water. And Gnarly Wayne came over to critique me... seems I needed more legs and less arms ...

... excellent, freshly caught fish and chips (the fish were caught, not the chips) at Fish Heads (acclaimed takeaway no less) and stood at the edge of Belongil Beach, watching the surfers risk their lives and seeing that a man had taken the time to buy a Dominos pizza and beer and just sat on some rocks, looking out to sea. All rather lovely really. That night, we were accosted by a scruffy-looking man, who resembled Gerard Depardieu with the manner of Steve Irwin, who had ...

... everything with them and i mean everything! Never has a truer sentence "...even the kitchen sink..." ring more here in Oz. They all mostly have the caravans with the tents on the side. In here they plug in their t.v.'s, kettles and fridges and small chest freezers! I know! One guy even brought his tool box and a cage with budgies! They bring bikes and wash lines ...

... from here so it's not far to drive. We are definitely going to find a motel with a proper bed. After four days camping, we are both exhausted. Camping is fun but it is tiring, you don't get proper sleep and you are woken early as soon as the sun comes up. A tent is like a greenhouse when the sun gets on it and you just have to move out. We are looking forward to our new adventure futher up the coast.

... which seemed a nice place and sounded like a cocktail, but it was a bit boring, so we pushed on again...



...but not before seeing roughly the 4674th business we've seen named after our friend Tilda, but this one was MUCH cuter than the usual petrol stations!



Katie had called ahead to book a ...

... spent the late afternoon in true aussie fashion, drinking and betting on the horses and dogs. Every pub here has pokies (slot machines) and facilities for betting. They also do champagne by the glass everywhere - it is not a celebratory drink here, but an everyday drink. I was very pleased to hear of this as it is cheaper than drinking vodka most of the time. We left the Tab with more than we went in with and ...

... OK, so we haven't really got a history to crow about, Neighbours is our cultural heritage - hell, let's just build big things. That'll get people coming!" As soon as I got off the bus I knew I was going to love Coffs. Understated and a little rough around the edges - this place could have been designed for me. It's just off the Pacific Highway and is divided up into separate areas because it encompasses such a large stretch of coast. I was staying at a ...