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Day 84 - Port Macquarie to Sydney
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We woke up to a new Prime Minister and suitably excited breakfast tv shows, had brekkie, packed the car, and headed to the beach on foot.
The sun was facing the beach this morning, and there were only a few clouds floating around, so we were able to have an undisturbed hour of sun-worshipping.
We walked back to the car, and headed back to the PCH, via a quick stop at a really good panoramic lookout over some more of Port Macquarie's lovely beaches.
To be honest neither of us really expected much of Port Macquarie, as the guidebooks make it play 3rd fiddle behind Byron and Coffs (and maybe even Surfers), but in our opinion it was the pick of the bunch. Lovely city, nice people, amazing beaches. Nice work.
On our way out of the city we stopped at a Koala Hospital, which was excellent. It's run purely voluntarily, with no government funding, and they do a sterling job, helping badly injured or poorly koalas found locally get back to full health.
Katie was totally disarmed by these incredibly cute creatures, and was all big eyes and huge smiles, suggesting they looked like "real life teddy bears" !!!
To be fair they were bloody cute, so we took a few piccies, left a donation, and went on our way again, headed for the bright lights of Sydney...
My old schoolmate Rob lives about an hour north of Sydney, and we'd be spending tonight with them, which we both looked forward to.
As we left "Port" (seriously), we sped through some nice if mediocre towns like Kew, Taree, and opted for lunch in Bulahdelah, a small town which looked like it had been imported straight from the Wild West !
Big wide roads, some interesting buildings, and hell's angels either side of the road, rather than horses...
We grabbed some lunch in a nice little cafe (great homemade banana smoothies, a good steak burger and a rather dodgy fish & chips, it being a Sunday), and then headed south again, making very good time to be there before 5pm.
We were met at the door by Rob's wife Helen and their son Joshua, who is a real cutie with his pot belly and bright blue eyes !! Unfortunately he has his Father's looks, so let's just hope he doesn't inherit his football skills !!! ;)
Rob & Helen have a lovely big house in the 'burbs, with 4 bedrooms and a big garden. It's amazing what you can get for your money in Australia, and even then they say that Oz is the most over-valued property market in the world relative to incomes.
The garden was a hive of wildlife, with birds singing the whole time, including kookaburras, and loads of parrots !
I haven't seen Rob for over 3 yrs (a very drunken evening in Islington with our mate Alan, which ended with Alan being forced to walk a white line by a bouncer to secure entry to a local club. Naturally he failed miserably), so we had lots to talk about, and Katie was enjoying talking to Helen and finding all about Joshua, who's a real cutie...
Of course it wasn't long before we were back on the good old subjects that old friends always talk about, school days, glory & failure on the football pitch, ex-girlfriends, holidays, all that good stuff ! It was a real laugh, I miss having Rob around but he's very happy over here.
Pretty soon Joshua was getting tired & crabby (just like his Dad !), so Helen took him off to bed and the serious drinking began !
Rob & Helen knocked up a good traditional Aussie barbie for dinner, to which we added a nice bottle of red and some really tasty dessert wine that we'd bought on our wine tour on the west coast, in the Margaret River area.
Rob & I had also wandered up to the local bottle shop to get some beers, and Katie was over-the-moon when I came back with her favourite brand of Salt & Vinegar crisps. (She believes that all the Aussie crisps have much stronger flavours than back home, and she LOVES that)
After a couple of hours the girls sensibly disappeared, leaving Rob & I to chew the fat...
We eventually called it a night just after midnight, and with all the beer & wine gone, which was not ideal as Rob has work tomorrow, but we had a lot of fun catching up, so it was definitely worth it ;)
Lots of love,
Al & Katie xx
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