AusTour 7: Port Macquarie

After leaving Byron Bay at 6:40pm we arrived into Port Macquarie 11:30pm. It was raining when we got there, and we had little idea where the YHA we were staying at was exactly. After some directions from a couple of policemen as they drove by we arrived at the visitor centre. The problem was the hostel was in completely the opposite direction. Back through the night and rain we eventually found the hostel and passed out in what lonely plant describes as a hostel “homier than nanna’s spare room.” It wasn’t. The next morning we got some directions from the hostel staff (LP managed to get that part right—“the owners are charming”) and headed out on a grand loop. Our first ‘stop’ was at the maritime museum, but for a building the size of a caravan and an admission of $7 it was really a stop and turn around. We first made our way to the koala hospital where koalas are nursed back to health after run-ins with cars and wild fires. Following that we walked up hill street (aptly named I might add) to the coast and coastal walk. Up along the coast we snaked along a short section of winding trails before busting out at the two beaches of Port Macquarie. It was still cloudy today, the rain had passed but the sun hadn’t reappeared. With that in mind, and the challenge of an unperturbed strip of sand on the beach I set about drawing this:After amusing our little minds, we followed the beech down to the flagstaff for a look out at the miserable ceiling of clouds and back on the small town. Further along the second beech we found the town’s most famous attractions—the break wall. Essential it’s a regular break wall, but all the rocks that are easily accessible are painted. The rocks include pictures, families, lovers, messages and poems. Following the break wall we made our way to a sunset cruise. Though with the cloud cover still resisting removal, it would probably not be anything special. I was wrong. About 10 mins out of the harbor and up the river we came upon about 5 or 6 bottlenose dolphins. They circled the boat, at some points catching a ride between the catamaran hulls. We followed them for the best part of 20 mins before catching a glimpse of the sunset and returning to port. We left port at 11:30 that night, following a particularly hard trivia night.
Port Macquarie: the Complete Review
Not the most exciting town ever, and for the majority of our stay one disappointment after another. The dolphins though we definitively the best part of the trip and almost made the town worth it. I was glad to be back on the road after this short stop and on to Australia’s 5th largest city, Newcastle.
Also how can you arrive at and leave a city without knowing exactly how to pronounce its name?

AusTour 5: the Bus

In planning the trip we had looked at numerous was of getting from Brisbane to Sydney while stopping at some of the key places in between. We had decided to take a hop on hop off bus down the coast and found a company that would let us do it. For just $115 we were able to go from Brisbane to Sydney while stopping at Byron Bay, Port Macquarie and Newcastle. The bus had more stops (all the reasonably be towns down the coast) but those are the ones we had decided on. The bus would take us down the pacific highway for the most part. Busses departed daily with one bus departing Brisbane at 1pm and another at 3pm. There was also a third bus starting about halfway down the pacific highway starting at around 6am—we took this for the final trip into Sydney. Overall it was great value for money, and didn’t take up the day (travelling mostly during the night) so we could use the daylight to explore and holiday.

Outta Here

Its Spring Break…again! So I’m getting out of Melbourne with Barry from Hartford. We’re flying up to Brisbane tonight, to begin a trip down the coast towards and into Sydney. I’m lazy, so I stole Barry's map of the key stops on the trip.
I should ignore the part about being eaten by a shark. Not because it wont happen, but because I wont be posting a blog anytime in the next 13 days. I also have an extra part tagged on to the end of this trip, down to Adelaide in South Australia being as i have two weeks off for break and Barry only has one.