Port Macquarie - a very quick stop! (08.10.12 - 09.10.12)

---

We arrived in the early afternoon into Port Macquarie on the Greyhound from Newcastle, it'd been an early start in order to catch a bus from the Hunter Valley to Newcastle. We were met by someone from the hostel we were staying at. The hostel wasn't necessarily the nicest we stayed in, there weren't enough pans in the kitchen for example, but it was one of the best run places, and we had a private double room instead of dorm beds. While we were checking in, we were given a handy introduction to the town and where was nice to go.

We'd read in the Lonely Planet that there was a koala hospital in port macquarie and the little introduction confirmed that it was free to visit at any time. As time was getting on we set straight off for the koala hospital. We were slightly disapointed to find that much of the areas you could visit were closed for renovation but we did manage to catch the end of a free talk. Still we got to see yet more koalas. Still not getting better at spotting them in the trees though!



We only stayed for around 15 minutes before leaving to do a little walk that the hostel recommended. It was more of a stroll round the coast really. We stopped for a little break at one beach where four surf schools were each teaching a group of children to surf. They clearly start early in Oz.



As we carried on round we got to the mouth of the River Hastings, which Port Macquarie is built around, we reached and area known as the "Painted "Rocks". There the large rocks that form the man made banks of the river had all been painted by locals and visitors. There were all kinds of murals, some in honour of the local sports clubs, some for local families and some in remembrance. There were absolutely hundreds of them, there didn't seem to be any rules either, anything goes!



We were only staying for one night but our bus was only setting off in the early afternoon, we were catching the bus that we got off the day before. It gave us time to go for another little walk around a small nature reserve, we were told it would take an hour it didn't nearer twenty minutes (standard Aus walking!). Still it was a memorable walk, it was the first time we'd come across the aussie "flying fox" otherwise known as flipping big bats.



We'd only just started on the trail when we met two girls coming the other way, we were all set to pass when one of them as blunt as you like said "watch out for the bats, they'll poo on you". "Thanks" we said, what else do you say to that? So we carried on and eventually spotted through the trees these absolutley flipping massive bats, loads of them. I'd say that they were the size of dinner plates but i think that they're actually bigger, no wonder they call them flying floxes. We successfully avoided being poo'ed on, but going as fast as we possibly could. The trail was circular and we once again bumped into the girls we'd met, the same girl asked us "Did you get poo'ed on?". Thankfully, it's not everyday that someone asks me that.



We had time to kill so we went down to the marina, sat on the grass and had a bit of a read. While we were there, we spotted a couple of dolphins that had entered the river and were having a bit of a play with a tourist boat.
We couldn't watch for long though, we needed to get some lunch before heading for our bus. We ended up in a bit of a rush, as lunch took so long, but we made the bus in time and were on our way agin. Port Macquarie seems to be a lovely little place with nice beaches and chilled out atmosphere, the sort of place you could lose weeks, its just a real shame we only had a day to see it - seems to be the story of our trip!

---