Port Stephens

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25th June 2009

After we had finally manged to get up and have some breakfast, we decided to head to Nelson Bay. Before we made it to the bus stop we couldn't resist petting the baby kangaroo rescued by the lodge. We waited a very long time for the bus to arrive, so when we finally made it to Nelson Bay we had limited time before it got dark. We wondered around and manged to take a wrong turn or two, ending up at a dead end in the national park. To salvage what was becoming a wasted day, we spent the rest of it organising our activity for tomorrow.

26th June 2009

Today was a good day. Waking up a little earlier, we ventured to a bay close by where whales pass near by on their yearly migration. Here we spent some time "free" whale watching, which was quite exciting because we had to spot the whales ourselves. In the afternoon we had booked a horse riding trip to the largest moving sand dunes in the world. Despite the fact we had barely ridden a horse before, we think we did quite well! Our guide for the day was an ex- Australian rugby league player, who shared his opinion on everything from sports injuries to politics, but was interesting all the same. Finally we caught a local bus to the bus station in Newcastle, our driver was very friendly and as our bus to Byron Bay didn't leave for an extra hour he drove us in the bus to get some food. We ate it in the bus with him before he dropped us back at the station, what a nice guy. Our night bus to Byron Bay was a complete nightmare as there was a problem with the air-conditioning unit meaning that we had to put on every layer of clothing as it was like the Antarctic in there. To make it worse we stopped every two hours during the night to get off the bus, at least it was warmer outside!

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