Port Macquarie, a supposedly nice place.

I say supposedly, becuase it was during my 4 night tenure here that it rained the hardest and fiercest! On the 2nd night I was woken up by the rain slamming its self against the roof of the hostel.


The hostel nigh on empty, too, with about 5 people there on one night. This did mean that I became good mates with some of those people, including one of the fruitiest characters I've met so far - Fred. This man had sold his house, divorced his wife and put normal life on hold so that he could travel around Austrlia 'Until I'm 65' - about 15 years of travel. He trained his son to fish and hunt and kill his own food, and we have exactly the same camera! He used to be called a 'wog', on account of his (at best mediterranian) tan at school in Malta and wasn't let into a post office in West Australia because he looked like an Iraqi. He told me how to get free pool (stick 2 5cent pieces together and whack them in the 2 dollar slot and youse saved Dollar 90!), so I showed him how to poke the washing machine system just right to save $3/$4 in return. There's way too many Fred stories to list here. Oh yeah, Fred taught me how to make pumpkin soup, which is well nice.

Another commendable character was Lea, the German who had hitch-hiked her way all up the east coast (about 2000km). After Port Macquarie, she managed to get a lift further up the coast on a Caramaran with a timber millionaire.

So on the second day, I decided I'd go on a mega walk, no matter what the weather. And of course it rained all day, though my ultra fashionable pac-a-mac kept me and my bag (which was stowed under the coat like the hunchback of Notre-Dame) bone dry. I could see the potential for this place being awesome on a dry day - there's loads of small beaches that you could easily find no one else on. Plus the surf was quite good, though I didn't really fancy going for a dip when I couldn't feel my hands.

By the time my photocopied map had disintegrated in the wet, I fancied some chow, so I hit up a fish n chip shop staffed by obese people. Sure enough, the chip portion size was copious!

Fuelled up and ready to rock, I started wandering out of town. Seeing a sign for a Koala Sanctuary, I decided I'd find a shortcut to it, for fun. Through branches, spiders, dog poo and backgardens I adventured, keeping a low profile so the enemy didn't spot me (and so that I didn't bump into head-height spiderwebs and have the paranoia of a great big hairy arachnid sneaking its way around me).

Finding the Sanctuary, I spent a while looking at the cold masupials with their various ailments. A lot of them had Clamydia; aparently most koalas have it! Some were blinded by bushfires, with patchy fur, which would have tugged on the heart strings of the hardiest man.

The following day was ANZAC day - where the whole of Oz has a public holiday, celebrating/commemorating their defeat against the Turks in WW2. Aparently it was bad British intel that sent them to the wrong place, so fleets of naval units were sunk before they even got close to the cliffs.

In modern days, ANZAC day is a good party and a chance to play (legally) the outlawed gambling game of '2 up'. I watched about 50 men get excited about 3 coins being thrown in the air and betting sometimes $100 on the totally random and equally chanced outcome. At the same pub there was a free BBQ, so we helped our selves to that happily, though a throat infection at the time made it painful to swallow any food or drink, let alone crusty bread rolls!

I spent the rest of the day/night in pubs trying to figure out what the difference between XXXX, Carlton, Victoria Bitter and Tooheys was with a guy called Jack from the south of England. Not much really, but people seem to have a strong aliegence to their drink for some reason. Jack and his girlfriend had been to Thailand recently, so it was good to get some tips on places to go and see.

The people always seem to make the place, especially if the weather or place is a bit crappy - Lea, Jack, Katey and Fred I met up with at another time, which is cool. If the weather was better, would I have made as good friends with them? Who knows... One person that did put a downer on things was the Hostel manger. Why was she always annoyed with everything? I never saw her smile! I managed to get from her that she'd moved out to oz from mid-north england, so I couldn't see what she was so sour faced about everything. To make things more wierd, she asked for $10 when I asked if she could post on my phone when it got to the hostel (behind me), though the price label only said $4...