Port Macquarie 18/03/2012 - 2 Nights

Another sunny day and another beach front stop off. Port Macquarie provided us with a lot of the good stuff - a beautiful beach and plenty of activities. The Glasshouse (TIC) was abundant with leaflets and the service desk staff were very helpful. There were campsites dotted all over but we settled on one closest to the beach. With that decided, we wandered around town to stretch our legs. I didn't really need anything so I returned to the car with Mel. I just wanted to set up camp and check out the beach. Steff joined soon after and we hung out in the car waiting for Sarah. Moments later, Sarah came hurtling past the car, threw her purse at Mel, said something and ran off. Steff ran after her and Mel and I were left dumbfounded. I thought the worst and hoped that Sarah was ok. Everyone returned to the car and Sarah looked pretty shaken. A cheeky Irish guy grabbed her arse and Sarah chased after the guys! She has more brass than me! My heart was pounding as I thought she'd been attacked. I'm not quite sure what she would have done if she caught up to those guys. I'm glad Steff was there to diffuse the situation. The last thing we need is an assault charge!

Oh the drama! I think we all could do with chilling out so we went straight to the camp site. We pulled up to what looked like a jungle. Trees with long bending branches were sprouting out from everywhere. Mel and Sarah both commented on how everything reminded them of I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, especially the kitchen. 

Bushtucker Trial anyone?

Well that's one way of calling it!

Amongst the greenery, we found the hut that housed the reception area. The owners gave us a smiley welcome and handed over the necessary information. Having two nights under our belt meant that putting up the tent wasn't too much of a chore. Mel and Steff knew exactly what they were doing, as did Sarah. I on the other hand bumbled about and waited to be told what to do. Each time I have tried to help, I always ended up doing something wrong. I felt like an inept school child who didn’t know their times tables. Back of the class Miss Lee. Whilst I brandished the dunce hat for the day, everyone else flowed like clockwork. As long as I look like I’ve done something then I can dodge any future accusatory arguments. So far so good…

Not one to break tradition, we had set up camp by the beach just as we had done in Port Stephens as well as the four months spent in Collaroy. There’s just some “home” comforts we can’t give up so easily. Flynns Beach was a beautiful addition to the routine and gave me the perfect opportunity to crack out the GoPro camera for the first time.

Lovely day!

Steff went off on his own to surf. Mel, Sarah and I ran into the water to mess about and (for me) tried to avoid getting knocked out by waves. This was easier said than done as we were all too busy posing for photos and filming on our cameras to notice how rough the sea was getting. We had great fun but noticed that the sky started to cloud over. We took a few photos on the beach and grabbed our towels to warm up.

Flynns beach photo shoot.

As we sat and waited for Steff to finish surfing we saw a rainbow. These seem to be following me around as of late. What’s more…it turned into a double rainbow. Awesome!

Expertly taken by Melissa Taylor© 

Steff had finished surfing just in time for the rain. It rained hard! Even though we’d just come out of the water and were wet anyway, it still wasn’t nice. My towel was soaked through and I was already thinking ahead in trying to get my stuff together for the shower in the rain What a pain in the arse that would be. Everyone was laughing at how I walked. I had my towel over my shoulders, I was hunched over and I was waddling in an awkward manner as my shorts were getting weighed down by the water. It was very uncomfortable. I always seem to inadvertently provide entertainment for my travel mates.

The weather didn’t improve but eased off enough to make the showering and getting changed process slightly more tolerable. Now comes the moment when the day is over, we’re all pretty knackered and can’t really be bothered to do anything. Normally we would have access to a common room, TV room or just the company of a different set of people. Since travelling, we came to realise pretty quickly that it’s just us and us alone. We had to entertain ourselves. As our personalities differ so much, we all like to unwind in various ways. I like to watch a film or blog whereas the others would rather do something or just chat. There’s only so much talking I can do. That evening our priorities soon changed. We had no food and were too lazy to cook – well you saw the kitchen! – so we went to the town centre in search of some nice cheap grub.

We couldn’t find anywhere that sold meals under $20 which was annoying. I thought I’d found a cheap bar so Sarah and I walked in to look at the menu. The place was vacant apart from one group of guys. They were all wearing football shirts and I’m sure I detected an Irish twang from one of them. I joked to myself that they might be the guys who Sarah chased after earlier…it turned out that I was actually right. They WERE the guys from earlier. Argh! We made a swift exit in which they didn’t have chance to recognise us. Phew.

We scoured the streets for a while longer then gave up and tried to find something closer to our camp site. We drove past a noodle bar which everyone agreed was the best place to go. I was so hungry I didn’t care what I ate. It happened to be a fantastic little place. The food was so good. It was up there with one of the best meals I’ve had in Australia. To round it off, Mel and I had ice cream from the nearest vendor.

All in all, it was a pretty darn good day. I just hoped the rain would bugger off!

 *****

The next day, the weather was still a bit rubbish. It was wet and miserable but not so bad that it could ruin our plans.

Again, we had no food in so ate out for breakfast. This is where all our money is going, eating out. It’s a downfall I never considered before. We all have to eat together. As we drive around, we stop off for something to eat. If I don’t eat at that time then I don’t eat so I’ve found that my eating patterns are irregular. Also, because we never settle in one place for more than a couple of nights, it’s never worth investing in my own food to eat as and when I please like back in Collaroy due to storage issues. We never seem to agree on the same foods to eat so it’s easier for us to eat out. I’ve eaten so much crap lately it’s unbelievable. It was fine when I ate out a lot in Japan as the food is so good and healthy that it never felt like a bad thing. The food in Thailand and Malaysia was so cheap and plentiful that it didn’t really matter. In Australia, I’m paying top dollar for average food that isn’t good for me. I don’t need a pair of scales to tell me that I’ve put on a lot of weight since being in Australia. This is not good. I’m supposed to get fat in America not Australia! I’m ahead of schedule. Damn. That morning, Mel and Steff ate pancakes and I had a smoothie. It was my feeble attempt at being healthy. I doubt it will last. 

We were told that there was a koala corridor somewhere in Port Macquarie. What we thought was an area to leisurely walk through and watch a load of koalas do what they do, turned out to be an area that inhabits koalas but not so much for us to be guaranteed a viewing. None of us fancied the 10 or so kilometre walk in the mud without seeing a koala. We visited the koala hospital instead.

The koalas curled up on high branches.

This koala has a curved spine and is a long term resident.

The guy on the front desk spoke to us for a while about the koalas they look after and how naïve people are in thinking that koalas are cute and cuddly. They can rip your arms off! I wonder if he told the same stories to children that come there. It was definitely an eye opener. Mel and I kept talking about going somewhere that lets you cuddle a koala but, after visiting the hospital, we realised how cruel that is. Just like the sharks and manta rays back in Port Stephens, it’s not fair on the animals to be prodded and man-handled in such a way. Of course there are different circumstances for different animals and this opens a wide debate on animals born in captivity as well as those who are so used to life in an enclosure that they wouldn’t be able to survive out in the wild. It’s sad but probably true.

Perhaps I should move this on to a lighter note! Our visit to the koala hospital was rather brief which left a wide gap open in our day. We decided to rent out a boat, try a bit of fishing and dolphin-watch. Things didn’t run that smoothly though. It started to rain, Steff broke his fishing rod and dropped the line with the hook on into the water and there were no dolphins. We tried our best to get their attention. Mel told us stories of her relatives in America who pat the side of the boat to draw them in. It disturbingly reminded me of the film Free Willy. I went for a different approach. I sang. I did read it somewhere and thought it was worth a shot. I’ve hardly sung since being away so it was nice to let go a little. I probably scared them away with my rendition of David Gray’s Sail Away or Oh Happy Day and Aint No Mountain High Enough. Mel and Sarah sang along to a couple of other songs I sang but Steff was having none of it. After a while, everyone got sick of me and told me to shut up. Instead, my warbles were replaced with silence…well there was the sound of the boat’s engine but I’d like to think of it as boring silence. Once everyone had a go at driving the boat we headed back.

We were all exceptionally hungry so we bought a hoard of food from Coles supermarket and cooked a feast back in the kitchen. Steff, Sarah and I were all distracted by one thing or another which left Mel to do the cooking. It’s times like these where tensions run high. Putting up and packing away the tent, cooking, deciding on what to eat, where to go…basically anything which involves us all having to come to an agreement of some sort can sometimes turn into an argument. It is early days within our new travel group and we’re all trying to find out feet. It didn't help that the weather had been particularly pants as of late and money was going fast. Tensions were high and it was all quiet around the dinner table until later on after we’d all eaten…

Steff had gone off to make a phone call, Mel was elsewhere, Sarah was on the phone and I was sat at the table writing my blog. I was typing away in my own little world when I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I looked up to find the biggest hairiest spider crawling down a silk line it had cast. I screamed. My scream resembled the cheesy damsel-in-distress type screams you hear in horror movies. Sarah didn’t even know what I was screaming at but screamed anyway. I shot away from the table. Sarah kept saying, “What? What is it?” 

Sidenote: Hearing Sarah say those words was a strange moment. The night before Sarah stroked my back and prodded me. I was half asleep and turned over to see Sarah leaning over me. Sarah asked, "What is it?" I replied with a weak, "What?" Sarah repeated the words, "What is it?" with emphasis each time. I realised that Sarah was talking in her sleep and rolled back over.

I couldn’t form words. My mouth opened but nothing came out. I’d used all the voice I had left in that scream I just omitted! Mel and Steff ran across to us thinking we’d been attacked (a common assumption so it would seem). We all stared at this spider with wonderment.

Earlier, whilst we were eating, I saw a dragonfly zoom into a spider’s web. I asked Steff to save it but as he flicked the dragonfly away, the spider appeared. A battle ensued and we all sat completely agog as the dragonfly tried to EAT the spider. We thought that was weird. I’ve never seen a spider that big, move so fast.

Steff was so blasé about it all and sat back down at his previously abandoned laptop. By this point the spider had crawled back up its little bungee. I reckon that’s all he does. Waits until a few people are out, crawls down, wiggles his legs and revels in the screams and gasps of fear it evokes. The evil hairy bastard. 

Despite Steff's calm disposition, none of us were convinced to sit back on the bench. Our qualms were justified when a moth the size of my face flew down. It circled the kitchen, flew around Sarah and Mel then settled in a corner just behind Steff.

I grabbed my things and went back to the car. We were all trying to calm ourselves down. I just wanted to get out of that place. We suddenly remembered that we needed to collect our washing. Steff had kindly placed our washed clothes into the tumble drier once again after the first cycle left our clothes damp still. After what had just happened, nobody wanted to be alone. We didn’t want to risk another attack so drove to the laundry building. I’d actually calmed down a bit and started to joke about it all. I screamed like an idiot. I don’t really scream that often so I never used to think I had it in me to scream that loudly. We all laughed at my silliness and Steff switched on the light. Let me think how to sum up the moment after the light came on. Ok. Remember the moment in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom when he’s walking along and has no idea what’s going on around him, he flashes a light only to find that the cave walls are crawling with bugs of all descriptions? Well it was like that. Roaches and huntsman spiders to be exact. My reaction was definitely more akin to Indiana's love interest than the cool, calm and collected hero himself. I surprised myself in how loud I could scream. Sarah did the same and I’m not sure there is even a word to describe the noise that came out of Mel’s mouth. Even Steff sprang back in shock.

What is going on with this place tonight?! We left Steff to collect our washing as one huntsman remained on the wall, staring at us. I didn’t want it to jump on my face and suck my brain out so I walked back to the car. We were about to depart back to our campsite, when the smiley owner from yesterday walked up to the car. I hid under the blanket as I could tell he was going to give me a roasting. I apologised straight away. Mel tried to speak but only a whisper came out. Mel's voice had gone! I never thought I'd see the day (hehe). He only came over to check what had happened. He joked that it’s a good test to see what his network is like which meant he had had quite a few phone calls about the noise. He said that they get people partying sometimes so just wanted to see if that was where the screams were coming from. Oh no, it was just me reacting to the spiderfest!

Due to all the excitement, us girls didn’t fancy the long trek up to the toilets so decided to go the natural way. Probably a little too much information you might think but there’s more. Sarah and Mel went and then it was my turn. What I didn’t anticipate was Mel turning on the full beams of the car so my arse was a-glow. I was in the spotlight like I’d never imagined. I did what I had to do and came back to the car. The girls had tears rolling down their faces they were laughing that hard. Well I’m glad that, yet again, I could provide the entertainment for the night. It definitely beat the adrenalin rush that came after seeing all those spiders! I just wish I didn’t have to bare all to my mates in order to provide the laughs…

Next stop…Coffs Harbour.