Port MacQuarie - 1st August

Took the journey further south to Port MacQuarie which was a seven hour bus trip with a few comfort stops in between.Arrived in Port Mac and was pounced on by the backpacker touts trying to get us into their clutches.We decided to walk into town and bear the brunt of the heavy back packs to see some rooms before making our minds up on our accommodation.We found a beautiful apartment that had Suzanne licking the walls and salivating over the bathroom floor, so we decided we deserved a bit of luxury.Found the rooftop hot tub, so relaxed in there under the stars.

2nd August

Walked up to the Artists market in the morning and browsed at the local goods although again, we are unable to purchase anything as we are at our limit in terms of the weight of our back packs.There is a breakwater wall here and there must be about a kilometre of rocks that have been painted with pictures and a ode or two to people who have just got married, good friends, families or have passed away.It was quite impressive and amazing that there are no pictures of ….. well what school boys usually draw!!There were more surfers hanging around in the water and lots of families out and about on a Sunday afternoon by the coast.It's a tidy, clean, picturesque place and full of people who have come up from Sydney to retire and not a typical backpacker place.We had a leisurely lunch overlooking the port and enjoyed the warmth of the sun.Had a swim in the heated pool and another relax in the hot tub and a night in catching up on emails, blogging, washing and chilling out in front of the TV.

3rd August

We went out on to the hilly coastal walk that takes you on to the rain forest nature reserve.The walk took us past rugged rocky headlands jutting out into the sea, which was flanked by golden sandy coves.Walked up to a few of the higher look out points across the bay and enjoyed the scenery.There are lots of pelican's around here and so many birds screeching in the trees.While we were lunching on a salad of poached pear, rocket, goat's cheese, prosciutto and walnut under the canopy of the rainforest, we did stop for a moment and think of those people unfortunate people at work.We decided we would go out for a night on the town only to find that after tarting up - it was only us two out on the town!At least we realised we haven't missed much in the way of night life over the last couple of nights, so we got a take away and made the most of the last night in our luxury accommodation.

4th August

We went to the local art gallery to a photography exhibition of an Aboriginal family, accompanied by descriptions of how they existed.We also went on a tour of the old courthouse, which dates from 1826 and looked through the various logs of proceedings of early trials (…disorderly conduct towards the squire's horse, etc, but nothing really juicy).The staff were friendly and we got to find out some additional information about the Port's past. There were sad stories, such as a father who had stolen some bread to feed a family of five, only to be deported to the other side of the world and never see his family again!It seems so cruel for the sake of a loaf for a whole family to lose their 'bread-winner'. Although closed since 1985, the court had been used in 2008 for a hearing brought against the local council by the NSW Government for inappropriate use of local funds. (The $15 million budget for the new art gallery had been exceeded by 400% - The local council was sacked)