Day Seven: July 13th, 2013
Port Stephens Peninsula to Port Macquarie
I thought I was being clever when I set my alarm to the noise of the 'crickets', as it was nature-y, but struggled to decipher it over the noise of the birds this morning. We slept well (apart from a sleep talking episode from Elliot that woke me a few times - very normal in this household) and packed up the tent after letting the dew dry off as much as possible. We loved the camp site and would definitely recommend it to anyone camping on the peninsula.
We figured we should stop by an auto shop and buy some oil for the car, so that we can take it to a garage for an oil change in due course. We spoke to a very helpful teenage guy who clearly knows his cars. He looked at us as if we were aliens when we said we weren't going to attempt the oil change ourselves. I'm sure he was slyly laughing as he tried to explain just how "simple" it is. I think we'll pass on that - our home on wheels needs to be taken care of. He told us a little about his car, which we passed in the parking lot. Very cool, the kid definitely knows his stuff.
Back on the open road, we passed some cows, horses, goats and even a camel. After taking the 1 north crossing the Manning River, we joined the Ocean Road and took the scenic drive. The views were spectacular so we decided to stop in Port Macquarie for a few days. Elly had found Flynns Beach Caravan Park online, which apparently has koalas living in the trees. Sold! We made our way there and pulled into reception. The manager was very friendly and assured me that she had seen some koala poo earlier that morning, so there are definitely some around. She also informed us that it is mating season, so we will most probably hear them before we see them. $28 a night for an unpowered site.
We had a choice of plots, and went for one near the kitchen under a tree. The camp kitchen is tiki tiki-esk, and a nice area to sit. Unfortunately the bathrooms and laundry are pretty outdated (although very clean and with hot showers), but the site is very short walk from the beach and the prospect of a koala sighting sort of outweighs an old loo. The other half of the managing team came by for a chat (the husband of the lady we had met earlier) and gave us some fab tips about the area. Definitely the friendliest site we have been to so far, and probably the moat beautiful. We popped the tent up and laced up our trainers for a good old fashioned explore-run. Elly went off at his usual pace leaving me behind to take in the scenery. It turned into a pretty bad run speed wise, as I couldn't go 20 meters on the coast hugging path without wanting to snap a picture, but made it out to Town Beach Reserve and a large skate park which looks pretty new. There were large crowds gathering and a few people lighting up barbecues (it being the last Saturday night of the school hols). The boulders marking the edge of the harbour are all colourfully decorated with painted signatures and messages. I especially liked on that read "21 years of family holidays", which listed 3 families of five couples and all their children. Clearly this is a special place to bring them all back year after year.
I arrived back at the campsite after Elliot, of course, who had just been down to a beach where he had seen whales breaching. Clearly being the slower of the two gets worse and worse. Hopefully they will be there in the morning when we set off for a walk.
We popped to the local Coles to get an avocado to eat with the leftover fajitas and decided to pick up a multiplug extension cord. We are always having to find random sockets where we can charge our multitude of phones, cameras, computer, iPad etc. I have never valued the 100% battery sign on my phone so much. We went to try it out back in the camp kitchen, and found an American girl trying to plug her computer into one of the two sockets available. Perfect timing: I asked her if she'd like to use our extension, and we managed to charge everything while we ate, and still boil the kettle for a cup of tea! Off to the tent now; praying that I'll wake up and a koala will be sat outside.