Sunday 9th March

Another lovely morning dawned, and we were on our way to Port Macquarie – but first we had to attend the Oyster and Wood Festival. We’d said we would (!!) and we didn’t want to let anyone down! Before we left the motel, we asked the owner what bird had woken me up early in the morning – it was singing a very tuneful melody. Turns out it was a magpie. I’m sure it can’t be the same as our UK magpies – do they sing nicely? Do any of you know? To prove it was, he called this pair of birds down to take food from him. He said the birds come every morning early, then again about 10.30am when it’s coffee time as they know there’ll be food for them. They looked larger than our magpies and have more white markings on their feathers. Because of all the rain of the night before, the festival ground was a quagmire and although lots of sawdust from all the logs that had been chopped the previous day had been laid on the boggiest bits, it was still a bit spongy. I met a lady who emigrated from Islington in 1961 and had never been back to England since. She asked lots of questions about “home” so still considers it as such even though she now holds Australian citizenship.

There were a few stalls around selling the same sort of things you get at our village fairs – I picked up some little gifts for home, then we stopped for about 45 minutes to watch some of the wood chopping. Some of these men went through these 18” diameter eucalypt logs like we’d cut a slice of bread – and in about the same time too. One was giving away a 76 second advantage, and STILL beat all his opponents. Watching them standing on the logs and chopping between their feet was almost more than I could bear – one slip and you’d lose half your foot or even worse. We would have liked to stay and watch the tree felling but that wasn’t on until 12 noon (or thereabout). We couldn’t stay around to watch the oyster opening competition either – the excitement would have been overwhelming!!

So off we set, onwards and upwards - well on the map anyway – and we decided to go on the coast road not the Pacific Highway. We’re suckers for punishment! Once committed to this road, that’s it – there’s no going back, unless you do go back of course. And it gets bumpier and lumpier with every passing kilometre – and there are lots of them before you can get off again! We bumped our way through Bungwahl, round Smiths Lake, past one of the largest caravan parks we’ve ever seen, through the Pacific Palms regeneration project and through Booti Booti National Park eventually reaching Forster and Tuncurry. These are really one sprawling town divided by the narrow inlet from the Tasman Sea into Wallis Lake. By now, thoroughly tired of the bumpy roads, we saw from the map that we could cut inland a little further north back onto the Highway and continue on (hopefully) a better road. We almost missed the turning – yet another failing of Oz roads is the poor signposting – or perhaps we’re just too picky!

Anyway, we had no further problems and came off the Highway for the last lap of today’s journey to Port Macquarie, as its name suggests, right on the seafront. Our motel here is the Koala Tree, within walking distance of the town but nice and quiet. It’s been refurbished and is very clean and comfortable. Once we’d sat down and had a look at what there is round here, we’ve decided to spend another night. As we’d arrived just after 4.00pm, we got ourselves sorted then took a walk into town. It’s enjoying a lot of regeneration with plenty of new shopping areas and a very tidy seafront. It’s an old convict town so the history is displayed on plaques all over the place. We had a very pleasant walk about then headed back to the motel. By now it was dusk, and we were amazed when hundreds of lorrakeets flew up the road, and settled in the trees. The locals ignore them, just as we would ignore starlings settling down for the night. We thought that was amazing, but further on as we passed the park, thousands of bats suddenly took off from the trees, and flew overhead in a great black swarm. We've never seen so many in our lives.

After Tom had taken some great video of them, we continued back to the motel where I conjured up another dinner from the scraps in the fridge!

Tomorrow is wildlife and local history day with plenty of walking and photos. Night night, once again.