Sydney to Brisbane Road Trip: Port Macquarrie

Our next stop was the town of Port Macquarrie, unfortunately we couldn't find any free camping so we booked into a caravan park for two nights. The guys wanted to hire jet ski's, I preferred a visit to the Koala Hospital, yes the more sedate option.
From the caravan park it was only a ten minute walk, but with all short walks in Australia, the heat made it a test of endurance.

Koala takes it medicine

As everyone knows, Koala's are the cutest animals in the world. It is a common misconception that they are very lazy and do very little. But reading the white board of sick Koala's it became clear they do have enough energy for one thing. A very common reason for admittance is Chlamydia, it seems that the average Koala likes to get around.
Unfortunately Chlamydia is deadly to a Koala if not treated and even if treated it needs to be caught at the early stages.

The White Board of Sick Koalas

The Koala Hospital is run by volunteers and often the volunteers take a sick Koala home as they require 24 hour care to get back on their feet, so to speak. On the white board I noticed the rather odd names given to some of the sick, the names are actually a combination of where the Koala was found and the name of the person who found it. Byron Peters for example, sounds like a Koala getting above its station in life, but is in fact a combination of place and person.
Often Koalas are involved in road accidents (they are out for a walk, not a drive you understand), it's very easy to usher an injured Koala into a box, you simply push it gently from behind in the direction you want it to go in. Although they appear very docile, you wouldn't want to upset a Koala, they have sharp claws and aren't afraid of using them.
Some "patients" have returned to the hospital several times, even after a few road accidents, it seems the Koala community needs some road safety talks, or of course humans need to slow down.

Helpful Hints

After a tour of the Koala Hospital I headed back to the caravan park, the guys where still out, so I decided to read for a little. Unfortuantely I wasn't alone. I heard a rustle from a near by plant and decided to take a closer look. I saw one huge lizard!
While I fetched my camera the lizard decided to inspect our camp site.

The lizard poses

Unfortunately the lizard didn't understand my boundaries with all wild creatures. It's OK as long as they don't make any sudden movements. I decided I didn't like how close Mr Lizard was getting, so made a loud stamp of my feet in his direction. However Mr Lizard misconstrued this as some kind of challenge and ran towards me. I ran in the opposite direction, fast.

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Sydney to Brisbane Road Trip: Port Stephens

From Katoomba we headed towards the coast so we could join the Pacific Coast Highway, that runs right along the East Coast. Our destination for the day was Anna Bay, Port Stephens. We'd all heard it was a beautiful area to visit, with sand dunes, dolphins and amazing beaches. But more importantly there is a free camp site at One Mile Beach, Anna Bay. On our road map, it looked like we would have a short journey, but it actually took a long time. We seem to drive through a forest for about three hours. By the time we made it to One Mile Beach we were all pretty exhausted.
We set up camp, and took a look around. This is what we saw.


One Mile Beach

We also discovered the camp site had a resident Koala, well at least that week it did. Paul christened the Koala Eric, I'm not sure why. Eric didn't move a whole lot, like all Koalas he was doped up on eucalyptus. However at night he made his presence known. Surprisingly Koala's make noises like wild pigs and are incredibly loud.

Eric.

We also discovered we had camped by many ant nests, the Australian ants are huge.


Giant Ant Carries Peanut!

We spent two nights at One Mile Beach, it was such a lovely spot and we had great weather too. Jelmer did some surfing and Paul and Gary went for a couple of runs along the beach. When they reached the nudist part of the beach they removed an item of clothing as a show of support.

Jelmer, Paul and Gary at Anna Bay camp site.

Sydney to Brisbane Road Trip: Blue Mountains

The three sisters, Katoomba.

I had hoped to keep this blog regularly updated, but when I set out from Sydney with Paul (a friend from back home) and two guys (Jelmer and Gary) he had met while in Sydney, it felt good to be away from a computer for a while. But yes I did mean to update sooner, however I'm now working in Cairns and one of the perks of the job is free wi-fi. So it went something like this.
I met Jelmer and Gary for the first time just outside Sydney where the three guys had been camping. Jelmer owns a great jeep, that he had already driven from Perth to Sydney. We had two tents, a camping stove, a table, some chairs and most importantly it would prove, a deck of cards. We drove to the Blue Mountains to begin our road trip.

One well packed boot!

After referring to a few guide books and maps, we noticed a free campsite, near Woodford, called Murphy's Glen. Jelmer was particularly excited about the drive to the site as 5k of it is off road. We left the highway, and started the descent to Murphy's Glen. There is no way a regular car could have used the track. We really didn't know what to expect of the campsite, as we drove further and further away from the highway.
As you can imagine it was quite a surprise when we finally made it to the campsite and found about ten families who had also set up camp. Obviously Australians are hardy travellers. Unfortunately a few hours after we arrived, it started to rain and continued to do so until the following morning. Luckily rather than leave us to sit inside the jeep all evening, one of our neighbours invited us to use their gazebo. But before that Paul decided to dig a river around our tents, to stop them from floating away!


The Blue Mountains get their name from the blue haze from the Eucalyptus trees. I think we were all amazed by the scale of the area. Although the main viewing area at Echo Point is very well developed for tourists, the views are so immense, as far as you can see are trees and nothing else.

Blue Mountains.

At the three sisters. I'm not sure if the hat has shrunk or my head has grown.

We woke early the next day, but had to pack away our tents wet. We were booked into the YHA Katoomba, for the next night, but decided to extend our stay an extra night when we realised how much there was to see.
The YHA is also a great hostel, it felt like checking into a hotel when we arrived.

Another game of cards, at the YHA Katoomba.

We spent the next day exploring the area a little more, we were joined by our dorm mate Chris, who we discovered is from West Kirby, about 5 miles from my hometown.
We decided to take the cable car to the start of a rainforest walk and then take the furnicular railway (the world's steepest) back to the start.

Paul, Jelmer and Gary in the cable car.


Rainforest Walk

The furnicular railway was extremely steep. You don't have any kind of seatbelt, instead you are expected to rest your knees on the padded bar in front. Panic set in when I realised my knees slid under the bar and left me clinging onto the chair, Gary took some photo's with my camera, while I concentrated on not tumbling to my death. Not to be dramatic or anything.

This doesn't really show the steepness of the railway.

We also visited Katoomba Falls, incredible because it is possible to stand on a plataeu halfway down the falls, the views were stunning.

Jelmer

Paul at Katoomba Falls

The town of Katoomba is a real delight. So far I've found most Australian towns to be very similar, all built on a grid plan, with little variation. With the growth of chain stores at times it can feel very American. Fortunately Katoomba has kept a large number of independent stores and eateries. I really enjoyed our time in the area.