Port Macquarie was our next stop. The caravan park (yes remember we are still in the campervan) was right on the sea shore and had an incredible promenade all the way into town from it.
Our first stop was at the billabong wildlife park (www.billabongkoala.com.au) a family run park with Koalas, kangaroos, dingos etc. It was amazing!! We had our first ever encounters with koalas and instantly fell in love. These mini bears sleep 18 hours a day (like emma) and eat up to 500 leaves a day too (unlike emma, unless leaves are the new cookies!!). You have a chance to hold them here too, and the owner of the park got out a 5 week year old baby koala which was just adorable. These koalas are of course used to human contact, however wild koalas are not as friendly as one might think; their claws are incredibly sharp and can cut right through you - so careful next time u encounter one!!
Also at the park there were loads of kangaroos (our first hands on encounter), which you could feed by hand. They were just amazing, bouncing up to you and holding you by the hand whilst they munch away at the food. In one of the female kangaroos we saw a tiny joey pop out of her pouch and begin to nibble on the crumbs that the mother was leaving behind (loads of pictures to show u of this - got a little snappy happy in the park!!).
Finally we had an encounter with dingos. Not many people know what dingos are (we certainly didn't); they are descendants of an asian wolf and look like a mix between a wolf, fox and dog with the climbing, hunting and cuteness factors of all three animals. Wild Dingoes can be vicious however the ones in the park had been trained and were as friendly as pet dogs! In Australia, you have to have a license to have a dingo as a pet and are forbidden from breeding them with house dogs as they fear that the Dingo specie may soon become extinct!
Our second day started off at the Koala Hospital www.koalahospital.org.au. This is where all the koalas that are unable to fend for themselves (many have been run over by cars) come and stay for as long as they need. The facilites are incredible, with a large icu centre and best of all you can visit it for a gold coin donation (good chance to get rid of some old pesatos!!). There was a 23 year old koala with arthritis staying there, who was unable to climb up any of the trees to reach the leaves, so had to be hand fed. Her arthritis came from overclicking her fingers (anyone know another 23year old who does that!!).
Later on in the afternoon we did what seems to be the law here in australia - surfing!!! We booked on for a 2 hour lesson and it was awesome!!! Fine your falling over 90% of the time (100% in emmas case) but the thrill of even getting to your knees on the board and standing up for 5 seconds is amazing. By the end of the 2 hours we were exhausted, but I (Sam) knew that it would not be my last surf in Oz!!
On route to our next destination (Byron Bay - see later) we stopped off at Port Stephens, a lively little port famous for its whale and dolphin trips, so we decided to stop and do a dolphin trip. It was great - we saw a load of dolphins who swam curiously up to the boat.
We spent the night at Coffs Harbour famous for a big banana but we are not really sure why! We left Coffs early to get to Byron, stopping at a sweet little town of Yamba for breakfast- visiting the local market and bought a load of fudge!!!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment