Australia- Byron Bay to Port Macquarie

 The next day we moved on and travelled through lovely countryside. It was another thrill to see signs warning of kangaroos and koalas that might just leap out into the road. HT explained that actually it is a very real risk and should a kangaroo jump out in front of our little car we had better avoid it or the consequences might not be very nice! Luckily we had no scary incidents 

 Next stop was Byron Bay, somewhere I had heard lots about and for some reason wasn't sure I would like but it is a really lovely town with superb beaches and countryside and I wished we had longer there.

 Although the weather was "changeable"I could see the attraction of the huge bay and it's famous surfing waves  

The town has some lovely shops and cafes and a interesting mix of people including some Hari Krishna's one of whom was keen to try and enlighten HT

I went for a walk along the headland and saw Brush Turkeys, Cormorants 

and a Sea Eagle

 I carried on walking along the headland and up to the lighthouse in deteriorating weather

 but had good views on the way

 and met a few kangaroos (or were they wallabies? I still don't know the difference)

 As I got to the lighthouse the heavens opened but I was able to shelter and wait out the brief storm before walking back to Byron just before it got too dark to see, I didn't fancy walking through the brush in the dark imagining all sorts of deadly creatures would come out.

HT and I spent the evening in The Great Northern Hotel with lots of other people enjoying watching the final of the State of Origin, a keenly fought rugby league tournament between Queensland and New South Wales-some refer to this as Australian sports greatest rivalry. It was noisy, raucous and great fun. The Queensland team were the convincing winners which delighted HT having recently spent several months travelling and working in Queensland, although the locals weren't pleased as we were now in New South Wales




Early the next morning I went for a walk around  Tallows Creek Nature Reserve, it was very peaceful with only the sound of birds, I felt a little nervous when I saw the sign warning of Brown Snakes, aren't they the worst ones? I started whistling and stamping my feet to give any snakes due warning I was coming!

 I didn't see any snakes fortunately and made it to Tallows Beach safely, another beautiful beach

On the return I spotted this pretty and well named chap- a Superb Fairy Wren
and then a Kookaburra

Once HT was up we went back to Byron Beach to eat our brunch and to see the sand art that HT had mentioned 'magically' appears each morning

The weather was good and the surfers were out.  I got a fright when I spotted a fin in the water not far from some surfers but before I could shout "shark" I spotted more fins and realised it was a pod of dolphins, thank goodness I hadn't made a fool of myself and caused unnecessary panic on the beach. Two weeks before 2 surfers on a nearby beach had been attacked by a Great White Shark so it is a real risk.

Moving on we drove for a few hours, passing through plantations of sugar cane and bananas. We arrived at our next destination Coffs Harbour, which seems to be famous for an enormous banana sculpture aptly called -'The Big Banana' 

It of course has a fabulous beach too and a pretty harbour. That evening by happy coincidence there was a musician playing at the hostel we were staying at. He was very entertaining, playing many different instruments including several types of guitar and didgeridoos 

I went for my usual early morning walk and had a glorious sunrise as I walked to the harbour and on to the curiously named Mutton Bird Island Nature Reserve

From the top of the steep hill I was again excited to see whales breaching out in the ocean

  Later I had a paddle in the South Pacific Ocean, it was pretty cold and with the risk of sharks I was definitely not going to swim in it

We drove on again making the next stop at Port Macquarie. This town on the Hastings River, has a long river to sea promenade and along here were several large Koala Bear Sculptures.

At the tourist office we found out that there were 50 sculptures in the area but more importantly Port Macquarie is know as Koala Bear central as it has the highest numbers of koalas on the east coast of Oz! He told us there was a Koala Hospital nearby and we rushed to het there before it closed for the day.

The hospital has several 'patient's some of whom will never be able to be released back into the wild because of their injuries. Many inpatients had been victims of bush fires, some had been hit by cars and some mauled by dogs, many are ill because of infection particularly chlamydia which can cause blindness, pneumonia and infertility

They looked so cuddly but we were assured that Koalas will give nasty bites or scratches if anyone tries to handle them.

As we left the hospital one of the volunteers spotted a wild Koala in a tree, I felt we had been very lucky to have seen so many Koalas including one in the wild

 We went back to the town to explore. The promenade leads onto the breakwater, the rocks along here have been painted on, some seemed to be memorials to loved ones, some detailed a family occasion  or holiday, some were very well decorated, some rather bizarre but all were fun to look at

As the sun came down the Pelicans came in to shore, I think they were also attracted by the people fishing off the breakwater and hopeful of some tidbits 

Near our little hotel was Kooloonbung Creek, I went walking along the nature trail the following morning, the dew was still on the spider's webs 

it was very peaceful and quiet, I saw this sign and kept looking up expectantly but couldn't see anything

 Then I heard some loud chattering and getting closer saw hundreds of fruit bats in the trees above, they were huge! Although it was now full daylight some were flying from tree to tree I suppose looking for somewhere to rest for the day

Once again we packed our bags, and checked out of the hotel just before the check out deadline. HT and I had stayed up late into the night watching Wimbledon and the Ashes, the large time difference between the UK and Oz making this 'almost an all nighter'. We hit the road, with still nearly 400km to travel before finally reaching Sydney in two days time.