We are still in Port Macquarie. The weather has been hot and sunny here so we see no reason to leave. And we are camping about 20 metres from the beach.

Today we did a kayaking tour. We kayaked up a river and saw a load of flying foxes. Basically they look like really large bats. We then kayaked under some very low branches. I was a bit paranoid, worried about snakes and spiders when the girl in the kayak behind us started screaming “I’ve been bitten! Somethings bitten me” scream scream!

My first thought was she had been bitten by a snake, but it turns out it was just a wasp. Still pretty painful and scary when you dont know what it is.

After our kayak through the spider infested mangroves, we headed out into the harbour. There were good waves coming in and we did a bit of kayak surfing. We got a great wave and rode it for miles.(well about 200 metres). But it was a real buzz.

We stopped at a beach and had some watermelon and bananas. Then we had to paddle against the tide back to the bus. This was really hard paddling. It seemed like we were paddling like crazy and not getting anywhere. But we eventually made it back in one piece. It was a fun day and we are enjoying the sunshine.

Heres some piccys

Port Macquarie

We are currently in Port Macquarie. We went to a koala park today and saw koalas, roos, crocodiles and snakes. We then went to find a waterfall , but the only water we found was gushing out of the sky. We gave up in disgust and headed back to beautiful hot sunshine in Port Macquarie.

By Jo

17 Feb 2002

Heres some piccys of day two of our road trip. We stayed in Myall Lakes National Park in a campsite by a lake. Very nice.

We also found some massive sand dunes and a dingo.

Heres some piccys.

Myall Lakes National Park

We took Dory off road on Saturday to see what she is capable of. She seems pretty competent and handled this fire trail pretty well. We were quite impressed.

Heres some piccys taken by John and me. It is way steeper than the photos show. We were in 4LLc for most of it. That is as low a gear as you can get.

Off Road Test

This is a story
About a van named Dory
Who grew up in Japan
And had a big Plan
So to Aus she did go
To meet Mike and Jo
And embark on a road trip
Around the coast to the tip
So away they went
Lots of money to be spent
We’ve no aim in mind
Just hoping to find
A little bit of Sun
And to have loads of fun.

we cant get the moble phone connected but there are plenty of unsecured networks here

We picked up Dory on Monday. Dory is a big blue 2.8 litre intercooled turbo diesel 4WD. If she keeps taking us to 42 Wallaby Way, we may need to rethink the name.

She has rear seats that adjust sideways and backwards and even into a bed should it be too wet, too late or we’re too pissed to put up a tent. She has central locking, power windows and front and rear air conditioning. She also has a remote starter, but we don’t have the remote for it :-(.

The only concern is on Tuesday she kept making a random screeching sound. We’re not sure what this is all about, but I’m pretty sure she’s not speaking whale.

She hasn’t made the noise since, so hopefully will be ok. We’ll see if it happens at the same time next month.

We drove Dory to Manly on Tuesday night to visit Mike’s mate Mark. Mark has an awesome place overlooking the harbour. He fed us delicious home made burgers and salad and got me drunk on a delicious Hunter Valley wine (I normally hate Aussie whites). Mike had to stay sober as he was driving (story of his life).

Anyway, Dory is now all fitted out and ready to go, complete with porta-potti, cooker and cooking gear, shower and shower tent, sleeping tent, water, spare fuel, table, chairs, UHF radio and even food. We are going camping this weekend somewhere near the Blue Mountains to try out all our gear and make sure we know how to use it.

Here’s some piccys of the beast.

By Mike:

We have been in Australia for 10days now and except for going into Sydney for a day trip we haven’t been anywhere that hasn’t entailed looking at Camper vans, Mobile homes or cars.

That is all going to change today. We are off to the pub for Sunday lunch. However this being Australia the pub isn’t just on the corner of the street but will entail a 90 mile round trip.

On the way we go past signs for Windsor Castle Hill. Oops missed a comma. Should be, going past a sign for Windsor and another sign for Castle Hill.

We cross the Hawkesbury River on a ferry. This is similar to the Sandbanks ferry but smaller. Instead of running on chains it has steel cables.

As we progress to our destination the road changes from tar sealed to gravel. I am now starting to understand why we are going for a 4wd vehicle. The road is rutted and full of potholes but this doesn’t slow our driver John down.

When we finally arrive at St Albans it appears to be a pub in the middle of nowhere.

The meals were excellent I had home cured salmon with potato chips and salad. The others had risotto with ¼ chicken each. I washed my meal down with a bottle of Redback beer; this is produced in Western Australia.

We had a short stroll to the river, where I noticed a sign stating that the road was originally part of the Great North Road convict trail.

Lunch over and our exercise taken we pile back into the car and make our way back..

Here’s a map of our route