Flying solo - Port Macquarie

For me there was an notable change in climate from stepping on the train at Newcastle and alighting five hours later in Port Macquarie. I arrived around 7pm to a humid subtropical evening. The sound of birds fremescent and rhythmically accompanied by the cicadas. There's palm trees everywhere, a welcome change from the usual, humble eucalypt.
 

Cheeky and his pal Groodle

I was given some rough directions toward my hostel and arrived about fifteen minutes later at Ozzie Pozzie, a YHA backpackers. The hostel has been added to over the years creating a network of traveller's nests bordering various covered courtyards. There's a pool and ping-pong tables and a TV room complete with an overflow of old VHS classics (I watched The Beach, again). The potted palms and a few beautifully painted murals really bring the tropics into the hostel. Waking up each day is like stepping into the rain forest to brush your teeth.
A long-term resident here is a rainbow lorikeet called Cheeky. And he is just that... I recommend introducing yourself first to the feathered friend before attempting to walk past him barefoot, if he's hopping around on the floor he takes to bee-lining towards your pinky toe to remind you of your manners!

I think I've done the most amount of walking from day to day since our arrival in Aus. I awoke early on Wednesday and decided to follow the Hastings river up to the mouth and then hike the coastal walk. At the mouth of the river Hastings is a large section of painted rocks which has been added to over the years, tides of travellers artistically marking their passing through with mutations of the common 'I woz ere' catchphrase. I admired them for a long while.

The coastal walk is where it gets interesting. Picture an entrancing illustration from a children's fairy tale book and you'll be halfway toward imagining the majestic surroundings. The narrow, cobbled path weaves unevenly up and down and in and out of the multiple coves along the Port Macquarie coastline. Indigenous flora is unyielding and in abundance. The native animal life noisy and curious. For most of the walk you can't see civilization (apart from the occasional Surf Life Saving Club and convenient toilet) and, if I'm honest, once further on from the town beaches, you're blissfully alone and in awe of the crashing ocean, sandy beaches and dense, mossy, emerald-green rain forest. Complete with mosquitoes, of course!
On Thursday I managed to make it the whole way to Lighthouse beach which is well worth the distance to see it. From the lighthouse hill you can easily see all the way along the 9 km curl of white sand and turquoise ocean.

$5 hired me a bicycle from the hostel and with it I cycled to the koala hospital, which admits between 200 to 250 'patients' a year. The hospital is open 365 days a year, staffed by volunteers, with the exception of the vet and leaf pickers. They manage to run the hospital on donations alone. National Geographic have released an hour TV documentary, 'Koala Hospital', available for purchase which also helps donate funds to the hospital and help prevent the threat of extinction to the most beloved marsupial. We were given a brief run through of each of the current patients, their reason for admission to the hospital, their treatment and ultimate outcome.
Most koalas are treated and successfully reintegrated into the wild. Others have become regular visitors, the 'clumsy' ones. I was interested to find out that there's around 800 different species of eucalypt in Australia. The koala species eats only around 50-60 varieties, determined largely by their geographic upbringing. Mummy koala passes an enzyme found in her poop to her baby and with this enzyme the young koala can then successfully digest that species of eucalyptus. In aboriginal dialect, koala means 'little water' and are aptly named as they require little additional water to that of the content they obtain from the leaves. Due to this, aboriginals believed killing a koala would bring on a perilous drought. The koalas are really cute and at 3pm a group of visitors and myself get to see the koalas being fed their milk. They're really cute.

On Friday I walked around the Kooloonbung creek national park. The deafening screeches in the trees above belong to thousands of flying foxes, hanging around upside down. At first I got excited spotting a few then realised they were everywhere... I then became quickly concerned with where their poo was falling, which I can assure you, had no relevance to the direction their bottoms were pointing! The creek is more like a swamp with temperate rain-forest thick vegetation. I could imagine walking there to cool off on hot days. I saw a huge goanna lizard on the path as well.

I left the hostel at 3pm with a jammy lift I managed to score a few days before. Sam is a lovely trainee nurse who lives in Coffs Harbour and offered to take me and Sean, another back-packer, with her. The petrol contribution was easily a third of the cost of a bus fare. We explored Southwest Rocks en route too. Thanks Sam!