Offroad driving and back in the city

3-2-2010 (Wednesday)

All up very early @ 7:30. At breakfast we decided to go further up north due to the rain coming in. Our stop is Port Macquire, officially the place with the best climate in the whole of Australia.
But the first turn we took we arrived on a gravel kind of road in the midst of a national forest, no way to turn the van. So we drove for 6 km in this huge van on a soft road through a forest. Positive thing was that we finally were in the forest without needing to hike, negative thing it brought some tension in the drivers cabin ;). But we got out well and now we appreciate asphalt even more.

Kids slept most of the way, just before Port Macquire we went to a small zoo called Billabong Koala breeding centre. With most of typical Australian animals. We padded a Koala, feed different kind of Kangaroos, saw snakes, ostriches, dingo’s and all kind of birds. One of the birds a giant eagle.
All though we saw the roos and koala’s in real, touching them was a nice experience.

Around 4 we arrived a our campsite, sundowner Port Macquire, a park situated in the centre of town and on beachfront. Nice to be in a town again, after all we are real cityslickers.
Off course we had a swim in the pool and drinks in front of the van.

Tonight we had Sharon’s belated diner out, we got reference from our favorite travel guide the footprint East Coast Australia. Very comprehensive and clear travel book. We brought more than five guides. Usually we use the guides day before or day of travel, works good for us.
The restaurant we choose was Fusion 7 on Horton street (one of the busy streets). And indeed was an excellent choice, real good fusion cooking.
Walking back Zeb fell asleep and it started raining just when we arrived back in the van.

We got quit some rain during the nights and also some parts of the days, It seems further up north there is more rain the coming week. So we have to see what we will do. We have little more than over 2 weeks in the van before we will hand it back in Brisbane. So we are on track and no need to hurry. As they say over here: “no worries mate”