October 18
Sydney to Port Macquarie

Going to bed early in order to get up early the following morning seldom works. I had very little sleep and was conscious at 05.30 without the aid of my alarm clock. Checkout consisted of me handing over the room key and the man at reception saying thank you. The shuttle arrived as we were chatting and I climbed aboard 7 minutes early. We then cruised the hotels until there were 12 of us crammed into the van and we bumped our way to the airport.

There was a long queue at the check-in but it moved quite fast so that I was soon able to head for the food court. This was a mistake as it was mainly international fast food outlets. I had a reasonably nasty toasted chicken sandwich and walked towards the gate, passing several nice looking cafes in the process.

Virgin had already upset me by changing the time of my flight a week ago – making me get up at an unearthly hour – and I was further miffed to discover that the flight was delayed by 25 minutes, thus meaning that the flight was almost back to the original time and I could have stayed in bed much longer. I found another café, had a nice coffee and watched the planes outside. Returning to the gate, I discovered that the flight had been delayed for another 15 minutes. I sulked but could do nothing about anything and, in the end, we took off only about half an hour late.

Port Macquarie Airport was hot and busy. We walked across the tarmac and came to a grinding halt as no one could open the gate into the grass area in front of the terminal building. One of the staff soon solved the problem, I collected both my bag and the rental car and made my way to Rob and Ann’s.

There, we discussed her Father’s recent death and I met her elder Brother, John, for the first time. It was arranged that John would collect me from the motel at 5, walk me and his dog along the beach and I could then have dinner without having to worry about driving home afterwards. Ann, who doesn’t drink much, would drive me home.

Port Aloha Motel, Port Macquarie	Port Macquarie

I found the motel and checked in. The landlord was very friendly and the unit was fine, a short walk from both the town and the sea.

There was a bye-election in town but, apart from one van, there was little other sign. The media concentrated on other bye-elections in Sydney seats. Port is both a holiday resort and a fishing port. The pelicans were lined up next to the concrete tables used by the fishermen to gut their catch. They are a magnificent, if somewhat outlandish, sight.

There are numerous pleasure and tourist boats along the waterfront, a small seaplane and a large sailing ship.

I walked across the Town Green and then espied a suitable hostelry in which to have a cold beer. There were several Belgian and German beers on offer but I remembered the financial situation and had a local, cheap, one instead.

Town Green, Port Macquarie

I returned to the motel for a rest and was able to do some work with the aid of their clever broadband system. John collected me at 5 and loaded me onto the front seat of his 4WD, which I shared with Kelly, an oldish and just about retired farm dog.

We drove up to the lighthouse, I took some photos and we looked for whales on the horizon – even saw one.

Port Macquarie lighthouse	Lighthouse Beach, Port Macquarie

We then  drove to Nobby’s Beach, the designated dog beach, where Kelly was allowed out to play. There were dogs of all shapes and sizes, including a huge black one, which we decided was a St Bernard. They all seemed to get on well enough and we joined the other people having a gentle stroll.

Nobby's Beach - Kelly in the mid-ground	Nobby's Beach, Port Macquarie

The evening was spent over dinner and a few drinks at Rob & Ann’s, after which Ann ran me home.

October 19