Stop two. Koala Shores.

The journey from Cessnock to Port Stephens took less then 2 hours. It's funny driving over here. I mean better. I can't drive anywhere, city or country, without it taking an age. Here the roads are so much clearer. Ok most of them aren't in the best state of repair but the road is always open. We never seem to get stuck behind some selfish driver. You know the one (Linda). That one who never looks in his rear veiw mirror, drives far to slowly for the conditions, hogs the middle of the lane and scowls at you from beneath his tweed flat cap for having the audacity to over take him!

Koala Shores (off Lemon Tree passage) is cool from the moment we turn up. When we walk into reception we're met by a really friendly lass who gives us loads of info about the area. We park up and have a look, around as you do. There's access to great barbecue facilities, tennis courts, open air pool. On top of this there's a great fishing spot I've just spotted.

It's now the weekend and as is the case with campsites across the world (I imagine) it's quite full with people, especially families. It seems that one of the main reasoons for people to head to this site is to fish. At on point I count 15 small motor boats in the water. A lot of the blokes are standing about chatting with a stubby in their hand, getting set to go out fishing, ready to go out or already out. There are kids of various ages running around entertaining themselves. The women, in the main, are sat on porches chatting and socializing. Both Jo and I are approched by people who say hello and ask where we're from and where we're going. Everyone we meet at the Koala Shores is happy to give us advice on where to go what sort of rig or bait I shold be using. They seem really honest, genuine and nice people. One point I'm people watching when I see a bloke walking in front of a few chalets. He casually lets on to another guy. Chalet man replies with 'do you fancy a beer mate'? To which the reply is 'yeah. Sure'. It was 10am but what the hell it's the weekend.

While we were here in Port Stephens we spent the day doing some of the local activities. We booked through a company called Moonshadow to do 4wheel drive dune safari, dune surfing and dolphin watching. We Started with the dune safari which was amazing the views were great. Our guide/driver had tonnes of local knowledge explaining how to get water from the desert, telling us about the ecology of the area and aboriginal history. One of the best bit for me though (being a SiFi geek) was going to where they filmed Mad Max. Barter Town. Dune surfing was a lot of fun like sledging but hot and sweaty. Jo was up and don that hill like a yoyo. The dolphin watching was a bit of a waste of time. It was one of these big corperate jobs. The boat we were on was too big. Too full of rude people. We felt out of place because we didn't have bum bags, new white trainers and baseball caps on. We kind of fell in with this group of middle aged Japanese ladies who had us in stiches, taking the micky out of people with bad dress sense or just shouting at people for standing in the way. I wouldn't do the Moonshadow dolphin watching tour again. I would try to find a smaller boat to take us out.