Port Macquarie, New South Wales

Smoke delayed the train we were to take by four hours so the rail company hired several coaches to transport all the passengers to their destinations.

An hour and a half south of Brisbane we drove through a series of steep, rolling hills and rises. There were a lot of good opportunities for some great views as we passed through. Banana plants, and macadamian nut orchards and pasture lands were the predominant uses of the land.

We met a wonderful man from Port Macquarie on the bus, named Richard. If not for the smoke that delayed our train we would have never met him. He had a ticket for first class but having to take the bus threw us together one seat behind the other. We spent about eight hours together on the bus and when we reached Port Macquarie he offered to drive us to our Vacation Village condo. It’s just another example on our vacation of how God seems to be making our way easier.

One of the most pleasant surprises of our stay in the Port were the birds—the kind of birds that you would usually see in an aviary in the US: cockatoos, cockatiels, magpies, parrots, parakeets, kookaburras, and one which had a voice like a flute or panpipe, the Butcher Bird. The first night we forgot to close the windows and were awakened at 4:45 AM by a kookaburra outside our window. If you don’t know what a kookaburra sounds like, please find an audio file and listen and you’ll know how we felt being woken up by one.

Since we were staying about a mile out of town and the bus service was scant, I decided to rent a car. The closest dealer was about two and a half miles away—only one blister from walking there—but it allowed us to move around much more easily than we otherwise could have.

On Sunday, October 7^th, (Your Saturday afternoon) I got up early and connected to the internet so I could listen to the Gators play LSU. WRUF-FM carried the play-by-play by Mick Hubert, the voice of the Gators: Oh My! It was a great game. Shortly after it was over, we attended a church service at the Port Macquarie Presbyterian Church. Scott, the pastor, had a good message from Revelation. (He preached almost like a Baptist, Barry!)

Sunday afternoon we visited a koala hospital and learned how a group of mostly volunteers help to rehabilitate and return injured or ill koalas to the wild. It was sad to see how some of the koalas arrived at the hospital but was heart-warming to see how most of them recovered and were able to be returned to their home territories. The ones that are too injured to be returned are kept at the hospital until the end of their lives.

On Monday we drove a few miles west to the Billabong Koala and Wildlife Park. You’ve seen some of the photos on Facebook that I posted there. (At least I hope you have.) It was a smaller park, maybe fifty acres or so, with a relaxed atmosphere and a good variety of indigenous species, and they offered several opportunities to get up close to the animals.

We started off by buying some kangaroo food (mostly cracked corn) to feed the wallabies and kangaroos. It was an amazing experience. I never expected to get so close to the native animals. Following that, we got to pet a koala, a dingo, and a fluffy frog-beak. (A native owl species.) We got a look at a lot of other Australian animals at the park before we headed back to our condo.

On the way back to Sydney on the last day of our stay in Australia, I happened to look over at a golfer walking up on a green to putt, and saw that the rest of his foursome were three kangaroos! I would have liked to watch what happened on the green but the train moved on south and they vanished behind a clump of eucalyptus trees. (Guess the kangaroos carried their clubs in their pouches.)


And He said unto them, "But who do you say that I am?" And Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Mark 8:29