Port Macquarie

We have been in Port Macquarie since Tuesday - yet another pretty little township (actually this one's big enough to be a city) on the coast. Our caravan park is situated right on the breakwall at the mouth of the river, and you can walk right out to the end of the wall at high tide and feel the waves with all your body. If you keep walking round, you get to the Town Beach, which although rocky, seems to be a nice place for a swim.

If you go in the other direction (into the harbour) along the wall, within about 500m you are literally in the centre of town - it's certainly nice and close. What amazes me (probably a city dweller thing) is that a lot of municipal buildings (Police, Library, Centrelink) all have beautiful views overlooking the river. While this is nice, something in me screams out "what a waste" - but it does add character to the place! They have done a lot of work with the wharf and town square (pictured, wth Anna & Grace) and it's a very pleasant place to go for a stroll, pick up a feed, or to do some shopping.

Port Macquarie was a convict settlement early in the 1800s - the main part of which was actually right where our caravan park is. You can walk around and see remnants of old buildings, wells, grave stones and the like, situated on the hills surrounding the river. Many a ship has come to grief on the rocks at the entrance of the harbour as well - there seems to be information dotted about town on literally hundreds of shipwrecks in the area.

While the town is nice, the caravan park is decidedly ordinary - unclean amenities is a real annoyance, and the biggest issue for us is that none of their van sites have a concrete slab for our annexe. This means you have to lay your flooring down on dirt - or, since it had been raining for days when we arrived, a nice layer of mud. Oh but here's the kicker - some sites do have slabs - but they are on the side of the site you use for the CARAVAN. So while your caravan's tyres sit beautifully square and dry, you're forced to live in dirt and/or mud. Good thinking!! NOT.