Kiss the Camel

Friday morning and our big east coast adventure begins. First of all we hit Port Maquarie or
Port Maguire as Madtin 'dont let me forget to put suntan lotion on my bald spatch' Gravy like to call it. We stopped off in Newcastle for lunch (Dave (Dave who?...Dave Jay) why-eye man) where Amy spat on schnoo, madtins kit kat fed the 5000 and where the art of kite flying has not yet been realised. Thankfully since we have left Sydney Martin has given up his "fun" game of pelting me with his dirty socks...nice. There is now a new game though... the random sign reading game ...... "Aqua Diving Centre"!

In Port Maguire we BBQ'd and drank and played some canasta...Madtin (bad_loser@hotmail.com) lost three games and won only one...Martins version of these events (Dave (Dave who?...Dave Jay) can verify this) goes something along the lines of "Me and Amy won Canasta"! His run of bad luck/lack of skills may have had something to do with his concentration being elsewhere that evening - like more on his biscuits. At hostel closing time we went back to our little hut and Madtin got 'tired' as soon as he saw his bed! So we stole his pillow and duvet and when this didnt work we had to hide his matress to stop the inevitable! Does any one want a biscuit?

We found a whale watching tour that was still running, should have guessed it may not have been the most successful trip in the world considering the other three tour operators had shut down saying it was "Out of Season"! But as an added bonus we got a free river cruise and saw some posh Dawson's Creek style houses which we now plan to retire in. We went to a fish farm and fed the fish then the organisers fed us...tea and cake which Martin spat back out right at the point we had asked a stranger to take a photo of us all. Martin took an award winning photo of a seaplane and then declared himself a Loser. Unfortunately it was McHappy day so we sampled some Big Macs in order to 'help the children', we played some more cards, had another BBQ, some more goon and then took a jaunt to the local irish bar (no wonder an irish guy won the australian pop idol competition!) Schnoo made a new maate, chris who liked foodie (rugby) and thought Martin was called Martian - "Wow that's a strange name, haven't heard that one before"...serves you right for slurring your words I guess Madtin :) We found a breathaliser machine which confirmed our suspisions that Madtin was the most drunk out of all of us. Despite this, a more drunk local asked us for a lift down the road, presumably because we had the ability to blow into the straw so couldn't have been that drunk!

The next morning we got up early to pack and whale watch. It was a lot of fun to begin with...all of us brimming with hope and the possibility we may actually see a whale. (First time i've ever been on a boat and been handed a life jacket and been told to put it on straight away - how to install confidence in your customers!) The boat ride was a little bumpy then we all move up the front of the boat and start getting a little wet, then start getting a little seasick. Stu took the brunt of it although I wasnt too far behind him :( My saving grace was the dolphins that arrived to play alongside the boat! It was amazing. There was a sighting of a whale but it definitely was the one that got away beacuse we didnt see it again. Aye well, better luck next time i guess.