After leaving the farm, I headed up north to Port Maquarie, about 1.5 hours away. I stayed for 1 days and two nights, just to check out the beaches (very nice. very hot. lots of sun. cheap sunscreen. sunburn.) and to visit the Koala hospital that Port Macquarie is "famous" for. The Koala Hospital is, essentially, a hospital, that takes in koalas who have been hit by cars, or caught in bushfires, or otherwise been injured or fallen ill. The hospital consists of a slightly wooded area that has been divided into sections by fencing, and small, wooden shelters that resemble tree branches have been built at people height. This is where the koalas sit & climb, and they are at people height so that the hospital workers can feed them and clean them. There is a large area in the back with tall trees, although still fenced in, so that koalas that are nearly recovered can regain their tree climbing, food foraging abilities before being released back to the wild. Nearly all of the koalas that come through the hospital are eventually released to the wild, except for those that have been so badly injured that they would not be able to survive on their own. I really enjoyed the koala hospital, even though I was seeing sick koalas there -I still took loads of pictures! I didn't really do much more in the Port other than go to the Koala hospital and to the beach. I walked to all these places as well, and Port Macquarie is not really a walker friendly place. They have many roundabouts, like traffic circles, and no stoplights, so that when you cross the street, you are crossing two sides of a roundabout. Try doing that with 20 pounds strapped to your back! I did get an admiring glance from the girl working the counter in a fish'n'chips place when I told her I was from California though!

I left Port Maquarie on Friday (the 25th) and headed up to Brisbane, which is where I am now, but that will be a later entry. Thanks for writing messages in my comments section! I miss you guys and hope you are all doing well! Oh, and I found out that I got into Naropa, so that's good news I think.