Samurai Beach

After The Beaches parkrun I went back to my hotel to shower and check-out before starting my road-trip proper and driving an hour north to my first destination - Port Stephens. I had arrived too early to check in to my Shoal Bay accommodation, so on the way I stopped for lunch and a visit to the Port Stephens Koala Sanctuary.

The Sanctuary cares for sick, injured and orphaned koalas 🐨. There is a big Koala hospital but this was closed to the public for renovation. The koalas they rescue have mostly been hit by cars, or attacked by dogs, or their habitat destroyed, or diseased - many koalas have chlamydia apparently! They aim to treat them and release them back into the wild, but it's not always possible, in which case they remain in the sanctuary.

Visitors first walk along a trail where there are information boards where you learn about everything koala-related, such as the fact that they sleep for around 18-20 hours a day!

Then you go through a gate into the sanctuary area where the koalas were. Here you could walk along the Sanctary Skywalk: a 225 metre long elevated pathway and viewing platform, offering a unique ‘tree top’ perspective into the koala’s natural habitat. The koalas were incredibly difficult to spot at first - I walked around the whole platform without seeing a single koala as they were so well camouflaged! They were also almost all sleeping, curled up in a ball, and hidden amongst the foliage. After I'd got my eye in, I started to spot them - I saw about 10 koalas in total. I tried to photograph them but my mobile phone camera wasn't good enough to take good photos.

You can stay at the sanctuary in glamping huts which looked really nice, and then you get the advantage of being there when the koalas are more active, like at sunrise or sunset. I was originally thinking of staying there, although I'm quite glad I didn't as it's a bit isolated and you'd have to drive into town for dinner!Read more