The Owls Aren't There Anymore It Seems

On my last road trip I went on a walk in the town of Port Macquarie to see if I could spot a Powerful Owl, which I wrote about in this old post, but unfortunately, I didn't spot any -
Are the Powerful Owls What They Seem?

I vowed I would return one day soon and do the walk again in a bid to spot one and I got my chance to do this on my three-week road trip to Tasmania and back by making Port Macquarie my first overnight stop.

I stayed in a motel in the city centre so I could walk around town and have a drink or two without worrying about driving afterwards.

On the wall of my motel was this picture of an owl (not a powerful owl though) which I thought was rather cool, so I snapped a picture with my iPod on the way out for my night on the town, which involved seeing the movie 'The Conjuring 2' (notice the trailer at the movie's IMDB site goes for 2:37 minutes?-) at a packed local cinema.

Number 237 would show up in a few bizarre places on my road-trip, as well.

Heading to Eden from Lakes Entrance I find it is 237 km away

I didn't realize until now that the motel I stayed in had a coffin shaped pool, which over the next three weeks of my road trip would seem a rather appropriate shape to the themes I would encounter. 

I ain't afraid of no ghost?

I also thought it was ironic that I had booked a ghost tour of Port Arthur in a weeks' time and ran into this movie promo cardboard cutout in the foyer, pictured above, to the new Ghostbusters movie coming soon to cinemas.

I also thought it was an amusing coincidence that the main child actor who plays Janet in 'The Conjuring 2' is Madison Wolfe and that my main reason for heading down to Tasmania was to see Chelsea Wolfe play at Dark Mofo.

Madison Wolfe

Chelsea Wolfe

My Pick of Dark Mofo Would Have to be Chelsea Wolfe
I quite liked 'The Conjuring 2', even though it was a bit over the top in Hollywood movie-making ways, but I found the bones of the story quite interesting and thought it was money well spent for a night out at the movies.
Little did I know at the time that parallels in this story would come back to haunt my own travels, so to speak, in a few week's time.

My breakfast choice at the Sea Acres cafe

I got a good night's sleep and headed down to Sea Acres National Park for some breakfast and a walk around the park to see if I could spot a powerful owl this time round before I drove down to Sydney for two nights, but I was advised that a recent storm had brought down a tree near the owl's nesting area and that the owls hadn't been spotted since. 

The owl's nesting area was closed
off after a tree-fall on the track

In fact, staff were worried that the owls may not return at all. 
Part of the track was closed on the day and admission was only $4, instead of $8, which meant instead of walking a loop you had to turn back at the closure and walk back the same way you had come.

It was a nice relaxing walk with plenty of other birdlife to see, and/or listen to, but no owls unfortunately.  

In hindsight I thought it was synchy that I was reading the late Lyall Watson book, 'Dark Nature', that had a snake and an apple on the cover and that the first town on my road trip would have a snakeskin and a town on the last day of my road trip would have a big apple. 

The snakeskin you see when you do the
owl walk circuit at Sea Acres N P.

The big apple in the town of Stanthorpe, Queensland, Australia

As I wrote in my last post -
Road Trip #2 
I was nearly killed in a fatal smash outside Gosford on my way down to Cronulla, which is just outside of Sydney.
I came to a stop a few feet behind a large bus when we all stopped suddenly and a four wheel drive like the one pictured below almost ran up my rear at 110km an hour, it only swerved at the last moment into the vacant lane beside me.

I nearly got slammed into the back
of a bus because of this accident.

And when I did get to Cronulla and parked my car after a long drive made even longer by the accident on the highway, I was greeted by my totem animal, the crow.

A crow greets me as I walk into
 the Cronulla Leagues Club.

I also encountered another strange looking bird just before the accident when I stopped at a rest-stop designed to look like Australia's biggest rock and grabbed a Subway sandwich and a drink.

I found it strange that before I stepped into my car I saw the bird above before the road accident and when I stepped out of my car after the crash I was met by the crow.  
Coincidence?

What Do Owls Have to Crow About?-)

UPDATE: October 17th, 2016.
I saw, but failed to capture in an image, a crow fly across the sky over the Olympic stadium just before the fireworks started before the 2016 grand final between the Sharks and the Storm.

The sky just above the Olympic stadium
before the game started

I knew the Sharks were going to win when I saw the crow in the sky just before kick-off. 

The Sharks with their first ever grand final trophy
won in 2016. Something to crow about, I think.

The Sharks 2016 grand final trophy
sitting in the entrance to the club