17/9/01



Caroline and I have been on the road now for only 17 days and we have done and seen so much. Our first stop was in Port Stephen which is a very small place with few tourists. We found a campsite right on the water and within ten minutes of walking around we managed to see dolphins messing around in the water. It is always so special to see them they always look so happy and seem to be playing around.
From there I think we ventured up to Lighthouse Beach which I am sure was lovely but at this very moment my memory is failing me. This trip up the east coast is very different to the one we did along the south coast - for a start we are staying in campsites and having lovely warm showers every day, as opposed to the one we had over the month long journey in April. Australia is the land of the shower - they are always super hot and powerful, its great. Our third night was in Coffs Harbour which is a very nice place. We stayed around in a cool campsite just north of town so we were surrounded by nature and the beach was just a stones through away. Whilst we were here we decided to further our diving qualification and do the PADI Advanced Open Water Course. This meant that we had to do five adventure dives. We went for a deep sea dive (30m), an underwater navigation dive, a multi level dive, a peak performance buoyancy dive and an underwater naturalist dive. It was all really good fun we saw loads of cool fish and a few Grey Nurse Sharks which are quite frightening to look at but they do you no harm. On the way to one of the dives we managed to see a few humpback whales aswell, some of which were breaching out of the water. During one of our dives on the first day we could hear the whales talking (or whatever they do) to each other. It was amazing - if you held your breath you could clearly hear all of their squeaks and whirrs!
One of the grey nurse sharks

The Australians seem to have a bit of a thing for large animal and fruit “sculptures”. Here are a few that we saw on the way here from Sydney
The banana tributes in Sawtell and Coffs Harbour
And the very beautiful massive prawn in Ballina. You have to wonder what the hell they were thinking!

From Coffs we are now in Byron Bay which is quite a cool place, everyone is very friendly and chilled out, we have following the locals lead and have done nothing really except relax and surf. Tallow Beach which is just under the lighthouse is amazing for a surf, or even for non surfers because dolphins come and mess around regularly. We have surfed there twice now and both times we have seen them up close. I had a first today, I was walking outback (ie towards the waves) when four Sting Rays swam past me, well I say swam it actually looked like they flew past me it was amazing. Then later on I was on a wave and I looked underneath me and there were about a dozen of the things swimming/flying under the wave, it was great.
We have also ventured up into the hills a bit to visit a town called Nimbin. This is the Amsterdam of Australia, the drug laws do not apply up there and it has a really hippy feel to the place. No one wears shoes and every one seems to be off their tree. I think the place has been a bit spoilt though because every one you pass asks you whether or not you are sorted for "buds". I was so weird, even normal looking housewives were selling cookies a la "buds". We were there for 2 nights and by the end of it the place had grow on us, but it was still a little bit too odd for us.

So now we are in Byron, we have just come from the beach and we will be here for a few more days, more if I get my way, and then it is off the Surfer's Paradise, where we intend to have a quick gander and then leg it because it mings beyond belief. One more thing though, we are currently trying to find jobs in the Alps for this years ski season, any help, advice or jobs would be great, CHEERS!
Our last evening in Byron Bay, Peter and I decided to go for a walk to what they claim is the most easterly point of Australia. I personally am a bit sceptical about this and have a feeling that we may come across another one further up the coast, but maybe that is just me. Anyway, while we were standing there a group of dolphins were swimming their way around the head we were standing on, and to add to this, we also saw some whales about 200 metres out to sea. It was kind of like - where do I look? At the dolphins or the whales? Very cool!

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