Date: 3rd December
Text by: Carlos
December has been spent driving. Fromt he last time I wrote we went north through Norseman and then finally East across the "Nullabor Plain". The thing about the nullabor plain is that "null-abor" actually means "no-trees" in latin (it's not aboriginal), but there are actually plenty of trees on the plain. In fact of the 1200kms there is only about 200kms where the trees disappear. As you can tell, I was misled and disappointed by the name!
The other part of this drive was the dullness factor. It was so dull that I devised some mathematical problems for myself as Anna read her book. I managed to calculate the average number of dead kangaroos I was busily avoiding on the road to give me a total number of corpses per kilometre and hence the total dead kangarros we passed. Roughly 1200. About 1 every 1km, but mostly in the first 600km's. Then Anna joined in and we found out that there was an average of 4 crows per corpse and that meant 4800 crows on the road! The only strange thing was we only saw 1 wedge-tailed eagle and only almost killed 1 kangaroo ourselves. 2 disappointing stats to finish on.
Thats how boring a drive it was. And I finished 3 books. In 3 days.
There were 2 highlights. At Eucla you can visit the town that got swallowed up by the sand... quite spooky! And then about 1/2 way along you get to see some amazing cliffs (from the top of course!) and we also saw a seal hunting, which was cool. Apparently bewteen may and october this is THE best spot for whale-watching... but then We've heard that from EVERY coast so far, so I don't believe it.
We finally came off the Nullabor into a small town called Ceduna, which is at this moment in the midst of heathen festivals celebrating a total solar eclipse. People have been arriving from all over Oz (thats a LOT of miles to cover) to see the sun hide behind the moon for 15 minutes. They're expecting 25,000 extra people (it's only got about 1000 inhabitants) to turn up by tomorrow to see this wondrous event and the hippies in ornage flares, yellow specs and pruple dreadlocks, have turned up in droves already. All meaning we couldn;t get a bloody campsite!! So we had to drive a FURTHER 110kms to Streaky bay to get away from them. AND THEN we had to pay 20 dollars for a site,
"cos we're almost booked up due to the eclipse!!" Anna is fuming. I think she's about to crack (it was her turn to pay the camp fees! heehee!!). And the rest of the campers seem to believe the world is about to end. I rather hope not. We're trying to get to Sydney for Xmas and it'd really bollox up our plans if the world ends tomorrow evening.
I'll keep you posted...
Date: 15th December
Text by: Carlos
It seems we are still here!!
After escaping the clutches of the "end-of-the-worlders", we dashed across the centre of S.A. and then N.S.W. to reach the East coast and Newcastle. Being country folk now, we couldn't bear the thought of going to Sydney quite yet, just too large and too populated, besides the fires had closed all the roads south anyway.
And then we met up with Nic the Greek!! And she was lovely and let us stay at her place and took us out for a very nice meal with lovely champagne and red wine. After me and Nic had managed to polish off most of the wine between us, she decided to pay the bill sneakily... again... after having forgotten done it the first time only 5 minutes earlier. Then she attempted to sit back down, but In typical Nic fashion, forgot the chair and plonked herself in the middle of the floor of the restaurant, looking rather confused!
We then made a move to Stockton, a smaller town on the other side of the bay (where you can catch regular ferries to the best pubs) to Newcastle and lived in the van for 3 days there, pretending to look for work. But it was raining. And did it ever rain! 3 days solid, after which we'd had enough, we packed the van and went north to the tropics and more sunshine. Too damned right!! I'm not here to be rained upon!! Thats what Manchester is for.
So we stopped in Port Maquarie (nice enough), then Coffs Harbour, (pretty horrible town right on the highway) and finally made it to Yamba, a little village in the middle of nowhere, where we've been resting and recuperating from the 500kms driven in the last couple of weeks. And the weather is lovely.
So, just 10 more sleeps till Santa and only 6 till we meet up with Boz and Chox, then 2 more for when jo, Cat and Emma join us for Xmas frivolity!! We're all satying in Byron Bay, so if anyone else is there give us a bell and come get drunk!!
It feels more like Christmas every day (except for the tropical weather and golden beaches), a little more festive than last year's effort in Cuzco, Peru.
Date: 20th December
Text by: Carlos
Happy Birthday to all those whose birthdays I've missed! Oops! So to Floss, Ade, Paula, L'il Sis, Gordy, Boz and Moz and Ma, "Happy Birthday!" for this December. To the rest of you, Happy Christmas!
We're now in Byron Bay, a mecca for backpackers, Euro tourists and surfers the world over. To be honest it's so packed me and Anna are a ickle bit scared! we're not used to all these people and noisies, drunken louts and bawling kids. BUt it's nice to hear the words "Gnarly Waves Dude!" once again!
We left Yamaba a few days ago and headed across the bay (about 500m over wtare or a 40km journey by car) and took mroute ina lovely little National Park campsite called "Woody Head" next to the protected Illuka rainforest and on the beach. It was so nice to we stayed another day and got chatting to the locals, evenetually securing a huge steak of Flathead ( some sort of spotty fish) for our dinner. Yum!
And there was lots of snorkelling too, where we found a baby turtle, shovel-nosed sharks, a BIG stingray, puffer fishes and all sorts of other stuff, just off the beach. Cool!
We then hit one of THE surfing spots in the world... Lennox Head. Come on, you've all heard of it havent you?! It's a one pub town, with abeach and surf. Not unlike most oother beaches on this coast which have towns attached! Nice place though and we even managed to go for a solitary beer at the pub. Getting quite sociable now it's Christmas!
But it wasn;t enought to keep us there, so we left and went inland. we'd met a lovely Ex-Brit couple in Illuka and they;d told us there were beautiful hills just West of Byron, so thats where we headed. It was pure coincidence that Nimbin was that way too.
Nimbin... that fabled backpacker village in the hills. first settled by farmers, then taken over by hippies in the 60's. It;s now the "alternative" town in Oz, where cannabis is cultivated and sold like coffee and cakes. It's alos got some wacky museums and a lot of the roiginal hippies (now looking a little tired and grey) still living out there.
We took a walk around the town, visited the museum and galleries and had lunch. And we were only offered cannabis 5 times in the hour! A new record apparently.
It's a funny old palce with a bizarre atmosphere and although quite likable at times, a little too forced in it's "alternative" nature.
We moved on and up into the hills to climb a waterfall. On the way we met more of the hippies at "Tuntable Co-op" where we were advised to follow the river to the "Tuntable falls". Well, duh! Shame there wasn;t much of a river. Rain being a rarity at the moment the trickle led us into the jungle, where we began slipping on the few mouldy rocks and ecied to head back. The locals laughed at us.
We then found a gorgeous little free campsite in the "Nightcap N.P." next to "Protester's Falls" and stayed there for the night, watching the animals come out looking for food, and being harrassed by 2 very cheeky Kookaburras wanting to share our Spag. Bol! They seemed to think they had to kill the Spag firts before swallowing. Stoopid birds, kookaburras.
BUt the whole glade was lovely; surrounded by trees and ferns, we got glimpses of sveral huge Lizards stalking prey in the forest and the tiny kanagroos and wallabies roamed the the open areas after dark. Very Chilled. And only 20km from the hubbubb of the Pacific highway and Byron Bay!
W're now safely camped at the beach campsite in Byron, awaiting the others and generally doing very little. It's fantastic! Might see if we can hire soem boogie boards for xmas... or even learn to surf...
Date: 2nd January
Text by: Carlos
I know, the entry is a little on the late side, but come on, you try to do anything other than eat, drink and have fun over Christmas!
So, we finally met up with Boz and Chox in Byron Bay and we had a few drinks. Then the girls (Cat, Jo And Emma) turned up and they moved onto our campsite in their new tent. Then, Boz and Chox decided to leave the comfort of their hostel and up-grade to a private apartment for the duration of Christmas, providing us lowly campers with somewhere to cook food, watch TV and play Scrabble.
Date: 2nd January
Text by: Anna
After the reuniting screams of the girls came to an end, and their tent was pitched it was time to crack open a few beers and send the boys off to BBQ the sausages - Christmas celebrations were beginning!
On Christmas eve a shopping list was written which was as long as I am short! A mountain of food was to be purchased in order to cook a dinner fit for 7 kings and queens the following day. I now understand Mum why all your shopping is done well in advance - the supermarket was a night mare from hell leaving me with a headache which could only be fixed by spending the rest of the afternoon on a beach with a boogie board!!
So that afternoon Jo, Emma, and I learnt how to ride waves on our tummies, whilst Cat showed off by riding them stood up. Carl became very aquainted with Barney and Claire's new appartment by preparing some scrummy cakes for the following day.
With everything sorted we decided to paint the town red that evening and see Christmas day in with the hundreds of other backpackers lurking in every type of accomodation possibly known to man around Byron Bay.
But before we could even get changed and ready to go, the rain came (yes, you can all laugh now at us being smug about spending Christmas in hot, glorious climates). It did not deter us though and we found our way to a pub and then a club in order to dance the night away to some of the great christmas classics. The night would have been perfect if it wasn't for the trauma Barney had to go through when he went up to request that great Slade favourite, only to be told that they hadn't got it!!!!!
Christmas morn in Byron Bay was picture perfect. We all hit the beach by 11am and spent the next few hours catching some waves in traditional Ozzie style. Carl even had a proper surfing lesson from Cat, but despite being able to catch on to the lingo pretty quickly, (dude, tube, awesome!, gnarly!) this natural talent never quite extended to being able to stand up on the board!!
Feeling refreshed and being just that little bit browner, Barney, Carl, Claire and I headed back to their apartment to start cooking our feast (or at least the girls cooked and the boys watched helpfully!). We left the other three girls in the company of some dashing young men sipping champagne on the beach!! Claire and I slaved over a one small oven and two hobs for a good three hours, but the end result was worth it:-
Roasted chicken breast in garlic and herb (couldn't get any decent turkey!)
Roasted sausage wrapped in bacon
Roast potatoes and garlic
Mashed swede
Mashed potatoes
Pan fried leeks
All covered in a rich red wine gravey and with cranberry sauce on the side.
The veritable feast was enjoyed by all seven leaving us with a distinct inability to move afterwards. So, we all slobbed in the apartment watching telly in true christmas day style enhanced by the fact that it was once again raining and the sky was bleak. By 10pm there was room in our bellies for plenty more and so we had christmas pudding, mince pies and brandy custard followed by a game of scrabble. I, of course, whipped Barney's (isn't he a linguist?!!!!), Carl's, and Jo's asses!
Boxing day involved plenty more food, rain again, and a trip to see "Lord of The Rings, The Two Towers". Not much energy left after that meant an early night for the majority.
An early start for us the following day as we were off diving.
The rain was really pouring on the 27th and the wind was up, and the sea was very choppy. But we squeezed ourselves into those very attractive wetsuits and took to the seas in a boat that sent us soaring over the waves and up into the air moving my stomach right up into my chest!
Once we were geared up, the four of us rolled into the sea and bobbed around on the surface for a short while before descending to the bottom. Our guide for the morning cruised around slowly giving us plenty of time to take in the sights and admire the huge wobbegong sharks swimming around very placidly and even cruising along next to Carl and the guide! A fascinating 40 minutes spent beneath the surface before heading back to the boat and being once again hurled around for 5 minutes before making it to shore.
Unfortunately Claire came off worst from the trip with chunks of sick from the girl next to her stuck in her hair - yuk!!!! But since Carl and Barney had cleverly (Ed: had to highlight how clever we were!) managed to strike a deal we were off again that very afternoon for dive two.
Back into the wetsuits, over the "not quite so choppy" waves, and back down to the bottom of the ocean we went. This time not with our relaxed guide from earlier but this time with Dr. Dave!!!!
Dr. Dave does not like to hang around and knows the whereabouts of every type of fascinating sea creature you could possibly imagine. He showed us plenty of wobbegongs sleeping peacefully under ledges, cray fish, lobster, sting-rays the size of a small house, and even managed to find a nurse shark (which everyone saw but me!).
The next day we packed up the van and tents and headed off in convoy down the east coast to Yuragir National Park - we were taking them bush!!!! We pitched up on a beautiful campsite next to the beach with nothing but a few fire BBQs and a pit toilet. Jo took her role as "fire chief" very seriously and kept it burning bright and long enough to cook some spuds and sausages on it. Carl took Barney on his first fishing trip, but it would seem nothing was too interested in biting on Barney's rod! Claire didn't take too well to sizzling sausages on the open fire with eyewatering smoke, but none-the-less the end result was scrumptious - a cracking effort by Jo and Claire. Another good night was spent with friends and again it decided to rain!!!
We headed even further south the following day to a place called Harrington. The roads were too rough to "go bush" this time so we pitched up on a very overcrowded campsite. The girls took to the pool, whilst the boys headed straight to the lagoon for a spot more fishing and a little more beer guzzling! They claimed to have caught a shark which, due to fishing law, was not within the correct size limits and had to be thrown back. Personally I think they had far more luck with the rock fish!! It didn't rain that evening!
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