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Driving South.

It’s Friday night and we are down at the beach, its 7’oclock, the sky is slowly getting darker and we are trying to figure out when it will be safe to pop the top on Bob, a pretty common conversation for us at this time of night. I guess we figure as long as we haven’t popped the top of the camper we are not necessarily camping; and therefore can not really be fined the $300 per person penalty, which we are subjected to along most of the coast over here. The other night we found a pretty nice spot next to the railway track up in the hills behind Coffs Harbour. The noise of the trains coming past every few hours of the night was slightly unnerving to wake up to as it sounded as if the train was coming closer and closer to the car, ready to smash us into a thousand tiny pieces. After the first few we were a little more used to it, and once our heads hit the pillows we didn’t awake again until morning. What we didn’t realise was…. it was a train line for passenger trains, so I’m sure the workers heading into town for a hard days work were a little surprised to see a campervan parked up on route into the big smoke.

The last few weeks we have spent slowly driving down from the gold coast passing through the coastal towns of far north NWS. Yamba deserves a mention, a small town with beautiful beaches, Brett managed to sneak in a few surfs, the swell has been pretty miniscule and the rain is still hanging around but when you haven’t been working for the last 5 months, spending most of your life outside, eating awesome food, doing want you want when you want to, well, we can’t really complain to much!

Rainforest in Dorrigo National Park.

Last week we took a road trip, the weather forecast wasn’t looking amazing and decent waves were defiantly not looking promising so we decided to take a holiday from our holiday and we headed 500k inland to outback NSW. From Grafton we passed through a few smaller towns to hit the big smoke and hot artisan spa baths of Moree! Checking the weather over here at the moment doesn’t really do you many favours, its generally isn’t right and if it is it is only when it has forecasted rain and you would rather it be wrong anyway. The weather is all over the place it can’t make up its mind so you just take the days as they come and enjoy the sunshine when its shining down on you. We figured the hot springs of out back NSW would be hot, relaxing and something a little different rain hail or shine so that’s where our Road trip took us out west to the red dirt and cattle country of Moree, Burren junction and eventually back around to the Country Music Capital of Australia Tamworth!

The golden Guitar In Country Music Captital Tamworth.

Moree town itself wasn’t too much to write home about so I won’t waste your time. Luckily we had booked ourselves into the local caravan park which had a licence for 5 hot baths which draw water from about 900meter underground and its come out at a nice 40 degrees! So we spent most of the day and next morning kicking back with the oldies and drowning ourselves in the hot spas. We then trekked 200k to our next hot bath, a real one then time with no added chorine it was a little cooler about 35, and a fair bit dirtier but after a few dips we were cleaned than we had been the entire trip.

The road trip went pretty well, Meegan had a nice stack in one of the national parks, tripping on a rock and slicing up her hand on a glass bottle; luckily all the goodness of the hot springs cleaned it up pretty well.

Moral of the story: Do night walk on rocks with glass bottles!

T for Tom.
To finish off the Road trip we checked out a few national parks as we made out way back towards the coast and came into Coffs harbour on Thursday morning to stock up the fridge at the local Farmers market it town .It was nice to get back out into the bush again; the coast is so populated over here compared to back at home. Travelling around is awesome, seeing different things everyday, but its even better when you can’t find anything that comes close to what you have, back where the trip started in the beautiful southwest of WA.


Keeping the flys off during a road side lunch stop near Tamworth.
Brett taking a dip.

This Boat hit the reef the night before we arrived in Brooms Head follwo the link for the full story http://www.dailyexaminer.com.au/story/2010/10/19/cruiser-beached-at-the-broom/.



Leaving queensland and heading officially into NSW


We managed to get Bob bogged just north of Broom head lucky there were some old blokes around dieing to pull us out!

Brett had a little fight with some Rocks near Yamba

Schools Back.

Brett trying out some romancing!

We have been having a few problems with the broadband stick, so heres and update from earlier in the month!

7th October 2010
School holidays finally end tomorrow! I guess the weekend still counts but we will be in Toowoomba busting moves at Powder Finger so it doesn’t really count.

We have spent the last two nights in NSW and the days surfing in Queensland. Lucky enough, on Tuesday morning Meegan had an encounter with a fella by the name of phil, who gave us some directions to a brilliant little camping spot just inside the NSW border. Coincidently, a few weeks ago we posted an advertisment on Gumtree asking the general public from Noosa down to Byron if we can park up out the front of their houses. The only response we did receive was on from Phil from Brisbane. He lived in an apartment so couldn’t put us up however he did provide us with some advice of where to stay where not to stay. This same Phil jut happened to bump into Meegan as she stopped back at the car to change some headphones that were not working whilst a run. They had a chat and after 20mins he realised he was the one who responded to us a few weeks ago. Of all the surf spots on the gold coast, of all the times in the day, the one off chance Phil drove down from Brisbane for the day for a surf, and there we were parked up in the car park! Small world!

We managed to fit in a surf early most mornings before the crowds became too crazy, the sun was out most days with a little bit of rain here and there.

The first week of no school holidays has come and gone. This week we didn’t manage to do much surfing but we did see Powderfinger in Toowoomba, met up with Borello in Surfers, went to Dream World 3 times and spent too much time in the rain. This October is the wettest October they have EVER had in Queensland, and it was named so, only 10 days into the month! At least Bob is looking pretty clean!

Powder finger in Toowoomba last Saturday night was awesome! The rain cleared up for a few hours for the show the finger played to perfection, the over cast night meant nice comfortable warm weather. The crowd was a little dismal but by half way through we had found a good little group who were happy to jump around and go crazy with us so it up being a really good night!

Raw Carrot cake before we hit dream world for the 10oth time!

The reason we visited Dream world 3 times was because the first time was school holidays so it was very busy, the second time was a little chilly, too chilly to attempt White Water world next door, so the third time was nice and warm and we didn’t have to line up for an hour just to get on a slide! The rides were pretty good, the food was crap and the lines were too long but we still had a great time and our stomaches managed to do a few flips on “The Giant Drop and “The tunnel of Terror”. We spent the last half hour on the flowrider. Brett was pretty good and Meegan basically just enjoyed falling off and being thrown back up to the topof the wave again!





So we have finally, officially left Queensland and are now on our way down to Sydney to fly home for 2 weddings, hens nights, bucks nights, leavers, a few birthdays and of course Christmas!

Dodging the crowds...

Teewah Beach

OK, we are going to try and not make a habit of this, but yet again we are a bit behind. If you don’t like reading our really long essays, then your probably quite happy with these nice short updates, however I know when I go back to read it at a later date, trying to reminisce on the days gone by, we will be annoyed with ourselves for not putting in the quirky little stories and details which in the end made the trip what it was.

I know sometimes we talk as we, sometimes as I, sometimes referring to Meegan or to Brett, I hope it isn’t too frustrating but we are both writing this blog. Sometimes Meegan will be writing, sometimes Brett, sometimes both at one.

Meegan bought a Hula Hoop at the Markets a few weeks ago.

The past 2 weeks has been spent weaving our way from the coast back up to the hinterland, from Byron bay up to Inskip point, basically just trying to dodge the school holiday travellers and crappy weather.

Initially we stuck around Byron and Ballina for a few days as there was a big swell coming in which meant Brett could hopefully finally get some decent waves. Decent waves he certainly did get at Tallow’s and Lennox Head. Lennox head being one of the best rights he has ever surfed. A perfect long right hander breaking along the point, with wackable shoulders that peel for up to 500m. After Brett got his fix we escaped north to try and evade the wet weather. We could not escape the rain, it just poured and rained and drizzled and rained, at least it didn’t get to cold and we were still able to kick around in thongs and minimal clothing for most of the time.

Lennox Head

We spent a few nights at a free camp at Mulaweawa, the camp itself was pretty good, the twenty roosters that occupied the camp were at first, a little bit of a worry. We made a small mention of roosters in a previous post but not the full story, so we will go back a couple of weeks to a rest stop just outside of Brunswick heads.

THE CREATURES
This tale begins with two young lovers making their way on the road around Australia. Money was a little tight, time they had plenty of so they generally free camped wherever their little truck Bob could find a spot. They avoided rangers like ninjas on a mission, always one step ahead, arriving late and leaving early. However, there were creatures of the night that could not be avoided. These creatures had razor beaks, knife long talons, and a shrill COCKADOODALDOO!

They dwelled in the deathly hallows, sometimes known as “the roadside rest area of Brunswick heads” awaking poor travellers in the middle of the night with their piercing calls.

One night in early September the young lovers had spent the good part of 2 hours cruising the streets of northern NSW for a comfortable camping spot that would not attract a hefty fine. The deathly Hallows was their final port of call, the creatures waited, evil eyes watching as the newcomers approached in a strange looking white camper. At 10’oclock the creatures gave their first warning call, a short, sharp reminder of what was yet to come. The young lovers failed to heed the warning signs passing it off as mere confused hen, restless in her roost of one of the near by houses. They lazily laid there weary heads down for the night.

As the clock struck midnight the cacophony of noise cut through the night air like a hot knife though butter, the sound chilling enough to freeze the blood of a battle hardened soldier. The lovers awoke with a start, after a few minutes silence returned and they sleepily fell back to their pillows.

The creatures gathered on mass, content with their introduction, they waited anxiously, eager to commence the next assault.

One o’clock came and went; Two O’clock however is when feathers hit the fan! Literally.

One cocky little creature started up, continuously for five minutes. The lovers covered their ears with pillows and tried desperately to block the penetrating squawk emitting from the mouth of the creature. After a 30 second interval the second little cock started, it went on, cock for cock for over half an hour, blood curdle ling cockerdoodaldoo’s cut through the night air.

The creatures were ecstatic, they had prime position, in a tree only meters above the camper where they could all perch, safe (or so they thought) among the branches.

The creatures continued their charades for the next hour, rapturous in their achievements. By this stage the young lovers were no longer happy campers, their attempts to silence the disharmony, with words of their own joyous language were futile. It was time to go to war.

The brave young soldier went were no man should go, he left the warm sheets of the cosy camper, kissed his sweetheart on the cheek, and went out into the night to face the unknown creatures, knowing deep down he may never return to his awaiting fair maiden.

Arming himself with whatever he could find he went out in search for the creatures of the night. His main weapons mere honkey nuts found scattered on the floor of the cove, and a pink solar powered torch. He needn’t go far to find the enemy, with an almighty heave, he dislodged the first beast from its roost. The fair maiden inside the castle was bearing witness to the noise of the battle below, with a “squawk squawk” here and a “squawk squawk” there” here a “squawk” there a “squawk” every where a “squawk squawk”! Feathers filled the night sky! The enemy was silenced, the brave warrior returned to his bed in hope of a good nights rest.

Only half and hour later, round two had begun. The creatures had the upper hand as they had not only 2 but 5 soldiers ready to do battle with their vocal cords.

The soldier leapt from his place of slumber, rage fuelling his fists. He belted the creatures from there branches, one by one they fell on the camper, screams from inside the filled the air as the maiden feared the worst. As they hit the floor, the soldier was on their heels chasing them down the alley into the dark of the night.

History had been made the creatures had been beaten. The brave soldier returned to his lair, ready for battle if ever they should return again.

The End.

So by the riveting story above you may understand our concern with the roosters. They actually did keep us up all night. By four o’clock Brett couldn’t get back to sleep as he had been chasing them on and off for the last few hours. So he read while I got some beauty sleep. Luckily the roosters at the next spot were proper roosters and only cockerdoodledoo at dawn and not for very long!

Kite Festival at Coolum Beach

The weather for the week was very, very wet. Basically nothing but rain for about four days straight, since then we have had a fair bit of sunshine in the morning but the rain generally returns in the afternoon. To fill the rainy days, we saw a couple of movies, surfed when there were waves, chilled in the camper, checked out the slappers of Surfers Paradise. This place is no paradise, if you can picture lots of buildings, concrete skyscrapers with a few patches of shitty beach, well that is basically it. There is no surf.
The only decent surf had between the 2 of us in these few days was when Meegan was shredding Rainbow bay, part of the famous “superbank” apparently one of the top five waves in the world. There were no Mick Fannings or Steph Gilmores out and it wasn’t big but young Meggy was out there tearing it a new one. Because the waves were so soft Brett had to push her onto them which in the end worked to her advantage as her waves count was a lot higher than any of the plebs out there.

We slowly migrated back up north towards Noosa, found another great little oldies camp, complete with chickens, a hot shower and free coffee and biscuits all for $4 a night, about 30k’s north of the Gold coast.

The next day surfing was in order, and Caloundra was the spot to provide the waves. The only problem was they were mushy chest high slop that left us more frustrated then pleased. Sick of the crap waves and with nothing but slop forecast for the coming days we made our way inland to one of Meegan's favourite little towns Malaney. On the way stopping in at our favourite little dairy for tenth time just to check and make sure there cheese is still tasty, it is. The night was spent camping at the local showgrounds where our bodies were cleansed under a hot shower for the second night in a row. The crew camping next to us also happened to have two 3 week old staffie pups travelling with them.
The little critters were very cute and had only opened their electric blue eyes that day. They were so cute that we didn’t leave the showgrounds until 12 the next day as they were hard to say goodbye to.
Check out these Puppies.
Saturday saw us at the famous Eumundi markets for our 3 visit, again worth the time there. The next few days were spent chasing the surf around the Noosa Coolum area. With only a few scrappy waves and masses of humanity around (its Queensland and NSW school holidays at the moment) we were both getting sick of hiding out like criminals for committing the unlawful act of sleeping.
So we decided to head into the Coolum and Rainbow National park. Our first destination for the night was at Harry’s hut a quaint little campground by the river. The signage and maps were pretty average to say the best so we spent an extra couple of hours cruising through the pine plantations looking of some indication of were to head. Finally we arrived via the “ High clearance 4WD only track” and passed a low clearance 2wd coaster bus on the way in. Because of the high tourist numbers to the area who rent the all famous Hyundai Getz and expect it to carry them to the other side of Fraser Island, a lot of the signage here is majorly exaggerated. (Not to say they aren’t all warranted). Believe it or not, this area was the first time we really needed to engage 4WD in Bob to get us to our destination. Not that we were worried about the performance of the car the weight of the camper was on our minds as we headed into some very soft sand. Luckily tho Bob took up all challenges and spat them out the back. (Its got to be said tho that our first sand attempts were in the company of many other beefed up forby’s whose owners would have loved the chance to flex the V8 donk).

Lunch at Rainbow Beach.

After checking out Inskip point again and braving the treacherous storm and surviving the “crazy” sinkhole, we made our way out of rainbow beach and down to Teewah beach.

While we waited for the tide to drop a bit we took a little walk along the beach, as we walked we slowly started collecting a bit of Rubbish off the beach. In the end the only reason we turned around and started heading back up the beach was because our hands were full and we could carry no more rubbish. This was in a spot at least 50km from the nearest town or house in the middle of the beach, and our hands were full with rubbish, much of it fishing gear.

When we were up at Innskip point we came across 2 dead juvenile turtles on the beach. The turtles eat the plastic bags thinking they are jellyfish and it ends up blocking their lungs so they cannot dive for food, the end result for the turtles is death. I’m no marine biologist, I don’t know if these turtles died of floating lung syndrome however, if you want to do something to make yourself feel good (or make you really angry) grab a bag head down the beach and top it up with everyone else’s shit.



Enough of the ranting, that night was spent on the beach at a nice little campsite out of the wind. The next morning we had a 40km cruise up the beach to get back to Noosa and again by the time we got back Meegan's feet were a foot off the floor from the rubbish we collected along the way. When we got back to Noosa we discovered masses of people cars and people so we headed out of there and made our way back into the hills. That’s where we are tonight, a nice little spot in the middle of nowhere!

A week back in Bob....

Back to Bob.

So we are back on the road, or at least the streets of Byron bay and Ballina. After two surfs of Tuesday, Sue and Dave left yesterday morning. Last night we spent the first night for a few weeks back out in the bush, just off the highway in front of the seventh day Adventist church, with god looking after us while we slept the night away.

Alicia and Ric left us last Friday wow a week ago tomorrow, (time is nothing, it just floats on by then kicks you in the face as soon as you stop to think about it)!
On Thursday we headed out to tempt their taste bugs at tropical Fruit world, stopped of at Bangalow for lunch then headed back for a surf in the afternoon. Unfortunately the surf was very average so we walked back to the house while sue and Dave had a surf and Brett got an arvo kite surfing lesson from his big brother Ric.

Whales and Dolphins are in abundance right now off the cape, every time you look out over the waves you see a pod of dolphins surfing the swells or a humping back breaching out the back. Sharks are also a hot topic in the water and the local papers, a few sightings have made us leave the water rather quickly on more than one occasion over the last week or two.

It was nice spending the nights indoors, with a hot shower every night, a toilet whenever you needed it, a stove, instant hot water, a large comfy couch, people you knew and didn’t have to make small talk with. It sounds like we’ve had enough of the great outdoors, it not like that at all! Byron bay and the north coast is beautiful the beaches are great and the hinterland is amazing, but school holidays are fast approaching and start this weekend, so it is going to get very busy. The rangers are out in full force, prices are starting to peak and the town center is starting to swarm with people.

I guess the easy thing to do would be to head for the hills for a few weeks while the kiddly winks roam the shores, but we have finally hit the water and the waves, we haven’t had enough yet, and want more! Now!


Early morning at Lennox Heads

So we will see what the weekend brings us then start dodgy the holyday makers up the coast then head inland to Toowoomba at the beginning of October to see Powder Finger end there concerting days!

Surprise!

Koala in the wild!

Collecting Strawberries.

Noosa Sunset
Finally we have made it down to Byron Bay. It’s a little bit cooler, there isn’t quite as much sunshine, but there are waves and plenty of wind for the first two days for Brett to start using his kite.

The last two weeks we have spent cruising down the coast from Noosa after saying goodbye to Tucker at Australia Zoo about 2 weeks ago. We have managed to get in a few small waves and soak up some much needed sunshine. Meegan’s been a bit down and out with a Tummy bug that’s been hanging around for the last 2 weeks but its seems to be starting to clear up.

The highlights of the fortnight have been; Eumundi Markets in the hinterland behind Noosa, Glow Worms at Spring Brook National Park, another magical camp spot on Lake Cootharaba (just north of Noosa), Whales in Byron, 5 roosting roosters, and a small surprise awaiting us on the main street of Byron Bay!

Friday was spent down at Watego Beach just off the point of Byron bay getting some fun, but very small waves. The sun was out so we made lunch down the beach then headed into town to kill time until Sue and Dave arrived late in the afternoon. We though we would tuck into a raw chocolate tart at one of the many Raw Vegan Cafes lining the strip, as our cooker had karked it during lunch, so instead of a quick bite to eat it took nearly 2 hours to boil some rice!

Sitting down to enjoy some cake brett starts to look our on the street at 2 people he's spotting carting around surfboards looking very suspicious and he could swear they look nearly identical to Alicia and Ric… Low and behold they spot Brett and start running towards us screaming “Aha Ha got you”…”surprise”……!!!!!!

While all this is happening Meegan being a little on the slow side of the world, did take a few moments to register what was going on!

So the last few days has been spent with a brother and a best friend, chilling at the beach, surfing, shopping, eating, drinking and chilling out on the couch in an apartment on the beach just south of Byron Town centre.