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Published: March 13th 2007
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Byron Bay
theres nothing quite like having high hopes and turning up to a sight like this ! A short trip inland from Surfers Paradise is the National Park area of Springbrook and we had decided to take a trip there on our way to Byron Bay. A 6km walk in the midday heat to see a waterfall (Purlingbrook Falls) wasn't the ideal way to cure the hangovers we aquired with Matt and Dawn on our last night in Surfers though it did help (or maybe it was just the paracetamol). The waterfall and scenery were fairly impressive but would have been better if the south of the country had had the recent rainfall we experienced in the north. It's strange to think that whilst we had so much rain at the start of our road trip further down the coast was experiencing a drought, in fact since Brisbane we are advised to limit our showers to 3 minutes to help preserve water.
Springbrook had a number of lookouts, we checked a few out which didn't impress (mainly because the waterfalls we were meant to be looking at had dried up) before heading to 'The best of all lookouts' (its actual name!), from here you can see for miles and miles across two different states, Queensland and New
Australias most Easterly point
Cape Byron and its light house overlooking the South Pacific South Wales, it was pretty spectacular but the sort of sight you have to try to lock in your memory as a photo will never do it justice.
From Springbrook to Byron Bay meant crossing from the state of Queensland (which we have been in since arriving in Cairns at the beginning of February) into New South Wales; crossing the border inland meant we went over a cattle grid and aside from a sign reminding us not to bring in livestock there was little to let us know we had changed state (until 4 hours later when we realised there is a 1 hour time difference).
Byron Bay
We had quite high hopes for Byron Bay, for a start the Australians seem to like it and many holiday there themselves (a bit like how you know a Chinese restaurant is good when it's full of Chinese people). Our council run campsite was right on the beach alongside the bustling town centre, we have learnt to head for the Council run sites as they always seem to have the best location. We were lucky to get the last spot on the site and two minutes later we would
Martha gets grounded
Matt digs whilst the other Matt prepares to push and get a faceful of Byron bay sand have been turned away. We both took to Byron straight away, it had a good backpacker scene, the bars and restaurants were pretty trendy but laid back and rather than the tacky shops often associated with tourists there were so many shops selling so much lovely stuff that it was pretty hard to resist making a purchase.
The following day we mooched around the town, spent some time on the beach and attempted to run, I say attempted as despite recent blogs suggesting that I am overcoming my fear of animals, a dog on the beach, not on a lead, chasing and jumping up at people was enough to make me abandon the idea 5 minutes in. Matt, however, made it to the nudist beach further up, and it wasn't signage that made him realise that clothes were optional.
A morning spent in Nimbin (about an hours drive from Byron Bay) introduced us to one of Australia's more alternative communities. The area played host to a kind of experimental hippy festival in 1973 and you would think it was still going on. If you imagine a small village with bong shops, hemp clothing stores, men with beards and
Our last night in Martha
We enjoy a Hunter Valley Red and remeber the last 5 fantastic weeks no shoes, women with hairy armpits and no bras, everyone looking vaguely stoned and the appearance of an old man with facial tatoos then you have a fair idea of Nimbin. We stopped for a coffee but after a quick walk round and the offer of drugs at 10am we realised there wasn't really that much there of interest to us.
Arriving back on site it turned out the plot we had been allocated and spent the last two nights on was not meant to be used, we only found this out as it had rained whilst we were at Nimbin and the already soft ground had began to give way. Reversing onto the plot seemed tough and soon Martha's wheels were spinning in a huge hole flicking mud everywhere. Fortunately Matt and Dawn had decided that they would head to Byron Bay for one night and had arrived just in time to help us . After Matt dug the wheels out, he sat in the van whilst the three of us attempted to push Martha out, I have to admit the other Matt put more effort into pushing than Dawn and I and as Martha made it out
Byron Bay souvenir
My guitar is covered in stickers of our favourite stops so far he fell in a heap in a cloud of mud (thanks Mr Pink!).
Plans for the four of us to spend the afternoon bodyboarding quickly changed when the 2 Matts plus Dawn checked out the size of the waves and the pull of the ocean, about 15 minutes later the heavens opened and rain continued to pour for the next few hours.
That evening we all headed to a Thai restaurant, the BYO policy meaning we could indulge in a box of goon (ie cheap wine in a box, we heard the word comes from the Aboriginal word for pillow; drink the wine, blow the bag up and then settle in for a kip...though I am not sure I believe that's true). A few hours and one box of goon later, Matt realised that he had misplaced his manbag (containing our camera, complete with all our Australia pictures - thankfully burnt to CD a few days previously - his cards and some cash). Someone, somewhere is looking down on us because the following morning at 8.30am I got up, walked to the restaurant and peered through the window only to see the bag exactly where he had left
Political correctness gone MAD!!
Nimbin and one of its many hemp stores it.
Port Macquarie and Hunter Valley
With only a few days to go and still about 750km to Sydney we decided to head for Port Macquarie, a small town started as a penal colony in the 1800's. Our site backed onto the breakwater wall where most of the rocks have been painted with poems, pictures etc by locals and tourists. It was whilst checking this out that we saw a family walk by with a young daughter shouting "I saw him, I even saw his face" and looked into the water to see numerous dolphins jumping around.
Our final stop before Sydney was Hunter Valley, the wine region famous for Lindemans and Rosemount Estate wine (among loads of others but they were the only two I had actually heard of). We decided to go on another wine tour as we had been on one whilst we were staying in Western Australia and really enjoyed it. Our driver Warwick, a small chubby man that the winerys often called Sponge Bob Square Pants, kept us entertained all day. We had a pretty diverse group, two couples of cane sugar farmers from Mackay (one of our previous stops), an Australian/Canadian
Purlingbrook falls
this is what it looks like when not a lot of water falls a very long way downwards (Queenslands highest) lesbian couple (one of whom Warwick commented to the entire group had bigger arms than him) and the sister and mum of the Canadian half of the couple. The day was spent touring some of the regions smaller wine boutiques and whilst the rest of our group bought a fair amount of wine we stuck to tasting, the wine was pretty cheap compared to the UK but no contest for good old goon.
With 5 weeks of travelling in Martha behind us we faced an early start the following day for the final 150km stretch to Sydney ready to start our 'Tale of two cities' (Sydney and Melbourne).
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chris
non-member comment
Have you got a pound of Watsons sticker for your guitar yet??