Heading north from Sydney

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Our first stop was at Freemans Waterhole near Cessnok, a few hour drives north of Sydney. We had contacted a couple, Jamie and Lisa but they were flying out to america so would not be around but they had a mate, Aubray, close by who didn't do couchsurfing but liked having people to stay so off we went. Aubray turned out to be a very cool and quite alternative guy who had for a while lived in an alternative community near Byron Bay but had now relocated to the middle of nowhere for a more peaceful lifestyle. He had brought his house with him, on the back of a lorry, the build was now pretty much complete but he had big plans for improvements including adding rooms for travelers to stay. Aubray welcomed us with a barbeque and beers. His house is in the Watagans National Park and there is lots of wildlife including the lorrakeets which visit the house each morning for breakfast. Aubray's neighbour had wandered past one day and offered him a job manufacturing big gears for the mining industry; so each morning he could walk past the bottom of his garden, past the llamas, to the workshop. We spent three nights with Aubray, had a day out to Newcastle (second city of NSW but not alot to see apart from the beaches) and it was hard to leave...

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