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It was a hop skip and a jump up the coast to meet our fellow travellers Tina and Paul!! We were looking forward to catching up on their tales of the North as we are heading in opposite directions. Our chosen meeting point was Surfers Paradise - unfortunately there weren't many surfers and it ain't much of a paradise, with all the high rise buildings towering over the beach. We hit the beach to catch some rays and rustled up some fajitas for tea and just as we were settling down for the night word gets round the car park that the police are on the prowl for campervanners parked next to the beach... And so begins a wild goose chase for somewhere to park our Syd - along with five other campers!
In the morning we woke up in one of the trusty rest stops at the side of the highway - flashpackers indeed! And it was here that we began our routine of coffee, cornflakes ad lots of chatter before the days activities.
Surfers is the party town of the gold coast so we pulled ourselves away from the rest stop and checked Syd into a campsite
so that we could have a proper night on the tiles. In true backpacker style we stocked up on some 'goon' - 4litres of 'wine' for $10! We all had a merry time of it and then all four of us squeezed into Syd for the night, as we were to cheap to pay for two spaces in the caravan park!
After a few days we had well and truely done sufers and continued on down the coast! We went to see a surf contest and stopped off at a few more rest stops before heading inland to a town called Nimbin. On arrival we passed local shops such as 'Happy Highs' and 'Bringabong' and an old lady on the street whispering 'cookies, cooookies' - Where the hell are we??! Apparently Nimbin is popular with people who like to have a 'high' ol' time of it on their travels! We had a bite to eat but then made a sharp exit from this mad little hippie town!
Our next stop was one of the East Coasts most famous beach towns, Byron Bay, and its not hard to see why. It has a gorgeous white sandy beach, big crashing
waves and lots of lovley bars and restaurants - needless to say we enjoyed the latter from the street side of the window! Our few days in Byron were spent on the beach catching some rays and when the sun went down we enjoyed the odd BBQ and beer, in true Aussie style! Whilst in Byron we also took the trip up to it's famous lighthouse which is apparently the most Easterly point on the Australian mainland. The views were stunning, as we looked from left to right' all that was to be seen was ocean. We tried to keep a look out for some whales which might be migrating early but no such luck!
On our last day as a travelling foursome we went to a little town called Brunswick Heads where we spent the evening being super cool travellers and headed to the local bowling club for a trivia night. Needless to say these quiz nights are not out fortae with the majority of questions being Aussie based and the 'Happy Campers' were left holding the wooden spoon.
The following day it was time to say 'Ciao for now' to Tina and Paul as we continue
our camper adventure up North and they head South. The past two weeks have been an absolute hoot with lots of banter over our cuppa and cornflakes in the morning as well as trying not to loose eachother on the roads throughout the day!
This will be the last time we see these two until we are all back in Edinburgh, so enjoy the rest of your travels pals and we'll see you in November!!
Claire & James x x x
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