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Published: November 4th 2006
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Hi all, just think you have another 5 months of these to read at least!!
We arrived in Port Macquarie on the Monday after leaving Lynseys and found a nice site near to the town. Port Macquarie was very picturesque with obviously a harbour and great beaches and tons of quirky little shops. We didn’t arrive there until late afternoon so decided to eat out (for a change) and found a great Indian restaurant.
On the Tuesday we headed to a Koala Sanctuary and pet a Koala whilst it tried to sleep. Then we went to the Kangaroo enclosure to harass and feed them. A lot of them had tiny Joey's which would poke their heads out every now and then to try and steal a feed, very cute!
After this we decided to head to Coffs Harbour, the main draw to here seemingly being a big Banana. Navigation has now become much simpler as there is only one road up the east coast, The Pacific Highway. Every now and again this main motorway even widens to two lanes, subsequently I am still doing all of the driving still (For my own personal safety)
We arrived in
Coffs Harbor and drove straight to see the Big Banana. I guess I need to explain this? In Australia they seem to have a strange fascination with making completely random things, the example in this case being a Banana, well, big. They also have a Big Prawn, a Big Pineapple, and a Big Mango and so on. At the Big Banana there is a shop where you can buy anything you want with a banana on, in or made from, from - tea towels, soap, jam, pencils, mugs etc. The source of their bananas, (which up until this point we had been led to believe were un-obtainable due to a cyclone that had apparently wiped out the bananas) the massive banana plantation. Here you could also see a film about the history of bananas, how they grew, how they where picked, what you could do with them (keep it clean people) etc, etc. You could also go skiing or tobogganing. We just ate a banana and left.
The next day we went to a dolphin place (forgotten the name) and we got to pet the dolphins and see seals, penguins, turtles which was ok. It was then that Becky
decided she wanted to drive. So off we headed for Byron Bay which was approximately 2 hours away, which is about one and a half Wombats or two Kangaroos. Four Kangaroos and an Emu later (don't even ask) we arrived. We spent Friday being quite lazy and just wandered round the town and spent some time at the beach and chilled out in cafe's and the Camper Van. Whilst lazing around we decided we needed to be more active and do something energetic the next day. Being the athletes we are we booked ourselves onto a Mountain Bike tour through the Rainforest for the next day. During the booking of the tour we were asked about our biking experience, so I explained that I use to have a paper round and ride 3 miles everyday to school. The tour operator relayed this information down the phone as "little experience" he had clearly miss-heard me!
The next morning we woke up ready for our experience, looked out the window, saw it was raining so phoned up to see if it would still be on. Our hopes immediately dashed when we were told it was, I was slightly worried as
Becky hasn't done anything in the way of exercise since the trekking in Thailand and wasn’t sure how fit she was, however off we went to begin the adventure. There was just Beck’s a Dutch couple, myself and the 2 guides. This was good news as we established quite soon that the Dutch couple were also not keen cyclists and just doing it for fun.
We headed up into the rainforest by van. Luckily the rain had subsided, leaving the air reasonably cool and perfect cycling conditions. We headed off on the bikes and almost straight away started going uphill, from behind I could see that Beck’s was struggling. Her legs going ten to the dozen as she traveled almost no distance, clearly having no idea how the gears worked. We stopped to rest quite quickly as none of us could breathe (including the Dutch couple) and I think the guides were wondering why the hell we had all wanted to do this. It was at this point that I decided it was time for me to lighten the mood and my stomach, so I puked.
Yep as well as a dislike for heights, I get motion sickness (normally only on boats) but I guess the ride up in the back of the van facing the wrong way and the first real exercise in a while had taken its toll. It seemed to sheer everyone up though. Anyway a few minutes later I had recovered and we set off again, the ground now suitably more flat! The guides then stopped us and explained to us that we had a choice and we could go on an easy flat road back to the van or go literally through the rainforest with no paths where at points we would be riding over logs and ducking under branches and having to lift our bikes at some stages over fallen trees. The guides were suggesting we go for the easy option as they suggested they didn’t think we could handle the other route. Taking umbrage to this and determined to prove them wrong we chose the hard track. The hard track turned out to not really be very hard at all, but very funny as at every turn you were greeted with either an overhanging branch which had to be ducked, a fallen tree on the path or both, foliage leaping out to attack you from all directions and the odd pool of water. Anyway 45 minutes later, covered in mud and the odd graze we emerged from the trail, to the amazement of the instructors ahead of schedule. In the afternoon we were supposed to go a water hole and swim but it was not warm enough so they took as on a tour in the van and we saw Paul Hogan’s house. When we returned to the camper van we just collapsed and decided the only cure would be to drink as much alcohol as possible.
Today (Sunday) we left Bryon and arrived in a town called Caloundra which is close to Australia Zoo. Tomorrow we plan to get up really early to spend all day at the zoo. Then it’s off to Fraser Island, The Whitsunday’s, Great Barrier Reef and then Cape Tribulation. So as you can see have a busy time ahead (it's a hard life). Hopefully the weather will improve as although warm it has been cloudy and very windy for days now. Also just to mention we have managed to get tickets for the Ashes and will be there on Saturday 25th November and if it’s still going on the Monday too. Watch it on TV in case you see me, might make a banner if anyone has any suggestions of what to put on it. Keep it clean and try to be nice, this only applies to some people and you know who you are!
Byeeeeeeeeee
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