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Published: December 9th 2012
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We realise we've been absent for a while but this is mainly due to three reasons... 1. We've been sleeping in a tin van for four weeks 2. Australia has terrible internet access and 3. Coffee shops are far from accomodating unless you are planning on spending a small fortune on a sandwich. BUT we are back with regular internet and regular updates. Our fans will be pleased.
While we weren't able to blog we put pen to paper and wrote a good old fashioned journal of our time driving down the East coast from Brisbane to Perth.
So here is word for word what was written...
11th November, Sunday
Southport, near Brisbane
Picked up campervan two nights ago and stayed in a campsite outside of Brisbane. Moved an hour down the East coast to stay in another site which is much nicer and a quarter of the price.
Spent a couple of days getting ourselves sorted and now ready to road trip our way down the east coast.
Hoping to meet Jonny before he fly to Scotland.
Weird not having internet or access to anything social. We are official Gypseys.
Very
peaceful and loving it so far. The money we spent gettng here after booking our flight for the wrong month was worth it!
Setting a fire and having some marshmallows tonight.
PLUS! We did a dive while we were in Cairns in the Great Barrier Reef - AMAZING! Worth the huge chunk out of our budget even if i did feel like i was trapped underwater.
16th November, Friday
Bonny Hills
We spent a night in mebbin national park which was 11km up a dirt track and when we got there it was in the middle of the woods with only a few other people. Needless to say i did not feel like going for a pee that night.
From there we drove to Byron Bay where we spent our days on the beach and our evenings at a free rest stop on the side of the highway. Clean and safe but bathing in the sea only goes so far before you start to smell like seaweed so last night we brached out and treated ourselves to a paid site with power, fresh water, laundry and even magazines!
We left this morning and
headed for Coffs Harbour for the day and then a little further to Bonny Hills where we are planning on staying at a free rest stop for the night. We spend the day at the beach agian tomorrow where there are showers and bbq's.
Got a bit burnt on the beach yesterday but today its turned into a glorious tan. Craig is making custard.
18th November, Sunday
Bonny Hills
Yesterday it rained all day so we didn't do much apart from look around Port maquarie and use some wifi. The rest stops toilets smell like someone died but at least we got a shower albeit, cold as ice at a day rest stop.
We were acosted by a crazy Dutch lady while we were just sitting down to our steak dinner who gave us a great tip on a place to sleep by the beach so we have moved here and it is heaven compared with the moterway.
Today the weather is slightly better so we went to a local farm to pick strawberries which were delicious!! We illegally ate some of course, We the visted a local koala hospital and saw our first
koalas in Australia and in the evening we went to a presentation on the galaxy. Craig loves all that stuff. It was pretty interesting and we got to see the moon through a telescope.
19th November, Monday
Port Maquarie
Today the weather has been beautiful all day and since we took the crazy Dutch ladies advice we got to camp right on the beach so the view waking up was pretty special. Had a quick dip in the sea this morning and then headed out for a small coastal walk where we found a desserted beach and Craig practiced his handstands. We cooked breakfast on the bbq at the beach whilst fighting off some turkeys ( apparently they like the odd pancake too) Followed by a refreshly/takes your breath away cold shower. Spent the day wandering and deciding our next move.
22nd November
Newcastle
Left Port Maquarie even though we could have camped there forever and spent last night at Nelsons Bay by the beach again. A nice place but not alot going on so we moved onto Newcastle today which was only an hour or so away. Its a lovely city but the
weather was quite overcast so the beach was a no go and with our budget there is little to do if we're not eating, swimming or driving. Headed off in seach of a free campsite for the night. In a national park now which took us ages to find but when we did we ate, drank some wine and toasted many a marshallow.
p.s We saw our first roo! Craig pretended to shoot it so we just caught a glimpse before it fled thinking it was under attack.
23rd November
Onely National Park
Stayed another night here to become one with nature. (i need alot of practice)
There's not alot of people here during the day but quite a few people come here to camp at night. It's literally in the middle of nowhere. Tonight one of our neighbours asked if we wanted to join him for dinner. He was cooking spag bol and since we are not the kind of people who say no to a free meal we joined him and his two dogs. This was officilally our first Aussie friend. The spag bol was worth listening to him talk about all his
heart attacks. He went to bed at 5.30 and then we had nothing to do but play cards and listen to old Chis Moyles podcasts on my ipod. Wild night indeed. Definately time for a shower tomorrow...
25th November
Richmond, near Sydney
We landed lucky with our current camp spot. Its some ridiculous deal that if you pay $4 to become a member of the casino/restuarant/bar then you can camp with them for free or have a powered site fot $10. The most amazing thing is that they have hot showers. Actual warm water.
We visted a local historical town Windsor and went for a picnic by a huge lake that everyone was jumping into. It's very hot here. Craig is sitting in the car with the air con on just now because he is sweating so much and its 6pm.
If Scotland had weather like Australia i imagine we would be very similar. Huge families flock to the beaches to bbq and drink while in Scotland we just need all the bodies for warmth.
27th November
A rain forrest in the Blue Mountains
Yesterday we travelled up from Richmond to visit
the blue mountains. We parked up and walked to a waterfall to get some nice views of the blue mountains. It was storny weather and was actually thunder and raining when we were walking. I like to think i'm in a movie when that happens. We drove around and visited lots of lookouts where the views are amazing and saw the three sisters rock/mountain.
Tonight is much cooler so no aircon tonight!
30th November, Friday
Richmond
The night we spent in the rain forrest there was a big storm with alot of thunder and lightening and some pretty heavy rain so our evening activity was drinking and playing "never have i ever". Turns out its not quite as much fun with two players and not many skeletons in the closet but we have listened to all my podcasts and it was honestly the first game that came to me.
We headed back to Richmond to re-power and enjoy another hot shower and tomorrow we are off to Sydney to meet Hannah and stay with her family. Since we didn't get to meet up with Jonny Hannah got in touch. Plus she's off to Scotland next
week so she gets to meet the rest of the clan then. God help her.
Starting to feel weird that we won't be home for xmas. Australia has it all wrong. You don't put xmas decorations up when its hot!! Although that might technically mean Scotland has a 12 month chrsitmas which i am totally fine with.
No snow here just christmas beetles that fall from the sky at night.
Part two coming soon....
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