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Published: April 26th 2008
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This is going to be a quick one as I don't have too long and not too much has happened! Anyway we got up ridiculously early to get our 6am bus to Coffs Harbour. Going down to the lobby to check out was funny as all the die hard Liverpool and Chelsea fans were all still up watching the football live! Sydney sent us off with some heavy rain which was no surprise, we were glad to be getting out! The bus journey wasn't too bad, we slept at the start and then stopped at a hilarious service station shaped badly like Ayers Rock. We decided that now we could say we'd been. It was wet all the way almost and the terrain was really green and seemed to be mainly rural farming communities. To me it seemed to look like small town America. Around 3.30pm we finally arrived in Coffs Harbour, at the bus stop hostel staff were waiting to try and sell their hostel to us, we went for a nice looking one with 22 dollar dorms as opposed to walking 3 blocks in the rain to where Jake and Dan from Sydney were put up. Coffs Harbour seemed
like a bit of a ghost town but the hostel was comfortable enough. We planned on staying the night only and then trying to get on a bus to Byron Bay the next day. After spending the afternoon avoiding the rain in the hostel we ventured out for food in the evening and got fish and chips from a chippy not too different to those at home, except for the fact that the man working there was crazy. It was nice to have a taste of home though! Afterwards we walked up into town to meet Jake and Dan and get a drink or two. The place really did remind me of rural America, big wide roads, wooden houses and not very busy! Apparently Russel Crowe is from here, funny to think that! We met Jake and Dan and went to their hotel bar which was totally dead like the rest of the town. Afterwards we ventured to the only other visible drinking spot in town called the Coffs Hotel which had a Kareoke night on. The night turned very strange at this point. The bar was full of the strangest mix of people ever. Weird locals and backpackers alike.
We sat in a corner and people watched. It was hilarious. We decided we were 100% in hicksville. A disco then kicked off and we couldnt contain ourselves at the strangeness of the place we'd found ourselves. Katie and Jake went and danced with the funniest people ever while me, dan and rob watched open mouthed and videoing. I wasnt feeling too good and me and Rob couldnt take much more so we said some sad fairwells to Jake and Dan and made the epic walk back. We'd had a right laugh with them and will probably see them back home! When back at the hostel it seemed they'd neglected to tell us that they lock the place down after 11 and you need a code which we didnt have. Rob however managed to break in by hopping over the pool fence and opening the door from the inside, score! We texted katie and told her to stay with the guys as she wouldnt be able to get in!
In the morning I was awake when Katie came back and we decided we were going to go fishing, dont know why we just fancied it. There was a big
creek leading into the sea just accross the road and the hostel rents out rods for free. Rob didnt see the appeal. We picked up some bait from the petrol station next door and cast our lines out into the creek. Loads of little fish kept nibbling at it but we didnt catch a single thing and I managed to tangle mine into an ultimate mess. It was hilarious though! We sheepishly returned the rods and chilled out for a bit. I rang the bus company and they said the next bus they had free to Byron was at 6.20am the next day, so we would have to stay another night... Thought we'd make the most of it though and I went off on a walk to explore the place and ended up meeting up with Katie halfway through who'd been online. We walked all the way along the creek which was a beautiful walk, along the perfect beach and then up along the sea wall and out onto this island you can walk over to. The coastline was really nice and again I could imagine with the right weather maybe coffs wouldnt be so dull. We felt with the
weather and look of the coast made us feel very at home! At the top of the Island we sat and whale watched for a while, from May Humpbacks are visible but unfortunately none were out a bit early for us to see (sorry teague no pictures...). We met up with Rob and treated ourselves to Dominoes and crashed out in the hostel, we needed a night off and had an early morning ahead! Coffs had grown on me a bit but still not the most thrilling place in the world! Purely a stop off I think! As we'd gone to bed so early, getting up at 5.30 wasnt so bad and the hostel gave us a free lift to the bus stop which was nice. The bus was ontime and the ride was fine. Nice views all the way and sunshine for once! We arrived in Byron at around 11am and got picked up by the hostel we'd rang ahead to, our friends from Thailand and Sydney had said it was good and they were already staying there. We were paying 33 dollars for an apartment with 2 bedrooms of 4 and a shared kitchen and tv room. Bargain!
We decided we'd rather stay put than move into the basic dorm for 30 dollars that was freeing up tommorow. Typically the sun disappeared and it began to rain as we were wandering around. It seemed like more of our kind of place though with backpackers everywhere and cool bars and restaurants, let alone the really nice beach and free surf board rental! We did a food shop but had to wait until 1pm for it to open. Loads of places were closed as today was ANZAC day (Aussie and New Zealand remembrance day) and its a national holiday. They go all out for it by the looks of things, I think it could also be a bit of a celebration of freedom and national pride too. Got the usual stuff in and stocked up the fridge. The weather picked up and the sun came out which was nice. We went online for a bit and then went and asked about our skydive we'd been considering for a while now. I really cant afford it but I figured it was so cheap here and a once in a lifetime thing so I would put it on my credit card (0%
until feb) which gives me loads of time to pay it back! So we're all now doing the highest skydive in Australia, 14000feet on sunday morning at like 9am (so midnight saturday for u lot). It cost us 230 quid each and we get videoed by another diver so we get a dvd of it and loads of digital photos. Me and Katie are sat here not quite able to comprehend that in 24 hours we'll have dived out of a plane... wish us luck! The hostel gives us a free meal and beer ticket at the bar accross the road, free internet while we're here, 30 dollars off and a t shirt. So pretty good value really! In the evening we had some sarnies for dinner, all our flatmates seemed pretty sound, and then went off to get some goon (rob got beer) to start the night off. Met up with Georgie and Celia and they had some friends with them and we played a few card games before going to 'cheeky monkeys', supposedly where everyone goes in Byron. We had a laugh but found the place a little tacky and we didnt stay that late. Had an awesome
kebab though!
Today the weather was awesome so we went to the beach and did some surfing! Rob was feeling grim so it was just me and Katie, Katie rented a boogie board but decided sunbathing was more appealing than getting destroyed by waves. I wasn't much good but I managed to get on one wave! The plan at the moment is to keep heading north, go to surfers paradise, skip through Brisbane to hervey bay so we can go camp on Fraser Island before going back south the Brisbane for a bit and fly back to Sydney for a night back at wake up before leaving for Africa on the 11th!
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