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Published: December 23rd 2009
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Honey i've shrunk the backpackers!G'day blog readers,
Now, before you start to read, do you actually have time to read this rubbish? Should you not be out grabbing those last minute Christmassy things? I don’t believe you are sorted already? There must be that gift for the neighbour that you keep spare “just in case” they pop round with a gift for you?….Well if you are all done what else have you to do, so sit back, pour yourself a drink, relax and enjoy another dreadfully written blog.
Last time I wrote we had just completed the mammoth walk to the most Easterly point on the Australian main land. Since then we have been on a whistle stop tour from Byron Bay down to Sydney.
So from Byron Bay we headed to Yamba, really just for a quick bit of lunch and a go on the body board. We had heard the beaches were meant to be “amazing” there so we thought it would be worth a stop. We came off the highway, drove straight to the beach, put on the swimmers/bikini (Kate wore the bikini, not me) grabbed the body board and jumped in the water. I was doing the gentlemanly
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On the road side...not squashed for a change. thing of giving Kate the board and pushing her every time a big wave came along. This went on a while and I was still just within my depth. At one point we decided to go in a bit and catch the smaller waves right on the shore line. So we agreed to swim in, swim, swim, swin and we did not move anywhere closer to the beach! Kate and I looked at each other and with a slight degree of panic in our voices declared that “it’s really difficult to get in, isn’t it”, a couple of seconds later Kate offered me the body board to aid in my buoyancy, to which I declined as by this time inside I was thinking lets try and get someone’s attention, but unfortunately not a sole was on the beach. To be fair, I’m not the best swimmer in the world, I don’t ever remember getting my 30m badge when I was younger and Kate was so far out of her depth there was no way she would be able to touch the floor and the currents drag her along even when she is within her depth, so I am usually dragging
her along! After a few minutes of controlled panic I did have a bit of luck and managed to get one of my feet on the floor, I did debate whether to go in and get help for Kate but in real “Baywatch” style I managed to stretch out far enough to grab Kate and pull her in. Yes, what a hero I am!! After that we were back in the safe surroundings of Harry eating a sausage sandwich to help get over the shock……we moved on swiftly.
As we all know Christmas can be costly and for us it is no different, camp sites have gone up 50% in price over night, so in true backpacker style we have been trying to “free camp” for as long as possible. We bought a gizzmo to aid us in our quest to free camp. It basically charges everything we have as we drive along, like and extension lead that goes into the cigarette lighter. This gizmo has meant we have slept for 10 nights in a row without having to go to a campsite. I’ll give you a little run down or our usual routine on an evening. Go to
a nice look out spot or a beach front about 6/7 O’Clock, have a quick look at the menu (look into the food box), eat dinner outside the van on our chairs, chat to lots of people, we got invited to stay with a couple in NZ this week, he works on I’m a celebrity get me out of here. After that we “make the bed up” which take like 2 minutes, then we drive around a residential area about 10 O’clock to find a suitable spot, quietly jump in the back and put a film on (courtesy of Banj), we have saved up the Christmas films until now so we are about to feast on Home Alone, Mrs Doubtfire, Gavin and Stacey Xmas special.
Anyway back to what has been going on. So after our near death experience (Margy, don’t worry, it was not actually near death, I just said that to make the story sound more dramatic) we headed to Coffs Harbour where you will find one of the tacky Australian “big” things. Basically around Australia people have erected a number of “big” things such as the Big Prawn, the big Mango, the big Pineapple in order
to attract tourists to their area. Well Coffs Harbour has the big banana (see pic), there not particularly exciting, just big, so we took the obligatory picture and went down to the water front. Coffs harbour has a number of different beaches, and a large town area. We stayed there for a couple of days and became friends with a French couple, Claris and Nicola. Claris is the translator for Nicola as he does not speak a great deal of English but I think my loud talking and over exaggerated hand gestures help him to understand a few words. We spent two nights camped up with the “Frenchies” and had drinks with them played numerous games of Uno (rules explained to us in French/English) in the evening which was great fun.
We then moved onto South West rocks, which has managed to avoid having anything “big” built to attract tourists. This quaint little place is where Captain Cook had a look out point and where one of the oldest lighthouses in Australia stands. Whilst we were there we found a great lookout point next to an old prison where you could see numerous dolphins jumping out of the water.
We also saw a few wild Kangaroos jumping about and at one point saw a family hopping along the road al together, it was amazing to see. We spent another couple of days there on the beach and around the town. Again Claris and Nicola were with us and again Uno was on the cards most evenings, and actually one evening we had a “French speaking only” evening. Well I have to say I turned into a mute and needed Kate to translate for most of the night, but of course I can speak the odd word, I shouted out “Oui” (That’s YES) quite a lot and when any random French word popped into my head I would try and squeeze it into the conversation anyway I could. More of =ten though I would use a English world, put on a French accent and hope they understood what I meant. I, to be honest have never been must of a linguist. South West Rocks is famous for nothing more than it’s natural beauty and beaches, we enjoyed all of which very much and hauled out early in the morning to find our next town.
Harry decided to next take
us down to Port McQuarie, Port as the locals call it was a great place, we only stopped for one night but made the most of the day by body boarding in the water together. We camped on the beach front with the “Frenchies” and had an early night. All those crazy late night Uno sessions sure can make you tired. The next morning we had breaky, I did a handstand (check the pic) I also did a 1 handed handstand (check it out) and we head on out of town. We then went all the way to Newcastle, which has , Kate is going to take over as I’m struggling to carry on…………………..
Hello, hello, hello!! Oh I like it when I get to type for a while and I’d just finished reading my magazine on “Out with a bang” in Sydney! So Newcastle - I was really excited about going there to get a photo of the sign for any Geordies reading!! I was also worried what the Maccams would think so lets hope I get the right balance!! It’s a real mixed bag city, quite industrial and a bit run down, so we were a little
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At the Hunter Valley before the wine tour and tasting. disappointed when we first arrived, so we headed for our favourite place (the beach) and went body barding and chilled out for a while. Later on we decided to have a “normal night” and go to the cinema. So we drove through the town and saw some of its buildings which are actually quite beautiful, so that was good. We watched a film (Paranormal- not the best film but a little scary when you think about having to sleep on the road in a camper and we sometimes get people banging on the side for a laugh, so I spent most of the time with my head in Matt’s armpit, a lovely armpit he has too!). We slept on the beach that night and luckily no bangs so a good sleep with no nightmares!
The following morning we woke with a spring in our step and made our way to the Hunter Valley, this is beautiful. We visited several wineries, some also make cheese and olives are grown locally too. So it was fantastic getting to try loads of cheeses (I like blue cheese for the first time in my life!), olives and breads dipped in olive oil, balsamic
vinegar and chutneys!! Yummy!! We also did a vineyard tour and tried loads of wines - happy days!!! This was a fabulous day and it got even better….
We drove to Northern Sydney, stopping at a few beaches on the way down. Tom - I was so close to completing your challenge for me this week as I saw Wheeler Heights on the map and got all excited, however my map reading together with a slightly shady map we were given did not enable Harry to get us there, so I’ll have to keep trying!! The beaches suddenly looked like we were on the set of Home and Away! We continued down and made it to Manly. Elisa and Beau I can see why you lived there - its amazing!!! For people who have not had the pleasure of visiting Manly it is stunning, full of wonderful bars, restaurants, shops and a beautiful white sand beach and to top it all a National Park that look over to the skyline of Sydney!! It was brilliant, we watched the sun go down there and went back again to take in the view in the morning. What a perfect day.
The following day we spent the morning enjoying Manly then the afternoon on Bondi beach, enjoying the waves and the people watching! We headed south in the evening to Coogee where we had a fish and chip picnic with wine overlooking the beach. Today we have driven around the city and bought our Christmas dinner, followed by snorkelling in Clovelly beach.
If you have read down to here, well done and thank you.
I hope you have the most wonderful Christmas, Matt and I send all of our love to each and everyone of you. We will be missing our family and friends over the festive period, but we will also enjoy a Christmas day together and in a totally different way. I hope you get a white Christmas (for those who want it) I hear its looking extremely likely for most of you.
All our Love
Matt Mistletoe and Kate Cringle
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John and Margo
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Turkey and all the trimmings
what a week for travel for you both, most people in the UK managed to get stuck in 25mm of snow, Harold deserves a rest after beaches and vineyards, and the city! Have a great christmas day, and we hope to speak with you. Going to collect Gramps at 10am, he said you spoke with him this morning? I will try and make Margy avoid reading about your paddling out of your depth! Happy Christmas to all the blog readers from John, Margy, Charlotte, Andrew, Harvey and Bruno.