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Our previous adventure left our intrepid travellers exiting the state of Victora driving North, passing through Sydney on the way to New South Wales.
After driving and parking on the side of the highway for the last few days, our spirits were lifted a bit by driving into New South Wales and finding a free beachside parking lot paradise in Newcastle, famous for it's sand and surfing. The weather was warm enough to lie on the beach, there were public facilities with warm water to have a shower, public electric bbq's to cook dinner and the city was beautiful.
We decided to take it easy the following day and chill on the beach instead of driving.
I woke up from my sleep to the sound of a trumpet warming up about 3 feet from my head. I opened one eye and looked out the upper bunk window of the van to see a man wearing his official looking red uniform, white colonial safari hat with a big silver spike on top, playing the trumpet. In the dark. What the hell?
I checked my watch, it was 4am. A man is playing the trumpet, beside the van, at 4am. But alas, he wasn't alone. Soon a few more trumpets could be heard, then saxiphones, and then a whole band practicing the Sailor Hymn! Sounded nice, but c'mon people, it's 4am! Little early for practice outside in a deserted parking lot near the beach!
People are dressed up and playing music beside our van. Our van is one of three cars in a huge parking lot, and they decide to start playing RIGHT next to our van. At 4am.
I looked around a bit more and saw in the distance the outline of several thousand people walking towards the beach. Now, this is kind of odd, all those people walking all at once, so I decided to get up, put on some warm clothes and walk over to see what the hell is going on. Maybe a natural disaster or something? Maybe a lynching? Still doesn't explain the band standing beside our van (knowhere near where the people are walking, by the way).
So at 4:15am, I'm up, walking towards the beach where I can see several large torches are lit. Did a ship run aground?
As I come ever closer to the grassy hill near the beach, I can see a stage has been set up that wasn't there yesterday and everyone is gathering near the stage. There are two soldiers standing at either corner of the stage, lit only by the torches.
Quickly I realize that it must be ANZAC day, the Australian version of Rememberance Day. And Aussies like to have a sunrise ceremony, apparently.
It was a very nice ceremony, the band marched from the parking lot with the vetrans, from our van to the stage, and the choir sang with the band. As the sun came up several ancient cannons that were set up on the surrounding cliffs were fired.
Trung slept through it all.
That morning it started raining, so we decided to keep driving north in hopes the beaches would be better and the sun would come out. We drove up to Byron Bay, with patches of heavy rain and sun the entire day. Makes for some difficult driving! The coastal highway is very beautiful, lots of cliffs, beaches, inland jungle, etc. We stopped a few times at refreshment stations where volunteers were giving out free coffee and cookies, so great!
On the way to Byron Bay, we came across a couple of 'herds' of Kangaroos for the first time! They were just chilling on the side of the highway so I slammed on the brakes and we got out of the car to go visit. They were really chilled out until we came near. They act a lot like deer, eating grass in a group until one stands up, ears cocked towards the intruder, then they all decided to hop away, over the road and up a hill to eat in peace.
Australian highways have tons of classic rest stops and the roads are in perfect condition. Once in awhile where the surrounding highways are scenic, there will be signs letting you know that if you want to see something cool, you should take the next left, and it will last so many kilometers before you get back on the highway. We turned off only a couple of times, once to see a koala zoo! It was like $30 to see the koalas so we decided to wait and instead took photos with the statue outside.
Once in Byron Bay, we decided to drive up to the lighthouse, which was quite the drive. Now, this is no slouch of a hill, and the old Camperman van had quite a time climbing the single-lane road to the top. It's a very slant-y parking lot too, so after I parked her, I was a bit concerned about rolling into a nearby telephone pole, so I just nosed her in until the bumper was resting on the pole, you know, to avert disaster later.
The view is spectacular from the Byron Bay lighthouse. In all directions you can see for miles and miles, the white sandy beaches stretching on to the horizon. The sun was just setting so the water is a deep blue colour and the whole thing was quite spectacular.
After our trip to the lighthouse it was time to find a parking spot for the night. Hoping it would be something like Newcastle, we headed 'downtown' which is at the end of the main strip of shops to check out the beach parking lot. It's there, but there is 'no camping' and 'no parking after 3am'.
We decided to park there anyways, explore the city, have dinner, and then go back to the van to re-assess. After a 1/2 hour chilling in the van, Trung is fast asleep, with his earplugs in, but I notice that all the other vans are moving out of the parking area. So I decide it's time for us to move as well (and hopefully I can tail one of the vans to a sweet parking lot.) Trung is not in the mood for waking up, so it's up to me to drive in circles trying to find somewhere legal to park in the middle of the night. At one point he bolts upright in bed because he doesn't know where he is and why the bed is moving, but he quickly goes back to sleep.
Eventually I found a side-road with parking spots. A couple of swedish girls are driving around too and tell me about the road and where they intend to park. I found the spot easy enough and it was good. No signs. Aside from someone pounding on the windows at 7am, the spot was pretty good!
It was off-and-on rain again the following day so we carried on to Brisbane! We'd been doing some research and found out there is an Indian consular office in Brisbane so we head towards downtown to figure out where it is. We haven't got good maps, so we head towards the information centre downtown.
After driving around for a bit it's clear that there is no parking in downtown Brisbane. After a few minutes of driving in circles looking for parking, Trung throws the travel book with the map in frustration, so it's up to me again to find some parking. After I pulled the travel book out of the jam between the dash and the windshield and found the poorly drawn map, I decide to drive a few blocks from the business district and park somewhere on the street. It worked out in the end because where we stopped was also just down the street from the Indian consulate! They told us that it's about a 10 day wait for Canadian applications in Australia, so we gave them Kez's address in Melbourne to fedex our passports and visas back to us. You may remember, we met Kez all the way back in Saigon and we're going to meet up with him again in Melbourne after we drop off the Camperman van.
After the paperwork was done we decided to take a few hours and explore Brisbane before driving out to a beach to park for the night. Brisbane is a very beautiful city, and I didn't have enough time to explore, but what I saw in my 2 hour walk was great. Trung took off soon after the paperwork at the consulate was done, so I had a nice walk. When I got back to the van at the time we agreed on, he'd left a note saying he'd be out another two hours. The parking spot we were in was expiring quickly and not available after 4pm, so I had 5 minutes to pack it in and move on!
The battery was dead in the van. It wouldn't start. I had 5 minutes before the four lane street became a huge tow-away zone.
There was a Mercedes dealer across the street, so I went and begged for some jumper cables. I hadn't seen a cab in awhile so I didn't expect to be out of the woods that easy, but I seemed to remember the van kitchen also had a battery.
Anyways, 20 minutes later I had Trung's seat up, the engine exposed, and the super-secret-safety-panel removed to expose the battery (why they don't make that an easier process, I don't know) and I had the car battery connected to the kitchen battery and moved down the street.
I didn't mean to have 2 extra hours wandering in the random neighbourhood waiting for Trung to come back, so I went to a local pool and had a swim while I waited, then went to sit on the curb to wait for him to come back, because the van was up the street and in an alley.
After consulting a map while I waited, I decided we should drive to Noosa Heads which is about 100km north of Brisbane. This was also a really nice beach and it ended up being the end of our Northern reach. After chilling on the beach for a day, we turned the car around, back towards Sydney. After Trung getting a sunburn on one arm the entire trip, it was now my turn.
It took only 1.5 days to return to Sydney. We wanted to spend a few days there so we hauled on the way back South from Brisbane.
I think I'll leave it at that for now, Sydney was amazing and deserves it's own post!
xoxo
Andy
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John
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Worst Alarm Ever
Your story about the band reminds me of a time when for St. Patrick's day here, a band decided to march down the street leading an entire parade outside my window. Not only was it not St. Paddy's yet, it was 10:00 am and I was definitely hung over. Brutal. The plus side is that you have a travel companion who will sleep through ANYTHING. Sounds pretty ideal to me! wink wink! Also I didn't see a mermaid in the photo, just a merman. MERMAN!