Advertisement
Published: January 22nd 2006
Easy Livin'
The view from the hammock in NimbinIn the last blog, we were in our third rainy day in Sydney. We were a bit bummed because the sunshine was sporadic. Well, we hadn't seen anything yet. The last morning in town, Justin got up at 8:30 to go watch the Bears play their first playoff game on Fox Sports International (by the way, Joe Buck is annoying even in the Southern Hemisphere). It seems god also couldn't understand why Lovie Smith switched to the passing game and kept putting Charles Tillman against Steve Smith, and has been crying in frustration ever since.
After pounding into a few waves at Bondi Beach, Justin felt well enough to go out to one of King's Cross nightspots. After a short night's sleep, we picked up the Toyota Corolla from Hertz, and headed up the coast. We underestimated the driving time to the hostel in Nimben, and spent a good solid day driving on the opposite side of the road. This long day may explain why Justin clipped the side of a small, curvy bridge, causing the shortening of one tire rim's life span. After driving two hours in the middle of nowhere on a suspect tire, we finally arrived at
Shelter from the Storm
Chris takes a stroll in Brisbane 10, in time for some socializing with some pretty far gone Israelis.
The next day, we brought the car into Lismore to exchange it for another (and say thanks for Visa's auto coverage - even though it means 1,000 forms). We decided to take a day to chilll at our beautiful hostel, nestled in the hills above Nimbin. Nimbin is a bush Amsterdam, but without the art museums or fine cuisine. If you'd like to see the local pastime,
click here . Needless to say, we met some interesting people, including Fi and Mike from NZ and Bernie from Austria.
Early in the night, the rain that had stammered since Sydney began screaming. Neither of us had ever seen rain like that - not only heavy, but constant. We left early the next day, and were lucky to get past Lismore before the rain overtook the bridge. Since the situation was only going to get worse, and we didn't have days to lose, we pushed through to Brisbane, briefly stopping in Byron Bay so Chris could check it off her list.
Brisbane seemed like a nice enough city, but again, we couldn't go far because of the sheets of
Hey Buddy
Justin finds something else that sleeps 20 hours a day rain. We threw in the towel pretty early, with Chris losing herself in Sudokus, while Justin went to see The Family Stone at
a beautiful old theater .
After driving around to see more of the city, we headed out to
The Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary . A borderline call at the beginning, it was truly an amazing place, with kangaroos running wild, and koalas broken into groups like Mothers and Kids and the Retirement Home. The rain cooperated for a couple of hours, and started again during our drive to Hervey Bay, a tourist community near Frasier Island.
We stopped the next night in Rockhampton, a cattle town that broke up the drive. We wondered where everybody was, until we passed the full showgrounds, too late to fully enjoy the stockcar racing. Needless to say, we spent most of our time at the hostel.
We headed into Great Barrier Reef territory today, heading to Airlie Beach. The reef seems to have broken up the weather a bit, and we're hopeful for our sailing and snorkeling trip tomorrow. We're staying in a funky hostel with tropical cabins. There's a pole dancing contest later, and as Chris thinks they mean limbo, it might be an interesting evening.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.16s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 11; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0611s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Erica
non-member comment
Your packs
Oh, and I forgot to mention that I haven't noticed either of you wearing your packs on the front in any of your pictures...