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Published: August 25th 2008
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Did you ever get that feeling when you were in school? It may have been at the end of term or school year and the exams would come around, your teachers had the expectation that you would indeed pick up your school books and start revising. Well my plan was to do everything else that I should do except that, so I would clean my room, wash, and listen to Dunc perform some of his poetry. Have you not heard it before? Ask him about it, really emotional stuff. So my education has flown by and that same feeling has returned, not by a new form of school revision but by writing these damn blogs all the time.
So with a clean van, undercrackers and a sonnet in my heart I will continue to inform you of the Aussie leg of the great adventure. We left Yamba, saying farewell to the pop princess, making our way Brunswick Heads for an afternoon nap. Arhhh, it is one of the most beautiful things about travelling, just after lunch, when you get that lull, you put your head down for forty winks. I have to take my theoretical hat off to Mr Marco
Hernandez, he has been following this regime for years, personally, I think it is the reason for his stunted growth. Or maybe it is the size of his brain pushing him into the ground, no, I am going to stick with my first theory.
With sleep still in our eyes we bumbled our way up coast to Ballina, where we spotted the big prawn, and stumbled our way into the RSL. If you have not been to these before I suggest that you take a visit, it is like all of the extras from Kath and Kim have joined you for lunch. We arrived at Lennox head in the afternoon and fell in love with the place by sunset. It was a rough weather day but some time on the rocks watching the surf played out most of the afternoon.
We selected our usual haunt of South Golden sands for another spot of free camping, a safe bet and in one of the nicest neighbourhoods on that coast. We had to get in touch with Em’s folks as it was Mrs O’s B-day. Another year towards the century, only………. to go.
We passed through Byron Bay the
next day, waving goodbye to the hippies for one last time and then onto Pottsville/Bogangar. This is a stretch of coastline that sits with 100ft high cliffs and little inlet beaches. There was a swell running so Smith got wet, only to be met with a massive pod of dolphins out in the line up. With a quick look at the bank balance we decided that another night of free camping would go down like a life raft on the Titanic. It was the Queens Birthday so the prisoners had a day off, can you imagine it, she is our Queen and they get a day off. The cheek of it, I have started to campaign for a republic, just with less Storm Troopers.
Next morning we munched on the stereotypical muesli breakfast cereal and looked Northward to Carbarita and the Aussie surf capital of Coolangatta, back on the Goldie. We arrived in Kirra holiday park, only steps away from the hallow turf. I felt like Botham when he walked out onto Lords for the first time, just with less alcohol in my blood stream. The sun was high in the sky, the boardshorts were firmly tied so the
only option was to jump off the famous Snapper Rocks and into the caldron of surfing talent. This place is one of the world tour surf spots where millions of people tune in and watch their wave riding idols. On this day I think that they had decided to stop watching and jump into the water themselves, it was like playing Sardines but with no-one hiding. The wave was great even though the vibe in the water was competitive, the highlight of the session was after a good ride paddling back out into a display of majestic water dance by yet another pod of dolphins.
In the middle of our stay here we decided that we had to change one leg of our trip. With a large amount of research and massive disappointment we had to change our PNG stop and go to Vanuatu instead. The home office website was not suggesting any tourist traffic through the capital. It meant that we had to head into Brisbane CBD for the day. It was cool to get another destination but did seem a shame not to continue with our initial plan.
We spent three days hanging around the coast,
catching up on the tans and hitting the surf. With Emma’s head completely done in we looked to move on and towards Currumbin, a little further north, and into the wildlife sanctuary. What a cool place, we had an afternoon surrounded by koalas, eagles, kangaroos, wombats and dingos. Even a Tasmanian devil, which looked a lot like Jen when she first wakes up, especially around the eyes.
We headed towards Coolum for the evening but only made it as far as Yandina. It was the capital of Hicksville, everybody’s mum was their aunty also. It was a bit like Merthyr but without the crime and spiralling drug problem. However it was home sweet home for us and without too much trouble allowed us to get into Coolum for the next day. What a great place, it was a very busy little beach with dog walkers a plenty. Wendy would have dropped her little packets here with glee, she would not have liked the other dogs though. We had a little free camp on the beach and surfed the next morning catching first light. With the pending journey to warmer climbs calling we opted to have a day in Noosa
and then move on.
While in Noosa we just said our goodbyes to the wild koalas and perfect points. It was then back on the road and the task of making some miles. A task of travelling 1600 kilometres, a lot of eye spy would have to while away the time.
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