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THE ROAD TO SYDNEY - Sam's Entry
I will begin by saying well done to Dave for making Sunday captain of the Old Williamsonian's 1st XI. How he managed that whilst sunning himself lazily in Australia is beyond me!
After New Year, we moved down to the heavily built up tourist magnet-city, Surfers Paradise. It used to be a largely ignored village but in the 50s some ingenious council decided to sell the place's soul to the devil by renaming it. And 60 years down the line, the place is almost a giant skyscraper. My memories of the place are good and bad - we spent too much money on a night out involving hundreds of backpackers cramming into one club after another; our hostel was sweaty and made of rusty corrugated iron, planks and stale beer; it rained and was generally dismal; but I feel like I was saved from it all by my New Year aquaintance, Adele. She took me to the much more swanky and sophisticated Broadbeach, got coffee (I don't 'go for coffee' - what is this townie gentrification? where is my cuppa?), and sampled various flavours of ice cream from a Gelato place. We went to a casino where rumours of Australia's national gambling problem were confirmed. I imagine all casinos have a load of lifeless, hopeless addicts rotating places on the slot machines but I read somewhere that 15% of the state of Victoria's government revenue is generated from ONE casino in Melbourne. I loved watching insane old men casually chucking $1000 onto the roulette tables, and unsuccessfully tried to learn Baccarat. We made fun of each other's accents and shared our interest in performing. See you in the West End! (I'll be in the audience though, contributing a polite English round of applause).
On my last night it was time to rejoin Dave from La La Land and get beaten at pool, make some rank pasta and think about where to go next.
It took us a brief two hours to reach Byron Bay. I immediately loved the place - there was a distinct hippy/surfery/untouristy atmosphere, and it still had a beach to almost rival Surfers. We had to take the hit on almost double price accommodation but got great facilities out of it and made some good friends. I remember resiliently queuing for 2 hours in order to get my clothes into the communal washing machine, so me and Dave shared a Dominoes pizza to make up for it. Our plan was to go out clubbing, stay up until 5am and then walk to Cape Byron for the sunrise but we didn't want to spend the money in the end so we slept for a couple of hours then made the trek in the dark. Being in rural Australia at night is scary, because it sounds like a prehistoric jungle full of things that want to eat you. We survived though, and got to the famous Byron Lighthouse at about 4.30am. With the sea breeze, it was deliciously cold, and for the first time since Heathrow I had cold fingers and toes. I imagine spending a month in snow-blighted, sub-zero mayhem would soon change my appreciation of the cold, but I'm sure you can all do that for me! :)
The sunrise was overcast but still perfect - we took an absurdly vain amount of photos, some of which made it to the blog photo album. I also spotted some strange black rocks down in the sea... and then one of them got up and started surfing! we were amazed that people were getting into the sea at 5.30am just to surf, and Dave didn't even believe me at first but both of us marvelled at the dedication and have wanted to be pro surfers ever since. That morning we hit the beach after a nap, and Dave was lucky enough to secure a bodyboard for the sea. I regrettably left my Ted Baker swimming shorts at Surfers so I had to invest in a new and dubiously pink pair from a shop that was the Matalan of surfing. We ran into Adam, a new mate from Surfers, and talked about our plans - that night we purchased 4 litres of goon between the three of us; there is a vague memory of Dave pretending to be a Lemur and falling unceremoniously onto the hard floor from the top bunk; and the next day I suddenly found myself in wine-induced agony on a bus with Adam to Nimbin. Dave and I decided to have our own mini adventures, and I loved mine. Nimbin is the hippy capital of Australia, and also a political hub for liberal, New Age and anarchist thinkers. Our tour guide was hilarious, encouraging us to buy alcohol and drink it in his bus. We got to Nimbin and I was caught in a 60s timewarp - topless old men with 60s spectacles, pyjama bottoms and hand-made pipes; shops with names like "Herbal healing and White Magic" which genuinely advertised the services of witches; smashed up Volkswagon campers made into sculptures, and loads of dreadlocked travellers who seemed to view the place as Mecca.
Me and Adam had a look around, considered buying some Bob Marley memorabilia then sat down in a park to have some beers. We sat next to an English guy who had a pretty strong Southern accent, and when I asked him where he was from he both amazed and disappointed me by revealing he went to Rochester Math. I travel to the other side of the world, sit down to enjoy a beer, and someone who went to my school 15 years ago is polluting my pioneering adventure. In all honesty I loved the coincidence of it all, so we had a laugh about some of the teachers and then we left. Other highlights included some waterfalls, and going to this American hippy's house. He collected children's dolls and had them all arranged in seedy positions outside his front gate. He refused to throw electrical equipment away and instead stacked the debris from his life in his back garden, forming a fridge and microwave mountain. A very strange man.
We spent our last night in Byron learning two-player magic tricks from a couple of postgraduate English lads, so we have a couple of party tricks now! Adam saw us off at the bus station and we went down to Coff's Harbour on the suggestion of my Grandad. Our burning desire by this point was to learn to surf, so we didn't see much of Coff's in the end, and got a public bus to Woolgoolga (impossible to pronounce - they call it Whoopi for some reason). The man driving the bus was a complete hero; one of those lifechanging strangers who decided to butt into our conversation about how we were going to get to Uluru (the big red rock, costs about $800 to do) and tell us emphatically that it was a complete waste of money for two cash-strapped teenagers who should be out surfing and seeing cool waterfalls. He completely changed our minds, and filled us with names of places we'd never heard of - the 'Real Australia' we'd skipped right past. We came away with his number and a great pang of unfulfillment, that we should pack in our future and go pick fruit in the bush for a few years. This was quickly erased by our absolutely savage time at Arrawarra, where we enrolled in a surf school for two days. The place did free tea and juice, we slept in wigwams, the beach was amazing, we got free breakfast, lunch and dinner (unlimited portions) and there was a campfire in the evenings. We booked up 5 hours of intense surf training and chilled out by the fire before going into the movie room and watching a spooky and artistic surfing film which whipped us into surf mode for about 48 hours.
We were so pumped for surfing that we stayed up talking to a group of Australian teenagers all night on the beach, and were treated to a hammered Canadian girl running past naked to skinny dip in the pitch black (shark infested?) ocean. We got up early for our first lesson, and spent an hour in the classroom learning about signalling, rip tides, waves and how to look cool. After this we lathered up with suncream, got lycra surfsuits on, picked boards and did an intense session on how to stand up on the board (effectively, "do 200 squat thrusts in the sand"). Finally they let us out in the water, and without exaggerating, before I'd even considered getting deep enough to mount the board and paddle out, I saw Dave shooting past me on a massive wave. Undaunted by my friend's transferrable sporting talent I got to a good depth and starting trying to ride. I can't describe how happy I was to find a sport that I didn't have to practice for months at in order to not suck. I was standing up after a few minutes, staying on within an hour. Surfing is definitely harder than it looks but opportunism, confidence and determination play bigger parts than things like hand-eye co-ordination, accuracy and speed which suited me fine. The time went by so fast, and we were already done with the first lesson after what seemed like minutes. The coach got us together at the end and said that everyone who didn't have a smile on their face was not cut out for the sport. We were both beaming!
We destroyed about 3 plates of vegetable-enriched lunch and got straight into our next lesson, which was a lot more independent. We were out on our own catching waves together for a while, then we pulled together with the group and got some tips and speed boosts from the coaches. I saw Dave pulling a massive wave and wiping out in the most violent way possible, but he was laughing when he came up. I spent nearly an hour trying to catch a good swell and finally got one about 5 minutes from the end; The head coach pointed to it excitedly as it was coming up, told me to think of my favourite song and dance! it surged behind me and I paddled hard to match the speed before it swallowed me, jumping up and making a lucky foot landing. It lifted me up and out towards the beach, and I was bouncing the board up and down on the sea - before gloriously wiping out into white water. It was all worth it for that wave. Would have paid double!
That night, it transpired the phantom skinny dipper was in our tent so I went for a drink with her, another guy from the tent and two Australian kids from the beach. The goon came back out and whilst I handled it, poor Canadian Carlee had far too much and decided to throw up all over me. I patiently put her to bed and attempted to clean my body with a filthy, gravy-saturated dishrag before grumpily going to sleep.
The next day was spent recovering and bullying Carlee, before we got the bus to Sydney. It was a real treat gunning across the Harbour Bridge at midnight in full view of the Opera House. We're staying with my Auntie Katherine and her lovely family; Steve and three hilarious, giggly and intelligent kids. Steve drove us to a viewing point to see the bridge and Opera House properly, and took us back to their cool house in the suburbs. Home cooked food, the unbelievably generous use of their car and the chance to stay in Steve's parents' fantastic house near circular quay is a dream come true and I'm at a loss as to how to repay them!
We've got big plans for Sydney. A coupple of days ago we took a roadtrip up the northern beaches, did a little bush walk with Katherine and the kids and started the immense task of uploading our Australia photos and those from Asia Dave's been holding. Yesterday was magnificient. We had a roadtrip out to the Blue Mountains (they ARE blue!) and saw some sheer cliffdrops, jawdropping stone monoliths and a massive waterfall which we climbed up with a cavalier attitude and got the best shower ever. We were pretty dehydrated so we bought a litre of milk each and downed them in one hit with some doritos and loud tunes playing. And there's still Manly, Bondi, Circular Quay, Coogee and all of our travelling friends to see!
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Dave's Entry
Evening all.
As always I hope this reaches you all in fine health and happiness.
It's been a while since we last blogged so we thought we would pull our fingers out of our cash strapped student traveller pockets and update you all on our adventures. Since we last posted we have moved a long way down the east coast, all the way to Sydney where we are currently staying with Sam's Aunt, her husband Steve and there 3 kids, Moses, Sol and Alyssia who are great fun.
The day after new years day we headed out of Brisbane and down the coast one hour to Surfers Paradise. After earmarking a potential place to stay (only on the basis that it offered free laundry) we made the 45 minute trek out of town during the heat of the day only to find that the hostel was full up! So the plans had to change and we ended up staying at Cheers backpacker hostel, where at 31 dollars a night we were paying premium rates for pretty average facilities. Later that evening i took myself on a stroll down to the riverside and sat relaxing, watching a father and his children fishing while the sun slowly made it's way down to the horizon, a really photogenic scene. The days in Surfers were ruined by the weather to some degree, the first full day was a total washout as the rain lashed down all day. The only positive to come from this was that i got to sit and watch the cricket all day with a cracking bunch of guys i had befriended who were from Aus and Nz. The next day the weather was poor again, determined to make something of the day though i headed out to explore town. Surfers town centre consists of two main roads so it was a short expedition indeed. Sam and I did finally manage to get to the beach at about 6.30 when just as it was beginning to set the sun finally peaked out from underneath the clouds. It only lasted half an hour but we were determined to make the most of the first sunshine for 2 days so headed into the extremely fresh waters for a quick swim. I would like to say there was more about surfers but in reality the weather prevented us from experiencing Surfers finest - the beaches.
The next day it was time to head off again, down to the highly anticipated and much revered Byron Bay. Luckily the weather seemed to be finer down in Byron and glorious sunshine met us as we stepped off the greyhound and an hour forward in time, we had finally left Queensland and made it into New South Wales, in doing so crossed time zones too. Unfortunatly wearing the only clean clothes (contentious to call them clean) on my back the first priority was to get the chores done and head to the laundry room. This didn't prevent us from our socialite duties though and we quickly made friends with our hostel roommates. At 40 dollars a night i expected alot and thankfully Aquarius Backpackers delivered in style with really good facilities. Byron itself was just a great place to be, it had such a relaxed and fun feel to the place, despite catering for all us backpackers it still managed to retain the small town feeling as well which was most endearing. That evening was a pretty quiet one and that was to the benefit of Sam and I who had set the alarms for 3.45 am to get up and go watch sunrise from Australia's most easterly point, the cape byron lighthouse. Dragging ourselves out of bed and in tired silence along the 40 minute walk was all worth it for the spectacle that was the beginning of the day. The fusion of reds, oranges, pinks and blue was incredible, despite taking copious photos, much of the time we just stood in awe of the scene before us. I'm glad that Sam and I take the effort to do things like this, that many travelers seem to deem too much like hard work, that sunrise was worth every penny I have spent to get here. The rest of the day was inevitably an easy paced affair, I spent all afternoon on the beach and in the waves bodyboarding. Another day in Paradise. That evening after having a few beverages with our roommates i found myself in a most jovial mood and made several attempts to impersonate a lemur by hanging off the top side of the bunk bed. Needless to say i fell off, on every occasion, I think Sam might have also copped a few kicks to the face during my falls as he was below me, luckily he too was in high spirits and put all his energy into getting photos of my tomfoolery. The next day followed a very similar pattern as I headed to the beach for a day in the waves while Sam headed off to Nimbin with our newly found friend Adam. I had another brilliant day, save my Jaws moment. Byron is a shark hotspot and as the sky came over cloudy and the seagulls flocked i could almost hear the Jaws music in the back of my mind. I paddled cautiously back to the shallows where i waited out the eerieness with the toddlers. Safety in numbers, they wouldn't have known that, i was so shallow that i was hanging out with the kids that couldn't even count yet but nevertheless the little people gave me peace of mind! That evening i was feeling pretty tired after a day in the surf so had a quiet one and got everything ready for our departure the next day, down to Coffs Harbour.
I left Byron with somewhat of a sad heart as I had really enjoyed the place, it's true though that you can always go back to a place and right now the important thing is to see as much of the world as we can with the time we have. Driving into Coffs past the Big Banana monument that lies testament to the banana farmers here we were gearing ourselves up for Spot X surf camp. After a series of ridiculous pieces of advice from the tourist information man and countless amounts of false information we finally made it to Arrawara beach, 45 minutes from Coffs (we had been told 10) and camp (we had been told air conditioned dorms, it was a teepee) for the night. On our first evening in Arrawara we both agreed we witnessed the finest night sky up until this point in our lifetimes, luckily some really pleasant Australians had a beach fire going and invited us to sit and enjoy it with them so we sat talking for hours with them. We had splashed out on a surf and stay pass that enabled us an all inclusive stay with two surf lessons, it turned out to be an absolute bargain as we had a fantastic time very occasionaly riding but mostly falling off the waves. Our morning lesson saw us in pretty timid conditions but by the afternoon the wind and therefore surf had picked up and faced with some pretty fiesty surf we surfed our hearts out, riding a few all the way to shore, with bigger surf came more hilarious and ridiculous falls though, there were more than a few faceplants into the water. That evening and our final evening at Surf Camp we were joined by a couple of possums who were getting extremely agitated by my camera flash, so i retired to the teepee and waited out the potential siege in relative safety. After our two days at surf camp and royally stuffing ourselves on the first healthy food we had eaten in a long while it was time to once again get on the road and make the 8 hour journey down to Sydney.
Steve picked us up from the station late in the evening and we went back to the lovely family home in the suburb of St Ives. We met Katherine that evening but the kids were all fast asleep so it wasn't until the next morning that we met all the kids, after playing indoor cricket with Sol all morning, Steve was kind enough to give us his car for the afternoon so we went for a drive along the scenic route, through national parks up to Church point and the Northern Beaches such as Palm Beach. It was great to be behind the wheel again and to have the freedom to stop whenever and as much as we wanted. The weather was kind to us and we spent all afternoon on winding coastal roads, turning the volume upwards and enjoying the drive. The liberation that having our own car gave us compared to the regimented greyhound system made us extremely excited about the prospects of having the van and driving New Zealand! The homecooked food and being in a family home has been such a pleasant change from the hostel lifestyle, it's a totally different enviroment and one that Sam and I have enjoyed being in.
Yesterday Steve lent us the car again which was really kind of him so we drove west and into the blue mountains national park region, we had a great day out, seeing the Wentworth falls, The 3 sisters rock formation, Katoomba Falls and a collection of outstanding lookout points. Our personal favourite had to be showering under the waterfall at Katoomba falls, we met a local couple who showed us a brilliant route to a real gem of a ledge from which you could look out over the vast valley below while water rolled down from above. It was the most scenic shower i have ever had and also the most refreshing as it had been a stiflingly hot day. It was a fantastic day out and was capped off by a swim in the jellybean pool in the national park, it's basically a big waterhole with a huge rock which as we always do when these opportunities present themselves we jumped off. The sunset chased us all the way home as we had the windows down, the volume up and huge smiles on our faces. Life is so good at the moment.
Sometimes i find it difficult to attribute descriptions to some of our experiences as they are simply too mesmerisingly enjoyable to describe. I have found this paticularly hard on this blog as so much of what we have done recently has been nothing short of superb. We are having the time of our lives, and it doesn't look like thats going to change anytime soon!
David
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