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Me (Ben) and Ed set off a day ealier from Sydney than the rest of the gang as the girls had booked one more night in the hostel, Will and Olly wanted to spend a night in the campervan in Manly and we wanted to go see 'The Dish' as in the one from the film.
We set off from Sydney mid afternnon and it soon proceeded to rain but the downpour didnt last long thankfully. We drove through the Blue Mountains which are very pretty on the way for Parkes, the town near the Dish. We eventually reached a place called Orange at nightfall, possibly the most random place we have stayed at yet. Eventually we worked out how to work all the gear in our camper and cooked ouselves Rice and Pea with Salami having stocked up with food and booze on the way.
We rose early the next day and reached Parkes at about midday and admired the 65m span of the Dish, had lunch there and headed off around the outskirts of the Blue mountains in the direction of Nelson Bay. The drive that day was the best me and Ed agreed that we have both done, spectacular scenery and views, only dead Roos sadly and a fantastic sunset. We did howecer pretty much run out of Petrol on the way to our stop over. Ed having to turn off the air con, then turning off the ignition down hill to conserve fuel and jump starting it at the bottom before getting Tellulah as we called our camper to just about chug up the next hill as she starved of fuel. Eventaully as the engine was really rattling and loud the site of a town came into view and we rolled into the petrol station. Thank God! We really were worried! Anyway we kept on trekking and stayed over at a place called Sandy Hollow.
The next day we drove to Nelson Bay and spent the afternoon mssing around on the beach and the sand dunes. A nice place to stopover on the way to Byron bay if going from Sydney as the others did, now a day ahead of us. An early rise the next day saw us reach Byronin the evening in the pouring rain where we met up with the others. By this point me and Ed had now driven 1666.1km!
We spent 3 nights in Byron Bay and had a brilliant time. It lived up to all its hype. Jammed full of backpackers, especially those on their GAP year (we met a plethora of people we knew and made many more friends there). The beach and surf was great and the nightlife although limited in variety was very entertaining thanks to the bar/club Cheeky Monkeys, famous amongst Aussie travellers. I wished we had spent longer there; a week and you would not get bored. Whilst we were all in Byron we drove the short trip to Nimbin which is a very surreal experience, a town where you are offered drugs (not hard drugs) every 10 paces, a place that at first glimpse is very cool which soon becomes a very weird place. A town where the police carry out the odd drug raid to keep officials happ who otherwise turn a blind eye to the widespread and seemingly acceptably cannabis dealing scene.
I would like to take this conjucture to talk about Aussie Police. They do love to fine you and fine you big. I was pulled over by the police in the outback for speeding; doing 124km/hr in a 110 zone. In hindsight the whole experience was quite good fun and I picked up a relatively modest $79 fine and no points due to the overseas licence. Olly and Will who illegally parked in Manly before they left received a $285 fine! The girls; one of whom (a passenger) was caught not wearing a seatbelt driving around Byron received a $240 fine and were extremely lucky not to get nailed for more considering the rest of them were sitting in the back (of course all without seatebelts as there are none), somehow the police officer didn't spot them!
Our next stop en convoy was Surfers Paradise. It gets its name for a reason as the surf was extremely large and we had a good time tooling around and body boarding in them. We spent 2 nights in Surfers; as a place it is quite similar to Miami beach, with lots of high rise buildings of aprtments and copius numbers of hotels. There is a nightlife that can be enjoyed but there is a slight sleazy edge to it. Surfers is a worthy stop off on the way up the coast and nothing more, not worth spending any period of time at.
We headed for Brisbane after Surfers, arriving mid afternoon basically to see what it was like as a stop off on the way to Australia aka 'Steve Irwin (RIP) Zoo'. Brisbane is your standard city with a high rise CBD and suburbs surrounding it; not too much going on for tourists to be honest. We ventured out in the vening the boys and the girls doing ifferent things after supper. However after supper we realised we had no where to stay and you cannot park up and sleep on the side the road. After a long group discussion me and Ed led the girls out of the city in search of an apprpriate place to sleep such as a truck stop where it is legal to stop and sleep. We ended up settling for a car park overlooking Moreton Bay and managed to evade a fine. Olly had had too much to drink in the evening and was unable to drive and with Will not having driven for over a year, they were stranded in Brisbane being forced to sleep in the top part of their camper to avoid being seen and the meet up with us at Australia Zoo.
Australia Zoo although very famous isnt actally that good a zoo. Sure it has your Roos, Koalas, Wombats and Crocs but nothing all other zoos worldwide dont have. They milk the Steve Irwin thing compeltely and it is all very cheesy, definately a family outing for younger kids. They now have steve Irwins daughter Bindie aged about 10 doing shows etc. and his 4 year old son giving babble soundbites which is very irritating. A dissapointing visit but we had to tick the box didnt we.
Next stop Noosa which will be covered in the next blog entry as I am knackered now. Crikey!
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