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G'day family and friends!
Darren and Kerry here with another thrilling update from our adventures bumming around Australia! 'What have you been up to?' I hear you cry?! Well.....
Thursday 22nd February
We left the scary rest stop and started on our journey to The Three Sisters, in the Blue Mountains, which we saw briefly when we were last in the Sydney area. When we arrived at The Three Sisters the sun was shining and the view was picturesque. There was a path leading to the Three Sisters and we followed the track to the viewpoint there and also to a waterfall, which due to the drought (what drought?) was more like a trickle. We did an about-turn and followed the path back to the car. By the time we got back it had started to rain. A close sighting of a large huntsman spider occurred today, in the female toilets. I dragged Darren into the toilets so that he could get a close look and luckily there were no women in there at the time. After seeing the Blue Mountains we drove to Eagle Vale, to visit our cousin David again, via Campelltown. I found a bikini on sale in a store in Campelltown (as mine are both broken) for $10! Bargain! Eagle Vale was surprisingly easy to find and we arrived at David's in no time. We spent a really wonderfful evening talking with David, Rayma, Jay and Michelle, and also spent some time on the internet to my Auntie Muriel. It felt great to see everyone again and it felt like we had only seen them a day or two before. Thankfully David and Rayma said that we could sleep in their lounge so we actually got a pleasant night's sleep.
Friday 23rd February
Said our goodbyes to David and Rayma, we would be seeing them again in two days time though as David had invited us to see them in Forster, further on up the coast where they would be staying to celebrate Rayma's birthday. We drove all the way back through Sydney and as we passed through the city again we wished we could afford to spend a few days there as we love Sydney so much! We ended up driving across the Harbour Bridge so now we can say we have walked across it, climbed it and driven across it! We headed up to Palm Beach, which is a bit of a nightmare to get to as the roads are really narrow and you have to go all the way back on yourself to get back on the highway. Palm Beach was worth it though as it's really beautiful, probably one of the best in the Sydney area. We also went to have a look at Whale Beach and Bilgola Beach, each as equally impressive as the last and with plenty of people testing their surf boards against the sea. Drove back out in the late afternoon and ended up staying in a free rest area near Gosford.
Saturday 24th February
Drove further North up to Newcastle (yes, there are lots of places in Oz named after English places). Newcastle is mainly a working port town so it's not that attractive in some areas but it does boast an impressive beach at Nobby Head, where we walked right past David Walliams, who seemed to be filming something on the beach and then about an hour later Emma Bunton sat right by us on the beach! She's pregnant at the moment so she's a bit bigger than normal. After reading our books for an hour we headed off to a free nature reserve called Black Butts Reserve. I know, duff name but it was a nice little place with Koalas, various birds and Wombats. We then headed back into the city and made use of the free barbecue facilities in the park and made our dinner. We then spent the evening in the cinema watching Ghost Rider as there was a thunder storm outside so we couldn't really go anywhere. Afterwards we headed north again and stayed in a free rest area for the night.
Sunday 25th February
Woke up aching from what feels like our unteempth night sleeping in the car and headed off to Forster. Forster, pronounced Foster by the Aussies, is twinned with a town called Tuncurry each placed either side at the tip of a large network of lakes called The Great Lakes. Forster is cute little town and just before we arrived we went to see Elizabeth Bay, which is just outside it and it was beautiful although packed as there was a boat race going on there so we didn't stick around long even though Kerry wanted to check out all the men in their speedos! We met up with David and Rayma at their unit that they own and went for a nice walk with them across the local beaches and bays. In the evening we went out to the local Entertainment Club and had a lovely meal in there. I tried grilled Barramundi for the frist time while Kerry had a big plate of assorted seafood. It was great to see David again as he's a really nice guy and I think he has a similar sense of humour to me! That evening we stayed at their unit with them in our own room, which was really nice of them.
Monday 26th February
Today was the day that I have been looking forward to more than any day in Australia.... our trip to Tamworth! Here was my chance to see what was happening in the Australian Country Music scene. I pictured multiple bars, live music everywhere, even in burger bars, like in Nashville, USA. I also saw us drinking in bars with real jukeboxes etc. So after over 200km and hours upon hours of driving, in the pouring down rain I hasten to add, we came to a sign-'WELCOME TO TAMWORTH'. I could barely contain my excitement and we headed straight to the county music wax work museum and Hall of Fame, much to Darren's dismay. Once we had arrived at the museum we saw the Big Gold Guitar, a 12 foot high replica of their national country music award and took some photos. We soon realised that after January Tamworth is very much a rural cattle town, with not a lot do do, other than look around their in-store CD collection (and manage to refrain from buying a lot of CDs that we can't play due to our lack of CD player). I was surprised as to how little I know of Australian country music and in all honesty I haven't been keen on most that I have heard since arriving here. After going to the museum we looked for somewhere with live music, but to no avail. Apparently the Country Music Capital doesn't cater for country music fans like me after the 30th January each year. The heavens also opened and mirrored my heartache. Not one cowboy! Darren mind you found this more than humourous as I have been telling him for ages that I was going to run away with a cowboy in Tamworth! No such joy (for either me or Darren, I feel) Anyway, to put it in a nutshell I spent the whole day listening to my ipod's music through the car stereo as the rained poured down. We ate pizza at Domino's and had a beer at a bar called 'The Pub'. As we need to start working Darren didn't want to stick around until Friday, when the next live music shall be played, so we headed off in the dark to find somewhere suitable to sleep. We found a rest stop and I stayed awake all night, absolutely gutted that Tamworth was the biggest disappointment so far.
Tuesday 27th February
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROB!!!!! We travelled from Tamworth to Coffs Harbour, both looking forward to getting back to the coast. The clouds faded into submission and gave way to sunshine, thankfully. Coffs Harbour is framed by several beautiful beaches. We stopped and had a nice walk along the harbour, which is home to many beautiful boats. We didn't arrive at Coffs Harbour until the early afternoon, so it was too late to do hire surfboards, which is what I fancied doing, as after 4 months we still haven't tried surfboarding! Darren didn't feel too great, sp after taking some photos we decided to get back on the road. The drive onwards was one of the best we have done and there was a lot to see, including mountains, rivers and quaint little towns that look like they have been taken straight out of the set of 'The Little Prairie', like Uralla, with it's cute little bar, church and home made goods stores. The sun setting on the river was an awesome sight and we also took in new sights of Australia sugar cane fields. We stopped at a weird rest stop, which was on the land of a museum. It felt kind of creepy and I got paranoid thinking that it was like the set of a scary movie so again I didn't sleep well. I'll be happy to get to Queensland and work so that we can rent a room and have four walls surrounding us, instead of a tent or the window of a car.
Wednesday 28th February
Today we're in Byron Bay, which has some absolutely stunning beaches! We have been up to Cape Byron this morning to see the beautiful lighthouse there and it's also the most Easterly point of mainland Australia. This afteroon has been one of the lowest points of our trip though as we recieved a parking fine in town for parking with our front to the Kerb instead of the rear of the car so now we have to pay $77 dollars but we aren't going to pay anything until we recieve a reply from the ranting e-mail we have sent to the infringement office. It's so annoying as the sign telling you to park that way is right at the end of the parking bay! Australia is a beautiful country but today has reinstated my belief that it's also the worst country I have been to for proper road signs!! They put the names of roads on signs that you can't see, give you road directions on the actual junction you want to take without warning you beforehand and now to top it off they want you to park at bizzare angles to the kerb!! Sorry, rant over. It's really spoilt our day so we're going to leave Byron Bay now and head for the Queensland border which is only about 100 km away now and then we're going to try and find some work at Surfers Paradise along the Gold Coast to pay for our hazardous parking styles!! Anyway hope you're all ok and aren't suffering at the hands of over zealous parking attendants! Update you all again soon if we're not in prison!
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