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Sunrise on the Newell
So lets get you all up to date and brace yourselves i thought id aim to write a short one but thinking about it, its impossible this may be the longest yet? First things third and all that, another problem with car!! Actually we'll do this in order, it'll make more sense and not drive me insane typing about it first.
And before we go into full blown journal mode a message from Nathan to his dad here,and from me-"seriously dad you better be taking it easy cos if me and lindsay have to fly back to make you we wont be best impressed! We are thinking about the both of you."
So onward we go,the Gold Coast, in particular the well known area Surfers paradise is by far mine and Nathan's favourite place, the atmosphere was fantastic, the sun hot, the beaches lush and all in all a good time. The waves here were fantastic fun-although point to remember to any girlies visiting Australia-buy a good bikini if you are planning on playing in the waves-lets just say if it wasn't for Nathan being a good swimmer there could have been a rather embarrassing moment for me! But as you might have guessed by now nothing ever goes to plan when you are traveling. While i managed to secure a job selling perfumes on a market stand, (like being back in the old days hey-remember when you fainted at Cleethorpes market Rach! And mum-when you saw me drinking Red Bull at 6am and thought it was alcohol!) so as you can imagine i was back in my element. While Nath had been secured work on the Indy-the start date was never appearing, and with no other work available at this time of year it was time to move on. A real shame.
Quite happy to be leaving the caravan park which had to many unruly kids for my liking, and thieves in the camp kitchen can be annoying when you wake in the morning for a few rounds of toast to find the bread is missing arghhhhhhhhhh. Another in Surfers was my first real sighting of a snake-can you imagine my horror while talking to Rach on the phone looking out at the sea, happy as larry, and then a snake crawls out from the grass and slithers across to the other side! I acted calmly-well if you call screaming 'oh my god oh my god i gotta get a photo of this' calm, then i was calm!
So getting back into traveling mode we found ourselves getting excited at the road trip ahead of us, our final destination being Melbourne. On the 4th October we moved on.
We drove out via all the beaches, Coolangatta in particular reminded me a lot of the beaches in Cornwall-a good reminder that when we are skint on our arrival back to the Uk we wont have to go far to remind ourselves of Aus beaches. We were passing Tweed Heads and almost missed it-the sign to say we are entering New South Wales. Wow, we've been in Queensland for over 3 months, seen some fantastic sights and realise just how much more there is left that we haven't seen-what an achievement though. We'd hoped there'd have been a rest point for photos but it appears maybe only us backpackers have desires to take photos of road signs, so we'll lay in wait for the next sign as we leave Victoria later on. Maybe we were trying a little to hard to find a difference but the first thing we noticed about the difference in scenery was how green NSW was-lots of fields and flat houses, a lot like the Uk in one respect-still it didn't bother us-the weather was telling us we were definitely a few thousand miles away.
Our destination for today was not that far away, Byron Bay, at the very top end of NSW, everyone we have spoken to have told us how beautiful this place is, so we decided to check it out for ourselves. Upon arrival we hit our second achievement-we completed all 794 songs on the ipod-not bad to say the first few attempts failed. So phil-we hope the music collection at home is going well as we'll need a change over when we get back lol.It appears a third achievement in this category was not to be had-we'll come to this in a short while.
As we entered Byron bay the first thing we noticed was a hippy chick with pink hair riding an old fashioned bicycle with flowers in the basket in the front (i did look back to check it wasn't you rebecca!)-so its true what they say-Byron Bay is still very much living in the 70's-laid back, hippy happy and of course lots of 'weed' on offer if you are lucky enough to be offered it! Don't panic-we weren't?
Now that our ever faithful QLD camp directory was invalid we had to refer back to the lonely planet bible (for place descriptions) in order to find a place to stay. This is all good and well if you are often happy to stay in nice hostels that are over cramped or flee ridden beds that are much cheaper. Traveling as a couple proves not to be so cheap in these places hence why camping has been the better option-the car is really quite comfy these days! The arts factory as advertised was nothing like its image, in fact it looked like half the staff were 'high' and the place had a rather funny feel about it-this was later comfirmed! So after a short ride around we found a really nice, spacious, well looked after (in fact the best we've stayed at yet) camp site. After setting up camp which we have finally achieved in less than half an hour we were set for the beach. An obviously first choice stop. We weren't disappointed, the waves were great fun here and what made them unique was the fact that dolphins were in full sight playing in the surf close to the beach with the swimmers-an amazing sight im sure you'll agree. At one point we were so far out i nearly had my head decapitated by a surfer-lucky for me he was trained enough to surf around my head while i just looked on in complete horror! So back to camp we decided to head to Cape Byron the most easterly point in NSW (i think possibly Australia but i will have to get this conformed) and here comes horror number 3, as mentioned at the start of the journal-the car wouldn't start! Now if you can imagine two full grown adults here, one about to cry and what about to batter what living life was left in the car out of it-it wasn't a good moment! The NRMA guy which just happened to be on site with some unfortunate other sole told us the great news of 'its an electrical fault that he cant fix', and after Nath had a very good attempt the next morning with no luck-we had no other choice than to watch the car (aka Stanley) being towed away for the 3rd time. We have come to the conclusion that against all odds we have finally made it to 'one of those backpackers', you know the ones that buy a fantastic car and end up paying out double for it-still its a story to tell the grandkids. And before anyone gets there hopes up here-that's just phrase. After a few beers and a few BBQ at the local pub we calmed down, made a decision that even after everything we've paid out we are still 500 pounds better off than if we'd laid it out initially for a hire car-so we lay in hope that Stanley gets us to Sydney with no other major problems in which we can sell him to another unsuspecting backpacker. In all honestly the next person will probably have no problems seen as we have fixed just about everything lol. The drive to Perth we think will be in a hired campervan-i seriously Don't want to be stuck on that stretch of road with no backup!
Next day arrives, with the hangover form the 3 jugs of Tooheys we'd had, a morning at the pool, decided we weren't sure how long we'd be stuck at Byron Bay (which in all honesty wasn't such a bad thing) so a walk to the light house at Cape Byron was the next itinary. We didn't exactly make it to the lighthouse as it was a little further than anticipated but we were disappointed with the coastal walk we did do, and to make it a perfect end (here comes the soppy bit) we got to see the sunset over the sea which was absolutely beautiful, and to top if off we bumped into a photographer who was happy to take our photo capturing the moment-after making us stand in a certain position, click, perfect he says-you look like two trees??
So news on the car is due today-no need to prepare we know it will be at least a week and a massive cost to go with it. Nope-its ready to collect and only $142- a faulty ignition lead this time-who cares lets go and collect it. Nathan told me here it was only a short walk, what he didn't realise was this short walk was 45 minutes in 30 degrees heat!! This was seriously a moment like when you say dad,'its just around the next corner!' Being hot and sweaty now arriving back at the caravan park i wanted nothing but a cold shower, so can you imagine how i reacted, remember here that we've just collected the car, when the campervan in front of us at the boom gate decides to reverse into us! We laughed, of course we laughed-the car is cursed it was bound to happen. A cracked number plate is nothing hey. I think the girl in the campervan didn't know how to take us as she was worried and we couldn't stop laughing-if only she knew.
We are now experiencing the true force of Aussie heat-well slightly anyway-the heat has melted all the glue off the reflectors (aka curtains for privacy), with a road trip fast approaching we bought a large roll of gaffa tape. In full cheeky mode i blagged us 2 body boards (a non surfers alternative to a surf board) which are great fun in the waves-if you stay on them! Andy and Kelly-prepare for some xmas day fun here. Snags for tea, a last beer in the beautiful town of Byron bay and on we go.
Our plan now (have you noticed it changes daily) is to get to Melbourne asap-so this was to be one of our fastest and best loved road trips yet, find some work for a couple of months and then party hard at xmas and explore like mad in New Zealand. In true Bill Bryson style we've taken up taking photos off rather large objects so it was fitting that we managed to get a large knight advertising some kind of place to do with Macadamia nuts at Ballina (these nuts are the best mum-they beat salted KP's any day), and shrimp a little further on. I know you are all going to be so happy to se these photos. We pushed forward and ended up at Ebor falls within the Guy Fawkes River National Park. We had our picnic rest and ventured on a short walk to see the falls (an amazing height and view for miles) and stumbled across to random rock climbers which we viewed for a few minutes-i hope someone knew there location? We stop every couple of hours in order to now get deep vein thrombosis-ok i wont be so dramatic-as to just stretch our legs. The next place was Moonbi lookout-one of their oldest buildings still standing which just offers a view of the highway ahead of us. Interesting...well kind off-its a bloody long stretch if highway and a realisation that Melbourne was quite a far way off. We reached the town of Gunnedah where Nath had two well deserved schooners, me to drive next. The temperature had been above 30 degrees for most of the day so we were starting to feel a bit salty, i swear you can even see the salt (sweat) on your skin, the only option to have the aircon on full blast! I drove to Coonabaronbran, the heat was easing up and the night setting in so i had to make a few brakes for wallabies out for early teas on the road-a pain in the arse when you just want to drive but still fantastic to see them in the wild. At Coonabaronbran we had to make a decision whether to camp for the night or push on, it ws around 4.30pm and we were aware a spot of night driving could be approaching-lets go for it. Before we left we drove to Warrumbungle NP, it was too late to buy a permit to camp so our decision was made for us, we'd see the kangaroos, explore the park a little, have some tea and push on. We managed 2 out of the 3, the tea wasn't quite so successful.We found the outdoor BBQ, lit it, set the pasta going, and then night set in! With only a lantern for light its impossible not to attract all the mozzies, moths and various horrible insects, let alone rather large ants that seemed to take a liking to the pasta-after seeing one go in the pan i fished it out, only to find another dozen.....ant pasta wasn't my preferred choice here so we went hungry..for now!
Driving out of the NP was a little bit like the sunset moment only with a full moon shining over high mountains-the images you get to see while traveling often take your breath away, and this was another moment...right until i had to shout 'KANGAROO' as one jumped towards our headlights. Don't worry we missed it...just. All eyes on the road till we left the park and got onto the Newell Highway (Route 39) all the way to Melbourne. Tea at a petrol station with the long haul truck drivers, late night radio stations with a commentary on bush cooking, and highlights of the football at Brisbane stadium. I woke up in a truckers lay by at 5.30 am to find us not that far from Melbourne at a place called West Wyalong and Nathan laid across all the things in the back, in a not so comfy position. i Have no idea how he managed to stay awake for so long but he insists he had fun and filled me in stories id missed while being in the land of nod, including late night hitchhikers, trucks that go fasters than cars...in fact i wont go on. All you need to know is that from the heat the day before and no shower we were rather smelly, the pong noticed by the lady serving us bacon sarnies in the small town cafe so we were on a mission to reach Melbourne- a few hours away. We only stopped once more in the town of Shepparton, which was rather nice and friendly looking and wouldn't have appreciated a long stay from two smelly pomes.
A few hours later and we were there, we'd prepared as well as possible for the city driving but still ended up lost(mainly due to the fact that Melbourne Marathon was on and certain roads were closed), and not having an eticket for the city freeway meant we had 24hours to pay up or have a huge fine, lets find a caravan park. With 2 choices here we set off in search of the cheapest...45 minutes later and driving through some rather bronx looking towns we decided to find the expensive one. Ashley Gardens Caravan Park. Picture this; we are tired, and i'll stress here again-SMELLY (it did take us 2 full days and nights to get to Melbourne-are you starting to realise how vast Australia is yet?), so the thought of sleeping in the back off the car and setting up camp was not appealing. After enquiring the price of the cheapest room we were told $53 a night (not much difference to the $35 for camping)...sold. And oh how it was sold, This was a 5 star caravan park. We are talking the biggest room, comfiest bed, TV, fridge, dressing table and settee all for us. The bathrooms a short walk away..clean, and heated floors, yes you heard right heated floors. I apologise here on behalf of me and Nathan, we are aware of the water shortage and 10 minute shower rule, but im afraid we overstepped the mark, it was at least an hour before we emerged, smelly like roses and sleeping like kings and queens within 10 minutes of hitting the sack. LOL-classic. If the weather had been better we'd have made full use of the spa and pool, and definitely the sauna, but as you know by know we had a job to do, well a job to find actually. We ended up staying 3 nights in total, it was pure luxury, but based in Footscray, it was quite a ride to the city centre.
First things first, as always, get to grips with the transport, Melbourne has a great transport system, trams and busses, they run regularly and on time so it didn't take us long to get used to this. You buy a ticket, validate it onboard and ride all day. We thought we'd worked out the best scam ever by not validating our tickets and watching out for any quickly boarding tram inspectors. We were doing well until i got caught! Oops, sorry about that i thought there was a tram inspector like Sheffield was my excuse. Of course it didn't work so giving a false address was the only way out of the fine, Don't worry mum, im sure i can get to NSW without them tracking me down in 6 weeks. Nath on the other hand is getting used to city driving, we were lucky that someone had informed us of the right hook turn in melbourne. Now this is scary, if you want to turn right, you have to be in the left hand lane with your right indicator on, and wait till all the traffic has gone, and avoid any approaching trams-writing it down actually sounds easier than it is! Trams on the other hand run along with the traffic which is often a tad interesting. I think the better option would be to join the latest craze which appears to be skateboarding. These people are everywhere and can be a tricky avoiding collision with them.
We decided to stay at a place called St Kilda, based on the beach as the city hostels apart from being pricey didn't offer parking for the car. St Kilda itself is full of bars and nightlife galore..the only trouble being that the beer works out on average the same price as buying a pint in Sheffield City centre bars! .Still that's the same in any city we've been in, you cant beat the outback redneck bars hey Tony. Oops i was doing so well here not to mention you, sorry! Big shout out to you and Lenore though-we hope that the nudist season is full of all its usual delights. Also famous for Luna Park, a mini Alton Towers type theme park with the oldest rollercoaster built still going. Im afraid to say here that for once me and nathan felt a bit too old, the rides were rather more like the fairs that go around in the Uk so a little tacky. Still it lights up nice at night. We searched all the hostels in St Kilda as we were keen to meet some people this time round, while we love our own company lol meeting fellow travelers always turns out to be a plus. But as luck would have it the only hostel with a reasonable price and off road parking was only available for a few weeks as it had sold to a French School. This hostel was called Eildon Mansion, and like its name suggest was a mansion and great fun. We viewed numerous rooms for rent and apartments, and i was getting a little stressed here as most of them were complete s**t holes, i wouldn't have put my worst enemy in them! So with one last attempt we went to view 9/35 Burnett Street, Patrick the landlord sold it to us with luxury accommodation and ocean views. Patrick didn't lie here, rather he extended the truth a little. You can definitely see the ocean, this being as its a top floor flat. And luxury, well its definitely luxury in the respect that we have our own cooking facilities and washing machine which is always handy (nath is in love with the washing machine!), but un-matching settees, a large tv with the colour fading rapidly, a cracked glass shower stand, cracks in the wall and finally the bed, not quite a double, more like 2 singles pushed together. Luxury hmmm!!. But of course-we accepted. Believe me this was best of the bunch, and most of you know that Nathan is rather a clean freak (and me lol) so with a bit of a spring clean we soon had the flat looking sparkling?? Oh, and along with the flat comes 2 flat mates. Irish John and Welsh Josh, both our ages and sound blokes, English, Irish and Welsh in one house makes one hell of an interesting accent problem and fulfills our plan of meeting fellow travelers. Oh and one final thing that Patrick failed to mention to either 4 of us, Burnett Street is the next Britannia Corner, and for those of you that didn't get that...its the local pick up joint for all the pros. Thankfully i have found a short cut to the tram bypassing the exit, and at night we all go out together lol, still it has given us some interesting tales to tell, but these ar much better face to face.
Next up comes job hunting, not so interesting as most of the jobs advertised are commission only. But as always we come up trumps. Nath has registered with quite a few agencies and does various work from working on the Marquees for the Melbourne cup to his not so happy recent job of working in as Nath calls it (in a chinese sweat shop) putting together filing cabinets. He's only 1 more day left there and then hopefully it'll be something a little less mind numbing. There's scaffolding work lined up in a few weeks for Nath so he'll be in his element. Me if you are wondering, well after aimlessly wandering into one of my favourite crappy gift shops and enquiring if they needed casual staff...they did. The perfumes that they sold were the same as the ones id been selling in the Gold Coast and it turns out that Steve and Poppy who i work for, know Chuck and Bronwyn, so were happy to give me the job. Its bloody long hours and all day long im standing at the from of the shop asking people if they like to come in and look at our products, here's an example, 'sir..take a look at our $10 watches all with a 1 year guarantee, more watches inside, madam if you are looking at the pashminas, more inside $5 normally retail at $20. Take a look at our $5 bags absolutely beautiful, more bags inside. Koalas and Kangaroos take 3 for $10.....' and i go on like that all day. By the end of the week my voice is nearly gone, which for some reason or another really impresses the boys? I have even been to the studio to record a CD that plays all day long saying the same thing, along with Poppy. Apparently the Australians love an English accent, although i have had a few drunks tell me to 'shut up you F**ing pommy!' Still its a job, its cash in hand and it helps save for the next journey ahead of us. We plan to stay another 6 weeks here saving as much as possible for xmas fun and antics.
The best part of this is that Steve and Poppy have offered me sponsorship if i want to move to australia, so along with Tony and Lenore's offer the prospects of work and life out here aren't that far away for us. Its a completely different lifestyle in Australia altogether, you work to have fun here, not work to live as it often is in the Uk. Its funny as we suspect that so many australians Don't realise how lucky they actually are. On the other hand we have a new found appreciation for the UK, everything is so close together we really shouldn't moan about traveling and should do it more. There's so many places with in a couple of hours drive or flight at good prices that we shall certainly be exploring a bit closer to home. Don't panic though, for those of you who haven't heard...brace yourselves here...yes we are coming back. We land back in the Uk on 16th (it could be 17th will have to check the tickets) of June. Plenty of time for you to barricade your doors, emigrate yourselves or do whatever it is you need to do in order to avoid seeing us with our beautiful tans. But just to be warned, Queensland is top priority so far, The White Cockatoo may not be rid of us yet. And Mr. and Mrs. (soon to be) Butler Don't be having any last minute hitches here, i expect the invitation delivered to my mum and dads!
Of course its not all saving we are still experiencing melbourne and exploring the delights so i guess its only appropriate that we fill you in. The Elephant and wheelbarrow has become our new local-every Monday it hosts a 'Neighbours night' with different actors doing guest appearances-i live in hope that one day i will bump into harold, but until them we have vowed not to pay the $35 to enter. Every other night its hosts all the sporting games and some great bands so when we aren't saving hard, you can find us in here. The weather in melbourne is a shocker- a few times now we have had to pinch ourselves to check we haven't been sent back to the Uk. it is the only place that can have 4 seasons in 1 day. We are talking 30 degrees heat in the morning, to pouring down rain by lunch, back to a rather nice afternoon, then wind to end the day-its madness. Melbourne would seriously be the best if it could just sort its weather problem out. We've been to the Telstra dome to watch the Rugby league-Australia vs New Zealand-an awesome stadium and fantastic game-i think we have both become big fans of the game now and will certainly be following it back in the UK. Australia vs Wales tonight (4th November) so im sure we'll be watching. Josh and John have joined a Gaelic football team-Nath has been to see them play and assures me there is no way he will be going on the pitch-and judging by the bruises they arrive back with i rather suspect he's made the right choice. The MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) is a great place also...we've investigated and while we'll miss the ashes game as we'll have moved on but we will be able to see a local test match. In St Kilda we live opposite Albert Park-which is the home ground of Shane Warne's cricket ground, many an late evening has been spent watching local teams play there, its also hosts every sporting even here, along with it being the track for the grand prix-at the moment the pitt stops are being used as basket ball courts? This week its the melbourne cup (horses if you aren't sure), we opted out of going to Flemington racecourse due to the expenses of the tickets and rather posh gear that we need to buy-me and feathers do not mix well! But will be at Federation Square where big screens, betting and beer tents are in place so a nifty bet may be order. If anyone has any good tips be sure to email before Tuesday. Finally we've seen most of the local interest points, but one our fave is the Grand Casino- much alike Vegas this is big, glitzy and a sure way for us to loose all our money, so for now we have just watched some rather interesting card games..this being until nathan has mastered a way to cheat at Pontoon and won us millions so we can travel until we are old and grey.
Before we finish a quick hi to Denise and Clive also here, thanks for the email was great to hear all your news, i have a plan...if meatloaf is on full Uk tour hopefully me and you can catch him sometime after July that way Rach wont get all the glory...im still gutted Rach. And now i have confessed to everyone reading that i am a Meatloaf fan, can you believe that! Lisa-great news that Andrew has made it back safely-a big hello to you both and prepare yourself for the big reunion-it may be a tad alcoholic! And also Paul, Mal, Mum and Geoff thanks for email photos...love the new car but mother can you at least try and get past 50 mph now haha.
So for now, and finally (im sure you will all agree) we will close. While im sure we'll see and do a lot more over the next few weeks im not sure you'll get another update until after xmas. So i guess its only appropriate i say here if you need any bank account details for xmas gifts be sure to see the heads of all relevant families. Ha ha were only joking...or are we?? But seriously we hope you have a fantastic Xmas and New Year ( i know its early but we may not get chance to say it again) we'll be thinking of you and hopefully you'll think of us too. We'll be on Bondi Beach having a BBQ while we are sure you'll be tucked up in your winter woolies with open fires enjoying your Turkey. We hope to see lots of messages on the website, they definately help us to stay sane, and if you are feeling up to it a hefty email with all your news wouldn't go amiss.
Love always, Lindsay and Nathan
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