Sydney

Port Macquarie

The Tale of a Rocky Coastal Town

After spending a few more days in Byron than planned and having surf lessons i decided to carry on south down the coast to Port Macquarie. Most people go from Byron straight down to Sydney, that's a 13 hour bus ride. But i decided to check out Port Mac on the way. Ken had left Byron a few days earlier and had joined a surf camp down to Sydney, where we planned to meet back up for shits and giggles. I must return to Byron on day...

Having finished 'The Motorcycle Diaries' My next book was 'The Da Vinci Code' Which Canadian Eric from Byron had supplied me with a copy of as he'd previously promised me on the way to Surfers Paradise - Cheers Bud! The Greyhound arrived just in time for the amazing sunset which spanned the horizon. The YHA hostel here was one of the nicer i have stayed in so far, it was much smaller and more homier than previous ones.

Here there is a small space observatory, but this wasn't open either of the two evenings i spent there. I had one full day here and my coach to Sydney was to depart at 12 midnight - night bus for me. So I started my full day in Port by heading out in the searing sun to the quai side. the break wall here was made up of hundreds of boulders, each of which had been painted by locals or visitors in a unique fashion, either with names, symbols, birthday wishes or in memory of loved ones.

I decided to head for a light house that was marked on the map. The coastal walk transversed 7 beaches. I'm not totally sure on the cumulative distance but it took me 4 hours to get there from the town. Lots of bush tracks, sandy beaches and scrambling over rocks involved :) This light house wasn't as inspiring or as magical as the one at Byron Bay, but worth a look. On returning to the hostel I had my meal of noodles and got chatting to a few interesting people who were there. One guy I met from Vancouver Canada had been travelling for 7 years....! Also had some interesting in depth food conversations with a lactose intolerant lady called Heather who was working the reception there and had lived in Leicester for a while, but had just got back to Oz. Must get in contact with her!

After that it was the overnight bus to Sydney...



Port Macquarie Photo Album

Freakin Nimbin and the Magic Bus

An explosion of art, jewelry, tie die clothes and all things hippie... AWESOME!

NImbin is a inland from Byron Bay by about an hour with a population of about 500. Me and Ken had chosen a sunny Sunday to go. Our choice of transport: The grasshopper bus.

We were up with plenty of time to spare before the bus came to pic us up from the Backpackers Inn in Byron, so we hung around reading in the hammocks for a while before stuffing our bags and jumping on the bus. Plenty of good tunes were blasting out as we tore up and down the hilly 'country side' of Oz.

As soon as we got there we had a little pep talk from the driver about hippie associated bargains. As it was Sunday there was a market on, which me and Ken spent a while browsing before hitting the cafes and shops on the main street for other deals some hidden away from sight. I snapped up a Gecko pendant and an Indonesian hand crafted bone carved necklace for my bros 18th birthday. :c)

Ken and me in Nimbin!

After a few afternoon beers and snacks it all started to become a little hazy. As it was OZ a BBQ was included in the trip and a laze down by an amazing river in a valley... somewhere. Next was a rock pool for water based frolickings. We arrived home in the late afternoon and cooked pasta before hitting the sack.. the day had taken it out of us!

Nimbin Album

Awesome fun there and would recommend crashing there for a few days...

New South Wales Oz

Due South

My next destination after Surfers Paradise was Byron Bay, a place i had heard alot about. As i got onto the Greyhound bus heading south my mate Ken got off! He and Elroy were looking shady with their sunglasses(!) It was here i met a girl called Eleni that Ken had been on a boat in the Whitsundays. She was from London and we chatted all the way to Byron Bay. She also knew the three Chilian guys id met up with a few times! We arranged to meet back up once we'd settled in Byron.

My hostel was the only one conviniently placed on the Beach -' Backpackers Inn' It was a good hostel (better than the last i'd stayed in). Byron bay wasn't too big and very likable, with ample amounts of hippie shops, a laid-back feel and plenty of cool cafes, art shops and take-aways.


That night I headed out to the famous 'Cheeky Monkeys' bar/club for cheap eats and to meet back up with Eleni. I was stood in the queue for almost an hour and enevitaby got chatting to a bunch of people: a girl from Finland, a girl from OZ and two lads : one from London ( Which may as well be a country of its own!) and a lad from the USA. Once we finally got into the club and had something to eat I found Eleni and bumped into Canadian Eric who had been reading the 'Da Vinci Code' on the Greyhound a few days earlier from Brisbane. Over it was a good night! There was a body painting competition ...for the the lads and girls :cP and Eric won a free Sky Dive! It all ended a bit abrupty when Lisa (the Finnish girl) got a little too drunk as it was her 22nd birthday that week and I got chucked out of the club with her..... Oooops! (not that i was THAT drunk) Got her in a taxi and sent her home with her mate.



Byron Cape

The next day was Saturday and i used the free bike hire facility at the hostel to get up to the lighthouse near the cape. I hadnt had any breakfast, was a bit hung over from the night before and hadn't been cycling in years... It nearly killed me(!) The weather was hot and sunny and the views of the light house made a perfect picture.

Lighthouse at Byron Bay Photo album

I felt that using the clear sunny day in the classic Black and White photography worked for portraying the lighthouse well and was a good look for the lighthouse. Another thing i did, which i hadn't done in years was sit and sketch. :c)

Later that day Ken arrived form Surfers Paradise and once again ended up heading for Cheeky Monkeys. We met up with Eleni and Anna and got some discount food for dinner. We slowly watched the bar decend into a Saturday night frenzyed chaos... We left after Ken made a show of himself in a hoola-hoop competition and lost... lol

On the way back we came across a late night market w'd heard about earlier that day, with jewelry and live acoustic music. awesome!




Sydney blue mountains

Surfs Up Dude!

Surfers Paradise

On the coach to Surfers I met a Canadian guy called Eric, he'd been working in Brisbane for some time and was now heading south to Byron Bay. This was my next stop after Surfers, which to some people just seemed like a stop off on the way to Byron. I must admit there was a hype about Byron that had been building up over the past couple of weeks - most people loved it. Also most people seemed to be heading north, up the East coast, unlike me. Tho this gave me the advantage of knowing what to expect.

Surfers Paradise welcomed me with warm, sunny rays. It was a city - which surprised me at first, with high rise apartment blocks. there was a strong 'surfers vibe' here which was amplified by all the art shops, souvenir shops, surf board shops, young people and real good waves!

the first place i headed once I dumped my stuff in the somewhat dingy hostel dorm was the Hard Rock cafe! My first of Australia. I chilled out in the afternoon sun with a beer and updated my journal before hitting the beach! As the sun reclined in the afternoon sky the high rises cast long shadows across the beach, making it cooler. It felt like the tall city ruined the potential of the beach somewhat, the beach being maybe one of the most important elements of a 'Surfers Paradise'...

Money Money Money

My budgeting of late had become a little lax. checking my balances I came to the conclusion that from now on I would have to resort to basics, at least for the mean time. My diet now consists of:

-Turkey slices

-fruit

-Milk

-cereal / cereal bars

-bread

-NOODLES

...And beer

Protien, carbs and vitamins..

The Three Amigos!

That evening the three guys from Chile that I'd previously met turned up at my hostel. It was nice to see some familiar faces again! We had a catch up over dinner before deceiding to go for a drinks in town. We got a $10 deal at the hostel - two drinks at the hostel, entry to a club and a free drink at the club. BARGIN! The guys from Chile also had a spirits stash of their own, which they shared with me! This made for a fun drunked night in town. Even tho the club wasn't to my taste, it could have been worse. 

Once we got back to the hostel we had trouble getting back into our dorm. Turns out two German guys had got very drunk and decided to baracade themselves in the room... Over the course of the night these guys proved to be pricks. One of them pissed the bed during the night... The other got noisily up at 5am and decided to start searching through my stuff at the side of my bed. This was too far. On quizing him he claimed he'd lost his car keys. I managed to find the car keys under the bed and considered flushing them down the toilet - after all the hastle they'd given us. But decided I was better than that and they were soon gone. Generally I like Germans, but not these two.

Surfers Paradise album