Northern NSW up to Sunshine coast

New friends, old friends, family and friends of friends, so many people have shown us hospitality. It is great to catch up with, and get to know people. And it is great to have a place to do laundry and get away from the tent sometimes...

After Sydney, northern NSW

We met an older australian couple, Lyn and Kevin, when we were in Cambodia. We spent a day with them on a boat trip to a little island. They invited us to come and spend some time in their hometown Swansea when we came by on our trip. About 4 months later we arrived in Swansea and gave them a call. We stayed with them for 2 nights and had a really nice time! They took us out to the pub for dinner and we played Trivial pursuit and drank wine at their house. The game was from 1983 and it was given to us when we left. Swansea was a nice little town with the ocean on one side and the river on the other, full of black swans and pelicans.
We drove through New Castle and stopped to have a look around, nothing special really.
Just north of New castle we stayed at Seal Rocks. It was a beautiful little town with cliffs surrounding a surf beach. Didn't se any seals there though.
Probably one of the best places we found in New South Wales was Hat Head national park. It lies just north of Port Macquarie along the coast. We camped in two different places of the park. The first was Diamond heads. It is named after a rock formation along the beach. At the camp ground heaps of red kangaroos were feeding on the lawn not minding us campers, little joeys sticking out from the poach. The next campground was just at the outskirts of enormous sand dunes leading down to the ocean, to a beautiful beach. We went down to swim, but the sand in the water sank under our feet like quicksand and we didn't take the risk of getting stuck! We did a hike along the coast there and saw dolphins surfing, that was cool.

Coffs harbour was next place of visit. The campground we stayed at was just near the beach and had all facilities. A great pool and campkitchen and a tv room with widescreen. We stayed there and enjoyed the comforts after spending days in the national park which didn't even have showers. Sometimes you have to live a litle bit comfortable. Coffs Harbour was a nice place, it's marina is impressive and it has a little peninsula that goes out on a hill where the muttonbirds nest. Out there we saw a big shark in the water below us, the nearest yet we had come to these animals.

Up the coast were a few small surftowns that we planned to visit but the weather was not on our side. It was poring down rain when we went through Yamba, we spent a night in Ballina, but ended up sleeping in the car as it rained too heavily for our tent.

We went inland in the hilly landscape to have alook at the little town of Nim Bin before we went to Byron Bay. Nim Bin is famous for being a hippie town, where people go to buy drugs. We thought we'd have a look at the place, fun to see some tye dye shops and see people walkinga round ala flower power with no shoes on. When we arrived it was just one street the whole town was based on. It was very hippie, but in a sad way, not a happy hippie town. People walked arpund in tye dye clothes, dreads and all that, but they were all desperate to sell you dope or dope muffins. We arrived at about 8 in the morning and there was marijuana smoke coming out from windows. It was a dirty little town. The thought of maybe camping there one night was changed pretty quickly and we headed out to look at a waterfall instead.
The waterfall was really nice, lots of water because of a lot of rainfall. We went to do the walk to the base of the waterfall, we came the whole way down and the track continued over the river. You were supposed to skip from rock to rock over the water. Because of the wet season the rocks were now covered in water, and I slipped as I tried to cross... Fell straight in the wild water and called for help! Aaran pulled me up from the water, I was not hurt but very shocked. The camera I had in my pocket was now at the bottom of the river...

Byron Bay was next place to visit. It is the biggest bay in Australia, I think, anyway it is a plce that is famous for back packers. It is a real surf town where loads of tourists go for holidays. It was really nice. We had nice weather and the beach there was great. The town itself was crowded with restaurants and hostels, all with a bit of the "surf bum" feeling to them. We didn't spend weeks there though as some backpackers do, after a couple of days we left.

Southern Queensland
Queensland is a big state and it is divided in two, the densely populated southern part with Brisbane as it's big city and the northern part with the farm town of Townsville as their capital and a population of cows exceeding the human population.

Gold coast
We went through the border town and surf town of Tweedheads. From there you have a view over the Gold coast and all the skyscrapers. Surfers paradise is probably the most famous part of the gold coast, but many small towns link together along the coast creating one long stretch of town. The area is full of high buildings, hotels and restaurants. It is maybe the Florida of Australia. Here you can find all the amusement parks, Sea world, wet n' wild etc. I had heard mixed reviews about this place. Aaran has told me that it is popular with schoolies, kids that graduate, and for trips with the footie teams. Which means it's is a place where people go to party for a week.
Aaran and I had a contact, Chris, who lives just next to surfers on Main beach. Chris used to live in Malmo and play footie there, we got his number from Seth and Karin that we stayed with in Perth. We stayed with him and his estonian girlfriend for 3 nights. It was great to stay with them, had never met them before but their hospitality was great and we got along really well. It was also nice to stay with some people that call the gold coast their home. Main beach was a nice area, a little bit away from the most hotels and bars.
We took long walks along the beach from Main beach to the spit and to surfers which were really good. Gold coast was nicer than I had anticipated but still there are so many places that are nicer to visit in Australia.

Brisbane
From Chris's house we went to visit some of Aaran's old friends from Melbourne that had moved up to Queensland. We went to stay with Chad and Jackie and their son Jack for 4 days, in a place called Springfield west of Brisbane. It was really good for Aaran to catch up with his old friends and for me to get to know them! We had nice bbq evenings, talking and listening to music. When Jackie had a day off we went on aroad trip with her and jack to the town of Towoomba, a little jewel in the countryside.
We went in to Brisbane a couple of days also. It was a nice city, not great, but it had some great things. This was the first place in Australia that we saw a man made beach in the city, a lagoon. Brisbane is on a river that you can't swim in so it was nice to be able to take a dip when sightseeing. The modern art gallery had an exhibition with the work of young artists from asia. It was one of the highlights during our visit there, some really cool stuff. Also a bit outside the city is tambourine mountain with an incredible view over the city and the coast that was nice to see.

Sunshine coast
North of Brisbane is the sunshine coast. It is made up of charming little towns, also touristy but nothing like the Gold coast. We stayed one night with Aarans cousin Adrien and her family in Buderim near the coast and Maroochydore. We had dinner there, Aaran and her hadn't seen eachother for 12 years and she had two little boys running around, so there was a bit of catching up to do. The cost there was beautiful. We discovered the best beach for bodysurfing in Malooloba, where the waves just rolled perfectly and there were no strong currents.
Inland a bit from there are the Glasshouse mountains and Australia zoo, the croc hunter's zoo. We saw the mountains, beautiful!, and camped one night up there. We visited the zoo the next day. I am normally not a zoo visitor, and neither is Aaran. I think that animals are not to be kept like that and it can be sad to see. But I had seen Steve Irwing on tv and heard of his work to keep wildlife in Australia and thought that I could check out his place. It was a bit too much. Too childish really and they played too much on Steve Irwing's fame. But what I did like was that I got to see the Cassowary, a big bird that is family with the Ostrich, is blue in the face and has a big brown lump on the head.


*What we did after is to be continued in the next blog entry, only so much one can write in one go*

The roadtrip from Melbourne to Sydney

About 2 months have passed since I wrote on the blog last time. Much has happened since then, I'll try and tell you as much as I can.

Leaving Melbourne

We had bought the car and we loaded it full with camping gear that Aaran already had laying about in his mom's garage. We knew that we would not have any very long drives, we would take our time and stop in places along the way all the way up. The trip would go along the east coast, finish in Cairns where we would sell the car and then fly to New Zealand. Not much more planned.
First Aaran and I had to say goodbye to his family and friends. It was not easy, but inevitable. His mom decided to come to Sweden next summer which gave us all something to look forward to.

The coast in Victoria and a visit to Canberra

The first stop on the road eastward was at Aaran's aunt's place in Inverlock. Just 2 hrs east of Melb, it was an easy drive. We spent a few days there, it's a little cosy beach town. From there we drove to Wilson's promonotory, a national park on a peninsula. It was beautiful, but it rained quite a bit. It turned out that this rain weather was going to follow us for some time. We visited some beachtowns on the way up towards sydney. When we were in Merimbula, a great place in nice weather according to Aaran, our tent got flushed away and it was impossible for us to sleep in it, we slept in the car but decided to go inald and seek better weather. Aaran's friend Bec and her bf Ed lives in Canberra so we visited them for 3 days. We got our own room in their house and had many evenings just eating good food and drinking wine. Canberra turned out to be a nice city. Maybe because everyone had made sure to tell us that it wasn't beforehand it made a good impression on us. And of course after a week in the rain we finally got sunshine. The art gallery had a special exhibition with french impressionists, the biggest thing in Canberra that year it seemed. We visited almost all galleries and museums. The war memorial was beautiful. The whole city was constructed in almost one go. Reading a map over canberra is like looking at some inexplicable artwork made by aliens. It is all circles within circles.

To be honest, Aaran drove most of the time on the trip. I drove the car in Melbourne and it scared me. It is better on the country roads, but that first time on the left hand side in peak traffic and a lot of lanes and exits coming up on you from nowhere. It just wasn't enjoyable. So instead I became the map reader.

Toward Sydney

We were going to climb Mt Koziusco, but because of the rain it was pretty much closed. We headed to the coast again instead to Batemans bay, which was an alright place, but not that great.
On our way to the Blue mountains, we went through many gorgeous coastal towns. The coast just south of Sydney is really nice. There are lots of wineries along the way and dramatic nature. We were driving on winding roads up on cliffs looking down on clear blue waters and white beaches.

The Blue mountains lay just west of Sydney and we planned to stay there for some days before going to the city. It was beautiful in the mountains. There were many lookouts where we could see over the mountain tops and down into the valley. We stopped at a big waterfall, the wentworth falls, which was incredible. Half way down the waterfall there was a natural pool where we swam. We went for a hike down one of the valleys. We went down the mountain side where water dripped from different waterfalls and trees were clingning on for their lifes. Down the valley was dense gum forest. We followed a creek to our camp and took swimming breaks every now and then to cope with the heat. When swimming we had company by a big Water dragon, a lizard, sitting oin a rock next to us. We camped one night at the bottom of the valley and climbed up the mountain the day after.

Camping in nature is one of the great experiences we've had in Australia. The climate is good for it and it is available in almost all the national parks. The best is when you get a spot near a swimming hole and when you can light a camp fire at night. In some of the places we've camped we've been almost alone and in some places we've been surprised of how many others there'd been. There's almost always some kind of interaction with animals. Brush turkeys or possums coming near you, smelling your food. In some places you can absolutely not have any food in the tent or the dingoes or wombats will rip it open to get to it. When not hiking we always put the food in the car.

Sydney

We had decided to go to Sydney for the weekend the Mardi gras was on since Aaran's friends Jamie and Nicky would be there then. The first two nights in Sydney we satyed at the Olympic village, where all the athletes had lived during the 2000 olympic games. We stayed with Aaran's old classmate Mont on Jordan street. Maybe it was Michael Jordan's house we stayed in? He took us on a guided car tour by night over the harbour bridge and the anzac bridge. It was beautiful. We watched the Opera house from the other side of the river. We took the harbour ferry from Olympic village to Circular quay in the centre. Sydney on the water was really nice, it is probably the best way to look at it. We came in under the harbour bridge which is an impressive structure.
Mont couldn't have us longer since he himself was going back to Melb. We moved to a hostel in the middle of the city.
We stayed near to china town and the Hay market. The hostel was Korean run and most guests seemed to come from there. I really liked China town and the market, it was almost as coming back to south east asia. We bought heaps of lovelly vegetables and fresh noodles and made stir fry everyday we were in Sydney, we had missed it from our time in Asia.

We spent our days in Sydney sightseeing, just walking around alot. The highlights of the city is the Anzac park, China town, Bondai and the harbour. It was a nice city, but I think that none of the Australian cities are anything in comparison with the cities in Europe. My friend Annika has a friend in Sydney, Pernilla, so we organized to meet up with her and her boyfriend in Bondi beach. Jamie and Vicky joined us and we all had a barbie on the beach. That night we went to see the mardi gras. It is like the love parade we have in Sweden. It is all about different groups of gay and lesbians in Sydney to parade in skimpy outfits to disco music while promoting equal rights. There were 10.000s of thousands of people everywhere, caotic, but fun. Pernilla and Chris showed us a nice little pub afterwards.
Oh and the Opera house. From a distance it is a cool building, the shape is distinct, like nothing else in the city, breaking all the lines with its wedge shapes. And I really like that it is white and shiny. Close up it is not as stunning. Unfortunately it is a strange compromise of space, the white shapes coming down, merging into something brown and heavy. It is in a great spot, water on 3 sides of it and you see it when coming from the botanical gardens. I just didn't like it that much. It wasn't that exciting. I've seen some documentraies on the design and making of it and I know that the result is not what the architect intended, as in so many cases economy and politics decided the final outcome. Maybe that is a pity.

After the city we went to Manley. It is it's own place altough it counts as a northern suburb. I wouldn't say that it is Sydney. It is a really nice little surf town with a nice marina and a laid back feeling. the only thing that makes you feel close to the city is the view you have on top of a hill over the city skyline. We stayed there for a couple of nights. There was no camping and the hostel was expensive, otherwhise great place.

Traveling in Ausralia is not cheap. Comparing prices you notice that many of them are equivalent to Sweden. Petrol is cheaper in Australia and bread. Produce, all the veges and fruits are same price as Sweden, and everything is locally produced in Australia. I guess in Sweden we buy it from all the less developed countries for really nothing to make it worth selling in Sweden. Acomodation is about the same as Sweden. Camping in Sweden is probably cheaper, also we have the "allemansratten", free camping anywhere in the bush...
The price to eat in restaurants and go to the cinema is similar to Sweden. To buy drinks in a bar is a bit cheaper here in Australia.
The things you look for as a backpacker is cheap accomodation, free parking, a cheap supermarket, free internet. Anything free really :) . And you are always looking for a good time.
Aaran and I, being a couple of years older than the average backpacker, had agreat time staying at remote campsites, and away from the pub crawls and beer stinking hostels. Rather wake up early by the sounds of different exotic birds, looking over the ocean while making morning coffe.

To leave Sydney and go back to life in nature was a relief.

*Next blog will come shortly, then I'll write about the rest of the road trip!*