Road Trip from Sydney to Cairns - Week 2

So, I last left off in Byron Bay. We headed north towards Surfers Paradise. We stopped in Coolongata to check out one of the most famous waves in the world, Kirra or "Superbanks". It is a wave that gets hollow over and over again but is the most crowded wave as well. It was located right in the downtown area and breaks off a jetty wall. There are some more beaches south of Kirra, I posted up a map of the area and you can see Kirra on the north end of the map. The have an intense dredging operation going on the area.

It was small, windy, and not working when we got there so we took some pics and headed north. We ended up surfing at Burleigh Heads, it was a long right hand wave with a rocky bottom. Again the swell wasn't all there, but Riki and I got a few good long rights. Burleigh Heads was a nice city though, not as big as Coolongotta but looked more affordable for living.


We made it up to Surfers Paradise. I feel it is a close version of the Australian Vegas, lots of tall high-rise development, lots of lights and glimmer, adventure parks including a place like Disney World and a big water park. We didn’t go to any of these because they were $70 for the day. Surfers Paradise has the largest residential building in the world along the downtown area. The resort tower is called the Q1. It cost about $20 to go to the top, again we didn’t want to spend the money to do that, in addition it was overcast that day. Everything in Australia costs money, with the exception of the traditional hiking, surfing, skateboarding, walking, etc. The downtown area is not really a “surfer’s” paradise as the beaches are all beach breaks and they don’t offer any good surf spots in the downtown area. I would imagine that the development wiped out any previously good surf spots, which tends to happen these days in California and Mexico. Development along coastal areas often changes the way the sand is deposited naturally in the ocean, dredging alters the beach waves, and changing natural lagoons and rivers also affects the ocean bottom. However, if you head south of Surfers for about 20-30 minutes there are some of the best surf spots in Australia.

Our hostel was walking distance to the main strip with shops and restaurants. Our hostel was nice; it had 4 beds in the room and had a living room area with a kitchen for just our flat. Our one flat mate, Orce, was from Switzerland. He was really nice and we hung out with him the whole time we were there. That night I checked out the bar called Vegas, it had slot machines and a bar, nothing too special. We also went to a place called Melbas because the hostel offered us free drinks there. The next day we woke up and went for a walk in the town. The beach was right at the end of the shops but the waves were fickle. There was a walkway with shops on each side similar to the other cities. There are lots of tourist shops, real estate agents, restaurants, and bars.

That day Ricky and I took a drive south about 20 minutes to a place called Currumbin. It had a river mouth connecting to the ocean and a jetty to the north and one to the south.
The swells were small but the wave broke to the right for 100-200 yards. I got some of the longest waves I had gotten in a while. When we first got out it was Ricky and I and maybe 5 other people so everyone was getting long rides. We were taking off near the jetty to the north but you could catch the wave anywhere on the inside, but you needed to get speed to make the inside section. After a little bit school must have let out as all the punk kids started showing up and hogging the waves, that’s when we paddled south a bit and ended up getting shorter rights that were just as fun with nobody dropping in on us. But eventually people started coming where we were, but overall it was a great relaxing surf session. Then we headed back to Surfers Paradise to pick up Andrea, who was checking out the Hard Rock Café and working on his blog. He is real interested in the Hard Rock Café’s all over the world.
We headed to Brisbane at 5 pm; it’s only about 80 km’s from Surfers. I dropped Ricky off at his Cuz’s (cousin’s) place in Brisbane. Andrea and I stayed at the Base hostel (also known as the Palace Backpackers); we had a 6-bed room. The hostel was a lot bigger but had smaller rooms. Brisbane is a big city, similar to Sydney. It is about 45 minutes to the nearest surf spot though. Sydney has a few surf beaches, Bondi and Manly for instance. We hung out at our hostel that night and checked out the bar and restaurant downstairs.

The following day I wrote my blog for week 1 of my road trip and then ventured into the city. Writing the blog is hard to do on such a fast paced trip but doable if you keep up on it. I do most of the writing in the car. Finding a wireless connection to post all the photos and the actual blog is hard. Australia doesn’t have many wireless café’s, sometimes the internet café’s have wireless from anywhere from $1-$3 per 20 minutes. I haven’t been able to pick up any free unsecured wireless signals except for a few days I was staying in Wollongong. Andrea is about 7 months behind on his blog and all he does is talk about how he has to do his blog, it’s pretty funny.

Everyone took off for the day in Brisbane to get some alone time to explore the city at there own pace. I took a walk through the main part of the city in Brisbane; there was a walkway through all the shops, kind of like an outdoor mall. I stopped at a surf shop called Beach City Surf because I enjoyed the one near Manly Beach. It had four levels of clothing, surfboards, and skateboards. They had a 5-foot half pipe at the top level that was free to ride and had a video game station on the third floor with Xbox 360 to play.

I heard south bank was a nice place to check out in Brisbane so I headed there, you have to cross a bridge from the main city but it was within walking distance. There were several museums and cinemas but were all things you had to pay for. I was interested in seeing the artificial beach they constructed along the harbor.
It was beautiful; they had built several sand pools with sand around them, which were built for swimming and sun bathing. They also had grass lawns to relax on. The beach was built along the harbor but there was no swimming in the harbor, as it looked polluted. I met Andrea and Riki there and we relaxed in the sun and talked about our future adventures.

Our next stop was Noosa Heads, our hostel was in the town just south of Noosa at Sunshine Beach. Our hostel was called Dolphin Beach House. It was a quite little hostel and the town at Sunshine Beach was very small, just maybe 10 shops that close before 9pm. We watched a movie with the other hostel flatmates and got some good sleep. The next day we checked out Sunshine Beach and saw a good surf spot along the north end of the sunshine beach just south of the Noosa Heads. We only had about 2 hours before we had to leave and Andrea wanted to hike around at the headland at Noosa Heads so I decided to surf over there. We drove around to the north portion of the headland and I grabbed my board. Riki went to town and Andrea went for a hike. I saw two koalas in the trees, one was sleeping in the tree at the parking lot and one was along the trail in a tree just hanging out watching people. Typically koalas are hard to spot in the wild but in this area they are common to spot, it is a protected national park area that gets lots of tourists. I surfed at one of the points along the headland but it was windy and the waves were small. It also was the first time I was at a spot all to myself, every shadow scared me a bit, but I finally came to the conclusion that the shadows were only rocks. When someone else came out I felt more comfortable. I just got one good ride, the rest were crumbly closed out waves. It was good to keep up the arm strength and soak in some sun.
Our next destination spot would be Rainbow Beach, which is an amazing area as shown by all the photos at the travel agencies. We had to get there by 2pm that day for a meeting for our trip to Frasier Island and we would leave the next day for the island, therefore we didn’t have much time to spend in Noosa Heads and Sunshine Beach.

We ended up following Andrea’s GPS unit to Sunshine Beach and it took us on a dirt road out in the middle of nowhere. A sign had said it was an impossible road for standard vehicles if it had rained, so you could imagine what kind of road it could be. There were plenty of potholes and soft spots and we had to ride the pile most of the way, which meant we had to ride on the center of the dirt road so we wouldn’t bottom out on the engine. I was just hoping it would bring us to our hostel so we wouldn’t miss out on our trip. We only saw one car on the hour-long trip on this road. It eventually brought us to an asphalt road that took us to Rainbow Beach. It is a really undeveloped area and the headland was about 10-15 km’s south of where the town was. That area was undeveloped national park only accessible by 4-wheel drive along the beach or hiking it down the beach. The surf breaks off the north and south end of the point and breaks for minutes on the right size/direction of swell. I was going to try to get down there but the surf went flat. So we got to our hostel named Dingos and made it to our meeting. They split us into groups of 10 to 11 people and that’s who we would be splitting the 4-wheel drive Toyota truck with on our adventure to Frasier Island. Our group ended up working out fine, we had two Dutch, two Irish, two Swedish, one French, and the three of us. Let me just take the time to say there are so many Irish people in Australia, just about everyone in Ireland comes to Australia. The majority of them take 1 year to travel the world after college and come to Australia for a few months. Some just take breaks for months from there jobs. There can’t be many Irish people left in Ireland.

So the next day we got together in the morning to pack our truck. The company we booked through, Dingos, would supply us with all the food we would need; as well as tents, sleeping bags, maps, itineraries of what to do and what to eat for our meals. Dingos is ran by a guy named Merv who was very helpful and friendly. We took a 15 minute ferry over to Frasier Island and we were off on our adventure. You can also stay at Harvey Bay but it is about a 45 minute to 1-hour ferry ride to Frasier.
Frasier Island is the largest sand island in the world, the east end of the beach stretches for over 75 miles. The rainforest grows out of the sand dunes, there are many lakes, creeks, and the ocean is beautiful as well, it’s just amazing. There are lots of Dingos and Death Adders (deadly snakes that live in the sand). Dingos attack kids and killed a kid a few years back so the government has been setting up controversial fences to keep Dingos out of the campgrounds. The rangers often have to shoot and kill Dingos if they become too friendly around camps, because they often become aggressive once they get closer to humans. The fences and shootings have raised an issue because the Dingos eat the snakes. Apparently there are 150,000 deaths due to snakes a year. I found an article though that said only 38 depths have occurred in Australia in the last 23 years. I read that this one lady Frasier Island turned over in her tent and got bit between the eyes by death Adler, YIKES. I’m glad I read that after I got back.

Unfortunately once we got on the beach in Frasier Island our accelerator cable snapped so we were broken down for 2 hours. There were 8 other groups that we wanted to stay with but this put us off schedule. A mechanic came out from Merv’s mechanic shop and helped us for free, so that was nice. The road you drive on is the beach and there weren’t many laws. The speed limit was 80 km per hour (kmph) (50 miles per hour (mph)) which was very fast for a beach road because there were a lot of wash outs which are little streams leading to the ocean from the forest which often erode the sand several feet. So if you hit one going 80 kmph your going to flip. Merve set his speed limit to 60 kmph (37 mph) which still felt fast. He also said not to drive at night. I can just tell you know we probably broke every rule mentioned in the video we watched and what Merve told us; not intentionally though. The main one is not to feed the Dingos, but I will get to that one later. So our first stop was Lake McKenzie, a crystal clear lake that has pure white silica sand surrounding it.

I don’t believe there are many fish or other life in the lake due to the ph levels and lack of nutrients. I swam across the lake, which was nice and refreshing; the temperature was a bit cool, probably about 65 F. We got to the lake at about 3pm which was the time Merv had told us to leave from there. We left about 430/5ish so it was already getting dark.

We drove around looking for the campground he told us to find but eventually just found a spot somewhere because we had been driving for about 2 hours in the dark. We setup camp, had our steaks, and relaxed. The next day we had rigged up a towrope with a piece of wood and skimboarded behind the truck on the beach and into the water. It was really fun and most of the crew tried it out. Then we went and checked out a shipwreck that was right on the beach. It was a great site to look at. The ship was the S.S. Maheno and was used during World War 1 but was declared unseaworthy and was being sold to Japan for scrap metal. It was destroyed by a cyclone in 1935.
We then headed for Indian Head, which was a great lookout point on the northeastern portion of the island. We saw some big fish that looked like they could have been small sharks. The spot also gave beautiful views of the island. Then we went to the Champagne Pools which were little coves that filled up with ocean water from the waves hitting the rocks surrounding them, creating small tidal pools.


There were some fish in each pool and it was nice to look at the coral and rock. We then headed back south on the island to Eli Creek. You can wade down Eli Creek like a lazy river but it was 5pm and the water and air was cold.

I just walked down it, as it was shallower than knee high. The water was crystal clear and the surroundings were fantastic. We wanted to camp out with the other groups, which were going to be near Lake Wabby, but we couldn’t find them and again we were driving for about 2 hours in the dark (as we were told not to). We found one other group that was lost too so they camped with us. We made a chicken stir-fry and hung out around the candles I brought. You’re not allowed to make campfires on Frasier Island. I’m glad we didn’t break that rule as it is a $1,000 fine. We got to know some of the other group and played some camping games. We found some other campers as well from another touring agency and they had music, so we hung with them for a while. All our trucks came with an ipod connection so we all brought our music. I came to find out is very hard to find music everyone likes when people are from other countries. Everyone got over Andrea’s obsession with Bruce Springsteen but he would sneak it on at every chance.

The next morning we woke up to park rangers yelling at us to get out of our tents. Apparently we didn’t pack our food up properly and a pack of Dingos destroyed our camp. Riki said he saw 10 dingos and lots of crows going through our eski’s, crates of food, and rubbish bags.

The rangers weren’t too happy. They fined our group and the other one a total of $300 and made us clean up everything. We lost a lot of food but had enough scraps to throw together some breakfast and lunch. Dingos might come back to the same campsite when kids are around and look for food and if they can’t find it they might attack the kids, then the rangers have to shoot the Dingos.

That last day (Monday) in the morning we cooked up the rest of the eggs and bread that were left. Every time we ate there would be plenty of sand in the food. There were no showers, bathrooms, or faucets at most campgrounds. There were maybe a handful of small shops on the island with bathrooms, sinks, water, and the shops sold ice and some food. But we only stopped once at one of those places. By the end we probably ate a ¼ pound of sand. We cleaned dishes with the ocean water and sand.

During the morning we hiked up to Lake Wabby, which was a 2km (1.2 mi) hike through the rainforest and through big sand dunes. It felt like we were in the desert. Sand was whipping at us from the wind blowing in our walking direction. There was a great big sand dune that dropped at a steep angle towards Lake Wabby. We skimmed down the dune into the lake and enjoyed the cool water. Everyone was wiped out from the walk and from all the camping. It was nice to relax. Then we headed back to the ferry to catch the 2:30 departure ride.

Overall we all had a great time together. We taught the others how to setup tents, use the stoves, and how to work the 4-wheel drive. I did a little swimming but didn’t go to far out because the island was shark infested and there are lots of jellyfish, and worst of all is the strong rip currents. We saw jellyfish washed up on the beach that were about 1.5-2 feet in diameter. Riki did some fishing and caught a bunch of fish, he only kept one to eat. It tasted pretty good. No one encountered any snakes or spiders which was good. Everyone got along well. Sand got in everything we had; only Andrea’s camera got busted from the sand.

We got back to Rainbow Beach that afternoon and relaxed that night. We got together and pooled our photos, so now I have 10x as many photos as I probably need. We went to bed early that night but the Irish people we were staying with were loud all night. The Irish could be very obnoxious at times; they really take drinking to another level.

The following day, Tuesday, we hung out in the morning and headed to Agnes Water, the town just bordering seventeen seventy. It was about a 6-hour drive. We got up there around 7pm and we were all pretty worn out still from the trip to Frasier. The town was small and had just a few shops. Andrea and I just relaxed and got a good night sleep. Riki went out to a bar for a Ping Pong tournament. There is always something going on around the hostels but I needed sleep. We had some nice Irish people in our room that night that were quite and respectful; finally a great nights sleep.

We had a 10 hour drive ahead of us on Wednesday (July 23, 2008) to get to Arlie Beach so we had to leave first thing in the morning. But both Agnes Water and Seventeen Seventy have great beaches and things to do during the day, we just didn’t have the time. It was raining all night before and that day so we didn’t feel to bad about leaving.

In Arlie Beach we are going out on a sailboat to go through the Whitsunday's, along the edge of the Great Barrier Reef. This is one of the most amazing places in the world. I'm glad to say Andrea, Riki, and I are getting along great and everyone is amazed about our story of how we met. Well stay tuned for some amazing photos of the Whitsundays!

Road Trip from Sydney to Cairns - Week 1

Well I left on my road trip in Sydney to Cairns on Sunday July 6, 2008 at noon. I have about 23 days for the trip. I am traveling with 2 guys I met on Gumtree.com, which is similar to Craigslist.org in the states. Ricky is from New Zealand and Andrea is from Italy, they are both really great and we have been getting along well.
It is a real good opportunity to learn about there cultures and have some company at the same time. I had put up an ad to have travel partners up the coast and surf and explore the whole way up, I met with them the day before and it seemed like it would work. We could split fuel and food costs and have people to hang out with. Ricky surfs and Andrea would like to learn. I had them take the ferry from Sydney to meet me in Manly.


Our first stop would be Treachery Campground (near Seal Rocks) in Myall Lakes National Park. We would pass through New Castle first, which was a small little city along the coast. The city was old and the streets weren’t crowded. We got up to Treachery after dark and checked in to the campground, it cost $13 each.


We set up our tent right near a sand dune that was the closest spot to access the beach. We ate some cereal for dinner and set up our 4-person dome tent that my friend John’s sister had lent me. John also lent me his eski (cooler) and air mattress. Brogan had lent me his surf racks. Aussie’s are always going out of their way to be friendly. Off the subject, but just to show how nice Australians are, we were driving through a random town, had made a wrong turn and pulled over. A lady had pulled over behind us, so we thought we were getting pulled over, it turned out she saw us turning our heads all over like we were lost and stopped to give us directions.
So we made a fire at the camp and hung out for a bit. Ricky has been camping for a while; he has worked at camps for kids. He also worked a lot at extreme sporting activity companies, like white water rafting, rock climbing and canyoning companies. He was also telling me about his hunting experiences, he used to get paid to hunt all kinds of animals, especially possums. He would shoot them for there fur for his job. New Zealand seems to allow hunting of many animals. He has camped out along rivers and in the middle of the north island for months in New Zealand. New Zealand is very old fashioned, lots of hunting, not many people (about 4 million), but the majority live on the North Island (3 million), and out of all of those people they mostly live in Auckland (about 2 million). I think there is 3 times as many sheep as people. Ricky has just gotten to Australia and is 31. Andrea is from Trieste, Italy; he is half Croatian and half Italian. His job in Italy was to fix a special type of hospital equipment. He has been traveling around Australia for over 10 months and is my age: 27.
The following day we woke up at 7am to get in the water early, the waves were packing 6-foot faces but were unpredictable with where they would break and a little fat which made it hard to get rides. Ricky and I surfed it for a bit, then we made some breakfast, which consisted of peanut butter, jelly, and nutmella (hazelnut-chocolate spread) on bread. We didn’t see any stores to get food on our way to the campground so our food supplies were limited. I took my skimboard down the dunes, there was a jump halfway down. Then Ricky called me up the dunes as a few whales were passing in the ocean, you could see their backs and the water blowing out their blowholes.
Then we adventured to the views of the lighthouse at Seal Rocks. The campground was very relaxing, with Dingo’s walking around everywhere. Dingo’s are stray dogs, but here they were somewhat friendly and playful. They would come up to you about 10-20 feet away and then back away, they would sniff around other peoples sites that weren’t at there tents. They could be dangerous though, especially to babies and younger children. There were also wild turkeys roaming around in the morning, pretty much I have seen wild turkeys everywhere, at some main beaches and at all the campgrounds. Ricky saw a sea turtle while we were surfing that morning. In the morning birds were chirping starting at sunrise, they are soooo loud in the morning, exactly the same as the rainforest noises on the alarm clocks they sell, so obnoxious! Earplugs are a must when camping in the national forests and rain forests in Australia.
In the afternoon we checked out a couple of surf spots north of Seal Rocks, which included Sand Bar, Bluey’s Beach, and Boomerangs. Sand Bar and Bluey’s were accessible by dirt roads, Boomerangs had a paved road leading to it. Australia is filled with dirt roads to uncharted surf breaks, it’s totally a search and discover mission whenever you adventure down some of the unmapped roads. 4-wheel drive is the real way to explore, as you can drive on most of the beaches, and some dirt roads have potholes that can’t be driven over by shallow wheel based cars. When we checked out Sand Bar a guy said a tiger shark hangs out in the area, as there is a river that connects to the south part of the beach. Last year the shark took a bite out a guy’s board; needless to say we surfed at Bluey’s.




Nobody was out there and Ricky and I got some great waves, 6-8 foot faces and both lefts and rights. After I rode one wave I turned around to paddle back out and watched as Ricky took off on a wave and saw several dolphins going through the waves, I even saw them jump out of the water, as Ricky was on the wave, just amazing.
Later that day we picked up food supplies and headed to Point Plummer, which is in another national park. Most national parks have camping, and sometimes it is free if no one checks so that was our plan to get free tent camping. Treachery was a private campground, although it was within the national park. Andrea plugged the address in his gps and it led us to a ferry, ha, it ended up being a ferry across a small body of water and the ferry was pulled by steel suspension cables, looked to be all electric, and it only cost $2.80 to take the car on. When we got over we didn’t really know which way to go, guys had said you needed 4-wheel drive, so we followed the gps. We took some dirt roads and ended up north of Point Plummer in Crescent Head (known as surf city), which I later found out was the way to go, you can get to Point Plummer quicker from the ferry if you have 4-wheel drive, if not you have to do what we did and drive northwest and cut back southeast. We saw a bunch of kangaroos on the dirt road that night anyway so that was fun. That day we saw so much wild life!
Crescent Head is a great surf break but it was dark and we had a mission to get to Point Plummer. So we headed back south, we found a little campsite north of Point Plummer with nobody around, we setup camp and went to bed early. In the morning we checked Point Plummer out, it was a national park that charged to camp. It was setup right on the point break, a perfect right hander that was a good long boarder wave or beginner wave that went for a long time. It was very small though so we drove south more and checked a few spots out. We came to Queens Head and climbed up on the hill and saw peaks all down the line to the south, more size and cleaner than the other spots as it was facing south swell and the others were blocking the south swell. Ricky and I got some great waves all to ourselves. There was a bunch of people south of us but the peak we surfed had nobody on it. We surfed for hours than made a lunch at the car park. We then headed north back to Crescent Head to check it out during the daylight. The wave was also a long right-hander and easy to ride, but wasn’t getting much swell at the time. The town was very small, with just a few shops and Camper Park on the beach. There was also a small skate park in front of the beach. All the cities seem to have skate parks, there most of them are free too. The ramps are either steel or made from concrete as they are outside. There seem to be no restrictions on pads or helmets. Some parks may make you wear a helmet, although I haven’t seen one. We then headed north to our next destination, which was dependent on wave quality. We drove through Hat Head, which I was told had many sand dunes and was a great campground. The waves weren’t very good though and we decided we had to make up some ground in the car. We also checked out Scott’s Head, again the waves weren’t very good, we drove through Macksville to get petrol (gas). The town was very nice with several shops but off the coast a bit.
Our next spot we checked out was Nambucca Heads. This was a big surf town with beautiful homes, a nice town, and great views. The beach was a little difficult to get to though; when we got to a beach north of the headland the waves were crap. As I drove through the backstreets I made a wrong turn and came across a spectacular view of the waterway at the edge of the ocean, probably a lagoon.


The sun was setting and the sky had so many different colors, there looked to be a nice break south of the main headland but we had no idea how to get down there. The sun was a determining factor, as it has been on the trip so far as it sets at 5pm. I was told Sawtell was a great campground and surf spot, we scoped it out and it was $25 for the night, so no free camping. It was a major camp ground/caravan park. We decided to go north another few kilometers to Coffs Harbor, since they had a sister campground there and it is a bigger city. Since we were paying we figured we would see more at Coffs. There sister campground ended up being closed so we found another one that was nice on the Pacific Highway set back a few kms from the beach but close to town, it had dutch buildings/stores, tent sites open, washers and driers, showers, and a nice communal kitchen and bbq, it cost $25 for all of us. It was nice to have some amenities for the first time. We set up our tent and started making dinner. We bbq’d kangaroo and made pasta. The kangaroo was really tasty, a tender steak meat. Kangaroos are hunted in Australia as they become overpopulated, often running in front of cars, similar to deer in the woods areas in the states. It is actually very cheap as well at the supermarkets, probably the cheapest besides that Devon crap. I think most people in the states think Kangaroos are endangered.
The next day, Wednesday, we walked around Coffs Harbor town and checked out the harbor area. There was a wave breaking right off the north part of the jetty wall and nobody was out.
The wave was small but you can’t say no to a wave with some shape and all to yourself. Andrea walked north of the jetty up a big hill that has great views of the area. We ate lunch at the picnic area we parked at and headed north. We passed a big banana, which symbolizes the city as it is heavy into banana farming. Our next stop I was planning on going was Yamba Beach, I got told from several people to check it out. But since it was 3pm and we were getting thirsty for another wave we decided to pull off at a dirt road towards Yura Yoir National Park. The road to the beach was a 15 km dirt and cobble road with deep potholes, muddy roads; basically it was accessible for 4-wheel drive vehicles. There were plenty of roads off the beaten track, we ventured down one but turned to the main one because the road got so bad. About an hour and half of driving and bottoming out we finally came to a campsite close to the beach. It was 430 pm and Ricky and I jumped out of the car and ran down a path with our boards to the beach, the beach was called Pebbly Beach and Station Creek Beach. It was a good kilometer plus to the beach but a really nice path. We got there and the waves looked fun, nobody out, 3-6 foot faces, and relatively warm water. It was great again to get a spot all to ourselves.

After the surf we decided to stay the night, there were plenty of open sites, fire pits, and no one to pay, although the next day the park ranger collected $20 (total) from us. If you leave early enough you can get away from paying. That night we made pasta for dinner and smores for desert. Ricky and Andrea had never heard of smores and Andrea had never eaten a marshmallow! Ricky loved the smores. I had to compensate for the graham crackers though as they don’t seem to sell them in Australia, I used desert biscuits and cookies instead. Thursday we woke up at sunrise and the cold air (maybe about 50 F). And our air mattress popped the 2nd night so we just had a tent, sleeping bags, a deflated air mattress and one blanket. We keep saying its gonna get warmer at night as we head up north but it really hasn’t warmed up much at night. We headed down to the beach, we hit the water and it felt great, a lot warmer than the air. I estimated about 67 F for the water. The wind was whipping off shore, blowing spary off the top of the waves maybe 30 feet behind the wave, which is great for surfing. The waves were fast, fun, and perfect size pushing in 3-4 foot waves with an occasional 5 footer; so that means about 6-10 foot faces. Again nobody was out, we were out in the middle of the nowhere. We did see some people at the campground, maybe 4 families.
So after the surf we made breakfast and headed back down the dirt/cobble road to the Pacific Highway. We headed up north through Grafton to Yamba. We stopped in Grafton at Woolworths for food and ice. We also filled up for our 3rd time with petrol. It’s been costing about $80 to fill up the Camry. Petrol here is way more expensive than the states, about $1.60-1.70 per liter. This translates to about $6-$6.50 a gallon. It’s a bit cheaper up north, about $5.50-$5.75 a gallon. I’m glad I’m traveling with 2 people to help split costs! We got to Yamba at about 3pm and the waves were cracking, my surf guide had said it was a punchy shore break. It had a lot of juice, fast barreling waves that were easy to take off on and would punish you for trying to get a barrel. But the hold down wasn’t bad; it was just the constant waves crashing at the end of the ride. It was crowded but there seemed to be waves for everyone. The wave broke south of a rock wall and we stayed mainly on the south part of the pack of people. Dolphins had came right into the lineup and were riding waves just a few feet from me, they were then further out in the sea for maybe an hours time during our surf, just so peaceful; they were jumping out of the water and traveling in a pack of maybe 10 dolphins.
After dark we headed to Byron Bay, we were staying at possibly the best hostel in Australia, it was called the Arts Factory and everyone I talked to told me to stay here. The place was opened in 1898 as a Piggery and turned into a hippie palace in the 70’s. The place has everything, it’s built on 5 acres of land and provides hostels around a swimming pool, a big campground for tent sites, several cabins including a bus, a teepee, several normal cabins, kitchens, a main lobby with arcade games, pool tables, and couches. The cabins are built around a pond and the surroundings of the campground are natural forests. They offer a shuttle to town every half hour and every 10 minutes after 10pm, but the walk is only 10 minutes. There were people from all over the world staying there, people had been staying there for months, we only stayed 5 days and it wasn’t nearly enough. I can see how people can get sucked into the place for a while, they even let you work a few hours a week cleaning or working reception to stay for free. Natural wild life in the area consisted of the classic wild turkey’s, guanos which are like iguanas, basically big lizards; also the birds would be chirping all day and the loudest at 630 am. The place also had a cinema and a spa where you could get massages. The cinema was really neat, it had projection movie screen and the seating was lounge couches so you could lie down. It cost $12 a night to camp here each; about $20 for the hostel rooms, and the prices went down the longer you stayed. We got in on Thursday night, set up camp, and hung around the campground.
The next day we went to the town to walk around. It is a somewhat small town and easy to get around. There are lots of tourist shops, travel agency’s, surf shops, bars and restaurants. The main beach is right in town, about 2 miles south is the lighthouse which is on a headland that is the most easterly point in Australia. South of that headland is a beach called Tallow’s and that’s where we went Friday afternoon to surf. Conditions weren’t too good, as a side wind was chopping up the waves. It was nice opportunity to relax and read on the beach. The following day, Saturday we parked on the north side of the headland and took some hiking trails along the coastal rainforest, along the ocean to the lighthouse. At our parking area there was a long breaking right hander wave, great for longboarders, as we walked up the hills we came down to another beach called Wategos Beach which was an even longer breaking righthander similar to the other beach.

The water was packed with longboarders getting over 30 second rides. We found another trail that lead up to the lighthouse from this beach; there were beautiful views of Byron Bay beaches from here. Most of the coastal areas in Byron Bay are national forests and rain forests still; they did a good job protecting these areas from development. Once we got to the lighthouse we saw whales and dolphins, there pretty standard sightings by now though. Later that day I went over to the main beach with Andrea and paddled around, I had heard there was a surf spot called shipwrecks, so I searched the north side of the main beach and saw the piece of a mast sticking out from the water and saw the waves breaking right on the south part of the mast. There wasn’t much swell and the wave was crowded as there were only 2 peaks, I got a few waves and just enjoyed the views.
On Sunday we took a drive to Nimbon, the hippie capital of Australia; although Byron Bay is real hippie. Nimbon was a small town about 1.5 hours east (inland) from Byron Bay. I’m not too into Nimbon but it’s something everybody has to experience that goes to Byron, and both Andrea and Ricky wanted to go. They have lots of shops selling organic herbs, pills, teas, clothing, jewelry, and touristy hippie gear. Also, everyone sells pot and pot food in the streets; it can get really obnoxious after a while. The best part of Nimbon though is the rainforests and waterfalls located about 30 minutes from the town. We went to Protestors Falls which had 30 meter waterfall. We climbed behind it and just admired the surroundings. We took a friends car to the waterfalls, the car was just like Mr. Beans.

My car was leaking oil bad, so I had to drop it off to get it looked at, it just needed a new oil filter so luckily it was an easy fix. On the way back to Byron Bay we hit an overflowing creek where water was well above our ankles, we were able to clear it but looked a little menacing. We also almost smacked a stray cow in the road.
On Monday I woke up early to see the sunrise at the lighthouse, it was real pretty but a little overcast. Ricky and I took a ride that afternoon to the southern part of Byron Bay, about 20 minutes, to Broken Head, another perfect right hand point break. The conditions weren’t great but I got some fun waves, I could see how it could break for hundreds of yards. As you can see by now Byron Bay is probably one of the best places to live in Australia for a surfer.
Unfortunately the following day, Tuesday, was checkout day for Byron Bay. We packed up camp and got on the road again. The day before Ricky, Andrea, and I booked a package to do some touristy things. We saw a great package that included a 3-day, 2-night trip to Frasier Island with a 4-wheel drive truck and a 2 night sailing trip through the Whitsunday’s within the Great Barrier Reef with food included. Our package also included stays on Rainbow Beach, Surfers Paradise, Brisbane, Noosa Heads, 1770 (where Captain Cook first got into Aussie in 1770), Arlie Beach, and Cairns. For this package including 14 days of accommodation came to $500 each, which is close to what the costs of just the hostels would be. I am looking forward to the next 2 weeks!
I went to Frasier Island last time I was here just for the day and loved it; it’s an island with no development, just all beach sand. The forest grows out of the beach sand, and there are lots of lakes, creeks, and a 75-mile stretch of beach that you can drive on and also is a landing strip for planes. The ocean is shark infested so no one surfs there. I didn’t have a chance last time to go to the barrier reef and have been looking forward to going back for a while. I’ll search for Little Nemo.