OZ6: Cairns to Sydney

It was a little sad to leave our six month home, but we were happy to get to see Gary and Sue.  We had found out in the last week or two that they had been struggling because a lump on Sue’s leg that the doctors had originally said was nothing was, in fact, cancer.  Their life went upside down right away and we didn’t really know if our presence would be good because we could help out and take her mind off things, or if we would just be a nuisance at a really stressful time.

We had been planning to stay with them for a week or so, but it was then suddenly up in the air with this development, but eventually they decided a visit would be good and invited us to stay.  We felt so honored that we were allowed to be there during such a dramatic time for them.  It felt like we were family.

Sue was visibly agitated, but seemed genuinely happy to have us around.  She saw it as a good distraction and a wider support system.  We stayed for about one week, for which time we just enjoyed the crap out of the time we got to hang out with them.

Right at the beginning of our stay, we were washing dishes and I dropped a teapot in the sink and it broke!  Gary and Sue were standing in the next room and Sue sort of just looked up, saw what happened and said casually that it was not a big deal, but I knew it was sort of a big deal.  This was a lovely little pot that had four matching glasses with it.  Sue prized her teapots, as most Aussies and Brits in her generation do.  I felt sick to my stomach and went to my room and cried.

It was a weird moment because I couldn’t express my regret and apologies to Sue.  She only knew that I was crying but wouldn’t have been able to convince me that it really was no big deal.  I tried to recover from the moment as much as possible, but I would spend the next week or more looking at teapots online trying to find the perfect one to replace the broken one.  When I finally found one and ordered it and had it sent to Cairns, I felt better.  Sue would call me up a month later and thank me profusely, as if it were the most precious gift ever.  I don’t think it was enough, but I hoped that it made up for it a little.

One day that week we went to meet the girl who was going to ride with us down to Sydney.  She was Canadian (named Emily, actually) and seemed nice, though admittedly the accent made me feel self-conscious about my own accent.  We talked to her while Gary and Sue conversed with her two guy friends as easily as if they were just a new social engagement at a mix-and-mingle.  They were so sweet about it.  We agreed with Emily on a day to leave.  We all agreed that with the renting of the van we would be mostly camping, and mostly in free places.  I had found in this last week an app called WikiCamps, which was a map-based app listing free camp sites.  This would solve much of the hassle of trying to camp for free in Australia.  I was super excited to use it and only wish that we could have had such a thing for New Zealand.  We finished up the conversation with the new travel-buddy.  Then the four of us went for a walk around the Esplanade and lunch was on Joe and me.

In the evenings Sue would still cook dinner.  She loved to cook and it helped keep her mind off the upcoming surgery.  And of course everything was delicious.  Leon came for a little while on the day before the surgery and he seemed as nervous as his mother.  He held her hand, but it seemed like it was as much for his comfort as hers.  He got the sensitive genes when genetics were mixing.  There were times where it looked like his knuckles would go white because he was holding on to her so strongly, and he kissed her hand a couple of times before saying goodbye for the evening.  It was a very beautiful sight.  It reminded me how deep men can be, even if they don’t readily admit it.

Joe and I decided before making it to Cairns that we would buy them a gift as a thank you for everything.  I picked out a nice bottle of port, since the four of us had often sipped Portuguese port from Gary’s collection, and then they had even shared with my parents as well.  It was a little expensive, but well worth it.  It was such a minor gift to repay such a huge and meaningful friendship that we had with them.  And then of course they insisted on sharing some of the port with us on the last few nights before Sue’s surgery.

The night before the surgery Sue was nostalgic and nervous.  We had wine and then some port.  We were sitting in the living room and Sue was sitting on the Persian rug on the floor, reminiscing about life.  She was like a little girl and would bury her head in her knees when the nerves overwhelmed her.  She put her fists to the floor and protested when Gary tried to coax her to go to bed, but eventually she went.  I didn’t think she would be getting much sleep that night.

In the morning they were up and ready to go pretty early.  Sue’s sister Joanne came over to give her a little teddy bear that Sue had given her when she was little.  She said it was to watch over her.

Gary and Sue left the house to check into the hospital.  We cleaned a bit around the house, brainstormed some ideas of groceries for freezer meals that we could leave them with, and waited for Gary to return.  He did shortly, and for the first time he seemed a bit worried, or at least not high-spirited like he normally is.  Gary is and always has been a social ball of smiles, but once Sue was checked in and gone into surgery, it was like his whole body gave a sigh and he didn’t feel like he had to keep up the image of calm that he did when Sue was around.  He was her support, but she was checked in and now he just had to wait.  We had some coffee and waited.

We headed in with Gary once the call came that she was out.  She seemed a bit fragile, but she still had the welcoming smile on her face that was there every time we came around.  She made sure her blankets were arranged in the most appropriate manner possible.  She already had visitors and we all chatted easily.  Sue seemed quietly pleased that so many people wanted to be by her side. 

Sue after surgery showing photos to a friend

Eventually we left after a gentle squeeze of the hand from Sue.  She seemed to need some rest.  Over the next few days we did most of the cooking for Gary, which was the absolute least we could have done.  We got a few supplies for freezer dinners.  Joe and I made our first ever lasagna!  It was so good.  We made a second one at the same time that could be frozen and cooked whenever it was needed, along with a loaf of garlic bread.  I also put together some marinade and meat in a bag that could easily be popped on the grill.  We wish we had made more, but somehow we ran out of time and supplies.  A month or so later Sue emailed me to tell me they had finally eaten it while their two sons were visiting.  Beautiful.

It was hard to say goodbye once the 30th of May hit.  We had a pick-up time for the “Spaceship” (our campervan for the next nine days) for 13:00, so we had to say goodbye to Sue first and Gary would take us to the office.  Sue was still in the hospital when we left.  We all knew that it was likely the last time we would see each other, just because our home is so far from theirs.  Sue held my hand for the entire visit, something I had seen her do only with her sons.  It made me feel so loved and sad to leave.  My last image of Sue was her sitting up in her bed, waving to me with a smile on her face and sweet tears in her eyes.

I kept it mostly together until Gary dropped us off where we picked up the relocation vehicle we would be driving.  We did the paperwork for the car, got instructions on how to work the features inside, and moved it across the road where we could take stuff out of Gary’s car and put it in the van.  The moment came where we said goodbye to Gary.  It made my heart feel sore to think we were leaving such good friends and good people.  I could tell Gary was sad too, but he got in his car and drove away.  Then we grieved.

We picked Emily up from the mall in downtown Cairns.  Her guy friend we had met earlier that week who had the biggest, most clear blue eyes I’d ever seen had brought her in his car and although it took us a while to find them, we finally did.  Mr. Blue Eyes was high as a kite.  His eyelids were like ¾ shut.  Pretty funny.  She loaded her stuff in the van and off we went!

We made a couple of stops to start out, first to get groceries for the trip.  I bought a few things, including some chicken meat to cook for the night.  We had a fridge in the van, but didn’t know how well it would work, so we didn’t stock up on too many refrigerator items just yet.

Since we were getting such a late start in the day, we stopped within a few hours of Cairns.  People looked like they had already been camped for a while; most people stop before it gets dark because it is dangerous to drive anytime between twilight and dawn thanks to the kangaroos.  We set up our tent in the dark, while Em prepared to sleep in the van.  We made dinner with the chicken, but ate it as fast as we could because the mosquitoes were out and getting bad.

We felt excited about having access to so many free campsites!  It was so liberating!  In New Zealand when we were traveling, at least a third of the travel time was spent looking for a place to stash the car and pitch a tent without being seen.

We packed up in the morning and got out on the road pretty early, thanks to the pesky mosquitoes.  I was still not entirely comfortable with Emily, but we would all warm up to one another soon.  She got good points in her favor for agreeing enthusiastically to a small hike that morning.

Our first visit was to Airlie Beach, which was supposed to be a lovely place.  We were under-whelmed, a theme that would occasionally haunt our travels through Australia.  Not that most of it wasn’t beautiful, just that some things felt way over-hyped for their actual value.  Airlie Beach was still nice.  It just wasn’t as impressive as we had been expecting after recommendations from other travelers.

It had a public pool/lagoon area for lounging so that people could swim during stinger season, like it was in Port Douglas.  There seemed to be a lot of backpackers around the pool sunning themselves in skimpy clothing, which was not all bad.  Joe went for a short swim there while Em and I went to sit in the grass.

We made it to MacKay before nightfall and found a good spot got at this small jaunt of a dead-end area by a park.  There was already one car that looked like backpackers there, and soon another van would join us.  Mackay was known for its massive jetty that was built out into the ocean with a huge conveyer belt used to get coal out the jetty and into big ships.  It would have been cool to see, but there were going to be many cool things to see and the jetty was out of our way.

Em & Em with Earmuffs

We got to talking to one of the vans, who were two German girls on like a three month trip down the east coast.  They had paid a fortune for their van and were seeing absolutely EVERYTHING there was to see on the way, because they had so much time.  They would get up in the mornings and drive only like a half hour per day, which would have been both nice, but also really boring.  I didn’t think there was that much to see along the way.  Then again, if anyone really saw the east coast, it was definitely them.

Anyway, the girls were nice.  They were quite young, a little pretty, and seemed like they probably still lived off their parents’ money.  They were naïve, but maybe that was a good thing?  I’m skeptical about the world, and it hasn’t exactly gotten me to any better place than anyone else!

But they were fun to talk to.  They seemed to be taken by Joe and I noticed at least one of them was extra smiley and giggly when talking to him versus talking to the rest of us.  Em brought out her guitar and started to play, and eventually it went around to the German girls.  The one who was giggly seemed like she was trying extra hard to make an impression.

We agreed that we would eat breakfast together in the morning.  Joe and I set up our tent now that it was dark outside.  We had a little shelter from a single tree, but not much.  We were still nervous about getting trouble in the night, but it was all for naught.  And it really was so nice to have other campers alongside us.

The next morning we did indeed do breakfast together, but it was more like they cooked their breakfast for themselves while we were cooking some for what we thought was all five of us, but it turned out to be just for the three of us because the girls weren’t sharing.  But they came over with their camp chairs and ate with us and talked.  We exchanged Facebook and took a selfie together, which was nice.  It was really nice to have met other people on the road.

Our new German friends

One of the coolest perks about the Spaceships brand campers was that it was like a real community.  When you pick up your vehicle, you get to pick out three movies from their selection.  You could watch these in the evenings out on the road, but then once finished with the selections, you could swap with other Spaceship-ers.  It was also really obvious to pick out the other Spaceships on the road while traveling.  So while we never even watched a single movie we got from the company, and therefore didn’t swap with anyone, we did get the fun moments out on the road where we would wave furiously and grin at Spaceships we were passing.  That was fun.

Anyway, we got back on the road.  While driving, Em suddenly yelled, "Oh my god, COTTON!  PULL OVER."  It was funny that we all had such a strong reaction to seeing cotton for the first time.

OMG COTTON!

Joe had gotten advice from Gary on the places that we should see in our trip, and one of the things Gary had said was that we should travel through at least some of the outback.  This would be pretty easy, just by taking a parallel road that went off to the side.  Unfortunately we had missed the one he had suggested, which was the most fuel- and time-efficient, so we headed inland after Rockhampton.

The drive was beautiful, though I am not sure that it added that much value to our trip.  Don’t get me wrong, it was nice. One of the great things about the little jaunt though was finding a little country bar that offered free camping as long as we bought showers or food or drinks from them.  That was a good deal for us because it meant we got something of more value for the money instead of just a patch of grass.  We were all very thrilled for the chance to shower for the first time since we left Cairns.  The old boarding house that was attached to the bar had fairly clean showers for us.  The floors ached and groaned with each step, and the art work was eclectic as could be.  It was a quintessentially country haven, complete with grandma’s doilies under antique looking lamps.

Sadly this segment of the trip started to get muddied by my glorious PMS.  Which ruined it for him, but also for me.  Unconscious self-sabotage.  This would go on for days.

We cooked dinner in our campervan, but went inside for a beer after the shower.  We found a place to set up our tent near a fence.  The night was getting cold, so we called it pretty early so we could snuggle down into our wonderful sleeping bags.  It was like every night I crawled into the belly of a tauntaun, only less smelly and sticky.

We were up fairly early again the next morning and we were on our way early because our next stop was Bundaberg, where they make the famous “Bundy” rum that is served all over Australia, as well as the world-famous Bundaberg Gingerbeer.  We made it to the town pretty early, but we were disappointed to learn that prices for visiting the factories were pretty outrageous.  Looking back now, I think I definitely would have liked to go to one or the other factory, but we also made the fun purchase of six different varieties of soda produced at the factory.  We got pictures in front of both factories.

Us with our lovely six pack of variety sodas

The hangover is rough after a bottle that size

Another item on the list in Bundaberg was the Mon Repos Turtle Reserve.  This was a stretch of beach where the turtles laid their eggs, and an accompanying visitor’s center and information.  The eggs were then moved into a protected area.  We learned a lot from the information, including that a turtle’s egg is neither male nor female, rather the sex is determined by the temperature of incubation between being laid and hatching.  We didn’t get to see any turtles, but we collected some nice shells from the beach while we were on a walk.

For lunch we quarreled about where to eat, but I craved McDonalds and they did not.  I went by myself and then tried to find them to no avail.  Turns out they were sitting together in a taco place.  I went in not intending to eat in the restaurant, yet that wasn’t good enough.  I had to either eat the restaurant’s food or get the hell out, according to Joe.  It felt unfair because it was like he didn’t want me around.  Either I conform to his way entirely (eat what HE wants to eat when HE wants to eat it), or I be entirely separate.  I wasn’t even going to eat in the restaurant.  I was angry, mostly still because of the PMS.  Ugh.

Our next destination was Rainbow Beach, which we had heard along the way was beautiful.  It wasn’t originally on our “itinerary,” but we added it for good measure.  There was supposedly a free campsite in the middle of town, but once we arrived, we found that it was just parking in the middle of the street, which would not be ideal, especially since it was the main area of the town.

There was a national park to the north of the city on a peninsula.  We weren’t sure if we wanted to head that way, but we wanted to go by the backpackers hostel in town anyway, just to see if we could get away with buying one bed for the night and the other two stay in the car for the night.  It didn’t look possible, so we continued down the road towards the national park.

We eventually neared the end of the road.  There were people camped everywhere!  And the camping looked really awesome—nice spots tucked away in the trees but only steps away from white sandy beaches.  We called the national park service and booked a night in a campsite, which was pretty cheap, but also just really nice.  It was nice to spend a night in such a beautiful place.  And we caught the amazing sunset!

Sunset at Rainbow Beach

I went for a run that night up and down the beach, which felt good on my body, especially considering my mind was so turbulent.

After the fact of course I am so angry that I was so clouded during this leg of the travel.  I feel like I missed out on a lot.  I hate myself for it, or more appropriately, I hate my hormones for it.  I hate that every month is the same too.  It’s now been three solid months where I have been weighted down by an ugly, ugly attitude that I don’t seem to be able to control.  Even now that I am more self-aware, I can’t help but feel all those shitty emotions.  Bleh.  Moving on.

The next morning we were up early again and on the road to Noosa Heads.  I noticed it was riding a little rougher than it had, though I didn’t know what was different.  When we got there, I found us a parking spot, parked the van and turned off the engine.  I had to move it again a minute later and when I turned it back on, grey smoke came out of the exhaust and the engine sounded bad.  We were worried about this, but walked down the beach for a while.

The shops in the town were pretty nice and we got coffees as a special treat.  I think I remember mine not being too great.  Too sweet, maybe?

Joe and Em decided to try some surfing for the day, though I was not interested.  It seemed too cold for it to be worth it to me.  I think they both thought I was being boring or pissy, but I just really didn’t feel like getting wet when it was a little chilly.

Surfer Joe throwing that board around

So they surfed for a while, during which time I moved the car a couple of times.  When we got back in the car and started to head off, we realized just how bad the car sounded.  Joe suspected a blown head gasket, which would leak coolant into the pistons.  We found a McDonald’s and looked for the number to call the Spaceship company to see what we should do.  They called a mechanic who would come to the McDonald’s and check the vehicle.

It took him forever to get to us and it made me really nervous that he would come and be like, Nope, the car is fine!  And we would have to pay for him to do the diagnostic.  But as we were waiting, we noticed that some of the liquid that was leaking out from under the car was green and therefore probably the coolant.  Unfortunately it took him so long to get there that we had to call Spaceships to see what they wanted us to do if the diagnosis revealed that we were right and it was not drivable.  They said it was our call, which was totally unhelpful.  They would be closed by the time we found out if the car was kaput.

He did finally show up and almost right away was like, yeah, that thing is un-drivable.  Our decision at this point was a shot in the dark, but we decided to get a tow to a hotel, where we would stay the night on Spaceships to await their decision on what we would do in the morning.  It was a little annoying to be stranded, but at the same time, we were desperately happy to have a hotel room for the night.  We had free tea and coffee, hot showers, free amenities, clean sheets and towels, and the chance to just re-group.

We feel so clean and rested!!

In the morning Joe (who had spear-headed the whole phone conversation business from the beginning of the problem, to our deep gratitude) finally was able to get a plan for what would become of us and the van.  We were to drive it (after having been advised not to AND had it towed to the hotel to keep from having to drive it) to a mechanic where they would see if it could be fixed.

We made it to the mechanics just fine and then we had to wait around some more.  The shop pretty quickly confirmed that it was indeed not fit to be driven, so Joe and Spaceships consulted.  The closest rental hub to where we were was Brisbane, an hour and a half away or so from Noosa, so the company would send a tow-truck our way with room in the cab for us. 

Em and I left to look around a bit while we waited.  Down the street we found an “opp-shop” (a thrift store) where we tried on many things, bought a few, and then found they were giving away some free food.  We grabbed a bunch, including some very nice breads, a bagful of ugly but good fruit, and a liter each of iced coffee!  We had to run back when Joe called to say the tow truck was there.

The tow took us and the van down to Brisbane, where we would pick up a different van and go merrily on our way, with two extra days at a dollar per day for the hassle of the lost time.  This last bit was generous on their part because the relocation agreement only allowed nine days for us to get to Sydney in the first place, and we would now have it eleven days.  It was generous, but also completely realistic for them to agree to that.  And of course they paid for all of the towing and the hotel for that night in Noosa.  Not bad.

The ride to “Brizzy” was pleasant and comfortable.  When we arrived at the Spaceships office, they had a van waiting for us and we did the same paperwork as we had done with the last one, only now with the amended data.  It wasn’t until we were well on the road that we noticed that the fridge stank horribly (and still had rotting food in it) and the stereo, DVD player, fridge and half the dome lights didn’t work.  Luckily I had my speaker and we made do with that.  It was hard to believe though that we went from one broken vehicle to another with a whole slew of its own problems.  Luckily, I think we got better gas mileage.

Lighthouse, sea, and Emily

We were glad to have an extra couple of days on our itinerary, since it had looked a little too tight before.  We headed down past Brizzy to a suburb called Cleveland where there was a free camp at a place called “Lighthouse.”  It was a very good place, with BBQ grills, tables, and lots of other backpackers doing the same thing we were.  I think it must have been set up either as a good-will recognition of the need for a safe and easy place to free camp, or as a way to drum up business for the restaurant just before the area.  Either way, we were really thankful for such a nice facility.  We even played Farkle out on one of the benches, even though it was so cold.

Night shot of us with the moon--super cool!

One thing it did not have was a place to set up a tent, which meant the three of us would need to sleep in the van together.  This was the first time we had done it and I was worried that I would get no sleep, but it was surprisingly okay.  I slept in the middle, but we all fit without too much of a problem.

Since our fridge didn’t really work, we were losing drinks and produce.  The iced coffee went bad, which was a real shame since we had been on such an intense iced coffee kick for a while.  By morning things were really starting to smell.

We started early the next morning and made it to Byron Bay by afternoon.  We felt the vibe right away.  Em had heard about a hostel that was for artists, so we went to check it out.  We finally found it and started to walk around.  It looked like a wonderfully hippie place at first, but then it just sort of… felt like a playground for drugs, STDs, and bad hygiene.  You could sort of tell that everyone who stayed there seemed to think that they were a little cooler for it.  We smelled urine.  They saw freedom.  We saw disorder and scrap.

The citadel of tents in the hippie art
hostel of Byron Bay--not our thing

To be honest, it may have been really cool to stay there.  Maybe I’m not open-minded enough.  Maybe I need to stay in a place like that and get high and feel everything, from the dirt on my toes to the mosquitoes on my skin to the damp in my clothes because maybe that is the magic.  Call me crazy though, it just didn’t sound like much fun!  :)

We searched for hostels online, but found nothing for any sort of budget like ours, so we just planned on driving north again to a rest stop where we could park for the night for free.  Meanwhile, we found a place to park, walked along the beach and saw all the amazing sand art.  One of the newspapers that we picked up somewhere we found a couple of cool things happening in Byron.  An EP release party was going down that night at a place called Woody’s Surf Shack.  We scouted it out as we walked past.  Looked like it would be fun.

Another thing Em wanted to do was go beer-tasting at Stone & Wood brewery.  We found it on the map and headed out of town.  We arrived a little early, so we paid the rather small fee (by Aussie standards) and were given a small beer to start with.  The tour was interesting, but I’m not sure I remember any of it now, maybe in part due to the tasting segment that happened after the tour.  I do remember that part of their secret success was because of their water quality, which was being diminished the more developed the area became.  They found that they had to re-create the mineral composition to produce as good of results as they had before.

After the tour, they gave us rather generous samples of all of their beers.  They would pour a long line of glasses on the counter and then invite us to take some, which every time meant that there were a few un-consumed glasses.  Em and I took second helpings on a couple of the beers, as well as a few others in the group.  By the end we were quite intoxicated.

Our smiles get bigger and bigger with more beer

During the tasting I was feeling quite friendly (I imagine that it’s fairly obvious that I am friendlier with some beer in me) and I gave a huge smile and hello to the couple sitting next to us.  They were from Sydney and seemed to be impressed by us and our “free spirits.”  That sort of thing is nice to hear because sometimes when you get on the backpacker circuit, you forget that compared to the rest of the population of the world, what you’re doing is a bit adventurous.  On the backpacker circuit, every other person has been traveling non-stop for years at a time.  So they flattered us.  We made tentative plans to meet up in Sydney when we got there.

The three of us went back out to the van, but knew we needed to sober up before going anywhere.  We got out some food to try and soak up the alcohol in our systems.  We waited at least a couple of hours just to be extra careful.

Once we were sober again, we headed back into town to Woody’s.  We were early, so we bought alcohol and hung out together.  Lachie, our friend from Port Douglas, got in contact with Joe because he was in Brizzy working on the set of Pirates of the Caribbean as a stuntman.  We made plans with him as he so graciously would come to us the next day.

We went in to Woody’s, which was absolutely packed.  I don’t remember if there was a cover charge—there must have been.  There was a bar area, but it was packed and we didn’t feel the need to buy much from there.  Em and I had already had some wine anyway.

The bands were great.  I enjoyed the first one better than the last two, but they were all pretty good.  And as it turns out, Em is quite the dancer.  I think she had training in something—jive, maybe?  She was a blast to dance with.  We did a full-blown mosh pit—the kind that is rough, but the floor is so full that you CAN’T fall down because there’s no room to fall down.  She also got quite a bit of attention, including a couple free drinks, some grinding, and some obligatory conversation.  She seemed to not really mind any of it because it was all in fun, except for the moment when one of her dance partners tried to kiss and make out with her.  She scooted out of that real fast.

Joe was driver, so he stayed sober, which was a bummer, but that’s the way it goes.  He had a lot of fun watching the two of us dance our feet off.  Em bought me a drink and I bought her a drink.  We had an awesome time.  It was nice to leave too.  The place was hot and stuffy and seemed to be devolving into a lot of drunken antics.  Mosh pitting became dangerous.

Joe dutifully drove us to the rest stop, where the three of us slept in the back of the van again, but this time deeply and dehydratedly.  We were hoarse when we woke up.

The next morning we headed back into Byron, where we found a laundromat.  The laundromat was absolutely essential for us to continue traveling together.  A short while after, Lachie joined us and we ate at a Mexican restaurant.  I was hungover and chose the greedy cheesy enchilada as a cure.

We walked along the beach again for a way, looking at the sand art again and pausing to watch a surfing competition, we also came across a woman whose dreadlocks were absolutely amazing—the size that I would want them if I ever got them.  We asked her who did them for her and it turned out that she was a dreadlocker herself.  She was writing that her van was for sale on her windows, but she even had a business card!  I longed for it.  They were so nice.  She gave me some good information though.  And she also showed us her pet cockatoo, who let us pet her.  The bird lives with her in the van.  Pretty cute.

Our new friend the sulfur-crested cockatoo

Amazing stretch of sand art

Em and I descending a rock

Once we said goodbye to Lachie and got our clothes from the laundromat, we headed to a town not too far down the road called Lennox Head.  After being in Byron Bay, Lennox Head was small and calm.  There was a street market on that afternoon, which we perused through without buying anything (that’s restraint and poverty right there).  Oddly, we felt much, much more at home amongst the pram-pushing suburban families at the street fair than we did in hippie and backpacker central in Byron.  Maybe a testament to the kind of pansies we are.

Em & Em...Eminem?  Lennox Head

At some point during the trip I started falling for the other Emily.  Haha!  In a friend-sense of course.  We had similar humor and she loved to laugh.  We seemed to fuel each other’s jokes and laughter, which was really fun for me.

It was also an interesting dynamic with my PMS mixed in.  My hormones were making me really quite awful to Joe.  I perceived his easy conversation with Emily as a threat, which you would think would turn me against HER.  Instead I was trying to win her over.  I don’t have any excuse for my shitty behavior at the time, but it is also interesting to look back now and see how that dynamic played out.

We found an easy looking site on WikiCamps, but it was right across the road from a campground.  We asked about showers, but decided once we had showered that we would just get a site for the night at the Woombah Woods Caravan Park.  We pitched the tent and the owners had even built a fire to get rid of some old lumber, so we enjoyed that.

Breakfast in the woods in Woombah Woods Caravan Park

We drove on, spending a day at Yamba, where Joe and Emily rented one board between them to surf some more.  I was planning to get some sun, but it ended up being a little too cool for that. 

Em, cool as anything, riding a last wave in.

That night we stayed behind a Shell Station on the highway.  It wasn’t the absolute *ideal* camping spot, but it did the trick.  The station allows free camping and toilets with the expectation that you buy something there.  And we did.  I think they totally kill with that deal.

Em slept in the tent that night.  Since she had been getting cold, I let her use my sleeping bag and she stayed toasty that night, I think.  In the morning when we groggily rubbed our eyes and looked out in the bushes, we saw one male and one female kangaroo, just hanging out and munching on grass.  You can tell which ones are male because they actually sort of look like a human male, with exaggerated big arm muscles.  When kangaroos munch on grass, their faces remind me so much of when deer do the same thing.

There's a joey in the momma's pouch and
you can sorta see the muscles on the daddy

The mornings were getting colder and colder, as we noticed.  That morning we had to park the car in the sun so the frost would melt off of the windshield.

That night we stopped in Coff’s Harbour.  We cooked dinner in the parking lot of the local boat ramp and then slept in the middle of some side street where there was diagonal parking between the lanes.  We slept three-abreast again that night, but in the middle of the night Em and I woke up as Joe was pulling the van out of the parking place.  We were only dimly aware that he went back to the boat ramp parking lot where there was a toilet.  It turns out that he had had a “shart” moment in the middle of the night.  Hehehe.  He’s going to hate me for that detail.

That morning we were up and rearing early to go to the Botanical Garden.  We all lost each other while walking around this place, as it was massive and had many path choices.  My favorite part was the taste and smell garden.  I don’t think we were supposed to pick anything, but I couldn’t help myself!  I would take a corner of a leaf off here and a sprig of a massive lavender there.  Oh it was lovely.  And it reminded me of how much I look forward to having a garden of my own and cultivating interesting, beautiful and useful plants of my own.  A common topic in our conversation from the last year and a half of travel has centered around how we will “kick ass” when we have a house of our own.  Joseph and I are nothing if not self-flattering.  That will be a glorious garden, I’ll tell you that.  We finally met back up and wandered dreamily out of the gardens.

We also visited a koala sanctuary in Coff's Harbour, which was so nice!  Koalas are nothing but cute and cuddly.  As a friend would say in a month or so, "You kill a koala, you have a bad heart."  Too true.  They are like dopey children that wouldn't hurt anything but eucalyptus trees.

You kill a koala, you have a bad heart

Our final night outside of Sydney I had planned to take us to a truck stop where there were showers so we could look presentable on arriving in the city, but for whatever reason the campsite that I had planned quit showing on WikiCamps Australia.  So instead we arrived in Port MacQuarie in the late afternoon.  We scouted the camp spot that was listed.  It wasn’t great, but it might do if we all slept in the van.  The nights were getting too cold to sleep in the tent anyway.

I was really bummed about the idea of showing up to Sydney without having had a shower in several days, so we did some brainstorming and some googling and found a great solution—the swimming pool!  We drove until we found the ultra-modern Port MacQuarie aquatic center and we went in for a swim and then a nice, hot shower.  Man I stood under that shower for a while.

Next order of business: dinner.  We were feeling revived so we went and bought a bottle of wine and headed to a nice (okay, nice by our cheapskate standards) Chinese restaurant in a handsome little neighborhood.  They provided us with glasses and for a very small corkage fee, we got to enjoy our cheap wine with our lovely dinner.  :)

We slept at the shorefront parking place we had scoped out earlier.  It didn’t exactly have reliable reviews about it and it was very close to both the main road and the train tracks.  It was loud and bright, but we slept like rocks.  We got up pretty early, partially because we had a lot of distance to do, a lot of cleaning to complete, and also we didn’t want to hang out in such an obvious spot when people started moving about the city on the way to work.

Port MacQuarie

We drove the last distance, heading for Chatswood, where we had to find the post office, where we would be picking up a package that I had had forwarded there and sending packages to Joe’s family.  Poor Em just had to wait around.  Joe and I were so wrapped up in getting the envelopes ready for his family that we forgot to pick up our package—the whole reason we had to make it to the Chatswood post office instead of any other post office.  I kicked myself for that one.  But we happily sent off presents to all the Baxter family, which was a huge accomplishment.  We left Chatswood behind and drove deeper and deeper into the city!