1,077 Kilometers, 13 cities, 6 petrol stations, 5 campsites, 4 wrong turns, 3 awesome girls from 2 separate countries on 1 big adventure.
I have gotten really comfortable letting go of expectation in my yoga practice...however every day life has been a bit of a different story. Okay, it's not even a different story it's a different book of a different genre written in a different language all together. And quite frankly it's a difficult translation. I realize it's natural to develop expectations. Sometimes I do when I'm really excited and day dreaming about an upcoming adventure. Other times I create these expectations to help ease my worries and fears of the unknown. Every now and then I pretend that I'm sitting here on a high horse telling myself that I don't have expectations. After all, I plan everything so it will come together just perfectly!! However in the end I always manage to fall off that dumb horse, banging my head in to the same reality.
Nothing ever goes according to plan.
As much as this bang hurts I can appreciate the irony because for most of us, life seems to happen while we are busy making plans for it. Though
I'm proud of the balance I have managed to acquire thus far, I am as
we all are and always will be - a work in progress. And from the heart of this tangent comes the story of my road trip. A summarizing story, from a broad genre, in one simple language :]
Juicy van rental - $300 AUD
Petrol - $50 AUD
Ten days of rain on your road trip - $Priceless$
Okay so none of us expected over ten days straight of rain, but we got it any ways. Every city we entered we dragged the rain in on our bumper..every place we left in floods. But along with this endless rain and out of tune sing along songs came thousands of insides jokes and memories to last a lifetime. Who can complain about that?
I'm proud to say that out of 10 days living in a van, we managed to shower EVERY single day. So take that smelly euro backpackers! You have no excuse for your grungy, smelly, hippie exhibition.
Day 1-2
Surfers Paradise-- This place was a time warp back to the seventies surf scene. It's not exactly a "surfers paradise" now a days. The streets and beach are far too packed with tourists for any surfer to really have a good time there. The city seems to have become more of an 'image' for an Aussie surf town, rather than an actual Aussie surf town. However it's great for ladies and free drinks! The city life is bumping and you will never be left without something to do. We didn'
t pay for one drink at any bar our entire stay here - and it wasn't because men were buying them for us! We parked our little penthouse on the beach. (Our penthouse was the top of our van that popped up in to a bed) Parking was free for most of the evening so all we had to worry about through the night was the obnoxious drunk people running, screaming, laughing, some even crying past our van on their way home from the bars. Here we managed to successfully cook dinner from the boot of our van whilst on the side of the road in
camper chairs.
Coolangatta-- We didn't spend too much time here. It's a quiet little city just north of the boarder of New South Wales. It was one of the main places I wanted to see along the way, but it turned out to be fairly anti climatic. We had no desire to stay here long and quite frankly, that's all I even have to say about the place!
Tweeds Head-- Just across the boarder in New South Wales this was also a fairly quiet, but bigger city. Sadly it was quite boring. Due to rain we couldn't enjoy the beach and there really wasn't much else there for us. Instead of staying the night here as planned, we looped around and headed back up to Surfers Paradise so we could properly celebrate Australia Day.
Gold Coast Sea World-- Meh. Not as big as even the smallest Sea World back at home. The polar bear was being lazy, the penguins were tiny and Shamu was no where to be found! At least any time is a good time with the queen and Marley. We made the most of our time watching the phenomenal dolphin show and laughing at the sea lions. Oh and lets not forget all the dancing in our I <3 Aus shirts. - You'll see that in my video shortly.
Day 3-5
Byron Bay-- Where hippie is a fashion statement! This place is crawling with dread locks and hemp. However we couldn't help but love the laid back atmosphere and the tranquil view of the ocean and lighthouse. There is something calm, soothing, and quiet about this party town. Unfortunately we couldn't surf - or attempt to rather - while we were there due to the on going rain... But we did end up stumbling upon a lovely little cafe called Dip Coffee. Not only was it the best coffee in town but their mushrooms were so good we order a mocha with
a side of mushrooms, no joke. Any item on the menu is delicious and nothing beats the atmosphere. It's a very open cafe with plenty of art work and always some rockin' tunes. Somewhere between convincing a man to join the strip contest then swinging his clothes around our heads, and getting an $80 parking ticket - we learned to love this place.
Day 6-7
Lennox Head-- I loved this place. As Abbie's personal city, it's rather quiet for how loud she is =P Although in the short amount of time we spent there, it's hard to judge. This little town has an amazing beach - with hardly any people! After Abbie got her picture taken with every "Lennox" sign in the entire city we danced on the beach before continuing on our way.
Emerald Beach-- We went here in search of an Emerald Cave and the possibility of a "Goonies" style adventure. We left in disappointment.
Dorrego National Park-- What a gorgeous place to drive through. There weren't many turn outs for pictures but the sites were breath taking. It was awesome to see this side of Australia. Most people think of Oz for it's beach, kangaroo and outback. But it has an astounding chain of National Parks. Sadly, our campsite didn't exsist anymore....I drove for kilometers upon kilometers looking for it....Unfortunately passing by most of the waterfalls we wanted to see. It was just too creepy to stop
off in the pitch black while our petrol was running so low. We were luck not to hit any wallaby along the way. Though we did see a giant white owl. It flew from the side of the road right over our car....Biggest owl I have ever seen, then again all the animals in Australia are huge and/or deadly.
Day 8
Armidale-- When we arrived in this city I had no idea where or what it was. I had been riving for 9 hours and was convinced we were completely lost. But I didn't care. I wanted lights and a place to get out of the van - and never look at it again. Armidale turned out to be a great stop to get directions. The people here knew all about the surrounding parks and even recommended a more scenic route for us to take down south.
Dangar Falls-- We read and heard a lot about these falls in travel books and on the maps. They were absolutely breath taking and just what we needed to rekindle our (literally) soggy spirits. It was here that I finally realized how grateful I was for the rain. The light showers and overcast brought with it a beautiful string of clouds, sitting low just between the mountain tops tops. Creating a vibe and a certain energy the sun could never match.
Random Falls-- Don't remember the name of this one, which is a shame, they were the best.
This litte hidden jewel wasn't written about much anywhere. A man in Armidale recommended it to us. A thirty minute detour off the highway this was my favorite stop of the entire trip. Though I had to risk my life to save Marleys circular polarized, I'm glad I survived to tell the tale of this place's beauty. Here you can get much closer to the falls than at Danger. There are a few little platforms that hover right off the side of the mountain. Just don't drop your camera equipment off the edge!
After the falls we continued down the "Thunderbolt Highway" which really wasn't much of a highways at all. It was one of the most scenic, winding road through the mountains I have ever seen. It lead us through bright green pastures accented with grey sky and a line of white fog through the centers. There was fog laced between the trees and around the leaves and bushes. It was hands down the best stretch of road I have been on in Australia thus far. After driving through two towns - which should have had campsites - We drove past some... Camels?? Wait camels? Yes, camels. I flipped the van around and sure enough....4 camels are grazing in the pasture. We jumped out to snap a few pictures of these "Aussie llamas" as we decided they were. While walking back to the van we noticed a sign for a campsite, and an arrow down a dirt road. It's no where even on the map...but we go for it anyways, crossing our fingers there is something out there in the middle of no where. Sure enough there is. Quite a cute little site as well. The most luxurious camping we came across on our trip. You could rent fancy cabins, or just a few blades of grass to rest your tent/campa upon.
Here, in this very site, is where we had our spider experience. To summarize, Abbie noticed a giant spider inside our van once we had settled in. Of course our van door had a funky child lock so the door only opens half the time. This particular night no such luck was on our side, the door would not open. We were stuck in the van, with spider. After much panic, swearing and squirming we finally got out of the van. Marley ran to grab a neighbor to get it out for us. She returns with an Australian man... He took one look at the spider and said " aaaah it's just a little tranny!". When I asked him if he wanted a cup to catch it he replied " ah, I'm Australian!" and proceeded to get the spider out of our car. Needless to say none of us could fall asleep that night. If you want a real tear jerking, stomach aching, six minute long laugh... stay tuned for the full audio footage of this - Hilarious is an understatement.
Day 9-10
Newcastle-- This place is so ugly it's beautiful. There is lots of old school culture, it's what I picture parts of England to be like. There is a giant lake leading in to the sea..which was the only site we were able to see on our list due to the storms.
Sydney-- FINALLY. We couldn't have reached real beds soon enough at this point. Our cab was too small and we managed to pick the WORST hostel in town. But we were just glad to lay our heads down and sleep without having to move 8 pieces of luggage and spoon each other all night.
Alright that was my lazy summary of the trip. I'm too tired of typing to elaborate any more at this point and quite frankly if you are still reading this, I applaud you.
The videos always speak better than my words any ways so enjoy.....
Two weeks in 9 minutes of footage!
It's in HD so make sure you change the settings when you open it in youtube...
I didn't even know about that until 5 minutes ago. Stupid youtube.
