Comfort Inn City Centre Taree

... a Polish engineer was kidnapped in Pakistan and beheaded. And just before we left Australia almost every news article included bombings in the Swat Valley, Lahore and Peshawar. Thanks no doubt to strong arm US pressure, the Pakistan government had just decided to take on the Taliban resulting in some 1.5 million refugees fleeing the North Western Frontier Province and the Swat Valley. And Taliban had just declared war on all of ...

... left Sydney Tuesday 7th and most of the day we ran around Newcastle fitting last bits and pieces but somehow it still felt like the adventure has started! Got as far as Taree and looking forward to an early start tomorrow - destination Yamba. We are finally on the road.......yeeeehaaaaaaa!!!!!!!

... percorrer a Waterfall Way (Rota das Cataratas), uma estrada ladeada de espectaculares parques nacionais listados como património mundial pela UNESCO, e por, como o nome indica, cataratas. Para isso tivémos que fazer um desvio de várias centenas de quilómetros por isso as nossa expectativas eram altas! Ficámos um bocadinho desapontados quando chegámos às cataratas de Baker Creek e as encontrámos secas, ficámos muito desapontados quando chegámos às igualmente secas ...

... it, an awesome place to stop. We headed back mid afternoon following our footsteps, well the ones that hadn't been washed away by the turning tide. By the time we got back to the van we were knackered but very pleased with ourselves (a) for proving the Tourist Info guys wrong and (b) for not getting lost in the miles of sand dunes! We drove up the coast just to get a few more k's under our belts before the end of the day and finally stopped at a town called Taree.

... dinero! these three days in port macquarie have been relaxing, its a small town so theres really not much to do. We ended up staying at a camp site right next to the beach, which was cool. Today we went to visit a koala hospital, they were so cute!! We are now heading up to byron bay, out bus leaves at 1.15am!! but we save on accomodation that way!

Today was, like, so far out man. We went on a "life changing" journey on Jim's Alternative Tours to Nimbin and beyond. Our guide for the day was brilliant, an ex-hippie with tons of stories to tell and how we should all rise up against The Man and corporate Australia. The whole trip was correographed to music as well the highlight being racing down a steep mountain road listening to Pink Floyd - One of these Days and stopping at the exact same time the music ...

... day which was brilliant. It's a public holiday and the whole country devouts itself to having fun and getting ****** which suited us just fine. We watched a boat parade, a boat race, loads of bands and street performers and stuff and chilled around darling harbour and circular quay. In the evening we went to Prymount Point Park with lots of nice food and a blanket and watched a jazz concert with our flatmates and the liverpudlians ...

... up to do the MCG tour with them where we managed to see England training - yep I was about 2 metres from Freddie, KP and Monty when they were in the nets! We moved dorm rooms for some reason today - shared with another regular from Urban central, he was nice but also and odd ball, just couldnt work him out. That night we went for our first night out in ages down to St Kilda which was fun as it was like being at home. Drinks were quite cheap too for once! For ...

... bits that you push through, if you know what i mean), I jumped back expecting like an average spider to appear when a full on huntsman fell MILLIMETRES from my bare foot. It must have been at leat 10cm across, no joke. Well, all panic broke out along with a few choice words and a vow never again to be first through a door. Counselling may be required in the long run.

... of us of getting lost. Our first stop - the Stockton sand dunes. We explored the Australian version of those sand deserts and had a bit of the walk. Then we headed to the different bays, the first one is Nelson Bay. There are a lot of cruises you could book into. But the most popular one is the dolphin cruise since Port Stephens is regarded as the dolphin capital of Australia. We arrived there just in time for a 9:30am cruise. Waiting for ...