Ramada Riverside Apartments Ballina

... time it has been used in anger. The time had totally mixed me up though, being only just 11 am. Damn daylight saving! (okay so in Queensland at least it would have been brunch, or if you were Tim, breakfast).

After all a while, eased back to Ballina and pulled into the car park across the road from the camp site. This was adjacent to the beach, so went on being careful not to kill myself on a few very slippery but wet (huh?) rocks. This area is a ...

... t thought of that at the time). In turning round I then proceeded to reverse into a fence and dent the rear step....yeah yeah okay, reversing never was my strong point! I then tried the park I was originally aiming for. I stopped to check in and then things got weird! I approached the main office and a young woman with a baby got up and approached me. I assumed she was in charge and was just waiting outside. She then passed me the baby, whilst ...

... with the kangaroos and lorrikeets every morning.! It has also been really quiet here, although there are always very friendly people around and always interesting stories to listen to. We notice the number of travellers dwindling the further down south we come.

We did a couple of walks, one up to Monument Hill where there is a memorial erected to four Germans who died whilst interred at Trial Bay Goal during the First World War ...

The Greyhound bus arrived in Byron Bay really early, at 7:30am. The weather was slightly cloudy, although Byron Bay was still great to walk around. The great draw about Byron Bay is its really relaxed atmosphere and has a hip surfer town feel to it. People casually saunter through the town in flip-flops and boardies/skirts, with surfboards in hand. The beach is so near our hostel, just a 5 minute ...

... were able to leave the van at the caravan park). An interesting trip up to Dorrigo on the Waterfall Way. Great views down deep valleys back to the coast and a walk on a National Park boardwalk through the rainforest canopy.
Afternoon we journeyed through Coff's Harbour checked out the "Big Banana" and on to Ballina ...

Since the last blog Tom wrote, we went to the Hunter Valley Wine Region and had LOTS OF FUN tasting wines, and buying a few bottles too! Moby cruised us around with a bit of chauffering help from Tom. Some of the wineries probably knew we wouldn't be taking away cases of wine when they saw our wheels (no offence Mobymojo). That night we did our first "dodge" which means just parking up in a large layby instead of seeking ...

... but too many people.  It has certainly been discovered now. It felt like Noosa probably was a few years back and as it started to get commercialised. We drove and walked up to the Lighthouse at Byron Bay and took lots of happy snaps of the spectacular views!  Stunning and well worth the effort.  Then Sally had a stroll around the Byron Bay shops and Steve had a read of his latest book by the beach.  After a lovely lunch in Byron we made our way back to Ballina via Bangalow ...

... peppers and chicken, and it came out very nicely! We took a trip out to the famous Australia Zoo, as we had heard that it was really unique in the way it allows guests to interact with animals. It was a fantastic place, with lizards running around everywhere, somehow not getting trampled. My favourites were the koalas, all curled up and cuddling each other, but the kangaroo home was great too because you could go right up to them and ...

Folks, I have arrived. I only have a minute to type. I've got no credit on my internet card! But, the past two weeks have been so intense and powerful. So good, though. First off, my great, dear friend Travis from Outward Bound passed away while leading a mountain climbing trip in Argentina. It's been hard to grieve abroad, but things have been so inspiring since I received the news from ...

... gegangen, wo es eher wie auf einem Schrottplatz aussah wie bei einem Autoverleih....aber gut! Wir haben dann dort den ganzen Papierkram erledigt und als ich zahlen wollte machte es pip pip und die Creditkarte ging nicht, ich sagte, dass es ne halbe Std vorher noch gegangen ist, beim 2. Mal...pip pip ..nix! So ne scheisse! Ich musste dann das Geld mit der normalen Karte abheben..aber die war ja im Rucksack bei Tribal Travel ...ja geil und ...