Ozzie, Ozzie, Ozzie, Bye, Bye, Bye
Trip Start
Nov 08, 2003
1
45
74
Trip End
Oct 22, 2004
Where I stayed
The Manly Wharf Hotel
Northern NSW,
Australia
Saturday, August 28, 2004
During the past 12 weeks we'd been to some of the most southerly, westerly and northerly places in Australia and today it was time to visit the most easterly town.
Just a few minutes along the coast from our overnight stop was the town of Byron Bay and first impressions were good. Earlier reports from reliable contacts (well, A contact) had spoken of a town full of the world's most odious backpackers who were preyed upon by drug-crazed dealers who stalked the streets whispering not-very-sweet nothings into your ears with the promise of cheap A's, E's, P's and other distasteful letters of the alphabet.
Sadly this proved not the case.
Affluent middle-aged couples (like ones selves) strolled in the brilliant sunshine gliding in and out of tasteful interior shops and chic galleries while the dregs of society (backpackers) huddled around in dark Internet cafes (backpacker heaven) searching online for cheap bearpits (backpacker dorms)
Bye bye Syd
. The main beach was awash with surfer dudes and chicks and cafes lined the streets full of mochachocalatte-sipping people-watchers. It was all so relaxed and cosmopolitan lovey.But as the day wore on it became increasingly difficult to remain relaxed and cosmopolitan as we began to feel vexed and metropolitan. The night of the 23rd of June was a crucial date for English footy supporters but for us it was the morning of the 24th so once again a motel room with Sky TV had to be found for the night.
After a quick search we found the Sunseeker Motel and a nice big clean room for a knockdown $75 a night. We had a quick visit to Woolies for the evening's unhealthy fare and then headed back to base for the evening in time for Soph to go for a jog while I meditated and telepatheticasised positive thoughts to Portugal.
25/6
Another 4.45am kick-off ensured we were still half-asleep for the Portugal game which was just as well as we would have probably keeled over after the disallowed goal and Becks bending it like Beckham over the bar
Byron Bay Beach
.As England fans and being used to failure over the years it took as about twenty seconds to get over and with four hours light sleep under our belts we headed into town early past a lonely dejected England-shirted fan.
We left the wealthy to join the unhealthy for an hour in an Internet café and were swamped by an army of spoilt American schoolkids who took over and treated the place like a cyber-Baghdad. The mini-Bushes then began to use the English language's most new annoying habit by overusing the word 'like', and that was, like, our cue to, like, leave.
On the edge of town was Clarkes Beach caravan park, our overnight parking lot, and after a relaxing afternoon catching up on some shuteye we headed for the beach and at one end overlooked by expensive houses was a little hillock with a wooden staircase leading to the top where we watched the sun set in romantic solitude apart from the 12 other couples that were also there.
Back at the site we enjoyed an early BBQ and an early night and with Euro now over we could reset our body clocks with some eight-hour sleeps
Coffs Harbour
.26/6
We could have stayed longer in Byron Bay but our days were numbered in Oz so under our twelfth sunny day on the trot we headed south on Pacific Highway One en route for Coffs Harbour.
250km and two and a half hours later we had arrived and considering we were now in one of the most popular tourist destinations in New South Wales everywhere seemed eerily deserted. Just as the phrase 'more life in a tramp's vest' sprang to mind we came across the 'Harbour' part of Coffs Harbour and found the whole population who had been hiding in the manmade port.
On our first drive through the town it didn't seem to have much going for it to put it kindly and the town's name gave the game away. The harbour IS Coffs Harbour and the townsfolk seemed to be enjoying their daily ritual of a fish and chip lunch from the Fisherman's Co-Operative followed by a walk along the seafront and a return trip on the boardwalk via the expensive yachts and we couldn't beat them so we joined them
Fish n Chips at Coffs
.The only other thing to visit seemed to be a leisure centre named after a big yellow banana but that just sounded too exciting so we gave it a miss for an enjoyable trip pushing a trolley around the local supermarket before heading back to the site for Soph to jog and me to eat.
27/6
After a quick look at Emerald Beach we hit the road south once more and got to within two hours of Sydney before stopping in Karuah.
Back up in Cairns it was 85-degrees and although we were in early Winter it was nearly 70-degrees here and yet another cloudless day as we walked along Port Stephen's jetty near the van park.
Early afternoon and Soph went for a jog and I ate which was now becoming a regular occurrence and with not a lot to see in the area we lounged around for the rest of the day exploiting the sun's rays. With not a cloud to be seen all day the temperature plummeted come dusk so we ate sausages, burgers and beans in the back of the wagon
Manly Wharf
.28/6
Today we were heading for Sydney's stretch of northern beaches with its natty names like Dee Why, Curl Curl and our destination of Narrabeen.
By early afternoon we'd found the tourist park, checked in for a couple of nights and were heading through a stream of similar seaside towns and into Manly.
Manly sits on a narrow stretch of land lying between the harbour and the ocean and is just seven miles from Sydney, but before looking around Manly today would be our last chance to see Sydney by night so we bought a couple of return tickets to Circular Quay and caught the 2.15pm ferry from Manly Wharf.
We boarded the chunky green and cream ferry and took our seats at the front of the boat for the half hour trip. Within 20 minutes we rounded the peninsula where the Prime Minister's summer residence sat and in the distance was one of the greatest sights in the English-speaking world
Some brunette in Byron Bay
. . . a pie shop on Woolloomooloo Wharf but behind that was the marginally better sight of the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge and the AMP Tower making up the magical Sydney skyline that cradled a harbour full of boats of all sizes going about their business. It bought a lump to our throats as we realised we were returning 'home' to where it all started and after disembarking we made our way around Circular Quay to The Rocks for pizzas at a nice little restaurant called La Mela overlooking the harbour.After the meal we walked around the quay for after-dinner lattes watching the world go by until it began to get dark which was our signal to head back round to the ferry terminal for the return voyage to Manly. We found ourselves on the 5pm ferry surrounded by suited and booted North Sydneysiders making their way home after work. No trains run north out of the Central Business District but I'm sure they didn't mind travelling home on these stress-free oversized bathtub toys especially in their balmy summer evenings. The Woolwich Ferry it wasn't.
We got a couple of seats at the back of the boat and snapped away to our heart's content as dusk hit a Sydney which was soon subtlely lit by the beams of a hundred or so spotlights. Ten minutes of gazing was all we had as we rounded the corner home and that was pretty much the last we'd see of Syd
Sounds good to me
. Sniff, sniff.It was clear not all of Sydney travelled by boat back home as we were met by a London-beating stream of traffic as we tried to find our way back to the caravan park. At one stage we found ourselves heading south back towards the city centre stuck in the middle of a drainpipe of a road until we found an escape route and swung back round to head north.
Somehow we found our way back and after a late lunch of pizza we skipped dinner that evening.
29/6
This morning Soph jogged and I slept, sounds familiar? Our day would be spent 'on-site' sunbathing, cleaning the van, preparing a boxful of junk to send home and at lunchtime we would have 'The Last Barbie'.
Yep, come 1pm we were chargrilling our last barbecue of burgers, steak and chicken that we were to have in Australia, and at worst the remainder of our trip
Sunset at Byron Bay
. We had perfect weather conditions for the Last Supper as well with an official temperature of nearly 70 which felt more like nearly 80, and back at the van we sat surrounded by drooling ducks savouring our last fatty gristle of steak. It was an 'out of body' experience as we sat there nursing our swollen bellies as burger fat congealed around our mouths, heaven.By early evening it was time to head back into Manly to punish our digestive systems once more with a slap-up Very Last Supper at The Manly Wharf Hotel restaurant on the waterfront. We managed to grab a table for two by the window and ordered the mixed entrée platter for two which was a tasting dish for all the starters on the menu. It was huge and probably would have done us for the whole meal but we followed it with Barramundi and Snapper main courses washed down with continental beer and new world wine.
Our bellies wouldn't stretch to desserts but being the swish place it was we expected a hefty bill nonetheless and were nicely surprised with a bill for $120 (£50). Safe to say stomach aches were the order of the night.
30/6
After feeding the ducks with the last of our jelly beans and dried spaghetti we set off for Sydney to drop the van off
Very Manly Beach
. On the way we stopped at the local post office to send home another 10 kilos of tat and for a look around Manly.We walked along the famous Corso pedestrianised mall and down to the beach and found Manly to be OK but nothing special so we were soon heading into Sydney with our last glimpse of the opera house and the bridge before descending into a busy South Eastern Distributor which took us beneath the city and out the other end towards the airport.
We dropped the campervan off in the industrial area of Milperra and were given the bill for our 'cow incident' which was surprisingly less than we thought at ahem-thousand pounds. A taxi took us to the Sydney International Airport Inn for our overnight stay before flying to New Zealand the following morning. The news that evening spoke of bus strikes, nurse strikes, teacher strikes, a drought and bushfires close to the city while back home they only had a tube strike to worry about, London's never had it so good by the sounds of it.
Well that was Australia conquered in three months and it was, what's the word? BIG. We had driven 12,700 miles, enough to have got us back to the UK and then some, as well as flying 2,500 miles and catching the train for 1,000 miles
Watching the world go by at Circular Quay
. Highlights were (deep breath) the Opera House, Harbour Bridge, Great Ocean Road, Monkey Mia, Phillip Island, Australia Zoo, The Whitsundays, The Blue Mountains, Sovereign Hill, Uluru and of course the Great Barrier Reef and our favourite cities were Sydney, Melbourne, Margaret River, Port Douglas, McLaren Vale and Byron Bay. We'll miss the quiet highways, the beaches, the climate, the barbecues, the caravan parks, the friendliness and the wine, so in a nutshell, Australia is a country full of jaw-dropping sights . . . as long as you're willing to travel three days in between seeing them.Men (and Women) at Work
xx
