Last week has been quite eventful like a good week of travelling is supposed to be. I start this entry from where I finished the last one - Newcastle. After some hitchhiking I decided to take the train for last 50 km from Maitland. I had about hour and a half wait in the train station. During that time I almost started to regret returning to civilization as there was one guy who was talking and singing to himself loudly and one family where the father was a tattooed young block who called his 4-5 year old daughter 'fuckface' and told her that she can hate him as much as she wants because he will hate her even more. This kind of thing just gives me the creeps.
My gloomy mood was soon lifted when I arrived to the home of HC member Alison. She and her boyfriend made me feel right at home and we had a great talk about travelling on different continents. Alison has been half way around the world and she is taking on the other half in a few months. I spent two days in Newcastle just walking and hanging around. Found a good Chinese place at the food court where you could try three different foods for only 6,5$. I ate there twice and the best one was honey chicken so if you haven't tried it I suggest you head to the nearest Chinese place at the first opportunity.
After some city life in Newcastle it was time to head bush again. I caught a bus close to Myall Lakes NP and started to hike through it. On my second day I camped in the middle of the park, 25 km of the nearest town. Not surprisingly I was the only person there. Several interesting things happened. Firstly I caught two breams so my total fish species count is now on 17. Secondly the dingoes started howling after sunset. At first they were quite far but when I woke up in the middle of the night they were howling right beside the camping ground. They were still messing around my tent and growling when the first light peeked over horizon so it was a pretty exciting night. The last interesting thing was that I had planned to boil some lake water and drink that on my way out. It turned out that water in these coastal lakes was salty so I had to hike out without water. A good lesson for the future trips to more remote areas where this kind of mistake could turn out to be the last one I make.
After all this I decided it was time for some civilization again and hitched to Port Mcquarie. I stayed in a hostel and met a lot of fellow travellers, rode with camels, saw dolphins and tried some boogie boarding. Overall it was great fun. One thing I discovered was that all the backpackers are too predictable. You practically know where they are heading next. As it is getting colder they are all going north and as the next bigger coastal town is Coffs Harbour they are all going there with there Lonely Planet guides as bibles in their hands. Boring I say and headed west towards Mummel Gulf NP. Mummel Gulf NP is quite remote, the nearest town is about 50 km away. It has some really ancient forests with lots of wildlife. It is like thrown back in time. I saw lots of kangaroos and wallabies. Caught a glimpse of my second snake. I didn't get a really good look at it but I am pretty sure it was a red-bellied black snake and around 2-2,5 meters long. And I also saw a native Australian predator named spotted quoll. These guys are about the size of the fox but have a pouch like kangaroos.
Now I am sitting in the living room of another HC member Erin in Tamworth. I am invited to a local house party in the evening and am planning to do some white water rafting next week when heading back towards the coast so hopefully I have another eventful week coming up. More thumbnails ...
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