With Sheila, our 1999 Holden Commodore (the most Aussie car possible), packed full of camping gear, cookery, a small bbq, beach/snorkel gear, computers, cameras and even a skateboard we headed North from Newcastle mid-day on Friday October 11th. For the first week we didn’t really have any set plans so we opened our Camps 7 book (a book listing all the low cost campsites under $21 per night or free camping spots around Australia) and decided we’d drive 3-4 hours and find a place to stay. Our first night we camped in a tiny town called Bellingen in their showgrounds. We arrived in the dark and had to call the showground groundskeeper who took our money and gave us a few options of where to camp. That night we cooked up a big bbq and enjoyed the stars. The next day we continued North towards Lamington National Park, first stopping in Nimbin, a small hippy town popular with tourists as they are very “free” spirited when it comes to smoking. Lamington NP is in the mountain range inland from the Gold Coast. During the drive up through the mountains we got great views of the Gold Coast, which is Australia’s version of Disney Land, Canada’s Wonderland, Sea World, and Miami mixed into one crazy area. The beach is just covered with massive high rises where lots of Aussie’s go to party and enjoy the constant sunshine. We spent two nights near Lamington NP and enjoyed a nice day hiking in the park. On the holiday Monday we packed up and begun driving North. We wanted to see what the Gold Coast looked like up close so we headed towards the beach. While driving there our engine started to beep at us that it was overheating. Unlucky for us it was a holiday and everything was closed. After frigging with the radiator and calling Andrew’s dad we got in touch with a backpackers up the road who said we should bring the car to them if we could drive it and she’d call her mechanic friend. We eventually got the car to them and the mechanic Wally showed up and fixed the problem. There was a small air bubble in the radiator and amazingly within a few hours we were back on the road. Our next stop was to a beautiful lake area 3 hours north of Brisbane called Elanda Point. The campground was set next to the lake that is part fresh and part salt water depending on rain and tides. The next morning we hiked into the forest to a ranger’s cottage set on the opening of an estuary. We got chatting with the ranger and learned all about snake safety and what to do in an emergency. Hiking safety is very different in Australia than at home, snakes don’t really like to be sprayed in the face with bear spray…who knew? Our next stop was to a town raved about by old Aussie surfers and is the most northern surfing town in Queensland called 1770, near Agnes Water. We spent two nights there enjoying the amazing tranquility of the town and the campground, which was next to a beautiful beach with a really relaxed atmosphere. We both agreed we could have easily lived in that town and hope to one day go back for longer. After two nights relaxing we left in the early morning and had a big day of driving (5-6 hrs) through Rockhampton, a town known for it’s massive amounts of beef exports. The road was pretty straight and not too exciting for the next 4 hours until we reached an area West of Mackay to a place near Eungella National Park. The rest of the area was pretty dry and flat but once we started to get near Eungella everything changed from flat dry farmlands to lush green rainforest. Tucked away in the rainforest is the coolest campground called Platypus Bushcamp run by the wackiest old man. The camp had a few different tree huts, then two natural pools, one for spotting the very rare platypus and the other for swimming, which is a treat as this far north you’re in croc country and it's stinger season so swimming in the ocean can be limited. There we enjoyed the evening and next morning trying to spot the platypus with no luck, but had an amazing time swimming in the natural pool. From there we headed to Airlie Beach, the town used as the jump off point to the infamous Whitsunday Islands where we will be spending 7 days kayaking around and camping on the islands!
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This is the beginning of another journey for us. We are in the midst of embarking on one hell of an adventure half way around Australia before we return to the mother land for a little while and we're breathing some new life into the blog! This is our story of a little cycle trip around Lake Macquarie, New South Wales. Throughout our travels we've been fortunate to meet some really incredible people! Those people have inspired us in a lot of different ways but one of the coolest things that we've been able to take away from our experiences in meeting a wide range of folks are the different ways that they get around the world. From buses to boats and bikes and pretty much anything you can imagine in between there are people out there who take travel to amazing levels. One of the modes of travel that really struck a cord with us was cycle touring. We met several people in South America who were peddling south to north along the spine of the Andes and since then we've been talking about getting our own bike trip going. We're taking it in baby steps but we're also drawing upon our experience of camping and cycling separately to keep our weight down to make the trip more enjoyable. Our list of gear (to be fully self sustaining) for 3 days of cycling includes a tent, sleeping sacks, inflatable mats, some clothes, our cookset, some food, cameras and that's pretty much it. We were pretty relaxed when we were packing and ended up leaving out some items that would have been nice to have. It has become s Our route would took us from Tuggerah station at the south west end of Lake Mac(quarie) for about 110km up back up to Newcastle. We decided to do it in 3 days; but really we would ride for a half day on our first day, then a full day on our second and finally a really short 2 hour ride on our last day. We planned it like this so that we could basically see some of the really nice parts of the lake and make it back to Newcastle so we could floor it up north in the Holden ASAP! The day started with us driving out of Sydney at around 5:45AM. We spent the weekend there visiting with Amy and Sid and some friends we had met while traveling in South America and South Africa. We hopped the train from Newcastle and arrived at Tuggerah at around 1PM and we were really eager to get going since we wanted to cover about 50km before dark. When we stepped off the train we were greeted by some of the most foul weather that we’ve experienced in Australia yet! It rained so hard that 10 seconds standing in it got you soaked! The wind picked up and crap was being blown everywhere! As we tried to take shelter at the station Courtney got hit by something and felt a stabbing pain in her arm. She looked at her right bicep and had something stuck in it so she pulled it out and tossed it aside. Her arm immediately swelled and turned hard and red in the area where she had been hit. We didn’t figure out until after the trip that it was probably a honey bee flying around uncontrollably in the wind that hit her and stung her. They typically leave the stinger and a sack of venom behind, which is exactly what she pulled off of her arm, although in doing so she probably squeezed the venom from the sack into her arm. Luckily no allergic reaction occurred and we hopped on our bikes when the rain slowed and started getting some mileage under our belts. The first part of the day was split between riding on dedicated cycle paths and really chill back streets along Lake Mac. We got rained on lightly a couple of times but other than that we did pretty good. We had a bit of stretch riding along the Pacific Highway, which was intimidating at first with cars speeding past you at 110km/h but we quickly got used to it and took advantage of the highway’s massive shoulder. We arrived at Lake Munmorah National Park here we would set up camp for the night at about 5PM. The next day we were up at the first sparrow’s fart so we wandered down to the beach and had a nice breakfast watching the waves crash. The sun was shining, and when the sun shines…we thrive! We packed up camp quickly and got back on the bikes sore asses and all! We were treated to some amazing weather and scenery for the entire day as we cycled north. We stopped at small ex-coal mining town called Catherine Hill Bay or “Catho” as the locals say. We grabbed a coffee (or more like coffee flavoured milk) and then continued on towards Swansea where we had lunch on the shores of Lake Mac. We realized that even after only a day and a half of riding that when we stopped to eat we were famished! So our lunches and dinners got larger as the ride progressed. After lunch we rolled north towards Belmont and luxury. We booked in to stay at Belmont Bayview Caravan Park for the night and they had a pool! We spent some time swimming and then wandered around Belmont for a few hours before retiring to the camp kitchen where we drank beer and played gin rummy. Our last day's ride took us from Belmont to Newcastle along the stunning Fernleigh track. The track is an old rail line that has been converted into a multi-use path. The slopes are gradual (no big hill climbs) and the scenery is beautiful. Our last of riding ending up being about 30kms but we were out of camp early and back in Newcastle around lunch time to get ready for our next adventure...road trip around Aus!
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