From Tamworth, we drove probably North to Washpool National Park. Washpool NP has a quarter of Australian wildlife in it, or something. Feeling completely naive about the dangers of Australian National Parks, I asked my friends about what to look out for. "Grizzly Bears" they answered, straight faced. This was pretty much the theme of the trip- I trust my friends to teach me abouts the perils of Australia, who, in turn lie to my face about getting attacked by grizzly bears.
We arrived at the campsite after a long drive crammed into a van, listening to French Music to find a picnic table that told us 'not to feed the Red-Necked Wallaby'. I got pretty excited at the prospect, and even more excited to hear that there might be Lyre Birds walking around. You may remember from a previous trip in Melbourne, the post about the crazy sculptor William Ricketts, who shouted loudly "MY TOTEM IS THE LYRE BIRD". I saw one. I shouted it. A number of times. The end.
The place was beautiful, apparently Koala country, though I didn't see any. Our neighbour said she spotted a python, but I didn't see it as it probably got eaten by all of the Grizzly Bears.
What really matters, though, is that I got attacked by leeches. Six in total. My only experience of them previously was when I watched "Stand By Me" and he pulls one from his pants, hands covered in blood.
I'm going to be honest. I freaked out a little. When I say a little, I mean quite a lot. They creep me out; they don't even crawl, they hang off your leg like they're trying to burrow in, it was yuck. I was calmed by Ellie who showed me show to flick them off before they leech on and you can't do anything but watch them feed. GROSS. It didnt hurt, more of a cold feeling, which alerted you usually in time to get them off. Freaking gross. It showed me more reasons why I wouldn't win Survivor, other than that i'm a quitter. Sigh.
We had a little camp fire, went hiking, swam in the stream and I was forced to substitute coffee for black tea. I tried instant but I couldn't even drink it. I brought my uke along, we drank tea, sang musical numbers, danced naked in the moonlight and tamed grizzly bears.
From here we drove through beautiful country-side, filled with green fields, gum-trees, blue skies- it was bliss. We arrived at our campground in Ballina which had no hot water, broken BBQ's and crazy winds that eventually ripped our tent (fixed by shoving a plastic bag in the hole to protect us from rain- it worked). Ballina was pretty uninspiring, so we spent much of our time driving to the neighbouring suburbs. My favourite was Lennox Head- we found a great little cafe called 'Lime" which had awesome coffee and service, we went there most days. It was a little surfie town that served fish and chips, had a retro shop and a great community feel. We often sat and chatted to older silver-haired women who had just spent the past 3 hours surfing. Awesome.
We spent some time in Byron Bay, which was beautiful. It was my first swim of the year and it really was perfect. The weather was amazing, usually about 35 degrees and pretty muggy, so the ocean was amazing. We went to a little beach called Watego I think, which wasn't too busy, and a little surf beach called Sharpes Bay. It was great to sit in the ocean, watching/perving on surfers, surrounded by green and blue and having no plans all day but to relax and swim. I think I properly relaxed for the first time in a while.
We visited Byron but it was pretty busy and wanky. Pretty much a mix of hippies and hipsters; hipsters being too cool for you and overcharging for their crappy coffee, or hippies selling woven bracelets and dancing on the streets at 1230am. Wasn't really my scene but was a beautiful place. We took a little bicycle cart out to the Buddha Bar, which is definitely worth checking out if you're in the area- it was open mic night and had a mixture of older surfie guys who performed there every week, young guys singing badly about KFC, young surfer Jack Johnson types, bands, you name it. My favourite was a guy playing a didgeridoo while another guy beatboxed along. It was amazing, I filmed it and I'll try to put it on facebook, crap quality but you can see what's happening.
The next day we headed to Lismore and I found a kick-ass little espresso bar called "The Republic of Coffee" which was great. I chatted to the guys for a couple of hours about coffee, roasting, cafes etc. They used a machine I hadn't seen before called a trifecta - sort of a plunger meets aeropress meets espresso...it was weird and had a lovely soft, sweet flavour- like a black tea texture. They gave me ristrettos on their beautiful Della Corte and we talked about me wanting to open a cafe- it was good. It was good to be taken seriously by a bunch of guys as well, who were willing to share their knowledge and wanted to know what I thought. It was fun.
The trip was pretty amazing. Swimming every day, eating good food, drinking good coffee and enjoying my friends. I feel so blessed to have made such wonderful friends and I laughed more than I have in a while. Plus now I'm an off-white colour. Not quite tanned, but good for me.
Most importantly, I spent time in the forest, beaches and campground and wasn't attacked by snakes, jellyfish, spiders or bears. That's a win if i've ever seen one. Yusssssss.
We arrived at the campsite after a long drive crammed into a van, listening to French Music to find a picnic table that told us 'not to feed the Red-Necked Wallaby'. I got pretty excited at the prospect, and even more excited to hear that there might be Lyre Birds walking around. You may remember from a previous trip in Melbourne, the post about the crazy sculptor William Ricketts, who shouted loudly "MY TOTEM IS THE LYRE BIRD". I saw one. I shouted it. A number of times. The end.
The place was beautiful, apparently Koala country, though I didn't see any. Our neighbour said she spotted a python, but I didn't see it as it probably got eaten by all of the Grizzly Bears.
What really matters, though, is that I got attacked by leeches. Six in total. My only experience of them previously was when I watched "Stand By Me" and he pulls one from his pants, hands covered in blood.
I'm going to be honest. I freaked out a little. When I say a little, I mean quite a lot. They creep me out; they don't even crawl, they hang off your leg like they're trying to burrow in, it was yuck. I was calmed by Ellie who showed me show to flick them off before they leech on and you can't do anything but watch them feed. GROSS. It didnt hurt, more of a cold feeling, which alerted you usually in time to get them off. Freaking gross. It showed me more reasons why I wouldn't win Survivor, other than that i'm a quitter. Sigh.
We had a little camp fire, went hiking, swam in the stream and I was forced to substitute coffee for black tea. I tried instant but I couldn't even drink it. I brought my uke along, we drank tea, sang musical numbers, danced naked in the moonlight and tamed grizzly bears.
From here we drove through beautiful country-side, filled with green fields, gum-trees, blue skies- it was bliss. We arrived at our campground in Ballina which had no hot water, broken BBQ's and crazy winds that eventually ripped our tent (fixed by shoving a plastic bag in the hole to protect us from rain- it worked). Ballina was pretty uninspiring, so we spent much of our time driving to the neighbouring suburbs. My favourite was Lennox Head- we found a great little cafe called 'Lime" which had awesome coffee and service, we went there most days. It was a little surfie town that served fish and chips, had a retro shop and a great community feel. We often sat and chatted to older silver-haired women who had just spent the past 3 hours surfing. Awesome.
We spent some time in Byron Bay, which was beautiful. It was my first swim of the year and it really was perfect. The weather was amazing, usually about 35 degrees and pretty muggy, so the ocean was amazing. We went to a little beach called Watego I think, which wasn't too busy, and a little surf beach called Sharpes Bay. It was great to sit in the ocean, watching/perving on surfers, surrounded by green and blue and having no plans all day but to relax and swim. I think I properly relaxed for the first time in a while.
We visited Byron but it was pretty busy and wanky. Pretty much a mix of hippies and hipsters; hipsters being too cool for you and overcharging for their crappy coffee, or hippies selling woven bracelets and dancing on the streets at 1230am. Wasn't really my scene but was a beautiful place. We took a little bicycle cart out to the Buddha Bar, which is definitely worth checking out if you're in the area- it was open mic night and had a mixture of older surfie guys who performed there every week, young guys singing badly about KFC, young surfer Jack Johnson types, bands, you name it. My favourite was a guy playing a didgeridoo while another guy beatboxed along. It was amazing, I filmed it and I'll try to put it on facebook, crap quality but you can see what's happening.
The next day we headed to Lismore and I found a kick-ass little espresso bar called "The Republic of Coffee" which was great. I chatted to the guys for a couple of hours about coffee, roasting, cafes etc. They used a machine I hadn't seen before called a trifecta - sort of a plunger meets aeropress meets espresso...it was weird and had a lovely soft, sweet flavour- like a black tea texture. They gave me ristrettos on their beautiful Della Corte and we talked about me wanting to open a cafe- it was good. It was good to be taken seriously by a bunch of guys as well, who were willing to share their knowledge and wanted to know what I thought. It was fun.
The trip was pretty amazing. Swimming every day, eating good food, drinking good coffee and enjoying my friends. I feel so blessed to have made such wonderful friends and I laughed more than I have in a while. Plus now I'm an off-white colour. Not quite tanned, but good for me.
Most importantly, I spent time in the forest, beaches and campground and wasn't attacked by snakes, jellyfish, spiders or bears. That's a win if i've ever seen one. Yusssssss.
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