From Gold Coast to Port Macquarie

Time for another post.  We have been on the road so much lately it seems there is never the time and when there is time, we are without of 3G coverage area or too drunk to do an update.  Our stay on the Gold Coast came to and end on Monday morning,  when we set out south.  The pic below is of the beachfront at Surfer's Paradise.  Even though it is winter there were heaps of people walking around going to the beach etc. Tim told me to keep a look out for women taking their 'puppies' for a walk.  I looked everywhere and only saw a lady in her seventies with a poodle on a leash, nothing to write home about.

The tour around saw us looking for the beachfront.  On the way we passed this opulent establishment.  It's the Versace' hotel.  I've heard the tariff in this place can be thousands of dollars a night.  Nice for some, but it's just the old Mazda for us. 

Once we had found the beachfront, we saw a fisherman's co-op where they were selling fresh seafood from the boats moored at the jetty.  One of the things I really wanted to try while were were up here is Mud Crab, so, we bought two of them.  They were really expensive at $15.00 each but, we are on holidays.  At least we can go home and say that we got crabs while on holidays.  Big red ones!!  We stopped at a park overlooking a place called Danger Point at Tweed Heads, where we stopped and cracked the shells on the crabs for lunch with a couple of 'froffies'.

After lunch we headed for Byron Bay.  We had heard so much about the locals in this place, but there were few to be seen when we arrived.  We saw lots of graffiti and we noticed that they are really courteous in that they graffiti'ed around each others graffiti.  Very polite.  The caravan park we stayed in was a long way from the beach and was filled with mostly cabins and was very expensive for what it was.  Tim left a note at the camp kitchen that outlined our displeasure about the premium price charged for staying at the park, when there was hardly anyone around.  The highlight of the night was when I went tits up taking the dishes up to the camp (not gay) kitchen to wash them.  This had nothing to do with the bottle of red that I'd consumed to ease my feelings about the charges at the park. No pics worth seeing of Byron Bay.

We moved on the next morning heading for Yamba which came recommended by a firend of Tim's who was there 20 years ago.  The person in question told Tim that if he posted a pic of the surf a Angourie Point, he wouldn't bash Tim's head in, so to save his precious head here it is.

After two nights at Yamba with the last night spent at a tavern watching the last State of Origin Rugby League game with the locals and more froffies, we left heading further south through Grafton to Coffs harbour.  We refuelled at Grafton.  Next to the service station was a house that was offering free mandarins in he name the name of Jesus and hanging in the tree was a basket that was full of bread and these colourful parrots.  So many were in the basket and fighting each other it was crazy.  They were right next to where we parked. In fact one of them flew right into the cab of the bus just before we left which scared the crap out of us, ok a bit of crap, since there appears to be a large amount of it, it would probably take an appearance from Freddy Kruger to completely rid us of our supply of clean jocks. 

We bought 2 dozen fresh oysters from the Nambucca River with the intention of Oysters Kilpatrick that night.

Everyone has seen the Big Banana but to prove that we've been there here it is.

The overnight stay at Coffs harbour was at the showgrounds and was without indcident.  We went shopping for a toaster to put on the gas so Tim could have a bit of toasty crumpet.  Young Blokes!!  The trip from Coffs took us to Port Macquarie where we stayed at Flynns Beach.  Nice spot, but no pics worthy of the blog. There was a pub next door which I managed to keep Tim out of.

The next day was a real long day.  Sydney was next and I wanted to see that in the rear view mirror, so I decided that we would keep driving until it was behind us.  We did about 600km and headed through the Sydney metro area, and even though it was Saturday afternoon, the traffic was still as welcome as a severe case of piles.  People just had to be where they had to be obviously and wouldn't wait.  I reckon I did OK.  Tim was watching a movie the whole time totally oblivious to everything.

Once out of Sydney it was full on driving south.  we had intended to try to make Bega, but by 6.30pm I had had enough trying to drive on dark windy roads with no idea where we were, so saw a sign and pulled into a caravan park at Milton which is about halfway between Nowra and Bateman's Bay.  On the way we passed by Wollongong and took this pic from the tourist centre at the top of the Bulli Pass.  Long way down there.

The pic below is of the camp at Milton.  The temp was 13 degrees overnight,  I think this will be last 'warm' night we see on the trip.  I strung the antenna at about 8ft off the ground amongst the palms you see here and it worked just fine on 80 metres back to Vic and Tas.

 We are doing this post from Queanbeyan just out of Canberra, as a last minute decision saw us turn right at Batemans Bay.  We figured because of the time left we have time to see the War Memorial and Parliament house, then head back to Bega after that and spend a few days on the coast fishing. More to come.