Update (Week XVIII)

Update (Australia – Byron Bay)

The power in the place here is down again. Water is almost everywhere; some of it made it’s way even into my little, cosy tent. The weather forecast shows storms and rains all over the east coast at least for the next few days. I think that’s a good time to leave this place. Well, at least to the next bigger city – although I’m getting quite used to the idea of heading over to Fiji soon. So, up to Brisbane is the plan for tomorrow.

Even though the bad conditions kept me from surfing, doing some walks and enjoying the beach, I like this small, laid back hippie town.

Week XVI – XVIII

Australia – Sydney to Byron Bay

It took some time, but I finally managed to get out of Sydney. I met quite a lot of interesting people there, which makes it always a bit harder to leave. I started travelling up the east coast with stops in Newcastle, Port Macquarie, Coffs Harbour and Byron Bay. The weather stayed really good until I reached Byron Bay, which sucks because I wanted to try surfing here. Still, I went on a wine tasting tour around Hunter Valley, on a kayaking trip trough mangroves and a sunset boat tour (without dolphins) among other things. So I guess I shouldn’t complain about the weather at the moment. Although, I’m camping here at the Arts Factory and it seems like there is some water leaking through the outer layer of my tent. You can imagine that I’m not really happy with that. I’ll have to think about something more effective than the the muesli bar wrapping I’m currently using to keep my inner tent dry. Also I keep myself successful from doing my laundry since it started raining. It’s good that the showers started working again!

Another thing I’m not very happy about is that I got a flight from Brisbane to Fiji on the 31st. So I probably won’t make it to the Great Barrier Reef – where I would have loved to go diving. Also I would miss out on the whole outback, the west coast and the north of Australia. In the south I’m not really interested now anyway. Well, I’ll figure something out.

Sydney at night, Newcastle, vineyard in hunter valley, flying fox in Port Macquarie, kayaks, beach climbing, a kitschy sunset and at Byron Bay at last..

Week XIV – XV

Australia – Sydney and Blue Mountains

What started as a rainy and cold affair went rather well in the end. As for Sydney the weather stayed quite changeable but with very nice weather in between, which made all the thunder and lightning worth watching – not, that I wouldn’t have enjoyed it otherwise. The blue mountains were chilly from down to one degrees, but with sunshine and thus the best weather for climbing and tracking. The only dangerous animals I saw so far, were some jellyfish and reptiles in the aquarium and those humans driving around the streets.

Sydney is a nice little town of about 4 mill busy inhabitants. It’s awesome to run around in the parks and to visit some of the museums and libraries. Being quite multicultural with a high percentage of Asians marks it as a nice spot to experience the most different happenings.
The blue mountains, about 100 km west of Sydney, offer a more laid back environment. I was able to meet obliging people, see kangaroos, do some bush walking and climb on some really nice rocks – even though sandstone provides sometimes fragile and crumbly characteristics. Thus speaking.. adrenalin rocks!

In the blue mountains and around Sydney..

And.. I’m right here!

“But you know that when the truth is told
That you can get what you want or you can just get old”