East Coast Adventures

It was a trip destined to be magical. My bestie (who flew in with me on a flight from San Francisco), a wonderful newish friend who already holds the dearest place in my heart, and my lifetime lover - loaded into a four person camper van fully equipped for two weeks of fun. Basically anything could have happened after that and I'd probably be raving about it anyway, but honestly it was amazing.


The journey started out in Sydney and it ended in Cairns (at the northern region of the Great Barrier Reef). The two weeks in between were filled with waterfalls, rainforest, breathtaking beaches, cheesy tuna mac, wine tasting, sun burns, Poseidon sightings, didgeridoo playing contests, white label wines, diving, snorkeling, boogie boarding, 4 wheel driving, and sweating (of course, it was summer). During those two weeks, I really fell in love with Australia and confirmed a couple of things that I was suspected were quite true.



Australians are really laid back and friendly people - TRUE

Here's the evidence:

1. Carl the Creeper. We met Carl our first night on the road at Macca's (aka McDonald's). Carl is a middle-aged man with a cute dog. This healthy doggie is fortunate enough to get his own Macca's burger meals all to himself. Carl was incredibly friendly, possibly because he had a crush on Jo, but nonetheless, very friendly. He told us of a really nice spot that we could free camp for the night (Smith Lake) and also recommended that we visit Seal Rocks the next day. He even had us follow him about an hour or so from the Maccas to show us the way to our campsite, stopping along the way to get gas and buy Mentos for his new love interest.

His recommendations were both great and Seal Rocks was probably my favorite beach of the trip. Thanks, Carl.


2. Steve (or was it Kevin?) the Winemaker. So alittle further down the road, I'm driving and Paige is my Navigay and we manage to take a wrong turn towards our destiny. We happen upon a little winery on our way to Barrington Tops National Park. Well, I wouldn't be me and P wouldn't be P, if we didn't turn off and do some wine tasting, so we did. There we met Steve, who offered us tastings of the wine he makes himself. After a little friendly swirly, sipping, and chatting, Steve offers us to help him finish off the two bottles he opened for us to taste. So there we are, sitting on Steve's gorgeous property, drinking his delicious wines with him, chatting nonchalantly about this person or that acquaintance that was killed by something deadly in Australia, and snacking on the grapes that he let us pull off his vines. I was basically in heaven.

3. The Po Po. This may have been the turning point when I realized these Australian peoples are really quite a different breed. We pulled our campervan over one night in a spot near Airlie Beach where there was a NO camping sign. At some point in the night I heard a car pull up and then leave. At about 5:45 am another car shows up and knocks on the window of our van. It's the police (gasp). They politely told us that they had come earlier in the evening and saw us parked illegally, but didn't want to wake us in the middle of the night!!! They had returned just prior to the National Park officials coming onsite. They wanted to make sure that we got out of there before we were surely to get a ticket from the National Park. WHAT?!?!? Who are these people? I know what you are thinking, maybe this is a freak accident of police kindness? Nope. A similar such encounter happened a week or so earlier at Byron Bay. We were parked (illegally) overlooking a beach just south of Byron. A cop politely tapped on our window right about sunrise to let us know that we couldn't sleep there overnight (well, the night was over) and he also informed us of various free parking spots that even had showers. It's confirmed. These people are different.


4. Art Village. We saw a random turnoff for an art village with a cafe sign, why not? Our last flat whites were almost completely out of our systems and some/all of us were needing a refill. It turns out to be a gorgeous property full of artist work spaces, art galleries, a cafe, and even a little chapel. We have a round of flat whites and end of up meeting the owners and couple of their friends. The lady gave us some leftover veggie sandwiches, carrot cake, and plenty of friendly conversation for free. Her husband built a beautiful rustic, wooden chapel on the property for his daughter's wedding several years ago. Their daughter's artwork is displayed in one of the art galleries on the property.


5. Hostel Hippie. The owner of this hostel didn't do anything necessarily directly nice to us, but I think his hostel operation and overall persona are worth noting here. I'm not sure of his name, but he's a stout, strong man with very long curly hair (which he wore in a sexy low ponytail). This man owns a hostel in Cairns, which was our final destination. It is the take-off point for all things Great Barrier Reef and to explore even further north Australia. We had a lovely private room for the night and for an extra $12 each, we attended an Australian BBQ at the hostel. This taste of Australia was complete with Emu, Croc, Kangaroo, and Dory (a fish) as well as some delicious salads. After the meal, there was a didgeridoo playing contest (which Paige participated in). This guy has photos of himself and his family travelling all over the world. When they are not travelling, they are just there in Cairns, hosting bbq's and didgeridoo contests for friendly travelers from all over the world - no big deal.


Australian animals are really bizarre and often deadly - TRUE

Evidence:

1. Dingos - Frazer Island is a lush, tropical island just off the eastern coast of Australia (45 minute or so ferry ride). There are no paved roads on the island, which makes for the 4WD adventure (or misadventure in the case of the vehicle piled with europeans backpackers who dinged our rental truck) of a lifetime. We loaded into our rented Hilux and began bouncing and skidding our way all across that island. We stopped at the gorgeous Lake Mackenzie with its crystal clear, warm waters. It was beautiful, but rainy. Beware of Dingo signs could be found all around Frazer Island. We saw a couple of dingos, but we only really got to know one - Donny. Donny came by our campsite and hung out for a while. Once it was dark, we took a stroll to chase crabs and such. Once we were a while down the beach, we happened to turn around and Donny had been following us. This wouldn't be a big deal except for the fact that a few years ago a couple of dingos ate an 8 year old - yikes!

2. Crocodiles - I'm familiar with alligators and have developed a slight resistance to fear of them (that is perhaps a bit unhealthy) due to overexposure throughout my life, but crocodiles are an entirely different monster. We visited a crocodile farm and got up close and personal with a few of these guys. They can get up to 6 meters (18 feet) long! They can hide just below the water and you will never see them! Just north of Brisbane, you begin to see signs that warn against swimming in the water for numerous reasons such as sharks, rip currents, jellies, oh AND crocodiles. It's amazing how great of a stretch of gorgeous coastline is completely unswimmable except for the completely insane few.

3. The Cassowary - This is a large, flightless bird similar to an emu, except for the fact that they have been known to attack humans and with it's supersized claw it could easily disembowel you.

4. Irukandji and Box Jellyfish - The former is less severe than the latter. The Box jellyfish will bring you to your death within minutes of a sting, while the irakanji will not likely kill you (only 2 recorded deaths), but will cause you excruciating pain after the Irukandji syndrome sets in (30 minutes after the sting) and likely several weeks in a hospital. But, no big deal, you just hop right out into the water out by the reef with a quite comfortable, highly sexual stinger suit. This outfits covers you head to toe, including booties and mittens. Your mask covers most of your face, so only the most unfortunate person would be stung on their lips.

5. Giant clams - The most spectacular part of diving/snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef were the larger-than-life clams. These beauties ranged in size from reasonable to gigantic. They were all spectacularly colored and many had very intricate patterns. You could swim right by and just graze the lip of one and they would close up their shell. This never got old.

6. Cane toads - We only saw one of these dead on the side of the road. But the story goes, that the cane toad secretes a poison out of it's skin, which is toxic to it's predators or any innocent bystanders. One local told us that the cane toads cause problems because they secrete their toxens into the waterways that they live in and unintentionally kill other wildlife.

7. Koalas - North of Port Macquarie, there is a wonderful little koala hospital that you can visit for donations only and you can see koalas in a semi-natural habitat (this is worth while because koalas are extremely difficult to see in the wild). As it turns out, most of the koalas at the hospital were admitted because they have what is known as "wet bottom." This is koala chlamidiya and it does actually produce a rusty-colored wet bottom. Other koalas are there because they were hit by a car or bite by a dog, but the vast majority suffer from "wet bottom." Koalas were always quite intriguing to me (as are Kangaroos) because of the whole "partially developed fetus clawing it's way into a pouch to continue development" thing, but throw a common STD problem in the mix and they are even more bizarre!

This place is really freakin' weird and I couldn't love it more! ;)