Meeting Strawbs

The trip started out with a breakfast we had missed while being off exploring: wheat bix, fresh squeezed orange juice, toast and coffee with Nan and Hed. We then piled into the car and headed South for Bega. We listened to Elton John, drove by the Shoalhaven river and talked about Wombats and Cassowaries. The trees here are so different and beautiful! They've got gum trees, Coral Trees and Norfolk Pine trees. We had lunch at Burrill Lake which is around halfway and had delicious sandwiches and tea. Jeff even saw an echidna walking down the side of the road!

When we first got to Bega it reminded me a lot of Moscow, Idaho and wanted to call my dad to tell him. We met up at little Olive's school to greet her when she got out and I must say she has the most exceptional style! With her yellow beanie, star printed tights with shorts over them, red vest with a knitted scarf complete with her retro cape (she prefers to call it a cloak) she looks straight out of an adventurous children's book or something. And then Oscar just has the best most blonde hair and enjoys running around in the nude and barefoot like a tough little man. Seriously, the kid's got to have some really tough feet!

We have been following Annie and Genevieve's blog for months and months about their adventure in building their own house on their 7 acres of land. View said blog here!!! We have plans to come back to Bega several times throughout our trip and help with whatever projects they are working on but their blog is so great to read! It's a Strawbale House with a loft and a TON of character. Annie said bringing people to your hand built house for the first time is sort of like introducing your friends to your new boyfriend; you really want them to be impressed. Let me just say "TEAM STRAWBS!!!"

We went back to the caravan park and put up our tent and slept warmly that first night in Bega and then walked into town to explore the next day. We all road tripped to Scott's Bay near Wallagoot Lake and were surprised to pull up to countless Kangaroos and Wallabys just munching away on grass freely. There were tons! Some of the Roos even had little joeys in their pouches and as they'd bend over to eat the Joey would lean out of the pouch and eat grass at the same time. And when they'd hop away you could just see the baby Roo flopping all over the place in its pouch. As my friend said earlier "cuteness overload".

We had a delicious BBQ that night back at the caravan park as a storm started to roll in and it started to rain pretty damn hard. We haven't used our little 2 person tent in the rain before but I remember noticing along the seams that you could see needle holes in some places and wondering if water would leak through the small holes. We do have a tarp we use underneath us to keep us warm but after getting into our tent to find Jeff's sleeping bag soaking wet and some other little puddles it appears we need another for the top. Whoops! A second tarp should solve the problem just fine though and I'm glad we found out when we had an alternative place for shelter that night (the backseat of the Akhursts car is kind of like sleeping on a train) instead of during one of our weeklong treks where we don't have the option of buying another tarp for days. But we would have figured something out, I'm sure. The good news is that Bega needed rain and it seemed to get a bit of it that night!

So after a short trip to the land of Bega and a stop at the Cheese Factory on the way out of town (YUM) I'm in love with the place and can't wait to go back to help with the Strawbs and it's surrounding land. For now we have a week in Wollongong to explore and relax with the Akhurst family before heading off to Perth (wish us luck; it's a 3 DAY train ride each way).

Ps. Annie let me borrow her book "Tiny Homes, Simple Shelter" by Lloyd Kahn to browse through and it's SO inspiring! I'd highly recommend picking one up if you're into DIY projects around your house or plan to build soon. Check it out!

Lighthouse to Lighthouse

Since we got here I have felt pretty lucky for everything we have seen. We have only been here a few weeks and are having the time of our lives and Jeff is like a little kid with all of wildlife running (or swimming) around!

On the train on the way to Yamba I had this wave of extreme happiness and comfort hit me. My iPod on shuffle was playing all of the perfect songs, there were kangaroos everywhere, beautiful scenery and everything just felt right. I even saw a kangaroo and her joey (baby) hopping across a field! I'm turning into a damn hippie ;) Not really but I am feeling so grateful for this experience and also what I have back at home. I miss home already because I love Boise and what I have there but this is such a great experience and I'm not ready to go home yet!

We stayed another night in Byron Bay before heading to Yamba and what a day it was. Our plan was to just walk along the beach to find a spot to lay out and soak up the sun. We wanted to swim but it was SO windy so that wasn't going to happen. While we were trying to find a spot in the bay that was a little blocked from wind we noticed this big Sea Turtle on the beach way out of the water. We walked over and just assumed it was sunbathing too and just watched it and took photos along with another German couple. We noticed it had barnacles all over it and looked extremely exhausted. Whenever the wave would hit it it would try to swim but very pathetically and just kept getting pushed further and further up shore. I'm no expert but there was no doubt in my mind this turtle was struggling. So another local couple walked up and the lady agreed something was wrong and ran to get her mobile phone to call animal rescue and we waited for at least an hour for them to show up. When they got there they said judging by the amount of barnacles on it and it's condition it either ate some plastic (very common I guess) or had parasites and had been floating for at least 6 weeks without being able to eat while floating to shore. They wrapped it up in this portable blanket with straps and said they'd be taking it back to a shallow tank to let it relax for the night before starting any tests and if all went well they would eventually release it back into the ocean at the same spot it washed in. I guess they have done that with many other turtles successfully :)

After the turtle rescue we continued to walk down the beach to the lighthouse (lots of stairs when you get off the beach!) and the lookout points. At the top where the lighthouse was we could see giant humpback whales breaching (jumping out of the water and splashing) and you could see the spray come up when they would surface to take a breath. Pretty amazing! Ive never seen whales in the wild so we were pretty stoked about it.

We stayed that night at the Arts Factory again and ill be honest, once the novelty of sleeping in a bungalow outside wears off its kind of a dump! The people who stay there also seem to be a lot of locals and after talking to the bus driver I guess a lot of them just collect unemployment and stay at these places without trying to get a job. And they all claim to be peaceful hippies or at least look like they came straight out of woodstock Not the nicest of people and every little thing costs you extra money. Their special at the bar was $14 cocktails. Hah! Anyway, we were ready to go in the morning after a night of not sleeping well due to tons of weird noises and people partying all night. The wind was also really strong so I was sure we were either going to die from a tree falling on us or get attacked by what sounded like those dinosaurs that kill the fat guy in the first Jurassic park. You know, the one that spits goo and has a giant fan-like thing around its head.

The hotel we are staying at in Yamba has the BEST view of the ocean and these cool rocks with little cave like holes carved into them from the waves crashing. We laid around all day on the rocks and watched dolphins swim around the cove for hours. There is a bar downstairs that had live music playing until late and some young travelers with no concept of how to be respectful in a hotel when it's really early in the morning but I find joy in the fact I still wake up at 5:00am while they are just probably falling asleep and become giddy at the idea of stomping loudly through the halls on my way to the toilets and laugh inside when the heavy doors just happen to slam. Muahahahaha! I did happen to wake up just in time to watch the most beautiful sunrise I've ever seen and also found a 50 cent coin on the ground (yesss!) so that was exciting. Jeff and I are obsessed with this seafood place down the hill called Wato's and they have 50 cent fish balls. We have gone there 3 times in a day and a half!

This morning we were supposed to leave for Wollongong and we had made a reservation on the bus but apparently since we didn't print the ticket they cancelled our booking? So we are here for another day/night in Yamba (at least it's beautiful and the room is only $40 a night). Today after walking 20 mins to the bus stop and going through that we walked back, got a beverage and then went and laid on the beach all afternoon. Rough life, I know. We also video chatted with Trevor, Elanna, Ricky and Violetta which was fun! Good to see their faces for sure.

Tomorrow we have about 13 hours of travel on a bus (couldn't get on a train this weekend) so wish us luck and that there are no screaming babies on board ;)

Just another blog

Since we got here I keep hearing this song that I love and couldn't figure out who it was. Since I can only connect when there is wifi, I can't use my handy Shazam app to listen to the song and tell me the name so I've been driving myself crazy trying to figure it out. It sounds a little like Paul Simon's "You Can Call Me Al" so yesterday I googled "bands that sound like Paul Simon" and after about 30 mins of browsing, I finally found it! It's Xavier Rudd and the song is "Messages". Yay! In the meantime though I remembered the band Rusted Root which reminds me of both the movie Matilda and dancing around with my sister Rheanne :) So now I have been probably annoying Jeff with that Xavier Rudd song along with Paul Simon and Rusted Root. If you've never listened to the Rusted Root one just YouTube it and put "Matilda" after it and then tell me if you can figure out what the hell the singer is saying ;)

Our second night in Yamba consisted of watching a Footy match (rabbitohs vs raiders and then Australia vs Argentina) which was fun in a pub because of all the cheering going on. The actual night of sleep was pretty awful there were a bunch of bloody drunken idiots running back and forth down the halls screaming profanity and knocking on everyone's doors saying "room service!" at 2:00 in the morning. This went on for hours, no exaggeration. I hope their hangovers give them complete hell for days.

Walking to the bus stop in Yamba (again) today we saw tons is Roos in the golf course! They were a little far to get a good photo but we did record some video and took some pics anyway. I'm sure once they're uploaded you can see them.

We made it back to Wollongong safe and sound and are going to bed so we can hit the road for Bega in the morning!


If you want to hear that Xavier Rudd song click here!

Cairns, Trains and Watermobiles

Well we have completed our 30 hour train ride to Cairns and back and it was very interesting to say the least.

Not as cozy as the Countrylink one but it got us where we needed to go. There were some Aussie men in the back that were the typical American stereotype of what an Aussie man would be like. Very loud, crude with a very thick accent. We could barely understand what they were saying except for the burping, laughing, coughing and gargling. Speaking of, it seems like everyone is sick since the whole ride there has always been at least one person with a phlegm rattling cough or snort.

We did meet a nice guy about 20 years old who just got a job working at the mines but has a month long holiday first and is just traveling around the east coast. He just got back from Airlie beach which is near the whitsunday islands and showed us some pictures. We think we saw a Crocodile as we were crossing this swampy area.

Unfortunately saw a little bit of Roo road kill :( Jeff saw some happily chilling in the shade though!

Up front they have a movie theater where they serve drinks and food and you can sit in little roundabout couches.

Our first night in Cairns we checked into our badass hostel Dreamtime Travellers Rest right across the street from the train station and hung out in the courtyard listening to different peoples accents. The hostel was very quiet yet friendly and open so you feel like you could talk to anyone. It didn't feel that way at the hostel in Byron so it was a nice change!

Spent the next day wandering around and booked out tour to the Great barrier Reef. Spent a little more on that than we had planned but we may not have the opportunity to do that again. Down by the ocean there aren't beaches its actually just a bunch of mud with birds hanging out but they have this sweet "lagoon" in a public park where you can go and swim. So a giant public pool, then a bike path (kind of like the greenbelt) and then the ocean. Pretty sweet! The Saturday market was so rad and they had really cool stuff so I got a cool bracelet and Jeff got a shark tooth necklace. Met two people from California who now live here and were very nice.

While waiting for our bus to Clifton Beach to stay with Carolyn and Jen this guy who was "piss drunk" started chatting with us. As odd as he was it was actually nice talking with him because he gave us a lot of info about the area during the bus ride. We got to Clifton and it was a beautiful place! A bunch of apartments and condos along a road with the ocean right there. There were signs on the beach that crocodiles MAY be present which had me a little freaked out. I just kept Imagining a giant croc shooting out of a wave and grabbing my leg then being taken out to see. I'm sure that happens ALL THE TIME. Just kidding. We had a BBQ at the apartments that night with sausages and kebabs and drank wine and beer out on the balcony :)

We woke up the next morning to the sound of the waves crashing and a bunch of birds making their sounds. One in particular sounded more like a woman screaming murder outside off and on all night. We drove up to Port Douglas first to check out a local market which was pretty sweet! It's hard not to buy everything in sight here sometimes. There were leaves on the ground so it reminded me of fall in Boise. After that we went to a lookout point and then onward to Daintree Rainforest.

We had to drive onto this ferry to cross the Daintree River which was fun thinking about all the crocs swimming around below and the ferry randomly cracking down the middle so all the cars roll in and we all get torn to shreds! But we survived and continued on to this roadside cafe for coffee. We decided not to go for any of the advertised specials for Kangaroo, Emu or Crocodile burgers. Maybe another time. We made it up to Cape Tribulation which is the farthest north you can drive without needing 4WD in the Daintree and walked around on the beaches there. There are signs that say not to swim because of the jellyfish and crocs so we just took photos of the gorgeous scenery and picked up some seashells. Oh, and there are these mysterious birds called Cassowaries that have these helmet looking things on top of their heads that supposedly run around a lot in the rainforest so there were signs everywhere showing a picture of a Cassowary with "next 2 km" under it. Just like you'd see the "deer crossing" signs back at home on the highways. We never did see one though. It felt like Jurassic Park when they're waiting for the TRex.

On the way back down through the rainforest we stopped at Cow Bay and walked around on that beach as well and took a lot of photos. We had homemade ice cream at this little roadside place (chocolate hazelnut and macadamia coconut) and crossed the river on the Ferry again where we booked our Daintree River Croc tour! Out on the boat on the river we saw a big croc sunbathing on the edge of the beach and got up pretty close for photos! ...Sidenote: we posted one of the photos on Facebook with a joking caption that we had camped on a beach and woke up with that croc on the beach near us which caused quite the stir! I spent my 15 minutes of paid Internet left just explaining to everyone who had wrote us that it was a joke. Sorry for the scare!... We also saw a teenage croc poking its eyes and nose out of the water and then found a nest with a bunch of baby crocs! Successful day seeing the Daintree area I muse say. Also, listened a lot to this australian band called Boy and Bear during the drive I'd recommend listening to! Very good stuff.

Yesterday we hopped on a boat to set out for the Great Barrier Reef and Green Island. Our crew was great and they gave us coffee and muffins as we went across the ocean all laying out watching the sky light up. The music was perfect and it felt so good to be out there! I was surprised how far away the reef is from the island when we got there. They tie up to a buoy and we all put on our wet suits, flippers and masks and jumped into the open ocean! I had the same feeling as when I went bungee jumping a long time ago. Scared out of my mind but just didn't let myself think about it and went for it! The wet suits were very buoyant so you just float around with your face in the water looking at the beautiful colorful underwater world beneath. We saw lots of living coral, fish, a sea turtle (my favorite), held a sea cucumber, saw GIANT clams (kind of like the ones in super Mario 64 in the underwater scenes) and reef sharks. The island was pretty small we just walked around the edge looking at all the neat shells and taking photos. They have the 2nd largest croc in captivity in the world on the island which was neat to see but kind of sad how little room it had to live in... The boat ride back we turned off the motor and sailed the whole way which was the scariest part of the experience in my opinion. The boat was tilted so far to one side I was sure that it was going to just go completely over and we would all get slowly eaten by sharks. At some point I relaxed and enjoyed it though and can now say I've been sailing!