I arrived in Sydney and was glad to see Ralphie, Jacqui and Andrew. Staying in Bondi with these guys was a godsend. I loved Bondi...surfers with board under arm queued at a bus stop, laid back vibe, interesting shops and a beautiful beach and coastline...magic! It was great to see Ralphie but also sad because we weren't sure when we would see each other again, so there were a few shed tears.
Jacqui gave me a fantastic tour of Bondi including stunning views of the harbour from the 5th Floor Food Court, Westfield, Bondi.
We did a lovely walk from Bondi to Bronte and I had wonderful views of Sydney from his Potts Point hotel lush garden roof top, Regents Court, if you ever want to stay there. The bridge and opera house were lit up on one side and centre point lit up on the other side. I caught up with Marylou's sister, Jane who has an amazing view of the harbour from her Potts Point home.
A week in Sydney seemed to go so fast and then it was time to move on to Northern Beaches to Mona Vale and visit my step-sister, Simone; her husband, Dave; and 2 boys, Harry and Will.
They have the most beautiful view of the headland from their beach front home and as usual, I was doing it tough. I also watched parasailers and hang gliders in front of Simone's house. Apparently it is a flying delight around there.
After that, I headed up to north of Gosford to see the Greens. Steve showed me how to blog in 10 minutes and I haven't looked back since.
After lunch with the Greens, I headed up to Nelson Bay and stayed the night, ready to dive the next day. Unfortunately, my dive got a bit mixed up and I decided to move on to Port Macquarie rather than continue to deal with an inept dive operator.
The Van that I love soooo much!
Pt Macquarie
I stayed with Carol who is a friend of my friend, Karen in Adelaide. I find it is a fantastic experience to stay with locals. I not only get the local tour of a place but I get to appreciate that place through the eyes of those who know and love it. I gain great insight into why they are so proud of their town and it is contagious...I end up loving the place because of their enthusiasm.
Carol is a keen wave skiier and I got to watch her and her friend Bella wave skiing while I took photos. This was about the time that I badly injured my foot by stepping onto a sharp rock. It put me out of jogging action for a few days and on top of my two sprained ankles, I wondered if I would ever get my jogging fitness into shape!
I made many friends along the way...a lizard, a bush turkey and Larry the dive master at South West Rocks!
South West Rocks
Larry the Dive master.
Fish Rock Cave...one of the best dive sites in Australia! I heard it was a good dive at South West Rocks but it was utterly amazing I dived with a grey nurse shark coming right alongside me to check out what I was...it was so cool! I also did my very first cave dive and saw my first bull ray at the entrance of the cave. On the right you'll see some videos of Diving South West Rocks, choose the last one (4th) to see how close I came to grey nurse sharks...wow!
I got to see a Wobbegong shark for the first time and then I was attacked by some vicious anemone fish who wanted to eat my gloves.
Coffs Harbour
From there I moved onto Coffs Harbour and stayed 3 nights because I loved the place so much. I stayed at Park Beach Caravan Park, right on the beach as the name suggests and rode my push bike all over town to go to my Dive shop and do my grocery shopping. I got to do two beautiful dives at South Solitary Islands. Then I had a lovely massage and then on the last day I had a surf lesson and stood up, which was quite a shock. I so enjoyed the area, pace and variety of things to do that I could have stayed weeks. Unfortunately, I had a deadline to meet in Brisbane so I had to drag myself away.
The Usual Suspects: me, beach, ocean and frangipani!
Byron Bay
I then moved onto Byron Bay and had another lovely couple of dives at Julian Rocks. The launch of the rubber ducky into pounding surf is not for the squeamish and I had to steel myself as the breakers threatened to engulf us. The dives were fantastic and worth the scary ride. I saw my first loggerhead turtle, followed by my biggest loggerhead turtle, possibly a metre in diameter and 200 years old! Then I saw a huge wobbegong whose head was almost a meter wide and then a huge Globe fish, atleast 40cm long. It was awesome and I did a couple of long dives so my air usage is getting better and better with experience.
Byron Bay was an interesting place: yuppy meets hippie. I didn't like the crowds, traffic and tourist overload. Some shop keepers were suffering from Tourist overload and I don't blame them. I really enjoyed the diving and the beaches though.
After that, I made my way through the Gold Coast to Brisbane. I stopped at Burleigh Heads for a swim and lunch. With level 5 water restrictions, I wasn't able to shower off the salt water as all the showers were turned off on the foreshore. They are doing it tough here and down to drinking the water only.
I took the coast road through the heart of Surfers Paradise. It was quite memorable to be driving through the towering skyscrapers while John Butler Trio played "Used to get high for a living" on my stereo.
I am off to Noosa next, then Airlie Beach. Feel free to post comments on my blog site.
-Andrea
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