The Last Leg...Nimbin to Sydney

Nimbin/Byron Bay

Ladies and gentleman, we have now crossed the border into New South Wales.

If the Gold Coast is Australia's answer to Florida then Nimbin is surely their answer to Amsterdam - without the red light district. It's a tiny little town with a single small street, but on that street lie herbal and hemp shops on either side with stoned old men everywhere offering everything under the sun to all the tourists and backpackers that visit every day of the year. We had great fun looking through all the gadgets and and 'herbal' remedies in the shops - some people have gone to great lengths to make drug products that look like other things. Bongs in the shape of Homer Simpson's head, pipes that look like metal credit cards and even smokeless bongs that are no longer than one or two inches and fit inside the palm of your hand. I won't go into any detail on this blog but we left the town as pretty 'fun guys'. Get it? We decided to book another motel for the night to eat our new toys and after only paying for three people and sneaking Sam into the room we settled down for some Family Guy episodes and...other stuff.

It was a great laugh, but back in reality the next day we were in the cold in a campsite and back down to three people again. Sam has run out of money and her parents are refusing to bail her out again, saying that they'll pay for her ticket home but nothing else. Sounds a little harsh but it's probably a good thing as it'll force her to actually do something but anyway she's staying in Byron Bay with a friend for a few days while looking for a job; should be interesting as she was supposed to be looking the previous day but instead just sat on Facebook for an hour messaging her friends. We went for a goodbye curry after a day by the beach (which is very nice) - I ate a Vindaloo - and then went back to our freezing tent to get some sleep before beginning the final leg of our journey to Sydney.

On a cheery note I came within inches of death in the morning before leaving the campsite. I went to the toilet to lose the vindaloo from the night before and while checking the toilet for spiders I looked to the left and saw a tiny Redback spider about 6 inches from my face in its web - one of the deadliest spiders in the world. Ho hum.

Coffs Harbour/Port Macquarie/Forster-Tuncurry

Hhmmm. The diary entries are really getting short now, and I'm covering several days at a time too. That's not a reflection on how I treat this blog, it's just a combination of our state of mind and the fact that the places we're visiting are really quite bland. Queensland was awesome; loads to see, loads to do and beautiful at the same time. New South Wales, however, doesn't quite fit the first two but almost fits the third - it's quite nice to look but that's it.

Jamie drove from Byron Bay to Coffs Harbour - the nearest place of any note - which was about 150km. Nothing of note there. I then drove to Port Macquarie the next day - about 150km again - and then swiftly followed that with another 70km to get to Forster-Tuncurry after realising it was a bit of a dump. There's a nice lake in Forster which apparently is green but looked fairly blue to me; it also boasts the second smallest cinema in the world, which we didn't go and look at. We're getting quite lazy now - Jamie and Dave didn't even bother to get their cameras out of the car today.

It's nearly over now. Tomorrow we plough on to Newcastle, the second biggest city in New South Wales, and then on Wednesday we finally arrive in Sydney - and attempt to sell the beast. And get a job!!

Some good news - I have 3 weeks free(ish) accomodation in Sydney, by the beach in Bronte (see my previous entry on the Bondi to Coogee walk). Ash, our old sparring partner who travelled with us fo the first few months, and his girlfriend Kelly are heading back to England for a holiday/relative's wedding and they've kindly offered to put the three of us up in their flat. Get in there!!

Talee/Newcastle

What a day!

We slept in a National Park near Forster-Tuncurry and watched the Godfather on the laptop, then sat watching several Family Guy episodes in the morning before starting to get ready to leave. I got chatting to an old Australian couple on the way back from the toilets and noticed Jamie and Dave playing with a bat and ball set we picked up for next to nothing in a reject shop somewhere. I was doing my best to act mature and grown up but in the background Jamie was throwing his bat at a big tree near our tent; the next thing I new he was climbing up it, and the old couple were watching with strange looks on their faces. Turns out that the ball had got stuck in the tree, and when he threw the bat at it the ball fell down but the bat stayed there. Ever heard the expression 'it will end in tears'? Well, it did...Jamie fell out of the tree and landed awkwardly on a big piece of wood below; he seemed okay so we laughed at him for a while, and then he pulled up his t-shirt sleeve to reveal a big hole in his arm near the armpit. Ouch. About a minute later the elderly couple were taking him to the nearest medical centre in Forster and Dave and I were packing up the tents to join them.

We thanked the elderly couple when we got there and then took Jamie to Talee, complete with a dose of morphine and fresh dressing, as that was the nearest place that could fix him up. We sat in the hospital for ages and eventually at about 2pm they took him to sort him out, and so me and Dave drove around Talee for a while attempting to steal wireless internet from people's homes. No joy though, and so at nearly 5pm we picked Jamie up - along with his 6 stitches (which doesn't sound like a lot for such a big and nasty wound) and painkillers - and I drove us to Newcastle for our final stop on the journey. No campsites in sight so we booked into a motel for the night, watched Jackass 2 in celebration of Jamie's stunt and then hit the sack for our final sleep.

You might be wondering where we get all these films and things from. We've bought a few DVDs on the way - the Godfather was a birthday present for Dave - but most of them are copied from people we've met along the way. We did very nicely out of Spotto in Mackay, and Johnny who was with us on Fraser Island and Noosa had pretty much the complete Family Guy episode list barring about 5 episodes. I've added about 4,000 songs to my iTunes collection too, so I'm doing very nicely.

Right. I have to drive to Sydney tomorrow as Jamie's arm is in bad shape - and Dave doesn't have a license - so I'm looking forward to crossing the Harbour Bridge for the first time...

Back In Sydney

We very nearly sold the car today. But first, a quick update on what's been going on.

Well, the car made it all the way to Sydney, which is a result to say the least. It was overheating massively when we arrived - perfect timing for Sydney city centre - but it got there and it still hasn't broken down to this day. Driving over the Harbour Bridge wasn't that great, and we had to pay for it; afterwards we checked into our temporary hostel, got our stuff together (haircuts, showers, shaves, clothes washed etc) and then had a think about selling the car.

We decided to put the car on the market for $2,500. We spent about $1,700 on it including all the camping equipment but seeing as we were anticipating a long stay in Sydney we thought it might be worth a try. A quick trip to the car wash - see picture - and then a long and painful trek around Sydney and its suburbs to put adverts up in the hostels and travel shops.

After 10 days we'd had zero calls, so we dropped the price to $1,500 and did the whole thing again!

Actually there was a reason for the drop in price. Two reasons, in fact. Firstly, I haven't had any luck in finding a 3 month IT contract in Sydney and have decided to move on - that decision is vindicated anyway by the fact that the weather is terrible here at the moment, raining 24/7. The second reason is that I took the car to a garage to have the overheating looked at and was informed (and showed) that there are two separate leaks; one in the water pump and a big one in the radiator itself. After receiving an offer of $300 from the garage we decided to adjust the price - these faults can join the following list which we already knew about:

- Oil leaking
- Odomoter not working (doesn't clock any kms)
- Demister doesn't work
- No reverse lights
- Exhaust blowing
- Hood lining in car needs re-attaching
- Power steering fluid leaking
- Faulty electrics (you have to whack the dashboard for the fuel gauge to work)
- Dodgy automatic gear changes from reverse to drive (sometimes stalls)

Nice. Well, as soon as we put the adjusted advert up we had a call from two Geordies asking to look at the car. They took it for a spin and loved it - it goes just fine and is powerful too (V6 3.8 litre engine) - but unfortunately they asked to see under the bonnet and were greeted by lots of steam and water gushing out from the radiator. Damn. No sale of course, but we did 'fix' the problem by flushing the coolant from the system using nothing more than a Swiss army knife and a drying up towel and adding some radiator stop leak. Thankyou Google, and thankyou to whoever put up the step-by-step guide along with clear photos.

So, we're still burdened by the car and I'm plotting the next step of my adventure. We're still staying at the flat in Bronte, which although free is a real pain as it's pretty much in the middle of nowhere, although there are buses to Bondi Junction every 15 minutes. Dave has got himself a fairly long-term job repairing power tools, while Jamie is in the same boat as me trying to find a short-term IT contract and has pretty much given up hope too - looks like a bit of bar work for him until he goes to New Zealand in a few months time. I haven't mastered circular breathing on my didge yet and my Spanish learning has stalled too, but I'm not giving up on either!

I hope everyone's well and enjoying their summer...I hear it's pretty rubbish in the UK too. What a surprise. And condolences to those who still work at HBOS - not just because you still work there but also the share price is laughable too.

I've no idea what my next update is going to be, or where from - if anyone has any good advice for travelling around Oceania and South East Asia then let me know!