Sunday 29th of August ARRIVE IN BUSY BRISBANE, REUNITED WITH AN OLD FRIEND

OMG no problems at the Ozzy border this time; a miracle! My tent was clean enough so a quick train to Roma St. Chill Backpackers was my pick for today. Try to bargain for the room rates here because they rip you off. I paid 29 and others paid 25 for exactly the same. Brisbane is not how it was like 5 years ago. It's an interesting city though. I spend my whole day reorganizing everything, washing after a few dirty weeks and eating from the supermarket again. All of a sudden Verena bumps in to me; one of the long terms Germans guest from Habitat in MB. She showed me around in Brizzy and we bought some very cheap bad wine. Cheap is not always a good idea...Cider at the rooftop deck at Chill Backpackers made the taste a little bit better.

Monday 30th of August BRISBANE AND MORE SURPRISING MEETINGS

Another day is Brisbane, walking around in this hot city full of different building styles, free internet places, bridges, food courts and not to forget the city beach! Southbank is one of my favorite areas in Brisbane. Chilling on the fake beach, jumping into the water...very nice when the sun is shining. All of a sudden a formiliar face...Denise?! Yes, this was the girl were I had contact with for half a year and planned a road trip together. For some strange reason see changed her mind in the end and I stopped planning :-) A good thing, now I have the most amazing experiences instead of being in 1 city and party hard on goon every day. Nothing special in the evening, time to get some sleep after the exhausting time in Fiji.

Tuesday 31st of August NOOSA HEADS AND FOLLOW THE SUNSHINE

An early Greyhound bus trip to Noosa Heads, Verena asked me to come there. Why not? Good company and I've never seen the place before. 2.5 hours in the bus and it was enjoyable. Marloes (NL) was the only other person in the bus and we both couldn't stop talking. Interesting personality and I have to change my Dutch accent :-) Unfortunately she didn't stop in Noosa. But Verena was already waiting. Upgraded our room and time for the beach! Noosa is a place for rich and retired people; expensive property, shops and to many modern facilities. A good beach though and the National Park with the Coastal Walk is worth the effort. The sky turned grey in the afternoon so beach and walk were not so interesting anymore. Where the fuck do all those German colored (black, red, yellow) come from?!

Wednesday 1st of September NOOSE HEADS, FEEL FREE, RUN AROUND NAKED

A windy day, good for surf lessons. We spend the whole day walking, happy I took my running shoes on today. Noosa has a river that goes into the sea and it looks almost the same like Whithaven Beach with low tide and all the sandbanks. It turned dark and cloudy again but stay positive with the little blue holes in the sky. After a very tasty 500ml ice cream snack we started the walks in the National Park. The forest is crap though, but entering the Sunshine Beach from the hills makes it worth the walk. What a long nice beach and the sun came back! For me some cliff/rock climbing to spot some eagles eating their pray (a huge crab). Learned something about surfing by watching it for a while. A short climb to Devil's Kitchen and the next beach; Alexandria Beach. Beautiful! 'Did you see the turtles?!' a man approaches us. He was a Naturist and I said 'No', but I definitely see a turtle between your legs! :-) Funny and Verena was shocked for a while by this man that jumped out of the rocks naked. So this is a naturist beach? I took all my clothes off and run around naked. Some people that walked around with clothes looked a little bit weird at me...whahaaa! Fucking tired after a full day of walking and a stomach that was exploding after all the Mexican Tortilla's today. Party time at the Nomads Bar? Not really...

Thursday 2nd of September WHAT TO DO? NORTH OR SOUTH...RAINBOW BEACH AND I'M CRAZY

Verena left in the morning to Rainbow Beach, no actual plans for me. The surf was bad today so I decided to book a bus to Rainbow Beach as well and leave a little bit later with Greyhound. 3 hour boring bus trip, no interesting folks on the bus-a-bus... Verena was surprised and said I was crazy. Well I have the time and why not visiting a good friend and see places I haven't seen before? Beach time again. Besides the mental chef in Fraser on Rainbow there is not much to see here. A long beach and some over-the-top priced activities. Verena can't handle my laidback way of travelling/planning and thinks there's something wrong with me because it's hard for me to lose a game...a long time ago that someone told me I have some mental problems...WHAT A LAUGH! :-) I don't care! I know that most people like me and don't think too much. Time for me to leave and head back to Brisbane the next day...Bye Bye

Friday 3rd of September BRISBANE AND THE LONELYNESS

A long but cheap bus trip (30 AUD with Premier Motor Services) to Brisbane. Again nothing interesting and just grumpy young backpackers. A long walk to Chinatown. Chinatown is funky and cool. Many trendy shops around and many cool bars with live music. Funny conversations with a group of sexy dressed girls doing promotions for kinky place. Good cheap Asian food at The Asian House (Wickham St.) A cheap backpackers and I met m new travel partner for the East Coast; Marion. Another French and more people join us in the van Sunday night. The Friday night was not really booming. Since the last 2 days in Fiji you might have notice that my stories are not that enthusiastic anymore. And that's true. The lack of adventure, action and some good friends are making the trip a little bit boring. Sometimes you have one of these days but now it's almost a week! Tired of travelling? Maybe...I think it's just a temporary moment. Waiting for some new cool friends and some interesting stuff. Of course, the last 10 months were overwhelming, sick and twisted. You can't live in a movie all the time. Be patient and the feeling should come back... THE FREEDOM, THE EXPERIENCE!

Saturday 4th of September BRISBANE RIVER ON FIRE!

A day of preparations, shopping for the road trip. Trying out the vegetarian place on Wickham St. Tea House. This cheap Asian place has a lot of meat on the menu but it's all fake meat (soya) and it's damn tasty! After getting bottles of liquor Marion, Raphael, Johnny, some Germans and I strolled along the river for a good spot. South Bank was packed so we stay in the city. I tried to find a better spot next to the bridge, but again packed with thousands of Asians with big tripods and locals that sat there for hours with complete dining tables and bottles of wine... Yes, this is the Brisbane River on Fire Festival. The 5pm Airforce show never came, but at 7 there was a big fireball loudly shooting through the skyscrapers...it was a jetfighter on fire. A 20 minute non-stop massive fire show broke out! On several places on the river the same fire show, but at the big bridge it was fabulous! Like New Years Eve in Sydney and for some time I was thinking back to the New Years Eve parties in my old hometown Rotterdam. I was chilling with 2 locals and we had loads of beer, wine and champagne. The nightlife after? X&Y Nightclub and all the food places? One word > SUCKS! Everyone thinks they can rip you off hear, they think that everyone's is drunk and don't care about change. A long time ago for me in a nightclub and after 10 minutes it was already time to leave after some issues with bar staff and security. Luckily there was free live music all night long when I went back to my room :-) The Festival itself was worth a stay in Brizzy.

Sunday 5th of September RAINDANCE ON NORTH STRADBROKE ISLAND

For Marion and me it was the start of our trip, navigating to Cleveland for our vehicle ferry to North Stradbroke Island (without our vehicle). Rain was pooring down, so why not try hitch hiking in Australia? The 1st 4WD we asked took us. Andrew and his family were more than happy to show us around the island. A rich family with some property there. Marion and I did some walks around Point Lookout, Main Beach, Frenchmen's Beach. It was nice though, but the whales were really far away and hard to see. The weather was getting worse and worse. Hitch hiking on the island was not that easy so we jumped on the bus. A drunken local harmonica-musician kept us awake :-) We wanted to walk to Brown Lake and we got lost. No views, so much rain, no use to go further. One of the last ferries back and pick up our other French member of the team; JB. After the long search for food we drove and drove in the dark, through National Parks and our first free night of camping was in a park in the town of Canungra.

Monday 6th of September MEETING BIG SNAKE, CAR TROUBLES AND SLEEPING AT THE VILLA'S IN SURFERS PARADISE

Ok, these Frenchies already taught me something life changing...eating green Kiwi's with every breakfast. I love the fruit, never tried it...stupid. The closest National Park was Mt Tamborine, our 1st walk of the day. A nice walk through the jungle (tracks are quite easy), the Witches Falls were almost dry and that was surprising after all that rain from yesterday. Today was sunny and hot. The birdlife in these parks is fantastic. The Forest Lagoon, a great must-see, huge rainforest trees, spiders and shiiiiiit! I almost put my foot on a big snake if JB didn't warn us. This is cool and I'm full of adrenaline. Try to get closer. The next place, Lamington National Park. Should be a nice park in the mountains. Marion just received her Toyota Hiace van back from the garage, the temperature gauche was not working anymore and the van got overheated. It didn't want to drive anymore and after many longer breaks it was time to confront the mechanic (on the phone). He reacted suspicious and Marion was frustrated, after spending 550 AUD on repairs. We made it finally to Surfers Paradise. 'Paradise'? It's huge, the amount and height of al the skyscrapers is maybe more than Melbourne! Booze time and snacks and try to check the nightlife...well, maybe this place is booming during school holidays... SO just an early night, and we parked our van in the middle of a rich villa neighborhood. People were nice to us here, thanks for letting us stay :-)

Tuesday the 7th of September SWIMMING IN PARADISE, BURLEIGH HEADS AND NIMBIN COOKIES ARE BAD BAD BAD!

A stroll to the Surfers Paradise Art Gallery, the place was not interesting. The Goanna's outside made a bigger impression on me than all the artwork inside. The rest of the morning time to take the Ocean shower at Surfers Paradise. The waves were sucking you into the ocean and making you feel like you're in an enormous washing machine. It was a refreshing shower and I enjoyed it together with some local kids. Further down at the Eastcoast we stopped at Burleigh Heads for our chicken and rice BBQ. A hot sunny day again, perfect for more swimming and a BBQ. Burleigh Heads is an interesting place with different sort of (surf)beaches, rock formations and a lot of facilities. Climbing the rocks to spot the surfers with Surfers Paradise in the background, people popping the champagne here...they know how to live! And we know how to live as well, finding our way to Nimbin (a hippie town were everything seems to be allowed). Many kids tried to sell us marihuana, no way. And be aware of all the cameras on the street. We arrived late and after buying some snacks at the supermarket it was also time for some 'special snacks' from Rainbow Alley (the only place without cameras). Quality guaranteed said the woman bla bla. We looked for the hippie styled accommodation in the forest near Nimbin; Rainbow Retreat. This place is hilarious! Campsites are normal, the doubles are magnificent. Every double is different and are special creations...from western styles horse trailers to big mushroom hut in the trees. The dorm is wicked, bunk are semi-outside so you can wake up between the high kangaroos. Jay, a funny character from Lismore invited me straight away for a rolling-a-spliff-session. This mustache guy was doing stunts stunned on his motorbike. I wanted to stay, the place was exactly my style, the few peepz around here were so laidback. Did we stay? Nope, the Frenchies didn't want to spend 13 AUD for camping. We had to get the van up in the mountains, a splendid lookout over nimbin and the mountains, an amazing spot at first sight. But strange animals making loud annoying weird noises. Not good after eating spacey cookies :-) Also not good; leeches (blood suckers) falling out of the trees on your food, in your tea and sucking on your body. Not a lot of light so this can become an interesting night. More surprises; ticks! I had to use my first aid kit again. The movie was not really twisting our minds, only Marion had a head spinning night with the 'cookie monsters' LOL

Wednesday 8th of September NIMBIN COPS AND THE SURFLIFE OF BYRON BAY

A bright night last nite, shooting stars and waking up with a tick in my face. Back for a refund in Nimbin but the chick was still Out of Space I guess whahaa. So open the free Nimbin Museum, a colorful collage of all sorts of stuff and aphorisms. Interesting folks hanging around and some curious cops looking for 'stuff' with their torches. 'Where are you from mate?' 'The wonderful GREEN country on the other side of the world, The Netherlands!' I told those coppers. Oh now I got their full attention! Completely when they found out that I was with French friends LOL. Marion didn't realize that it were cops so she almost said some stupid things... They warned us several times about all the illegal things. Well, fcourse we're not gonna say anything about the 'bakery' :-) Time to leave this hippie town, after seeing some funny shops in this 2 street village. Up to Byron Bay, driving through Lismore. The weather was sunny but cloudy later on. In Byron JB knew a place for free hot showers and Wifi, backdoors of hostels are perfect for this. A few blue holes in the sky, a walk to the lighthouse, spotting some humpback whales in the distance, climbing some rocks to join some fishermen and a walk along the beaches for some special sunset; surfers in the yellow/red colored water...they just don't wanna stop surfing. Cheese and wine for me and the Frenchies? Nothing? Weird that a Dutchie does this and not them. BBQ at the boulevard, meeting 2 fresh German girls in their van and the surf dude Wayne. Good atmosphere, Wayne was a good bloke although not everyone shared the same opinion. Typical surfer, no place to stay, hanging around with friends, car is his home, BBQ chicken nuggets for dinner. If I could stay a little bit longer I would definitely love Byron Bay. JB knows a good camping spot near Tyagarah Beach (a few Km north from Byron). Not allowed for overnight camping and a 7 AUD parking fee? Nobody checks you here.

Thursday 9th of September SNORKLING JULIA ROCKS, WHALE WATCHING IN BYRON SUCKS AND THE GREAT CAMPSITE IN YURAYGIR NATIONAL PARK

Wake up way to early, went out for a long run on the beach, doing some exercise. I was surprised by some naked man doing the same running exercises. Later JB told me it was a gay meeting beach on Sunday WHAHAA! 11:00AM snorkeling with Sunshine Divers, offering a Free Humpback Whale watching afterwards. Well, 'lucky' me again NO WHALES! I'm just not lucky with tours for dolphins and whales. The snorkeling was around Julia Rocks. You can get real close to the Rocks but the waves can drop you on the Rocks as well. I was a little bit to curious following a turtle and got too close to the rocks, ending up in a current on the other side of the rocks. Heading back, loads of big fish and there are a lot of sharks here if you go 15 meters deep. So free diving I guess? I tried, but hardly possible with a 5.3MM wetsuit! The beginning of the afternoon no more sunshine. We drove all the way to Yuaraygir National Park, Red Cliff and Lake Arragan. Darkness falls but it seems to be great here. The campsite is packed with a big group of high school kids, most of them girls. JB and I started collecting firewood everywhere, the teachers warned us and showed us a place with a big amount of proper firewood, how easy?! Puffed potatoes in the fire and onions with sugar...yummie jammie. I choose to put Rosan's tent outside tonight. Well Roos, it's kind of waterproof (for at least 6 - 8 hours). But it was raining very hard this night, I woke up in a small pool. The funny part of the night, kangaroos around me all night long...opening the tent and seeing the hairy face of a kangaroo in front of me.

Friday 10th of September STORM - SUN - STORM - SUN, BROOMS HEAD, SANDY BEACH, SAWTELL, FISHING AROUND COFFS HARBOUR, WATERFALL WALKING DORRIGO

I thought I had a rough night, they hig school girls had a rough hiking trip to go. Tommy Hilfiger ponchos and sunglasses included. Well I run to the beaches with the half our of morning sun. Brooms Head (Red Cliff and Lake Arragan) is absolutely gorgeous! The cliffs are stunning, views in every way amazing, nice beaches, the river from the lake...so many different things at the same place. Kangaroos hopping around the dunes and on the beach. But storm started again, keep being positive guys. It helped, Sandy Beach (near Wollgoolga) was our 1st sunny stop of the day. Coffs Harbour was the place for that nice Mr. Coles and JB. Sawtell our third sunny stop, a picturesque place with a small island where you can walk to with low tide...good place for a refreshing swim. No good place for some fishing. The road trip followed up into the mountains, first the town of Bellingen (it was like time stopped here a while ago) and followed by an even sleepier old town; Dorrigo. Up on the mountain it was very windy and cold. The Danger Falls were okay, not that special. The lava structures were more interesting. It was already after darkness and the Frenchies told me to climb over the slippery rocks through the river and stand on top of the waterfall. I did, but it was not the smartest thing to do. Couldn't see a thing. BBQing in darkness and plastic plates blowing away all the time. I decided to sleep in front of the van...a once in a lifetime experience! Never again, definitely not for 11 hours!

Saturday 11th of September SKYWALKING DORRIGO, CRYSTAL SHOWERS, CRESCENT HEAD, PORT MACQUIRE, CAMPING AT BONNY HILLS

Fresh but very sunny start of the day. The back and neck hurts, so some stretching helps. Dorrigo National Park, the short skywalk for jaw-dropping views over the jungle and the mountains. The 2 hour Lyrebird track for many birds and 2 beautiful small falls. The first one you can actually use as a shower (Crystal Shower Falls), the other one you can climb down for some extra adventure. We did it just for a cookie time. No more hard working for the van today...Bellingen, Urunga, Nambucca, Kempsey and Crescent Heads for lunch. Very busy with local families on this sunny Sunday. I walked on to Pebbly Beach, the actual Heads and some old guy shouting at me that I was crossing a golf course...damn, you have to be careful here with all these senior golfers and bowling clubs :-) Good view from the lookout you might guess, not whit a bushfire like today. Sunset fishing around Port Macquire, shortly. After some bad navigating we finally stopped at a campsite near Bony Hills. A lot of backpackers staying overnite in their van in Port Macquire, we drove on to a more quiet place, Grants Beach. What a bright sky tonight and the Milky Way shined some light on our dinner. Movies in the van. Free camping, nobody send us away, while everyone could see us from the main road.

Sunday 12th of September CLIFF CLIMBING GRANTS BEACH, FISHING EVERYWHERE, FINDING PARADISE AT THE UNKNOWN BEACH NEAR CAPE HAWKE

Up-early-as-normal, sunny so check out this place. Small beach with huge cliffs on one site. Climbing the blocks and rocks for better views. I got lost in time. Crawling through some small holes, don't forget some proper non-slippery shoes. Crowdy Head was the goal, we didn't go further than senior fishermen's place Harrington. Loads of pelicans and the Frenchies are bad fishers. But what do you expect with Hungarian Salami as bait? :-) Big salad lunch at Tuncurry (just before Forster). My Australian buddy Dave unfortunately didn't give me a call for diving here. Cape Hawke, a 420 steps just for a bad lookout on a tower. This place is popular for couples making out... But we saw a small white sandy beach from here with turquoise blue water. We found a way to that beach, a steep and crazy 4WD track! Of course we walked and with my old flip-flops this was already a challenge. The hidden beach was sooo good. Loads of bites from the flies but amazing. All of a sudden a humpback whale jumps out of the water pretty close. And after having some thoughts I see 2 dolphins swimming through the rocks along the beach...this is my time to swim with dolphins! But more stuff to come, turtles just in front of me. Just when you don't expect anything you will get it all. There were more dolphins fishing here. The sun disappeared and the clouds came in. Camping at ugly Bungwhal Rest Area...an annoying place with too many noisy birds.

Monday 13th of September SEAL ROCKS, NO SEALS BUT WHAT A TERRIFFIC PLACE! NELSON BAY, TOMAREE NATIONAL PARK, LAST CAMPINGNIGHT DRUNK AT BUDGEWOI BEACH

Constantly ticking sounds in the morning, it was a stupid blue head bird attacking himself in the mirror for hours! We went to Seal Rocks. There is an unsealed road, but only for 1km. Parked the car at boatbeach and as we started walking the sun came just at the right moment. Boatbeach had nice views, wait until you reach the track to the lighthouse... Be Dingo Aware they say, don't be scared. A sandy walk down through some bushes brought us at the stunning rock formations before the lighthouse. We climbed the steep cliff walls and were surprised by the beauty of this place. When you reach the actual lighthouse , there you can finally see the Seal Rocks, no seals this time of season. The Beach is also worth a visit. Just a perfect day. Nelson Bay was too crowded, some nice beaches (Box Beach). Only snorkeling was very chilly with this cold wind. Try to rent a 4WD for the biggest sand dune area in Australia...190 AUD per 24-hours! Are they out of their mind?! Be careful with toilets in Nelson, they can be completely covered in shit :-) Drive on to Anna Bay, we stopped near Kingsly Beach. Quiet small beaches, after some climbing you can find more of these beaches. I was looking for the perfect cliff dive spot and I found one. Not over 6 meters high but a good jump, hard to get back on the rocks though. After all that chilling, diving and fishing we purchased 3 bottles of wine for our last campnite together...we were so wasted, JB in special ;-) Steaks and pasta for dinner, nacho's, dip and cheese. OMG, the campsites were closed, but like every day we find nice 'free' spot, this time at the dunes of Dudgewoi Beach.

Tuesday 14th of September WELCOME STORMY SYDNEY, WELCOME BY THE PARKING POLICE, WELCOME IN VAN-SALE-STREET

The French Toast for our last camping breakfast together? Nope, 2 hangover Frenchies instead. So JB, what did you say about Dutch people last night? ;-) Nothing interesting between here and Sydney today. Maybe, but it's raining after I crashed in the sand dunes for a while. The trip to Sydney was a long carwash. Driving on the 1 National Highway did actually have some good views driving through the National Parks...roads cut out of the mountains. Sydney? One big storm, raining harder and harder, flooding roads in Kings Cross. Marion, good luck with selling your van here, the street was full with vans for sale! Kings Cross is dodgy, just like most of the hostels here. Kanga Backpackers didn't really made good friends with me so time to leave this place ASAP...