Good Times / Bad Times

BYRON BAY / COFFS HABOUR / PORT MACQUARIE / NEWCASTLE

On the last day in Byron Bay our first mission was to take the car to the workshop. Since we had already faced the problem several times that it didn't start on its own, it was time for an inspection by a professional (and unfortunately dad is too far away). Leaving your car in the workshop is one thing, but leaving your apartment with all your belongings is a whole different story. So since we were homeless for the day, we spent our time sightseeing.

We went to the Lighthouse of Byron Bay, from which you have an incredibly beautiful view of the surroundings!

The path led past the easternmost point of Australia.

In the evening we were allowed to pick up our little orange car again and both batteries were actually replaced, so all the hassle was worth it in the end. And we rewarded ourselves - we went out for sushi and for dessert we had crepes with Nutella and strawberries - yummy.

On the way there we saw our first wild snake. Somehow it was so normal, you're not as shocked as you thought when you see all these little animals here.

The next day took us to Coffs Harbour, a small coastal town between Byron Bay and Sydney, where we stayed for 2 nights. Not a very exciting place, but really nice for a stopover. As I said, there wasn't much to see, so we went straight for a beach day. Although we don't really get to do that here, even if our pictures probably suggest otherwise xD. Our next big goal is Newcastle, but since we don't want to drive more than 3 hours a day, we made a stopover in Port Macquarie between Coffs Harbour and Newcastle, a big mistake as it turned out.

When we arrived in Port Macquarie, we quickly realized - there wasn't much to see here either. But no problem, we only wanted to stay one night anyway. We had chosen a camping site that actually had something of wild camping for the first time. Everything was not very modern and somehow you felt like you were in the middle of the rainforest, but well, it was only for one night.

Since our car fridge is very (very!) small, we use the camp kitchen including fridge on every camping site, where we store all our food for the duration of our stay. So we can do a little more shopping for one or two days, which is really nice. We treat ourselves here only occasionally - and for dinner we planned pasta Bolognese - definitely a highlight especially for me, a little pasta lover.

We spent the day exploring the Koala Hospital and the city a bit. When it finally came to dinner time, we were horrified to find that almost all of our food had been stolen!!! And no, it wasn't just the packaged meat (which is very expensive in Australia) or the overpriced almost full jar of Nutella, it was among other things the almost empty ketchup bottle, the sliced pineapple, a quarter cucumber and even my last 3 pieces of Lindt chocolate that my mom had given me for the flight (yes, I've been carrying it with me for 4 weeks so it looked like it too) - who does that?!?!? And above all, who ruins my Bolognese evening?! We were truly speechless and the evening was ruined for us. It was clear - we're leaving the next day, we're not staying here for another day.

So we went to Newcastle, the city itself is not very spectacular, but we chose a campsite a little outside and it's so beautiful here!

It's really indescribably beautiful to fall asleep and wake up right by the water - those are definitely the moments when you know why you chose a camping tour. Today we just took a little look at the city, Jozy went to the hairdresser and I went shopping a little, and then we had to start our big shopping trip to replenish the empty "fridge". Out of spite for our missed Bolognese evening, we made kangaroo burgers and ate them by the lake at sunset, clearly one of my favorite moments on this trip!

I'm so glad we get to spend one more relaxing day here before we head to the Blue Mountain National Park on Wednesday.