Australia - Newcastle to Grafton

Newcastle

Hawks Nest

Everyone out for the shark

Sand dunes

Camping at Myall Lakes

4 x 4 track

Catalina and Kyle

Shelly beach

Lunchtime

Amazing beach at Forster

Cookie dog

Pelican at Harrington

A typical track through the National Park

Camels on Lighthouse beach, Port Macquarie

Ben and Gwen, Crescent Head

Rubber duck race, Crescent Head

Gwen's house

Better than Asda Govan

Bananaman

Mmmm

Brenna's house, Hungry head

Beware - dangerous beastie

Tony and Judy

Big brown beastie, big brown face

Rob and Maureen's amazing touring bikes

Distance cycled: 4280 kms

Route: Newcastle - Medowie - Hawks Nest - Crowdy Head - Port Macquarie - Crescent Heads - Coffs Harbour - Grafton

Well, since leaving Ian's in Newcastle, we've had one of the best weeks of the trip so far. The coast is definitely the place to be in Australia. We cycled to an amazing little place on the coast called Hawks Nest where after a very short ride, we gave up cycling for the rest of the day and instead spent the day there swimming and enjoying being swept along by the massive waves. Ben got quite good at body surfing in with the tide whereas I seemed to end up with a load of water up my nose. At supervised beaches, the sea has been generally full of people playing the jumpy wave game but it may get a bit quieter now the school holidays are over. What a magic day we had. Golden sands and warm, crystal clear waters made swimming a pleasure and it's obviously the best way to cool down. Twice during the day, the shark warning sirens went off. The lifeguards, who are all volunteers, obviously keep a good eye on the water and managed to spot the first shark from a good way off. So out of the water everyone got and we watched the shark pass by about 10 metres from the coast. He was about 6 or 7 ft long, "just a littl'un" apparently. After he'd disappeared, everyone just got back in the water, unperturbed by the visit. Australians are completely unphased by the presence of so many fierce creatures in the sea, which is just as well as the sea is one of the best parts of life in Oz. That day we made a little house out of our tarp and lay under it, inbetween swims, drinking tea and enjoying life. Speaking of tea, it's so bloody hot here, any milk we carry, even UHT curdles by the end of the day so we've had to resort to powdered milk. I protested at first saying "this is an outrage" when Ben suggested going on to it, slapping him across the face with a leather glove. However, I am slowly getting accustomed to tea without proper milk. There are, I'm sure worse things in life. Right now, I can't think what they are, but I'm sure there must be some. Going back to the topic of fierce creatures, I had my first encounter with a bluebottle jellyfish at Elizabeth beach. Just before we'd gone in for a swim, a woman had said to us, "be careful of the bluebottles". I wondered what she was on about as in Scotland a bluebottle is but a harmless fly. However, these other bluebottles are not harmless as I found out to my cost. I was just getting in the water when I suddenly felt a searing, burning pain across my thighs. I let out a scream and as I tried to run out the water, the tentacles got wrapped right around me stinging right down my legs and buttocks. When I got out the water, some people sprayed me with vinegar in a bottle and told me I should go home and have a shower to wash out the tentacles. I explained to them that at that moment I didn't exactly have a home so Catalina and Kyle invited me back to their holiday home. After a shower, the pain had dulled to that of a nettle sting and I felt much better. We had a beer and a chat with those guys and then spent the night at nearby Shelly beach. In the morning, we soon realised that Shelly beach was the local nudist spot as we woke up to naked frisbee and tennis on our doorstep. It was a beautiful beach and I really fancied a swim but seeing lots of bluebottles washed up on the shore, I decided to give it a miss. Up in Queensland however, box jellyfish will give you more than a nasty sting. Infact, you probably wouldn't make it out of the water if you ran into one of them.

The following day we ended up a bit further up the coast at Forster and what a gem of a beach we found. A big wall of rock had made a natural little pool to swim in, protected from most of the currents and free from jellyfish. It was just amazing and we sacked most of the day's cycling off again for another day at the beach. We watched as some kids jumped fearlessly in off the rocks into the blue water below and Ben quickly dived in after them. I chickened out first time but on my second attempt a very wise 10 year old girl helped me overcome my fear by counting me in and leaping in with me. Just when we thought the day couldn't get any better, I saw a man holding something very peculiar in the water which, on closer inspection, turned out to be a baby shark! He was a little beauty, all gums and no teeth. We had the pleasure of giving him a little stroke before he was released. The guys Mum explained that he had recently had to have his foot sewn back on after a shark attack but was still as keen on diving as ever, The lady then asked me where in Scotland I was from, I answered "Glasgow". "I'm from Motherwell" she says. I just burst out laughing as, as most of you know, Motherwell is my home town about 13 miles from Glasgow. It also turned out that May's Aunt lives in the same sheltered housing complex as my Gran. It is indeed a small world. Despite all the sun, sea and sand Australia had to offer, May really missed Scotland and we reminisced about life in "the Well" That day on the beach was made even better by the fact we could take our bikes right down to the waters edge and keep an eye on them as we swam together. We sometimes have to go in for a swim one at a time, so someone can keep an eye on the bikes but it's always much nicer to go in together. Life must be a lot harder in that respect for a solitary cycle tourer who has no-one to look after the bike when they go shopping etc.

On leaving Newcastle, we cycled on a 4 x 4 track through the beautiful Myall Lakes National Park. We had the track to ourselves as it had been closed to vehicles for the last 4 years. It was pretty bumpy but our trusty old steeds can handle a bit of rough. The National Parks here are great and it's always nice to do some cycling through them away from the traffic. We visited a little place by the sea called Crowdy Head where we had our 3 hour lunch break away from the midday sun and went for a swim. We chatted with a guy called Sam who introduced us to "pig faces" a little plant that grows by the sea with a delicious, vitamin C-rich fruit inside. We left Crowdy Head to cycle through another of the National Parks tracks to arrive at Diamond Head where we camped on the beach. It would appear that no-one gives two hoots where you camp in Australia. Most of the time we hide away when we're camping but no-one we've ran into has given us any trouble so far. You are allowed to camp in most of the rest stops here and people are always happy to let you camp on their land. A typical Aussie reply to "can we put our tent up on your land?" is "sure, no dramas". Life is so laid back here I think I might fall over. A few nights ago as we headed North towards Port Macquarie we asked some people on their balcony if we could put our tent up on their land. They said that was fine, told us we could have a swim in the pool then started talking to me about, yes you guessed it, "Taggart". It's great that so many people here have Taggart as their only point of reference for Glasgow, a show about drug dealers getting murdered "up a close" in Maryhill. It certainly hasn't seemed to put them off us Scotties though as we are loved as much here as in NZ. Next morning, Madeleine and Helen invited us in for a shower and some tea with real milk. Thanks to Stuart, Helen and Madeleine for helping us out. That night, we shared our tent with their wee dog Cookie who befriended us for the night. Earlier that day we'd treated ourselves to a bottle of brandy and some wine. We had a merry night as we relaxed in the safety of Stuart and Madeleine's garden, happy together in our little house. We cycled through Port Macquarie and up to Crescent Head, gradually ticking off the kilometres to Brisbane, our next milestone. We stayed for 2 nights near Crescent Head at the house of Gwen, the mother of Ian, our warm showers host in Newcastle. We were at Gwen's on Australia day and were treated to a free fried breakfast at the rotunda in town. Later that day, we were treated to another delicious meal at a barbeque at Gwen's friend's Fran's. Gwen was so good to us and offers this sort of hospitality quiet often to people passing by. An inspirational woman with a heart of gold. We must also thank Gwen's friend's Ken and Sue for the information on free campsites they compiled for us, the information has already proven to be very useful. We left Gwen's cycling through some lovely quiet roads, so quiet that I felt safe enough to listen to music for a while. I love cycling to music, it really gets me going. I remember one time, our friend Anna, who we cycled with in NZ put her MP3 player on, started pedalling faster and faster and within minutes was cycling at a rate of knots to boggle the mind. Lance Armstrong on speed couldn't have kept up with her. Ian commented, "that's the power of reggae music". Indeed.

We cycled 110 kms the day we left Gwen's, the latter half of which was on the Pacific Highway. I remember before we set off thinking the "Pacific Highway" sounded so adventurous and exotic. It's really not. The "road trains" we'd heard so much about speed past us at a frightening rate sometimes on parts of the road with little or no hard shoulder. These trucks are about 150 ft long, about twice the size of the wagons back home. Most of the time there is a shoulder to cycle in but it's really no fun and best avoided on a bike. Having said that if you're in a hurry and want to get somewhere fast, it's the way to go. It's direct and the gradients generally aren't as steep as on smaller roads. Taking smaller roads generally involves a less direct route but it's worth the extra mileage and we've done well so far to avoid the Highway most of the time. We did 60 kms before even stopping for lunch the other day as you get into a good, steady rhythm on the Highway.That night we were still cycling at 8pm and it was getting dark. We realised we weren't going to make it to Coffs Harbour or the free rest stop camping area we had planned to stay at. So we turned off the Highway on to a little side road signposted Hungry Head. We knocked on the first door we came to and asked if we could pitch our tent in the garden. To our delight however, Brenna invited us to stay in a little house they have next door to their's which friends and family stay in when they come to visit. Before we knew it we were changed, freshly showered and sitting watching one of my favourite shows "the IT crowd" on TV. To top it off Ben then found his favourite playstation game "Gran Turismo" so was as happy as a pig in the proverbial. Brenna's daughter Charlotte brought us up some Lamington's left over from Australia day and some delicious fruit. It was a completely unexpected night of good fortune and we want to thank Brenna and the kids for being so good to us. We slept in a wonderfully comfortable bed that night as yet another almighty thunder storm broke out. We didn't mind this one at all this time from within the safety of 4 walls. The following day we cycled another 110 kms to arrive at another warm showers house. http://www.warmshowers.org/ This time it is Rob and Maureen in Grafton who have put us up and that's where we are now. We had a delicious seafood curry waiting for us on our arrival and a fabulously comfortable bed. Rob and Maureen have loads of horses milling around and they've been keeping Ben company today while he's been servicing the bikes, coming into the garage and trying to eat our pannier bags! Last night we got lost trying to get here and ended up in the middle of nowhere, in the pitch black near Grafton airport. We chapped on a door to see if the householders could help us with some directions. It turned out that we were a good bit away from the house and would have to cycle on the Highway in the dark to get there. Tony and Judy very kindly offered to give us a lift to Rob and Maureen's. We accepted and left the bikes there. This morning we picked them up and cycled back to the house in the daylight. Thanks to you both for your help, I'm glad we knocked on your door and it was a pleasure to meet such good people.

When people hear we're cycling up to Darwin, the main response we get is usually the pearl of wisdom "it's a long way". Surely not. the next thing people start to tell you about is how hot it is up there. When you try to explain to people that you have some grasp of what the weather conditions will be like, they have to really emphasise the point. "No but it's really hot". Thanks for the useful tips everyone. One useful tip we have been given is not to sleep under gumtrees as they randomly drop branches and it's true. In the middle of the night you hear them snapping and falling to the ground with an almighty thud. These are all good things to know, things you probably won't get to hear about in non English-speaking countries.

We are loving the cycling here in this amazing, vast country. The people we have met have been brilliant and it seems there's always someone waiting round the corner to offer you tea, a place to stay, a nice cold drink on a hot day or just some advice. Ben is delighted at the availability of free bananas round every corner and less often, mangoes.There's no shortage of friendly beeps as we cycle down the road either which is always encouraging. The wildlife is fantastic here and it's so amazing to have kangaroos bounding alongside your bike on a quiet country road in the evening as the sun goes down. It won't be too much longer before we turn inland so we're making the most of the wonderful coastline while we've still got it. Peace.