The Greatest Journey -- Surfing

After a very comfortable night spent indoors, Isabella and I made our way north to Brisbane. Thankfully the journey wasn't that long, 4 hours if we went straight through, so we could afford to take our time getting to Brisbane. There were a few places to stop along the way, though not many but we got to see some interesting places, and some that could use a little work.

Cape Byron sits next to the town of Byron Bay, a sort of free-thinking miniature San Francisco. During the 1960s and 1970s many hippies settled in the town and it has become known as the sort of place that welcomes counter-culture and alternative lifestyles. Driving down the main street we saw all sorts of stores selling herbal medicines, healing crystals, beads and other assorted similar products. There was quite a bit of traffic, I think because it was a Friday and the end of the New Year's holiday period so people were trying to get as much sun and surf as they could.

From Byron Bay we continued north until we hit the Gold Coast and Surfers Paradise. I wanted to show Isabella this particularly famous bit of commercialized Australia, if for no other reason that the kitsch value. The Gold Coast is the name of the area that runs south of Brisbane to the Queensland-NSW border. For the last 60 years it, and particularly its main center (Surfers Paradise), has been in the process of being completely commercialized in the sense of having highrise towers everywhere catering to the vacation crowd. Think of it as the east coast of Florida, sort of like Miami, Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale. It's incredibly gaudy but worth a look. We parked along the main street and every building seemed to be either a hotel or a designer clothing store. We made our way to the beach where Isabella had a chance to play in the surf but we didn't stay particularly long. There really was no point and after spending about an hour in the Gold Coast, you've seen all there is to see, really, so we continued our journey north.

Before coming to Australia, Isabella had convinced me to register with CouchSurfing, an online community of people that give up a couch or bed to others who have registered. It's free, although your are supposed to give your hosts something in return. I remember my mother telling me about it years ago but I'd never really given it much thought until this trip. I was still a bit sceptical but I registered and in Brisbane we would have our first couchsurfing experience. Isabella and I were both a little nervous as to what to expect but we soldiered on.

Our hosts gave us directions to their house and we were pleasantly surprised that it was in a very nice neighbourhood and our hosts greeted us warmly. They were Panche, a Croatian (I think) who has been living in Australia for decades, and Leanne a born and bred Aussie. They led us to our accommodation and it was not just some beat-up couch but a proper room.

Isabella and I didn't have any plans for the evening so our hosts invited us to a soccer game. As it turned out, the local team, the Brisbane Roar, was playing against my favourite team, the Perth Glory. I knew this was going to make for an interesting evening as Panche and Leanne were Roar fans and Isabella decided to join them. Anyway, we were driven to the game, took our seats and enjoyed a good contest. The game ended 1-1 so no one could gloat. Afterwards, we were invited to a square in central Brisbane for some dancing.

Isabella is an avid dancer, especially the Latin variety, so she enthusiastically took up the offer. I'm no dancer so I decided to just sit back and watch. Apparently, this group plays music in this square at night and many people turn up to dance. There were many dozen people there. The night was warm and the music added to the ambiance. It really was quite interesting to see a salsa in the middle of the city in the sort of way I imagine Havana must be like. After such a long day, everyone was exhausted so a good night's rest was welcome. The next day would be exciting too but would involve a difficult choice.

The Greatest Journey -- First Steps

All journeys, great and small, begin the same way --- with a single step. Since arriving in Australia more than 3 years ago, I had planned to one day rent a car or van and drive around Australia. As the months flew by, I decided that I would do such a trip in the summer after I had graduated; a little present to myself. Once I started working, I began saving up for this trip so that once it came around I was in a very healthy financial state. I had assumed that I would do this trip alone but as it turned out, this great journey involved not only myself but one of my greatest friends and I'm very glad it did. The best adventures are those you share.

The great journey began almost as soon as camp ended. I gave myself on day's grace between the end of one and the beginning of another as I did need to shower and unpack. The next day, I picked up the car and headed off for Sydney where I met up with my great friend, Isabella. We'd known each other from Ottawa and she'd planned to come down to Australia when the chance arose. It turned out that this particular January suited us both and so she flew down from Calgary. Isabella stayed in Sydney a few days while I was away at camp. We met on the 5th of January and wandered around Sydney for a bit. This was Isabella's first time in Australia and I took great pleasure in showing her around Sydney's Circular Quay. After nightfall, we each returned to our separate accommodations --- Isabella in the north and me in the inner south. I drove to the place she was staying and picked her up the next morning.

We had a little to discuss before we could proceed. The floodwaters in Queensland were still high and we had to decide wether or not to stick to our original route or perhaps go the opposite way. In the end, we decided to go north as planned, so we set off for Grafton, a small city on New South Wales' north coast. We got on the highway and headed out of Sydney, and here is where we had our first misadventure.

As we passed Newcastle there was a confusing highway junction and instead of taking the coastal Pacific Highway, I turned onto the inland New England Highway. It wasn't very long before I realized the mistake but by the time I did notice, it wouldn't have saved us any time to backtrack and go back up the Pacific Highway, so we stayed on the New England. The countryside was green, but not very; sort of a mix between forest and grassland. We drove through picturesque small towns until we arrived at Tamworth, the home of country music in Australia. We stayed only briefly; just long enough to take some pictures on the giant guitar.

The next big center was Armidale, a university town. Not much can be said for Armidale and we didn't stop in it. From there we turned onto a mountain highway that wound its way northeast of Armidale through the Great Dividing Range. The sun was setting quickly and we soon found ourselves in fading light on a twisting forest road. Along the way Isabella spotted a SUV that had gone off the road. We stopped and she got out to check but there was no one in the vehicle so we can only assume that they made it out safely. We continued on but it became clear that it would be dark by the time we hit Grafton. Also, it had begun to rain.

We drove onward and soon the mountain road gave way to the coastal plains. Along the way a tree had fallen across part of the road and only 100 meters away was a sign that said "Beware Fallen Trees". Later on there was a cow beside the road and only 100 meters away was a sign that said "Beware Cattle On Road". Isabella and I both thought that these signs were useless given they only warned of the danger after you'd passed it.

At any rate, we soldiered on until we reached Grafton. Isabella had brought a tent and our original plan had been to pitch it for some camping. However, with the rain beating down neither of us wanted to do that so we found a combination hotel-pub-bottle shop-restaurant of which Australia has in spades and spent the night there. In fact, for the price we paid, a total of $65, the room was quite nice.

That was only the first day, and there were many more to come. Indeed the next few days involved some difficult choices, but some wonderful company as well.