Ambling further south.

I have never been to the Spanish Costas during the season but if the Gold Coast here in NSW is anything like them I am glad that I have avoided the experience. Yesterday as I left Coolangata heading inland I felt a strange sense of relief then as I hit the twisty roads through the woodlands it developed into a feeling of euphoria.
My first stop for coffee was in Nimbin which was a Hippie colony, now it is a commercial enterprise selling Hippie tat to tourists with just enough aging Hippies hanging around for realism.
Coffs Harbour was OK, a lot less tourists and much more relaxed. I think it appealed to retirees because there were a lot of chaps and chapesses of a certain age power walking past me as I scrambled my eggs near the jetty, I did find that there were a lot of grumpy Aussies in the retail sector there but the residents of the park where I stayed were friendly and chatty.
Today I went to Bellingen as it was another place I remember from Gill's letters and it turned out to be a cute traditional little town with well preserved early 20th century shops so I had to stop for another long black, the Australian equivalent of an Americano but better. I then followed Paul's recommendation to head for South West Rocks, the gaol was an OK place if a little overpriced but the town and area is lovely good walking and a reasonably priced haircut so far and I have a date with the lady from the tourist information tonight for dinner at a tavern overlooking the river.

relatively late.

Breakfast yesterday was at Picnic Point in Toowoomba, the place I must not miss according to last night's companions, it is the highest point for miles around and even that early in the morning there were people jogging, walking and even strumming guitars. The views towards the coast were worth the diversion.
I made the slow journey into Brisbane where I met my nephew Paul and his lovely wife Fa for the first time, we got on like a house on fire having so much in common such as motorcycles and disliking of political correctness. My visit was too short, this trip is turning into another reconnaissance.
Having talked to Paul for so long I was too late to get in to the campsite that I had booked, the booking staff had gone home and there was no one to issue a pass key, so I headed off for the coast and what a nightmare awaited me. It is obscene, wall to wall adventure parks and high rise hotels, I gave in after driving through this hell for what seemed like hours and checked into a cheap and cheerful hotel with down to earth friendly staff.
Today I will drive inland back to sanity for a while before heading towards Coffs Harbour which was a must see place recommended by Keira.

And then

Yesterday just after I crossed the border into Queensland outside the town of Stanhope I stopped at a rest stop where I made myself a picnic lunch and retired to one of the benches to enjoy the same, whilst I was there eating ham salad rolls and quaffing Pinot Grigio the local plod turned up in his super pick-up to investigate the Wicked camper littering one of his tourist rest stops (Wicked had a reputation for putting colourful - read crude - graffiti on their camper vans so they were banned for a while until they cleaned up their act in Queensland) 15 minutes later as I was clearing up and preparing to leave an unmarked pick-up arrived with a uniformed cop in the driver's seat he got out and paid a too short a visit to the ablutions before driving back the way he had come from, I was expecting to be pulled over when I drove through the town but they missed me, te he.

Following my sister Gillian's advice I went to the local bowls club in West Toowoomba for dinner and after being signed in and having bought the compulsory raffle tickets I found myself in the company of David, Karen, Brian and Merle, who were well travelled and with an average age of 74 had a slew of stories to tell, it is always good to meet the locals, they have a more in depth knowledge of the area than the sweet young things one encounters at the average tourist information centre, mind you I cannot complain, when I swanned into the tourist info. on Thursday in Armidale and asked for their recommendations for a cheap and cheerful accommodation the two ladies could not have been more helpful, unlike most places where they give you a load of leaflets that have no bearing whatsoever on what you are looking for, I suppose the exception.......

Even further north.

Last night was fillet steak, Victoria Bitter and then double bed - bliss.
This morning up with the lark and on the road by 8am with breakfast at the first rest area, I was travelling up the New England Highway to Toowoomba but I kept seeing familiar town names until we came to the town of Glen Innes which calls itself the centre of Celtic County. The town itself was a delight with well kept Victorian and Edwardian buildings, this was obviously a centre of settlement for Scottish, Welsh and Irish immigrants with towns like Ben Lomond, Llangothlin and Killarney. I stopped over for coffee and it seemed to be well worth further investigation but I am only here for a short while and I am going to see my nephew Paul for the first time tomorrow so no time to linger but if I do ever come back here it will definitely be on the itinerary. I also passed through Deepwater which is having a Country Festival over the weekend so I will be missing that as well and there were heaps of ZZ Topp type racers going the other way as I went further north, I may have to come back after all.
I am now in Queensland where they refuse to go onto Summer Time like the other states, the reason I was given was that they are worried that the milking cows will be confused by the time change and also that with the extra daylight that their curtains will get faded more quickly....... These views were given me by someone from New South Wales so you make up your own mind. However, I did see one sign just after crossing the border which said that a maximum fine of $65,000 would be imposed on anyone found keeping rabbits!!
Tonight I am having another night off from the van and I am staying at the Pure Land Guest House which I think acts as the accommodation for people studying at the Pure Land Learning College, the owners have told me that I can help myself to any of the Buddhist books they have in their library and the smell of joss sticks is drifting past me as I write this on the patio, it takes me back to simpler times of flared trousers and Jimi Hendrix hairstyles, and you didn't think I was old enough to remember that did you?

Heading north.

The Blue Mountains were beautiful and Leura village centre was quaint but today it was time to move on so 620 Kms later I am in Armidale staying at a cheap and cheerful hotel above a very noisy bar but I could not face another night in the van, I must be getting soft, last time I had no problems.
The journey up here was interesting, a lot of bush but also farmland and also coal mines, power stations in the middle of nowhere and vineyards. I did meet a few of the local hillbillies but sadly they were more Granny Clampett rather than Daisy Duke.
Armadale is a small town but even so the bars/restaurants were busy even on a Thursday night, I could come back to places like this to meet the locals and explore the plethora of antique and secondhand shops but it would be nice to have more time to do it, we shall see.
The temperature got up to 33 C today, thank God for AC in the car, I did manage to put up with 30C without AC but above that it was just too much and it only gets warmer the further north I go.
I have booked a hotel again at my next stop Toowomba, i will try the van again when the backache goes.

The Blue Mountains.

Since I was last here nine years ago my hugely older sister Gillian has turned into my mother, not only does she now look like her but she has developed her mannerisms as well. I stayed with Gill for three days and nights and I had to escape yesterday or I would have been in danger of bursting, I have never been offered so much food but we did have a good catch up and I will see her again before I leave.
The Wiched camper I picked up on Friday has seen better days, 280,00 kilometres on the clock and it has obviously been involved in altercations in the past. I slept in it for the first time last night and it proved remarkably uncomfortable, hopefully I will get used to it
I am now up in the hills west of Sydney in the Blue Mountains and I touched lucky last night, not only claiming the last but one available site in the camp but being stationed next to two friendly Aussies, Adam and Jo, who kept me entertained with their conversation and full of a home made chicken curry, I am going to offer them my Spaghetti Bolognaise tonight.
Today was taken up with a bush walk to see the Three Sisters and a number of waterfalls, believe me after seven miles in this heat I was ready for a cold beer.

That was a long flight.

My first time in a Dreamliner and they put me in the second row a whole different experience from my last flight from Cape Town with British Airways. Etihad seem to have it sorted, a wide seat with lots of legroom and a first class entertainment system, my only criticism is the food is pretty bad. I changed plane in Abu Dhabi where not only did they put the transfer passengers through security again but they had another inspection at the boarding gate where they confiscated the bottle of water I had bought airside specifically for the flight - they may have had some mopping up to do.
The flight was a long 22 hours with a two and a half hour changeover in Abu Dhabi so from getting up in Gwytherin to climbing into my bed at the Ibis Hotel at Sydney airport that was over thirty one hours and most of it with a sore bum, so good night.