I hear it all the time. And they're right, Australia is an amazing place, but there's no reason you can't do both.
So I thought maybe I'd blog some of my Aussie trips so people at home can see the great local places they should visit and overseas peeps can see what they are missing out on!
This little road trip began with my friend Robina saying she was going up to Coffs Harbour and me immediately inviting myself along.
'Oh yay!' said Robina. 'We can go to Canberra for milkshakes!'
I frowned, maybe I had been a bit quick on the buzzer, a 10 hour drive for a milkshake wasn't really my idea of a road trip. But, Robina, Andrea and I set off after work on a Thursday and after an overnight pit-stop in Albury with the fantastic Jane who had a yummy dinner waiting for us, we arrived in Canberra and went straight to Patissez to order our Freakshakes.
And yes they were worth the drive! We each ordered a different one so we could try as many as possible and mine came out a huge, caramelly, gooey mess garnished with a whole slice of pecan pie!
None of us could finish so we rubbed our food babies, took one last look at the gluttonus, chocolate, nutella and caramel monstrosities then climbed back in the car and headed towards the Blue Mountains with Andrea on the back seat in a food coma on top of a super-sized box of Malteasers.
Try saying these out loud. Tallarook, Baddaginnie, Barnawartha, Woomargama, Woy Woy, Murrimbateman, Bungendore, Ourimbah, Tuggerah, Kangy Angy, Bulahdelah, Berremanga, Wong Wauk and Gundagai (which always makes me sing the song)
As this road trip was a super fun adventure road trip we ticked off our first adventure with canyoning in the Blue Mountains which was so much fun!
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| Yes, sexy outfits included when you go canyoning. Let the adventure begin! |
We entered the canyon, stepping over rocks, climbing over boulders and sloshing through the shallow water. Robina and Andrea said it was great as they had never done anything like this before, but for me it reminded me of when we used to go down to the river as a kids or out to the Channels, the Quarry or the Blue Pools. So +1 for country kids over city kids there.
The canyon continued to get deeper, the river wider and looking up you could only see the green light of the ferny overgrowth over 20 metres above us. Soon the way was blocked by large boulders which we climbed and jumped off into icy pools, each jump higher, harder and more slippery than the last.
Finally we reached the end of the canyon, a waterfall with the water cascading out at our feet forty metres down into a wide pool and while I knew there was going to be waterfalls and abseiling I just hadn't figured out they would be together!
Big brave Andrea was the first to tackle the abseil and we watched as she inched back over the edge, the rope taut and her feet moving ever so carefully over the slippery rocks. Suddenly she slipped, dropped a metre and span upside down before dropping out of sight onto a ledge beneath us.
'Audrey! Audrey! Step back, you'll be fine!' said the guide.
'Her name's Andrea,' said Robina.
'Oops, no wonder she's not doing what she's told,' he said.
'Um, maybe you should go get her,' said Robina.
'Nah, she's right. She can do it,' he said before calling again, this time with her name right.
After a minute Andrea appear from under the rock and continued down the cliff no problems.
Next up was me, I backed myself over the edge, lowered myself onto the ledge Andrea had been stuck on and continued down, suddenly the trickle of water coming down over the waterfall turned into a deluge that hit me full force and I slipped smashing my knees on the wall.
'Fuck,' I thought, stuck on my knees, coughing and trying to get my face out of the water, 'How am I going to get back on my feet.'
The rocks around me were covered in a super slick black moss, finally I got back to my feet and abseiled the rest of the way down.
We spent the night in cute little airbnb place called Kookaburra Cottage in Woodford, which is aptly named as the back verandah looks over the bush and in the morning you can hear all the birds.
The next day we waved goodbye to Andrea and Robina and I drove through to Coffs Harbour which is 7 hours so a decent enough drive.
We stayed with Jarrod in Sawtell, a suburb of Coffs and his apartment is a convenient 2 minute walk from a very lovely beach. I used this beach for early morning walks, going up to the cliff at the end where you could spot whales and we spent an excellent evening in our formalwear playing croquet in the sand.
I feel like formalwear improves any occasion and beach croquet is no exception. Sand also improves croquet. The ability to build little roads or channels for your ball to follow or screw up someone else's little road really adds some competition to the game.
From Coffs (see how I call it Coffs now because I've been there and I'm doin' it like the locals) we went to Byron Bay.
In Byron we did some tasty breakfasting at the Bay Leaf and continued our adventuresomeness with sky diving and kayaking.
I love skydiving, if we had been able to do it again straight away I would have been keen as mustard.
There's that one moment when you're sitting on the edge, the noise of the engine and the wind drown out anyone else, your feet are hanging out the door being blown sideways and suddenly you think, 'WTF am I doing?' but it's too late, you're free-falling, the wind blows right through you and you can barely hear yourself yelling. Then the cord is pulled and you're jerked from the free-fall and suddenly floating, calm and quiet but your heart is still going nuts as you try to take in the spectacular views around you.
