When we arrived in Alstonville yesterday we did a quick drive out to the coast to check out the surf potential.

We had heard there were good waves and I was aware (from years of reading surfing magazines) that Lennox Head was in the vicinity and was well worth a look.

As we drove down the coast we saw surf everywhere and it was more a case of ‘where?’ not ‘if?’ The beachies looked decent and we saw a couple of point breaks that looked ok and then there was Lennox… It looked magic and was the pick of the crop, but also the most crowded.

Today’s choice was between quality or solitude… Usually I choose solitude and surf crappy waves, but today I figured I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to surf one of Australia’s classic waves while I was in the area.

We had a quick look at Flat Rocks which looked big and shifty and not that appealing before heading down to the Lennox. There were some beautiful lines rolling thru and several packs of guys sitting at different take off spots.

Despite feeling an urge to quickly change in brown underwear (its been a while since I have surfed decent sized waves) I was stoked to be able to have a crack at somewhere like this. My very patient wife and kids would play on the beach while I did my best not to embarrass myself…

So I strolled down to the inner take off spot which was much less crowded and tried to find a way out… but it wasn’t happening. Large boulders covered in barnacles sloped away gradually into the ocean bottom but a decent sized wave kept thundering across them, so it was obvious that I wasn’t going to get out without a fight and maybe some board damage. No one else was trying to head out there so I thought maybe that was a sign…

I followed a couple of locals up to the outer section and hoped to watch them jump first. They stopped and chatted, so I just decided to give it a whirl anyway. I stepped out on the rocks as far as I could get without getting hammered, waited for a decent sized wave, jumped and paddled like crazy… I made it a few meters before the bottom sucked out and the board scraped on some rocks. Oh well… I kept paddling – this wasn’t the spot to check out the damage.

Once thru that section I was into the take off zone pretty easily and straight into a nice looking and good sized wave… only to discover that there was someone on the inside… Bugger… I have a fairly high regard for surfing etiquette, so I pulled off and let him go on a beauty of a wave.

For the next hour and a half getting waves was tricky. Partly because of the shifty peaks that moved around and occasionally caught us inside, but also because most people out there were much better – or at least younger – than I… It was frustrating to paddle into a beautiful wave only to see someone further inside and then having to pull out. It was disheartening to feel weary arms after having to duck dive thru a few waves and fight my way back out.

I did score a couple of decent waves but the crowd factor meant it was more of an experience than a true joy. I can now saw that I ‘have done it’… for what that’s worth… For me it was worth sacrificing my solitude for today.

While out there I was chatting with a bloke who had lived there for 25 years and obviously knew the place well. I asked him where to ‘go in’ after I’d finished. He just said ‘where-ever you like. It’s a mess in there.’

Some huge storms in recent months had shifted all the barnacle encrusted rocks around to the shore so everyone was now having to take it very careful to make it in. I decided to take the long route via the bay and avoid board and personal damage, but a mistimed wave saw me changing those plans. After take off the wave closed out and rolled me in close to shore. I felt the rocks under foot and made the decision to head in rather than make my way back out.

It was every bit as tricky as it looked. Adrenalin is useful stuff for getting thru these dodgy situations! With it pumping rapidly thru my veins I managed to navigate a couple of oncoming waves, stumble over the rocks and drag my board to safety. Once on land I saw blood streaming from both feet, my left shin bruised and my left thigh was badly corked.

I didn’t even look back out. It was time to call it a day and accept that some days ‘old blokes don’t rule’…

Would I do it again?…

Ha… That’s a no brainer, hey?…

Where?

That’s where we are now – staying in the Alstonville showgrounds, a little town about 12km from Ballina. We saw the campspot in the Camps 4 book and thought we’d check it out.

For $15.00 a night we get a powered space under a big pavilion, so if it rains we are well covered. Given the cooler weather a bit more sun would be nice, but we decided to cover ourselves against rain and went undercover.

One of our first impressions of this little town was its friendliness. We drove in while the markets were on so we had to spend a couple of hours just kicking around while the pavilion cleared. We had a bunch of people wanting to chat and make conversation. A walk thru the town today took a long time because we got talking to a couple of people in a local shop…

It’s a nice spot and well worth a stop if you are doing the journey.

Last Sunday we stopped in for our mid trip break in a Surfers Paradise apartment. We got it on eBay for a decent price and were looking forward to 7 nights of living indoors, having space to spread out and not having to worry whether it was cold or raining.

We were all looking forward to it, but it’d be safe to say that we’re all glad to be back in camping mode these last two days.

The apartment had some things going for it:

– it was bigger than the camper

– it had a dishwasher

– it had a TV that worked

– the bathroom was close to us

– we didn’t have to clean it

But we discovered that for various reasons it just didn’t excite us and we don’t see ourselves going back to Surfers Paradise any time soon. Why?…

– Surfers is like a city on the beach and the traffic was terrible. We traveled at an average of 30km/hr everywhere we went.

– The noise was incredible. Between people yelling, sirens going off and night club music we often found it hard to get to sleep. If you left your windows open during the day you couldn’t have a conversation.

– The bed was crap… what can I say? That is the pits. Our camper bed is really comfortable and we expected it to be at least comparable. It was springy and unstable so we kept rolling.

– You couldn’t tell the kids to ‘go and play’ because the only space they have is indoors or the balcony. When we are camping they find so much to keep themselves amused. So they ended up watching TV… not what we would hope…

I enjoyed a couple of good surfs down at Greenmount (Superbank) and we took a drive up to Mt Tamborine and enjoyed some spectacular scenery. We took the kids to Seaworld and they loved it, so there were some good moments, but the big citylike feel was what ultimately undid us. It was like living in Northbridge on Scarborough (for those west ozzies who know what I mean)

If we had our time over I think we might hang out in Tweed or somewhere smaller for a few days, but we would avoid Surfers all together.

I think we will be hanging out in smaller, quieter spaces for the rest of our time…

I took some time to drive down the coast on my own today and check out the surf at some different places. It was onshore slop in Surfers so I wasn’t holding great hope, but as I drove I saw a few nice waves.

Burleigh was ok but pretty busy and Currumbin didn’t look too bad either. I drove down as far as D’Bah where there were about 100 guys in the water – admittedly the best wave I had seen all day, but I just couldn’t bring myself to entering the dogfight. I don’t enjoy that kind of surfing and never have.

So I made my way back to a smaller but half decent looking wave in Rainbow Bay. The next couple of hours were pretty sweet with some half decent right handers peeling thru and no great crowd. The arms were like jelly when I got out but it was worth it.

While out there I discovered that I was actually surfing what was the ‘Superbank’. It was one of the most legendary waves in Oz as the local council pumped sand out of the Tweed River and it created magic banks around the corner a bit giving some of the longest rides you can imagine.

All that has changed now as the sand shifting has stopped, but its still good enough for old blokes who hate crowds!

Here it is at its ‘best’ and worst with mega crowds

This was it was today. A rather pale reflection, but it’ll do…

While we were at Jason’s place we saw this sign on the post near the road. We discussed how to respond…

This was our first sign – a more ‘philosophical’ approach

And this was our second…

Can’t wait to see what develops now!

Just a quick update on where we are at…

After a great week with Steve and Felicity in the Sunshine Coast, we spent an evening in Brisbane with Ken and Leanne where we stayed in the backyard of their friends home. We enjoyed dinner with them and a walk on the floating platform down by the river.

From there we headed down to Murwillumbah to stay with Jason and Willow, and we have been here for the last few days enjoying friends, a beautiful location and some great surf at Cabarita and Kingscliff.

Today we are packing up again and heading back up to the Gold Coast where we will be staying in a ritzy high rise apartment – a kind of mid trip breather from the claustrophobia of the camper and a chance to chill out a little less literally.

So far we have been fortunate to encounter no more than 3 rainy days in 14 weeks and nothing significant enough to cause us difficulty. The next few weeks will see us spend one week in the Gold Coast, followed by a trip down the NSW coast before we head indoors again to stay with Danelle’s sister in Muswellbrook for another week or so.

The date we get to Muswellbrook is entirely dependent on the weather on the way down! If it rains we will be there in a day or two – if the sun keeps shining then we will be enjoying the journey down the coast and the many good surf breaks to be enjoyed. Once we leave there it will be getting close to spring and hopefully the worst of the winter weather will be over…

I imagine sooner or later we will get stuck in the camper in the midst of a storm, but I can’t imagine it being any fun…

About 5 years ago we watched a doco on the little Aussie town of Nimbin in NSW and on the social experiment that took place there as alternative lifestyle folks moved in with the intention of creating the perfect world. This was to be a place where there were no rules except love and where people were free to do whatever they wanted especially in regards to drugs and sex. It was the hippie / flower power era and idealism reigned supreme.

I remember the doco ended with one of the founders lamenting that it just didn’t work because they had realised that people couldn’t live without some degree of rules/laws. It seemed that in the absence of restraints society fell apart. It was tragic to watch and observe the demise of this great dream and the awareness that we as people are so innately driven by selfishness.

So being in northern NSW we decided to visit Nimbin yesterday to see firsthand the town as it is today… and it aint pretty…

The drive from Murwillumbah to Nimbin is nice and the town itself is colourful and interesting. We parked at the lower end of town and began to walk up the main street past the pub and various shops many of which specialised in alternative spiritualities (although I think they are more mainstream these days). I had to resist the urge to ask each shop-owner if they had a Bible I could purchase… interestingly it was the only spiritual book missing from each place.

Despite having taken the kids to almost every museum around Oz, we decided to miss this one… I would have liked to check it out but we never got around to coming back up that part of the street. Apart from the shops the town certainly carries a pretty unique vibe with some interesting people hanging around.

We walked to the end of town and were on our way back. I had been told that I wouldn’t get very far without being offered some pot. Perhaps it was the presence of children that kept them away, but we almost got back to the car with no signs of street dealing at all. Oh well…

However while we were looking in a shop window by an alley a scuffle broke out between two men. One was a dealer – maybe 20 years old – and the other was a middle aged bloke who had snatched a packet out of the dealers hand. It was getting ugly and standing nearby I stepped between them and tried to make a bit of peace. It worked and they walked away, but it scared the kids and left a bad taste. We went into the supermarket to get some food and observed another argument / altercation before walking on. Not happy people…

At the end of town back near the car I saw a sign pointing to the ‘World Cup Poetry Championships’ and being a lover of poety and literature I wandered on down with Danelle and kids in tow. A bloke called Daniel Pearson was on stage rapping his life story of addiction, demise and recovery. It was really good stuff and I sat down. The kids let us (and everyone else) know they were bored so Danelle offered to take them to the park and give me half an hour to listen.

I stayed and enjoyed the time before the air temp dropped to a point lower than shorts and T shirt could cope with. I went back to the park to find Danelle and kids but they weren’t there. I heard yelling on the street and observed a fat bare chested man screaming and crying incoherently as the police and a small crowd walked slowly behind. It wasn’t pretty. I walked past the car and saw Danelle and kids holed up in there.

It turns out the last half hour while I was watching poetry Danelle was viewing domestic disputes between addicts, street fights and other bizarre behaviour. Ok, so it sounds like just another day in Butler…

But she was keen to just get out of there and the kids were happy if we never return… As we drove off it was with a feeling of sadness as we had observed so much obvious pain and anguish in such a short space of time. While some continue to perpetuate the Nimbin ideal its clear that it hasn’t worked and if anything has created a more unhealthy community than otherwise.

To the Christians in Nimbin who are living out the kingdom of God, we wish you well and pray that you will be able to offer love, hope and healing to what we felt was a very broken place.

The long awaited surf finally arrived. Its been a long time between waves, but today Jason and I managed to get down to Cabarita near Tweed Heads for beautiful morning of waves.

It was offshore, about waist to head high and perfect. A smaller crowd would always be nice, but there were still enough waves to go around and we went home happy people.

The swell sounds like it is going to hang around and even get a little bigger so the next week should be cool. I feel like a thirsty man who just had a long drink!

Danelle suggested I need to buy this shirt the other day…

Fair enough, I’m not a ‘natural people person’ and don’t mind long slabs of my own company, but lately I’ve been hanging to see some friends and people with whom I can have a more significant and intelligent conversation about things other than caravans!

It was good to see Jarrod and Simon up in Yeppoon and hear some of their story and then last night to catch Carson and Tanya, friends who have moved over here.

We’ve been with Steve & Felicity Turner on the Sunshine Coast for a few days and will be here till Wednesday. We connected with these guys thru Forge and its been great to see their place and observe them at work. Brilliant missionaries and wonderful people!

Tomorrow I am heading down to Brisbane to connect with some of the missional leaders in a local informal network in the city before having lunch with Brett in the afternoon. Again that will be refreshing and inspiring.

Then on Wednesday we leave the Sunshine coast and head into Brisbane. I’m looking forward to spending some time with Brent, before heading up to spend the evening with Ken and Leanne who are also inspiring missionaries.

From there we head to Murwhillhumbah (did I spell it right this time Kel!?) to see Jason and Willow before our week of living in the Gold Coast under a solid roof. Hopefully we will get a chance to see Gaz somewhere in there as well.

As much as I am not a rabid party animal I really need to spend time around people like these to feel like I am still alive and kicking. So I’m looking forward to the next few days and the connections we will make.

While we loved Seaforth, in hindsight we may have stayed there a little long as our journey between here and the Sunshine Coast is now cut considerably shorter.

We have resigned ourselves to the fact that there is much we will miss and that is simply unavoidable… All the more reason to do it again…

The last 3 nights have all been one night stands.

Firstly Yeppoon

: While I was facebooking I happened to notice that my friend Jarrod McKenna was around the Rockhampton area trespassing on military bases and getting arrested along with several others. Jarrod’s a good mate and Simon Moyle I have met a couple of times, so I called to see if we could catch up on the way thru. As it turned out we finished up camping in their backyard, spending the evening with these guys and hearing about their activities. It was totally refreshing to have some more substantial conversation. Bonhoeffer’s ethics and the like haven’t been part of too many fireside chats on the road! I crashed early but felt refreshed from simply being with some like minded people and from being able to kick back in that environment. Thanks Jarrod & Simon!

We loved the look and feel of Yeppoon but one night wasn’t enough to see much of it.

Onto Calliope: It was a cool night in Yeppoon and we put the heater on for the first time in our trip this morning. I even donned a pair of shoes in preference to my thongs & socks… Thoughts of Broome filled my mind as we rugged up and imagined how it will be further south. I am seriously tempted to turn the whole show around and head back the way we came and get to NT as quickly as possible…

We drove to Calliope, a free riverside camp where there were plenty of people already parked up and picked a spot close to the river. We didn’t bother with a shower in the morning and regretted it. One of our golden rules has been ‘any time you are near a shower – especially a hot one – use it’ because you never know when you will hit one again. We arrived feeling pretty grotty and set up camp. Now instead of seeking shade we are positioning ourselves in direct sunlight! The river is way too cold to swim in and the air temp doesn’t tempt us either.

Ellie and I set off to find wood for the fire – an essential item at these types of spots. The afternoon rolled past with the highlight being another camper putting on a ‘country music festival’ for us. Distorted sound turned what was always going to be difficult into a rather sad event. Still she laboured on for a couple of hours much to the appreciation of some and the distress of others.

The cold came in quickly and we huddled by the fire eating dinner before rolling into bed at 8.00. I tried to read but kept on falling asleep so at 9.00 we called it a day and slept soundly until 7.00am the next day.

To 1770: This morning was the coldest we have had. Yeppoon started us shivering, but Calliope was freezing and with no power to hook into it was simply a case of rugging up and waiting for the sun to shine. By 9.00am it felt like a lovely spring day albeit a tad chilly, but this is a sign of what is to come and I am dreading it…

We headed across to the Calliope colonial fair – a great little historical gig. I found myself a bit weary with it all after about half an hour so I came home to pack up the camper while Danelle and kids checked out the rest of it. On the way home I stopped in at the loo to unload (so to speak) only to discover that after doing the business the place was clean out of dunny roll. Ah… not good… The 1km walk home was less pleasant than the walk to the fair…

The others got back in time to finish off the pack down and we hit the road for 1770. This place got some big raps from a lot of people and was on the must see list before leaving home, so we thought we should at least drop in for a day and check it out.

So we hit the road and 90 minutes later – feeling completely disgusting after not having showered for two days – we rolled into the Captain Cook Caravan Park. The $40.00 we got hit for one night suddenly felt like a barb, after so many cheap or free nights. We have to remind ourselves that this is simply what it costs… We quickly got the camper up and then rolled across to the shower to enjoy a good hose down. What a great feeling to come out clean… This is the one side of free camping that we have found a little tricky. We have one of those solar showers which we used in WA and NT, but the colder weather and the more heavily populated campsites over here have made it a little harder. If it weren’t for the need to wash we could free camp a lot more, but it simply isn’t enjoyable to traipse about with 2 or 3 days of sweat and scum building on your body. A ‘wash’ just isn’t the same as a really good soak.

1770 is a nice spot, but not ‘raveable’. I guess after you’ve seen so much it does tend to blend in. There was the hope of some surf, but sadly it didn’t eventuate. I am getting worried that when we do hit surf it will be covered in ice and I wont be able to get out anyway…

So tomorrow after we use the caravan park showers, we will head down to Tiara for an overnighter (apparently there are also hot showers there) before we lob in on our friends Steve & Felecity on the Sunshine Coast.

The plan for the next few weeks is:

– Steve & Felecity’s on the Sunshine Coast – somewhere between 4-7 days depending on what we find ourselves doing

– Maybe some free camping for a couple of days

– Jason & Willow’s in Murwhillhumbah for 4 days from the 29th

– Gold Coast apartment for 7 nights from the 2nd-9th

From there we will begin heading down the NSW coast and will eventually finish up at Muswellbrook where Danelle’s sister lives. I guess the length of time it takes to get there will be reflective of how much rain we encounter and how much surf we find along the way also.