Day 21- Three weeks in

May 16, 2011- Day 21

Where: Hat Head to just outside of Byron Bay

Dinner: Leftover pork burgers

Three weeks in

        Today marks three weeks on the road which seems pretty unreal. We were told you could easily take a whole two months to do the drive from Melbourne to Cairns and at first that seemed like it would be difficult to fill. But now, after stopping and staying in so many small towns I realize that you could easily spend more than two months doing the trip if you really hit all the towns. It's hard to know exactly how quickly to move, especially since we don't know what the north is like, but from what we hear it's only going to get cooler, and warmer as we move north. So today we drove all the way up to just outside of Byron Bay, about 3 hours of driving. I think it's the most driving we've done in a day so far.

         On our way we stopped at Southwest Rocks, just north of Hat Head. There isn't really much there, except that is a cool old prison you can tour. It was built in the mid 1800s as a work prison, and they were meant to build some sort of ocean retaining wall. The prison is literally at the edge of a hill with the ocean down below. The view is gorgeous, but the prisoners wouldn't have seen it over the wall that surrounded the gaol. It's called a “gaol” and at first we thought that's how the Australians spell jail. We asked someone though and that's just the old English word for jail, the Australians spell it the same as us. They jail was in operation for 17 years and in that time they weren't able to finish building the whole wall, and what they did built was mostly washed away in a huge storm. The jail was closed and later it was became a relocation camp for suspected German spies during WW1. They pretty much just hung out there, swam, fished, and played music. The jailed closed after the war and now you can tour it. It was pretty interesting to see all the empty cells, and the view surrounding it was great.

        Further north we stopped in a little town called Belligen. In my mind this town is what Colville could be if it decided to class itself up a bit. Yet, it's still a super hippie town, although apparently it's only half as hippie as it used to be. It really was tiny, with only a few blocks on the main street, but it had some great little shops, with cool antique looking storefronts. We also saw, really for the first time in Australia, some coffee shops with comfy cozy little areas where you could sit around for a few hours on your computer, or with friends. It felt really laid back and friendly, like people just want you to enjoy yourself. We went into a neat antique store (with a lovely well lit coffee shop area) and there were good looking clothing stores and a couple bakeries. We were walking by a house turned into a store with a sign up the stairs for fresh roasted coffee. We went upstairs there was a friendly young guy who made us coffee, and we talked for a while about different roasts and grinds and such. There was a big porch outside to sit on and again, it felt like such a good place to just hang out. We ended up buying some beans from the place to use in our aeropress. It's really fun to buy food from local little places, and it's even better when you get a chance to talk with the storekeepers.

        Not only does today mark three weeks, but it also marks the dirtiest we've been on the trip. Hooray! :P Our last showers were 2 ½ days ago, which means I'm feeling pretty nasty. It was a perfect day to be in Belligen though because there were a lot of “earthy” people there who looked like they hasn't showered in a while either. I think we fit in better this way in fact. We went into didgeridoo store and there were two young hippie looking guys there, complete with dreadlocks, bandanas, dirty clothes, bracelets, and no shoes. Not in a negative way (because I don't have anything against them at all!) but they were the perfect stereotype backpacking hippies. Another week without a shower and I'll probably look quite similar! No, I'm really hoping to find a shower tomorrow because in Byron Bay I'm not sure the dirty traveler look will fit in quite as well. Although it has strong hippie roots as well, so who knows.

        There is quite a bit of hype about Byron Bay, and apparently it's one of the biggest tourist destinations in Australia, so I am looking forward to seeing what it's like. Tonight we're sleeping at a rest stop, which is really like the greatest idea yet! We passed one this evening and there were about 8 camper vans and trailers parked there, so instead of finding some street in Byron Bay we're at a stop with a 24 hour open bathroom! Us about about 10 other vans even though it says no overnight parking. Perfect.