Well, the Manly Beach Resort closed yesterday! I must say I really enjoyed my time there – had many laughs and met loads of great people!

Anyway, Dave and myself finally left Manly yesterday – can’t believe we actually left (I wasn’t sure there was anything outside Manly). We left the resort at 7 a.m. and made it up to Anne’s house for a cup of tea. After the tea, we headed straight for Highway 1 (a.k.a. the Pacific Highway). The Pajero ran well, even though I was still a little nervous of whether it would be up for the job.

I drove for the first two hundred Kms or so, then Dave took over and I took some photos of stuff n’ things (I’m still working on a way to put a gallery here – give me time). We stopped a few times to stretch the legs and empty the bladders. We stopped in Coffs Harbour to get a bite to eat, then I took over at the wheel again.
For a finish, we managed to make it the whole way up to Byron Bay by 7:30 (just under twelve hours, not bad) – a total of about 799Kms.

We checked into Aquarius Backpackers in Byron – $25 a night – Really Expensive. Chatted with the guys in the dorm for a while and then collapsed into bed!

Today, we made a quick trip to the local Wollies (Wollworths) to do a shop up – then we spent the day on the beach! It is so much warmer here – not alone can you go to the beach with out freezing, you can swim and lay out in the sun… Amazing it is so much warmer up here!

Thanks for the comments, keep them coming!

The Trip from Sydney to Byron Bay in Numbers:
799 – The Number of Kilometers we traveled.
4 – The number of Dead Kangaroos we saw.
1 – Giant Eyre’s rock model thing (Middle of nowhere).
1 – Big Banana (Coff’s Harbour).
1 – Big Prawn (Grafton).
1 – Cup of Tea, that I drank.

I’m leaving the beach resort (and Manly for that matter) tomorrow! The resort is closing down, so it’s a good time to leave. I’m starting the first leg of, what could only be described as, the mother of all road trips. I’ve been in Manly so long at this stage, it’s hard to imagine what it is going to be like to be on the road again.

I’m leaving tomorrow morning at 0700 (a.m.) , Niall and Dave are coming along for the drive! Niall will stay with us for two weeks and Dave, much like myself, will just keep going for as long as he can.

We haven’t really decided where we are going to stop yet. I’m going to try to get a map with our progress up here soon – but in the meantime here is a short description of the first leg of the intended trip:
Out of Sydney, up Highway 1 to Byron Bay, on upto Surfers Paradise, Brisbane, Noosa Heads, Bundaberg (must see what this Rum gig is about), Yepoon, Airlie Beach, Cairns.
I’m not working off a map here, so I’m sure I’ve mixed up the order of a few places.

Anyway, I should go pack – I’ve gathered so much stuff its not funny!

Denis

A few weeks ago, I went back to hostel in Manly to meet up with a few friends. I walking through the yard towards the common room, when I noticed a guy standing by a tree in the yard. I thought that he looked very familiar. Then it hit me, he looked really like a guy I used to go to school with. It looked like him, because it was him! I hadn’t seen Brian in about six years at this stage. Needless to say, I was a bit shocked! You travel eleven thousand miles from home, only to run into someone who lives a few miles down the road – what are the chances?

About two weeks ago, Dave (one of Brian’s friends) was giving me a lift out to Punchbowl (west-ish of Sydney) to pick up my new car from the dealer. Dave kindly gave me a lift to the Bank to get some cash to pay for the car. I was pretty annoyed to find that I had exceeded my “Daily Credit Limit” on both of my ATM cards. This left me $1000 short on the price of the car. Feeling rather fed-up with the whole thing, we were stopped at traffic lights when someone ran through the traffic, put their arm in the drivers window of the car and opened the door and got into the back! But it was only Brian (bet, you thought we were being car-jacked or something)!The lights turned green, I told Brian the whole story. Being as kind as he is, he puts his hand in his pocket and pulls out a few notes and said “Here, do you want a loan?” Again, let me say what are the chances? We were driving along, Brian sees us, hops into the car and happens to have $1000 on him at the time! Bloody hell!

Oh, I picked up the car and everything went fine!

Thanks Brian (for saving the day cash-wise), Dave (for taking us out to Punchbowl) and Niall (for the loan of the Falcon to get us there)!

By the way, my little site has only rule – be careful what you post and keep it clean! If I don’t like it, I will delete it and your account!

Admin

Hi,
As you can see, I have changed the damn site around again!!! After much messing, pushing and fiddling, I have decided to stick with this layout for my site.

I will be putting up all of my old pictures and stories, but they will appear to be newer than they actually are – long story short, I’m not repeating myself!!! I just want to put everything on this site.

Family and Friends, please register with my site and send me a few messages or comments – it’s easy enough to use. If you have any questions, just mail me!

Take care & talk soon,
Denis

If you are thinking it’s a slow news day, your wrong, this is a big thing!! With a secret recipe sent to me by my mother, I made the biggest pot of potato soup ever. Thanks to my sister Anne for letting me use her house for a while – what she doesn’t know is that I made a huge mess in the kitchen (I think there is some onion stuck to the ceiling), but I got it all cleaned up before she got home!
It was so good… I felt better instantly. Mom, you should be writing that cookbook!

P.S. I reckon I infected half of the shoppers in Coles while I coughed and spluttered my way around the shop looking for the ingredients.

I’ve been feeling pretty bad for the last few days – the doctor here says it’s Tonsilitis. Can’t eat… D’oh!

Hello Everybody!
I finished working for Budget Rent a Car last Monday, in the meantime I have been searching for a car and another job. Unfortunately, I haven’t had any luck with either! Well, today is the first day of winter – twenty degrees and clear blue sky… it’s tough being me. Jokes aside, I must have adjusted to the heat over the summer here, because I am constantly freezing now! Given that it is so cold here, nobody goes to the beach any more, no more Barbies and no sitting around playing cards outside. It’s getting boring!!! I’ve managed to read through half of the Hitch Hiker’s guide to the Galaxy Trilogy in the last few days.
Running the risk of overdosing on a great book, I decided to get out of the hostel and down to the Internet Cafe. So here I am, listening to some really bad music on 2fm over the net (it’s the rubbish they play in the middle of the night at home when they know nobody but me is listening – I mean who likes Phil Collins???).