Planalto Cycles

M~M had a last photo session with the “Lieblingsbruder”-T-Shirts (I could use that of Doron, because I didn’t have mine on this trip, in a failed attempt to reduce the weight of my luggage.), D’n’M had their last breakfast together, Doron had his last coffee in his favourite café, whereas I tried to complete a “back”-backup of my trip photos and videos on SD-cards, so Doron can bring it home and I can get more space on my PC and my external storage. M&M extra came home to say good-bye and then D’n’M went to the airport. After check-in we made a selfie and said good-bye, too.

For me, it was a strange, after those intense weeks together, like in earlier days, to say good-bye to Doron, although we would see each other again in less than 3 months, a period, that sometimes even in our daily life in Vienna could happen. But I hope that we manage to save some of the quality of this holidays encounter for the future, finding time for “conscious” reflection and conversation, something I strive for in general, not only in the face of finitude but also for more attentiveness and respect in daily social life.
I walked home and nearly ran into a snake that lay on the sidewalk.

At home, Martina and I watched a movie, called “The post”. For me, it was interesting to realize that I could follow the story without understanding more than 50% of what they were talking.

In the morning, D’n’M pre-prepared the dinner for MMMD and then went to Bondi Beach. First, we made another touristical stop at the St Mary’s Cathedral.

The weather and waves were not perfect for surfing, but so the place was less crowded and Doron could practise his skills without bothering others or being bothered. I tried to get some good photos, but it was not easy to find him with the big zoom fast enough in the right moments.

We had a last dinner for four and then made a quick passage through all the photos of M&M and D’n’M, maybe 3000 all in all. But we could do it fast, because a lot of them were similar enough, and we only looked longer on the special highlights. Then we went to M&M’s near and favourite Gin Bar. They have a wide range of gin and cocktails and I found the only non-alcoholic drink.

At home, M&M opened 2 other bottles of gin, but it was only for the different and special tastes, not for getting “relaxed” or even drunk.

At 12, D’n’M went to Max Brenner, a Restaurant with chocolate-based dishes and shared a pizza. That was enough to feel full and “over-sweetened” for a while! We got the information that the chocolate is produced in and imported from Israel. This was a surprised because we had expected local production, but it was an occasion to think and talk about Israel and Gaza and all that complicated stuff where no real and lasting solution seems to be in sight..
Then we met Efan for shopping, first Chinese stuff, then the rest for that dinner with M&M and us at Harries’, a supermarket focussing on local vegetables. On the way back, we made a stop at the community garden, and a pepper (that we needed for cooking) nearly jumped in Efan’s hand.

At home, we started a cooking session around 3p.m. and were almost finished when M&M came home. We had a good evening, (Efan was especially happy this day anyway, because she had got her job acceptance in the morning) and we could share some stories and memories of our camping trip.

In the morning, I had my health check for the last two cargo ship passages. Everything was easy, clear and smooth. The doctor came and I didn’t know it is a doctor because he had no white medical smock. Then someone called Martin and first I didn’t realize that I am meant. The doctor said “Hi, Martin, I am Christoph what can I do for you?” He understood well that it is no big thing, that I am apparently healthy enough to stay on a ship and did some basic checks (blood pressure and monitoring heart and lungs).

I got my certificate, paid for it and was out 20min after entering the building.
D’n’M took a bus to Coogee and started the costal walk. I had done it with Markus in 2015 and some parts where well recognizable for me and other parts I could not remember at all. We checked the places for surfing, sat down on benches sometimes for eating and talking and took a lot of photos.

Two of them were special and a bit challenging, because we copied the photo-poses of Anne and Danny (see day 257) when they had done the costal walk with Efan.

We didn’t stop walking at Bonday but went back to Redfern on foot to see and “feel” more of Sydney.

At home, we were admittedly quite tired, cooked a basic meal only for us, because M&M went to Pilates and then Doron (again!) helped me with my blog and other PC stuff.

Still in the early awakening mode, we could have an early but great Sunday morning breakfast and start early for the Manly scenic walk. In Manly, we had the – for M&M traditional – coffee break at the beach where surfers, swimmers and divers densely populated sand, rocks and water.

The way back was by ferry and shorter than expected by D’n’M. So, we saw again the iconic Harbour bridge and the opera

before we went home to officially finish our camping trip (originally planned until Sunday) by eating food of our camping stocks.

I made another early morning walk; the sky was not extra blue but also not threatening with rain. When I came back 30min later, Doron had finished “his side” of the tent and I got the feeling it would be better to do the same on “my” side soon, too, because it was getting more and more grey. But exactly when I was ready and we were about taking off the tent, it started raining and it became stronger every minute. We couldn’t stop with the half tent, so we finished it and everything including us got wet. Markus had started preparing breakfast and it was hard to decide what to do – leaving, waiting or setting up the tarp to have a shelter. Finally, we packed everything and left our place in the “Great lakes Marine Park” with the options to stop somewhere on the way to Sydney, either a resting area for our last “camping-like” breakfast or brunch or sitting down in a café.
We made a first stop at Heatherbrae Pies restaurant, at first with the idea to take them with us for our later breakfast, but if you talk too much about food, you can get hungry, so we sat down and enjoyed four different but all tasty pies.
Faster than expected by M’n’D, we were back in Sydney where we crossed the Harbour bridge and made a stop at Marouba beach to have another coffee and watch the people surfing and swimming while we felt a bit cold.

At Botany Bay, we saw some fortifications of WW II and a Tower that had once served for spotting smugglers.

And then we were back in Redfern….
In a group of four, we cleared a lot (but not all!) stuff from the car and went again out to complete a more touristic day in Sydney. We went to The rocks markets where Doron bought some licorice specialites for M.Chr, and then we walked to the opera. In front of the opera, some girls performed a K-Pop dance and later, Doron found that on youtube, but we were not in the video.

The culinary end of the evening was in the “spice alley” that gave me a tasty flash-back to South-East Asia, because you found street-food of all these countries packed in a small area.

We had a relaxed morning at the campground and left only at noon after a last walk, M&M at the beach, D’n’M up a little hill

and then we left for our last camping night in the Myall Lakes National Park, the Bungaree Campsite. M&M had been there several time and it was a good surprise that only two cars were there. We had a place directly at the lake and the lake sometimes sent waves of warm air and sometimes waves of bad smell or a combination of both. It is a saltwater lake only sometimes flooded by the ocean and by that a special habitat. But besides the last moments of daylight that we could enjoy watching the lake and dawning, we were occupied with star gazing and bat-spotting. Sometimes the wind howled in the high trees and all in all it had a mysterious atmosphere, only brought a bit down to earth by some loud neighbours who apparently had a different approach to nature and calm evenings.

We had an early morning although there was no hurry because we only wanted to leave after the Anzac Day Parade at 9:00. The Parade was something between interesting and strange. Every organisation of Belingen came with a wreath, some horses and oldtimer cars paraded, there was a pipe band and besides the Mayor and a Pastor also two Highschool students spoke to the audience about the importance this day can and should have also for younger generations, they sang the hyms and after all that they went back the same street and it was over.

We also went off, to our next station, the Sealy Lookout near Coffs Harbour.

On the way down, we bought locally grown avocados and bananas. Then we made a walk at the beachside and to Muttonbird Island Nature Reserve where shearwaters breed in caves and rats must be controlled so that the chicks have a chance to grow up.

On the way back we ate fish & chips to make a check-mark on another food-stereotype. After filling up our supplies, we went on to our second to last campsite, the Melaleuca campground
We crossed the Goolawah National Park and entered the Limeburner National Park. There were 5 campgrounds, and all were well occupied but then we found a spot with only a few people, maybe because there were no showers, or the beach was less close or there were more mosquitos? For us everything was perfect!

The night was fresh again, but we felt less cold, in my case because of better preparing for those temperatures. I didn’t want to get up early but something in me told me to do so. After that, I made a nice morning walk with bird music and animal encounters, but they didn’t wait for me to take a photo. I also did some gymnastics to warm up and to mobilize my back after another night on my flattened mat. I had bought equipment in a mid or good quality segment, not high-end, because I didn’t expect (or have!) extreme conditions, but good enough that I could expect some reliability and now this mat had lasted ~30 days with one puncture that I could fix. Maybe I can again find and fix a hole, but the mat has another damage, too: the different sections of the mat are open at two points, making strange pillows there. If I buy (too) cheap I am willing to except such damages because I risked something by buying low quality. But maybe it is only a statistical lower risk…
We made breakfast but ate standing, because it was too wet and cold to sit down.

First, we visited the Ebor waterfalls. This time with enough water, accessible look-outs and no fog!

and the went on to the Dorrigo National Park for a 3-hours-walk in the rain-forest. There were very big and old trees and also giant strangling figs.

At 14:00 we arrived in Bellingen to check in in the YHA Belfry Guesthouse but we had to wait for that an hour, so we made a walk, seeing the “hip” center of the town, even finding a chocolate store (they had Milka and Mozartkugeln, too, but we were looking for Australian political correct chocolate what is not easy to find, because everything in the world is dominated by Nestlé, Mondelez and the like) and set down in a coffee for a while. After check-in in the hostel, M&M went to a laundry and D’n’M used their internet connection to digitally unite with friends. I was excited, because Lulu now stays with Arash & family and sent me a selfie with Negin. We had dinner to a restaurant called Za’atar with middle Eastern kitchen and Reggae music and finished the evening in a brewery with Salsa music.