Driving two and a half days North without airconditioning was always going to be a bit of a challenge! Thirty something degrees, all windows fully down and a warm gale blowing through the car. Lucky Heidi and I aren't pecious about how our hair looks. I figured out if you wear a hat it helps, but you need to be careful it doesn't blow away. I also figured out moving to the right back seat when the sun shines in the front left brings some relief. On the plus side you get to hear and smell so much more - roaring semis hurtling past, unbelievably noisy cicadas and that wonderful smell that is green living things.
We deposited Heidi in Byron Bay with her houseful of Schoolies friends (we were her free ride up, much cheaper than an airfare) and headed on to Brunswick Heads, which we loved so much when we were here last time and decided to return to. A couple of hours later, finally unpacked, we got a call from Heidi, "Can you come and get some groceries for us?" We had already offered to use our car to transport all the grocery shopping back to their rented house. Back in the car and back to Byron Bay we headed and joined the hundreds (literally) of schoolies all shopping at Safeway that afternoon. It was an amusing experience. Some people were obviously doing grocery shopping for the first time and had no idea. How many kilos of ham to make sandwiches? Which is a better buy, chicken wings or skewers? There were bare shelves (Safeway had obviously not anticipated the onslaught) especially for softdrink etc... The queue at the three operating checkouts were humungous. One group of girls walked their shopping home in the trolley. The streets teemed with 18 year olds, hundreds of them, lots of energy and a party vibe, but we were mighty glad to get back to Grey Nomad land here at Brunswick Heads.
I have learnt two new things - Colin has given me a geography lesson - the sun rises earlier here (like before 5.30am!) because we are further East than Melbourne and the sun sets earlier here because we are North of Melbourne. That translates into going to bed earlier and getting up earlier. We slept in this morning almost making it to 7am!
Today we have washed clothes, ridden our bikes, visited the bottle shop, been to the beach, attempted to catch the fish we can see in the river right behind our caravan, (to no avail) been for a walk, reacquainted ourselves with the shops, washed some of the dirt and grime from the caravan (well Colin did) and sat marvelling at the beauty of this place.