Stotty does camping! (and NEARLY fails :P)

Woohoo! The first step of my trip up the coast is done!

Left Sydney. It was f***ing chucking it down. Still, We were all bailing so it wasnt too bad. We got the pimp mobile...a Suzuki Swift (3/4 packpackers worth of stuff in the back of one of them...you can probably imagine how fun that was! :P). Saying that though, its not a bad little car. Its certainly done the trick so far..

AAAANYWAYS, so we left up the coast to Newcastle, which was a bit so-so. Mainly because it was still raining, so we wondered around a bit, then left to go to this place called Melalewka's.

We arrived about 6ish, with the tent already set up by my mate Erline, who got there first. It was an arse of a journey, through terrential downpours etc, but we got there. And it was awesome. Erline, Floran (?), and a really nice australian couple, pete and possibly sharon had done us a BBQ, so we rocked up to free food, and a nice glass of win. Sorry. Goon. Get in! That was really good, and this couple were real nice and friendly too.

This park. Well. Ill fill you in on it a bit. Its a campsite, AND a hostel. (we were camping). its ALSO a nature reserve where wounded animals are nursed back to health, and let out in the wild. So i saw and got personal with a Koala, and also theres a pet Kangaroo that lives in the place, that you can go up and pet..it was fecking awesome!

But id got there in the dark. So after the BBQ we all went to bed, got in the tent. Where it promptly started to p*** it down. And continued to ALL night. By 430am EVERYTHING was soaked because the tent wasnt waterproofed properly, so the two girls Louisa and Stacey had enough and went to sleep in the Car. By 5am, and after 30mins of a constant drip on my forehead, i also left the tent. My Phone was in a puddle (and is still screwed), my IPOD and camera were ALSO in a puddle, but ive got them dried out. By Rucksack had been kicked against the side of the tent, so that, and everything in it was also soaked. Id forgotton my sleeping bag at the last hostel. And i was also sleeping in what was quickly becoming a stotty sized paddling pool, so everything I was wearing was soaked.

Went to the car, but there was NO room left in there (i know, amazing eh in a swift..), so went into the lounge area, found a sofa that was free for a whole 6seconds. Made a tea, found a heater, tried drying out a few clothes / phones / stottys. Failed. Went to sleep INCREDIBLY grumpy. Not helped because it was the new south wales Triathalon finals held in this place. And all the people kept coming in at 6am for breakfast, and leaving the fecking doors open. letting out all the head. Bloody people...Got a bit of a sleep. Then carried on. Luckily it brigtened up right at the end of the day, and has been great ever since. Where I saw the Koala, Kangaroo, Possom, and loads of other stuff..

Then in the evening, i gorged myself on free pizzas (the Triathaletes had ordered 100 pizzas, and were giving them away, theyd cooked a bbq, which they were giving away, and they were also giving away free beer. So i was WELL happy. And drunk. Drew the short straw though, because the bloke Erline from the last hostel was stayiung with had moved on, so she got the tent, and I had to sleep in the car. Which wasnt as bad as it sounded (i had a solid 8 hours of sleep due to my patented 'get drunk of as much free beer as possible' approach).

Then today we drove up to Port Maquarie, where Ive just arrived. The hostel seems pretty cool so far, although ive just arrived...and we found some really really nice places on the way, beaches etc. Tres good!

Tommorrow onto Coff Harbour..Ill keep you posted!