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Day 25: I was looking forward to leaving Newcastle. After hearing bits of information from different people I found out that crime is high and, in general, the area is on the decline. I didn’t see any cold hard evidence to support those statements other than you can, in a sense, feel the tension there. I found out about the crime when I called Commerce Bank to sort out my ATM card. They put a lock on my card because of problems with stolen cards in that area. After sorting it out I headed to the train station, found a map and threw an imaginary dart at the coastline north of Newcastle. It landed on Coffs Harbour. A majority of the rest of the day was spent on a 6.5 hour train ride. When I arrived in Coffs Harbour I got a ride from the hostel bus to the City Centre (3 KM away), as those were the open shops. I checked things out, walked back to the hostel, got hungry, then walked back to the City Centre. The only thing open was the grocery store and I ended up buying a 1 liter bottle of milk and a bag of pita chips…odd combo. So as I am, once again, walking back to the hostel I’m chowing down on pita chips and washing them down with milk. Milk was a bad choice.

Day 26: I got up and grabbed breakfast. While in the kitchen I noticed a note posted that said something to the effect of looking for someone to help sail a yacht (sail boat) to the Gold Coast (an area north of Coffs Harbour). After a bit of roaming beaches, the marina and a few dynamite lookouts I stopped by the guy’s slip. We chatted for a bit and I’ll be checking back with him this afternoon to see his exact plans. After a nice run, I spent the rest of the evening at a get together with a few people from the hostel. We ate Dominoes, drank some brews and watched Finding Nemo.

Day 27: I’ll be meeting with Eugene, the sail boat guy, around 4 PM. Hopefully it all works outs. If not I’ll likely hang in Coffs Harbour until Friday as CountryLink (the train) has a Halloween promotion going on so I have save $40 bucks if I travel on the 31st. Not sure where I’ll be heading next. Currently, I’m at a cafe in the City Centre blogging and leeching free internet (well, at the cost of a $4.5 AUD latte and $12.5 AUD fish n chips). AND I did laundry this morning, it doesn’t get any sweeter than that.

UPDATE: I met up with Eugene and looks like we set sail some time after 8 AM tomorrow. Unless he has some crazy tech on board I won’t be blogging for a few days.

I spent yesterday roaming around the beaches of Newcastle. There is a lot of beautiful coast but not very many people, I was surprised. The horizon was littered with freight ships and the waves were big. I stopped by the grocer to pick up a few things and went back to the hostel for a shave (the beard was getting irritating). Travis, the guy from Columbia, Missouri, stopped by the room and we ended up talking for a bit. Before I knew it I was at one of his friend’s house, Josh, who he had met while doing his study abroad. I also met Josh’s parents and had fun introducing myself as the guy Travis just met at the hostel. We ended up going out for some beers and then ran into two guys that were here on their study abroad from KU. Again, small world.

Today has been low key, I got a bit of a sunburn yesterday so I’ve been nursing that. I’ll be spending the evening catching up on writing, blogging and emails. My ATM card was declined so I’ll have to call back home to sort that out.

I spent the morning uncertain as I packed my gear with the intent to head onward to Newcastle. Before leaving Bondi I headed across the street to an intimate restaurant, Barlovento, for a coffee. Julien, the Scotsman, had introduced me to the place the previous day when we grabbed afternoon breakfast. It was the first genuine meal I’ve had since traveling so going back today was an easy choice. I spoke with the owner, Carmen, for quite sometime. She has had her fair share of global experience and offered words of encouragement on the topic of authentic travels. After the welcome pick-me-up, I made my way to Bondi Junction and took the train to Newcastle. I arrived in Newcastle a bit after 5 PM only to find it deserted (in comparison to Sydney). As I walked from the train station up to the beach I saw maybe a couple dozen people along the way. After some roaming around I found the hostel and checked in. There is only one other guy (Travis) in the dorm room which I’m in, and he happens to be from Columbia, Missouri and works in the web industry. I chatted with him for a bit, walked some more of Newcastle and then found some free WiFi to make this post. The place where I’m at is about to close so until next time.

After breakfast at a cafe across the street, in which I spent my daily budget, I took advantage of yet another day of terrible weather to update my blog. I’ve added a “Where I’ve Been” page which includes an interactive map with the places I’ve been thus far. I also added [much requested] next and previous thumbnails to the photos page. Now when looking at a photo you will see the next and previous thumbnails at the bottom left and right side. Just click them and you are on your way to the next (or previous) photo. Besides that, I’ll be packing this evening as I’m planning to head to Newcastle early in the morning.

Not much to report today. The weather was shit so I continued to catchup on the digital realm. I got Adobe Web Premium CS4 downloaded and installed, got Skype setup and resolved an install issue with Adobe. I was impressed with Skype’s service which allows calling standard phone numbers around the world for only $15 USD a month. I made a few phone calls and the quality was great, with very little latency. Andrew, from England, and Julien, from Scotland, are the two guys I’m sharing the room with at the hostel in Bondi. Both of them are doing work and travel. When they both got off work we went for a few beers and some kebabs. The night is ending as we enjoy our beverages and jam out to some classic tunes.

I was on the net most of the day doing research and looking at airfares. After weighing a few options I booked a flight from Darwin, Australia to Singapore on the 10th of November. I’ll be meeting my brother-in-law Jeremy there. I’ll be returning to Darwin on the 13th and the plan is to then make my way down the west coast and back around to Sydney, then to New Zealand. So now I have 19 days to make my way up the east coast of Australia. On another note, I’m downloading Adobe Web Premium CS4 as we speak. A 5 GB download on a hostel WiFi connection is painful.

As I’ve remarked a few times so far the Blue Mountains are beautiful, but I couldn’t wait to leave this morning. The only destination I had set was the Apple Store in Sydney. After I picked up my laptop I had no plan. Ed, the guy from England, had mentioned a hostel in Bondi, an area about 8 to 9 KM outside downtown Sydney, that he enjoyed. So I started making my way in that direction, southeast to be exact. I didn’t have a map so I was just walking a few blocks south then a few east, checking in with my watch compass from time to time. I ended up getting pretty close to the center of Bondi, then got lost. I was at a gas station looking at a street map when a wonderful lady came up to me and ask the question in which the answer was quite obvious, “Are you lost?” She ended up giving me a ride to the hostel, and it’s important to mention we had to roll the windows down because she is boycotting air conditioning. I never got the reason why.

Between the 3-day Six Foot Track hike, yesterday’s Ruined Castle Hike and last night’s mini beer fest I was in need of some recovery. I spent a majority of the day updating the blog, writing and relaxing. Me and one the Englishmen from last night grabbed some fish and chips for dinner and had a couple of the left over beers, that is about it. It is beautiful here, but I’m ready to move on.

When I got back yesterday from the Six Foot Track adventure, I met Ed, a guy from England. We decided to do the 12 KM round trip hike to the Ruined Castle, a dark rock formation which you can see in the distance in the photos from Echo Point. It was an awesome hike with some modest rock climbing on the Ruined Castle. Ed took a couple of pictures for me standing on top of the Ruined Castle. You can’t tell by the photos but it is quite high up and not much margin for error where we were standing. During the walk I got a small crash course on England, with information ranging from politics, to the academic system, to stereotypes. We were both talking about things which we think are concerns within our countries and globally. So far I’ve noticed the country-specific concerns are strikingly similar with the people I’ve spoke with. It hasn’t been a massively diverse collection of countries, but includes Germany, Austria, UK, Australia and Korea.

The day ended with a beer fest at the hostel. Ed and I picked up a couple 6 packs, then we met another guy from England who we were swapping beer with to try a variety of brews. After a few hours or so (and 30+ beers consumed collectively), our crew had consisted of (coming and going) 2 Aussies, 2 Englishmen, a Canadian, a group of Dutchmen and a Frenchmen. The conversation started fueled with philosophy and introspection of why we were all doing some variety (or had done some variety) of world travel and quickly went downhill to more or less drunken melee argument. I regret not taking photos and recording the priceless conversations.

I got a late start on day 13, around 2:00 PM, and had 15 KM to cover by a bit after 6:00 PM. The Six Foot Track is intended to be a 3-day 2-night hike which covers 45KM with a 1 KM steep decent into the valley and a 1 KM ascent out. The trail runs through a series of rolling hills and patches of forest starting outside of Katoomba and ending at Jenolan Caves (~75 KM via roads). The first part of the trail heads down towards Cox’s River Camp. That is where I camped the first night. The last part of the trail before the camp is a cable suspension bridge that crosses the river (you can see it in the photos).

When I arrived at camp there were a couple Australian natives there, Rob and Rachel, who were also doing the Six Foot Track in its entirety. After chatting with them for a while I setup camp just as the sun was setting. For my first overnight, everything went quite smooth. I could hear a few rather aggressive free range cattle roaming around at night along with a lot of other creatures I couldn’t identify.

I got an early start the second day only to head the wrong direction for about 30 minutes, which included a river crossing. After realizing the mistake and knowing that I had to cross the river again, frustration set in. Instead of nimble rock hopping I simply waded through the river. Half way across I remember my camera in my pocket, but luckily I was only knee high and my camera had an inch to spare. So now an hour behind, wet legs and soggy shoes/socks, I started the 20 KM continuous climb through nothing but forest, following a gravel fire trail. The trail ascends about 1 KM, before leveling off a bit and continuing at a much more modest grade. Bottom line is the day was hell. I ran out of water early with no more water sources until camp and was dehydrated after the first 10 KM. I made camp at 2:00 PM rather demoralized, but was rather excited to find dozens of kangaroos grazing on the camp grounds (one of the roos had a baby with). The intent at the day’s start was to push through to Jenolan Caves and make the trip a 2 day instead of 3, but I was exhausted. I relaxed at camp, dried out my shoes/socks and did some hygiene maintenance (the best you can at a camp site). I was asleep before the sun went down.

During the night, which was colder than the previous, I could hear kangaroos grazing around the tent. It also sounded like they were coming up to the tent sniffing, but I couldn’t see through the rain fly. I slept sound until about midnight, then it was simply up and down battling to keep my body temperature up. It was close to the freezing point, I’d imagine 35 F (0 C), and my sleeping bag only rated to 40 F (5 C). At 4:30 AM I got up and grabbed a snack in hopes of boosting my metabolism and getting the body temperature up. It worked a bit and help kill time until 6 AM when I started packing up camp. Rob and Rachel, who had made camp a couple hours after I arrived the previous day, left camp around 7 AM. I left about an hour later and set off on a relatively easy day.

The hike is only about 10 KM the last day, a bit of undulation, then a steep 1/2 KM decent into Jenolan Caves. I arrived around 11 AM with no clue of how I was going to get back to Katoomba, which was ~75 KM away by road. I spoke with a tour bus driver to arrange a ride back, but luckily Rob’s parents were coming to pick him and Rachel up and he kindly offered me a ride back to Lithgow, which is a couple towns down from Katoomba. It was a beautiful drive and Rob’s family couldn’t have been nicer. It was the first time being in a car on the left side of the road and steering on the right so that took a second to get used to.

When we got to Lithgow I ended up staying for a while and grabbing some bears and a late lunch with Rob and Rachel before catching the train back to Katoomba. The night ended with another batch of the cookies left over ingredients still at the hostel, and honestly they turned out like shit but I still passed them out to people and got good remarks.