Booti Booti National Park: Cape Hawke, Seven Mile Beach, Elizabeth Beach

This day, the sun was roasting us. Temperatures were in the high thirties and it became uncomfortably hot. Originally we planned to camp out on the Seven Mile or Elizabeth Beach for the day, after visiting Cape Hawke.

As we got out of the car at the Cape Hawke lookout car park, it was damp and hot. Mosquitoes were starting to eat us up immediately and it looked like a steep path through the forest to get us to the lookout tower. I heard the carpark-mosquitoes already telling their friends in the woods that lunch is coming along. Nope, my friends, we decided to skip the lookout and check out the beaches instead.

So we headed to the Seven Mile beach first. I have hardly ever seen such a marvelous stretch of sand and beautiful waters. However, the sun was just past beyond its highest point and the sand became so hot, that I literally burned my feet – even wearing my thongs – while crossing the dunes. Not a place for our six month old little one to be even with 50+ sunscreen applied and our pop-up beach tent set up.

As we drove on southwards and checked out Elizabeth beach, we noticed that even the local surf boys had left the water and chilled in the one shaded picnic area. Hence we changed plans again and drove on to Seal Rocks, which is the very north of the Myall Lakes National Park

Myall Lakes National Park: Seal Rocks, Sugarloaf Point Lighthouse

Driving to Seal Rocks takes your through a small paved road. Some maps still show the road as unsealed, but it has got a good layer of tarmac, so no worries if you want to get there on a 2WD regular car.

Seal Rocks is a very small, extremely laid back town, which sparkled a bit the charm of a former Hippie colony to me. The best you can do there is chill out at the beach.

However, my wife insisted that we do a walk that day. So what’s better than crawling up another lighthouse hill at 30+ degrees? This one was the steepest we took on so far. It was so steep that even the robust National Park rangers had put up a funny sign, which you see on one of the pictures below.

After returning from the lighthouse, we drove back via the Booti Boot National Park to our base in Tuncurry.

Trial Bay Gaol, Smoky Lighthouse and Beaches of South West Rocks

South West Rocks sits right on the Northern end of Arakoon National Park, which features apart from marvelous beaches, Trial Bay Gaol, a former prison, and Smoky Lighthouse.  The town itself comes in handy as most of the amenities are in walking distance within the old part of the town.

The Gaol at Trial Bay

Originally built as a prison to host prison-workers to build a breakwater, which the water actually broke bar a few remaining meters, it became a PoW camp for German descendants, who lived in Australia during Word War 1.

Today, it’s home for a herd of roos, which rove around in the shadows of the high prison walls. One of them laughed at the tourists, who strolled the tall walls in the middle of a hot Australian summer day.

The Lighthouse at Smoky Cape

The Gaol felt like a baking-house during the heat of the day. But no, it was not time for the beach yet. First there needs to be some exercise. And there is no better work-out than pushing up the pram a steep maintenance road of a lighthouse.

The return you get when you made it – the breathtaking views – are worth the effort. – And after the lighthouse, we finally went to Trail Bay Beach, which is one of the best beaches to hang out in the water. The beach is north-west facing, so it’s protected from the swell most of the time and it’s relatively shallow.

After the beach we went to dinner in town and then got prepared for leaving South West Rocks bound to Tuncurry/Forster and the Booti Booti and Myall Lakes National Parks.

Dorrigo National Park

Leaving Ballina, we headed south via Grafton, where we took a little side turn across Grafton’s famous old bridge, then took Armidale Street to Dorrigo National Park. The curvy, scenic drive is, for someone used to drive on the right side of the road, an experience by itself. But the car did well and took the driver and family safely to the Dorrigo National Park’s Rainforest Center.

My wife went to check out the restrooms. When she came back, she said something like: “There is blood on the floor”. As non-rainforest-dwellers, we didn’t think much about it in that minute – until we entered the visitor center and saw that warning sign right there: “Leeches are very active today. Wear solid shoes, check your legs after your return – and if you got a leech, here is how to remove it with your bare hands….” Alright! So we are all set in our trekking sandals and shorts for our walk in the rainforest.

We took two short walks there. One out on the Skywalk, which literally starts behind the center and is a boardwalk leading to an observation deck above the canopy. The second one had a somewhat higher leech risk, but was also solid ground and partially boardwalk again.

The vegetation is phenomenal and if we have had more time, we would have probably explored more of the park like the Never Never area.

After checking for leeches – my new favorite hobby – we headed to  South West Rocks. An Australian friend had recommended this lovely town a few days ago, so we went for it.

Taking a break in Ballina

When you arrive in Ballina, there is one thing, which you cannot miss. As we drove towards the town, I thought we were approaching a US theme park. On the left hand side of the street, there is a huge – a really huge – shrimp. We knew we had to get a picture of it before we leave.

After a good night sleep, the eight day of our journey was a rather uneventful ‘rest’ day. Our little one has been coping great with the heat so far. And a day at the pool in Ballina should help to further adapt.

Before we left Ballina, we visited Mr. Shrimp. Here is the picture. Notice its scale!

For scale: Below the shrimp in the bright orange shirt – that’s me.

Bangalow, Lighthouse at Byron Bay, Ballina

We left lovely Kirra Beach and Gold Coast that day. Our host had recommended to stop by a small town called Bangalow for its old-time charm. It’s a nice town, worth stopping by for a coffee, but we found the artsy shops pretty up-market.

So we headed on to Byron Bay, where our first stop was the famous lighthouse. We found a parking spot about 20mins walk away from the lighthouse. It’s a very popular spot, thus expect bus loads of mates there.

After visiting the lighthouse and enjoying the marvelous views, we decided to spend a few hours on the beach. Looking down from Cape Byron to both the Byron Bay side as well as the southern Tallow Beach, which appeared to be quieter, we took a turn onto Tallow Beach Road and spend a few hours chilling on the beach.

After we got enough sun, we headed out through Byron Bay, which is a lovely, but too busy town for us and headed towards Ballina.

Burleigh Heads, Billinga, Coolangatta

After leaving busy Brisbane, we thought we should seek the tranquility of a relaxed, laid back beach town to relax a bit before we’d continue further south. Friends of us had recommended Burleigh Heads as a town to chill out and get complete our beach gear. Most importantly we required a light beach-tent to get some shade for our little one. Second most important we needed thongs – the Australian version, in case you just started to think about the US meaning of the word.

Heading out of Brisbane on the wrong i.e. left side of the road didn’t help to make this drive a very relaxed one. At every other turn, where I had to use the blinkers, all of a sudden the wipers came on. The place, where I usually find the rear mirror is simply the right window now – and oh my goodness, why is there still so much car on the left side of me, whereas my right arm is unconsciously wincing whenever an oncoming car is passing by to what feels too close.  Somehow, the car managed to get out of the city together with the driver and off we went southbound.

Surfers Paradise and Burleigh Heads were a bit too busy for us. Their high-rise buildings somehow reminded me of Miami Beach. So we headed further down towards Coolangatta, where we found a tiny, picturesque motel in Bilinga, featuring a cosy surfer-style beach home atmosphere of the 70s. We made this our home for three nights before we headed off to Byron Bay and Ballina.

Resolving the Europcar challenge

Now is good time to catch up on some things. First and foremost, we need to fix the challenge with Europcar. To keep it quick and simple: we sent back a mail to our travel agent, who checked with FTI in Germany, who relayed it to FTI Oceania, who cross-checked with the supervisor of Europcar Australia. We were right. Unsealed roads are covered. The response said: “I apologize – it looks like there was a communication error at the counter. I will follow this up with the branch.” – All good to go then, finally!

The real Australia, for tourists, at Lone Pine Sanctuary

You haven’t been to Australia, if you haven’t seen a Koala and eaten – sorry I meant petted –  a roo, which is a kangaroo for us northern hemisphere dwellers.

We decided to tick that off the list rather sooner than later. Hence we went for the Lone Pine Sanctuary located in the southwest of Brisbane. Lone Pine’s entrance fee is fairly expensive, but it’s worth it, particularly when you travel with children. The park has a lot of the Australian wildlife on display including Koalas of course, roos, wombats, emus, platypus, snakes, birds and reptiles. It took us about four to five hours to slowly stroll the park including lunch-feeding our little one.

Mount Coot-tha lookout

After we left Lone Pine and as we passed the junction to mount Coot-tha on our way back to the hotel, we made a quick decision to drive up to the lookout. We enjoyed a stunning view of the Brisbane area.

When it started to rain slightly, we thought it’s a good idea to head back to the hotel and still catch up on the jet lag. We have just made it back to the hotel, when a tropical thunderstorm hit Brisbane. It was pouring rain with heavy wind gusts, lightning and thunder. As we looked out our window, we could barely see the next block of buildings and streets were flooded. After two hours it cleared up again. Good opportunity to grab some dinner.

Driving and shopping in Brisbane

We still haven’t adjusted to the timezone yet. But we need to get a few more items. “Where could we buy an esky and some basic outdoor gear?”. The receptionist of The Point hotel in Brisbane pointed to the map. “Probably at Big W, which is here, or BCF, which is in the opposite direction. At Big W in the inner city, there is also a Woolworth, where you can do some grocery shopping, too.” Great! Into the car and into Brisbane we went.

Arriving at the shopping mall, we felt hungry all of a sudden like we had no lunch and it’s late afternoon. “What time is it?”,  I asked Ylfa. “Almost 10am.” “Great, let’s get some lunch then, there is a Vietnamese food counter in the food court, let’s have some hot chicken with veggies.”. Perfect brunch at what feels like 8pm for me right now – still mega jet-lagged from our flight. Our food came in black plastic bowls with a clip-on plastic cover. We decided to keep them for travel. Best decision ever made.  They are extremely light and we used them for our breakfast cereals and to prepare fruits or veggies when we drive long distances.

One of the items, which every Australian – or everyone doing serious travel in Australia – must have, according to a colleague of mine, who has lived several years here, is an “esky”. For all of us north of the equator line, that’s an icebox. What we where looking for is an esky, which is self-cooling and can be connected either to the car’s plug as well as regular power outlets.

This is something quite common in Germany. You can even get these at Aldi, a German retail chain, from time to time. In Australia, we learned quickly, there are two types of eskys: The ones which you can poor in at least a ton of ice cubes to keep things cold – or the ones, which you can directly attach to a nuclear power plant to not only keep things cold, but shock-freeze a whole roo instantly.

So we needed to check out BCF. Perhaps they have a more European style of esky available. Back into the car, GPS on, set direction to the opposite side of the city, drive off, miss one turn and end up in this spaghetti soup of roads here:

Don’t ask me, how we got to BCF and our esky. We certainly passed the airport, which is in the opposite direction, at least once. Did I mention jet lag? And driving on the wrong side? Time to go to sleep. – Let’s push off the Europcar issue for one more day.

The Europcar Challenge

After what felt like 2-3 days of torturous train rides and flights cramped into economy-class seats, we finally arrived in Brisbane. At the airport, we easily found the Europcar counter turning right after leaving the customs and inspection area.

A friendly Asian representative with exceptionally long fingernails, which he obviously was very proud of, handed us the keys to our 4WD Pajero. We picked a 4WD, because we wanted to go on some unsealed roads in Australia’s great national parks. Therefore, back in Germany we had triple-checked our intended driving route as well as the insurance coverage for unsealed roads. Both had been confirmed by our travel agent as well as FTI, the intermediary agency.

“Unsealed roads are included?”, I asked the Europcar representative just to be sure. “No, sir! None of our vehicles are allowed to go on unsealed, not even the 4WD. He had too many problems with repairs.”, he replied firmly. “And in case you go unsealed, you are liable not just for any damage caused, but for the full price of the vehicle.” — Thanks, Europcar, that’s exactly what I needed after a 30+ hour travel and a jet lag like there is no tomorrow. “Ok, I’ll need to verify this with the agency we booked the car with, because they said it’s included”. “Yes, please check. I am sure it’s not included, because none of our vehicles can go unsealed roads.”

With that, we took over the car and headed to our hotel, and then did some shopping to cover immediate needs like baby-food, water and other basic items. Then, we quickly headed back to the hotel to catch-up on some sleep. – We’ll deal with Europcar later.

Flight to Brisbane

On a cold day in January we set out to what will be the travel experience of a lifetime. Ylfa, my wife, our little six month old daughter and I are heading to Australia for almost three months. Many friends and colleagues have asked us whether we would be sharing the experience and some photos as we rove around Down Under. This is what we’ll do here.

Before we left home to head to Frankfurt airport to catch our flight via Dubai, Ylfa spent about four weeks preparing for the travel, while I was wrapping up and handing over business projects.

From Frankfurt, we chose a flight with Emirates airlines via Dubai to Brisbane. Emirates allows 30kg of checked baggage plus 10kg for an infant. Enough to have even our Joie stroller checked in, which weights about 10kg. When we booked travel, our travel agent managed to reserve seats, where a baby bassinet can be attached to the front wall. “When the seat belt signs are on, you have to take the baby out of the bassinet, keep her on your laps and attach her baby-belt to your own seat belt”, the friendly stewardess informed us. This made the flight to Dubai entertaining, because every time our little one fell asleep in the bassinet, the captain turned on the seat-belt signs.

As the plane approached Dubai about one and a half hour ahead of schedule, it started circling in a wide holding pattern. “Dubai airport is currently switching to low-visibility operations”, the captain barked from the speaker system. “We are expecting significant delays in our approach to Dubai due to fog.” Why do announcements in airplanes from the cockpit always make your ears ring in pain – and why is the captain always right? – We kept circling for nearly two hours.

In Dubai, the airport is well equipped with strollers for small children, so you don’t need to worry to bring your own. You’ll easily find them in their red storage boxes throughout the terminals. Our next leg was to Brisbane. Emirates were using another A380, not as modern as the one we had from Frankfurt, but still a very smooth and very silent ride compared to other planes. Finally, we all find some sleep before arriving in Brisbane.