Movie stage XXII, XXIII, XXIV & XXV
| start date | activity | place | from - to | days | km | km/ day | comment |
| 29.01 | hike | Sawtell - Emerald Beach | 1 | 30 | Family farewell in Coffs Harbour | ||
| 30.01 | hike, shopping trolley | Emerald Beach - Dirty Creek | 1 | 34 | Borrowing trolley from supermarket | ||
| 31.01 | rest | Dirty Creek | 1 | 0 | At host place from Warm Shower | ||
| 01.02 | shopping trolley, bike, hike | Dirty Creek - Byron Bay | 7 | 256 | 37 | By trolley 230km | |
| 8.92 | hike, kayak, skateboard | Byron Bay | 1 | 23 | East Cape of Australia |
I walked couple more days along the magical beaches admiring the varied formations of the coast. The bays became shorter and shorter, usually crescent shaped, culminating with rocky heads. The map pointed northwards has more and more rivers, which I was quite tired of. Right after watching kangaroos on the cliffs of Emerald Beach, I decided to change my style.
I entered the supermarket, grabbed the first shopping cart that came along, put my backpack inside and went shopping. I bought more than usual because I wasn't going to worry about the extra weight. I paid and walked out the front of the building, then pushed the cart a little further out of the parking lot, out into the streets, then out of town with it. It took some time before I got used to the rattling sound of metal and stopped caring what passers-by and drivers thought.
Walking with a trolley along the road between towns I aroused interest, but also associations with a homeless person. It was like a social experiment - some people didn't respond to greetings, others crossed paths over to avoid getting too close to me, and others were open minded. In three weeks of rollerskating and skateboarding, only three times someone stopped to chat. Here with a shopping cart, the cars stopped five times in four days - offering a drink, food, ride, etc. The only thing that surprised them was that I didn't collect any bottles or scrap :)
Roads in Australia are well profiled for better grip and water drainage, and on turns you can see it even with the naked eye. However, this meant that even on a straight sections gravity caused the cart to be pushed at an angle to the direction of travel, and this required a lot of effort. One of the hosts I stayed with helped me to fix the front wheels so it was easier to push from then on. Unfortunately, going downhill hanging on the trolley was still impossible, because the cart was falling sideways along with the transverse profile of the road. So I couldn't go crazy in breakneck descents like I did ten years earlier in Chile. The final result however, was not too bad because when I was parking the trolley for the last time, its mileage was over 250km higher.
I reached the laid-back town of Byron Bay, there was clearly a sense of chill out here. A lot of people walked around the without a shirt or shoes, and the police did not give tickets for cycling without a helmet. In addition there were warm evenings and mornings, so I went to see view at sunrise near the lighthouse. Amazing landscape - the brightness was breaking through the clouds, steep cliffs descended straight into the sea, and behind me a lush green wall of vegetation. But the most important reason for coming here was the easternmost cape of Australia. Going all the way down the steep slope seemed like a suicide mission, oficially not allowed due to high risk, but the play of lights on the viewing platform allowed me to fully enjoy being here and now.
The icing on the cake was paddling towards the cape in kayak, but the most important pleasure was surfing on waves and the visit of dolphins.
It reminded me of the day when in South Africa powerful waves took our kayak away and we drifted with Ewelina in an icy ocean full of sharks. We survived, but from now on my wife won't come on board with me. Here it was without excesses and after an interesting exploration we returned safely to the shore.