It was finally time for our road trip and big move to Melbourne. After a few trial packs, and lots of culling – we finally got the car packed and we were on our way! First stop, my best friends house Swami to say goodbye. She made us delicious pancakes and we stayed for two hours!
Then we headed to Coffs Harbour. It rained almost the whole way! There was lots of flooding around too. We got delayed a few times but finally made it to Coffs around 5.30pm. Lucky for us, Zen Japan, the cute little Japanese restaurant opened at 6pm, so we went in for an early dinner. The weather was still bad when we finished and we didn’t feel like setting up a tent in the pouring rain, so we thought we’d brave it (and be adventurous) and sleep in the car! We found a peaceful street just off a main road and parked for the night. Well, what a night! We couldn’t stretch the chairs back because there was too much stuff in the back, so we were cramped in the front seats trying to get comfy all night! The saving grace I think was that we woke up before sunrise and went down to the pier to watch it. It was stunning.
We started driving south again, not really sure where the day would take us. I had to stop for a quick nanna nap after about an hour. We decided to head to Forster/Tuncurry after recommendations from my Mum. We got there and the weather was still pretty bad! It had rained almost the whole time we were in the car! We were tossing up what to do, and eventually we decided on staying in a cheap hotel for the night. We’re glad we did, as we desperately needed more sleep! The lady let us check in early and after freshening up we hit the hay! Two and a half hours later we felt a bit normal again! We decided to take a stroll around the inlet and watch the sunset. The pastel colours were just glorious, and the pelicans were so cute. Lucky it wasn’t actually raining at this stage! We wandered around and took some photos and then we came across two pelicans at the end of a rock wall. We got so close to them and took some amazing shots!
Time for dinner. It got dark late and by the time we got to a Thai place we’d scoped out they were closed! Lucky we found a better (and cheaper) one just around the corner called 101 Thai House. The lady even knew what vegan meant! I was impressed! We had Thai Fried Rice and Pad Thai. We got take away and went and relaxed and played a few games of UNO!
After a great sleep we decided to head south again. I have family in Sydney so we decided to head that way with some brief stops at Tea Gardens and Hawks Nest on the way. We got out of the car in Hawks nest to go to the beach but it was so windy we got straight back in again. We stopped at Lake Macquarie for lunch by the lake. It was pretty relaxing.
We got to my Aunties place and they cooked us up a lovely home cooked meal of curry, brown rice and pappadums. It was so nourishing and delicious. Just what we needed after being on the road for ages. It was nice and cosy there and it was great to catch up. In the morning my cousin made us a delicious blueberry oat smoothie. We headed to the new Soul Burger in Glebe for lunch. The burgers were delicious – and the chips, well they were some of the best we’ve ever had! The milkshake was tasty too. We were so full afterwards that we couldn’t even go to Gelato Blue in Newtown, which has now gone fully vegan! I was devastated, but we drove on to the Blue Mountains.
The rain was pretty persistent and by the time we got there I was worried we weren’t going to be able to set up without the rain. First we visited a friend at a meditation retreat and they kindly offered that we stay there the night. We felt very blessed as it was a gorgeous place, surrounded by trees. We went for a walk with our friend to a little stone cottage that is rumoured that Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman had their honeymoon in. It was very quaint and there was a river gushing right near it too.
We had a very relaxing time there at the mediation retreat – we felt as though we were on a retreat ourselves! We even had a lovely dinner provided for us there! Dahl and salad. We’re glad we stayed there as the weather was still quite bad overnight! Better in a comfy bedroom with a heater than a tent!
In the morning we paid a quick visit to the Blue Mountains and then headed off towards Huskisson. After arriving in gorgeous Huskisson we took a morning walk around the beautiful harbour beach area.
Then we cruised all the way down to Narooma. One of my most favourite places on earth. But we’ll save that for another post.
I take my hat off to you two – hubby and I are new to veganism and find it especially hard to maintain when we are travelling – loved reading how you two do it! Such beautiful photos too!
Thank you Michelle! I think we’ve been doing it so long now it’s just second nature! – Actually, most of our trips revolve around food or finding great vegan or vegan friendly places to eat! 😉 Thanks so much for your comment and that’s fantastic that you’re giving veganism a go! Feel free to email me with any questions at all. xo