Melaleuca

After Newcastle I head to Port Stephens and particularly: melaleuca. A girl behind the counter in the Sydney hostel had told me it was really nice.

Melaleuca is in the middle of nowhere. Port Stephens is a huge natural port, two and half times as big as Sydney harbour. Upon arrival at Melaleuca backpackers, it turns out to be a whole complex of barn like structures connected by bridges and surrounded by trees. I was met by a big friendly typical australian fellow how told me to take a seet (in his living room) after which he explained everything to me.

They had a tame kangaroo named Josie there, which they had brought up from when she was little (found her injured somewhere). There was only one other group staying there however and they left after a day, so then I was all alone in this wild land. The next day, after being dropped off by the hostel owner himself, I hiked up a mountain where there used to be a WW2 gun emplacement and radar. The view was amazing (see pictures). Rest of the day I walked up the spledid beaches. At night I watched movies. Deuce bigalow european gigolo, being the first. It sucked ass, all though it was funny to see how to the best Dutch actors we have, were all to ready to make themselves look ridiculous, just to be in a hollywood production.

Now the second movie was Ong Bak, which ws simply awesome. It's starts in a small village in Thailand where they worship their god; Ong Bak and then the drug dealers come and steal it's head. They send a youngster who has learned muay thai (but has sworn to never use it for money) to collect it in Bangkok. He's all value driven and all he cares about is actually getting the head back, but in the end he's forced to kick EVERYONE's ass to do so. It's just amazing martial arts and that mixed in with the fact that I'm going to thailand on my own as well, made it a great watch.

That night I sleep completely alone in my barn and all of a sudden it's freezing outside. Not to mention the fact that all kinds of possums and sugar gliders keep running around on the roof, making crazy ass noises, so that made for an interesting night.

Today I've made my way back to Newcastle and tonight I'm taking the bus to Byron Bay, which apparently is Australia's Sincity, or somewhat anyway. It'll be a good change from the calm of melaleuca. On the way back I saw I wild Koala in a tree btw (picture).