Crescent Head

As you can tell, we truly love the beach life and campsite in Delicate Nobby. We have made ourselves quite at home. The Routine - Beer, butcher and ice runs to the nearest little town, Crescent Head, which is also where the long board was introduced to Australia after it was invented in Malibu, California (a little bit of surfing history).

Crescent Head also had a few secret backpacker amenities. Our German neighbors tipped us off to some hot water showers at a campsite near the beach. There was also a public tap of drinking water at the picnic area to fill up our water tank. We even stumbled upon a free wifi signal outside a pharmacy where we (pathetically) would park our car and skype our parents until the batteries died.

Although the road to town had it’s share of pothole dodging, I never grew tired of the stunning coastal views and huge kangaroos that were usually hopping in the fields.

Up till now we have been eating fairly well for backpackers with pasta and anything in a can, such as: Chili and rice, Aldi beef stew (not so good), pasta with Dolmeo sauce, Easy Mac, and Heinz soup. Groceries are VERY expensive in Australia, you see, with one notable exception…meat for the bbq! And so the butcher in town provided our daily menu of sausages or "Rissoles" which are flavored burgers like garlic, tomato and bacon, Indian spice and macaedamia, or tomato marinade.

With only these daily trips to town, we were happy to stay put each day and not have to pack, unpack, search for a new home. The only thing we had to do was hunt for food and catch waves. Everyhting went to plan - well, almost.

I usually am the first to crawl out of our tent each morning when the birds start calling and the surf school roles in. The first order of the day is to get the kettle on the stove. This morning however I managed to set the keys down inside the trunk while changing clothes. The trunk door shut before my sleepy eyes and foggy head could realize what went on. Then panic struck. we are miles from the nearest town. Everything we own was locked inside the car. But the trunk cleverly has no open lever on the outside. So - pas de panique - Steph got up. On the way back from the bathroom we asked one couple if they could help. Coincidentally, they just broke into their car to get keys the day before. We managed to pry the window open. Many attempts passed unsuccessfull. It turns out the clever Carolla designers in Japan have learned to shape the unlock buttons in such a round shape that umbrella wires don't stand a chance through the window crack. The Germans woke up and immediately tried engineering a way to pick the trunk lock.

An hour passed and more and more campers came to help. We realized this was a great way to meet the whole campsite. Finally a quiet fireman stopped overlooking and decided we could use a helping hand from experience. He bent a hanger to just the right shape and had us back in the car in less than ten minutes, saving us a day of headaches, repairman charges, and luckily we could laugh about all of this later that night around the campfire.