10/6/2015
Driving around the Nelson
Bay peninsula I was getting wet several times – showers pretty much
all day long. Despite it being an awesome place, no use staying when
the weather is crappy, the photos are fifty and more shades of grey.
Driving up the A1 Pacific
Highway was quite a smooth ride. I checked out a few more spots along
the way, but it was raining pretty much all day long, sometimes more,
sometimes less. After more than 2 months, I took out the guitar again
and was shocked to find out that I forgot almost everything I learned
before, and that my fingers were not used to the steel strings any
more. Daily practice and conditioning will be required again to get
to me where I was before breaking my leg and thus stop practicing.
The camp site at Bonny
Hills was amazing, probably the best setup I've ever enjoyed while on
this trip. The view from my site and the camp kitchen was stunning,
unfortunately with rain coming in, there was not much to see. Earlier
this day, a couple I spoke to had seen some humpback whales, right
from the camp site.
Due to the bad weather I
enjoyed a snooze and meditation session in the afternoon and finally
got around to watch a bit of Game of Thrones, Season 5 in the
evening. Epic!
Distance traveled: 281 km
11/6/2015
The waves made a wonderful
background sound during the night, extremely relaxing! Breakfast in
the kitchen together with a German couple with and their baby boy.
The views were magnificent. Surfers were enjoying the waves below us
and the reverse AeroPress coffee was very tasty.
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| View from the breakfast table (camp kitchen) |
As it was starting to
drizzle again, I made my way north on the tourist drive into Port
Macquarie. I visited lighthouse beach and the lighthouse at Tackle
Point. Nice views again, with slightly better weather.
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| Rainbow and the beach |
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| Can you see the rain drops? |
Next stop was Peak Coffee,
a boutique roastery that had great reviews on Beanhunter. The people
there, a Japanese barista, an American barista, the roaster and the
business owner were very talkative and knowledgeable. Both of the
baristas are refining their skills here to later go back into their
home countries and open up their own businesses.
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| Wall with painting and real portafilters - cool idea |
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| Some of their products |
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| 4 grinders with different coffees - happy days! |
Peak Coffee are purveyors
of excellent coffee, and take their work very seriously. The business
has been around for about 8 years, and currently they roast about 2
tonnes of coffee every week. Selling it locally in the Port Macquarie area, and training the baristas of the coffee shops that are buying
their produce. Great way of doing business, and ensuring a high
quality product to the clients.
They work directly with
the growers of the beans in various different countries, fund
community projects around the growers and visit them regularly to
ensure highest quality, according to the discussions I had there.
Besides the normal espresso, they do and sell cold drip, V60 and
AeroPress, everything a coffee snob needs and craves! ;-)
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| Good looking guy |
I stocked up on coffee and
even got a tour through their workshop. Best way to spend some time,
talking with interesting and passionate people when it is raining
outside! I'm definitely checking out the tips for two roasters in
Brisbane that I got from the roaster – apparently top notch places
for excellent coffee.
The roughly 100km further
up the Pacific Highway were long sections of road works, so I made
very slow progress – a cruise control would have been really good
today, as there were a lot of radars and cops on the road enforcing
the 40, 60 and 80km/h zones.
I checked in at Urunga
campground, another high quality site, near the river and the beach.
Beautiful walk out the boardwalk to the breakwater.
Distance traveled: 164 km
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