Since our last entry we made our way from Coffs Harbour north to Byron Bay (the north coast of NSW) a 2 1/2 hr. drive from Coffs. Byron Bay has always been one of Cathlyn's favorite places. It's grown a bit since the 70's!!! It still has a good feeling though. It's a popular tourist destination and mecca for surfers, hippies and spiritual seekers. Emily Brummitt (Kent's daughter) lives in the hills above Byron. She has a humble abode in the country-----a very peaceful place where creepy crawlies abound. We spent a wonderful afternoon and evening with her and we will see her again tonight.
From Byron Bay we drove to Noosa Heads, another beach community that held fond memories for Cathlyn. Noosa is north of Brisbane in Queensland, about a 4 hr. drive from Byron. To say that Noosa has changed is an understatement! What was at one time a sleepy little surfing community is now more like Carmel, Ca. Very upscale and spendy. We ended up staying in a very nice caravan park in Tewantin-----the next town over from Noosa. So far it has been our favorite CP-----very clean and tidy and quiet with lots of beautiful bird sounds in the mornings and a lovely swimming pool which we enjoyed. We spent 2 nights there and one of the days we drove up in to the "hinterland" through the towns of Montville and Maleny. We fell in love with that area which sits at about 1500 ft. above sea level. The town of Montville has a very charming, quaint flavor. We had a wonderful lunch there-----a delicious chicken salad with mango and avocado-----yum! From Maleny there is a beautiul view looking down in the valley to the Glasshouse Mountains. There is also a rain forest and wild life sanctuary there with a nice walking trail.
The last day in Tewantin we took in a car race called the Noosa Hill Climb. The course was about a mile long up a curvey mountain road. The cars included everything from classic race cars to Ford Fiestas. It was an interesting bit of culture.
From Tewantin we headed up to Chenrezig Institute in the countryside outside the town of Eudlo (about a 40 min. drive from Tewantin). The institute is the Tibetan Buddhist monastery where our friend, Tenzin Tsepal (formerly Lynn Gebetzberger) resides. She was ordained as a nun in 2001. Her teaching schedule has been pretty busy for the past couple of weeks but she had the day off on the 15th so we were able to spend the whole day with her. We stayed 2 nights in one of the retreat huts which was lovely. They warn you about snakes in the area but fortunately we didn't see any-----just a couple of large spiders. We gave Tsepal her choice of what she wanted to do with her day off and she chose a day at the beach. She had access to a car so she volunteered to do the driving. She took us to one of her favorite beaches----Coolum Beach and we had an absolutely wonderful day. You can walk for miles on the beach and there are very few people. It was really our first chance to spend any time on the beach. After a couple of hours there we packed up and went into town for a delicious lunch at "My Place". After lunch we headed across the street for a swim in the ocean. The water temperature was much like Hawaii. We had a wonderful time with Tsepal-----she is so easy to be with----a bright, kind and radiant soul inside and out.
Yesterday we left the monatery and went to the Steve Irwin Australia Zoo which was a worthwhile experience. You could walk right up to the kangaroos and koalas and pet them!
We are now back down in Byron Bay and will see Emily and her boyfriend for dinner tonight. Tomorrow we continue on our journey south.
I'll end this now before we run out of time. We want to try to get some photos up for you too while there still a little time left.
Thank you for your e-mails. We will respond to each of you individually when we can.
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