Palm Beach, New South Wales, Australia
After spending much of the night fighting off additional bites (including one on the palm of my hand – seriously, why me?) I was glad to see the sunrise so I could get up. I’d had such a bad night I was tempted to check out early and go back to Sydney, but instead decided I would hunt out a pharmacy and get strong insect repellent and stick it out.
I went out for breakfast and joined another couple who were staying in the room next to me (there are only 2 rooms in this house). They were both English but living in Sydney – it was the guy’s birthday and his wife had brought him up to Palm Beach to celebrate, which was nice. We all sat and had breakfast together and were joined by Patrick (who owns the house) and Lord Cody, his Tonkinese cat. The cat was gorgeous and spent about 20 minutes on each of our laps in turn whilst we ate, and we were all entertained with Patrick’s tales of all the rich and famous people he knows (Palm Beach is a pretty exclusive resort – people like Lleyton Hewitt, Elle MacPherson and various TV/Film stars own property here).
At around 10am we all set off on our separate ways. I decided to go to the beach first, before it got too hot and unbearable. I found myself a nice spot and grabbed some rays and went in the sea – heavenly. I stuck it until just before midday and then returned to the house to shower off all the sand. I then went in search of a pharmacy – there aren’t really any shops in Palm Beach so I headed off down the coast and found one in Newport. The woman looked at my bites in pity and sold me some pretty strong stuff which I liberally covered myself in as soon as I left the shop. Hooray!
I then decided to go and visit the Baha’i temple I had noticed on my way into the peninsula. It was about a 15 minute drive from Newport so I headed out there. It was a pretty interesting place – there are only 7 Baha’i temples around the world and it seems a pretty interesting religion, believing only that you should worship god, and that there is only one and he manifests himself as Christ, Buddha, Mohammed etc. It aims to unite all religions and they were very welcoming people when I went around.
After leaving there, I decided to beach hop my way back up to Palm Beach, so I was spending about an hour in each spot. The sand was so hot in some of these places I had to keep my sandals on. I stopped for a nice drink in Newport again, and took a long walk along this beach. I returned to Palm Beach and went back to the beach here (seeing a theme with today!), checking out the Surf Club (which is used in Home & Away) and taking plenty of photos. I then went out to find some dinner before taking a nice cold drink for a walk along the inland beach.
It was getting late by then and I didn’t want to give the mozzies and excuse to find me, so I headed back to the house. I was able to pack up my stuff a bit better ready for my early drive to the airport tomorrow morning, heading over to New Zealand.
I’ve had a great time in Australia (bugs aside) and look forward to returning in the future.
from: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/loxias/11/1264982168/tpod.html
