3/04/12 - 4/04/12

It was onward and northward again today as I edged closer to Byron Bay and Bluesfest.
In the morning I dropped in at Belligen as Pete had said it was a pretty cool and arty little village and he was right.
The town is surrounded by nice green hills and creeks and it does have a nice arty vibe to it without being too wanky.

My finger...and Belligen's main street 

View from the Belligen lookout - pretty, ain't it?

I had a bit of a stroll through one of the parks and there were a couple of monuments dedicated to famous residents; piano player David Helfgott and cricketer Adam Gilchrist.

Gilly!

Tribute to Belligen resident David Helfgott

I noticed a sign pointing to a Radio Station so, forever the opportunist, I popped in and said g'day to the 2BBB crew and gave them a copy of my cd.
I stopped for lunch at Coffs Harbour and had a bit of a look around. Went to a park for lunch and was about to sit down when I noticed a dead parrot at my feet - scared the bejesus outta me!

Parrot: Prettier when in the air rather than mashed on the ground

Before leaving Coffs I did the mandatory tourist stop at The Big Banana. I remember it being so much cooler as a kid - but what isn't cooler when you're a kid?
I set up the tripod to take a snap of me and the big banana but unfortunately the camera toppled over before taking a snap of me.
This is the photo that was taken during mid flight, weird:

WTF?

So I had to set the camera up again and this time it was all good.

The Big Banana - so much cooler as a kid

Continuing north, I drove through Woolgoolga which has a large Indian population. I tried to get a snap shot of one of the temples from the highway but it was a bit of a failure.

Spot the temple

The resting spot for the night, thanks to my "Camps 6" book was the New Italy rest stop.
It was a strange stop, with picnic tables and parking bays near the road but to get to the toilets you actually had to walk through the New Italy museum, shops and tourist complex (the word "complex" makes it sound modern, but it wasn't, I just can't think of another word for it at the moment).
It was kinda weird and a little bit creepy, walking through there to get to the toilets and kinda had that feel like in "Spirited Away" when it's just on dusk and the time when the humans go home and the sprits come out to play. There goes my over active imagination again.
Another good day of travel and sight seeing.
The next day I travelled a further 40kms up the highway to Ballina to hang out and kill some time before heading to the Bluesfest camping site.
Ballina seems like a pretty beige sorta place - would not be my ultimate retirement destination that's for sure.
I stopped in at the RTA with the aim of renewing my drivers licence while I'm still in NSW and after expecting to have to jump through hoops given its not due for renewal for another 3 months, I managed to get a new licence with no dramas - win!
It was then time to drive to the Bluesfest campsite which was at Tygarah, a little north of Byron Bay.
After taking a couple of wrong turns I finally made it there by late afternoon.
And the beauty of being in Freda is that there was no tent to set up.

Driving in to my Bluesfest camp site - bring it on!

I met Will, who was camping beside me and gave him a hand putting up the tarp over his tent, he has to work tomorrow but came in today to set up his tent so he doesn't have to muck around with it tomorrow after work and just get straight into the music - smart move.
I also met Scott and Renae and Dave who are camping behind me - they were very friendly and laid back. After a couple of days of lone-wolf travelling it was good to be amongst some nice people again. Bring on Bluesfest tomorrow!!
I'm volunteering at the Festival so for putting in 5 hours for the 5 days I get a free ticket. I find out what my roster is tomorrow night at my first shift - hopefully I won't be working during Crosby, Stills and Nash.