Richmond Valley

Today I woke up and quickly packed and ate breakfast before texting Annika who I had planned to go snorkeling with. She had found something else to do but it turned out John wanted to go too so we met up at the beach around 10. The snorkel site was a shipwreck only about 40 meters offshore on the main beach that was marked by the top of the mast that stood about 5 feet out of the water. It didn't look very far but as soon as we got in the water we knew we were in for a tough swim out against the rough and constant waves. After lots of complaining and mouthfuls of water we finally made it out to the mast. I tried holding on to it for a second but quickly realized it was a bad idea after a swell pulled all the water out from under me and I was left hanging only to be ripped off of it by the wave. I took a look and was met with utter disappointment that came in the form of one fish and the three feet down I could actually see before the water turned dark green. After one look I knew it was hopeless and we headed back to shore. We played in the water a bit and made a lumpy sandcastle before heading to the train station to meet the rest of the Swedish crew. After saying goodbye they boarded and headed off but not before giving me some free fries. I headed back to the hostel and had a quick shower and made myself some pasta before heading to the library in hope of better wifi. The wifi was still bad and it took a few hours to download less than an hour and a half of content. In that time I bought a book and had a nice long nap. Then it was time I retrieve my belongings and head to the bus station. Thankfully the bus was less than half full so I could put my bags anywhere and still stretch out over two seats. We stopped in two hours at a very small town named Alstonville which I explored for a bit before buying banana bread and a pineapple fritter. Then I sat under a huge tree with hundreds of parakeets until the bus left. We were off again and I started my book before I got distracted by a lightning storm we were passing by. I was pretty sleepy so I decided to put the book down and blow up my neck pillow and quickly fell asleep.Read more