Friends gone, we left Sydney in our hire car heading north up the east coast for four days. On the first day we noticed smoke to our left, then a bit later smoke to our right - vaguely concerning. When Heather saw flames ahead of us and a number of vehicles making rapid u-turns our concern level increased and after weighing the options, Heather suggested that we turn around before we die in a sea of flames. We took an 80 kilometre detour before arriving in Forster, a town 10 kilometres beyond the point from where we turned round, and we stayed the night. The rest of the trip was enjoyable but not particularly eventful, except for a town called Bellingham. We had decided to stop overnight and went out for a drink and some food - as we walked along, the sky darkened and thousands of "Flying Foxes" (a type of bat) were passing overhead. It was an awesome sight but they had been feeding on fruit trees and seemed intent on proving Isaac Newton's theories on gravity - We were hit with half eaten fruit falling from a great height (it hurts) and some waste products to boot. Our last overnight stop was Byron Bay, a hippy town that allowed us a chilled evening before moving on to Minyama and Kevin.