Last Saturday-week, Gam and I left early on a trip to Kempsey. Gam's threats of bullying me out of bed at 5am gave way to pragmatism and we dragged ourselves out of bed at 5:30am instead. By the time the sun started to peek over the horizon at about 6am I had almost begun to wake up. At 6:20am, with some coffee in our bellies, we left. I drove because I need the practice and the roads were nice and empty (I'm still terrified of city driving, so Gam does most of the driving).
We had Feifei in a cat carrier, Keith Richards in a cardboard box, and the fish in a mount franklin bottle. Feifei didn't like the cage, having never travelled in one before, and yelled at us in protest. We stopped at Tweed Heads, where Gam took over the driving. Feifei continued to wail, protesting especially loudly whenever the car braked, accelerated, or went around a bend.
We stopped at Byron Bay, took some photos and a toilet break at the lighthouse, then drove down to the Pass Cafe for some breakfast. Gam had some kind of turkish bread sandwich with rocket and some kind of meat (chicken?), and I had banana bread with ricotta and honey. Very soon I had made friends with the plump, sleek and very un-wary bush turkey that strolled up into the outdoor dining area. Compared with even the boldest of bush turkeys in Brisbane this one was tame. To the point of hopping up on a table, walking along the railing and trying to walk down onto our table to 'share' my banana bread. I sensibly convinced my new friend to hop down onto the floor by tossing another bit of banana bread down there. I know I'm not supposed to do it, but it was so cute... Gam's too used to my behaviour to be really embarrassed by it. Besides, from the behaviour of the turkey I know I'm not the only person to have fed it.
After we made our way back to the car after breakfast we let Feifei out of his cage and continued on our journey. From the smell of it, he'd peed in the cage while we were at breakfast, which did explain his strident yowls of protest. Feifei is very fussy about his toilet habits, and wouldn't have been happy having to pee in the cage. He spent most of the remaining 6 or so hours alternately sunk into a resigned sleep on my lap, perched on the armrest and feeling secure with Gam and I either side of him, or perched up at the window whenever we went through a town, gawping at all the people.
One of the highlights of our journey was getting stuck behind this kook-mobile:
We haven't checked out their undoubtedly hilarious website, but if anyone does, feel free to share!
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