One of the most enjoyable parts of travel is the simple act of observing people. People are strange and beautiful and imperfect and absolutely fascinating. It doesn't matter if it's a village in Uganda, a bustling city in Chile or a sleepy town in Australia, being a fly on the wall is just fun. Even if it takes traveling halfway across the globe to break our cycles of apathy and self-centeredness while we're at home... It has become a such a common occurrence for one of us to turn to the other and say, "Isn't it crazy how many people there are in the world and how we'll never get to know them?"

What a gift to see even a tiny cross section of someone's life - I don't want to lost that sense of awe and if I do, I hope Kristen can break me out of it. 

We woke very early (still getting used to the time change) and hustled down to the beach for a quick shot of a new sun. What had been completely isolated was now shuffling with people and boats. 

Turns out we accidentally stumbled on the beginning of a 48 hour (no sleeping!), 250 km race that involves kayaks and mountain bikes. 

Again, I love people.

This is not a casual race. These ladies and gents were serious, which made it a bit heartbreaking to see several of the teams wreck their boats in the first big surf break while their families watched from the shore.

Feeling like total scrubs, we went back to Hawk's Nest and proceeded to drown ourselves in a giant breakfast, packed up and headed North along the coast.

Weaving our way along the coast and through The Lakes Way was remote and honestly such a great introduction to what Australia has to offer. We had a few lonely ferry rides:

And we had some time to take a few glamour shots of the new bike, which is running so smoothly. 

The sun was out, the roads were empty, the light was magic and the bubble-shield selfies were in top gear.

We wound our way to the secluded Seal Rocks to be confronted with every camp site, every BnB, and every hotel full of people. Thank you Unknown Aussie Holiday!

Still worth the ride, obvi.

With nowhere to rest our heads we had to move on up the cost. Harrington ended up showing us favor in the end and we found a place for the bike to sleep with a view of the ocean.