bay city lola – Bay City Lola

Marked Safe from Cyclone Kirrily (and other tales)

I presently reside with my fat bottomed girl (Lola) on a property in a protective enclave bordered by hills of virgin (since Cyclone Debbie in 2017) forest and a little creek that runs out to sea. A cyclone is coming. It is muggy, stifling, dense weather with little reprieve from the brief though heavy showersContinueContinue reading “Marked Safe from Cyclone Kirrily (and other tales)”

A Tropical Home

The drive back to my temporary new home in Airlie Beach, from a little suburb outside Brisbane, Moorooka, where the lovely Lola had been parked up for 6 weeks for my travel to Melbourne, was 1,200kms of heavy, heavy rain. The Bruce so overwhelmed with rain on Tuesday, near zero visibility, aqua-planning across the roadContinueContinue reading “A Tropical Home”

Mother and Son (a Tribute)

There is so much to be grateful for, despite the vagaries of family and the sadness of missed chances. I sit on the cold stone patio under the portico of my home away from home, a long way from my gypsy life, on the far side of this great continent, way out west. Life onContinueContinue reading “Mother and Son (a Tribute)”

Lessons on the Road

I have travelled thousands of miles, I have lived through my first wet season and I have adapted my vernacular to match the local tongue (pro tip ignore the vowels). I have become proficient in weather reading (maps not so much), coolant tank processes, deep sea fishing, cable installation, tent erection, cabinet making, frog shitContinueContinue reading “Lessons on the Road”

Sunshine and the Shithole Swamp

I am a long way from Byron Bay. My intention to provide regular vanlife updates fell by the wayside, muted by uncertainty, and one seriously should-have-know-better error in judgment, as Bay City Lola and I took a detour from the road. There was a dude, an over-the-border invitation, a huge piece of land with aContinueContinue reading “Sunshine and the Shithole Swamp”

Tarting Terry

[Ed’s note: I am recapping the journey pre the waylay, back to the first days of my escape from Melbourne’s corona virus lockdown in July 2020 arriving in Byron Bay, buying Terry the VW Transporter (a small stealth campervan) and my attempted conversion into a vanlifer.] After my vigorous, impulsive and excited gender reassignment effortsContinueContinue reading “Tarting Terry”

Pre-Op Terry

I wake on my first day of Vanlife in Terry the Transporter in the post-hippy Vanland that is Byron Bay, pre-dawn per usual, snug, safe, and surprising comfortable in my baby bus. Underestimating the dimensions of my new home with a decent headwhack (novice van mistake no. 2), the jwoojsh-jwoojsh open and close of theContinueContinue reading “Pre-Op Terry”