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Hello!!
Sorry it's been so long since my last update...hmmmm were to begin. I think when I left it last I was in Sydney for a couple more days then of to surf in Crescent head! Sydney was really great, the more time i spent there the nore it grew on me. The gardens and the harbour are stunning, especially at night!! I spent an entire night at the harbour just taking photos, amazing. It's amazing that you can be in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the city centre one minute, then walking through nothing but lush gardens and parks and then be at the harbour with a sea breeze to cool you down! Met lots of people from lots of different places, to hang around with and go places, great feeling! Could definately see myself settling down there at the end of the trip and working!
Anyway...surfing! After sydney i went to a place called Crescent Head to surf for the weekend with the company 'MojoSurf'. Very cool company, very 'surfy'. The place we were was great, we had amazing weather for the entire weekend and our group only consisted of around 15 people, which is very small!! So we were lucky! The strangest thing happenedwhen I first arrived...while I was chatting to everyone I thought I recognised the accents of some of the people. After finding out where everyone was from it turns out that 5 of them only live about 20 minutes away from me in England, around Ormskirk and Crosby way (for those of you who know where that is!) Crazy!! Travel all the way around the world just to bump in to people from home! To quote the amazing Disney ride "It's a small small world". Any back to surfing...the beach we were on was amazing!! Clear water, perfect sand and really hot sun! The beach itself was HUGE, with about 3 sides to it, but there was no-one on it at all!! It was a very remote place so it was great to surf on! First morning was good, was catching waves and standing up no probs. The afternoon with the bigger, rougher waves was a different story, however, I did some impressive 360 flips...unfortunately though, they were under the water! The camp was great, the food was AMAZING loads of fresh food in the buffet and BBQs and unlimited tea!! Really did England proud on that tea! The group of people were great too which helps massively, in the night we all went to the 'Humpy' which is the campfire spot! Had a great night there with a bonfire and music and lots of sand and bare feet, bliss. All in all an ACE weekend, one which will be hard to top, but I'll give it a good go!!
After a night stopover in 'Base' hostel in Sydney for 22 dollars a night the next destination was the Blue Mountains near Sydney with a company called Oz Experience (or as the Dutch call it Oh Zee Experience, cool mate) The blue mountains were stunning, an absolutely huge national park with amazing views of the Mountains, forests and waterfalls! The first day was grteat had a guided tour of the park with again a very impressive lunch included. Saw lots of wildlife including kangaroos and the elusive Lyre Bird, the Totum animal for the area. The height of some of the view points is enough to bring the biggest of men to their knees but it's worth it for the view! We saw the 'Three Sisters' which are a rock formation on the side of a cliff in the park which like most thins in the area have an aboriginal story about them, one which will sends shivers down the spine! (Definately check the story out, or I could post it on here for you to read, really interesting!!) I stayed in a YHA in the mountains for two nights which was cool, it was alot colder up there and very windy aswell. Unfortunely on the second day I was very ill so I lazed around on the hostel couches in the warm listening to the wind whils readin my book and eating lots of food! The lat day I made the most of by doing a huge walk around a different part of the park involving over 2000 steps which were hard work, especially since some of the stair cases were just bolted to the mountain side with only fresh mountain air (with a slight taste of Eucolyptus, great for anyone with a cold!) seperating you from the rocks and trees far below. Scary but amazing!!! Got the bus back that night to Sydney then spent the next two nights there before moving on.
Before all this happened I went to a travel agent called 'Peterpans Travel' (...awesome) to sort out travel up the east coast. I've booked a bus ticket which lasts for 12 months which goes from Sydney (South East) to Cairnes (North East) and has many stops inbetween to hop on and hop off as you please which works out really well because I'm planning on taking my time up the coast. It's with Oz experience, it's a backpacker bus so you meet loads of great people all travelling and there is a guide on there who gives information on all the places and drops you off at hostels which is always handy. I've also booked trips on Frasier Island and the WhitSundays (check them both out!) to use within the next 12 months which will hopefully be unbelievable! The bus also included a surf lesson and a night at another surf camp with MojoSurf and two night on a real ranch doing goat wrestling and similair local activities!!
I left Sydney to go straight to surf and stayed the night, another great camp and a great night there!!! Then went straight onto Byron Bay the next day. Byron was great, very chilled out and very beachy,more like the Australia I was expecting, spent a few crazy days and nights here with some really cool people, good times! Whilst there I emailed a farm looking for work through a company called HelpX, where you do a few hours of work for accommodation and food, just so I could save some money! Got an email back almost straight away and was on the farm with a couple of days. Been here for over 3 weeks now as i write this, it's been good, we've got a really cool bunch of people with our own house on the farm, I'm planning on stayin for another week or so before I hit the road again! The work's pretty easy and it's outdoors, it's a Hydroponics farm which specialises in different varieties of Lettuces and herbs!the farm itself is in a place called Duranbah near kingscliff which is half way between Byron Bay and the Gold coast (where we're going for the weekend tomorrow!) All the backpackers working here are either English, French or Italian, we do 5 hours of work in the moring from 6:45 to 11:45 with the afternoons and sundays off, but there is the option of paid work in the afternoon if you're free which is always handy as the 'saving money at the farm' plan didn't work out!
All in all a great start to a great trip, absolutely loving the freedom of travelling alone and being completely free. Made so many great mates along the way and had great experiences!! Long may it continue!
Anyway my eyes are tired so I'll leave you there, when I next post I shall be on the road again further up the coast, speak soon.
And just to put minds to rest, the water goes down the plug hole clockwise...Equador here I come!
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