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We spent a wonderful month at Coorabella, working about 5 hours a day- towards getting our second year visas. I mainly helped with things inside the house, laundry, glass cleaning, hovering etc and Phil was working in the gardens- whippersnipping and chopping down branches hehe!! We spent time relaxing in our lovely cabin, it really got us thinking about all the wonderful things we have done this year. This has been our hardest month since we have been away I think- lots of time to think and miss everyone at home now its getting so close to us returning J So we had 3 weddings at the property while we were there so it was pretty busy most of the time and we had to keep the property looking amazing! We got to go to the last wedding and the ceremony was so beautiful (you can see on our pics). Although the cabin was such a lovely place to relax we did have a few issues with the wildlife- first of all we found the BIGGEST spider (a wolf spider) in our bathroom and that really freaked us all out. We had obviously killed the grandmother of the spider family because after that we had about 3 more in the bathroom!! Honestly I didn't think spiders that big existed! Then we had a few rat problems-yak! The worst experience was on our last night when we could hear 2 running around. Phil said 'we aren't going to catch them so lets just get some sleep' and so we tried- only 2 minutes later the bloody rat was crawling over Phil!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We all got up then- Breea in our bed and Phil sat in his boxers, trainers holding a broom ready to get the little b*****- it was a sight!!!! We did see some snakes as well but they didn't come near us thank god.
Everyone at Coorabella was lovely, we all went out for a few meals together and it was nice spending time with everyone. We went to Mullumbimby farmers market, trips into Byron and much more. Sam (the Canadian from the cattle farm) was spending some time on the gold coast so came down to visit us in Byron for the day. We had a picnic up at the lighthouse which was gorgeous! It was so good to see her. We caught up on all the gossip before she went back to Kenrol for a while.
We were really lucky to get to experience a hot air balloon ride over the hills of Byron Bay (I'm just trying to upload the videos so keep an eye open for them!). We set off at 4am to get the balloon ready to go up for sunrise. It really was incredible, about 10 of us in a little wicker basket. I was expecting it to be a rough ride but it was so smooth for the entire hour and a half. We are so lucky! It was a bit worrying when the man flying it said 'don't worry if we hit the trees as we go over here- sometimes it happens'!!!!
So all in all we had a great time staying there, another totally different experience to add to our list. We have spent our last week slowly working our way back up to Brisbane for our flight tomorrow (8th). Because we have had to work for no money for the past 2 months we are running a bit low now so we have been hiding in our room eating coco pops and drinking ginger beer. Australia is experiencing one of their worst summers- great!!! You think it rains a lot in England- well when it wants to it bloody rains a lot here too!!! So much for spending time on the beach in Coolangatta and Surfers Paradise. Phil did manage to get one good day to hire a body board and tackle the waves for a day (video of that coming soon as well!!).
I can't believe its time to leave already- I'm not too upset knowing that we are coming back in the New Year but it has been such a brilliant time here. From our Juicy Campervan from Cairns to Melbourne in 12 days, visit to Australia Zoo (twice), working in Melbourne meeting Vladimir, Alice, baby Ronan, David, Rachel, Matt and so many more wonderful people. We got to experience our birthdays in one of the best cities in the world (Melbourne our 2nd home), going to Gordon Ramseys, AFL matches, Victoria Markets for Phils steaks, having dodgy interviews at 'marketing' companies, titanic exhibition, flying to Tasmania on my own for work, visiting the circus and Mary Poppins in theatre and having the time to read about 10 books each!!!!
Then the Wdowikowskis came- well that was fun!!! Freezing our bits off in the Ice Bar, doing every tourist attraction in Melbourne, seeing their faces up the Skydeck and views over the city, traveling the Great Ocean Road with Dr Doolittle (Joe and all his wildlife). Seeing Koalas, cockatoos on my shoulders, flying to the Gold Coast, seeing Australia Zoo again, Blue Mountains and plenty of fun in Sydney!! Nearly dying- the huge wave incident- I'm scared of water now I hope you know ;-) Seriously, it was amazing to share this experience with them for a couple of weeks. Now the rest of you have to visit next year ;-)
It was time to wave goodbye to them and hit the road again. Oysters at Sydney fish market, watching the surf in Manly, seeing Hayley (who I met when I came to Sydney the first time), meeting Rachel and Matt to go whale watching and on jet skis, staying in Agnes Waters and trying Scooteroo tour and surfing- that was a laugh!!! And then onto the farm to do things I have never thought possible!!!! Pregtesting, taking sperm from bulls and waiting for them to come on heat!!And not forgetting meeting the 2 best dogs- Soot Soot and Gus the basset hound.
Can you believe we have done all that since March?!!! Believe me I know how lucky we are. And that's just what we have done in Australia!!! I really feel like we are leaving here with a 'can do anything' attitude. We have been thinking about our futures a lot and have some really great ideas about what we can achieve. It's built our confidence up, shown us new cultures, allowed us to make some fantastic new friends and realise how much our friends and families mean to us at home. You know who you are and I just want to thank those important people for supporting us throughout this year. Those close to us realise its not been the best year for the Scotts, and I really want to thank you all for your support and constantly staying in touch. Although it has been wonderful to make new friends, we have really learnt who are true friends are at home. And we can't wait to see everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So its time to go onto Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong to experience our last adventure before we come back home! I hope you've enjoyed one of our last blogs- I'm sure I'll be able to manage another one before we get home!!! If you need to get hold of us- we will be back on our UK numbers from tomorrow.
Take care in the snow- we will be thinking of you while we sun ourselves on the beach!!!
All our love, always, Laura and Phil xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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