Hey Everyone,

After the long drive down from Cairns we have finally managed to make it back to Sydney, and honestly thinking back now theres a few stories to be told! Cairns to Sydney is in the region of 2,500kms and for the car to actually make it here is an absolute result. But saying that, we did have to make the one pit stop when the exhaust decided to fall off . More about that though in a bit.

After saying our goodbyes to Cairns, off we went to Townsville which again was just somewhere to stop off and sort everything out. Dont wanna be boring you too much but that basically is code for laundry. How boring. I'm sorry for even bringing that up! We just spent the one night there (where we had previously stayed) and the mammoth road trip continued the next morning. This was a day that started just like any other day on this long road trip. Hours spent listening to our ipods, reading books and looking at the scenary (bit gay) when suddenly BANG! What the hell was that? Yep that was the exhaust. Because of all our weight in the car it did mean that every bump we drove across we had to be a bit more careful. But on this occassion, Nick had a bit of a schoolboy. We dont blame the lad. Well...would you? To be fair the exhaust was still connected to the car, but it was just dangling down. So instead of taking the car into a garage, we put some air into the tyres (seeing as though we had only ever done it the once a long time ago) and luckily the exhaust raised from the ground and we could at least make it to the nearest town; Mackay. Luckily we found a pretty cheap backpackers and for the night at least we could forget about the car troubles and chill out watching a bit of TV. I dont know what happened over night to the car but the next morning the car was running again. There was the occassional tapping noise from the back but to counteract that we closed the windows, turned on the AC and cranked the music up in the car!! It was in better shape than before. Well maybes not.

I next intended stop off was Brisbane and that was a mere 1200kms away so we all had our fingers crossed hoping we'd make it. And by 10.30pm we rolled into Brisbane and into the hostel again where we had previously stayed. We spent three days in Brisbane catching up on a few hours sleep and having a Fraser Island Reunion with the Frenchies; Kim and Dennis. It was great to see them again and catch up on what we had been up to and reliving Fraser. Great memories! The three days spent in Brisbane went in a flash and suddenly before you knew it we were back on the road again heading down towards Surfers Paradise. Here we saw Roomy again and traded stories. He's heading up the Coast on his tod at the moment. So after a few hours we said our goodbyes and we continued on towards Byron Bay. Me and Milsy wanted to definately come back to Byron, but this time to actually stay in a hostel and not a tent. We spent only a few nights here. We even tried to sample the nightlife. So after drinking a fair bit of goon we headed to Cheeky Monkeys, and I reckon I was in there all of fifteen seconds before I was asked to leave. Good work, I didnt even do anything. With weary heads we were back on the road again heading down towards Sydney. And after all the hours of driving with the dangling exhaust it finally all came to loud (and I mean loud) end. Again I was just minding my own business (as I do) in the back when SNAP, yep that'll be the exhaust. Sparks were coming up the side of the back window from the result of the exhaust grinding against the road. STOP THE CAR! We were only like four hours away from Sydney too. Again though looking back?at that situation now we were extremely lucky. The exhaust fell off in a small town we happened to be driving through and not in the middle of no where. Luckily we managed to get it to the nearest garage, which was only a couple hundred yards away. Unfortunately though the dude who worked there was getting on a bit and his attempts at welding the exhaust back on were to be fair RUBBISH! So after embarrassing himself a fair few times with his apprentice (we called him Tyrone) he decided to get some cable and literally tie the exhaust back on to the bottom of the car . All we wanted to know is will this thin bit of cable be enough to get us to Sydney tonight. He didnt looked convinced but we thought we'd give it a shot. And to be fair although the old fella looked more a stamp collector than a mechanic, he didnt charge us for his time. So off we went again towards Sydney. The next thing we had to try and sort out was somewhere to stay! And with depleting bank balances, squating in our old flat was an option. Well I had the kept the key. The question we didnt know the answer too was who would be there?? Luckily enough Damien (who was living there at the same time as us before) came to the door and from there we moved back into our old room keeping all quiet about the fact we were squating for the night until we worked out what we were going to do. It seemed so easy so one night turned into two and so on. Free accomodation...you just cant beat it! It was on the fourth night when we thought the game was up. We were all tucking into a bit of dinner when Tom (the other dude who was staying in the flat) came back and explained to us that he'd just had an ear full off the receptionist when he paid his rent. Ofcourse he didnt know we were squating, like Damien and when the receptionist asked are there still the two of you in the flat, the s*** definately hit the fan so to speak. He told us the Landlord was on his way and probably the busies too. Uh Oh! Luckily we called up the Landlord immediately and straightened it all out. It was the usual get of jail card "we arrived late last night and were literally just gonna call you!" excuse. It worked! Phew  So since our squatting days we've been legally living back in the old flat, and honestly the amount of house guests (the cockroach) has doubled in the kitchen. Lovely! But thats all pretty strange to us because Damien and Tom are really clean and unlike before the kitchen is always at the start of the day spotless. So this past week, we've literally just chilled and relaxed watching films. Miller and Nick have made a great little purchase in the form of a DVD player and with the cheap Thai shop (its open again after the Police shut them down) selling $3 brand new released DVD's (Spiderman 3 etc) and odviously we're in our element. But unfortunately Im back at work Sunday night doing a few shifts for the labouring company again. They're really busy at the moment and I do badly need some money coming in. Im trying to sort the boys out a bit of work too but we'll see how that panes out today. Especially Nick! Its just one big holiday to him . So bye from Sydney and speak to you soon.