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Ok where to start...... I cant really remember where i finished the last one but i think it was flying across to sydney so ill start from there. I arrived in sydney and had a day to explore before the tour started. so i went to visit the harbour bridge and opera house etc. i then got picked up at 6 the next morning and met the 13 other people i would be spending the next 15 days with. for what i presumed was going to be a party bus i was suprised to see 6 of the 13 were 35-45 (a full break down of the 'party bus' will follow). It has now turned out that these people are a lot more up for trying new things (scuba, bungee, sky dive etc than the younger people. The rest of the bus was made up as follows:
13 other passengers - 12 are german speaking......
1 other english - she is about 30 an english and drama teacher. very timid so not much in common but she is very nice.
3 male - 9 female
The group are all very very nice but pretty boring and dont really like beer as much as me. So i have taken it upon myself to be the life and soul of the bus!! Everyone on the bus can speak english really well but i guess 'when in rome.... so they tend to speak german to each other, whihch means my german has improved but i still dont know whats going on most of the time. Luckily i have got on really really well with the tour guide who drives the bus etc. This has been ace because he is in a large company which has busses driving up and down the east coast every few day and they have deals with all of the hostels we stay at so that the drivers eat and drink free so because we have become pretty good friends ive been getting a lot of discounts and freebies!!
So day 1 we left sydney and went to 'Spot X' which was a surf camp we stayed the night and got up early to go for surf lessons and surfing. This was really good and a lot easier than i thought it would be!! we then left and went further up the coast to byron bay where we stayed 2 nights. Where we went out to a club/bar called cheeky monkeys which was really cool because it was full of other travellers!! and there were competitions etc to win free drinks and bungee jumps etc. From here we went to Rainbow beach and on to Fraser Island (the worlds largest sand island). We stayed a night at rainbow then took 4x4s to Frasier island and stayed there for a night before returning to stay at rainbow beach. We did stop off at a few other places along the way but these are the main places. From Rainbow beach we had a huge drive up to Kroombit which was in the australian outback. Here we stayed at a traditional ranch. We had two nights here where we shot some shotguns, milked goats, collected all of the goats from the fields on horses, cracked whips, ate A LOT of steak and obviously drank... well the tour guide and i did the germans had one or two between them i think (october fest seems less appealing after meeting these guys they dont seem to be able to let their hair down). Whilst on the ranch I also ate some peacock and goat which was good the peacock was pretty chewy though. The ranch was awsome because there was another group there for the first night so i was with them for most of the night because of the 10 there were 3 french lads and 7 ENGLISH girls so it was nice to talk to people in english! Reading back i think im making the germans sound worse than they are, they are all really nice just very organised and structured! From the Kroombit cattle station we left for Airlie beach to go on a boat around the Whitsundays islands. We spent 2 nights on a boat called southern cross which was built to compete in the americas cup and had been converted to have more beds etc. Sailing around the Whitsundays islands was amazing we saw loads more whales, dolphins and turtles and went snorkling on the great barrier reef. Mum youll be pleased to know i used this time as a mini detox and had two days with no beer!!! We left the boat to go up to Mission beach which is where I am now! we are staying in a hostel called scottys. We arrived last night about 6 and there was discounted food at the bar until 7 so everyone went to get a shower and to get some food but the tour guide asked me to go and chill out for a bit so we had some beers (free again =) ) with the bar manager who is one of the tourguides best friends then went to the bar about half 8 to meet everyone else. In the bar i got some kangaroo steak (still discounted due to friends in high places) which was really nice, hence the picture!! A few of the people from the bus and I are going to rent a boat in abit and go island hopping apparantly one of the islands has an old house built by sean connery in the 70s. only a few days left on the tour now so we leave here to go to cape tribulation tomorrow and then up to cairnes where we can go snorkling/scuba diving on the reef. Then up to Singapore to meet stace! I will put some more pictures from Austrailia up asap but this computer isnt letting me.
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