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Friday's fun-filled frolics!!
It's almost all over in Australia :-( so it's time for me to update you on what we've been doing this last month down under!
Firstly we spent a week in Sydney where we made the most of our hostel's party atmosphere. We of course visited the famous sights like the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. We also paid a visit to the lovely beaches at Manly with two new chums Sian and Bree. Sydney had a really good feel to it, the streets were busy with people well into the evening and there's a real mix of cultures there too. Awesome city.
Whilst there we hired a car with Sian and Bree to go and see the Blue Mountains as well as the 'Three Sisters' rocks just outside Sydney. We did a small hike and took a trip on the world's steepest train ride which was good fun. The scenery was gorgeous, as expected.
Unfortunately I dropped my camera whilst we were walking and completely destroyed my srceen. So even though I can still take photos (thank goodness) I've lost the benefits of having a digital camera as I can't see any pics on the screen anymore. Nevermind, these things happen I guess.
We returned to Sydney to catch an Aussie Rules game which, having not brushed up on the rules beforehand, left me utterly confused by the time the final whistle went. It was good to watch for the first 30 minutes then I just got bored because I didn't have a clue what was going on. Still, the atmosphere at the match was great and the evening finished back at our hostel for a Mexican themed night in the bar where we managed to acquire a couple of humungous sombrero hats which have been useful protection against the sun since leaving Sydney!
We picked up our campervan a couple of days later with our new travelling buddy Sian. The theme on the van this time was the Village People. We started our journey up the east coast with our first major stop being Byron Bay.
Byron was a gorgeous, chilled out beach town. Crazily enough we won a trivia quiz at a hostel one night and ended up bagging some great prizes for the 3 of us, including a surfing lesson, a trip for 2 to Nimbin (a famous nearby hippy town), a dolphin kayak lesson and about 180 dollars! We also met up with a friend who lives near Byron and who did the Inca Trail with us back in January. All in all we had an incredible time in Byron.
From there we made our way to another surfing town called Noosa. We camped by the beach and Dave and I had a go at teaching ourselves to surf. It is so hard! In fact, standing up wasn't the problem but staying on the board was the tough bit. After lots of falling off and grazing our knees and arms on the board we did manage to catch some waves, and when we did it made all the falling off worth it! Great feeling.
So we left Noosa with a few bruises and some sore muscles and headed up the coast to Hervey Bay where we were to depart for our Fraser Island tour. What happens on Fraser Island is that a group of about 11 backpackers gets given a 4x4, 2 tonne, high top jeep thingy and they get to drive it around the world's largest sand island, stopping at freshwater lakes during the day to swim (Lake Mackenzie was truly like paradise!) and camping in tents at night. It was so much fun, especially the evenings when the groups got together for drinking games - particularly Ring of Fire! Wahoo! We've been playing it ever since we left Fraser - yup, it's that good!!
Swimming in the sea wasn't allowed on Fraser Island due to the stingers and tiger sharks that are common around there. We also saw manta rays from a lookout point called Indian Head. A great few days.
Ok, next installment coming soon (from Fraser Island to Cairns)
Hope you're all well,
xxx
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