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Good Afternoon to all of you following our trip and can I firstly start by apologising for the sheer laziness of mainly myself for not doing the blog. It is a testament to how laid back we have become and the fact that we are having a good time just chilling on the beaches of Australia.
We were still half way through our Sydney trip when we last spoke to you all and so I shall give you a little rundown of what happened in the last bit of the trip in Sydney before I tell of our already mammoth journey up the coast.
I think we are on Day 57 now so thats what I shall call it.
Day 57: Again we were up quite late this morning and we sinking into a routine of not really doing all that much and so to the rescue came Stephen, deciding that we needed to get out of the house and go and see some of the infamous sites of Sydney. He thought the best plan for the day was to go up and see Bondi and the rest of the coast on that side of Sydney. So we drove over the bridge and saw the opera house again before heading off to look off top North Head where we encountered many a japanese tourist. We then moved onto Bondi and had a run around for a bit. After having me and the two cousins having a little paddle in the water and getting the mandatory pictures with the Bondi Beach flags we headed back home for some dinner. Watched the Descent, a bit more Wimbledon and then off to bed.
58: Today was the day of payment for the lodging. The Basil-Jones's are in the process of moving house and so it was part of our remit that would do some heavy lifting for them all. So the van arrived promptly around 9 and we started to load all the furniture onto it that needed to go into storage. After driving to the storage place and making sure everything was packed tight me and Lamming thought it was about time for us to head out into the world of Sydney by ourselves and so with a few pointers from the locals and a fast if rather cramped drive into town in the Porsche we were heading onto Darling Harbour. This was one of my favourite parts of Sydney. There was just so much to do and the whole feel of the place was a bit similar to the feeling of South Bank or somewhere like that. Lots of water features, places to go out and eat, plenty of bars and a museum or two! Everything you could need in a rather lovely setting. We walked back through town and grabbed some lunch at a Hungry Jacks (a bad burger king even though its owned by the same people! Crazy!). We walked to the opera house and took some photos around there before heading up the Sydney skytower and getting a good view over all of Sydney apart from the Opera house and the bridge, which seems slightly strange. Too many buildings in the way tho. We walked over the bridge and headed to the bus station. After a slightly unintended detour we found the station and got the bus back to Castlecrag. Dinner, a few more films, a sprinkling of Wimbledon and then bed again.
Day 59: We all went to the zoo today, zoo today, zoo today... and what a zoo it would have been! had most of the animals not been on holiday or hiding or whatever they were doing. So even though we saw lots of animals we didn't see all that we could've seen including the fishing cat and a platypus which were two of the main ones we wanted to see. We then parted ways with the family and headed off across the harbour to see Hyde Park and the cathedral and got another bus back home. Films and bed yet again.
60: Manly ferry today, which we got over with Rory and Lucy. Goes from the main ferry port by Sydney Harbour over to Manly and then we walked the 5 min walk to the beach. We had all brought out swimming costumes but mostly decided that it was a bit too cold for us to go swimming. I saw a challenge being set for me and so once we had had a walk around the beach and then up the heads to see some of the other bays of Sydney, I decided to go for a swim. It was already getting towards dusk and so it was rather windy also but I bravely strode into the water, felt the temperature and thought what am I doing, I had to show them all what I was made of tho and so a quick picture of me had to be taken and a bit of a dive into the icy depths and I was out again as quick as my legs could carry me! We went out later on for a quick drink with Stephen and a couple of his mates while we watched the state of origin 3rd test match. Its a Rugby league game played between NSW and Queensland. Tough game and actually quite entertaining, for league. Queensland had already won the first two matches so it was just a matter of pride. NSW did win however tho and so Stephen was moderatley pleased about it.
Day 61: Very very very early start this morning as we were heading out of Sydney and starting our adventure on the Oz Experience. We caught a taxi out into a new bit of town after lamming forgetting two things, one after the other. The camera lead we went back for but his glasses were lost to the back of his bed, unfortunately. Bus was running a bit late however so we were never in any danger of being late. We got some breakfast and climbed onto the bus which was to take us to our first stop; surf camp. We had a few stops along the way but it was generally a rather uneventful trip and we were just glad to have a moderately warm bed for the night and looking forward to heading out on to the beach and surf.
62: Got up and had a nice breakfast, then got into our wetsuits, got out boards and went out onto the beach for our briefing. We were told about all the safety rules and how to get up on the board etc, all of us just wanting to get straight out into the water and see what we could do. We finally got out onto the water and tried our hand at catching a wave and getting up on the board. Some picked it up quicker than others and after a little while I was managing to get up on the board pretty regularly and ride it most of the way in. I was having a great time! The hour or so that we had on the water was definitely not long enough and so the prospect of free board hire in Byron Bay, our next stop, was looking good. And as soon as we got out of our wetsuits and saw if there were any photos we wanted thats where we headed. We were told that Byron Bay would be one of our favourite places to stop and as soon as we got there we knew we should have a good time. We had heard of the bar named cheeky monkeys and heard that there was much dancing on tables. We therefore took it upon ourselves to go to this legendary place and show them all what we made of. We danced like we had never danced before. Although Lamming got chucked out for what he says was no reason. He's exactly the kind of boy I expect to cause trouble when he's put and about tho so I'm still not convinced he was doing nothing. Good night!
63: Up quite late today as expected and just headed down the beach with a coupla boards to see what the surf was like. Not too good unfortunately and so after freezing our socks off and only catching one proper wave that i could get up on we headed back to the beach to dig a massive hole. And my goodness wasn't it a big hole! Stayed there the whole day really, played a coupla games of football and headed back to the hostel to get some food and be ready for another night at the monkey! No chuckings out tonight and actually not quite as gooda night. Shame but still had a good one overall I would say.
64: We went for a walk today with Kash and Raj (Bruce) who we'd met at surf camp. We went to the easternmost point of Oz, got to the lighthouse up on the hill and also saw a few dolphins and possibly some whales (we weren't quite sure). Was a good walk and so when we got back to get the shuttle up to Surfers Paradise we were all fairly tired and glad to just get on a bus for a couple of hours. We got into our hostel and thought that as we only had one proper day in surfers we should probably get straight out and have a look about town. It seemed like a really nice place and if you were a surfer and liked shopping and going out you really could not go wrong. Lamming didnt really enjoy the place too much but I could definitely spent another coupla days there. Seemed like a really nice place.
65: Didnt have too much time today. Went over to Ripley's believe it or not museum. Was quite a good laugh. It's just a big museum with lots of oddities from round the world that this guy called Ripley found when he went travelling. Was quite good fun. Apart from getting a little lunch and heading down the beach for half an hour that was all we managed as it was time to head up to the bus terminal to get out bus over to Brisbane. Met some of our friends at the terminal as we already knew we were getting the same bus up to brisbane with them, som that was nice. We then got on the bus and headed off to a zorbing centre so people could get roled down a hill in a water ball, like we did in NZ. It was at night this time tho so it all seemed a little more dangerous. We had the option to lie under the ball as it rolled down the hill and so I jumped at the chance with a couple of other people and we got thoroughly squashed by it. Great fun! Got into Brisbane and headed over to our hostel which we had already booked from Byron. It was a different hostel to the one most of our friends were staying in but it was ok. We headed out to the bar with them later and had a cool night so it was all good! We went for a nice big mcdonalds after and waited for a coupla our friends who had decided to get a bus up to Noosa that morning. So we finally got to bed about 5 in the morning and were obviously not planning too much for the day ahead.
66: As predicted today started off fairly late. Maybe 1 or 2 and then we headed out to the XXXX brewery. A really good tour apart from we had to wear some very dodgy shoes as we had only brought flip-flops with us. We then had a few free drinks in the bar and headed back into Brisbane to get some food and go to bed again.
67: A nice early start again to head towards Noosa and a scenic drive past the glasshouse mountains. Arrived in Noosa and got a shuttle straight to the hostel where we met Hannah and Elly our frineds who had headed up a day before us to Noosa. Just spent the day in town and got some tickets to see Harry Potter later that evenign. We then headed down the beach and had a surf in the most ridiculous current I have ever been in.Me and Kash both got boards and neither of us ended up much closer than 100 mtrs down the beach. not too much fun fighting that. We got the shuttle back to town and saw Harry Potter which was not quite as good as I hoped it would be. Having seen Transformers in Byron Bay Harry Potter did not quite live up to expectations.
68: Looking forward to seeing the crocs at the zoo. We saw way more tho. Loads of kangaroos and koalas that we could pat, a big croc and bird show, as well as us being able to hold a koala later on during the day. Good zoo! We had a few drinks in H and E's room and then got to bed so we could get up and go see the sunset. We then decided to get the bus into town and get a nice big pie for breakfast. We were all pretty freezing tho and so luckily the walk back to our hostel warmed us up. I think we were all about ready to go straight to sleep by now tho. Got the bus to rainbow beach where we had a bit of a break and a play of a didgeridoo before getting back on the bus again to head to Hervey Bay, the gateway to Fraser Island. Very nice hostel. Shame about the cold showers.
69: We were off to fraser Island today and so it was again a nice early start. We had our briefing and headed off to the shed where we got our four by fours and all our equipment. Me and Lamming were in an interesting group made up of one annoying german girl, a nice scottish guy and a nice Brazillian guy along with 3 girls from Merthyr and 2 Liverpudlians. Thought it might be a bit of an annoying group to be with for 3 days but was actually quite fun in the end! Headed up to Indian head on the first day and saw loadsa of Dolphins and Whales before getting stuck in the sand trying to go to Champagne pools and me scraping half the skin off of my big toe! Brilliant! We campped in a little campsite called Guruman and had a good night of BBQ food and plenty of goon (Aussy boxed wine).
70: We packed up about 11 today and headed down to the rainbow sands and then to the shipwreck on the beach before seeing if we could get up to Lake Wabi before sunset. We nearly managed to get up there but saw a car which had got 2 punctures on the road up there. We decided we woudnt risk the sharp roots and headed back to set up camp before the other 2 cars got to us. Another good night of singing and good campfire food and goon.
71: Time to head back to the mainland today but before that we stopped off at lake mckenzie and had a nice swim in the clear waters with a game of frisbee to boot. We then headed back over on the ferry and got into our hostel in Hervey bay about 6, all ratehr tired after a few days of sand, sand and more sand. We just had plenty of pizza last night and a good chat with our friends before getting to bed for some well earned sleep.
72: Nothing much has happened today so far apart from walking over here to get on the internet. Is very nice to have a day of nothing. There has been very few of those in the last little while. Weather is getting warmer and warmer as we get up the coast tho and so that is fine by both of us.
Thanks for reading the blog. Sorry about the length but at least we have finally caught up now. I think i may have rambled as well for bits. I kind of lost concentration after the first few days.
Suffice to say we are both doing well and now travelling with some really cool people.
Speak to you all soon
Lots of Love
J
xxx
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