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Picking up from where I last left off on the East Coast - from Fraser Island we went back to Hervey Bay to stay the night. The next morning we were due to get the bus to Noosa at silly o clock in the morning but for some reason my alarm failed and we woke up too late.. after a mad panic and taxi to the bus depot we realised we had missed it and so had to spend another day in Hervey Bay. This was actually quite nice in the end as we just chilled out completely.
The next day we managed to make the bus in time and so we headed down to Noosa in preperation for Bush Camp. We got picked up by a true Aussie who took us shopping for food and then we went straight into the Bush. Here we had a 3 night 4 day canoe bush trip.. we were slightly apprehensive about the whole thing really. The camp we were staying in the first 2 nights was cool - it was very basic - a big pit for a toilet etc but it had loads of character. The first night we made tea and had some beers whilst sitting in the hammocks getting to know people we were going to be canoeing with. Day 1 of canoeing went well - 7ks in total up the river and back which wasnt so bad. We got to this really cool beach with amazing waves - definately what we needed by the time we got there. The second day was tougher - about 7ks all in 1 go going upstream the whole day - safe to say me and Liz were at the back of the group the whole day and even drifted far apart from the rest of the group when we hit shallow water and took a detour. Here we camped at a different campsite and after having some tea at the village pub we retired back to camp and sat under the stars listening to music. I love how many stars you can see in this country! Day 3 and we had to head back to our original camp. This was amazing as we were heading downstream the whole way - me and lizzy were flying (still mainly at the back!) and we were all singing.. lots of fun.
'Row row row your boat gently down the stream.. if you see a crocodile don't forget to scream...'
After this we headed back into Noosa for a night - it a really nice little town but far too expensive for the likes of us travellers - I felt underdressed just walking down the main street - its definately a place to visit if you have money though!
After this we went to Brisbane just for 1 night. I didnt much like it. To be fair I may have seen the wrong part of it. Our hostel was in a really rubbish area and we met 1 of Liz's friends that she had met on a previous travel trip and she came to meet us at our hostel bar. It was 6pm and we were having a nice drink and then about 30 IDIOTIC irish people were there absolutley off their heads drunk and I HATED them. The Irish are everywhere and they are always so drunk - well probably not all of them but all the ones I have seen are. Anyway, we moved on from here to a couple of other bars which were slightly better and so ends our time in Brisbane. I wont be going back in a hurry.
Byron Bay was next and this was great! Its kind of like a hippy beach town where everyone is very relaxed. We met Gavin here and had cake and drinks on the beach.. after a while the night turned very funny and we spent the whole night in stitches. Must have been the good old sea air! The Beach here is quite big really - me and Gavin went on a longish walk down it and the further you get the nicer and less crowded it becomes. We had a sit down and looked around and realised we were in a nudist area as we were next to a fat old naked man. We moved on. We also did a walk up the Byron lighthouse and on the way up we managed to see Dolphins swimming in the Sea around Cape Byron - the most Eastern part of Australia.
From here we got an overnight bus back to Sydney and arrived back at Gavins early Xmas Eve and had a much needed cup of tea. Christmas Eve night we decided to have a few sociable drinks - nothing to heavy - it all went wrong! First everyone came round to have some drinks in, then we headed off to Newtown which was odd as it was dead really - back home the bars would have been packed! As it got later we all decided to go to Ivana & Elias's flat as they had a pool - we got here and stripped to our underwear and jumped in and stayed here until a man got angry and chucked us out. Definately something I dont normally do on Xmas eve - it was very refreshing.
Christmas Day and we all woke up dotted around the house with slightly sore heads. We soon got cracking though and cleaned the house and got the spuds going. Drew got going with the G&T's first thing - hair of the dog and all that, whilst I placed 12 crackers in strategic places around the lounge whilst dancing to Techno Christmas Songs. Lunch was lovely and very British - we pulled crackers and ate til we felt sick then all nodded off watching rubbish TV. Later we headed down to Coogee Beach on the Bus. The beach was busy - and there were drunk Irish people there.. but it was bearable and really odd - all these santa hats dotted around the beach. We had a BBQ handcooked by Kate and then headed back to the house for a quiet night in.
So that was our Aussie Xmas - very fun but very different - i think we all got a bit homesick and so it was good to phone home to what was going on there. I got especially homesick due to the fact we had no brussel sprouts. Anyway, I hope everyone had a very merry Xmas! x
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