Well G'Day to everyone once more....its that time again, sit down, take it easy and of course fill your glass with wine and read on...........

Left Sydney and headed off to Coffs Harbour for a couple of nights to break up our 10 hour drive to Byron Bay.........as you will see from the pics Coffs was really a highlight of our journey, the main tourist attraction there was The Big Banana...we wont explain it just have a look at the photos, you will be well impressed!!!!!!!! Apart from the banana we spent most of the time relaxing at Coffs after the hectic 4 months we spent in Sydney....as you would guess we spent most of it on the beach.

We dragged ourselves away from Coffs and headed up the coast to Byron Bay which was much more our style....relaxed, laid back and chilled, just what we needed for the week we were staying there. Spent the 1st night at the outdoor cinema which was showing short films on extreme sports...it was set up right by the sea and you could take your own seats and booze and just chill there for the evening...oh and it was free so that was all good for us!!!

Most of the time in Byron was spent on the beach or by the beach in the evenings, having a few drinks and listening to the street performers....well aged hippies most of them really but all good....listening to the didgeridoo or some random person playing the guitar....great way to spend the night.

Met a fab couple called Theo and Zeta who were our tent neighbours and we managed to share a few hangovers with them!!  They were both travelling the world and making jewellery to finance their way around.....oh and thanks for the amazing jewellery...hope the both of you are still having an amazing journey!!

Dragged ourselves out of bed at 5.30am one morning as well to try and catch the sunrise at Tallon beach in Byron...was totally worth it and an awesome sight even though there was a bit of cloud cover...have a look at the pics.

Went on a trip to Nimbin while we were in Byron which is a town that started at the time of the Vietnam War....they started as a bunch of hippy protesters, protesting against the war in Vietnam, when that was over they had to think of something else to protest against and began to push for the legalisation of cannabis and have done ever since! Quite a crazy place as you will see fromt he pics, they have a hemp museum, hemp bar where there is no alcohol permitted u can only smoke and many many shops with paraphanalia! The hippies here are now aged hippys but they do have some amazing stories to tell and would quite happily sit outside their shops all day long telling their tales of the past!

On the way to Nimbin our tour guide (who also does nature tours) spotted a Carpet Python which is the first snake we have seen close up (but thankfully not a venemous one), a monator lizard and we caught sight of a Koala crossing the road in front of us, stopped the van and caught sight of the wild Koala at eye level in the tree in front of us....pretty special as they are usually high up in the trees during the daytime.

Also found out that the short cut we (and all the other backpackers staying at the campground) were taking to get into town in Byron via the dis-used railway was actually a breeding ground for the worlds 2nd most deadliest snake....The Eastern Brown.....by luck we hadnt came upon them but as a precaution we continued to use the same route but stamp our feet on the way across to try and scare them away if they were in our path......must have looked like complete fools but hey its either that or dabble with your life!!!!!! Or if we were really sensible we would have just changed our route!!!!!!

Next port of call was Surfers Paradise, really our only reason for stopping here was to indulge the big kids that lie within us as you all know....spent most of the time at Dreamworld on the theme park rides or in Wet and Wild on the water slides....great fun as always! Rest of the time here we....once again...spent a lot of time on the beach....becoming a hobby of ours, but when you have beach after beach at your doorstep you have to take advantage!!!!

Well thats all from us for this instalment, shorter than usual as we have spent most of our time relaxing and chilling out...heading off to Brisbane next to meet up with friends from Sydney (another drunken weekend ahead of us) and then to meet some relatives we have not seen in a longtime.

Hope everyone is well at home and enjoying the fantastic weather you are experiencing, just lucky it will be summer when we return...dont think we could cope with a Scottish winter at the mo!!!!!!!

Take care as always,

Luv,

Amanda and Greg xxx