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After touching down in Cairns after another speedy flight, we booked ourselves into something a little more comfortable and luxurious (a standard hotel) so that we could organize the last part of our journey. Following our campervan drama, we'd made the final decision - to come home. Little did both our families know though!! Mwahaha. As far as they were aware, things had gone wrong but we had changed our plans accordingly and were still making our way down the East Coast... With a flight to Sydney booked for a few days time, we decided to make the most of the lagoon, and relax in our 'humble abode'....
Soon it was that time again. Before we knew it we were flying into Sydney, and my God was it an epic sight?! Seeing the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge and the vast surrounding waters was something else. Although we were knackered from an early morning flight, and only had 2 days until home time - I couldn't wait to start exploring just a tiny slither of such a beautiful city.
Luckily we had a minibus arranged to drop us to our hostel, and thank goodness we did as it took over an hour to reach it! Driving through the city reminded us so much of England - the outskirts looked so much like Bristol, and as we became more central it was amazing how much it replicated London. Our hostel was in Kings Cross of all places (couldn't get any more English could it?!) and was just a short walk from the main sights we just HAD to see! We dumped our belongings, headed for the harbour, and became tourists again - snapping away at the incredible view in front of us.
One of our travelling friends Amy - who we'd met back in Laos - had arrived and settled here a month or so before, so we'd arranged to spend some time with her that evening. She took us to a lovely park/botanical garden which was home to the equivalent of our Gromits (painted rhinos!) and overlooked the opera house and the bridge - we even caught the most stunning sunset which I'll never forget! We headed to a cute pizzeria - on a TRIPLE decker tube may I add - where we caught up on the last 2 months of our travels and all the dramas we'd endured... again, it's amazing how after maybe a week spent with somebody you can feel extremely close to them and it's as if you've been friends for a lifetime! Speaking of friends for life.... when we got back to our hostel we headed for the communal kitchen and got chatting with another British couple, Hayley and Matt, who'd not long started their 5 months of travel. We completely hit it off with them and 2 hours later we hadn't moved from our seats for all the stories we'd each told! We arranged to see them later on the next day if both our plans coincided.
As the following day was to be the last of our adventure, we wanted to embrace as much of Sydney as we could, and head to somewhere we wouldn't forget - Amy suggested Manly, and boy was it worth it! We caught the ferry out which took about 30 minutes and presented us with yet some more amazing views of the skyline. Soaking up our surroundings, we found a cute little beachside cafe where we indulged in a yummy lunch and reminisced on what were some of the best bits of the last 5 months.... Chiang Mai, the jungle trek, scuba diving, the locals, Angkor Wat, NYE, skydiving, Koh Tao, the culture, the list goes on and on and on! We took a stroll along the beach and then sat on the wall with an ice cream before getting back on the ferry. We had a busy night ahead! A couple of hours packing, then we thought it would be fitting to toast and celebrate all that we'd achieved in the last 5 months with something we'd started with - going out for some Thai food. Unfortunately there wasn't enough time to catch up some more with our new friends from Manchester, but we exchanged contact details, promised to follow them on their journey and then catch up on their return to England. It was actually pretty gutting to be leaving right at that moment!
Anywho, our flight was at 6am the following morning and we agreed it would just be too expensive to get a taxi to the airport, so the tube it was to be - however, as the first morning tube didn't set off until 5am we had to leave our hostel at 11.30pm and take the last one of the day.... resulting in no sleep on an airport floor until check in time!
Waiting on the floor for what felt like forever finally came to an end as our flight number was called out and the check in process began. Before we knew it we were belted up ready for take off. It felt a little bit wrong having not told anybody what we were doing (apart from Kim) but it was also quite naughty mwahahaha which we loved, especially as we knew what everyone's reactions would be on the other side.
See ya later Oz and HELLO AGAIN ENGLAND!!!
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