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Blog 27
05/05/08
Sorry it's been so long since the last blog! The last entry of photos largely relates to this blog, so I apologise for any confusion beforehand. So much has happened it's hard to know where to begin. 3 has now become 2, Helen caught a plane up to Airlie Beach in the Whitsunday Islands just yesterday for work, and we are now in Bundaberg. But I'll start from where we left off…
After posting the blog in Sydney we had a night of torrential rain, enough to make us decide to leave the Sydney area. It was that bad. We got in the van early after wrapping up a flooded out tent and jumped straight onto the freeway heading north. It kept raining for much of our journey, we just wanted to find somewhere dry so we could hang our clothes and the tent out! There were several bad traffic jams, many people had misjudged the performance of their cars in the wet weather and planted them into the central reservation or other cars. We saw 4 bad crashes in the space of 5kms! Every river we drove over had burst its banks, and the weather remained the same until well past Coffs Harbour.
After spending the night at a quirky little hamlet called Little Italy in much drier weather we made our way into Byron Bay. When we arrived we went straight to the beach to see what the surf was like, and found the most perfect lines we'd ever seen… only in miniature. Still, the 1'6" waves were worth getting the bodyboard down for and Laura and I had a great time messing about in the surf. We crossed the Queensland border that afternoon and aimed for a campsite we'd seen on the map near Canungra, in the Tamborine Mountains area south of Brisbane. We had a few orientation issues; the map wasn't in enough detail for us to use and the roadsigns were very sparse. We gave up looking for that site and aimed for another in North Tamborine, but when we couldn't find that one either we stumbled across the one we were originally looking for! But not before I decided I'd had enough of driving in the dark on twisty mountain roads not knowing where I was going. Laura offered to drive but had problems working the vans controls as she'd only driven it in a straight line before. After having close to a nervous breakdown Helen took over from her and got us to the Campgrounds. She had a few issues of her own, though, as the signs weren't exactly clear. On one hairpin bend there were arrows pointing in both directions!
The next day we hit the Gold Coast, starting at Miami and heading up to Surfers Paradise. It was a really nice day, we'd heard bad things about the area being built way too built up but we all agreed it was refreshing and enjoyable to have a city on the beach. There was constantly something going on and I can imagine it'd be a great place to live, especially if you're a city bod who likes the outdoors. We visited the Hard Rock Café, the only one in Australia. They served us a great lunch, and it was a good experience as none of us had ever been to one before. We checked in to a Big4 park on the river just north of Surfers, where the facilities were top notch. There were three swimming pools, a great little café, and lots of other hidden treats.
We spent the next few days looking around Surfers and the local area. Laura and I visited the "Wet'n'Wild" water park, and we all made a day of Australia Zoo, Steve Irwin's zoo. We watched croc feeding, stroked kangaroos and koalas, held baby crocs and saw allsorts of endangered animals, native and non-native. It was fascinating to watch the tigers, the keepers were constantly in the pen with them and the way they interacted was amazing. On the way out we walked past the Steve Irwin Memorials. There were messages written on khaki shirts hung down both sides of a long fence. After reading a few of them and seeing some of the art and poems people had left I was starting to look like everyone else who was reading them, deep in thought and a little emotional. This guy really made an impact on our world.
We also applied for some jobs in Surfers, and I was offered a trial at a seafood restaurant. After working for 2 hours and still not seeing the manager I found out off a colleague that pay was $11 an hour (I'd been getting $17 at Dome), and that the first 2 days of work were as a trial and thus unpaid. I walked out. Laura got a trial at another restaurant a couple of doors up that offered much better pay. They said they'd get back to her and that was last Thursday. We still haven't had any word.
Before Laura's work trial we'd dragged Helen along for a cheap afternoon session at Wet'n'Wild. The rides were much better with 3 of us, we found ourselves in 3 seat rubber rings flying down bobsleigh-style water slides and dropping over waterfalls on rafts into a massive funnel where water was sprayed at you from all angles. It was tremendous fun.
The next day we decided to visit Purlingbrook Falls, and the "Best of All" Lookout, both of which we had been told not to miss by a guide book I'd picked up. Purlingbrook Falls is a huge single drop waterfall, from memory it's over 100m high and is spectacular viewing. We walked from a lookout at the top down to a path that ran behind the waterfall and got some great pics. The walk was interesting as we started out in woodland and finished up in dense rainforest. The "Best of All" lookout is perched on the side of a mammoth volcano and looks out over the crater. The extinct volcano spans nearly 50km, and we could see Byron Bay from the lookout.
The next day we found ourselves at Redcliffe, where we got the fishing gear out for the first time in a while. Unfortunately we were unsuccessful, and Helen slipped on a rock resulting in a red face and a lost ring. We all enjoyed ourselves nonetheless.
After much disappointment on the jobsearch Helen decided to fly up to Airlie Beach from Brisbane to meet up with Dani from Rotto, who'd said there were a few hospitality jobs available up there. Our plan was to stay 'round Brisbane until the van sold then make our way by train or plane to Cairns for work, then hire a 4x4 back to Sydney for our flight out of Oz. After dropping Helen off at the airport Laura and I decided to take a walk around Brisbane city centre. There was a market on the south river bank so we went to take a look around. South Bank was really pretty, with small pockets of rainforest dotted around and little cafes in amongst it all. We came across the "Streets Beach", a small lagoon with white sands right next to the city. Everywhere we went everything was really laid back, it was quite a nice city. We picked up a backpackers magazine and I made a call to a hostel in Bundaberg (Bundy to the locals) who'd advertised work available. They agreed to take us both on over the phone so we hit the 300km drive north.
We arrived in Bundy today and upon speaking to the people at the hostel found out there had been a terrible mistake - we had been double booked. To work for these hostels you have to stay at them, it's part of the deal. After ringing around for us they found beds for 3 other people in the city, 2 of which made up a double room in a hostel just down the road, which they booked us in at. We start work for this hostel tomorrow, I'm to be picking melons and Laura tomatoes. We're looking forward to earning our own money again!
Ciao for now, Laura and James xxx
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