Byron Bay & Surf Camp to Sydney

WEDNESDAY 26TH AUGUST

Another short trip, this time to Byron Bay.
Just after settling in, we went for a walk along the beach, which must have been a dog beach, as about 20 dogs were running around me. I don't mind ONE dog... but this was slightly scary.

We had a walk around the town, which didn't really amount to much. We got back to the hostel to watch the next installment of Australian Idol and then had all intentions of going out the 'cheeky monkeys' where we would get a free meal. - However neither of us were feeling very hungry so we went to bed early.



Earlier that evening we'd met our roommates... two seemingly nice Germans, a guy and a girl who were apparently just friends.

They woke me up around 3am for an hour and a half... doing what you can guess they were doing. NOT fun for me as I'd left my iPod in my suitcase and what with the bed rocking and the *noises*, I was NOT impressed. :(


THURSDAY 27TH AUGUST

We got up leisurely at about 9am - luckily the vile duo had vacated. It turned out Sarah heard nothing of what went on the night before... great.

We were picked up at about 10.30am for the Grasshopper coach tour for a day trip to Nimbin, which is a strange little hippy town where the police seem to let people carry on smoking weed and selling cookies and cakes to tourists. It's all fun though and the whole place is devoted to praising marijuana. Quite a few of the group bought special cookies and weed from various people on the streets. We also went to the Nimbin Museum, which is devoted to the joys and pluses of marijuana and also the hippy lifestyle.



We then went to a pub called the Channon by a bridge and a gorge for a bit of barbeque and some drinks.



After this we went to a little part of the river which had a pool and a cliff for jumping off. I had intended on going in... but the water was SO cold! It was pretty funny watching the crazy loonies jumping and jumping and jumping again.



After we got back, we watched some TV and then went to bed.


FRIDAY 28TH AUGUST

Had a lie in today then went on the internet to download X factor :) We went into town for some lunch, which was amazing! - chicken, bacon, avocado & Camembert baquette... very nice.

We then went back and met our 2 new roommates who were a brother and sister from Cornwall - with no prior history of insest, so I was assured of a good sleep hahaa.

They watched X factor with us and then we sat around chatting and getting ready as we had invited them to come out with us to get the free dinner at cheeky Monkeys where we were going to meet Tanya, a friend we'd made before.




It was a really nice meal, wasnt free infact... but you got money off and a free pint. We tried a few places on the way back including the Railway bar... which was full of the 'locals', you can imagine the type. Also on the way home there were people doing fire poi, i.e. juggling with fire batons etc - We also got some free Chai tea, which was REALLY good!




Then went to bed as we had to be up early for *SURF CAMP* tomorrow.

SATURDAY 29TH AUGUST

We arrived at Surf Camp, or SPOT X at about midday just in time for some lunch which you could partake in, if you wanted to pay $5. I wasn't hungry so I didn't.

We then went through for our lesson on surfing, which involved a short lecture on the dos and don'ts of surfing; mainly watch out for other people and don't pee in the wetsuit.



We then got changed into our wetsuits and grabbed a board - VERY heavy as they are the beginner boards which are pretty much foam but are huge so surfing is easier. They were almost impossible to carry, especially with the photographer clicking away at you.



We then went over a bridge, over a little inlet river from the sea and then near to the shore where we had a practical lesson of how to get up on the board. We also did a little bit of fake swimming which was pretty hilarious! Then it was time for a group photo... which for some reason the guide insisted we JUMP for...




Then it was time to put these lessons into practice and go SURFING!

It was very hard actually and the trickiest thing was knowing which wave to go for as some looked massive but filtered out by the time they reached you and others looked liked nothing then took you by surprise by wiping you out.

However, I managed to stand up on the board a few times, mainly when the guide was helping me and telling me when to go, but a few on my own.



We were out there for over 2 hours and I got progressively worse mainly because it was so tiring.

On my last wave back to shore I decided to just ride the wave lying down - which of course the photographer caught on camera - cue cheesey smile haha.



It was then time to get changed and shower off and meet back at the main area, which was showing all of the photographs on a widescreen TV which was pretty funny and cringe-worthy because of all the daft faces people pull when they're concentrating. I decided to pay for a package to get the photos, a bag, T-shirt and Certificate - well when else am I going to go surfing!?



It was then time for dinner which was a make your own burger and chips and salad all very tasty and then apple crumble and custard for dessert. - Not as good as Dad's though.

It was then time for a booze run into the town to get some alcohol for the evening, I of course went for a big box of Goon! lovely.

We stayed up chatting a while, but it started raining, so I went to bed earlyish but not before I encountered a few possums right outside our little chalet. I allerted the Italian girls in our group to this and they all came out to take pictures and *almost* pet the possum. - I warned them that they bite! - but how cute are they?





SUNDAY 30TH AUGUST

Up at 6am for breakfast and then leaving at 7am for the very long journey back to good old Sydney!
The coach journey was particularly unpleasant as the air conditioning was broken and also it was very winding, so it really didn't feel very safe with the coach sway from side to side on the fast motorways.

On the way down we passed this hilarious services, which has Uluru (ayers rock) as it's roof! - there ya go, no need to travel all the way to the real Uluru!




Before long though and quite a few silly movies we were back at Base in Sydney Central!


Now... time to go back to AMI for a month and a bit to get some money for coming home.

Brisbane & Surfers Paradise

FRIDAY 21TH AUGUST

The coach journey was a very annoying journey as there was 2 drunk french guys who had been drinking goon since 8am that morning and made ALOT of noise on the bus. So much so that the driver was very tempted to drive off without them, when after dropping someone off, they both hopped off for a cigarette?! - not a scheduled stop.

Unfortunately it turned out that they were getting off in Brisbane as well AND staying in Base with us... NOOO

As we got to Base we pleaded with the rather crazy guy behind the desk to a) put us in a room not too high up (the ancient looking lift was out of order) and also please not to put the drunken french guys in our room.

After getting to our room, which was really clean and nice, with some friendly but on the quiet side roomies, we had a bit of a look around Brisbane which seemed to consist of mostly shops, bars and restaurants. It's quite a lovely place really though, very clean and easy to mooch around. We eventually headed over to Brisbane Square, which is where the Casino and Library meet. For some reason the square houses a few large metal balls... not sure why.



The interesting thing about Brisbane is that the Buses have underground lanes?! - yeh so instead of an underground train it's all buses and they come out and under the city. You can see the bus lane in this picture, going under Brisbane Square.



We then went over the bridge to get to the Southbank area, which has an 'eye' much like the London Eye, but much smaller. There is also the lagoon, a manmade beach, which actually seemed quite dirty. There's a lovely walkway which is framed by pretty flowers, which skirts around Southbank. It was at this point that my camera decided to jam. - It happened with my last camera - most likely a grain of sand got into the lense and that meant it couldn't focus properly. The same thing had happened to Sarah who I was living with originally and it was the sand from Whitehaven beach, as it is so fine.





I took it to a camera shop, but was not shocked to learn that the manufacturer would not fix it just replace the lens... which would be $300 !? - so the price of a new camera. I asked "well can I clean the lens myself?", he replied that it's pretty much 'cactus' so I may as well.

We stopped off at a hardware store to get a tiny tiny tiny screwdriver to take the camera apart.

On getting back to the hostel I did the following things to my camera.
*took it apart
*wiped it
*blew on it
*tapped it
*put it back together
*poked at it
*dropped it
*bit it to try to to force it.

None of these things worked at all, so in defeat I lightly head butted the camera. Curiousity took over and I just had to turn it on one last time and as if by magic, it was as good as ever!

In the evening, Marine met up with us as she was also in Brisbane. We had heard that the 'Down Under' Bar, which was underneath BASE hostel was good - so me and Marine went down to check it out. It was really small, with alot of drunken people and drunken fat men gyrating against poles. - we left quickly.

We decided to have a big night out the following night and go to 'Fortitude Valley', which is where all the main clubs and bars are and about 30 minutes walk away.


SATURDAY 22ND AUGUST

Sarah & I both needed to buy cards, mine was a fathers day car, as fathers day is on a different day in Australia; and Sarah needed to buy her stepdad a birthday card. We had a bit of a walk round and pretty much walked the same route as we did the day before, as Sarah had forgotten her camera that day.

We then came back and did all our washing and then got ready for a night out with Marine and this Irish guy called Alan who was being our guide for the night.

We went out firstly to this chinese restaurant, which had by far the best chinese food I've had in Australia.
I had some sort of spicy beef dish with noodles. We then went to this decidedly shady irish pub, full of drunk middle aged irish people. - We left there pretty quick! Then we got in a taxi to go Fortitude Valley, which wasn't very far away.



First of all we went to a bar called RG, but Alan realised he had left his ID at home and wouldn't be allowed in without it, so we waited in the bar for him to nip home for it. Not much going on there so we tried another one,
which I can't remember the name of, but it was a very fun place, with FAR too many people in there and not enough air conditioning. Got chatting with a group of friends, one in particular called Ben. They said the best place to go is the 'Wickham'. They were right and we had a fantastic night out there... til around 3ish?


SUNDAY 23RD AUGUST - TUESDAY 25TH AUGUST

The next Oz Experience coach left pretty late at about 2pm so we just hung around on the internet in BASE until the coach arrived. We were disgusted to see that those drunk idiot frenchmen were getting the same coach; although they were actually pretty quiet this time.

At the start of the journey, the driver, Keyno, asked us all to write on the window the time we thought we'd arrive in Surfers Paradise. I won! and I got a lollipop for my prize!

We were dropped off at a central bus station and upon asking at the accomodation desk, we were told that we'd be picked up by a limo!? - WHAT?! This was true, but it was a very old one, with a very 'distressed' looking, (or moth-eaten) interior.

We were taken to our hostel... which was basically a stoner house. - or so it seemed. Full of drunk gypsy irish and canadian surfers. The weather had also gotten REALLY hot.. apparently the hottest heat wave in August so the whole time at Surfers Paradise, it was around 35... and quite sticky... so not very pleasant.

Because of this, for the next few days we did little more than stroll around the shops, sit on the beach, watch DVDs and Australian Idol which was on every evening for the semi finals - knocking down from 24 to 12.

Sleeping was difficult, as it was SO hot at night and the irish people seemed to think it was perfectly fine to sit right outside my open window and shout at the tops of their voices at 4am!?

We made friends with 2 girls from Newcastle and I went out drinking with them one evening.

My impression of Surfers Paradise, was like an overgrown council estate with a beach, it really was pretty skanky and full of how shall we say 'undesirables'. They do have the 2nd highest building in Australia though.