Apr 2007

Hey guys

Well I know this is an early update, but I'm waiting for photos to up load and working up the courage to phone Surf Camp and beg for work.

So anyway, yesterday myself and a bunch of the people from the Surf Camp decided to hook up with GrassHopper tours to Nimbin. For those who don't know, Nimbin is basically the Australian Equivalent of Amsterdam. Complete with a "Bringabong" shop, "hemp embassy" and several smoke cafes and bars. What a strange place, really ...

Apparently the whole town was founded by a group of hippies in the 70s who decided the volcanic soul was perfect for planting marijuana, and they took over the small town of Nimbin which had been a ghost town at the time. Prior to the hippies arrival in the area, the whole region was in an economic slump, but after they arrived, the area gained alot more viability with tourism and such. Now there are at least 4 different tours out to Nimbin on a daily basis.

Our tour guide dropped us off in town after showing us the points of interest and gave us an hour to do what we wanted. He also advised us that despite appearances, marijuana was still illegal, but if we wanted cookies or cake, to be careful and only take a little at a time.

On the whole, while it was a strange place, not much worth mentioning happened in Nimbin. I stopped for Thai food with Laura and Nick, shopped around, paid for a photo with a rasta hat on, got lost and frightened in a museum, and generally was amused at the culture. One thing that was hilarious though, was when a bunch of us went in to the organic bakery. They had all these delicous looking cakes for sale, and one of the girls started buying a piece of everything. Then she politely asked the lady at the counter how "strong" they were. The lady got all mad and told her these were just regular organic cakes, and if she wanted the other kind, those were available on the street. We just knew something like that would have to happen eventually, just for the sheer cheese factor, but having it actually happen was hilarious!

It was really funny to be walking down the street and have like 5 people in the stretch of 4mins ask me if I wanted to purchase marijuana cookies. For those wondering, no I didn't buy any cookies, cakes or other dubious substances. I've got a pretty bad cold right now, so I'm on too many types of pain killers to attempt at experimenting with anything new right now.

our hour in Nimbin passed very quickly, and we headed back to the bus (cakes and cookies in tow) to head for our next destination. The reason I decided to go on this particular Nimbin tour was because it did other things than just stopping at the town. We headed off down the road to a gorgeous and secluded swimming spot. There was a waterfall, and a spot to cliff dive. We hung out there for an hour or so, but it was a little cold, and I had forgotten my swimming things. The guys all took turns jumping off the cliff though. It made for some really nice photos. check em out here
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=18000&l=d8b87&id=618320647

I do have more photos as well of my trip up to surf camp, I'll have to upload them. Well thats about it for Nimbin. for now I'm off to call Vicki @ Surf Camp and beg for work, then head back to the hostel and do some laundry.

Ciao!

Oh so yeah,

picking up from where I left off, I spent Monday the 23rd in an $88 prison cell with bunkbeds, and had to be up to catch the bus at Central station for 8am. I got up, and yup, more rain! I shoulda bought an umbrella when I was out the day before, but I'm stuborn.

I grabbed a lovely bacon and egg roll from the cafe before braving the rain. I ended up at the bus station about a half ab hour early, but there were people waiting for the bus already I met Laura and Nick, a couple from the UK who did OzIntro 2 weeks before me it was awsome to talk to them, and discuss our varied experiences. There ended up being about 18 of us all told catching the waves bus to Seal Rocks (their camp) Steve-O, the driver was awsome We clicked right away joking and having a good time, despite the shitty weather. He told us our intructors were hanging in Sydney and we just had to wait for them. They turned out to be Ben, the most out rageously gay but adorable Aussie I've met so far, and Rob (or RobBob) the really cool surfer with a certain loathing for shirts. We hopped onto our big blue bus and headed right out to the Surf Camp. Ben played some tunes and sung very loudly along, and encouraged us not to miss the bus at our pit stop, but on the off chance that we did he might be able to hook us up with a job at McDonalds. RobBob lamented about people being prepared as he dished out a rather large sum for breakfast, and the rest of pepople mostly slept on the way up. I took some really nice pictures of the scenery though.

Were the views ever cool!! Lakes and Mountains, and picture-esque rainforest mountains with little clouds hanging around the peaks. It was really beautiful. I think it took us about 2 or 3 hrs to reach Seal Rocks and dump our bags. From there, we had a nice lunch of sandwiches and Salad, and one of the English guys made the mistake of trying veggimite. apprently it didnt agree with him. I thought it was funny though

After lunch it was a mad rush to grab wetsuits and head on out to the nearest beach. It took a little while, since the weather was really really bad at Seal Rocks, and the surf was too rough or non exsistant at the first couple beaches. We finally found one at Booti Booti (or Many Bees) national park. Sadly for us though, the 5 day crew was already there they only let about 20 surfers on the beach there at a time, so we had to wait quite a while to be able to surf. It was alright though. Poor Ben, had to teach us all the steps to standing up while hiding under the BBQ shelter. It was funny as all hell. He was hopping mad about it. Most of us decided to chill on the smaller bus as our Big Blue one had already headed back to Seal Rocks to refuel. When we finally got down to the water we had about an hour or two before it got too dark and had to go back. It was fun though As per usual, I spent more time standing beside my board working up the courage and energy to get on it than actually trying to stand up. Oh, and wet. I spent alot of time really really wet but it was fun none the less. RobBob helped me a bit, as did Ben, but it was a relief to see that most of us were on the same footing and all pretty horrible.

After peeling ourselves out of our wet suits and washing off in (blessedly) warm showers, we headed back to camp to set up out accomidation. Seal Rocks is like the Kananaskis camp you stay at in school. There is a little cabana, a pool, a deck, a beach volley ball area, and little cabins all around. Tuesday is always a fun day there, since the 5 day crew comming down from Byron to Sydney is there, and ofcourse the 4 and 5 day crews going north are there too. Too bad for us though, we were the last to get there, and that meant that our accomidation was a nice 10 min walk through the pouring rain to get there! In what I assume was typical Ben fashion, he swore up a storm as he tried to pack all of us 4 day crew onto the small bus with all our bags and drive us over. It was a nice little place though, and it was very funny. I had developed my first over seas migrain on the bus back, but caught it just in time to avoid the worst of the pain, but that wasnt the funny part. I ended up getting the loft all to myself, which was nice, but we had these 4 blonde sweedish girls on the tour and they got a room to themselves too. The guys were thrilled at the thought that there was litterally a room full of swedish women in their cabin.

since I had already taken a shower at the beach I just got changed in to something dry (thats a relative term by the way, everything I own is damp at best) and headed back to the small bus to catch the first lift back to the Cabana. Our little cabin had only 1 shower you see, and we had 18 people wanting to use it, and apparently no one was listening to the fact that there were more showers by the Cabana. Oh well. Anyway, I grabbed the bus with Ben (the instructor) and Robbie, my first Scottsman encounter. It was a little awkward being the only one from my crew in an already packed Cabana, but I managed to befriend Tom and um Richard, two guys going down to Sydney.

Eventually my crew showed up and I went to join em. Tuesday nights at the Cabana are insane! And the guys make sure of it. We all tossed money into a pot for beer and sangria for the night, so the alcohol was flowing. a little after dinner (which was delicous!) we were told the rules of a drinking game called "flip-cup" in which the 5 day north guys were going to be pitted against the rest of us. Basically you line up on both sides of the table, and everyone has some sangria in a little plastic cup. when your turn comes, you down it as fast as you can, then you have to flip your cup. You do this by placing it on the edge and hitting it with two fingers. once your cup is flipped, its the next person's turn. And which ever team is done first wins. We lost the first game, but won the second. Dillon (one of the awsome instructors on my tour) decided to up the stakes. Now before you flipped your cup, you had to remove an item of clothing. It was really funny, and I'll spare the details. but it was hilarious. then it was a giant dance party, followed by most of the 4 day crew trying desperately to remember which direction our cabin lay in. It was fun

Day 2 kicked off with some confusion as we didnt know if we had to bring all our bags back to the cabana or if Steve-o was gonna pick us up. But once that got sorted, the 4 and 5 day Northbound crew joined together to travel on up on the Big Blue Bus. Our instructors from here on were to be Dillon, RobBob, Zack, and Moonie. (I dont know how to spell Moonie, and apparently, he doesnt either. I asked) They were great so laid back. I really envied them.

Anyway, we all grabbed wet suits and all our junk and headed up the coast. I dont remember the name of our first stop, but it was a nice really easy beach just a little south of Coff's Harbour. We got a lesson here on how to turn our boards (important to note, I hadnt stood up yet) and how to stabalize and avoid large waves. techniques that include doing a barrel roll type thing called an Eskimo roll, and ditching, or diving into the wave. We learned about impact zones and thigns to watch for, and things to avoid.

So after that short lesson, into the water with you! Grueling taskmasters, these guys. Anyway, some of the guys and girls were doing really awsome, and me. ... well I was floundering. So RobBob came over to help me out with a few. Apparently it was a good idea to take me deeper into the water where the larger unbroken waves are. So I'm laying on my surf board, and hes sitting on the front of it, paddling me out and this look goes over his face. A look of Oh shit.. and Im thinking I am so not looking over my shoulder. he said soemthing, I think along the lines of "#$%$ bail man!" and promptly rolled my board over me. Well I had no idea so I swalled about 5 tons of sea water and we got washed about 15 - 20 feet back into shore. I came up sputtering and coughing and he was laughing. It was actually really funny. I told him we didnt have things like that in Canada. We had Ice hockey all year round, and baseball for 2 months out of the year. He thought that was funny. I got pushed onto a couple more waves, still with very little success past standing on my way to falling over before we headed back in. Wednesday also happened to be Anzac day. So we headed into Coff's Harbor for pizza and drinks at the Great Northern Hotel I think. It was nice place, but we were warned ahead of time about Bogans and Yaboes, or Aussie Red Necks. had some fun, drank like fish, and headed to our next camp for the night. itwas um wei something I think.

And as we settled in, we started to relise there was a healthy number of spiders around. I managed to grab the one (very cold) shower were the there were none. Didnt get much more done than washing the sand off though. We watched Point Break (ahh Keanue Reeves, how we love/hate thee) and slept like the dead.

It was another early morning and then we were on our way to Yuraygir national park. I should mention at this point, that the day before, I forgot my pants out in the rain and my towel had not been dry in about 3 days. Yuraygir was to be our true "camping" location, so I was pretty excited.

The location was gorgeous! the beach was about a 5 min walk through the bush away, and you could hear the surf from our camp site. We had a short demo on tent erecting by Moonie (believe me, there were many erecting jokes here) and then we all scrambled to grab tents and flat surfaces on which to put them. I was in a tent with Robbie the Scottsman, and Lucy, a really nice english girl. We got our tent up in about 5 mins flat and went to help some other people. The poor Swedish didnt have as much luck. They had to get about 10 different people to help them. It was really funny. then it was lunch and off to the beach! The waves were alot harder than the day before though, and even the guys who had been catching the unbroken ones were having a tough time out there. I should also mention at this point that Zack had unfortunatly left us he hadnt been feeling well on the bus at all and had only gone in the water once for about 10 mins. I felt bad losing him, but at the same time, we gained a female instructor named Hanna. She was great. It was nice to see a woman doing this sort of thing. Just a bit of an affirmation that yes, we can do this! I talked to her for a bit, and it turns out she is headed to the Rockies for the coming winter ... thats just crazy if you ask me. One other thing of note happened on this beach. One of the girls found a dead Jellie as we were taking a short break. It was really gross looking, but RobBob thought it was hilarious and picked it up and started chasing the poor girl around. In a further show of amusing creative genious, he also used the jellie as a wig and a fake boob. Dont ask me why, but I thought it was funny as all hell.

Anyway, being our "last night" out camping, we headed in to the "bottle shop" at Broomes head and stocked up on the booze before going back to our camp site. Most of the rest of the night was a blur, filled with Bungaburge, Schmirnoff, and bad jokes with Dillon. I got to talk to RobBob for a bit, but spent alot of time wandering along the paths listening to the ocean. It was really cool. The stars were out a little as well when there was an occasional break in the clouds. Eventually a few of us convinced Dillon to honor his earlier offer of a beach walk, and we started off down the path. He took us to a grave site, which was creepy as hell Apparently some poor girl was brutally killed out there a few years back (yikes!) and there was a cross to mark where she was found. It was really sad. Then we turned back and headed on to the beach. We hadnt gone far when Signea (pronounced a little like Xena with more of an S sound) yelled at Dillon to stop. There was a giant spiderweb crossing our path, complete with a large disgusting spider right in the middle. Yuck!! The worst part was when Dillon tried to pick up the spider to throw it out of the way, then proceded to crash through the web to clear the path for us. Nice jesture, but still .... ew
The beach was alright, but since the moon was covered up by clouds at this point, the phosphorescents on the beach were all dark and it wasnt too impressive, so it wasnt long before we headed back into camp. Robbie and Lucy decided they wanted to go to bed, so I decided to follow them so I didnt wake them up getting in later. Unfortunatly though, our tent was pitched next to a couple of the other Scottish guys who snored like lumber jacks all through the night! I didnt get any sleep at all, and when you've been putting yourself through hours in the water battling waves, drinking hard, and lugging heavy stuff all over ... well it takes a toll. I got up really early and walked down to the beach and watched some kangaroos for a while as I waited for everyone to wake up. Helen and Lauren (the camp helpers) were up first, so we chatted for a bit. turns out Lauren is from Edmonton, and she was very sad because she was leaving the camp at the end of the week we made some coffee and took a stroll to where we held the camp fire the night before. what a mess!! I might point out, we were staying in a national park, but it looked more like the back yard of a frat house! Bottles, Butts and assorted crap all over! It was really gross, so I helped pick up the bottles and things before going to grab some breakfast. I got bored and went to watch some moto-cross videos with RobBob in the bus after a bit. He was really cool. apparently he does all sorts of extreme sports, not just surfing. There was much um whinging as they call it, over the fact that I didnt sleep vs the fact that I alone had no hang over. It was funny. Then again, off to the beach!

It was here that we saw dolphins up close for the first time! they were really close to shore and Laura and I sat watching them for a bit as we waited for everyone else to come in. We learned all about surfing ettiquette before going into the water again. I was starting to feel pretty shitty as I alone had not really stood up or caught a wave at all in the 4 days we were out. I couldnt keep my back heel down, or I couldnt keep off my knees etc, so RobBob dedicated a very generous portion of his time to helping me. With his encouragement and help I actually got out and caught my first unbroken waves!!! The feeling was absolutely amazing. Its almost enough to make me want to cry thinking about it. standing on a board and feeling like I was flying through the water, it was just ... just wow. I think Rob's reaction was even better than mine hahaha he was litterally jumping with joy. I should mention that before he was helping me, I lost control on a wave and earned myself a pretty hefty smash in the head from my board. So hard infact that when I surfaced I couldnt hear for a few mins. luckily one of the guys pulled my board out of the way of the next wave or I would have been hit again. Anyway, I mention that mostly because by now I had a searing head ache, but I was having so much fun with Rob I just didnt want to go in. And he kept saying "one more, come on, one more" eventually though I got to tired to stand up any more, so I swam back in and grabbed my camera and some asprin. I didnt manage to get any good action shots, but I got to watch Dillon Moon-dog and RobBob surfing for a bit. Hanna was showing one of the girls how to body surf. It looked fun. But we headed back in for lunch before I had much chance to try my camera. It was freezing on the beach that day! and most of us were huddled in soaked clothing / towels shivering. It wasnt very fun, but we had a good BBQ lunch to warm us up. During lunch a signup sheet went around for our little "surfing competition" finale for the afternoon. And me ... well I wanted to impress RobBob, so I signed up like a foolish kid Moonie went over the rules, which included the most points for nudity and sabotauge, and then set us loose. Before you ask, no I didnt strip, I didnt even catch a single wave! I had some phenominal wipe outs though. In my infinate winsdome I paddled out to the unbroken waves. Every time i paddled for one though, I wasnt going fast enough and it just passed under me. I eventually gave up and went back to the white wash to get beaten up there for a bit. after 15 mins of pure embarassement we headed back to the bus to get dried off. Moonie was going to anounce the winners when we got on the road. One of the dutch guys, Tom I think, won first prize, but they had a number of honorable mention categories including most amusing wipe out (one of the guys lost his board shorts) most technical surfing, and longest wave .... and a new category, most persistant surfer hahaha. Created just for me (blush) that was funny. We drove on to Byron with mixed feelings, I knew I was going to miss the guys, but I would be happy to get a proper night's sleep at the Arts factory. We would be arriving in Byron with enough time to get settled in and shower before a farewell dinner at Jamies cafe or something along the main road at 8pm. As Iwas getting off the bus RobBob gave me a big ol' hug and some encouraging words. I think I'll miss him the most, infact, I really really miss him and all the guys. I've emailed Waves asking if they need helpers for the last month of the season, so with any luck, I'll head back down to Seal Rocks again on friday, but I wont hold my breath.

For now though, I have got to run as I'm meeting up with some of the girls to head to the Markets here. Yay shopping! I'll leave you with this. So far, the hardest part of being a traveller is living with people and investing in friendships for 4 or 5 days or what ever, and then all of a sudden, boom thats it. your tour is done, and you leave. Never to see the people you've just gotten to know so well ever again. I seriously sat and just cried about it after the party was done on Friday night. it was really rather embarassing. but yeah, ok gotta go, up loading photos later!

Ciao miss you all I'll let you know how the waves thing turns out

hey Guys

Holy crap I didnt realise how long I've been away for. Sorry if anyone was worried (you know who you are) but things are fine.

I've been out in the wilderness having the time of my life for the last 4 days!

Anyway, I appologize in advance because this is going to be one long ass entry. I'm gonna try and upload some photos on here as well, but we'll see. I might also split this into two

So! where did I leave off... oh right the Blue Mountains.

So after the Blue Mountains trip, things with OzIntro went a tiny bit downhill, but it was still alright. Our "Club Crawl" Consisted of the crappy club in Coogee and one free drink at every bar with like 15mins of driving between. It was fun though, till our tour ditched us all at the WakeUp hostel bar (20 mins drive from Coogee) and we all had to catch cabs back. I might mention that we all went a little more than a little over our limits for drinking.

Then it was off to the Tower on Sunday night for our farewell dinner. Now talk about a snazy affair! the restaraunt at the top rotates. It was really cool actually, it was raining for the last couple days in Sydney and we had a lightening storm going on while we were up there. So the whole city was lit only by the lights in the buildings, looking like tons of little stars. Then the restaraunt would rotate to view the harbour, and lightning would flash, lighting up the water, the bridge, the opera house. It was breathtaking unfortunatly, my pictures from there didnt turn out great, but oh well.

The food was pretty good too out there. Lots of choice, but the fish was rubbery. For those wondering, I did try a tiny little bit of camel and kangaroo, and didnt like either the Kangaroo was tasteless and the camel was cold.

As a piece of advice by the way, for anyone wanting accomidation in Sydney ... BOOK AHEAD! Our pre-paid accomidation in coggee ran out as of Monday morning, and the majority of us decided to head to a more central location as many of us were taking busses out of Sydney. However, me being stupid, decided I'd just let everyone else take care of it, and forgot to mention for them to book me a dorm. Anyway, I arrived and, much to my annoyance, despite having 8 mostly free floors, without a reservation, you could not book into a dorm! so I paid $88 ($88!!!!!!) for a room to myself. the worst part came as we were exploring around the hostel and there was a decent hotel down the street with single rooms for $60 /sob! hahah oh well. Live and Learn. it was a good sleep, and wakeup was really nice and clean.

couple fun facts about Sydney life before I move on, first off... Coke-cola is expensive! $3 for a 600ml bottle. 2nd, they do not have Captain Morgan's rum! 3rd, all their spirit mixes (vodka & sprite or lemonade as they call it, and rum and coke) come pre- mixed. So my favorite drink at the moment is Bundaburg rum and Coke.
oh right, and bus prices in Sydney are never flat rate. its based on how many "sectors" you are going through. So when you get on the bus you tell the driver where you need to go, and he figures out your fare from there.

I did end up going into the markets with Amy and Adam (the "Ginger couple" as the other English called em) on Saturday. Saw lots of cool things around the Rocks, but it was all geared towards your short term traveller. We then got very lost in the City, and here's another fun fact ... there is more than one Harbor in Sydney!

we were wandering around a commercial district for a couple hours before we found an internet cafe, (which reminds me, photos are on my face book site, I'll get the link) and uploaded photos and checked emails. We still had to get back for the club crawl though, so we were rushing to find out bus. We stopped in at a convenience store to ask the clerk which way to the harbor, or the Quay, and he looked as us funny. Apparently not every person in Sydney knows how to get to the opera house. We eventually found someone who understood us enough to point us in the direction of the harbor ... only to find out it was the wrong one! they took us to Darling Harbour instead of Sydney Harbor, so we walked like a half an hour out of our way! We eventually found a really nice local girl who took us to the bus stop back to Coogee.

And as if I didnt learn my lesson the first time, I went to Bondi Beach with Emma and Charlene on Sunday and spent a couple hours looking for the tatoo parlor out there. That was fun. Turns out you need several days in order to get one (thank God, cuz they wanted me to get one too) and we didnt have that kind of time. Emma and I were both leaving on Teusday so it was a bit of a waste. We did hit the Bondi markets though, that was fun. Emma bought a dress for $10, and I got a nice bag the zipper already broke on it, but its really nice. Its big enough to hold all my beach stuff and then some! and it was only $14.

Oh right, and another thing about Sydney life ... buy and umbrella ... a big one! Sara, Charlene and I got stuck in some god forsaken part of derelict China town on the 23rd looking for a bank and it started pouring! We were stuck in a closed mall for about a half an hour before the rain let up enough to boot it back to the hostel.

Anyway, I just tried to upload some photos, but this connection is just too slow, and when you are paying $4/hr, I just dont have the patience. Anyway, check out this link for a map of Sydney, the red area is Darling harbor where we got sent to, luckily we didnt get all the way there before we realized we were in the wrong area

http://www.metromonorail.com.au/Artwork/MetroSydneyMap-Web.gif

So yeah, we all met up in the Side Bar (below wakeup hostel) for a going away party, and parted ways. I was leaving the next morning for Waves Surf School. Check that out in my next entry

For now, my photos can be found here
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=15806&id=618320647

sigh now to type about my last week back in a min

Hey guys!

Well today was a blast We took an Ozexperience bus to the Blue Mountains this morning for a day of grueling hikes I'm kidding, it wasnt really that bad.

The morning kicked off really early at 7am!! eeewww, but the driver was awsome. Adam the driver was possibly the most interesting person I've met out here. He plays the Digereedoo, or umm Walunga I think he called it, and he knows alot about the aboriginal people since he was a tour guide up in the North for so long. He gave me some real insight into the culture up there, as well as some inside info on where the best Chasms and stuff were. Looks like Kakadu up in Darwin is really really good.

Oh right! the Blue Mountains, anyway, we kicked off the day by seeing our first Kangaroos! a whole little family of em, Joey's and everything they were more than 10 weeks old, since they were out of the pouches now, but still cute. Adam taught us how to identify the males as well... lets see, how did he put it? Oh right, the um Potatoes are infront of the meat ... lovely picture at 7am >.<
The 'roos let us get really close to them too, which was great. We even got to see them hop a bit. Interesting factoid, Kangaroos dont sweat.

Next off we had a quick stop at a quaint little mountain town in which I saw my first trees shedding their leaves for the fall. I think I got a picture of it, but I'm not too sure, after all, it was early after et another late ass night.

After the pit stop it was off to our first walk which took us down the mountains into the rain forest. It was amazing! So cool under the canopy despite the heat and sun. I got loads of pictures down there. We also unfortunatly saw tons of funnel web spiders (I managed to not shriek!) which for those who dont know, is the most deadly spider in the world. Lucky for us, breeding season was just finishing. Fun Factoid : Funnel web spider females eat the males after breeding, and die shortly after laying eggs.

I spent most of the walk chatting with Adam the guide, and Charlene. It was nice the view of the falls was amazing.

After our walk we headed for lunch and met up with another OzExperience group. Their lady guide was a little eccentric. She picked up a dead possum because she didnt want it rotting on the walk. eeeww! A couple of the guys thought it would be fun to dress it up with a cigarette in the mouth and sunglasses on. ick!

Anyhow, I got my face painted with an aboriginal tatoo, and played a digeredoo Adam is good at it, he can make all sorts of noises, and he is able to do the circular breathing needed to play it properly. Apparently, I'm a natural or something hahahaha. I actually managed to get a drone going.

Speaking of those instruments, I dont know if I mentioned, but over at the Circular Quaye (pronounced Key) on um Wednesday, there were two guys playing to some background music. It was really awsome! I'm going to buy their CD if they are there tomorrow. really great dance music.

Anyway, after lunch it was off to the Three Sisters and the world's steepest train Up in the mountains by the Three Sisters there used to be a ton of coal mines. There are something near 957 stairs to climb down, and back up again... guess how thrilled we were to learn that? Luckily though there is the train to take you back up if you are willing to shell out a couple bucks. (it was included for us) so down the stairs we went, seeing yet more evidence of funnel web spiders, some hanging swamps, and one of the more gorgeous views I've seen in a long time. Some dude even has a house over looking the valley! Imagine how much that would go for?

Anyway, there is a story to the three sisters, I'll post it when I get the photos done. For those of you wondering, I'm going to hit a cafe tomorrow to do it. I just havent had time. Tomorrow is a free day though, so no excuse.

In other news, funny store signs include a dutch one aout sex machines, a convenience store that said "Lin X - multiple business" and a giant billboard advertising tantric sex.

Tomorrow i head down the the Quay and hopefully off to Glebe and Newtown where the comic shops, used clothing and book stores, and generally less judgemental types are Then there is the pub crawl. Ug another non sleeping night. thats gonna get to me soon, but I'll be moving on soon enough.

I've decided on a 5 day tour up the coast to Byron Bay doing Surfing. Im determined to do more than just ride a wave on my belly Its gonna put me back about $500, but it includes accomidation, travel, and meals, which would be about 300-400 anyway, so its not that bad. I need to find out if they have full wetsuits though, so I dont get the rash on my arms again.If not though, Michael told me about a place at Bondi Junction to buy 2nd hand wet suits for dirt cheap

Anyway, photos to come tomorrow! (I swear ... sort of)

Amy

Hey guys!

Long time no um ... type. Yeah, anyway, I know your thinking that I havent updated, but I did! I swear ... sort of. I had to start a new blog, but I think I'll just keep this one. It'll be easier in the long run I think.

Wow so where to start. Things here are pretty cool. the Ozintro group I'm with is made up of mostly English (or Poms) and a couple Irish (or ... Irish) people. Pretty good bunch, except I feel like I dont even speak the same language. They keep laughing at me when I call things by their Canadian name. Like French fries are chips, and chips are crisps.

One thing I've noticed about the Australians ... there are very fitness oriented. no matter what the weather, or the time of day, if there is an open stretch of road / beach, it will be packed with runners. Guarenteed! We took a stroll through the botanical gardens on Monday and earned ourselves no small amount of scornful looks as we took a liesurely pace along the paths. It was pretty cool, until we came to a path flanked by large trees. Trees you say? whats so bad about that? Well let me tell you ... these particular trees were webbed...and full of giant disgusting spiders!! EEEWW I had to cover my head and litterally dash through. If there had been another way, I would have gone it.

Surfing on Tuesday was really cool I can see why people want to do it alot. But please, if you do it, get yourself a full wet suit! I'll post the pictures when I get to a cafe, but you'll see why. It looks like I've developed some sort of flesh eatting virus on my elbows. Owie!!

I havent seen much for native fauna, though Mom, you would love some of the flowers out here. Micheal told me what this one really cool one was called it was ummm a Waatah ? it basically looks like umm well like a bulb, with sharp spikey petals. Its really cool.

well I have only 4 mins left, and too much to type, so I'm going to leave it for now. I need to go to a cafe to download my photos, so I'll try and do that today since i have some time before I need to go Snorkling (cant wait!)

Anyway, Ciao! Miss you guys!
Amy

P.s. Brits are freaking vulgar!