so, while I was busy running out of money in Darwin, I stumbled across a job in the remote NT, in some place called Elliott, It was as a bar and chamber maid with free meals, accommodation and Air conditioning (thats what really got me, was the air con) Anyway, a short phone call later and the job was mine. Now I'm not one to usually stem into situations entirely unprepared, so I before hopping onto a 12 hour bus ride, I did a little googling. Well basically the only thing I could find out was that Elliot had a population of about ... 700 give or take. That and a rough location as being roughly half way between Alice Springs and Darwin. Exciting, no? But hey, what an opportunity! Here I have an honest chance to save some serious cash, and actually meet some aboriginals, so why not? Well 12 hrs later, and the bus drops me off on the side of the highway, litterally! Next to what I can only describe as a tin shed with visions of grandeur. And atop this shed, a simple sign proclaims it to be "Elliot Hotel" Oh dear. The bus driver gave me an understandably funny look as I slowly slunk off the bus, wishing over and over in my mind for there to be 2 Elliott's and for this to be the wrong one. This hope was shattered, however, when a little green car with a lasy and a funny looking dog pulled up to claim me. Enter Lena (a Germanic Zambian) and Rowdy (a Rotti-shepherd cross) Lena helped me load my stuff and drove me around back where i could unload. Then it was inside to meet the new bosses.

Sitting inside the "bar" was one new boss, Peter who looked kind of like Santa Clause .. but in shorts ... and drunk. It wasn't long before I learned that Pete starts drinking some time between noon and 1pm and doesn't generally stop until the bar closes. Nice guy though. Enjoying the evening alongside Pete were Mark and Vanessa, the two young owners of the Post office. Within about 20 mins of arriving, I knew Vanessa's whole life story and then some. Nice girl, but wow could she talk! (It might be interesting to note that neither Mark, nor Vanessa remembered meeting me that night and I re-met them the next week) Sadly though, after 12hrs of sitting on a bus I wasn't much for talking, and excused myself to go and unpack and see my room.

Despite outward appearances, (it looked like a miniature portable class room, like the ones from Elementary school) I have to admit it was actually quite nice. It included a wardrobe, my own bed, a tv, fridge, microwave, a chair and a couch! Pretty fancy considering where I had been before.

The next morning was to be one of many early starts as I joined Lena at around 8am to start cleaning the rooms. The hotels routine was pretty standard, rooms in the am, and working the pub at 5pm, with free time to do what ever in between. Lena took me for a tour of the town, which took about 15mins and included such sights as the golf course (which had 9 holes of mini golf too!) the clinic, police station, library (only open between 1pm and 3pm like 2 days a week) the post office, and the gym (which was infested with spiders) At some point, I was introduced to the rest of the staff, which included Simon, our Yardie, Mark, our cook, and Phil, my other boss. All three were great fun, and many long evenings were spent joking around and generally messing about.

Well needless to say, with days spent napping in my air conned room (it got up to 45 most days!) it wasnt long before the only way to tell days apart was by what was on tv. Monday nights were marked by Criminal Minds and Boston legal, Tuesday was Law and Order, Wednesday CSI Miami and Torchwood, and Thursday Stargate. The other 3 days only played movies really.

Most days at the pub were pretty dull and generally consisted of watching alot of news casts, which has subsequently led to my being more well versed in the current Australian election campaign that I ever was in the last Canadian one. (And let me tell you, both parties seem exactly the same)

Thursday and Friday nights were almost always hopping though, as it was pay day for most of the locals. Some of those nights got pretty rowdy, with more than a few visits from the police. To relate ever one of those amusing events would take way more time than I have at the moment though, so I'll spare you

After a while, I discovered that Desperate Housewives was on TV, followed by Oprah in the mid afternoon, so I started watching those instead of sleeping the afternoons away.

As a nice way to break the heat, we did visit the lake (which is larger than all of Elliott!) on a couple occasions. Once i went with Lena to take Rowdy for a swim, and another time I went with Phil, mark, Simon and two of our coppers, Ryan and Ben. (Ben had a thing for me ) Turns out one of the other police officers owned a jet Ski, which he was letting Ryan borrow in his absence. Ryan took me for a ride a couple times, amusing all my co-workers on shore by throwing me off the back, some times as far as 5 feet! It was great fun we also took Phil's speed boat and towed a tube behind it. After watching Ben tear his ear though, I wasnt too into the tubing action.

Somehow between the occasional visit to the like, and the comparative metropolis of Tennant Creek, two months almost flew by.I know at the time the days were long, but looking back I dont honestly know where the 2 months went!

So finally, it came time for me to pack up and leave my quiet, if slightly dull, sanctuary, and an amazing thing dawned on me. I was sad to be leaving! After 2 months of complaining and having nothing to do but watch tv, i was actually going to miss Elliott. I had made great friends with my co-workers, met some great and interesting people, remembered what it was like to have dogs around, and had a surprising amount of fun. it was really great to work in the Northern Territory, because its like a world of its own up here. Hotter than hell, and full of all sorts of people, many who are looking to hide from something, and many who are just ... there.

Nothing but Time and Tedium in the NT remains copyright of the author Del007, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Well I've been back in Darwin for a couple days now, but I've only just gotten the energy to actually sit and write a blog entry. Kakadu was absolutely amazing!

After much deliberating on which company to sign up with, I decided to go with my old favorite, Adventure Tours. They did my Blue Mountains trip as well as the OzBus that I took all the way up the coast. I figured they did a pretty bang up job on that, so why not give em a shot in Kakadu? Plus they had the best Itinerary that I saw. Unfortunately, they also picked up at 6:30am >.< ick!

Anyway, after an accidentally big night out (it was pub quiz night in Darwin) I managed to get up, store my gear, check out and be ready for the bus well ahead of time. I wish I had gotten a picture of when it did pull up though! Cuz my god it was a funny looking vehicle! Picture it this way ... something of a large truck (not quite a semi) with a big cab, but instead of a flat bed on the back, it had a large raised box with windows! It was really cool to sit in though, because no matter what seat you had, you could see out the windows. I was really glad for that choice later when I saw the tour company that my hostel books for, where you sat in a troopie. And as much as I love troopies, I'm a little sick of em.

So anyway, I had been told that the tour was going to be a full one. but lucky for me there had been some kind of a mess up and we ended up with only 7 of us on the whole tour! There was Mike, the token Irish boy, Heike & Katarina, from Germany, Yuko and Shinji from Japan, and Tatiana from Spain. It was an interesting mix since there was actually not a single person from England on the tour. (I nearly died from shock)

Being the early morning that it was, there was some tired attempts at conversation which soon died out as everyone turned to snoring instead.

Our first quick stop was for a form of breakfast at a road stop on the way to Kakadu. It warrents mention mostly becuase Mike, Heike and I decided to be tacky tourists and take our photos in one of those stands where there is a cartoon picture, and you put your head through a cut out circle to make it look like your face on the body of what ever cartoony thing is pictured. It was fun

There were also 2 crocodiles; one salt water and one freshie, housed in pens behind the station and a 1 meter crocodile skull on display inside ... 1 meter! thats more than half my height! I'd hate to have seen that monster while fishing!

After loading back up, we headed to our first official stop of the day, a wildlife cruise on the Mary River. This little stretch of land is home to the worlds highest concentration of Salt water crocs, and we saw many of them from our little tin boat. Having seen them so often up the East Coast though, it really wasnt much of a sight. More frightening for me was trying to retreive my water bottle from a huntsman spider! Right before we got on the boat we were sitting under a small shelter applying sunscreen. As per my usual luck, I happened to put my water bottle down right by where the most ugly spider was devouring a fly! I think I ended up getting someone else to get it for me.

During our two hour boat cruise we did learn an awful lot about the surrounding area and birds. We saw Jabirus, which were renamed to Black Neck Storks because Jabiru is actually an African bird. We also saw Whistling Kites, some kind of funny duck, snake neck darter birds, egrets, white bellied sea eagles (suspiciously far from the sea) and plenty of cockatoos. We learned heaps about the plants and how the Aboriginals in the area used some of them, and also saw the damage the wild pigs in the area cause by digging for food.

For the most part it was too hot to really enjoy the cruise and most of us fell asleep on the way back, but we did see some amusing sights including a crocodile trying to sneak up on a Jabiru to steal its fish, and some Sea eagles running a distraction technique on another Jabiru that was trying to feed its chicks with a catfish. Neither the crocodile nor the sea eagles succeeded in their ploys but it was funny to watch.

After the boat cruise it was off to Ubirr (oo-birr) to see some of the most pristine rock art in all the world. Our guide, Travis, told us alot about Aboriginals while we walked, and described how you could tell how old some of the paintings were. Some of the paintings dated back to over 20,000 yrs! On the walk, we passed the "main gallery" which was used as a housing area for the aboriginal people durring the dry season. I was shocked to learn that the last group to shelter there had been in 1975! It really brings in to perspective the fact that this is still a living, albeit dying, culture. At some point during our tour of the art sites, we were joined by a kindly older lady, which was quite amusing because she thought Travis was the ranger and was prepared to follow us around all day if she could. She even started to follow us back to the car park before someone explained that we were on a tour and the ranger would be starting talks in a little while

Before leaving though, we made the quick climb up to the top of Ubirr for an amazing view out over the flood plains. The whole thing was so picturesque that its hard to describe. In one direction you can see the flood plains stretching out with white birds flying all over, and in the other direction you can see the escarpment territory with smoke from bush fires occasionally obscuring the view. It was quite easy to feel like you were on top of the world.

It was a long drive to camp for the evening, but we were treated to a roasted lamb steak dinner which was delicious! We went to wash the dishes though and this was where I discovered the resident bathroom spider in the ladies toilets. It was big ... and ugly ... and it was a spider. And it was blocking the only way in to the bathroom. It was moment of extreme choice for me ...should i hold my bladder and hope the thing moved ... or chance it and try and run past? I was saved (a little) when it moved just far enough for me to litterally squeeze by into the first toilet stall. And thankfully, Heike saved me from having to freak out by scaring the spider away for me. Phew!

We sat back at camp for a short bit, but everyone was very tired and very hot, so we laid out our swags (no tents on this trip! just a mat with a mossie net!) and Heike and I went to the showers. It was a great shower after a long sweaty day, however, before we got back to camp ... I once again had to brave the spider. It was on the wall this time though, which was no problem for me. It wasn't on the floor, so I could skirt past without worrying. Which would have been fine, had it stayed on the wall! Oh no, the bloody thing had to run at me under the bathroom door! I dont think I screamed so loud in all my life! I think I scared it though, cuz it ran right back out. Of course, everyone thought this was highly amusing, except for me. I was left with a large disgusting spider sitting directly outside my stall door and no way around it. I had to suck it up and jump over it. EEEEEEEWWW!!!!

Anyway, back at camp we were warned to make sure to drink lots of water as it would be a long day tomorrow with an early start. We got up just as it was getting light out and had some breakfast. We were meant to have toast, but sadly, the ants had gotten into our bread We were also meant to make sandwiches to take with us, as we had no way of carrying all the stuff to make them on the hike with us ... but as previously mentioned, there were ants in the bread. Instead we made wraps. But not before Travis made a big show of making an ant bread sandwhich and calling us all a bunch of city dwellers. "You'll eat a cow, but you wont eat an ant" damn right.

Today promised to be quite challenging, as we were going to hike to the top of Jim Jim falls. After a very bumpy ride which left most of the group feeling ill, we started on our hike. the first part wasnt too bad, climbing over a dry river bed and a short path, it was about a half an hour. Then we realised this had just been the hike to the path to the hike to the top of Jim Jim ... uh oh. Yeah, basically it was an almost vertical climb up the escarpment over boulders of varying size after which we walked for a damn long time over open expanses of desert like conditions. The plant life on the top of the escarpment was pretty sparse so we were in the sun almost the whole time after the climb. After what seemed an eternity, we finally saw water ahead, thinking these were to be the plunge pools where we'd be swimming. We took some time to take in the beauty of being at the very top of this waterfall, looking out over the surrounding area and getting some photographs. Unfortunately, poor Katarina was terrified of heights, and hadn't had much fun climbing up and wouldn't go anywhere near the edge. She spent the whole stop with her back firmly toward the view, preferring instead to look back at the flat area we had come from. We had just started to get settled when Travis told us this was not where we were going, but that pool below us was our final destination. It was another 20 - 30 min hike to get down there. Sigh. It was well worth it though! The plunge pool's water felt amazing after the long 3 hour sweaty hike! We were joined by 2 other tour groups who were also using the spot as a swiming hole and lunch area, so it was a good couple of hours of mingling and swimming. Travis and another guide also took a couple people up to a really high cliff jump. I could barely watch them do it, let alone think of even going up there myself!

After a bit, the other groups left, leaving just us to enjoy the area. It was interesting to see a rock painting so high up as well. I should mention that where we were eating was where, in a few months time, the water fall will be pouring over in a thundering cascade to the pools some 200ft below. It was quite a view, made all the more interesting by the presence of a very old style drawing on the wall facing the cliff. Travis lead some of us on a voluntary climb, which I opted out of when I realized where they were going. They were climbing over some very small rock shelves to go and sit on a rock on the opposing wall. It gave me chills just watching them, so I was quite happy to sit on my little ledge and admire the view from an area I knew was relatively safe.

After eating out disgustingly soggy sandwiches (no Travis didn't eat his ant sandwich) we refilled out water bottles in the pool and started the grueling climb back to the bottom. It wasn't too bad to start with, as we had waited out the hottest part of the day by staying at the pool for longer. But unfortunately, the kind of rocks we were climbing over retained heat quite well. I think the air temperature was something around 36, but with the hot dry wind, and the heat reflecting from the rocks, it was at least 50! Combine that with intense climbing, and the sun beating down and its not very fun.

At one point I felt so sick I had to stop. My one hand was so swollen from the heat of the rocks that I couldn't close it, and I was litterally shiverering in the heat. it was hear I was very glad for Tatiana's presence as she is a nurse. She kept me company while the other went on ahead. I had managed to let myself get to a dangerous point of dehydration. our guide took good care of me though, and with him a Tatiana watching me, I managed to make it down to the bottom of the climb. It was a very scary experience, to be cold in weather that hot, and to be feeling like I did. But I managed to do it, and despite the dehydration, that makes me proud.

We had a nice rest stop at the bottom of the climb as we waited for Travis to refill our water bottles at the car park. We were headed to the bottom plunge pools to go swimming for the afternoon. I felt quite bad for Yuko though, as she had slipped early into the climb down and managed to strain her ankle. I couldnt imagine doing that climb with a wounded ankle! It also meant that she and Shinji couldn't join us for the swim in the afternoon.

It was another interesting hike over huge boulders to the bottom plunge pools, but the sights were amazing! I sat with Heike and Travis looking up at the area we had been at only hours before, not quite comprehending how high up it was until Mike swam to the other end and stood at the bottom of the cliff face. It was so humbling and just an amazing site to be seen. (its really hard to describe this stuff by the way!)

Back at camp we all but literally collapsed. We imediately dove into the Beer esky and then started preparing dinner. Despite being so tired, Mike, Heike and I stayed up later chatting with the camp ground's manager and Travis. The manager had been nice enough to join us for dinner and he even brought us a damper, which is a traditional Aussie bread cooked on the camp fire. Its made like a sweet bread and made a delicious desert with jam and butter.

I'm happy to mention that there were no further spider incidents and I was able to shower and pee in peace before going to bed for the night

On our third and final day, we were supposed to get up well before sunrise, but being the lazy buggers we are (and our guide too!) we all slept in until the sun was almost up before heading to Maguk falls. Today's hike was infinitely easier and the falls we went swimming in were absolutely gorgeous! Unlike the dried up Jim Jim falls, Maguk was still leaking water into its plunge pools, and at the top where we were, there were several smaller running waterfalls that you could swim and climb along.

We spent the day here climbing and exploring like a bunch of little kids and swimming along the gorges. We also did a couple of cliff jumps (yes I did the smallest one twice and nearly crapped myself both times!) and genrally just took in the views.

I was very sad that we couldn't stay for long, as we still had to make lunch and get back to Darwin. So, it seemed, too early we had to pack up and head back to the car to go for lunch. We stopped near a huge termite mound though! Travis told us more about termites and how their mounds had been used both by aboriginals and white settlers throughout history. It was interesting stuff, including info like each hive will only live for about 90 years before the colony inbreeds itself out.

This particular termite mound was ... 6 meters i think someone said? either way, it was a huge Cathedral mound.

After lunch it was back on the truck and we headed back to Darwin.

It was an amazing 3 days, which I will never forget, and I was so happy that I chose Adventure Tours. A couple people mentioned that we had missed out on a large part of the advertised itinerary, but I didnt mind. To my mind, the tour was everything that was promised and I had a great time hanging out with the group.

Crocs, Climbs, Cliffs and more! remains copyright of the author Del007, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Well its about time for another blog entry since I seem to be getting more and more lax about updating. oops!

Anyway, currently I'm sitting in a very hot and sticky Darwin, but first ... a recounting of the last few days / weeks

Right so, after a sad good bye to the lovely Airlie Beach, the girls and I hopped the bus to Magnetic Island. I'll admit that getting there was a little lack luster after the Whitsundays, but it was still gorgeous. We were lured in to Base Backpackers by the promise of a wicked (and safe / drug free) full moon Party and by the supposed endless sunshine that made up the climate here.

Well, sunshine there was plenty of, but as for the full moon party ... well it was a little less than wicked. First of all, our travel agent had promised us that our tickets were included in our package, which they werent, and second off ... how can you have a full moon party 3 days after the full moon? It was still a good night, which started with the 5 girls taking over the bathroom and covering ourselves in make up and body paint. Then it was off to a lovely little Pizza joint just down the road to enjoy some of said lovely pizza and some cheap drinks before coming back to the grossly over priced party at our hostel. It was a messy night. and that is all I'll say.

We spent the next day recovering on the beach and chilling on the Island before we split up again to head to our next destination : Mission Beach.

The Oz bus was actually on time for once, mostly because the driver had to catch the same ferry and bus as us all in the morning, and we got off to a good start. Somewhere along the short trip, I decided that it would be a good idea to pay our nice driver and book myself on a gut wrenching white water rafting. I decided that since I'd have to spend and extra day in mission beach anyway, i might as well make the most of it. and what a day it was! But first, mission beach.

Upon arrival into the Mission Beach area, we started to see signs that looked like emu warnings. Our driver soon corrected our thoughts though, tell us that they were in fact Cassowary signs. Mission Beach up to Cook town is the only place in the world to see these amazing but deadly, flightless birds. I had heard of them before, but never seen one, even at the zoos as we had never had time to go and look at them. But basically picture this. a Cassowary is like a small emu with the face of a turkey, the eyes of an emu, and a giant bone on the top of its head. ... Yeah... oh and a razor sharp raptor like claw on its feet. Ugly as hell, but cool all the same. Anyway, that was worlds worst description of these amazing birds, so if you want to see what one actually looks like, just google it.

Sadly, we didn't get to see any Cassowaries on our way into the city, but I was dropped off next to a giant one ... albeit a fake one.

Anyway, the Beach Shack was where we were staying, and it was actually quite cool. Had there been anything to do in mission beach, I might have considered staying there for a while. But sadly about the only things to do in this quaint little spit of a town is to Sky Dive (no thanks) , River Raft (already doing it) and um ... well thats it really. Oh yeah, you can chill on the beach or at the pool, but since its so close to Tully and one of the wettest cities in Australia, it rains. A lot.

After a nice night and a pleasant gecko filled night, I woke up very early to await my rafting pick up. I'll admit here that when I got up, I was feeling a little nervous. I'd never been rafting before and had heard all the horror stories of how people fell out of the raft and drowned under rocks and things (thanks Sam) so needless to say, I was having second thoughts. My bus came and picked me up though, and before long I had met up with another girl, Emma, who was from the Oz Bus and had booked with me. Funny how much less scary things are with company. We got to Tully township in short order, paid our fees and suited up in wet suits and some sort of sandal with lots of straps attached. We looked ridiculous! and I wish I had gotten photos.

Raging Thunder does a couple different tours along the Tully River, and you might be interested to know that one of the reasons the Tully is so popular is because at the top of the river is an electrical power dam thingy. That means that every day you have a guaranteed minimum water level. cool huh? Anyway, Emma and I had signed up for the "Extreme tour" which meant we got to start a little farther up the river than the rest, and we got to do it in smaller boats and do rapids backwards and things. Groovy.

After a very hasty breakfast our "Team Extreme" loaded up on the mini bus and headed to the river. It was here we met a couple of the guides who would be taking us down the river, as well as our fellow passengers. Emma and I were 2 of 8 people who came in from Mission beach, most of the others had to catch a coach bus from Cairns to get down to where we were. We picked our team though, made up of one Californian, 3 Irish boys, and Emma and I. We were a little slow to suit up, and ended up with a Kiwi guide named Casey, and boy was that fortunate. The man was a personality to be sure Right off he started making fun of the Irish (always amusing) and the fact that we would now be screwed because the Irish cant listen to instruction. It was this point where I started getting really scared. Emma and I jumped into the middle of the boat (we decided we didn't want to go in the front just yet) and started psyching each other up for our trip. The first rapid left me shaking, I was so freaked out. But by the end of the second one I was getting a hang of it. It wasn't long before I was having the time of my life going over the rapids and paddling with what I thought was expert skill

Casey was an excellent guide who took us to a few spots the other guides didn't go to. He took us over rapids backwards, and even took us Raft surfing, where you steer your raft so that one side is under the rapids and the weight of the water holds it there. That was fun He had us float down the river for a stretch which was relaxing, and had us practice pulling each other back into the raft in case someone did fall out. Then we got to swim through some rapids, which was fun. He pulled the raft up to the bank and all of us piled out and followed another one of the guides up a small hill. It was here they told us what to expect while swimming down this stretch. basically we were going to get held under the water with only 1 second intervals in which to get a breath. Oh yeah, and see those rocks on either side? yeah don't swim into them. They'll hurt. So when you come out of the rapid, start swimming hard for the left hand side or you're going to go over that waterfall there. eep! It was an experience to be sure, and it was over much faster than it seemed, so much so, that I almost didn't make it to the bank in time! I did get to the bank though, but the rocks were slippery, and some dunce from another boat crashed into me sending me back into the water lucky for me though, our guide was watching for something like that and helped me onto shore. it was just after here that we found out we could swim down the waterfall anyway, which I did because, well why not? It wasn't until I was already in the water, being held by my guide that he warned me not to open my mouth to scream because I'd likely drown. They are real good with that kind of thing sheesh! It was great though! I spent a while 5 seconds under the waterfall and there was nothing but green all around me! It was really neat ) Then it was off to lunch. mmm Food.

Afterwards we posed for photos in our boat before Casey steered us straight under a waterfall! I never knew what kind of force all that water could exude, but I felt like I was going to be pushed straight through the bottom of the boat! All in all, we didn't have anyone come out of our boat, though a couple of the others did flip over, which was kind of scary, but they all got back in ok. We spent most of the later part of the ride looking for water dragons and snakes (saw lots of the former, but no pythons) At one point, Casey stopped the raft at a large Island / rock in the river and we piled out again to follow another guide up to the top. It wasnt until I was at the top of this huge rock that I found out this was a cliff jump! By that time, it was too late to chicken out as Casey had already taken the raft passed us to wait. He politely waved as I called him an ass though. What a nice guy I did the jump though! And it felt like I was falling forever!

The day was over too soon though, and before we knew it we were at the bottom. Just for fun, Casey let us tip the raft and swim over to the boat ramp. The day was hugely exhausting! and I fell asleep on the ride back to Mission Beach.

It was pouring rain the next couple days, so there wasn't much to do besides sit inside and watch tv and dvds. Then it was off to Cairns

It seemed that the farther up the coast I got, the more i could notice the humidity every time I got off the bus. One of the stops we made along the way up was the Johnson River Crocodile farm. Rumor has it that the dude who runs the farm was the original inspiration for Crocodile Dundee ... though let me tell you he didn't look anything like Paul Hogan. Anyway, I got to hold several different snakes, which was really cool, as well as a blue tonged lizard, baby crocodile, and a dingo puppy We also saw a giant 5 meter croc named Greggory, and toured around the farm for a bit. The visit was entertaining once you got over the fact that the whole place was created to breed Crocodiles for slaughter.

Cairns itsself was more than a little touristy. In the CBD (Central business district) all there is to do is shop for tacky "discount" souvineers and look at the over priced menus of the many bars and cafes that inhabit the town. For a backpacker, there were tons of deals as long as you were willing not to use your taste buds. Things like free meals (you had to buy a drink though) and drink deals were offered in abundance which was nice. The meals mostly consisted of Spagetthi bolognaise, chili concarne and some kind of non meat meal. The SpagBol wasnt bad, but I'd steer far clear of the Chilli.

To be honest I didnt really enjoy Cairns very much, though to be true, I never really gave it much of a chance. Most of my days there I spent wandering around looking at shops and the various markets. One thing they did have there was a place called Rustys markets, which was just like the farmers markets from home! Pleanty of fresh, ripe, locally grown produce, and all at prices I could actually afford! its just too bad that I never really bought anything there, due to the fact that I wasnt sure how long I'd be staying in the area for. It looked good though

Upon arrival, as per usual the girls needed jobs and all 4 of them managed to get jobs in the first day they were there! So by the time I arrived the next day, everyone was headed off to their various places of employment. Helen and Jenna were working at a bar/restaraunt called Rattle & Hum which had a cool atmosphere and Sam was working for one of the more popular nightclubs, Soho. Erin managed to find herself work in a pleasant little cafe (with awesome food!) situated right in the center of the tourist district. With the girls all settled in and my funds running low, I knew it was time for me to once again move on before I wasted another 2 or 3 weeks spending my money in a town I didnt really like.

It took me a while to decide, but after about a week I finally settled on taking a plane to Darwin. I cried my eyes out in the Airport, but was comforted by the fact that I'll be seeing all my friends again in just a few short months. I can't imagine what it will be like when they all fly home.

I've been here in Darwin now for a few days, and the city alternately makes me want to stay and leave in equal parts. The first night I was here, I arrived to find a 55 yr old man in his tighty-whities sleeping in the bed next to me and a drunken Irish boy who was intent on wrestling said 55yr old man into submission.... interesting. Since then I've talked to both of them a bit, though in the usual Irish fashion, Derek is rarely sober. I've also made friends with some other boys who are working in the hostel and around the city. Most of the people at the Wilderness lodge seem to be German though, so there are very defined cliques of people who hang out in groups. Its a little sad, but such is life. I also had my food bag stolen last night, which needs a mention here purely out of the annoyance factor more than anything. Just another item to add to my growing list of items lost and presumed stolen. Sigh

Anyway, I head now to Kakadu in 2 days time, and I'm leaving with Adventure Tours, the same company who does OzExperience and who I did my blue mountains tour through. I cant wait, though i know its going to be an exhausting few days as I've signed up for a tour with more hikes than driving time.

So until then, Hope things are well at home ... I'm going grocery shopping ... again >.<

Ciao!
Amy

Destination Unknown remains copyright of the author Del007, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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So I just got back from the Whitsundays, and Oh my god! Thats about all I have to say. It was amazing! The Scenerey, the beaches, the color of the water, the fish! all were amazing. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Before all that, the girls and I had other adventures to relate

Not long after my last entry we all abandoned Brisbane for the upper East Coast. True to form with almost all East Coast trips, our first stop was to be Noosa which we would use as a base camp for our trip to the Australia Zoo (AKA Steve Irwin Zoo) After a tearful goodbye to Andy, Lisa and Debi who were sadly not joining us on this adventure, the crew and I jumped onto the bus for Noosa. We Arrived at Dolphins hostel and after unloading our bags, immediately headed for the beach. It was dark by then, so no swimming, but just listening to the ocean and surf again was enough for the one night.

The next morning kicked off bright and early as our coach to the Zoo was scheduled to leave at 8:30am and we had to rush to the transit point in Noosa Junction. The arrival of the coach was nifty, since it was a double decker bus! we jumped aboard and were immediately inundated with Steve Irwin stuff. There were TVs showing constant re-runs of "The Crocodile Hunters' home videos" Which were amusing as always. We took a scenic rout to the Zoo, arriving at the entrance a little before 10am.

Once inside we went and lined up for the first event of the day, Elephant feeding! Sadly, it wasn't quite as exciting as it all sounds. It was really industrial, with kids and parent alike all lined up in neat rows with a bucket of fruit sitting at the front. We were told to grab a piece of fruit, offer it to the Elephant, but don't touch it, and don't look away from it, then move on and wash our hands and leave. The whole thing took about 30 seconds, and left me with a really goopy hand (ew!) Then it was off to the Crocoseum for the fabled crocodile show. This was the place Steve Irwin had dreamed of, and after a life time of work, made reality. It was really cool to see the show, though slightly sad since you couldn't help but think of the man who made it all happen and how he was no longer around to see the fruits of his labor. It was actually almost creepy that there was so much about Steve Irwin around the entire zoo, but aside from the memorial wall, there was never any mention of the fact that he was gone. Even in the gift shops, you could still buy Steve Irwin action figures, and the post cards had him and his family on them. They even had pins, magnets, stickers, and all sorts of paraphernalia with his face on it.

While we were at the zoo we learned lots about crocodiles, stroked Wombats, possums, tigers, and a baby alligator, and got our photos taken with a 17kilo snake! (that one was for you Grandma!) The snake photo was cool because the snake weighted more than my entire backpack! It was really warm too, and the scales were amazingly soft. We also took our photo on Cameron, which was a model replica of an actual crocodile. He was 27ft long!! I cant remember where the sign said that he was found, but holy crap I would not want to come across him in the wild!

After running full tilt for the bus, we headed back to our temporary home in Noosa to cook, pack, and get ready for the next stop on our journey; Rainbow beach.

We arrived at Rainbow Beach and promptly checked in. The weather here was much nicer this time around then when I was first there. However, being the tiny spit of a town that it was, there was not much to do, so we had a quiet night in. Turns out it was a good idea too, since the next day was our Kayaking.

Now, I know this sounds naive, but I figured that a nice day out on the ocean searching for dolphins might be a little relaxing. oops! Totally not so! Basically I paid to be put through 3.5hrs of intense paddling! According to our guides, we would normally have driven most of the way to the headlands, but part of the mountain (hill really) that surrounded the area had collapsed, blocking the way to the headland via car, which meant we were going to have to paddle to it. Not a big challenge at the time, since I hadn't Kayaked before, so whats the big deal right? We partnered up, and chose boats before the guides helped us into the water. The girls partnered together, leaving me with Mike, a new addition to our traveling party. The girls knew him in Brisbane, but I hadn't really met him before so that was a little awkward. I was in the front of the kyack and he was in the back doing the steering. After a long, long paddle out to the headland, I was despairing that we wouldn't see any dolphins at all, but finally some appeared a little ways away. I'll admit, after having surfed with dolphins in NSW, and seeing them all the time on the beaches at Surf camp, it was more than a little disappointing. That coupled with my aching shoulders left the whole experience a little jaded. But It was still fun. The worst part had to be knowing we still had to paddle back.

Part of our trip back to the beach included a brief lesson in kayak surfing, which was fun. Basically you just paddled hard and rode a wave most of the way in to shore. However, they didn't really tell you not to get too far in or you'd get beached (which we did) nor did they warn you that you'd have to paddle against the waves to get back out so we could get where we were going Mike and I paddled hard against the waves, but were positioned badly and got capsised, and I got stuck under the kayak not cool at all! Eventually though we made it back to where the cars were parked and I managed to get away without any broken bones, but with more than a few large bruises and bumps.

From here I split with the girls, as the next day they headed off for Fraser Island, and I was Bundy bound, again As per usual, I had impeccable timing, arriving in the city just days after another person was killed. Eesh! I met with some of my old fruit picking friends for the brief 10 hours I was back in the city before running for the Ozbus to get to Kroombit.

Once aboard the bus with my new driver, Puddles, I quickly found there were actually more Canadians on the bus this time, and not only that, but there were 5 of them from my very own city! Small world, sort of hahaha.

Anyway, the trip to Kroombit was fun, as we played some games and watched Crocodile Dundee. Upon arrival at our "out back cattle station" though, it began to pour rain! Oh well, it would be more fun, or at least it wouldnt have been as bad if I wasn't wearing white shorts in the Red Dust area. Oops! While at kroombit we had the opportunity to do Skeet shooting, horse back riding, goat rodeos, lassoing, whip cracking and mechanical bull riding. I'm proud to say my rodeo team (consisting of 2 other Calgarians and myself) grabbed, subdued and branded our goat in 20 seconds flat! Some of the other teams had their goats jump right out of the ring! Talk about cheating!

After the rodeo I actually managed to rope myself a goat too. Grandpa would be so proud Too bad the goats weren't really moving, but all the better for me! Activities were adjourned for dinner, however, and we learned a bit about the area we were in, and over heard one of the farm hands talking about how he found a Red Back spider in his sleeping bag (ick!!) before we were herded over to learn the fine art of breaking the sound barrier with a whip. I managed to do it a couple times, and I only hit my arm once or twice. Yay me! Mechanical bull riding was amusing as well, mostly because the 6 of us from Calgary were very cocky about how good we'd do. And most of them did great! Lasting the longest, and setting records and such, except for me. I lasted a whopping 2 bucks! Which was better than the 1 buck I had predicted for myself.

After a rather noisy nights sleep in a cramped dorm, it was back onto the bus early morning for the 9 hour drive to Airlie beach. Here we played some very dubious games, including a treasure hunt which included the two Scottish girls on the bus running back and forth up the isles. (risk assessment anyone?) And we also stopped in a nice little town called Serina for a game of barefoot lawn bowls. Then we finally hit the tropics!

It was noticeable at once how much hotter it was as soon as you stepped off the bus in Airlie beach. It was gorgeous! The bus rolled past the Abel Point Marina, where you have a nice hill top that over looks all the sail boats and the crystal clear water and just a distant hint of the many lovely islands that make up the Whitsundays. In all my infinite wisdom, I decided upon arrival to repeat the mistake I made in Hervey bay, and stay with Koalas. To anyone considering coming out here, give this chain a pass its $27/night to sleep in what, at first glance, appears to be a decent cabin. Closer inspection however, reveals leaking toilets, crappy mattresses, cockroaches, a shower head that falls off the wall, and a "breakfast room" instead of a kitchen. Lovely! Oh well, some people are chumps I suppose >.<

It wasn't long after I arrived in Airlie beach that some family friends from home arrived here as well It was really nice to see Sherry, Don and Tasha though it was a little weird to think that I was sitting there having dinner with them on the other side of the globe They were really great to me though, and if you guys are reading this, I'd like to say thanks again They let me stay at their accommodation for a couple nights (real mattresses, pillows and blankets!) and took me out for dinner as well. They also brought me a lovely little care package from home which was very nice and Grandma, I wear that necklace every day. Time went fast though, and on the 3rd day, they departed for their 1 day cruise to the Whitsundays while I went to rejoin the girls at Magnums hostel.

The weather around Airlie was amazing! and I'm glad it was because that meant that we could sit and laze about the swimming lagoon all day in the sun. Which I did on numerous occasions.

Saturday dawned though, and it was time to get up and get ready for a sailing trip of our very own. Originally, I had planned to be on the Ron of Argyl, but after meeting back up with everyone, I decided I'd have more fun on the same boat as them, and thus switched from a classic sail, to a party catamaran! We met Max, our hostess who kept us entertained (and kept some of us thouroughly drunk) for the whole trip, as well as Simon, the skipper and Heidi, another helper on the boat. Day 1 consisted of sailing to our Island destination. As some of the girls were worried about sea sickness, they picked a boat that docked every night, so instead of cramped ship cabins, we got decent holiday resort style cabins on South Mole Island. The Island its self was as beautiful as everything in the area, and it included a golf course, tennis courts, spa/hot tub, full size swimming pool, archery area and much more. It was an early night for most of us, since we had to be on the boat again at 7am the next day.

Day 2 dawned a little cloudy, but we piled onto the boat non the less. Before going though, one of the Island crew gave us our first view of Reef style ocean life. They dropped some bread into the sea beside the gang plank and these huge fish, called Bat fish. They seemed gigantic to any fish life Id seen before. They seemed really surreal for it too. I wish I had gotten a photo. The ride to Whitehaven beach (our stop for the day) was choppy until we put up the sails, and the girls and I sat on the front of the boat with our legs dangling over the side for most of the ride. It was fun, kind of like being on a swing but um ... well not. All I can really say is, if anyone remembers the boat swing ride where you go back and forth like a pendulum, it was kind of like that, but not as severe.

Arrival on Whitehaven though, was an absolute feast for the eyes. The beach seemed to stretch forever, and it was all a pure, sparkling white, rimmed behind by tropical foliage and mountains, and in front by the most clear water Ive ever seen! The boat had to anchor a little ways off shore, and while the crew was readying the speed boat to take us over to the land, we spotted a sea turtle just a little ways off the ship! (that I did get pictures of!) We were told that if we wanted to, we could swim into shore and our bags would be brought over for us, so thats just what Helen and I did. We dove head first into the cool water and swam like mad for the turtle, then to shore as we realized the turtle was much faster than us. I went swimming and snorkeling for most of the day, with a small spattering of time spend sun bathing on the beach. Helen fell asleep and had her Bikini top stolen and there was much drunken party antics by many of the people on board the boat. too soon though we had to get back on the boat to head back to the Island for the night. The ride back was just as fun as the ride to the island as we danced, snoozed, and did what ever on the way back to the Island. On arrival back, the girls and I made a bee-line for the spa and pool area. The spa, or hot tub, was basically a rock pool with a warm waterfall. It wasn't hot like a Canadian hot tub, because of course, in the summer no one wants to sit in hot water, but it was nice all the same. We headed back for showers, dinner, and another fun party night at the bar.

Day 3 was much the same as the days before, but today instead of beaching it, we were going snorkeling on the reef! And I couldn't wait! It was windy as usual (one of the other girls on the boat lost her hat!) so the ride was choppy, but it only took us about an hour to reach the snorkel destination. Here again they gave us the choice of boating over to the snorkel area or swimming, and as usual, Helen and I chose to swim, and Erin joined us But first, we had to put on our stinger suits. Its currently low season for jelly fish risk here, but that being said, a girl did get stung by one of the deadly jellies just a few weeks before we arrived, so we all thought it a wise investment to put $15 toward a stinger suit. These looked like black and red feety Pajamas. It was a hilarious look! but I did see one tiny jelly fish, not sure what kind, so I was glad to have it. Once the speed boat arrived at the reef, Heidi and max would throw bread crumbs into the water and the fish would swarm! So you put your mask into the water, and all around you is this ever moving mass of color! We saw black and white stripped zebra fish, some kind of greeny blue fish with pink lines on its head, green fish with yellow fins, and so much more that I cant even remember! I stayed out for a bit after the girls got bored, but eventually decided that it wouldn't be too bad to swim back out to the boat instead of waiting for a speed boat pick up. As we all know though, not all my ideas are good ones. It wasn't long before i realized that the boat looked one hell of a lot closer than it actually was, and it also wasn't long before i realized that I could no longer see the coral below me. Now, I don't consider myself naive about sharks, I know the risks, I know the breeds and I know what to look for. That being said, when you realize there is something around 60 feet of open water below you, and nothing on 3 sides, you start to get a little panicky. Especially when you realise that you are also alone in said conditions and making an awful lot of noise and looking conspicuously like a wounded seal or fish. needless to say, I swam faster than I had in all my life and literally jumped onto the swim step to get onto the boat. What fun!

Our sailing ended way too soon for my liking, because before we knew it, we were pulling into the marina again. Sigh back to dry land. However, believe you me, when i say that we still felt like we were on that boat for days afterwards! You get in the shower and start swaying as your sea legs return. It was good fun.

This entry is disgustingly long though, so i will stop it here, and pick up when I get back from Magnetic Island and the full moon party.

Cheers all!

Amy

Somewhere over the Rainbow remains copyright of the author Del007, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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well, I'm now 23 (that feels a little odd, I cant say I'm 22 any more) and I had an amazing time out here on my birthday. Since i last wrote, I hopped a train away from Bundy and finally finished my scuba diving! And let me tell you, I passed by the skin of my teeth

I was supposed to hook up with the dive school on Wednesday before I left to complete my last dive, but unfortunately, the water was too choppy and we would have been beaten to bits on the rocks if we tried to enter the ocean. So instead I had to do my diving on Thursday, which made me a little nervous considering I was leaving at 10am the next day and this was my last chance to complete my certification. Things started off okay, but I started to develop another headache as soon as I entered the water It was not cool. Eventually though, despite a leaking regulator, a broken snorkel, and gear that didn't fit quite right, I managed to complete the mandatory skills to become a certified open water diver. Yahoo!

Anyway, the original plan had been to do my diving on Wednesday, and use Thursday to hit the post office, rum tour and do my laundry. Well since we couldn't dive Weds, my plans got thrown all out of whack. Its alright though, I though, that just means that I'll do the rum tour on Wednesday. The brochures said the tours ran until 3pm every day, so I got a group together to go. However, I called to confirm the tour, and the lady informed me in a not so polite way that the tours were not operating due to a new exhibit in the Rum Museum. Great. Thats ok though, I could always head down there and poke around the museum at least. So Maria and I walked the 40mins (one way) to get to the distillery, only to find that the museum was closed due to the new exhibit which was showing for VIPS only. Arg! Just my luck. It was alright though. maria and I did some shopping and took some touristy photos out front, then headed home.

Thursday didn't start off much better. I arrived bright and early at the dive shop, only to be told we weren't going yet, but to pack our gear and come back in a couple hours. Great... well at least I can mail the stuff I bought. (note: Yes I'm a horrible child, I didn't mail Dad's Birthday stuff for like 2 weeks >.< ) Anyway, I literally ran back to the hostel and picked up all the stuff I'd been carting around since Sydney and the stuff I'd bought at the distillery the day before and booked it down to the post office. Now, just for the record, I bought this really nice rum liquor. A Baileys kind of thing that you can only buy in Bundaberg at the distillery. I figured this would make an excellent top off to the Birthday gifts I'd acquired, the only problem was getting it to Canada without it breaking... or so I thought. Turns out, you cant mail alcohol into Canada and the US! How annoying >.< So now I'm stuck in a non drinking hostel with a really expensive bottle of rum liquor. Sigh. Oh well, the rest got into the envelope and mailed off without much fuss. Then I booked it back to the dive shop, and waited around for about another 3 hours till we got to go diving.

And that pretty much brings us back to Brisbane. I'm staying in the 30man dungeon again, with Sam & Helen, and I've met some new friends, including Jenna and Debs; 2 Scottish girls, and Lisa from England. They are all a total blast We've spent the last 2 weeks hanging out, walking around town, and going to the weekend markets.

This is going to sound horridly cheesy, but on the first Saturday that I was here, Helen, Sam, Hollie, and Lisa and I all went into town to the markets. It was so picturesque I could have wept. Southbank is a gorgeous little area of Brisbane, with lovely sculptures, buildings, and a perfect view of the river. Combine that with a dance festival, night markets selling everything from Kangaroo scrotum lighters to Opal and Pearl jewelry (and fudge. mmm fudge) some of the best traveling friends you could ask for, and a guy on the corner playing the Spanish guitar and you get perfect!. It was amazing! We sat at an out door pub and had a couple drinks before heading back to our place for the night.

We had a birthday party on the camouflage fancy dress Karaoke night, which was awesome fun and the girls bought me a Pirate bag and a really cool card

Most nights we hang out at our hostel bar then head off to a club called Casablanca's for Karaoke. You'd be proud dad Though Helen and Sam are trained singers so it makes me sound something like a dying giraffe

I've had a lot of fun here, but its finally time to move on! The majority of us have booked our east coast package and we leave for Noosa and the Steve Irwin zoo on Monday. I cant wait! The only thing left for me to do is burn my photos to CD so I have tons of room up the coast I'm a little sad since I'll be missing Fraser Island with the girls, but I'll meet up with them again in Airlie beach.

Thats pretty much it for now To those who haven't gotten post cards yet, I'm really sorry I forgot my address book at home. i Know thats a lame excuse but its true! So if you guys could please email me your addresses that would rock!

Oh yeah and Mom, look for a package in the mail soon I'll be sending it in a couple days I think.

Love you all and miss you tons!

Amy

Brisbane all over again :) remains copyright of the author Del007, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Well I've managed to stay alive so far in bundaberg, and it looks like I've only got a couple days left! I'll be leaving for Brisbane in just 3 short days! I cant wait, literally everyone I know on the east coast is going to be in Brisbane for this comming weekend. I'm gonna be busy!

Since I last wrote, I've been to a monster truck show, and 1770 for an inpromptue day trip, signed up for and mostly completed my PADI diving, and actually had some fun!

But lets get some form to this thing I try and call a blog. lets see...right. Bundaberg Life.

Well, as of my last writing I hadnt actually been able to experience very much of life here in Bundy. But now I've been here for almst a month and I can actually say that I've experienced at least a little. i've been to most of the "clubs" here and done diving. And its actually not that bad! In a strange way, I think I'm going to miss it here. rolling out of bed to a freezing cold unit at 6am, packing sweet potatoes, fighting for a spot in line for the shower, having to turn the elements on the stove all the way up just to get some semblance of heat in the living area, sneaking alochol into the unit, watching movies that I've seen a million times, and actually watching tv! well ok, that last one I'll probably actually miss. Its been a little weird but for the first time since I got to Australia, I've actually been relatively up on current events. I finally found out that England has a new primeminister, heard about the Glascow Airport tradegy when it happened instead of 3 weeks after, and kept up on the trial of a Doctor from the Gold Coast (just South of where I am) who was accused of co-conspiring on the plot. Its been interesting.

I wont bother to relate most of what goes on in the hostel because its pretty dull. we usually just get home and head to the supermarket. its been to cold for most people to venture out of their seperate units at night, so you usually just hang out in your own room and watch tv or read or something. Lately though, I've been spending Monday nights watching this hilarious british car show called mm.. Top Gear. Its got these 3 british car enthusiest (they may have been famous before, I dont know) who go through cars and in a very comedic way, either reccomend or um dont recmmedn them. I realise after reading that it must sound like the lamest excuse for a TV show ever, but let me assure you, it is almost but not quite anything but lame. For instance, the hosts usally have a challenge relating to something on the show. In one that I saw, they had a rocket car versus a jet engine proppelled Kyack up in some frigid place ... and oh well Never mind. You have to see it to understand, so just look it up on you tube. i'd do it for you, but I'm lazy.

Right, so other than TV there isnt much that goes on in the hostel in the evenings or really on the weekend days either. So instead, a bunch of us who work for joyce's potato farm (where I work) decided to pick up one Saturday and do a day trip to the quaint little town of 1770. Never heard of it? I'm not surprised. I only know about it because its the last surf beach on the coast. Its a lovely little town though combined with another small town called Agnes Water. between the 2 towns there are about 2 gas stations, a surf shop, a really cool little pub on the beach, and some assorted supermarket / take away shops. its tiny! In a whole new way. it would almost give the qauint little rainbow beach a run for its money, but 1770 is nicer.

Anyway, we planned (a laugh here @ planned) to be out of the hostel and on the road for no later than 9:30am so we would have time to explore the area before we had to head to this place where we booked our "Choppa" ride. (A Choppa is a mini Chopper .. or an engine strapped to a tin can really) As per usual, we didnt get out of the hostel until closer to 11:30, but none the less, we were on the road to a new place! There were 11 of us in total, 5 girls and 6 boys split into a camper van and a car which was probably made long before I was born. The trip there was .... interesting we arrived safe and sound though, with about an hour and a bit before we had to go to the choppa place. We had an epiphany while we were exporing the surf shop, and decided that we would top off our day out with a BBQ on the beach! What better time for a beach BBQ than the middle of winter right? But I digress.

Anyway, we went and bought all our BBQ supplies, and promptly found a fish and chips take away shop where the boys decided to feast instead of waiting for the BBQ. Thats fine though, we didnt have enough time before the tour to do it anyway, so we would postpone it till after the bike tour.

We piled back into our vehicles and headed off to the Scooter-Roo (yes that was their name) rental place. We got in, imediately got excited at the site of the bikes, and rushed in to pay for it, eager to pick out which Choppa each would ride. They had cool designs like the Chopper from Natural Born killers, some hells angels design I think and a bunch with flames on them. Anyway, we went in only to be told that just a couple hours prior to our arrival, a hostel had called and booked up most of the choppers, which meant that 5 of us would be stuck on scooters! It was a little annoying, but I was alright with a scooter. I felt all cool on my little vespa (It was cheaper too)

Anyway, we took a little while going over the safety stuff and getting started on our bikes/scooters, but once we got going, it was time to hit the road for a 3 hour tour of 1770 /Agnes water. It was a pretty uneventful ride through beautiful country until one of the girls I was with crashed her scooter She was hurt pretty bad, but being the determined scottish person she is, she got straight back on her scooter and finished the ride! I was amazed, I think I would have been bawling on the side of the road for like 20 mins! The tour wound through the streets and finished up at the lovely pub I mentioned before, where we watched the sun set over the picture-esque beach with a nice cold beer and some wedges. Ahh Sunset, it was lovely. However, what wasnt so lovely was the ride back to the rental office! It was freezing cold and very dark. One of those things you forget when they mention watching the sun set is that it means you are going to be there when it gets dark ... and cold. Several of the guys didnt bring their sweaters, so they were more than a little chilly by the time they got back!

Oh yeah and I almost hit a giant Kangaroo! well maybe almost hit isnt right since he was about 15 - 20 feet infront of me when he jumped out, and giant probably isnt accurate either but he was bigger than most roo's I've seen!

Anyway, look for some photos in face book on that. After the scooter ride, despite Lindsay being hurt and it being freezing cold, we had a BBQ to do! So in true backpacker nature, we picked up a flat of beer and headed for the beach and the free gas barbeque facilities located there-in. We cooked up our lovely meat feast in short order, and enjoyed an unspoilt view of the Milky Way over the ocean before loading up and heading back to Bundy. It was an amasing day that left us all exhausted! (and Lindsay with 7 stitches and an inability to work for 10 days!)

Not long after that, Maria (a Swedish girl) and I were starting our Dive course. We started on Thursday July 19th at 9am! we arrived bright and early to join our class ... of 1 other person! We were more than a little surprised that the class was so small, but at least that meant lots of personal attention if it was needed. Day 1 was pretty uneventful, filled mostly with watching a video and reading a text book ... and a visit to the doctors! In Australia, local law requires that you complete a dive medical before you can take a dive course, so it was off to the medical center with Maria and I.

We filled out our forms in the car on the way over, and Julian (one of our lovely instructors; seriousy nice guy) Brought us in. Now I had been joking w/ Maria about how they were going to hand us a little plastic jar and wouldnt that be funny ... well yeah, they did hand us one, and no, it wasnt funny! Well ok it was, but still! How humiliating So we did our thing, and then after a little while they called us to do the first round of checks. We had to do the whole height and weight thing, followed by a lung capacity test, blood pressure, and hearing test. I think I nearly failed the lung capacity test >.<

After that, they shunted you back to the waiting room to wait for the doctor to be ready to see you and do the rest. First he goes over your medical sheet that you filled out (listing illnesses, surgeries, and family illness history etc) So he saw that I have Migrains and I had childhood asthma. Not a good combo apparently. He warned me that diving might trigger my migrains, so to be prepared. (ick!) Then he informed me that because of my asthma Id have to do a couple more tests than everyone else (nothing like being singled out!) Anyway, he did his thing, then, with a sadistic grin, informed me that I had to jog up and down these fake stairs of his while he did my paper work because he wanted to make sure I didnt wheese when i was out of breath. Great! I passed though, so thats all that really matters :0

Day 2 kicked off with another classroom session and some review, then if was off to the pool! We picked out wetsuits, BCDs (Boyancy control devices) fins (flippers) masks, regulator rigs, and boots! The pool session was actually pretty fun, we basically suited up and hooked all our gear up ourselves then demonstrated some o the skills we had been learning about. things like making sure you exhale if you drop your regulator, that you equalise your ear pressure as you go down, that you can clear your mask if you get water in it etc. It was all fun and games ... until Julian chucked our masks to the other end of the pool and told us to go get them! I asked f I could swim along the top, and he said no, I had to do it at the bottom That meant swimming with my eyes open and nothing blocking the water getting into my nose. I did alright though, I only swallowed/inhaled about 1 litre of pool water hahah.

Day 3 meant Ocean! Finally! haing proven that we were at least a little compitent in the pool, we were taken out to the marine park (fake reef) off the coast here Maria and I were really excited! we were joined here by the people doing anothe form of scuba class, called SSI (Scuba Schools International) which was a cheaper, but less recognised version of certification. There was Helen and Sarah who got pink and purple wet suits .. which caused them to earn the nick name of the teletubbies (not by me ) and some really funny french and italian people. We got briefed on what we'd be doing out there, then we suited up and carried all 30+ kilos of gear down to the water (over sharp rocks ouch!) When we got down to the water, most of us were out of breath. Then it was time to wade into the rocks and put on our fins. Lucky me, I got to go first! it was alright though, the instructors helped me into my fins, then told me to walk to where the water was a little deeper so I coud swim over the rocks and out into the open water. Easier said than done with fins and a suba tank on! I didnt walk so much as fell over, causing everyone to laugh, then I couldnt swim over the rocks because the tide wasnt quite high enough and I wasnt used to the fins, so I was stranded between rocks like a turtle! I think Maria almost peed herself she was laughing so hard. After a bit of a struggle though, I was in the water! A short tme later, we were headed for the bottom. Now, in the pool, it wasnt hard to sink down. In the ocean though, its a whole new story. Despite the weight belt and having no air in my vest, I couldnt stay down on the bottom. I'd get down, try and settle on my knees, only to be pulled slowly back up! The ended up having to load up my vest with rocks so I coud get to the bottom. It was funny.

There were tons of fish down there and lots of corals, it was really cool On the first dive of the day we saw a skate (which is a flat fish that burries itself in the sand to wait for its prey) and lots of fish. You might think the array of color was interesting, but even gong down only a few feet the color in things was sucked right out! One of the girls had red nail polish on and as soon as we were on the bottom it looked dark purple. The first dive was uneventful and we surfaced after touring around a bit and getting used to being in the water. It was really cool
The second dive was better since we saw sting rays and a sea turtle! The turtle was missing a fin though I felt bad for it. I also saw this freaky fish thing that imitated a piece of coral, sitting with its mouth up looking like a rock formation or something, but with eyes and teeth! We werent allowed cameras on our first dive day or I would have gotten a photo. Oh yeah, and an interesting thing about the sting rays I didnt know what they were at first, they looked like little black sheets ruffling in the breeze with these tails that pointed down. I think the tail only comes up when they know you are near, and we were a fair ways away from them. Anyway, we practised our skills in the water, then headed on home.

Day 4 started early again but we had finished with the classroom the previous day so there was nothing to do but load up our gear. We headed to the marine park again, but the water was too choppy so we wouldnt have been able to get in and out without the posibiity of getting seriously hurt So sadly that meant going to the river mouth at a beach called Elliot heads. Its an undesireable location because of the strong river current and presence of stone fish Oh yeah, and because there is nothing to see! We were down and instructor for this day, so they split the group up into 2 smaller groups of 5 to do the diving. Maria and the rest of the girls went in the first group, I was stuck in the 2nd group with the boys beause I lent my mask to a diver in the advance class that was tagging along. We messed around on the rocky beach while the girls did their dives (they combined the 2 dives into 1 because of the cold) then suited up to do our dive. And let me tell you, because the water was moving so fast it was damn cold! It was actually warmer than the day before, but again because of the movement it didnt feel like it!

We were to go in and swim across the current to a bouy in the water where we could use the rope to drag ourselves down withour being swept away. I had to do a full mask clear here, which was my only skill for this dive left (id done the other the day before) Nick (the instructor) had me do that first since it would get it out of the way. So at his sign I pulled my mask off, and put it back on, promptly inhaling and swallowing a good amount of sea water. As soon as I had the mask back on though, it felt as though something had smashed me in the back of the head. It just hurt like you wouldnt believe, so I signaled nick to let him know I had to go to the surface as I was fighting panic, and because of the sea water still coudltn breath right. He wasnt going to let me up at first but I think he saw I was panicking, so he showed me to grab the rope and pull myself up slowly. At the surface, he asked me what was wrong, and Im amazed I was able to tell him that I had a migrain. He asked if I was ok to continue which I wasnt, so he grabbed the other isntructor. All I can really say is that my brain felt like it was exploding and the pain was getting exponentially worse the longer I sat there. Finally kevin (the other instructor) surfaced and was able to help me swim back to shore. I managed to get my fins off and stumble back to where my bag was where i thankfully had packed my Advil. From there the shore instructor got Maria and Helen to get me. They got me up to the van and I wont go into further detail here, since just thinking about it hurts.

Anyway, they had me breathing pure oxygen and everything and took me to the hospital, where I paid $70 to basically lie in a darkened room with a blanket over my soaking wet clothing. I dont know how long I was there, but Maria was with me, and the headache wore off to a bareable level about 3:30. A doctor needed my room to do stitches for someone, so she gave me the once over and sent me on my way (I wasnt complaining) So Maria and I headed back to the dive center. i was entirely embarassed because I hate being helpless and being a burden to people, but everyone was glad I was ok. Maria filled out her certificate and I signed up for another dive then we went and washed our gear. Now you might think the best thing to do after such a horrible experience would be to go back to the hostel. But everyone from the dive was heading out to Bagara Beach for a few drinks and such and I couldnt pass it up. They were really fun and realy great people! We piled into severa cars and headed t the bottle shop then to the beach. All in all, despite the headache, it was a fabulous evening! I exchanged phone numbers with Helen and Sara with the promise to meet up on friday in Brisbane (where they are from) and with Kevin who was actually a backpacker doing his Dive Instructor course here in Bundy.

And that pretty much brings us up to date Now i have my train ticket booked, one more day of work left, several huge reunions to do in brisbane, a rum tour to do Thursday, and a dinner to cook tonight so I'll leave yas here, the next time I update i'll be back in good ol' Brissy! Cant wait!

Love you and miss you all!

Amy

ps. sorry for the spelling mistakes, i'll re-edit later with a spell check on.

Alive and mostly sane in Bundy! remains copyright of the author Del007, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Well when last I wrote I was still in Rainbow Beach, and let me just say I miss it. It was cold, but at least it had a beach.

Right now I'm in Bundaberg at the Workers and Divers Hostel. and I've just finished my first day of farm work. and let me say this, I dont think I could do it for 3 months straight. I'm glad I'm only here for a month!

but first, let me tell you a little story about booking your busses ahead of time.

So I managed to get onto the Oz bus leaving Rainbow beach on very short notice (the day after I got back from Fraser) which suited me just fine. I figured I'd have a day or so in Hervey Bay to find a bus to Bundaberg since Oz bus didnt go there. Well along the ride, my driver happened to mention that the next day's schedule would take him through Bundaberg and 1770! Awesome! thats two of the stops I really wanted to make that werent on the original bus schedule.

I managed to get booked into Koalas (on the beach) for the evening, and I figured I'd be able to book for the next morning heading out to Bundy. Wrong! I got stuck in Hervey bay for 3 days!! Now let me tell you what exactly there is to do in Hervey Bay. ... Zip. The only thing people go there for is to go to Fraser Island. Oh yeah and people go to hervey Bay to die too. its a retirement community >.< and its really spread out. It took me an hour to walk into the CBD which I did every day. I got to see Fantastic 4 though

Anyway, I finally managed to get a bus for early Sunday morning, and with very little fuss, managed to get to my hostel in Bundaberg.

I got picked up in an old beater car, and while I was being checked in, the dude at reception decided to give me the 5th degree on surviving in Bundy.
Rule 1.) Do not leave the hostel alone after dark
Rule 2.) Do not ever go to the pub, any pub, alone or your drinks will be spiked
Rule 3.) If sexual harassment happens on a farm, do not confront the farmers, tell the hostel.
Rule 4.) Do not ever confront a farmer about something, tell the hostel, they will deal with it
Rule 5.) There is no drinking aloud in the hostel except between the hours of 5pm and 7pm on Friday nights, and only if the staff allow it.
Rule 6.) Do not walk off the job at a farm. You will lose your job, your bed, and your deposit.

Sunny happy place huh? its kind of intimidating, but once you get to know some of the other backpackers here its not so bad.

That having been said, yesterday's newspaper ran an article including an interview with 3 of the boys in the hostel here about the recent backpacker beatings. Unfortunately, violence in Bundaberg is a very real thing. Its sad really, since the locals are driving away a large percentage of the work force here, and I know the farmers are angry about it

Well at this point, I've been herer for just over a week, well actually almost 2 weeks now (yeah its taken me a while to update, but i have time now) and I'm working at packing sweet potatoes. Its not too bad, just really really boring.

I've gotten to know some of the people here, and i'll be starting a dive coruse soon with a Swedish girl named Maria. I might also hit a Kareoke club with a bunch of the people from the sweet potato farm this weekend which should be cool.

The hostel here, despite being strict, has decent enough facilities. There is a common area, pool, laundry, internet and the usual. Also, I'm staying in a "unit" which I share with 3 other people. Basically we have our own little house with a full kitchen, living area, bathroom/shower area and cupboards. I'm sharing the unit right now with a French guy and 2 sisters from Hong Kong. It makes for interesting nights some times with the bazar mix of accents around the hostel. I can honestly say this is the first place I've stayed that has a variety of accents other than the usual English and Irish. Theres lots of Scotts here too which is cool

well I wont write too much more yet, i'll wait till I have more to say on the subject of Diving and the Rum tour (hopefully taking that on Sunday) and when I have some new photos to upload.

Oh yeah, and the weather has finally improved! yay! no more rain
Ciao for now!

Bundaberg remains copyright of the author Del007, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Well I'm finally cleanish and warmish and back from my journey to the amazing isle of Fraser. Or uh Fraser Island I guess.

I'll admit I was a little apprehensive about going in the first place, but it was amazing!

So I was originally going to do a guided island tour through some company in Hervey Bay, but the guy at Peter Pan's travel convinced me that a self drive would be more of an adventure and I can definately tell you he was right!

The morning of the 18th we all got up and had the free Pancakes that Dingos hostel offers (they were good but they dont have Syrup here!) and checked out. When you go to the island you cant take all your gear with you, so you have to store it in their "secure 3 day storage shed" ... about the only fitting thing in that title is the word shed. well and I guess 3 day or something. But yeah, its an open shed with shelving in it at the back of the car park. Yay. I didnt leave anything valuable though, so no big deal for me. If someone really wanted to steal my dirty clothing they were welcome to it.

after storing our bags, it was time to see our vehichle ... a wonderfully rusted troopie just like surf camp! I was overwhelmed with a sudden pang of longing for our old troopie, or maybe it was just my pancakes threatening to come back up at the thought of 4x4ing on a remote island in that beast with no mechanic available ... who knows?

Anyway, we sorted our gear, checked the handbrake, and did an inspection of the car, making notes of all the dents, rust spots, and broken things on the car. We ended up circling almost the entire diagram of the car on our sheet, it was just that perty. Then we loaded up and headed off down highway towards our barge point.

I'll take this moment to mention a bit about the Fraser crew I was with. There were 10 of us in total; 2 lovely Irish girls, Emma & Helena, 2 English girls, Izzy & Emma, 2 english boys, George & Andy, Ricky who was Irish I think ... Martin from Austria (yes he sounded like Arnie only ... more geeky) and David the most awesome Korean I'll ever meet.

David decided to take the first driving shift, and I'm currently struggling with words on how to describe what it was like being a passenger in his car. hmm... well lets put it this way, he didnt understand much english, so when he was given the 10 second crash course on soft sand 4x4ing he probably only understoon 1 word in maybe 10. It was hilarious! He just powered down the highway, but he got us to the barge landing safely, and even off the barge and onto the island! Now, when you drive these troopies you are told not to go over 60k an hour because they are too top heavy and you just dont know what the beach ahead of you is going to be like. Fair enough, we were all cool with it, but not David. Nope I think he hit 80 as soon as the barge let us off. He did stop and pull to the side of the beach for a minute, and we thought maybe he was waiting for the other groups from the hostel to catch up to us. One group did pull up along side us, most likely to as us where we were going first, but unfortunately, I'll never know what he wanted. David just turned to him and grinned, having figured something out with the gear shift and said "No break, 2nd gear, its gooood!" and then we shot off like a bullet from a gun! After much loud yelling and white knuckled laughing, we got him straightened out on how to drive on the beach. It wasnt easy! But we made it up to Lake Mackenzie safely (phew!)

Unfortunately, it was a bit of a cold and overcast day on Fraser for day 1, so when we got to the Lake, no one really wanted to go swimming. I did go for a quick dip, but regretted it immediately. The water was beautiful, but freezing! On the plus side, I felt much warmer when I got out of the water. We were given safe driving times, and we wanted to make it to a camp site before high tide hit, so we didnt stay too long at the lake. We grabbed some food (bread, meat, cheese and butter yum!) and then loaded up again with a new driver (thank god) and headed back to the beach to find the Maheno Ship Wreck. We took a wrong turn somewhere on our way back to the beach though, and ended up taking about 45 minutes in the bush, lost as could be.

The Ship Wreck was pretty nifty though. The colors on my photos arent very good, jsut because the sun was setting and it was really overcast, but it was pretty we got a few group shots, got some people's running shoes soaked by the incomming tide, and we may or may not have illegally stood on parts of the wreck ... then it was off to pitch our camp site!

We picked a site nice and close to the ship wreck so that the next day we could get more photos, and it wouldnt take us very long to get up to the Northern end of the island to Indian Head and the Champagne pools. Let me just describe our camp site for you. It was a small alcove in the trees behind the dunes. No fires are allowed on Fraser, and because we were doing a self drive, there were no actual camp sites with facilities available to us unless we wanted to pay. So instead we pitched in the camping "areas" right on the beach. It was awesome! You could clearly hear the surf from our site. We had to set up camp early, about 4pm at the latest because the sun set so soon, so it was only about 3:30 when we had all our tents up. We were happily starting in on our beer when David decided to give us an into to Korean rules dodgeball on the beach It was basically the same as regular dodgeball (in the movie) but ... with less english. It was pretty fun except for the one time the ball almost went into the ocean, but we managed to grab it before the tide did, so all was well.

Speaking of the sea, I'll mention right now that we were warned that under no circumstances were we to go into the ocean around Fraser Island. Strong Currents, Jelly fish, and tons of sharks were all pretty good deterents for me, so I needed no second warnings.

We were making dinner when another group from our hostel pulled up and decided to camp with us. It was nice to have a large group to party with, since it was a cold night. It was one of the girl's birthdays, so they pulled out party hats and sparklers and we had a big boozy party including drinking games like Ring of Fire, and a whole lot of goon. We were warned earlier by rangers that girls were not to go bush toileting alone, and let me tell you, there is no quicker way to get to know people than by having to pee in the bushes and look for dingos while drunk. We were all pretty sauced, and sparing you the worst of the details, we had one girl pass out on the beach, had to drag one skinny dipping girl out of the surf, (note the warning about the sea above) had a full scale wrestling match in our camp, a dance party on the roof of the troopie and much much more. It was a fun night. The next morning was even more fun!

We had to be up by sunrise to start striking out camp and packing up to get to the point before HIgh tide hit. I have no idea how, but everyone managed to get up and packed by 8am. We had a quick breakfast of fried eggs and then we loaded up and booted it up the beach as the tide was coming close behind us.

We finally managed to get parked in what we assumed (rightly) was the Indian Heads parking area. Then we started the climb to the single most spectacular view I've seen in Australia so far. On the top of the heads all you can see is gorgeous beach and ocean. While we were climbing we saw a whale slapping its tail in the distance, which was amazingly cool We sat for a while on the top of the heads taking photos, and a couple of the guys decided to test their climbing skills (Helena and I couldnt watch them) I really wanted to see a shark while we were up there, but alas I had to settle for a few Manta Rays and what may have been a turtle. Having had our fill of the view we headed back down for the long beach walk to the Champagne pools. It was about a half an hour over soft sand, but it was pretty all the same. Once we finally got to the pools, we certainly werent disappointed. The tide was going out, so the pools werent very full, but all the same they were pretty!. The pools are basically a bunch of rocks that make something of a natural swimming pool where the constant waves fill them with warm salt water continuously. A couple of the guys decided to go swimming, but considering the warnings posted around and the size of some of the wave breaks, I settled on wading in the water instead.

I was snoozing on the beach with some of the girls when we heard people yelling about something, so I jumped up to discover there was a huge humpback whale breaching no more than 200meters out! It was a truly amazing site. I dont think i've ever seen Whales in the wild before Fraser, but it was very humbling. This whale kept jumping out of the water for about 10 - 15 mins. Unfortunately my camera was not fast enough to catch any good pictures, but I know a couple of the guys got some good ones, so I'll have to steal a couple. By this time the pools were getting very very crowded, and we still had to find a new camp site, so we said our farewells to the pools and started the long walk back to our troopie.

We decided to camp nearer to the southern part of the island for night 2 mostly because we wanted more time at the lakes and less time driving on our last day. We found a pretty good, sheltered site and unloaded our tents. We sent half the group to get more ice and some soft drinks while the rest of us set up the camp. While we were setting up tents we noticed some cans laying a little ways back from where we were setting up. not thinking much of it, we just cleaned them up thinking the last group here just didnt take care of the Island. We noticed not long after that they last group had actually burried the cans, and dingos had dug them up. Great, turns out we've just finished setting up in Dingo central. The area we were in was known for its Dingo population, as the kind ranger who pulled up shortly after we were set up told us. He reinforced the rules about keeping food stored and making sure no one left camp alone, then went on his merry way. Nice guy, not so nice news. Oh well, we were big bad backpackers. We'd be fine We started dinner (mm steak and potatoes) when the rest of the group got back, and that was when the dingos started poking around. It wasnt a big deal at first because we had lots of daylight left, and afterall, there were 10 of us. We finished dinner really quickly since the dingo kept coming back after we chased it off a few times and started throwing all our food containers into the troopie in an attempt to keep the dingos away. They kept coming around all night though, and you can bet that not a single girl went anywhere alone, nor went far. It was also freezing cold so we started our drinking games early. It was a fun night until we ran out of alcohol, and considering how much we had to start with, thats pretty bad. We started off with 2 cases of beer, 2 6packs of shmirnoff, 1 6pack of jim bean, and 8 4litre packs of goon... all gone before 9pm on our second night. Oops! We made it an early night on account of the cold anyway.

The next day didnt give us any break from the cold. it was freezing on the island! We found out when we got back that it was the coldest day in Queensland in 25 yrs! ick. Just our luck. We didnt get out of the car much, but we did go to Lake Wabby (a short walk from the car across some sand dunes and down a small mountain) then we took a "scenic" tour of the wilderness around the lakes. It took us alot longer than we expected and we almost missed our ferry back!

There are many more interesting little stories to relate, but honestly, I've typed this post out twice now, and both times its screwed up and been deleted and I just cant go through it again! Sorry If you really really want you can ask me in email or on msn or something.

in the mean time, more photos for your viewing pleasure:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=30270&l=5d1d4&id=618320647
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=30761&l=ccb64&id=618320647
and
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=30765&id=618320647

there ya go folks ciao for now. I'm off to Hervey bay!

Love
Amy

Fraser Island :) remains copyright of the author Del007, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Well first I'd like to say I am safe and sound now in Rainbow Beach. Second of all Id like to say, I miss the girls! and Third of all I'd like to say, the beach here is gorgeous!

Now, back to the story.

So when last I typed ... lets see where was I? Oh right. I was in South Bank Brisbane sort of.

Well, since then, I visted the Cultural Museum, Art Gallery, and Museum on the south bank with Claire, and I wandered around the Botanical gardens in Brisbane on my last day there
photos here
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=28280&l=1c7e4&id=618320647

Anyway, after that, I spent the evening with the girls at a Kareoke bar, and we had a blast! We made it an early evening though, as most of us couldnt afford to get drunk, and I had to be up early to catch my bus.

The bus to Noosa was an adventure all its own! it was supposed to pick me up at the YHA in Brisbane (right up the street from where I was staying) at 6:30 am, so in my usual paranoid fashion, I checked out at 6am, and was at the pick up point by about 6:10. I thought I'd just read my book and try not to think about what I was going to do when I got to Noosa. It worked rather well until I realised it was about 7:00am and my bus still hadnt come yet! I called the company and was put on hold while the operator "called the driver" ... who happened to pull up about 10 mins into my hold time. So I got on the bus, no problem. Just a little late. No one's fault really, they give everyone the same pick up time in Brisbane. From there we headed out, grabbed some breakfast at a truck stop, and went for a short "rainforest walk" which turned out to be about a 700m journey up hill to the summit of a small mountain to view the Glass House Mountains. not great, but thoroughly exhausting. ug! Then back on the bus and on the road ... and stop... in the middle of the highway. Our gear box was broken! Off we all piled and tried to push the bus along the shoulder to get it into second gear or something, but to no avail. Lucky for us this nice guy in a Greyhound company bus pulled up and tried to help us out. When he couldnt get it fixed he just offered to take the bus load of us with him to Noosa! it was great upgrade oh yeah.

Once there I got to wait for an hour for my hostel's courtesy bus, but the hostel itself was gorgeous! I stayed at Dolphins on Sunshine beach. Each unit is like its own little appartment. you have 2, 4 man dorms in each unit and you get your own fully equipped kitchen and bathroom plus a sitting room with cable tv! ... too bad the girls in my unit liked Aussie soaps so much ick! I ended up meeting up with Tom, a guy I knew for a short while in Byron and he took me out for dinner and showed me some sights at the park. It was really nice. The next day I slept in and met up with Tom to walk the national park again. We had a nice day, but it was too over cast to go to the beach. Now people might know, the thing I was looking forward to the most in Noosa was surfing. Sadly for me, the waves were kind of harsh so I didnt get to go out. Or rather, they were harsh until today, when I had to leave! I headed to the beach to kill some time till my bus came and the waves were almost perfect! I could have cried. But I didnt, I read on the beach and watched a pod of dolphins instead, then headed in to catch my bus.

Arrived on schedule in Rainbow Beach, and now i dont know anyone here, which is a very very odd feeling. I went to the beach and read and sunned down there for a while today, and got really freaked out because turns out the I placed my towl about 100ft away from a sky dive landing point! It was cool cuz I got to see people landing for most of the afternoon. It got chilly though, so now I'm back at my hostel.

For those wondering, I'm staying at Dingo's backpackers in Rainbow beach until Monday when I head off to fraser Island. I booked my tour with Peter Pans travel in Noosa, and i'm doing a self guided tour with about 10 other people. Basically they give us tents, food, fuel, and a troupie, and set us loose on the island. Oh and we get maps too. It should be fun! I also booked my Whitsunday sailing while I was there, since you get a deal when you book them together. I had wanted to sail on a ship called the Solway Lass, since its a 100 yr old traditional tall ship, but it was too big and expensive, so instead I took the Ron of Argyll, which is a much smaller boat, but still a classic tall ship design. Instead of housing 38 passengers, it only houses 12, so there is more chance for me to get to actually sail the boat and learn about sailing in general. I cant wait!

In the mean time, if you want to know my Itinerary, I'll be on Fraser Island until Wednesday afternoon, then I'll be back here at Dingos for the evening. From there I'm not sure if I'm going to stay a few extra days or if I'll head straight on to Hervey. Looks like i'll be in Bundaberg sooner than I had thought, since there is literally nothing to do in Hervey Bay except go to Fraser Island. I'll write again in a few days to let you guys know how Fraser went in the mean time, I realised that for those not on face book, you wont have seen my photos, so I'll post the links here because I need some way to end this propperly

Miss you guys!
Amy

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=27087&l=87462&id=618320647

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=27519&l=c3fb9&id=618320647

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=23967&l=46cb0&id=618320647

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=25531&l=dae73&id=618320647

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=20064&l=bc99d&id=618320647

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=20060&l=d987c&id=618320647

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=18000&l=d8b87&id=618320647

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=15810&l=981b7&id=618320647

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=15806&l=7b104&id=618320647

there ya go

Noosa and Rainbow Beach remains copyright of the author Del007, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Since last writing, we moved hostels again! This time ... due to bed bugs! Grrrr. Turns out the hostel we were staying at in Surfers had them (my room was fine) and they decided to keep Erin and Erika company here in Brisbane. We thought maybe it was the hostel room that had them, so we got it fumegated, and all our stuff had to go into the wash before they would let us back in the room. Unfortunately, at this point it had been raining for like 16 hrs straight so the dryers were all in use as were the washing machines. I ended up doing my laundry at about 2am just so I could get it done! Sigh, oh well. Sadly, once we got everything done, Erika still kept getting bitten and she found bugs in her bed. so She freaked and decided to switch hostels to City Backpackers (where we are at now)

The plus side : Large kitchen, swimming pool, free internet ....
The down side : expensive bar, 30 man dorm (yup 30!!!), foul cheesy foot smell in the dorm, unfriendly night manager.

Oh well. I had a pretty shitty time moving over here. Sam and Erika jumped ship on cloud 9 on Thursday night, leaving Helen and I there until Friday with Michelle. Not such a big deal, but in the process my toothpaste went missing and my favorite necklace that I brought out here got shattered. I was not happy about that. Mostly because a) I still cant find my toothpaste, and b) no one would own up as to who smashed the necklace.

Being in the 30 man dorm isnt as bad as I thought it would be, except my bed is in the middle of the room ... as in no walls around me at all. Its kind of funny really. But Shawn the boy beneath me is really nice. I've just had to be extra vigilant with my things to make sure that nothing goes missing while I'm staying with that many people.

Aside from that lets see ... Oh I know Brisbane's CBD fairly well now, having travelled it nearly a hundred some odd times already, and I finally got to taking some scenery photos I also met a girl named Claire while I was at Cloud 9, and I helped her find some accomidation in Bundaberg to do some fruit picking, so at least I'll have a friend up there for when I finally arrive. That will be nice.

Claire is a blast, shes so funny! She's been hanging around with the girls and I since she is all alone here for now. She leaves for Bundy tomorrow though, which is too bad, but I should meet up with her again in July anyway, so no big deal.

Claire, Helen and I went to the Koala sanctuary yesterday. It turned out to be a blast! we were like a bunch of little kids when we got there, running around to see as much as humanly possible in the time that we had. We got there kind of early ... just before noon, and just in time to catch an educational show about Birds of Prey in Australia. We got to see a sea eagle (no not a sea gull) and a wedge tail eagle! Both were fantastic sights as they fly in over a small lake to land on perches. The wedge tail was especially cool since it was a windy day. He Soared and rolled and had a great time in the air before coming in to get his reward. After that we high tailed it to the Koala area to catch another information session there, but the slide projector was broken ... so the lady had to hold a Koala and just chat to us for a half an hour. We got to pet the koala too Except it had only 1 eye ... and it was named Monacle. ... yeah anyway. After that I decided I really really wanted to cuddle one. You can get your photo taken holding a Koala here for $15 and the proceeds support the habitats and trees they need to support the Koalas. there were also options to hold snakes, crocodiles and a bird of prey, but I didnt quite have the funding for those. Anyway, holding a Koala is cool. They are alot softer than I would have thought, and their fur is really dense! The information talk was really neat. And the official word is ... no Koalas do not get stoned / drunk / intoxicated off of Eucalyptus leaves. They are just sleepy. (heard that one before!)

While we were at the sanctuary we also got to hold baby chicks, feed kangaroos, get baahed at by a really loud sheep, almost got pecked by emus, were mesmerized by the Wombat (big and squishy!) and we saw bats, dingoes, kangaroos, joeys, and a some snakes. No Tazmanian Devils though they werent out. I was sad. Then we headed home.

Today I went out with Claire, Sam and Helen to a place called the South Bank. Its a little suburb not far from where we are located. Its right on the river and its got a little man made beach (not too impressive) but the grounds are gorgeous! I got some photos which I'll upload to facebook later. We also visited the markets, bought some badges (buttons) and wandered about. Since its a long weekend though, people start drinking here really really early, and Helen promised to go out with some of her friends from work, so we left before we had a chance to visit the galleries and museums. Claire and I are going to get up early though, and go tomorrow before she has to get on her bus to Bundy. Look for more photos and an update then! For now though, I need to go. I think we are doing dinner soon.

Ciao!
Love Amy

Ps. you may be happy to know for the past 2 days its been freezing here! it finally warmed up today, but it was only about 15 yesterday

Brisbane and Koala Cuddling remains copyright of the author Del007, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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well another quick update for you all. We arrived safe and sound in Brisbane yesterday morning at about 11:15am. Hit up a McD's, and then headed off on the long ass trek to find our hostel. Ok so it wasnt a long ass trek, it just felt that way carrying all our luggage. Let me tell you, its not fun. It was only about 10 mins away, but most of it was seriously up hill. Not cool!

Anyway, we were supposed to be booked into a place called Banana Benders here in Brisbane. The reason we booked with them was because there are 6 of us and they said they could fit us all in the same room, which we thought was pretty damn cool. Well, we showed up more than an hour before our check in time, only to be told there had been a mistake. Turns out there was no 6 bed dorm available, and we could all stay in the hostel together, but we'd have 2 in one room, 3 in another, and one person would be on there own. But hey since the dude at the desk was oh so nice, he would arrange to have a single mattress brought in to the 3 bed dorm so that one person could sleep on the floor. Oh right, and the price had gone up to $150 / week. No thanks! We booked one night and headed off in search of greener pastures. Being that we are in the central district of the city, there are plenty of hostels within walking distance of each other. We ended up booking cheaper at a place called Cloud 9, in an 8 man dorm. But at least we are all together, and we have an ensuite bathroom! yes no strangers walking in on me in the shower! Sweet.

Anyway, Brisbane's weather is pretty great, and what I've seen of it so far is alright... but all in all, I dont know if I'll spend too much time here. The girls are really itching to get jobs, since they are all low on funds. In fact, Helen and Sam started at their friend's Bar today, and Michelle and Erika dropped off resumes at some temp agencies. But me... well I don't want to work in an office. I've thought about looking into cafe or coffee shop work for a bit, but most places want to know you are going to be some place for at least 2 months, and I'm just not prepared to commit that much time to a place I don't even like that much. I really dont want to be rude and bugger off on my own or anything, but at the same time I know there are plenty of fruit picking opportunities for the solo traveller up in Bundaberg. and I could always meet the girls up there. I just have to figure out what I want to do first. I really dont want to end up in a new city all alone again, but we'll see. It would also mean having to do Hervey Bay and Fraser island alone.

On the plus side though, Simon and TK are here, so we have an even larger group to go out with tonight (hopefully) and Cloud 9 has its own bar, so we wont have to go out a long distance. Hostel bars are always cheap too which is another bonus. After the last week in Surfers though, I'm officially on a budget. We are all buying food at the local supermarket to cut down costs. the only crappy part? you have to rent dishes at the new hostel But since we will be there for a whole week at least its not a big deal.

The last night in Surfers was fun. We had an awesome (if expensive) dinner at the hard Rock cafe, and then headed off to meet Rob and Dylan and some of their friends for a quick beer at an Irish Bar. It was supposed to be ladys night at this bar called the Shack, so we headed back to our hostel to get ready (as in pre drink and re dress) before going out. Dylan came out with us, but Rob and the rest went to a house party some place in Surfers and we didn't feel like going to find them. Turned out there, there was no Ladies night at the shack, and instead we ended up at a place called the monkey cage, where we had the whole club to ourselves. It was great! the bar tender, Johno I think was his name, was also the DJ, and he kept asking Helen and I for requests. Combine that with $4 daquiris and $2.90 beer, and we had a great night

well for now, I've uploaded the few photos I took in Surfers, and now I'm off to go shopping and think about applying for a job. Its Friday night here, and I'm hoping Simon will come out with helen and I, even if everyone else wants to stay in. I'll let you guys know what I decide

In the mean time, as usual I'll leave you with this, I've seen more 7-11s in Brisbane than I have Kangaroos in all of Australia!

Ps. Mom, check your home email please, I need my resume
Grandma - mail is on its way to you I miss you!
Dad & Aggie : I miss you guys! take care and give Sam a hug for me. I'll call you guys later

Love
Amy

Hanging in Brisbane remains copyright of the author Del007, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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well nothing really interesting to relate right now, but I thought I'd update since I"m in a new town and all.

I left Byron Bay on Monday afternoon to rejoin with Helen, Sam, & Michelle in Brisbane. So far, its been pretty awsome They managed to get me booked into their room, and we've spent our time exploring the shopping districts of Surfers Paradise and seeing some of the clubs out here.

Surfers has an awsome location, and a gorgeous beach! too bad its very um...tourist. There are high rise hotels, tacky souvenir shops on every corner, and alot of very in your face things. They even have Hollywood esque theme parks here including Movie World, Dream World, and um Wet and Wild I think. None of them are really interesting to me.

We did run across something that looked like a bunch of fun yesterday though. You know how in California they have that Mideavil Times dinner thing, well here they have something similar: Dracula's Castle! IT looked like it would be a blast! you get to have dinner and its like a cabaret show or something, so wether that means its like a play, or what I dont know. But from the looks of the brochure even the wait staff is in character. Helen Sam and I really wanted to do it, but it was $74, and the other girls were indifferent. It sucks not having money some times. Oh well

we've opted to go the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner instead That should be cool. We popped in this morning to make reservations and saw just a bit of the memorabilia that they have hanging on the walls. Lots of pictures to come i'm sure.

We move on to Brisbane tomorrow.
I'm a little sad that I wont have much time here, but at the same time Im glad. This place could be a serious money trap. The clubs are expensive and you have to pay cover to get in. PLus most things here are overpriced as they usually are in tourist towns. Unfortunately though, the whale watching season starts in 2 days here, and the tours are really cheap. Looks like I'll have to wait till farther up the coast for that sort of thing. I'm really looking forward to having travelling companions. Helen & the rest are letting me tag along for a little while There are going to be 6 of us booked into a room in Brisbane. Its a good thing we are getting our own 6 bed dorm. For those wondering, I'll be staying at Banana Benders Hostel for the first week in Bris by the way.

Other than that, I've been trying to meet back up with Rob and Dylan for the last few days to no avail, which makes me a little sad as well, since I didnt get to say a propper goodbye And Ive been seriously debating getting a tattoo. I know exactly what I want and where, its just a matter of pricing, and ... well guts. Helen wants to get her tounge pierced, so I said Id go with her when we got to Bris. She has friends there who know the city really well, so we'll get some opinions of reputable places to go.

well I guess thats it for now, there really isnt much more to say, check my face book for new photos though, I might add the few that I took while here to it. Otherwise, I'll catch ya all in Brisbane!

Love
Amy

Surfers Paradise remains copyright of the author Del007, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Wow am I in need of a de-tox or what. Eeesh! Surf Camp is over now, and I'm really sad. I made some great friends with the other helpers, and to a lesser extent with some of the boys out there too. So lets see ... where to start....

I think the last time I wrote I was in Sydney for a weekend thingy. Well now I'm back in Byron Bay, and almost totally alone (again!) which is a bit of a depressing thought, but on the plus side, I"m heading up to Surfers Paradise to meet up with Helen and some of the other girls from Surf Camp to pick up some fruit picking work and head up the coast to where its warmer. The last few nights at camp were soooo cold! Sofia and I were freezing out there, and we both come from cold climates! (Sofia is from Sweden) but the weather is lovely in Byron, even if the beaches aren't as nice as where I've been.

For those wondering, Surf Camp is basically 3 hrs north of Sydney in an area called the Great Lakes. We are about a 20 min drive from a little town called Bullahdella, which makes Bowden look like a raging city. It has a cafe, and a grocery store, and um ... a butcher ... and um.... .... yeah thats about it. I went there a couple times with Vicki (my boss from surf camp). Oh right, you know how in Canada people have those little dear statues or what ever on their front lawns? They look all bronzed and what not... well they dont have dear here... they have ... yes you guessed it Kangaroos! This dude had a Bronzed Kangaroo statue on his front lawn. I just about died of laughter. Vicki thought I had gone nuts!
Speaking of nuts, I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned Ben the extremely gay surf instructor. (his nick name in Pornz. dont ask) well, he wasnt working when I was down there, but he was hanging around the camp for a free lift down to the snow season. Anyway, I love the guy, but hes a bit of a basket case. Helen, Sofia and I were on the bus back from the beach when Ducat got this call and he started laughing so hard he had to pull off to the side of the road. Turns out, Ben has a few phobias. One being red necks, and another being wild dogs. So Ben goes out biking in his tiny little short shorts and cropped tank top. Sees a truck go by, and starts freaking out thinking these red necks are going to rape him or something, so he starts peddling like mad, and ends up missing the turn into Camp and winds up at Frank the handy man's place. (Frank has about 12 dogs that are a little less than domestic) So while hes looking over his shoulder, the dogs all started barking and poor Ben is lost, thinking hes being chased by red necks and now hes got a pack of wild dogs on his heels (doesnt help that there was a cow killed by some actual wild dogs a week or so before) so instead of being a man, he ditches the bike and scurries 20 feet up the nearest tree! (keep in mind the dogs he heard are locked behind a gate and are no where really near him anyway) So now Ben is up a tree in short shorts and a cropped tank, thinking there are red necks and dogs after him, and what does he do? he starts trying to send Vicki telepathic messages to come pick him up. He was lucky Sharon (the cleaning lady) came by after about a 1/2 hr. Now if you know Ben thats funny as hell, if not it might be a little scary. Rest assured, hes just over the top, not full on looney bin crazy. I miss that guy. He was really really fun.

Lets see what else, there have been tons of fun stories of people and punters I've met at surf camp, and retelling all of them would take forever! Besides, the antics of the drunk are usually only amusing if you've been there So I'll spare you guys for now. If I think of anything else though, rest assured it will go up here.

Ok there is one drunken story that is fresh in my mind so I'll put it up here. The group of punters that I came North with are a tiny bit on the creepy side. I'm not saying everyone who goes through Surf Camp is gorgeous, but well ... you'd have to have low standards for the most part with this particular group. (really low) Anyway, there was one guy who was from France (yes we called him Frenchie) and he was a little more creepy than the rest because he couldnt speak english very well at all, so if he wanted something at the bar he'd just stare at you until you figured out what he wanted. So on the 2nd last night at camp, he got really really drunk, and started taking a million and one photos of Sofia and I, we were getting really creeped out, and then the guy comes behind the bar and starts trying to kiss us! Now, Grommet and a couple of the guys can get away with that because we know them, but some random really creepy Frenchie?! Hell no. We told him to piss off and left the bar to the boys. Frenchie wasnt so bad after we left camp though, he was slightly less creepy... until he was assigned to Sofia and I's dorm last night >.< that was not cool.

We got into Byron last night, and pulled the usual farewell party, except it was bigger than usual, since its the last tour here. Sofia and Ducat had to go back to Surf Camp, but RobBob and Dylan are still here, so at least I'm not totally alone yet. Gonna meet up with them later ( I hope they don't want to party again tonight, I don't think my liver can handle it) Right, talking about the tour, Anyway, Steve-O (the driver of our lovely big blue bus) is done for the season, and has been gone for the last 2 weeks. Thats left us with these little mini buses (coasters) to take our tours north with. Its not too bad ... until you have 21 punters (there are only 21 seats) and 4 surf instructors, and 3 helpers to fit on to a bus. Grommet drove the Troopie up half way with us, but he had to turn around and go back to camp yesterday for the weekend tour. That meant that we had a 21 seater bus with um 26 people on it. So Illegal! I spent a 5 hr trek to Byron Bay on the floor with about um 2 sq feet of space to myself. The only solution to that kind of discomfort? Alcohol of course! Sofia picked up a box of goon, and I broke out the Wild Turkeys and Strongbow. Now we don't have Wild Turkey back in Canada, but its Bourbon and cola. Things here are measured in standard drinks per serving. So like um beer is 1, Rum and coke is 1.4 ... and Wild Turkeys are 2.4 No one told me that. (I think they didn't on purpose too actually) so by the first toilet stop I was trashed. It made the ride much more fun! I got to talk to one of the punters who was reading a book and could understand words over 2 syllables, though I imagine it was hard to understand me at that point anyway I think the most fun had to be all the police on the road last night. Poor Ducat was freaking out. If we had been pulled over he would have likely lost his license and been fined...Heavily.

Oh yeah, yesterday was the last day on the beach for me, (well with Surf camp anyway) so I grabbed a board, and was determined to hit a few waves with Ducat and Grommet. The best part? I actually caught one all on my own! I was soooo happy you wouldn't believe it. The only shitty thing it that about 2.5 seconds after I stood up, I crashed into Ducat and took him out. He hadn't expected me to get on the wave, what a vote of confidence eh?
We always have a surfing competition on the last day of the tours, and this tour was no exception. There were quite a few competent surfers on the tour, so it was fun to watch, though I think the antics of Ducat and Grommet were even more fun. They started playing full contact surfing. At one point Grommet full on lept off his board to tackle Ducat (we are talking a flying leap) another time Ducat got off his board to grapple with Grommet on his. Though I think the most cold blooded sabotage was when one of the punters took a page out of the boys' book and full on threw his board at another of the punters who had just managed to get on a wave. That or when Grommet took out Sofia on her first and only wave of the day. he just surfed straight into her and pushed his board into her legs. Poor girl all in all it was a really great tour, which was good because I was afraid that it would suck.

Well I think I need to go write some postcards, call some family members and um ... eat something ... maybe. SO I'll leave you guys with this:

What they say about the water draining the wrong way ... its totally true! I found that out while filling water jugs at camp after a night of heavy drinking. Staring at water that spins the wrong way when you're feeling like that ... you dont forget that kind of thing. Stupid, but what do you want? really ....

Ciao! Love you all
Amy

Bye bye surf camp :( remains copyright of the author Del007, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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well I'm in Sydney for a short visit so I stopped at a cafe for a few mins with Helen and Sarah (Helen works at Surf Camp and Sarah is a Punter who is coming back to work with us next season)

Anyway, I'll give you a brief rundown of my trip to Surf camp. The night before I left, a bunch of us that were left over from my tour went and met up with the crew again at Cheeky Monkey's. Ali, Lucy, Julia and I got more than a little tipsy before going, just to make it that much more fun. Anyway we headed up to the restaraunt where they go every week and found out that Zack, RobBob and Dylon had come up on the tour that was cool, except poor RobBob buggered his knee while playing soccer. It was swollen so bad it was gross. But his buddies grabbed a shopping cart to wheel him around town in all night. It was funny. It was slave auction night at Cheekies, and the girls and I won ourselves the only male on the auction block he came with a $50 bar tab, and a half hour of indentured service. We didnt really make use of him though, except when the girls just kept ordering drinks and stacked up a massive $97 tab! then pissed off without paying! Lucky for us that our "slave" worked for the bar and smoothed things over. The night wore on, with much dancing, and many a sad goodbye for me. Robbie the sweet Scottsman was heading back to New Zealand soon, the girls were going up the coast to Surfers, and I dont really know what Rory was doing, but I do know I'll likely never see any of them again. We partied hard, and had alot of fun, and grabbed the bus back to the hostel, where a very very drunk Manchester was waiting for me. Poor Sarah, she was going to be on her own for a day, and wasnt handling it very well. She drank way too much, but lucky for her the girls in our room were really sweet and took care of her till I got there. I felt bad because she was still passed out when I went to catch the bus the next day, I'll probably meet up with her and Charlene again in Cairns though, so thats no too bad.

I nearly had a panic attack waiting for the bus on Saturday morning because Steve-O was late! and I had no idea where to meet the bus at. All was well though, I managed to get on the bus ok, and grab some breakfast. Turns out there were only 4 people on the tour! so we had this huge 40 man coach with all of 9 people on it. It was here that I met a new Sarah, and three of the craziest english people I've ever encountered, the twins Oli and Dan, and their friend Shawn. They were a little hard to take at first, but when you get used to them, they arent too bad. Since we had so few people we decided to skip the night at Wei Wei, and go straight to surf camp. Poor RobBob managed to hobble onto the bus with his messed up knee, and get settled in, and we were off. we drove to um .. Red Cliffs I think, to surf, only to find out there were almost literally no waves, so most of the first day was spent getting dumped by white wash and sunbathing on the beach. I think it was Dylon who did most of the teaching the first day, which was cool, since hes so funny and helpful. RobBob and Zack were sleeping off their hangovers in the shade of the big blue bus. I helped Steve-O set up lunch, and we decided to drive straight to Surf Camp. It was a very very long bus ride, and everyone was really tired by the time we got in. In their usual style, the guys went off and did their own thing, leaving the rest of us to flounder around and figure out what to do on our own. Turns out that the girls (helpers) were staying at the HIllHouse, which is where I stayed on my tour, so it was a nice little walk with a large back pack to get to my lodging. I got settled in though, and headed back to the Cabana to help out. It was a funish night, despite being dead tired. I met Helen again (she was a helper on my tour) Simon, TK, Vicki (my boss), Sam, Michelle (from Edmonton!) Shanon, and Sophia. Turns out Saturday was a bit of a party because Kev, the owner of the camp, was out with some friends and a bunch of the other instructors were also up for the weekend. The rest of the night was spent on drink, so I wont bother to go into it. Nothing that great happened until it was bed time anyway. Helen was so drunk she was all but passed out. Kev ended up having to carry her to the car and drive her back to the Hill House, where she got stuck in the bathroom for a bit before crawling into her bed. Simon walked me up to the house, and climbed into Helen's bed, I dont remember why. Sam had other plans though, and threatened him with Castration if he didnt get off Helen's bed since she was going to need it very shortly .... so instead he slid off her bed and under mine! In the mean time, Helen had come back and was laughing so hard at Simon being under my bed that she just crawled off hers and undermine with Simon ... I promptly switched to the top bunk for the night. IT was hilarious! Sunday night, all our weekend crew had gone, and it was just the 4 punters from the southbound crew and all the helpers hanging out at the Cabana. Now that was a weird night! The crazy English boys bought so much alcohol it was gross. They had Ducat doing flaming Sambucca shots, and beer bongs all night. At one point, Oli disappeared with Sarah, only to come back 20mins later in one of her dresses! It was hilarious! at some point in the night he lost his boxers as well, which made things infinatly more disturbing. I think at some point they started a mosh pit in the cabana, and Simon passed out on the freezer. I went to bed shortly there after. The best part was the next morning, Oli was still wearing the dress. We stopped at a shop quickly the next day, and in his hung over state, he spent $50 on a hot pink rashie. See the photos under Surf camp week 1 on my face book

The next day we got up early as usual to clean and set up for the day before heading off to the beach with Ducat and Moonie and the punters. Ducat took the punters in the coaster (small bus) and Moonie took the helpers in the death-trap Troopy. (the back door doesnt close right, there is a hole in the exhaust pipe that spews Carbon monoxide into the windows, and there are only benches to sit on. I'll get a picture on Friday when I go back. Anyway, we headed down to the beach and Moonie was nice enough to help me catch a couple waves I didn't even wipe out that much. It was cool. Most of the days were actually spent like this for the first week. Get up, make lunches, and clean, head to the beach. Surf / Swim / sun bathe, get lunch ready, and continue with what ever we were doing before. Its kind of all blended together now, but I do remember it was alot of fun. Helen came out to the beach and we hung out with Sarah (she was the only girl on her tour, so she wanted company) and eventually I think we managed to convince her to come back and work with us in December for Christmas.

Yesterday, all the crews had left, so it was only the 4 people from the 5 day southbound tour left, so Helen, Sophia, Shanon, and myself headed to the beach with the punters and Ducat. We hit the Light House beach, which is known a little for its rips, and mostly for its cool swells. The waves weren't very large, but they were big enough. It was really really shallow though, so surfing meant being battered a lot. Helen and I decided to go swimming instead. I should mention here that the boys had already been into the vodka, and Helen into the goon and it wasn't even noon yet! In short, the guys didn't do much surfing, so Ducat had a nice easy day. Lucky guy.

Right, so I was mentioning about rips. I had my first experience of being caught in one yesterday ... it was not cool at all, but also a little funny. Helen and I were messing around body surfing and stuff when we got caught in it. but we didn't notice until we looked at the land and realized how far out we were. Helen wasn't worried but I was a little freaked, so we started swimming, but couldn't make any headway at all! Let me tell you what a freaky experience that is, when you are paddling as hard as you can and you cant get any closer to shore. If you do get caught in a rip, you should swim horizontally across the shore until you get out, so we started doing that. We found out later that we would have swam into the deepest and fastest part of the rip if we continued on our way. Lucky for us Ducat and Shanon saw us from the shore and yelled at us to swim the other way. That could have sucked big time. After that little experience we were both exhausted by the time we had swam far enough out of the rip to get back to shore, we just collapsed on the beach for a while. And then the dolphins came! We saw them swimming in the shallows, and one bumped a surfer, it was funny. Especially since I was standing on the shore watching with Shanon and she freaked out thinking they were sharks. We saw them again a little while later, surfing in the waves. It was so cool. Ducat was out in the water with Oli, they were so close they could have touched them if they had wanted to. I was so jealous! Shanon and I set up lunch, and we all chilled on the beach (and I do mean chilled, it was cold!) and thats when Helen and I decided we wanted to follow this particularly hilarious group of punters to Sydney We got back to camp and made a mad dash to the HIll House to gather enough stuff for the weekend before running full tilt back to the Cabana to clean up so Vicki would let us go.

Well, now we are in Sydney, we spent the night at Maze hostel. Helen and I went and got trashed with Ducat and the boys, but Sarah stayed in because she's doing a bridge climb today. We headed to the good old Sidebar again and hung out there for a while. Helen kept doing jaggerbombs to keep herself awake so by the time the guys got there, she was really trashed. Eventually Ducat decided we should hit a different club, so he took us on a nice little jaunt to some place aptly named Scary Canary. Helen and I grabbed drinks and headed to the dance floor, where some creep tried to grind with us while we were dancing. We got fed up with it so we turned around to find the guys ... only to discover ... we'd been ditched! We were so pissed it was actually funny. We were swearing at the top of our lungs while we tried to figure out where the hell we were at 2am. Eventually we got a taxi back to the hostel, but the driver had no idea where our hostel was, so we told him to take us to Central station. Turns out our hostel was less than a block away >.< we got dropped off right infront of it by accident. After finding ourselves again, we promptly went and got lost all over again looking for pizza. We took it back to our hostel and chowed down while making embarassing texts to people. all in all, it was a fun night. We dicovered in the morning that it was an accident that we got left at the bar. The guys were too drunk and didnt realize that we werent there. Now we are off to Bondi to go shopping. I'll be in contact again soon I head north in about 2 weeks. Its going too fast!!!!

Ciao!
Amy

Welcome to Surf Camp remains copyright of the author Del007, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Well awsome news! A couple days ago I finally got ahold of the lady at the Surf Camp .... and as of Saturday morning, I'm headed out there to work for the rest of the season!!! Yay I was sooo happy I was litterally jumping for joy. I just have to drag my lazy ass with my back pack down to the main bus stop for 8am on Saturday morning and let the driver know that I'm comming down to work for em. I'm really nervous about it though. If something happens and I cant get on, I'll be royally screwed, since all the accomidation here is booked, and just to get an extra night at my current hostel I have to switch rooms tomorrow morning. What a pain >.< but if Steve-O is still driving, I think I'll be good. I think he liked me anyway.

I'm really enjoying Byron Bay out here. Its a very small beach town, only one main street, and you can walk the perimiter of the whole town in maybe an hour max. If Sundre had been like this, I might have seriously been tempted to move out there. Its really chilled out, and relaxed here. You dont feel like you should be rushing to do anything in particular, you can just hang out, stroll the streets and do what you want all day. Its a nice feeling.

I've spent the last few days relaxing, and chilling on the Beach. Last night was Nick and Laura's last night though so we went for a nice long beach walk and discovered a really tiny "Point break" (surfing term) where some beginners were honing there skills, and our first live crab was seen along here too. We climbed some seriously sharp rocks, and found a nice secluded beach for a bit before it got cold and we headed back. I'll have to upload those photos. Despite alot of the OzIntro crew still being in residence here in Byron, I've found I enjoy hanging out with the Surf crew alot more. Lucy, Robbie, Rory, Ali, Julia, Laura, Nick and a few others have been hanging out here, and with the exception of Nick & Laura, the rest of us are all here until Saturday when we split off and go our seperate ways. I'll be sad to see them go, they've been good friends and loads of fun to hang out with its nice to know a group of travellers who dont want to get "off their face" every day to have fun. Laura showed me a little shop where you can buy shell pendants. She bought a really nice abalone one, and I got a whitish one with a wave pattern on it. I've decided it will be my reminder of the surfing crew. How cheesy is that? heheheh I think Lucy and I were going to shop for some friendship bracelets anyway in town today. I also need to pay for my OzExperience bus pass today. what fun. I'm spending way too much money out here.

Oh right, so I guess I could take some time to tell you guys about where I've been staying. I havent gotten any photos yet, Ive been a little sick, but I'm staying at a lovely place called the Arts Factory. Its basically a hippie commune turned lucrative accomidation business. its about a 10 min walk from the center of town, set on a 5acre rainforest reserve with its own bar / lounge / cafe / restaraunt / library / cinema / pool / volley ball courts / camping ground .... basically everything you could want except a fruit vendor and bottle shop. (thats what they call Liquor stores out here, bottle shops.) its really cool. All the dorms are around the pool, and there are teepees and long houses that you can stay in too. There are also specialty rooms like the Hippy Bus (you litterally stay on a hippie bus) and the Love Shack ... which I've never actually seen the doors open to ... thats probably a good thing.

All the rooms are painted up with nifty designs. My current dorm is addorned with Sun patterns on the main wall and in all the corners. The rooms are small, but all in all, not too bad.

From what I gather, the arts factory started out as a commune and just kind of grew into a place for travellers to stay. There is so much to do though, its hardly like a hostel at all! Just today for example, there are yoga classes at 10, reiki or what ever at 12, salsa dancing and capoeira in the evening, a live DJ at the bar, and movies playing at the cinema. Yesterday, I went on a bushwalk with the most eccentric Aussie I've evermet. I should mention here that because of my horrible cold / cough, I've lost my voice entirely. I woke up yesterday and seriously couldnt even make a squeak. It sucked! All my friends made fun of me all day but it was funny. Anyway,right, the bush walk. So this guy named Cockatoo Paul does a couple things around the hostel during the weektime. He takes groups out to the reserve around the hostel and shows them how to use assorted plants for one thing. So I joined up with his tour yesterday. He showed us how to use a certain tree as insect repellent, how to identifty and get fruictos from certain flowers, and how to get water from a tree. He also showed us how to make bush toilet paper. Though he warned us very seriously about using the wrong part of this particular bark. It was umm how did he put it ... oh right "John Wayne toilet paper, rough as all hell and wont take shit off anyone" If I could have, I would have laughed really loud at that. As it was I managed a squeak, which resulted in my being called hoarse face for the rest of the evening >.< As we went out of the hostel proper and into the parking lot, Cockatoo decided it was time to learn to throw a spear. For some strange reason I vounteered. So now I have a photo of my holding a traditional aboriginee spear about to throw it. The good news was, my aim was good, but my power sucked. He threw the spear like 50 feet ... mine ... maybe 10 and instead of arcing and sticking in the ground it just kind of skittered along. ... Oh well it was fun. The walk might have been better had I actually been able to talk to the people around me, but thats alright. It was still cool. Afterwards, we headed to the hostel bar for a free glass of wine (horrible boxed wine I might add) and I grabbed a table in preparation for Cockatoo's evening musical show. Some of you guys will remember Dan-the-one-man-Band from Eua Claire ... well Cockatoo really puts him to shame. He writes all his own songs, and he uses a Didjeredoo, kazoo, guitar, maraccas, at least 6 drums, a tamborine, high hat, and um some piece of piping that he uses like a "didje" (the short term for Didjeredoo) It was an awsome show, and afterwards he was really trying to plug his CD. I'd have been tempted to buy it if A) it wasnt $20, and B) I had a CD player ...
A couple of things of note about Cockatoo ... hes a bushman with a cockatoo. He drives alot, spends most of his time on the road, and likes it that way. He also sells Road Kill jewlery... and no, its not just a name. He seriously collects the bones of dead animals that he passes on the road, bleaches and cleans them and uses them to make things with. ew. He was selling it this morning, and tried to convince me to buy a pair of Makoshark teeth earings. If it werent for the fact they were real teeth, I might have bought them. He assured me the guy he bought em from was "green" and used the whole shark, but all the same, I just cant condone that kind of thing. Some of his opals were cool though, and the Kangaroo teeth. If that hadnt been so expensive, I'd have bought one of the pendants, but I need to concentrate on more important things ... like food.

well anyway, I've gotta go and hit the bank and such, so I'll leave you guys with some amusing things again. If you are ever here remember they have no idea what Bandaids are, they are called Plastics, PLasters or Plasties here. try whispering to a lady at the pharmecy (because you cant talk) that you want bandaids and see the look on her face. It was hilarious. I'd also like to take a moment to lament on a couple of things. namely, no one out here has ever heard of NyQuil!!!!! I asked like 5 different people including a pharmacy tech and got nothing but blank looks. They also do not carry Advil liquid strength, any brand of feminine products that Im used to, or solid deoderant. Oh yeah, and all the English smell the same. They use this disgusting Aerosol spray deoderant that stinks up the room every morning and leaves me gaging it sucks, but they think that people in Canada must stink. Until I point out its too cold for us to sweat. Damn Poms Anyway, Ciao for now guys, This will likely be my last post for a while, since there is no internet out at Surf Camp. If I do come into Byron though, I'll do my damndest to grab a computer and update, but its likely going to be about a month till you hear from me again. So Dont worry! For my family, I will be keeping my cell phone charged and full of mins incase you guys need to get ahold of me, and I'm sure there is a land line there as well that I can use. I'll find out on Monday when I get back there

"cheers" as the English say, and I love you guys and Miss you tons! Mom, give my cat extra cuddles, Dad, well give Aggy and Sam and extra hug and kiss, and everyone else um. I dunno, do something and think of me. As for me, I'll toast to you guys with a Carona in hand when Im back on the road with the surf guys.

Cheers!
Amy

Life at the Arts Factory remains copyright of the author Del007, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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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!

Nimbin Ho! remains copyright of the author Del007, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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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

Surfing NSW! remains copyright of the author Del007, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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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

Holy Catching up to do remains copyright of the author Del007, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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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

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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!

Aloha! remains copyright of the author Del007, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I went to this travel agent (despite having sworn to never go to another one after a disasterous California booking, trip was awsome though) who specializes in Australia and Asia Pacific on the recommendation of a friend. My first experience with them, I had to fight to get the flight I wanted. I just want to do Australia this time thanks, not Singappore, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Vietnam or anything. Just Australia. And I want to fly into Sydney and out of Melbourne. An hour later, I walked out with those flights reserved. (1 hr!! God only knows why I still booked) So I bought those tickets, and set up my air port transfers accordingly.

So ... 2 weeks after I paid (and more than a week after they were supposedly mailed) I got the E-ticket. And its wrong (Sob!) Not only is my "year long" ticket 4 months short on durration, but its also going out of the wrong city! In the Wrong territory! On the Wrong coast! Sigh. So much for specialists.

I'll give the company the benefit of the doubt and say it was just the individual agent that I dealt with. I'll let you know how that turns out tomorrow. /rant off

On a side note, Only 1 more day of work left! I am sooooo excited. I love my co-workers, mostly, but my job is the pits. I certainly wont be missing that while I soak up the Sydney sun.

I think its just now starting to really sink in that, yes, I am leaving my life behind me for a whole year. I only have 2 more Teusdays left in Canada, and thats starting to make me worry. But in a good way. Although, I did just catch the Pirates of the Carribean 3 trailer ... and I'm going to miss the release date! To those reading who are going on opening night, I demand photos of all the people dressed like Pirates. Hell, I'll probably know most of them, though I dont know if thats a good thing to admit to or not....

Anyway, since I still have one night left, that means one more night of going to bed early, so ciao!

Del

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I finally got my tickets booked after much undue drama. First it was not being able to get enough credit or bank withdrawl to be able to pay for the ticket on my own. Thank God my dear ol' mum bailed me out on that by letting me use her credit card for the remainder of the ticket.
Then it was finding out that we couldnt split the tickets, so the whole amount went on her card. Sigh.

In other news, I've found the cell phone I want to go to Oz with! Woopee its the same phone they used in Casino Royale ... so now I can tell everyone I use the same phone as James Bond. My gawd I'm so pathetic I almost weep for my exsistance.

In other news, with Oz intro booked I am all set with a bank account, tax file number, and SIM card, as well as having my first week's accomidation booked. Looks like we are staying at Coogee beach Surfside Backpackers. Its about 100 feet to the beach (litterally across the street) and its got an awsome location. The only down side was the gut wrenchingly cheesy intro video! If you have the time, go take a look. its on their website and loaded on to Youtube I believe. It was so bad it was great!

No now I get to play the waiting game. I'm going nuts at work. I have only 8 more working days, and I am sooo psyched!
I finally bought all the supplies I need (I hope) including my shiney silk sleeping sheet. Turns out that cotton sheets are a bad idea in humid countries. When I went shopping for the last of the items I needed, I asked the clerk at MEC about which sleeping sheets would be better. Since Cotton was only $17 and Silk was more like $52 ... I wanted to save as much as I could. However, my frugal nature was stopped short upon recieving a discription of what would happen with my sheets. Sticky and wet = yuck! I rationalized the extra $35 by thinking that I would be cheaping out on accomidations I could at least have the luxury of a comfy and sticky free sleep, so at least my conscience is soothed.

When I first started planning a trip to Oz, I was really set on cage diving with a Great White. I've started reading alot of websites and science journals lately (since I have nothing else to do) and its really turned me away from that particular adventure sport. Not so much because its not safe, but more for ethical reasons. I'm still hoping to swim with a whale shark, but I dont really want to support the chumming industry of cage diving.

Well, for now I'm off to go and see about buying that cell phone that I really want! Ciao for now, I might update this again in April before I leave, but not too sure.

Del

Are we there yet? remains copyright of the author Del007, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Looks like I'll be leaving here, flying for a quick stop over in LAX, before headed on Quantas straight to Sydney. Thats a relief since the original ticket she wanted to book me with had a multitude of stops, which, while they were all in great places, I wouldnt want to stay on my own. Things like Singappore, Tokyo, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. I'll do those on an Asia trip I think. But for now, being my first trip I just want simple . That also means less chance for my bag to go missing.

So, arriving in Sydney on April 16th for Oz intro, and then I'm going to be booking with Ozexperience (sister company for ummm Adventure Tours) for their independant tour of the East Coast up to Cairns. That means I can go at my own pace, stop at all the cities along the way if I like.

I think I'll be stopping at Surfers Paradise, and of course Brisbane for a while. Then it'll be off to Hervey Bay to learn to Scuba Dive (its cheaper there apparently) and maybe a quick jaunt to Fraser Island before continuing up to Airlie Beach and touring the Whitsundays.

Once I eventually reach Cairns, it'll be a nice 2 day min excursion up to Cape Tribulation for a stay in the Rainforest and a tour out on the Great Barrier reef.

And then! its the Grey Hound for Western Australia. Heading up to Darwin, taking some time to head down to Alice Springs and Uluru of course before going back up and hitting the West coast down to Broome. I'm really looking forward to this part of the trip since I know very little about it, it should be very exciting!

Once I eventually reach Perth, its the Indian Pacific to Adelaide. I havent really decided on what to do about Uluru, since I can either go there from Darwin, or Adelaide with the Greyhound pass ... so I'll have to decide which time of year will be better.

In Adelaide, there will be the mandatory stop at Kangaroo Island before possibly heading inland to visit a few interior cities in Victoria before ending in Melbourne, hopefully for Christmas / New years. (Sydney is a possibility here too) then its down to the beautiful and supposedly unmissable Tasmania / Hobart, before heading back to Melbourne where my flight is leaving from in April again.

Oh my god! There is going to be sooo much to do! and I havent really got any dates in mind as to where I'm going to be when, but it should be alot of fun.

Looks like my travel agent thinks that the VIP back packers card is the best, though I think I'm still going to get the YHA one just incase. Its not very much money, and it will be nice if there arent any VIP hostels available.

Wow this is a long blog post. I think its time to cut it off before I really go nuts!

Del

Booked and excited! remains copyright of the author Del007, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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