We spent 4 days in the nations capital, Canberra. It has just over 300,000 people living there so is a lot smaller than Sydney, Melbourne and the like. In yesteryear when men were men and all that jazz Melbourne and Sydney were great rivals so it was decided to build a capital city in between them both: Canberra was built in the early twentieth century for the sole purpose of becoming the new nation's capital. Our Youth Hostel was the most expensive one we've stayed in so far: still only 15 round pounds a night though. It was well worth the [View Full Entry]

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After spending over a week in the city we thought we'd get amongst some nature. So off we went for a trip into the the great outdoors for some fresh air (Being in a 6 bed dorm can get a bit sifling). Our desination: the nearby Blue Mountains, every Sydneyers favourite daytrip. We went on a minibus which not only took us on the 2 hour journey to the Blue Mountains, but also included a quick visit to the Sydney Olympic Park and to Featherdale Animal Sanctuary. At the Olympic Park we got a view of the Telstra Sadium through the [View Full Entry]

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Arrived in Sydney on 7th June, wasn't feeling that fresh after the 9 hour nightbus but we still managed to have a bit of an explore on our first day. Our hostel, Maze Backpackers, is in the centre of the city and is really good value. We booked it in Byron Bay and it worked out at only $13 a night?! We were expecting to be hit in the pocket when we arrived in the big cities but it hasn't been the case. Our friend Daniel "Giant Haystacks" Holtby was supposed to be joining us at around 7pm, but as the [View Full Entry]

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Yalreet. We've been in Coffs Harbour since 1st June. We've been staying at a hostel called Aussitel and it is possibly the best hostel we've stayed in so far (only Cool Bananas in 1770 comes close). The staff here have made us feel very welcome and as with most smaller hostels there is a family home from home feel to the place. Our initial ideas for Coffs was to chill out a bit before we hit the big city of Sydney, and though we have had a lot of chill out time our days have been pretty action packed. On our [View Full Entry]

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After Surfers we headed to Byron Bay. It was much the same as Surfers to look at only a bit smaller. Surfing was the main hobby of everyone that lived here it seemed. Most of our days consisted of going to the beach and chilling out or throwing a frisbee about. On our first night in Byron we headed out with Chris (Marty's mate) and also the Germans who we done our Whitsundays trip with: Shereen, Frank, Walter, Pascal and Lukas. We ended up in Cheeky Monkeys, which was heaving and had everybody dancing on the tables. It was only fitting [View Full Entry]

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G'day. After leaving Hervey Bay we headed to Noosa. We had such a jobs worth as a bus driver: the Greyhound bus drivers have got the gayest uniform, they have to wear shorts and have their socks pulled up to their knees, our driver looked ridiculous. He especially grated with Jonny who was still hanging like a Christmas stocking from the night before. Firstly he made us buy these discount cards for $40 otherwise he said our tickets weren't valid and we wouldn't be allowed to travel- none of the other drivers care a less. During the journey Jonny got his [View Full Entry]

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We stayed in Surfer's Paradise for 4 nights. As i mentioned in my last blog, it is a really touristy place with fastfood outlets everywhere and loads of high rise hotels. On our first day me Chris (Martys travel buddy), Jonny and Will went to play crazy golf at King Tuts Put Put (or words to that effect ) We decided to play all three courses that were available, including an Egyptian themed one and a dinosaur themed one. I reckon the many hours of playing Monkey Golf on Holtby's Gamecube (aka the kiddies console) put us in quite good stead. [View Full Entry]

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11th-17th May- a Week to remember. After leaving Airlee Beach we headed to the towns of Agnes Water and 1770. 1770 is apparently the only town in the world where its name is a number, it was the year in which Captain Cook arrived there. We stayed at the best hostel so far on our travels in my opinion, Cool Bananas- Was really clean and so chilled out, exactly what was needed after the lack of sleep on the Whitsundays and Airlie Beach. On our second day in Agnes Water we woke up and decided to go surfing, surfs up dudes! [View Full Entry]

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Arrived in Airlie Beach on 3rd May. Airlie Beach looks like a smaller version to Cairns: it has a lot of fast food places to eat, and quite a good nightlife. It also has a lagoon by the sea complete with barbecues to chill out through the day. The main point of any stop in Airlie Beach is to go sailing on the Whitsunday Islands, we’d booked to do that between Friday and Sunday so we had a couple of nights in Airlie first. On the first night we played the customary drinking games (Keeping things cheap) with our room mates, [View Full Entry]

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We finally got around to leaving Cairns, we were there for 10 days or so but it's the place we've stayed in the longest so far. After a 6 hour bus ride we arrived in Townsville, the biggest city in North Queensland (We were treated to Kids Movie "Mighty Joe Young" on the bus, Jonny said it was an "epic" containing such key components as romance, suspense and....fairgrounds?!) Townsville seemed like a ghost-town, everywhere was shut and we hardly seen another person in the city centre- at 4pm. It seems like such an aptly named place, its name conjures up images [View Full Entry]

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