The East Coast

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It was lovely to see John and Mel and Jess again and I was there for Easter (yes I know that was ages ago now and that I am pretty useless at this but thanks for persevering with me and reading what I'm up to!) and for Jessie's 2nd birthday. Being in Sydney again was wonderful, I went to church and did all the Easter things, I ate lots of hot crossed buns. I met a girl I had met in New Zealand called Rachel and her boyfriend for dinner in the rain in Surry Hills, lovely food. I played with Jess, went to the beach, I went on a day trip to the Blue Mountains which was really good fun and we went on a couple of hikes. I walked the Manly Scenic Walk from the Spit to Manly Beach, I caught up with Vicki again and I went to the Sydney Royal Easter Show where some people I met in Melbourne were working on one of the rides. I also met a guy from my Inca Trail, Eric and some of his traveling friends for a drink one evening. I went to Rob's (John's mate) 50th birthday party and got very drunk and stayed at Ian and Janelle's and had to contend with a very mean hangover the next day which delayed my leaving to go to Byron by a day then i missed a bus which delayed it the next day and made it to Byron Bay woop! John and Mel and Jess were all well and Mel was 30 weeks pregnant when I left and bored of it already.Was great to see them again and I miss them a lot.

When I eventually got to Byron Bay it was lovely, really nice place, very easy for backpackers to get stuck there and they do, if I had more time I might have but luckily I had already booked up what I was doing. I had another surf lesson here which was marginally more successful than the first, mostly in that I stood up more and didn't get stunk by a jelly fish. A positive experience followed by beer o clock. I took a day trip to Nimbin, a famous little town for marajuana, which there was an abundance of, still illegal though!
Was a good day out and had a funky bus and a cool group of people. I met a really good group of people in the hostel and had a great night out with them in a place called Cheeky Monkey's.

Next I went to Surfer's Paradise for a party night, a big bar crawl organised by the hostels in Surfer's. It was a fun night and even though I lost the people I was originally with, i found plenty of other people to talk to, dance with. I was only there one night to see the beach and have a party so the next day I went to Noosa.

Noosa is a lovely town, I stayed in a really nice place and had a whole dorm room to myself, very rare. It had rained on me a lot so far and Noosa was not really different though I did manage to escape the rain for long enough to walk around the coast in the national park.

I had been told by other travellers that there is nothing to Hervey Bay so I arrived in the evening and got my self drive tour to Fraser Island booked for the next day. The group I was with were lovely 3 Canadian girls, 2 Austrain girls and a Canadian guy. We had a great time, again the weather was mixed at best and pouring with rain so hard that you only have your head out of the pool that your swimming in and its still hurting your skin the next. We had a really good time though. Lovely scenery, absolutely nothing there but sand (it being a sand island). It was really nice to be let loose and do what we liekd, made all our own food, drank in the evenings, drove on the beach (yeh I did) Lake Mackenzie is a definite highlight and so was the Champagne Pools, saw a really dangerous brown snake there, didn't get bitten though thankfully!

On the day we got back from Fraser I washed everything, sandy, then got the bus to Airlie Beach. I had the worst nights sleep ever and arrived very grumpy and with very sore back. Therefore I decided it would be nice to have a massage. I met Vicki's friend Lorraine, who lives in Airlie for dinner. We had delicious reef fish straight from the sea to my plate, so good. and we went for a drink afterwards as well. I went on a day tour of the Whitsunday Islands, including Whitehaven Beach, beautiful, and snorkelling. There was a cyclone not too long ago in the area so the visibility is poor at best. On my way back from the boat I bumped into Adam from Uni and he said that Ben, also from Uni was around too and then I bumped into him too! So strange. I didn't even know either of them were in the country! I stayed at Lorraine's place that night and had a lovely dinner and a bath with bubbles up to here. By the time I had done all of that it was a bit late, I was a bit tired and it was raining so I didn't make it back into town to meet Adam or Ben or the nice Irish guys I had met on my boat. Got up at the crack of dawn the next day because it was Anzac Day and Lorraine and I went to the Dawn Service down at the harbour. It was a very Australian thing as Anzac Day the Remembrance Day of Australia (though they do have Remembrance Day too its just not as big). After the service there was rum and milk, traditional, at the Jubilee Tavern down the road (at 6.30am) and then we had some breakfast and went back to town for the procession and another service with people singing and laying more wreaths. Then it was back to the Tavern for wine (still only 10am) which had the effect you might imagine and by 1130 I was quite drunk. Lorraine and I had a lovely lunch in town, more wine and I caught a bus to Townsville at 2.30pm where I slept most of the way, unsurprisingly!

Townsville is a nice enough town I was there for the morning and then caught the boat to Magnetic Island. The place I stayed was right on the beach and there was a BBQ for dinner and I met some nice people. Some girls were hiring a topless car the next day so I went with them for the day on a drive around the island. We did the Forts Walk, fed some rock wallabies, went to Horseshoe bay and Alma bay and had a walk in Picnic cove. Took lots of photos. Ben was also at my hostel and would also be at the next hostel in Mission Beach. Had to wait forever for bus to Mission Beach, it was seriously delayed and then had a faff with the hostel i booked picking me up so I switched to a much friendlier hostel. Had a good day in Mission relaxing by the pool and walked along the beach. On to Cairns in the evening.

I arrived in Cairns early evening, found my hostel OK and settled in. Had arranged to meet James (from Fiji tour) in another hostel bar and I met a couple of the girls that had been in Mission Beach with me too! Had a good few drinks and went dancing in the Woolshed. Made some Japanese friends somehow and danced with them a bit and made it home. Spent the next day relaxing, booked all my tours for the West coast and met James at the lagoon. It started raining a lot so went back to hostel and met Ross (who I met in New Zealand) in the evening for a catch up. He is living in Cairns and working on a dive boat, nice little set up. I rang Mum to say happy birthday and she was in Dorset on a sunny beach while it was raining on me, not happy, but happy she was having good time. I went on a tour up to Cape Tribulation for the weekend. Went on Daintree river for wildlife cruise. Saw crocs and birds and eagles. Botanical walk through forest looking at all the ancient types of plants and trees, some of which are 100s of 1000s of years old, makes me think wow, if trees could talk, same goes for rocks. It was raining again when I got there and I sat in the bar with 3 girls most of the afternoon, did venture on to the beach at some point though. I went Jungle Surfing in the morning though and it didn't rain on me, hurrah. Its basically zip wires through the canopies of the forest, pretty cool and good fun! Got picked up by the bus soon and went to an ice cream place where we saw a family of cassowaries, really cool, they are really endangered. Went to Alexander lookout and crossed the Daintree river on a barge. Went to Mossman gorge very pretty waters, could have swum but it was a bit cold. Our last stop before Cairns was Port Douglas, very pretty coastal town on the beach. Had a walk along 4 mile beach.
Back in Cairns I went on a snorkeling trip to the reef before catching my flight to Darwin, where it was hot at last!

Still to come, my west coast adventure and leaving Australia, bear with me. Photos to come. Lots of love, Jenny xxxxx

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