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Published: April 5th 2011
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Birthday Breakfast Awaking in Bondi, it was time to say goodbye to the Hippie Camper and take it back to Apollo. The trip back to the depot was eventful as driving through Sydney city centre in rush hour, avoiding getting any scrapes or scratches whilst avoiding the millions of motorbikes proved pretty tough but we had made it safe and sound, as we bid farewell to Hippie it was time to enjoy our day in Bondi as it was Cerri’s birthday. Once back in the hostel I gave Cerri her cards and presents and we were off to the beach as the sun was shining. We donned our bathers and hit Bondi for the day, stopping off for a big birthday breakfast beforehand. We picked a cracking spot on the sand where we spent a couple of hours sunbathing and watching the TV crew of Bondi Rescue patrol the beach with the stars of the show, the Lifeguards. Now Cerri had spent many an hour watching the show during our time downunder and in New Zealand, so when she saw one of the lifeguards she recognised she stalked him for a bit before making me ask him if she could have her photo
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An excited Cerri and Lifeguard taken with him! With the photo taken we cooled off in the sea, where we splashed about in the waves and surf. During our time in Oz we’d often heard people say “be careful of the rip and currents” but so far we’d never had any problems, that was until Bondi. . . . . me and Cerri we’re bobbing up and down in the waves having a whale of a time, we decided to go out a bit further and had to jump through some pretty big waves in order to do so. Once we made it out the waves died down a bit so we were just swimming around until they picked up rather suddenly and caught us off guard, we managed to get through the first huge wave but the second one came and we weren’t so lucky. I got dragged under for a bit but was able to find my feet and bob around again, I looked around to see where Cerri was and she was nowhere to be seen! Until I caught a glimpse of a foot sticking out of the wave, poor Cerri was dragged right under by the current and was being dragged
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Sejuiced at Bondi! back to shore very quickly what looked like upside down. With use of her gymnastics skills she had performed a couple of sommer saults under water then once in the shallows planted her feet on the floor and managed to stand up thankfully with her bikini still intact, but unfortunately her under arms and legs weren’t so lucky and had scraped along the sand making lovely grazes a reminder of her Birthday in Bondi! With all the excitement over we decided we had earned another much long needed rest and sunbathed a few more hours! For Birthday dinner we ate at a Brazilian BBQ restaurant, which enticed us in with the all you can eat sign. We devoured many different Brazilian specialities and one speciality included chargrilled chicken hearts, the food just kept on coming and we kept on eating until we were uncomfortably full, making the short stroll back to our hostel ready for bed.
We had opted to catch a bus back to Brisbane, as that was where we would catch our flight out of Australia. The Bus wasn’t until 11pm that evening, so after checking out of the hostel we had plenty of time to kill.
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Brazilian Birthday BBQ First stop McDonalds to make the most of the free internet; we hung around here for a couple of hours before heading onto the grass land above Bondi Beach where we set up camp for the rest of the day. We watched an Adidas photo shoot down by the funky graffiti near the beach; this is where our camera decided to die. After braking our first camera in Samoa whilst diving with sea turtles, our second camera of the trip decided to break, as it didn’t want to focus saying “SYSTEM ERROR”, but thankfully we had Cerri's old camera as a backup! With the sun shining down we caught some more rays whilst reading our books, followed by a competitive game of scrabble! We popped to the local tacky shops to pick up some Bondi souvenirs for ourselves before catching the bus into Sydney Central Bus Station. An hour before midnight we board the Greyhound bus where we would spend the next 17 hours travelling back to Brisbane!
Nine hundred and thirty four kilometres later and we’d arrived back at the Tinbilly Hostel in Brisbane where we freshened up, relaxed and tried to get some sleep, as we’d had
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Adidas Photoshoot an on / off nights kip on the bus.
We awoke refreshed the next day and decided to do some final exploring in what was our final day in Brisbane and also our final day in Australia. We hopped on some public transportation and caught the bus up to Mount Coot-tha, some 6km from the city centre. The Mountain rises 287 metres above sea level and the lookout offered spectacular views of Brisbane city and the surrounding area. We took in the picturesque sights and headed down to Brisbane’s Botantical garden, blagging a free bus ride on the way! We ambled around through the flowers and trees, stopping off at the lily pond for a nice picnic. Here I stupidly decided to start feeding the ducks, one duck turned into twenty and even a large iguana lizard thought he’d get in on the action! That evening we sat down in the Tinbilly Bar and reminisced about the past three months we’d spent downunder, raising a pint of Tooheys and toasting to life in Oz.
The next morning we said goodbye to Australia, with our bags packed we got on the train and headed out to the airport to
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Surfers at Bondi catch a flight to Singapore. Touching down on Singapore soil late evening we were greeted at the airport by my Mum, Dad, Uncle Matt and Jo. Mum and Dad had flown out to Singapore to meet us arriving a couple of days before us and conveniently Uncle Matt and Jo lived in Singapore, so we all had a base to stay. After a round of hello’s, tears and hugs we made our way back to Uncle Matt’s, stopping for a quick dinner on route.
Having spent the last ten months in hot countries (bar New Zealand!), we acclimatised to the humidity in Singapore quickly. After having a well deserved lie in, we all went for a stroll around Hort Park along the tree top canopy walkway. It was mad to think that this serene and quiet place was only minutes away from the hustle and bustle of Singapore’s business hub. We made our way up to Henderson Waves, distinctive wave-like bridge consisting of a series of undulating curved wooden ribs. The bridge led us up to Mount Faber, where we stopped for a well deserved ice cold drink and enjoyed the views over to Sentosa Island. In the afternoon
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Brisbane City from Mount Coot-tha the ladies went off for a manicure and pedicure whilst myself, Dad and Uncle Matt went to watch the Singapore Cricket Club Football team play, who are managed by Uncle Matt. Watching turned into playing as this was where I played my first game of football in over a year and boy did it show, not in my skills or touch but in my fitness. Being reintroduced to the game of soccer at 34 degrees with 90% humidity was not my idea of fun! Luckily it was roll on roll off subs and I took full advantage after lasting only 25 minutes on the pitch! Dinner that evening was in a suburb of Singapore called Holland where we had an Italian, where after food we took great pleasure in having a few cocktails.
The following morning we were back at the airport, this time catching a short flight to....
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Adrian Worsley
non-member comment
Bonjour
Hello travellers - it has blog crazy recently!! I'm only just able to get through them on my train journey's at the moment!! You guys are looking so healthy and well (apart from Banjo's hair cut obviously - Banj have you found a volley ball and named it Wilson recently??) Looking forward to seeing you soon!!