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So now the travelling has really began. I am writing this from a small town called Airlie Beach, Queensland. I am more tanned, more crazy, closer to liver failure but so bloody happy. Got plenty to fill you all in on so just sit back and enjoy 😊 ....
You know you're travelling when at the rest stop of an overnight bus journey from Sydney to Byron Bay, you end up having a midnight jamming session with a guitar and a bunch of lads sat on the wall of a BP garage. I was worried about being alone and not knowing people but it definately doesn't take long to make friends out here! The bus journies, although daunting, are actually quite enjoyable. It gives you time to just chill and not feel like you should be doing something, read a book or just think for a bit. They offer a nice break from the sun, sea and alcohol fueled destinations!
So the first place I visited was Byron Bay - a small town thriving with backpackers that offers excellent surf and watersports in its huge beautiful bay and has a nightlife scene that puts many places in england to
shame. Mainly because its so small you bump into everyone you know in each bar! When I arrived, tired and starving, it was pissing with rain and I wondered why the hell I ever left Sydney. I checked into a really pretty hostel with a pool etc but my room was full of german girls who knew eachother so I was a bit bummed about that! I headed to the beach and spent the afternoon sat under a tree trying to stay dry .. not your ideal start hey! But things just went up from there. Met up with a friend from Sydney for lunch and the sun began to shine and I realised how beautiful the place was (see pictures titled Bangin' Byron!). That night I mustered the courage to head to the communal area where people were eating and drinking .. only to be greeted by 5 tables full of Danish people and not an English word being spoken .. 'Great' was my initial thought but I perseveered and heard some canadian chatting away to a german so I headed over ... and didn't look back! Made friends with a bunch of chaps who worked inthe hostel for
free accomodation and some Danish girls and we partied until 3 am! This didn't seem such a great idea when I woke up at 9.45am the next morning with a daytrip booked and leaving in 15 mins! Somehow I made it and found myself on a renovated VW van, painted in hippy patterns, listening to rock songs, on the way to Nimbin - the canabis capital of Oz. Met some English girls on the bus and we spent the day wandering around the ecletic little town nesteled in the hills, shopping and ... well, lets just say we giggled an awful lot! The place was full of stoner hippies and women walking up to you asking if you wanted to buy hash cookies! A good time was had by all. The BBQ in the rainforest was verrry well received as you can imagine and we returned to Byron Bay in very good spirits. I went out that night to a bar that is infamous along the eastcoast called Cheeky Monkeys - think dancing on the tables, wet Tshirt competitions and male stripping. Yep, it was a good night! The weather by now was glorious so I spent the next day
sunbathing away my hangover and visited the Cape Byron Lighthouse which is the most easterly point in Aus. Headed out again that night and bumped into the guitar guys from the coach which was a really good laugh. Really enjoyed my stay in Byron Bay and wish I had stayed longer but I'm not sure if I could handle anymore nights in Cheeky Monkeys!!
Next stop was Surfers Paradise ... aptly named so I grabbed a board and headed for the beach! Had a 2hr surf lesson with a Welsh surfing GOD! Seriously ladies .. any of you would have struggled to concentrate on standing up! Was really good fun but I got a terrible rash on my thighs, worth the sacrifice though. Pics are pretty cool, surfs up dude! Spent a few days hanging out, again, with the group that lived and worked in the hostel. Surfers is a funny place .. its full of skyscrapers and buildings all just lined up along the beach for miles in either direction as if theyre at the start line of a race! It also has Australia's theme parks. I visited seaworld with a french-canadian girl I met and then spent
a day tearing round Wet 'n' Wild and Movie World with a bunch of scottish lads! Was amazing fun but just didn't live up to Florida and made me really wanna go back to Orlando! Did have some very good rollercoasters though. Wednesday night came around and it was time for 'The Big Night Out' - a bar crawl around all of the clubs with all the different hostels. Was an awesome night full of dancing and I lost my skinny dipping virginity at the end of the night along with about 15 other people!! Don't worry, there are no pictures from that episode! The next day I was booked onto a bus to Brisbane but I slept right through it and ended up going in the afternoon. I arrived in Brisbane and literally collapsed into bed and slept through for 4 hours until 7pm.
Brisbane is a really cool city, its just has an awesome chilled out vibe about it and all the buildings give the impression that they've really put thought into them - the architecture is very impressive. There is a beautiful park that runs along the river with a manmade 'beach' and pretty walkways and
I spent the evening strolling through there trying to wake myself up! I started talking to a norwegian girl in the room and we arranged to go out that night so we started drinking goon - can't remember if I've mentioned this before but goon is basically a 4 litre box of wine that isn;t actually wine atall .. its some crazy cheap substitute that is made with the aid of fish, milk and eggs :S however at 11 bucks a pop it is a backpacker essential before a night out to play some drinking games and 'get on the goon train'. Oh I forgot to mention .. it tastes like actual piss. So we were sat in our room happily chugging our goon and could hear the room next door playing music and drinking games .. 2 mins later we get a knock on the door and an invitation to their goon party! What ensued was a lot of stupid drinking games, a lot of spilt drinks and a very drunk group of backpackers. The best game was a cheeky little auzzie number called G'day Bruce. Basically involves everyone being called Bruce and saying G'day to eachother in auzzie
accents in a certian order/rhyme until someone mucks up = "G'day Bruce" ... "G'day Bruce" ... "Say G'day to Bruce, Bruce" (points at a new Bruce). This continues until you make a mistake and your name changes to Sheila/Steve Irwin RIP/Kanga etc. gets very confusing when everyone has different names and is definately one I will be bringing back to England! So brush up on your accents guys 😉 We headed to the bar downstairs and had a really good night that ended in a 3 am trip to Maccy Ds!! The next day I headed to the Lonely Pine Koala sanctuary with my new Norwegien friend and had an awesome afternoon holding koalas, feeding kangaroos etc ... photo oppurtunities galore! Ended up staying so late that I missed my coach to Noosa. Not a problem though as the goon party raged on that night with 20 of us in one room, before we hit the bar again. Had to tame it down a little though as my bus to Noosa departed at 7am!! Still not sure how I made that one ...
Just a short 2 hr bus ride to Noosa Heads - another small town with a
national park that overlooks huge bays. I had a cold in full swing by this point (I'm gonna guess from running around waterparks on a cloudy day!) and spent the day walking around the national park, along beaches and through rainforest ... in the rain 😞 not an awesome time. After 5 hours I returned to my room, dripping wet, dripping nose and fell into bed. I proceeded to sleep right through my free dinner and ended up eating 4 meusli bars for dinner at 9pm in my bunk bed. Needless to say I was in a pretty foul mood by now, not helped by the 8 people drinking in the room. Oh how the tables had turned on me now! This was definately a low point of my trip, but hey, you win some you lose some!
My next stop was the optimisticly named 'Rainbow Beach' which would be the base for my trip to Fraser Island - the largest sand island in the world. Met the people that will be in my car for the trip that evening and we pre-ordered 28L of goon and a crate of beer between 8 of us ... hhmmmm. We had
to rise bright and early in the morning to load up our 4WD vehicles with food for the 3days, all our camping gear, water etc. It was a tag-along tour, so the lead car has a tour guide driver kind of guy and then the other 3 cars can be driven by anyone as long as they have a drivers license! I unfortunately have lost mine so I didn't get to drive at any point 😞 Our car was the lead car so we had the tag driver with us .. we were a bit disappointed about this ... until we met him! Without a doubt the coolest tourguide I have ever had. Think strong aussie drawl, dreadlocks, hippy, stoner (except he was born in paignton!!) and he drove like a maniac. It was bloody awesome in his car! Everyone in the car was really cool aswell and up for a laugh, we all mucked in with the cooking and cleaning and got on really well. We spent the first day driving along beaches with music pumping and passengers bumping, taking in the beautiful beaches. We stopped to race pipis (strange clam like things that stick their tongues and try
to get back in the sand), saw some guy pulling up metre long worms on the beach which he then sold for a dollar each to a bait store and would make thousands in one day! After lunch we headed inland on the most insane fourwheel drive I've ever witnessed - thank god for seatbelts! The car behind us actually got air under his front wheels! Our destination was without a doubt worth it - a beautiful secluded freshwater lake called Lake Mackenzie. The sand was pure white and soft and we just mucked around in the water and sunbathed for hours before doing a short walk through the rainforest. We hightailed it along the beach back to camp because the tide was right in - 15 mins later and we wouldnt've made it! Hats off to the boys who were driving as they did an awesome job. Was pretty glad it wasn't me at this point! We cooked steak and potatoes and salad for dinner and commenced drinking as the sun went down .. we were definately going to need our alcohol coats for the night as our tents didn't have mats! We were just sleeping on our sleeping
bags on the groundsheet. Luckily I had a pillow, but I dunno how anyone else managed! Our party headed down to the beach at about 10.30pm and the campsite owner, a pervey old man called Larry, decided to join in and took a jeep down so we had loud music and it was a full moon so it was so light! Our own private full moon beach party, there were about 30/40 of us but by midnight we were all knackered and fell into our tents. Plenty of dingos running around the campsite - even one tugging on someones sleeping bag whose feet were sticking out the bottom of a tent! A very good night was had by all but at 7.30 the next morning, we didn't feel too good. However scrambled eggs and coffee soon perked us up and we were soon off again in our mini convoy exploring the island. We visited sea pools, more lakes and a fantasticly clear freshwater creek. The boys found an octopus the size of a large cat at the champagne pools and proceeded to poke it for 2 hours, much to their amusement and its anger as it began changing colour! Got
some awesome underwater shots, and don't worry animal lovers, we fed it some crabs! We also walked up a headland called Indian Head to take in the view of white beaches stretching in either direction and look for whales/dolphins/sharks .. none fancied showing themselves unfortunately. On the way back to camp we got caught up with a load of other white 4x4s and we lost one of our convoy! Much to their embarrassment when they drove back into camp half an hour later to a round of applause after Luke had had to go looking for them! That night our group of 30 was much more chilled and the new convoy which had arrived that day were the ones doing the crazy partying .. it wasn't long til we joined in though! We mingled more between the different cars in our convoy and had a really good night. I had my first experience of flip cup = an american drinking game which involves 2 teams (we had 9 per team) lined up along either side of the table. 1 end starts and has to down their drink then put their cup on the edge of the table and flip it
so it lands upside down, once you have done it the next person can start drinking and so on til the end of the table. We all got incredibly competitive and the first game was a dead heat so by the 2nd round we were all screaming and cheering eachother on .. our team won!!
The next morning we went to Lake Waddy, a lake with huge sand dunes leading into it so rolling down those was great fun. After sunbathing and visiting the island bakery we headed back to the ferry to go 'home' all very sad. We had the most amazing few days and met some people who I will be friends with for life. The sun shone the whole time and we could not have been luckier! The trip was fantastic and definately the highlight of Australia so far. I would do it again in a heartbeat.
Back at Rainbow Beach I spent the next day just recovering on the beach with icecream. A dutch girl, Lili, and I made plans to travel the next part of the coast together so the next evening we caught a bus to Agnes Water, to a town called 1770
(never found out why) we got to the hostel at 6pm and walked in to discover loads of people from our Fraser group were there! 3 germans, 2 Italians, 4 English and a Canadian! We had an awesome evening catching up and the next day we went to the beach together and then went on the Scooteroo Tour - A 3 hr ride through the countryside on mini chopper motorbikes!! Was amazing fun - we all got fake tattoos and leather jackets and raced eachother along huge stretches of road. My max speed was 80km/h! Tears were streaming from my eyes! Was such a good afternoon, spotted kangaroos, watched the sunset, saw Lili fall over infront of everyone and spill ketchup all down her (pretty much everyones highlight!) and learnt that I am infact not bad at riding a motorbike! Definately something I want to pursue .. sorry Mum. That evening we all cooked an awesome group BBQ and said goodbye to eachother as half of us were catching a bus that night.
Lili and I caught the bus to Rockhampton, a strange little town that feels really 'outback-y'! This was to be our departure point to Great Kepell
Island. Reccomended by Uncle John .. and was definately worth the trip! The Island was absolutely beautiful. We took a ferry across and the water changed from a browny colour to absolutely crystal clear turquoise! I had never seen beaches like these! We hired some snorkel equipment and trekked to the different beaches through bush and over rocks! We laid on secluded beaches, mucked around with the self timer and snorkelled over huge stretches of multi coloured reef. We even saw a herd of mountain goats! The island resort had recently shut down so the whole place felt like a bit of a ghost town which was strange but also good because it meant we pretty much had the place to ourselves! We caught the ferry back in the afternoon feeling super relaxed and like we knew a secret place that no one else did! Whilst waiting for the bus back on the mainland, we bumped into a kiwi guy that we had met while hiring our snorkel stuff and he gave us a lift back to Rockhampton. He turned out to be really nice and a good laugh and showed us this mahoooosive crayfish he had caught that day.
Lili and I couldn't remember where our hostel was so we spent 20 mins driving around Rockhampton trying to find it, even the people we asked didn't know where it was! Was very funny though and he didn't seem to mind too much. After wolfing down some dinner and beer with some Italian guys in the hostel it was time to hit the road again! Both feeling very happy and sunkissed we jumped on the Greyhound for our next destination!
We arrived in Airlie Beach at 2.30am and after checking into our hostel discovered we were in a room with the 3 German guys from Fraser and 1770! We decided to be nice and not wake them up and in return they brought us breakfast in bed in the morning - result!! Airlie Beach is a beautiful little town on the waterfront, with a man made lagoon for people to sunbath around and swim in because normally there are jellyfish in the sea this far north most of the year. It is full of backpackers there so we kept bumping into people we recognised from further down the coast. On Monday it was time for our boat trip sailing
the Whitsunday Islands - one of the most picturesque groups of islands in the world. Myself, the 3 German guys, 2 Italian guys and a candian guy all climbed aboard 'The British Defender', a racing yacht that was raced around the world by the British Armed Forces in 1989/90 and came in 2nd! It was very high tech and the boys were getting super excited about sailing. There were 26 of us on board altogether, mostly male! And the crew were excellent fun. We spent the next 3 days cruising around the islands in glorious sunshine stopping at various places to snorkel the great barrier reef of chill out on the fantastic beaches! We visited Whitehaven beach - the no 1. eco beach in the world where the sand was 99.9% silica and the water was a magical turquoise colour. We cracked open the beers for sunset each night and had all our food cooked for us which was such a novelty! It was the best I had eaten for a while. We all drank as a big group both nights and it was always crazy! We had antics ranging from boys in their tighty-whities doing the titanic pose at
the front of the boat to late night volleyball sessions (yes, we lost our ball!). Definate drunken highlight however, was when one of the english lads who had been living in a campervan for 3 weeks, climbed out of bed drunk thinking he was still in the van and just took a piss anywhere .. like he normally would have been able to do ... except this time he hit someones bed!! Very funny to hear the shouts that ensued, even funnier when he didn't remember it in the morning! On the final day of our trip we finally had enough wind to get some sailing in and oh wow it was fantastic!! The boat was tilted right up on its side and we had to hold on pretty tight. Unfortunately we only had half a main sail due to a rip in the normal one but we still went pretty fast! Infact, I got thoroughly carried away with the whole sailing thing and for the next 3 hours was ready to forget about uni and coming home and just sail around the world for the rest of my days!! I soon came back to reality but it is definately
something I will be persuing. Ellen Macarthur watch out. By the time we returned to the marina we were all in high spirits having had 2 days we will never forget. I really am so lucky to have got to go to such a beautiful part of the world.
In the evening, back at Airlie beach we had our after boat party which was fueled with free beer and the whole boat turned up to party. Some of my German friends who I had now known for nearly 2 weeks had to leave us at 2.30 am to head up to cairns which was really sad as I will never see them again most likely. Lord only knows how they made it to their coach as they were blind drunk! I did not envy being them in the morning!
My next stop was to Magnetic Island, just off the coast by Townsville. It is a large but picturesque island and I stayed for 2 nights with the intention of snorkelling and sunbathing and letting my river recooperate after the antics of Airlie Beach. After scrambling up a hill/cliff side in the pitch black I made it to watch a
fantastic sunrise on the first day. It looked like something out of the lion king - I almost burst into 'the circle of liiiife'! Looked like it was going to be a beautiful day so I trekked to a secluded bay and started basking in the sun .. and within 20 minutes it was raining 😞 It then continued to rain for the next 2 days so my time on the beautiful turned out to only be good for writing some more of this bloody long blog, and as rehab! Magnetic Island is the sunniest place on the east coast of Australia .. it averages 320 days of sun a year. Bloody typical hey.
However, my spirits weren't dampened when I jumped onto a bus to Cairns as my friend there said he had seen 5 mins of rain in the last 4 weeks ... yep, you guessed it, it rained/was overcast the whole 4 days I was there! This meant that it was not worth doing any of this trips I intended to do, such as take a trip out to snorkel the reef/do a skydive/visit cape tribulation. I was very dissappointed but I suppose it saved me
a lot of money! The best thing about Cairns is that it is pretty much everyones stop up the east coast, so when you get there you are constantly bumping into people you have already met over the last few weeks! This meant more partying, bbqs in the rain and some awesome reunions and of course, goodbyes. That is by far my least favourite part of travelling - constantly saying goodbye to people you become best friends with overnight. Living and travelling with people means you create such a unique, strong friendship and its horrible when you admit that you're probably never going to see these people again. Saying goodbye to Lili was very sad as we had been together for so long but a trip to Amsterdam is definately on the cards! To give you an idea of what nights out when you are suddenly surrounded by all these people you feel you know so well go like ... I ended up entering a bikini competition and dancing on stage infront of 600 people!! Most embarrassing I have ever got myself into. However it wasn't all bad as I ended up winning 1st prize of $100! Pretty handy really.
That night I also went to jump on someones back but missed and head butted a wall ... still living with the golf ball sized lump on the left of my face for that little manouver!
I left Cairns just yesterday and am now back in Sydney. Returning here has been surreal, it feels like I'm returning home to where everything is so familiar but yet seems different. Spent last night visiting all my work friends which was really brilliant. Found out 3 of them are coming to England so sorry Mum and Dad but think we may have some lodgers for a few days! I am now finally coming to the end of what feels like an eternity writing this blog, sat on the 53rd floor of a highrise apartment building in the centre of sydney CBD in the sun on the balcony .. this is the life hey. I have just 1 day left in Sydney to say my farewells and then its off to Thailand on Sunday ... scary stuff! I am so excited though because I have met a ridiculous number of people who have already been there and said it is even better than
Australia!
There you go guys, you can breath a sigh of relief as you are now up to date on whats been going on in the best month of my life!! I wouldn't change a signal moment for anything and I would do it all again in a heartbeat. I have met some incredible people, seen some breathtaking sights and done things I never even dreamed I would do.
Hope you're all well, can't wait to get back and see you all .. but at the same time I never want to go home!
Don't worry, I'm still the same Nicole ... just more tanned, more spontaneous and even more happy 😊
Love you all x x x
P.s. if any of you do manage to read all of that, hats off to you! Its taken me a long time and a lot of effort so any comments will be greatly appreciated 😊 thanks!
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