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Published: January 8th 2007
View from the end
From one side of the beach, was such a nice day.The overnight bus to Bryon Bay was not packed so we had two seats each! This meant that we could sleep fairly comfortably, for anyone that has done long bus journeys I am sure you would share my appreciation of this fact. We were so please to see a row of backpacker hostel reps waiting at the bus stop. We found the one we had booked with and hopped on the shuttle to have a quick tour of the town and then a lift to the hostel. Once we dumped our bags we walked back into the centre to get brekkie. We then walked along one of the nicest beaches I have ever seen. There is a nice viewpoint at one end so we took the opportunity to go up and have a long look out to sea. We then decided to walk to the lighthouse around the corner up the hill. The only problem was that Thommo had not put any sunscreen on so we had to go all the way back when we weren’t really that far from it. I was a bit gutted but didn’t want him to burn! After checking our emails we grabbed Thommo a massive
ice cream then headed back to the hostel. The garden of the hostel had beach access so we donned our beach gear and spent the afternoon on the beach. We crashed fairly early that night after all the sun and sea air.
Our next venture was to Nimbin on Jim’s Alternative tour, this certainly was a tour with a difference. Jim the driver makes you feel at home right away and plays some wicked tunes the whole way through the journey to Nimbin and back. I really do think that he could have sold that CD to nearly everyone on the bus if it were on offer. We stopped at a pub along the way to use the restrooms and the opportunity was there to grab a quick drink if we wanted, of course we wanted. Then it was onto Nimbin itself. After Jim gave us a brief overview of its past he dropped as at the end of the town. You get a few hours of your own time there and there is plenty to do. There is a Hemp Embassy (we spoke to the main man in there who has been campaigning for the legalisation of cannabis
Tuck in
Check out the size of tat ice cream for years, forgotten his name though. All I can remember about him was that he has 11 kids, most by different mothers - free lovin hey!). There is also a museum with a difference, a pub and a few cafes that offer nice food. Most of the buildings have interesting art works on the frontage, this adds to the charm of the place, making it so different. So when our time was up we boarded the bus again in order to go and visit one of Jim’s mates, Paul. Paul is an eccentric, intelligent man who has built up a wildlife reserve on a massive plot of land. When he brought the land it didn’t have a tree on and now it was covered with different species, it even includes several lakes. We sat at his house overlooking the biggest lake and cracked macadamia nuts. He also took us for a tour around his creation, he is developing a perfume walk. There are already so many things to smell as you follow this man through his years of work and he is still planting and nurturing new things. One boy was sucked on by a leach as he had flops/thongs
on, so glad that wasn’t me! It bled for ages. It was then back to Bryon Bay. I really do like this place and would loved to have stayed longer to see more of it. But we had to keep moving up the coast if we wanted to see more than just the East coast.
In the morning we went to the beach for one last time and then got the bus at noon to Surfers Paradise. This was a short journey, only a few hours. We had to wait for a short while at the bus station for the hostel to come and pick us up, I must admit that I really like the fact that they offer this service in Oz. When we walked out to meet the dude he led us to a old limo, first time I have been in one. It was a short drive to the hostel and once we had checked in we went up to our room and were surprised to find that the rooms where like self contained apartments! We had a small room with two bunk beds in it, but we were the only two in that little room,
and then there were two bunk beds in the main room with the kitchen. A while later three people checked into the main room bit, they were great fun and joined us on the hostels bar crawl that evening. The hostels in Surfers Paradise all get together and go out to a few bars and clubs together every week. There is of course a fee for being led around bars, however there was goon at the beginning of the night and entry to all the clubs etc and a free glass that lit up. We met some more people at the hostel before we left and had a really good night on the town, everyone ended up very drunk.
In the morning we didn’t feel too hot but we headed down to the beach to check it out. It stretches as far as the eye can see and would be such a lovely place if it weren’t shadowed by massive sky scrapers. You have to move every so often to stay out of the giant shadows cast by the monster buildings. I must admit that Surfers P is not a place that I like at all, this is evident
Nimbin
Hemp Embassy of tourism at its worst in my opinion. After checking emails and grabbing a bite to eat we headed back to the hostel. We managed to resist the temptation to go out again and just chilled out reading that evening.
After checking out and getting another ride in the limo we boarded the bus to Brisbane. Again this was only a short journey, just over an hour. Our lift from the hostel didn’t turn up as arranged, however after a quick call they were on their way. We arrived at a large old building right near the centre of the city. We checked in and then decided to get on a bus out of the city to a market we read about in the guide book. We walked to the centre of the city to find the bus station. We had been told where it was but could not see any signs or the road we had been told to follow. After asking some police men we found the right place and hopped on with the aim of getting to Stones Corner. Two buses later we were there but a lot of the stalls had already packed up. We
Museum
There was so much folk art to look at. It is a work in progess by the locals. looked around for a while and then got the buses back. The hostel had a nice bar underneath and we went there for our dinner as they had a excellent offer on steaks. For dessert we had a pack of crisps each, very naughty I know, but the hostel had a vending machine that sold English crisps. Yum yum pickled onion monster munch.
We got up fairly early the following morning and boarded a bus to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. We saw lots of different animals, which I was surprised at as I thought it would only be Koalas after the name. Included was massive lizards, many different birds, dingo’s, loads of kangaroos, some crocs and snakes. I was looking forwards to seeing the Tasmanian devil after seeing it listed as the animals present, however it wasn’t there, had been lent to another park! We spent ages here and got to see a talk on the Koalas but we didn’t have our photos taken with then, I thought it was too expensive. We also feed the Kangaroos and even had the delightful experience of watching two of them at it while another male annoyed them. There was a
Pauls Reserve
Looking out over one of the lakes from his home. group of Asian kids that were really interested by it and even when the kangaroos ran off the kids wanted to follow, their parents seemed a little embarrassed though. We caught the bus back and after walking around the city and taking a few pictures we had a quick drink in one of the bars in the centre before we were once again drawn to have that amazing steak deal we had the previous evening.
We awoke to grey skies. When we checked out and got a lift to the station it had started to rain. We had a really bad breakfast of KFC. The choice was between that or doughnuts!!! Not the healthiest choice of food the station could have offered. We boarded the bus with very full stomachs.
Onwards to Noosa……
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serena
non-member comment
cute
the animals are well cute!!!!! cant believe its been nearly 10 months you have been travelling, you must be having the best times!!!