LauraShapcott

Week 18 was pretty much dedicated to surfing as it was probably going to be my last chance to catch any waves until I get home. Byron Bay is Hippy central and well known for its surfing (and weed smoking) culture. On my first full day in Byron I thought I would go and check out the main beach and its a good job I didn't lob a surfboard down there because the waves didn't even come up to my knees. Thankfully in the afternoon though I met 3 guys who had a van and were heading to one of the other local beaches which actually had some decent surf and they invited me along. We crammed as many surf boards as possible into the back of the van and then we were off. After a ... read more

OK, well last week ended at Kroombit Cattle station and thats exactly where this week begins. We had a very early wake up on monday morning and after a quick breakfast they took us down to the goat pens, where we subsequently worked in teams of 3 to catch, turn and pretend to brand them (our group came second :P). Before that we learnt how to throw a lasso, which is not as easy as it looks!! After our goat rodeo and lasso lesson, we headed to the horses for the goat muster. Since I was the most experienced rider in our group they gave me the most troublesome horse and boy was he a pain the ass. He has a bit of a thing with the ladies and hates not getting his own way. Once ... read more

Even after a reasonably good nights sleep, I didn’t feel much better, but had to pack for my flight to Cairns, so had to get up. Afterwards we went into town for my last night in Melbourne and my last night with the guys. For the first time in a while, it started to rain, just as we arrived in town. We wanted to do something special for my last night, but couldn’t really think of anything. In the end we went to the pub by the cinema and had a great laugh about all the ridiculous things we’d done (some are so ridiculous they haven’t been included in any of my blog entries :p) We wanted to go bowling but there was no one there. We still had 4 cinema vouchers left, so went to ... read more

We booked to stay 2 nights in Warrambool, before commencing the Great Ocean Road and on our first morning we didn't get up till gone 11 (well its was actually 11.30 because we forgot to put our clocks forward 30mins when we crossed over the South Australia - Victoria boarder) Frank and I really wanted to go for a surf, so we went to check out the beach which was opposite the campsite. Luckily I packed my wetsuit in my backpack, but Frank only had a wetsuit top and boardshorts. Needless to say he froze. We only have 1 surfboard so Frank went in first, while I was on the boogie board and when we swapped he got out. After i'd been battered arround enough by the waves I got out, only to find Frank had ... read more

Although I'd stayed with Frank and Bobbie over the last week or so, today (tues) was the first day I've actually travelled with them. It was kind of exhilarating, setting out with no rigid time constraints and just the open road ahead of us. Our first stop was Uluru. It felt strange going back to the same place, especially in such a short time span, but it meant i could tell Frank and Bobbie a bit about the history and geology of the sites we were visiting. I told them about the sand dunes I'd watched the sun set from and we decided to go there to watch the sun go down and watch the stars. Since we arrived with several hrs to spare, we put the tent up and spent a few hours recovering ... read more