Day 72

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So I spent a few days staying with family friends in Sydney. Not only Sydney, but Mosman which is a really, really nice part of Sydney. Reminds you of paradise. I had a really good time. A room to myself (no one snoring/farting/drunk/sleeptalking), a place to do my laundry, free internet, swimming pool in the garden and company of people i already knew. They treated me like one of the family, which is always nice. While I was staying with them I went to Taronga Zoo one of the days - a very nice zoo. It had a baby elephant in it too. They also organised a trip to Palm Beach, where we had a bbq lunch and a swim.

I spent my last day in Sydney, in a hostel. The bus left central Sydney at 6:30am so I didn't want to make the journey from the suburbs. The guy in the bed above me had a sleep-argument with his girlfriend. I slept very, very badly. While I was in Sydney I booked some of the stuff I'll do later on - sailing in the Whitsundays, canoeing in Noosa, driving around Fraser Island and a scuba dive course in Cairns. Not bad, hey?

Yesterday the journey was SEVEN hours long. Which I think is ridiculous because it looks about the difference between London and Cambridge on the map. Silly, silly country. We arrived in a surf camp. Had a nice bonding session with the other people on the bus in the evening, chatting around a campfire and then woke up bright and early this morning for surf lessons. I didn't want to volunteer the fact that I have actually surfed before, because I was sure that I would probably be as bad as everyone else. I was right. I caught a few good waves, stood up and all that. One of the main problems I was having was the board was absolutely MASSIVE, much bigger than the ones we have in France, and I was finding it hard to manipulate. We spent about 3 hours in the water, but I was having such a good time. I got bored of the actual surfing thing fairly early on because all my attempts ended in water filling my orifices and the surfboard tugging my leg from under me. So I hung out in the sea, sitting on my board. Chatting to people, looking at the stuff in the water (it's very clear), fighting off sharks... Not really. About the shark bit. Then I got bored of my board, so left it on the beach and started walking on my hands through the water. What fun. The water is very very warm here, I was doing it in a bikini and t-shirt (the t-shirt was to stop be getting a rash from the board). It was DIVINE, much nicer than the Atlantic. I have another two months with this sea!!

Tomorrow is my birthday. The place I'm staying at lets you take surfboards for free, so I'll probably be facing a repeat of this morning. With more suncream on though... The bus driver booked a table at the coolest bar in town for the evening (meal and drinks) and we'll see where it goes from there. I'm going to have a pavlova as a birthday cake, and share it with a few special people that I've met so far.

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