I'm Going Camping!

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Our two weeks in Sydney have finally come to an end. Yesterday we spent our last day in Central Sydney, it was long but it ended good. While Rochelle did the bridge climb I was forced to wait for 3 ½ hours which sucked, but she bought the beers after so it was worth it. We ate at this local pub for dinner and had $10 steaks (surprisingly it was one of the most delicious steaks I have ever had; it was topped with mushroom gravy and has a huge pile of mash underneath). On top of that one of our jugs of beer was accidentally left off the bill, we were going to tell them but given that we are poor travelers we kept it our little secret.

Today Rochelle and I went over to west Sydney, Glebe, to visit my old friends Ariel and Sophie. The reunion was awesome and the brunch was great. I had this dish called baked eggs, which is basically poached eggs in a marinara sauce with lam sausage and spinach. Afterwards we walked around the area, it has a very bohemian vibe which was a welcome change from the fast paced life of Sydney we have gotten used too. We also treated ourselves to yet another European Cake Shop treat, this time it was a caramel bar (pie dough, topped with ½ inch of caramel, then covered with chocolate ). Now we are busy cleaning up the apartment, doing laundry, and packing for the next phase of our trip.

For the rest of the trip we decided to book plans through a travel company because not only will we save a lot of money but it makes things a lot easier. Here is our schedule:

Brisbane: March 1st, 2nd (staying in a hostel)
Noosa Bush Camp: March 3rd (camping)
Noosa Canoe Trip: March 4th, 5th (canoeing! so awesome)
Hervey Bay: 6th, 7th (hostel)
Fraser Island: 8th, 9th (camping and 4wd tours of the island)
Airlie Beach: 10th (hostel)
Whitsunday Islands: 11th, 12th (boat- all inclusive with snorkelling)
Cairns: 13th, 14th (hostel)


So any of you who know me can imagine I was not excited at all about the camping parts of this trip - and not even for dumb reasons like no electricity or running water - I was more concerned about the snakes, spiders, crocs, dingos, etc that roam the Australian outback. While I am still scared to death I still decided to do it because I want this trip to be “the trip of a lifetime.” I feel like I need to be pushed a little into trying new things and I know it will all pay off in the end. The last thing I want is to leave Australia with regrets so I can actually say I am very excited. I did warn Rochelle that I will most likely be sleeping on top of her every night we are in the bush.

We leave tomorrow morning for the Gold Coast (1.5 hour flight), then immediately get on a bus for Bryon Bay where we will be spending 2 nights. I am very excited for Bryon Bay because it is not very touristy and has a lot of hippies. I will update everyone again from there.

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