Jo comes to Oz - Roadtrip Pt 2 to Byron Bay.

---

Woken up by everyone hustling and bustling. I was the last up.. naturally, I always am! Sooo I jumped in the shower and ate my brekkie, the remains from last night which was just as delicious as it was the night before. Soon enough we were all packed up and fueled with chicken and beef sausages ready to continue our journey. It's Jo's turn to drive and then I'm next.. woohoo! So I sit in the front with her this time. We first make a pit stop into town to get some bottles of water and stuff. Nelson Bay seems pretty cute! Then we were on our wayyyyyyyyy. So we were all getting pretty bored with the radio, in fact super bored of it.. the same songs on repeat over and bloody over! So we stopped at a service station and got some essentials, sweets, chocolate and a roadtrip CD! It was a triple cd and it actually was awesome, had everything from cheesy to recent songs, definitely girlie sing-along material. So with a bit of musical and chocolate stimulation we were all a bit more pumped on the journey. Dancing and singing like loons, there were plenty of facebook photos taken! You don't realise how bloody big Aus is until you drive it.. It's absolutely mahoosive!!! You can fit the whole of Europe in it, and still have plenty of land leftover. Soon enough it was my turn to drive, omg excitement! So I picked up the whole automatic thing pretty easy. I actually thought I'd find it hard to drive as it had been so long but it just came back to me straight away, awesomeness. It felt so kickass to drive again.. powerrrrr! Driving automatic is heavenly, and so fucking easy. So we notice 'tourist route' along the way.. and part of the luxury of having our own car is being able to take detours and go wherever the hell we want! So that's what we did.. took a TOTAL detour and in fact it added like 3 hours onto our journey but it was definitely worth it. I ended up driving along a gravelly tiny road through some forest area, it was kind of scary but thrilling and definitely nice scenery. Claire starts panicing that we'll ruin the car from the gravel, but fuckit.. this is what 4 wheel drives are designed for.. DANGER! Eventually after driving through this beaten track for ages we see a sign that says 'Waterfall this way'.. AS IF WE COULD RESIST!

So we reached a little clearing where the waterfall was. We all get out and walk to where theres a little path leading to the edge of a cliff and then right in front of us is a beautiful massive waterfall. It was absolutely gorgeous and well worth the trip! Nearby there was a sign saying 'walkway to bottom of waterfall'.. This is why Becky is awesome, because she will do stuff like this with me. We're both kind of nature geeks and like adventures, so we were both well up for walking all the way down to the bottom. The others weren't so keen, in fact Jo and Claire nearly turned around, especially after hearing from some people nearby that there were leeches along the way, lovely.. ! So the journey down was bloody long. It was tiny little stairs leading all the way through to the bottom of the cliff and my legs were aching, not looking forward to coming back up! The view at the bottom was stunningggggggg! It made me want to jump in but I blatantly would die, it was seriously rough water! So then we headed back up. At this point Jo had given up, and getting moody. She really doesn't like walking and wildlife or anything like that, I got that from my dad.. she really didn't! So by the time we reached the top she was sweaty and really not in the mood for anything else.. so she went back to the car and the rest of us headed to 'top of the waterfall'' which was luckily a lot nearer than the bottom. That was also beautiful.. unfortunately I got a leech on me and it felt disgusting but luckily I got it off me before there was any blood loss! When we got back to the car the people who spoke to us before called us over, there was a HUGEEEEEEEE lizard walking around! In fact there were two! They looked like mini crocodiles and apparently they're called Yoana or something like that. They really weren't fazed by us it was incredible, and there was even a bush turkey (these incredible turkeys that just appear out of nowhere in forests and stuff) chasing it around and it didn't even attack it or anything! Wayyy cool. Sooooo after a lovely chat with the drunken people who seemed to be having a feast of alcohol, they had literally every type of drink going from beer to wine to spirits, we then headed on our way. Becky took over driving! A few more hours passed by, stopped in Coffs Harbour to get a picture of the famous 'big banana' which I didn't really see the fuss about tbh. It's just a banana..! Anyway then Claire drove a few more hours.. and then me again! In fact I finished the journey off till we arrived in Byron Bay. It was pitch black at this point and I was on the country roads again and I was getting tired, was thankful to arrive! So.. we made it.. pulled in to the 'rainforest lodges' in Byron Bay. It was pitch black and my first thought was where the hell are we. Basically they booked the lodge instead of hostels because it was way cheaper and I guess it adds a bit of culture to the trip.

We were greeted by a lovely Ozzie chap who runs the lodges, he helped us unload and lead us along to our lodge. The place itself is actually awesome, theres a pool and jacuzzi and stuff.. right in the middle of a rainforest! Pretty kick ass! So our lodge.. hmmm! My first impression was oh my good god, not because it was shit, in fact the facilities were awesome.. but because of the spiders. Okay so I know I should expect if I'm staying in a rainforest then I'm going to be in the home of spiders and really I'm invading THEIR land.. but I honestly didn't expect THIS many. Bare in mind I have super phobia, I always have since I was a sprog. From the minute we walked in, there was a huge one above the door, and another on the floor IN the lodge, absolutely ginormous. Aside from that there were also hundreds scattered all over the walls and ceilings.. SCARY SHIT!!!! So I had a mental breakdown, in fact so did everyone else except Claire weirdly enough! She seems to be worried about EVERYTHING except spiders!! Bec is usually okay with spiders but she tried to stamp the one on the floor but it ran under one of the beds before she could, so she was then worried! So the rainforest guy kind of figured we would have a freak out about it because we're English and not used to this many spiders around, so he gets us some insect spray.. we got to work straight away. Or I should say the others did.. I couldn't go near them! They basically saved my sanity and killed all the visible spiders, but I knew there were still some around. So me and Jo were in one room, and the others in the other. It was super late so we all went to bed pretty much straight away. I'd never been so terrified getting into bed as much as I was that night. I really regreted not bringing my mosquito net with me! Luckily I had my duvet sheet cover, so I got inside of it.. literally. I cacooned myself inside, from head to toe.. it was boiling but I didn't care! The risk of a spider walking over me in the night was much worse than sweating. However the air con did help a bit.. I kept waking up again in the night and then head a dream that there was a spider on my head, not good. But eventually I went to sleep, safely huddled in my blanket.. nighty night Byron Bay, hope I get a better impression of you tomorrow...

Nighty night xxx

---