Moving on to Brisbane

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the first of what i hope to be many entries in my travel blog. i am in noosaville australia at the momment and i'm about to head out on a bus soon to brisbane australia where i will meet up with laurel shear, a friend from mill valley. she lives in brisbane now and is studying at one of the schools there. she has agreed to let me stay a couple nights with her. i get in this evening at about 6pm and can't wait to have someone there to meet and greet me. getting off long bus rides to find nobody in sight that looks remotely familiar is sometimes bothersome. of course you quickly get picked up by the local backpacker buses but there is always that first 15 or 20 minutes of what do i do? bottom line it will be nice to see laurel. i plan to hang around with her for a couple days until she leaves on the 1st of july. at that point the plan is to continue down the east coast of Oz to byron bay. can't decide yet if i should stop at surfers paradise on the gold coast. that will just be a last minute decision. after byron its down to sydney where i will meet another contact. once i'm there i'll make sure to go do all the things that i wanted to do a month ago but didn't have time for. plus i'll be planning out my trip up to asia which i hope to get under way by the second week in july.

anyhow, to all those whom i have not been in contact with on this trip i'm sorry and i hope you are all healthy and happy. please feel free to write me messages through this blog and be sure to keep checking in as i will be updating frequently now that i know how to use this site. i'll also do my best to upload pictures as soon as possible.

take care friends and family
marcus

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Photos

Marie and Joanna
These two amazing girls I met up the coast and they were kind enough to let me tag along with them to hervey bay and noosa.

Noosa National Park
Last day in Noosa we visited the national park. We got rained on for the first part of the hike, but the skies cleared and I was able to capture some great shots. The hike was about 10km, taking 3 hours or so.

Noosa Backpacker Resort
Noosaville Australia. This is where I stayed for four nights in Noosa. Doesn't look like much but it was actually quite nice. They let us take out kayaks, boogie boards, and surf boards for free....free is always music to my ears.

Comments

[Dad]

Hi from home
Dear Marc, This travel blog is a great idea. It will give you something to do in your quiet hours and will make you reflect on your journey. I hope this trip has provided the healing you needed after that last difficult year at Berkeley. The Minagi Cup was great fun as usual. It was me, Kenny, Tony and Adam. As you know Adam doesn't golf, but as usual the scramble format allowed everyone to participate. We weren't even close to the winning score (we shot -11, low score was -20), but the low score cheated. We were supposed to have four drives from each player this year. That was a difficult rule and the "winners" didn't follow it. Susan, Sara, and Hannah were here, too. It was a blast. Hannah is so precious. The deal for Tony's new house is finalized. They are moving during the first week in August. I plan to go down and help out. I am off to LA for a trial tomorrow. Those are never much fun. Anyway, don't forget to put your itinerary on your blog. And it would be nice for your Mom and me to know your return date. We want to count the days. Love, Dad

[Matt Johnson]

Great to hear from you
Good to see that you are up and at them in Australia and traveling some. We have been talking about you here back in Berkeley. Have fun, watch out for those wallabies if you are driving! and keep in touch. Matt

[Amy]

hey marcus! glad to hear you are alive and well... u survived ur course! cant wait to hear about asia...thailand will be amazing... chao