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Published: August 26th 2009
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Mel has finally made it down under to see me so after 3 months seeding in WA and saving to become a flashpacker I was ready to meet her in Sydney. In Sydney we drunk too much, met some unconventional characters, met a koala and saw the sights. Enjoyed city life especially after being pretty isolated in Wongan Hills. It felt great to be able to eat when I wanted and get fruit that wasn’t already on the turn. It was good to be back in civilisation and with my best mate. In Sydney we took the ferry out to Taronga Zoo, walked round the Sydney harbour and the rocks, lunched at Darling harbour and walked round the pretty Chinese gardens and enjoyed the stunning views from the skytower. Oh yes and did I mention the beer and the unusual blokes?
From Sydney we hired a car and drove out to the Blue Mountains, the route out was a little bit scenic having missed the turn but all good as was chucking it down as we got out. We stopped at echo point lookout and could just make out the 3 sisters through the rain. Decided to call it an
early night and get comfy in the hostel. The next day was a big one, we started driving out to the Jenolan caves which where amazing. From there we heading back towards town stopping at the Evans lookout, which has stunning views of the Jamison valley, did the skylift at scenic world and a quick walk round to the gorgeous Katoomba Falls and stopped as the sun was setting at Wentworth Falls.
From there we started heading north stopping at Coffs Harbour where we enjoyed the stunning views and the reasonably priced wine at the Yacht Club. Byron Bay was next, where we walked up to the lighthouse and chilled out on the fantastic beaches. Had a good night listening to a local band. From there we hit the goldies answer to Vegas, Surfers Paradise. The nights out where good, I even met a lovely young man but it is still not the town for me. Beach is packed and it sucks the money out of you!
After a large night out, who Mel is completely responsible for, we got on the greyhound and headed up to Brissie. We were both a little wasted so the bus driver had to
Taronga Zoo
View back over Sydney come, shake us awake and kick us off his bus when we got in! I left Mel in Brisbane to catch her flight out to Alice Springs and headed up to Noosa.
Still love Noosa, awesome to spend time with Kate and the now not so little lady Eva. Really love and miss you both, Eva is turning into a gorgeous and chatty girl. Well done Kate! Also great to catch up with the Sierra crew. Miss you guys too, forgot how much fun those nights out where! Wish I had gotten more time so I could catch up with everyone properly. Also had a change to get out into the hinterland which is still good for my soul and get spoilt by the lovely Mark who managed to win major gold stars for cleaning Kate’s Barbie!
From Noosa we did the monster 17 hours on the greyhound to Airlie Beach and got straight on the Solway Lass. A gorgeous tall ship that took us sailing round the Whitsundays for 3 days. Stunning beaches and snorkelling. Really enjoyed the trip and met some great girls on the boat.
Still heading north our next stop was Magnetic island. The beaches where
Taronga Zoo
with the Koala gorgeous and I even managed to get Mel round an 11km walk. Well worth it, we even saw 3 koala’s which is pretty unusual in the wild.
We left the greyhound in Cairns and then headed out to the great barrier reef. The crew on the ocean freedom where great, they really looked after Mel who is not happy in the water and I got to do some amazing snorkelling. I got to swim after a shark (admittedly a harmless reef shark but he still looked like he could take a chunk from you leg if he felt like it) and got to see Nemo for the first time. It was festival week in Cairns so we got to see a good fireworks display on Sat night before dancing the night away on the tables of the woolshed.
We did a Cape Tribulation tour and stopped on the way up at the Daintree river where we got to see scar-face, the 5m saltie croc and went for a walk through the oldest rainforest in the world. Stunning. We chilled out in Cape Tribulation, doing a short walk to a lookout. The next morning Mel treated me to the horse-riding. We
Railway YHA, Sydney
Got to sleep in a railway carriage without worrying if we'd missed our stop got to ride along the beach and got to do a reasonable amount of cantering. My lovely horse River was an ex-racehourse who reminded me how much I enjoy riding. Thank you so much Mel for an awesome morning. We then got back on the bus heading back to Cairns. We stopped at the Alexander Bay Lookout, Mossman Gorge and Port Douglas.
Had a fantastic trip up the coast. Mel has been a great travelling partner, except maybe when I was having to bully her out of bed! Really going to miss her now she has headed back to the UK. Hope she had as much fun as I did.
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Andy
non-member comment
Still having fun
Hi Charlotte, nice to here your still having fun down there, you must be a little blasé by now having spent so long away, but reading your little blog makes me both jealous and tempted in equal measures! Keep having fun, Andy