Advertisement
Published: February 6th 2009
Edit Blog Post
So I made it from the big city to Dee Why where Jane and Steve have kindly put me up in their spare room. It's lovely not to be in a hostel for a while and I'm only 10 minutes walk from the beach. So I've spent the month going back and forth to the beach, exploring on a bicycle and a little bit of touring on the back of Steves bike. I've also been surfing a couple of times, and I almost, very nearly stood up! I also fell off and swallowed a lot of water a couple of times..... There's been a lot in the news about shark attacks over here, but I am not, as Stef says, a shark biscuit. There are thousands of beaches and millions of people in the water every day, and I have more chance of having a heart attack than a shark encounter. Plus everytime I go in the water I make sure to apply my special shark repellant....
Dee Why is a wee suburb 40 min from Sydney on the bus, built around a really nice beach, with lots of coffee shops full with ozzies and their mini-dogs. Have been out walking
and seen most of Dee Why and the surrounding areas, Brookvale and Collaroy. Took Steve's bicycle out a couple of days too and near died of exhaustion climbing hills in the heat. There's been a bit of a heatwave here recently, sorry to rub it in, it got up to 42 degrees which was unbelievable and another is expected this weekend. At the end of the beach is a pool which I've spent a lot of time at and then there's the rock pools where I've seen millions of crabs. Last week we took some beer and a kilo of prawns down and I delighted in feeding prawn heads to the crabs. 😊
On Burns night I went with Jane and Steve to a party nearby. It was termed a country-of-origins party so everyone had to wear their 'national dress'. So I wore my Scotland footie top and Jane and I donned our raincoats as a symbol of the British climate. The hosts were also Scottish and to be honest out of 30 or so folk, there were maybe 5 ozzies. So we had haggis and beer and some whiskey, oh dear. I think I remember 3am then the next
thing I woke up at 9am on a campbed in someones office! All in all a good night.
Also Steve took my out on his bike for an afternoon up to a place called Wisemans Ferry via the Pacific Highway. The scenery was amazing and it was a glorious sunny day! But I probably had my eyes closed for most of the journey, I looked up the route on google maps and to say there were one or two twisties is an understatement! Steve has a Kawasaki ZX6r, a Green one and he likes to flaunt to sporty side of the bike, at one point I was worried I was going to skin my skins off the road, if I didnt fall off backwards from the sheer acceleration! It was an experience, but I've decided I'm definitely more of a driver than pillion passenger.
I've also had a chance to work on my surfing at Freshwater beach and at Manly beach. The biggest battle is getting the board into the surf without getting wiped out! Oh and also trying not to injure myself when getting off. I kind of managed to stand up a couple of times, but I'm sure
within 9 months I'll have it down to an art, watch this space.... I managed to injure myself again. I still have a slight bump from the trail riding incident up in the bush and it is now accompanied by skinned knees, skinned feet and a faint bruise on the side of my head, all caused by coming off the board, sliding along the sand on my knees and not getting out of the way quick enough of an out-of-control surf board. As I say watch-this-space...
Job-hunting unfortunately hasn't gone well. I spent 2 days to stoopid courses which you need to work in a bar over here, applied for about 14 jobs and nada, so I have decided to join the other girls in Brisbane where they're hoping to start picking apples next week in the some country town in the middle of nowhere, sounds like good banter I suppose. So I'm off back to the city tonight to get the bus to Brisbane, where I shall visit the fake beach!? the XXXX brewery (yeeha) and hopedully Steve Irwins zoo (crikey!).
So long Sydney, hello Brisbane.
xxx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.12s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0447s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
dad
non-member comment
yippeee
At last a wee story!Glad you're all meeting up again.Pick a braeburn or two for me!