Our next stop was Byron Bay, but Oz Experience made it slightly more awkward than it should be to get there. From Hervey Bay we had to get back on the bus and spend a 'compulsory' night in Rainbow Beach, which was only half an hour down the road, and there wasn't anything to do. We didn't get there until late, and our hostel had already given out all the free evening meals that we had supposedly paid for, so we had to sneak into the hostel next door that was supposed to be for guests only to get fed (and try out a few of the verrry cheap cocktails!!).

We were up early the next morning to get our onward bus to Byron Bay, which proved an eventful 10 hour trip! There were 2 buses we could've ended up on, but thankfully we got the bus that wasn't broken, with 'Muppet Man' as the driver. We ended up really late into Brisbane (where we didn't have enough days left in Oz to stop L ) and found out just as we got there that the other bus was stuck on the motorway as the trailer had snapped off! We had fun watching our driver explain to lots of angry backpackers at the Brisbane pick up point that if they weren't on the list for his bus they'd be waiting hours for their bus! We eventually got to Byron Bay at 6pm and found out the other bus made it at 9.30pm!!

The day after we got to Byron, which was a Saturday, was Clare's birthday (her first ever summer birthday - exciting!) and as the weather was soo nice - hot and sunny - we went to the beach, which was one of the best we went to in Australia, and met up with Amanda and Lara from our Oz Experience bus. That night they came to our hostel where they helped to embarrass Clare on the terrace by bringing a birthday cake, and getting everyone else at the hostel to join in with singing Happy Birthday, before we headed out to Byron Bay's famous 'Cheeky Monkeys' nightclub.

On the Sunday we went on a bus tour to Nimbin, a famous hippy village in the hills nearby. The weather had turned rubbish and it was windy and raining heavily by the time we got there, so we weren't too happy to learn we were going to be dropped off to wander round for a couple of hours. Nimbin is well known for selling drugs, and it was weird to walk down the street and have every local trying to sell to you. There were lots of cool souvenir shops to look at though. That evening, one of the friends we met on our Fraser Island trip, Sam came to visit us at our hostel, and then the next morning we were up early ready for the bus to Surf Camp!

Lots of Love, Clare and Amy X x x