Morning all...well late evening for most of you (the date on the blog is meant to be March 3rd but I can't change it)

I am currently in Brisbane, Queensland and leave on Sunday morning to go to Noosa. It is so hot and humid here it really ain't funny and there is a cyclone twice the size of the UK heading right for us....awesome.

As you may gather my last entry was up to Sunday so I will get you all up to date as I am slacking a bit.

During the day on Sunday (Feb 25th) I spent most of my time on the beach with Anaick, Jade and Jamie (guy from mojo surf). We sat to the North of the beach as it was less busy but that was mainly due to the waves being bigger and the current stronger. We went for a swim for a while, diving under each wave as it went past or getting slapped in the back by one, before me and Jamie decided to swim further out to this anchor which wasn't the best idea; the current was pushing us close to a wreck and I got demolished by a huge wave. I soon had enough as I was so shattered trying to counter the current so I sunbathed for a bit then just as I was getting comfortable Dan and Dave came down so went back in the sea. Everyone fell asleep on the beach for a couple of hours (I was just listening to my ipod) till gone 5 in which time I had gotten red AGAIN! Crappy suncream don't seem to work on me. Me, Dave and Dan walked back, grabbed a nice smoothy on the way then I got ready and went for dinner with Anaick, Jade and Jamie. We went to a huge pub in teh centre of town and was nice to have a relaxing filling meal for once; I had a pizza and chips washed down with a nice pint of Tooheys extra dry. Before we went to bed we hired Big Daddy and sat about watching that.

The day after was the Nimbin tour with Jim's Alternative Adventures. Without alarming anyone it is the Cannabis capital of Australia so we thought it was worth a look to see how different it was. After a bit of a drive we arrived in the really small town of Nimbin (one main street 200m or so long) where we were instantly greeted by a load of women trying to sell us 'cookies'. While some of my freinds went 'shopping' we sat in a cafe for a bit talking about how anyone who wasn't a druggie could live there. Before we left I checked out the Nimbin museum which was just full of weird tripping stuff, people making joints openly on tables and a load of aboriginals trying to sell you marijuana. We left Nimbin for Jim's hippy friends house who has planted 40 acres of forest over the course of 30 years and just smokes all day long; everyone sat around his pond and ate a really good watermelon then took a walk around the many different plants he has. On the way back to Byron bay we drove down this steep hill to a weird tune and when we stopped at the bottom the tune finished (exactly 5min 12sec)...quality. That evening we just chilled in the room talking to a couple of Canadians and I fell asleep in my clothes.

For my last day in the incredible Byron Bay I spent most of the day sorting out whole heap of stuff. I took pictures, sorted out stuff to send home and spent 4 hours on the net updating this and putting pictures to cd. I met Anaick at 5pm at the beach so that we could do the walk up to Cape Byron and the lighthouse, which was to take us 2 and a half hours. This invloved walking along the beach, watching the surf from above then walking up and down a hill to a nice beach called Wytanga which is lined by some of Australia's most expensive houses. We then walked up and up to the Cape and the lighthouse for some quality views of the whole of Byron Bay. On our way back down we stopped at Australia's most easterly point and swam at Wytanga where virtually every wave is a decent one. Heading back along the beach the sun was setting and as I walked along the water it felt pretty close to paradise. When I got back to the hostel I drank with Dan and Dave, got drenched down the beach at a not so great party then finished off at Cheeky Monkeys. Unbelievably I met 5 Jersey people who all held up their driving licences, drank with them then went to bed.

I checked out the Holiday Village, sent a parcel and wrote on this site then got on the oz bus up to Surfers Paradise (I said goodbye to Dan and Dave after more than 2 weeks travelling with them). The bus took only an hour and a half and the only thing worth noting was the fact we entered Queensland 22km South of Surfers and had to put our watched back an hour due to the fact Queensland doesn't do DST (Daylight Saving Time). Surfer's Paradies is basically a long beach lined by a whole heap of massive apartment blocks, one the largest in the world (the Q1) and is just a party town with nothing really to see. We got to the hostel (backpackers resort- not bad place with nice bar and tennis court and small pool) about 3, took a walk down the beach to see the Gold Coast then got ready to go out at 5pm on a 'wicked' night which turned out to be not so wicked. It cost 30 dollars which got you into a load of places, a free drink at every place and some snacks but was poorly organised, started far too early and most people were already in groups so was not good for meeting people. Me, Anaick and Jade ended up leaving at midnight before our wallets were empty and walked through the city to the hostel, looking at the Q1 on the way. The hostel was really warm but I managed to get to sleep without too much trouble.

Thursday was the 1st March which is the start of the aussie autumn but you would never know it with the unbearable heat. After checking out the hostel we took a walk around the shopping precinct, looked at plans for the next big skyscraper and sat on the beach before walking all the way along it and getting the bus to the transit centre. Our Oz Experience bus left around 2 ish and our driver was Adam who was pretty cool and had a big flower behind his seat. We went zorbing soon after leaving Surfers, which involved going to the top of a big hill in a group of 3, getting in a massive inflatable ball within a ball, having 50 litres of water thrown inside and being pushed down the hill...soo good. It was a really good laugh and a well spent 20 bucks even though it only lasts a matter of seconds. Brisbane was reached an hour or so later and we got dropped off at the Palace Backpackers hostel in the centre of the city; my room stank and was a complete mess so was in a fantastic mood. Me and Anaick grabbed a lovely 6 dollar steak from the down under bar downstairs, took a nice walk around the city and along the river bank (really good city to walk around and not too warm) then went back to the bar for some pool and drinks. I managed to sleep in Anaicks room as they had a spare bed so was well chuffed (the hostel has the room down as a 5 bed when there are 6 beds).

Today kicked off with a great continental breakfast at a nearby bar then we took a trip up to the top of Brisbane City Hall clock tower where the views wern't great but it ended up being free so couldn't complain. We then got the bus up to Mt.Coot-tha lookout point (7km west of the city) at 11 for an amazing view of all of Brisbane and its suburbs; as usual there was a load of annoying chinese hanging around the place. Afterwards we went on a walk down a valley in the unbearable heat for a couple of kilometres then diverted onto an aboriginal art trail for another kilometre but turned out to be pointless as the art was fairly new and nothing special. When we finally got to the picnic area at the bottom we were dripping and couldn't wait to get back down to brisbane. Unfortunately the bus stop on the map was useless and after waiting an hour in the middle of nowhere we phoned the bus company who informed us to go down the hill 5 minutes away to the botanical gardens, typical. We finally got on the bus just after 2 and got off near the river to catch the sea cat which took us along the river for a bit to get a goodlook at the city before getting off near the bridge. I was pretty hungry so grabbed some fod from the food court then headed back to the hostel to get my stuff as I was staying at my cousins place on the outskirts of the city. The train cost me 2 dollars 60 and took me about 20 minutes to get to Cannon Hill train station where I attempted to walk to their house in the sweltering heat. I gave up half way and phoned Mrs Kempster (my third cousin); I looked a little bit of a mess when I got picked up believe me. When I got to their house I took a look around and put my stuff in a bus outside which is a really awesome air conditioned holiday home then met her partner Robbie and their dog; Pepsi. After a nice cold shower and doing my washing I chatted to them and had some lovely fish and chip. I met her son Adrian and went with him and his friend to a mates house where I had a few schooners (almost a pint), watched some basketball then had some of the biggest pizza I have ever seen- it was about 2 feet across and could barely fit through the door, cost 55 dollars (22 quid) and had four different areas to it; I was drooling but couldn't have much as I had had fish and chips (gutted). 5 of us sat and watched Brisbane play Melbourne in Australian Rules Football (interesting game to learn about and has mixes of alot of sports) which was great to watch and the first time I had ever seen it play; we won convincingly even though we were the under dogs. When it was just me Adrian and his mate left we got picked up and taken back to the house and just sat around for a while chatting and having a few more drinks. I finally went to bed after a very long day about 3am in my lovely cool bus.

This morning i woke up early on and wrote in my journal and the plan for the day is to go back into town and then come round my cousins later to go out for the evening with them.

bye for now

Ant