And so it was, after an amazing 10 days in Cairns we left for the place we bagan in just over 7 months ago.

The hour and a half flight from Cairns started so well, giving us incredible clear views over the Great Barrier Reef as we flew south down the east coast. The landing into Kingsford-Smith airport in Sydney though was a lot less incredible. The pilot making a very bumpy landing that certainly got our hearts racing.

Sydney was surprisingly warmer than we thought it would be and remained like that for our remaining 4 days in Australia, which was perfect. Instead of staying in the notorious Kings Cross area again, we decided this time we'd go for the arty-alternative suburb west of the CBD, Glebe. We checked into our hostel and headed straight back out again into the city. We were meeting up with Dutch John and his friend Peter.

It was great seeing John again and we had a brilliant night. What was going to be just a couple of afternoon drinks turned (almost predictably), into a full on 'sesh' at a nice little bar pretty much in the centre of Sydney. Then, after a Hungry Jacks for dinner we somehow managed to catch the right bus back to our hostel.

The following day we tried our best to make use of the free breakfast the hostel offered, but with both of us nursing slight hangovers it was quite difficult to keep down. We decided a walk would do us good and so, ended up walking 5km into the city, stopping every now and again to take in the stunning city skyline, always beautifully highlighted by the Harbour Bridge. Sydney really is the one place we've been to that actually pulls off the 'postcard' views wherever you are. Especially with the clear blue skies and the sun shining nearly all the time. We also stopped at Darling Harbour to have a look at an exact replica of the boat Captain James Cook ventured to Australia in, Endeavour.

We spent the afternoon preparing for Thailand by getting passport photos printed and changing up our Aussy Dollars to Thai Baht. We then had lunch at Circular Quay, taking in the the hustle and bustle of the hundreds of tourists and street performers with the fairly surreal backdrop of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. The rest of the evening we chilled back at the hostel watching a movie in the lounge with a $5 Thai takeaway.

With our time in Australia ticking down, we decided to spend Saturday (our penultimate day) taking in Glebe. We looked around the markets, had some lunch at a food court, strolled around some more and arrived back in time at the hostel for the free nachos and wine.

Our last whole day in Australia was spent doing a hell of a lot of walking. We actually had a really nice day, seeing more of Sydney than we thought we'd ever see. The Sydney Marathon was on so we followed the course for about 4 miles, cheering on runners as they went by and eventually we arrived at the Opera House, where we sat upon the steps watching the thousands of runners collapse over the finish line. We then walked all the way back through a few different markets around The Rocks and getting back to the hostel to play some ping-pong. The day ended nicely as we got a surprise phone call from Zan and Claire saying 'goodbye' from Australia and we agreed that we'll all meet up again one day in the future. Whether it be in Australia, England or somehwere completely different.

The following day we were up and packed and out of the hostel by midday and at the airport by 1pm. All checked in, we said our 'goodbyes' to Australia and were on a 9 and a half hour flight to Bangkok.

In all honesty the sadness of leaving Oz didnt really hit home for a while as we were both really excited about Thailand. But writing this blog a few months later, looking back on our time in Australia, we truly feel we had the time of our lives! Whenever we think of any moment of the 8 months we had 'Down Under', whether it be working long hard 9 hour shifts in a cold orange factory, or being completely skint in the middle of nowhere, with no-one but each other to talk to whilst eating cold beans out the can, we will always look back with happiness. Our experience we had, the people we met, the places we saw, we will never ever forget.