ellloooooo there :)

just a quick one today, its only been a couple days after all but im trying to very hard to write one from each place i go :P

so wednesday was where i left you last and after we had caught up on much needed sleep we left for the small town of 1770. unfortunatly this was the last stop for james, well last stop with us anyway, and he was heading out on his own in the scary world of harvey bay, one of the stops on the way. have to admit it was quite sad for me to say goodbye, and not just because i was already emotional after losing my snicker bar to the vending machine in a timeless battle between machine and man, i was actually going to miss him a lot. hopefully we would meet again in oz somewhere but i dont enjoy losing members of my little family that i have got to used to the last few weeks, especially members with non-jew fro's :P

we got to cool banana's hostel a few hours later only to be greeted on arrival with a free facial and conspiracy talk on aliens and the pyramids from some local guy who apprently enjoyed talking about aliens and painting mud on peoples faces! no complaints here :P the hostel itself is defintily one of my faves so far - it was really more like a home than a hostel, with a lovely big kitchen with working hobs (i know ive been travelling too long when i start to appriciate hostel kitchen conditions!), a big tv room with lots of comfy seats and dvd's, CLEAN bathrooms and whats more the guy who ran it really seemed to enjoy it and want to take care of us! he even had big thick blankets ready for each guest when they needed them :) better than all this - there were hammocks!! proper, nice, comfy, in the sun hammocks!! so after settling in and spending some much needed time on the beach (after all i hadnt seen one for ages!), we settled in with some of sophies amazing macaroni and cheese and some black and gold homebrand cake, and watched dvd's for the rest of the night :) and if i do say so myself, it was exactly what i needed - a bit of r and r and a nice thick blanket :)

Friday (ie today) arrived sooner than i had hoped since i was just so damn comfy in bed :) but as it turned out we were going to start the morning with pancakes so i really didnt mind getting up after all! slight awkward moment in the morning though when apparently i had - in my sleep i mind you! - had a go at anna and will for being umm too loud during the night! leading to anna swiftly getting back into her own bed and her and will avoiding eye contact with me in the morning! i had no idea i had even sleep talked let alone shouted at them until they informed me in the morning! it took me a good 20 mins to convince them that really they can do whatever they want and in future they shouldnt take any notice of me unless my eyes are open! and if they are, well, then thats a bit creepy because it means i sleep with my eyes open, but yeah you get the picture! Jenni Trimlett - c*** block extraordinaire :P

after some lazy hammocky hours it was time for us to go scooteroo'ing - which was what 1770 was kinda known for in the backpacker world. basically you get to ride cool harley wannabe scooters round town for a few hours in matching leather jackets :P at first we were going to go in pairs but just as we were about to go we were switched to seperate bikes (still at the less expensive double cost yay!) and off we went! thats right mum, no practise, barely any instruction, and a big thumping peice of metal at my disposal :P no on a serious note, it was incredible!! and with the exception of will braking his bike (twice) and a semi-serious broken collarbone for another guy, it was a flawlessly safe and amazing experience! we went round into the next town and then back again down some different roads etc and from the locals point of view - 40 people in matching jackets and nice shiny scooters - we were the motorbike gang from hell :P i think i got mine up to 70 miles an hour at one point and the feeling of air rushing past your face and the sheer speed because it feels a lot faster than it is, its just brilliant! by the way - mum, dad, im going to be getting my motorbike license when i get back :)

we stopped off at a little cafe towards the end and sat on the shore whilst the sun went down, and oh my god what a sunset it was! 1770 is one of the only places in oz that the sun sets on or really close to the sea so the colours are just incredible and it all reflects off the water to make it even more amazing - definitly worth it just for the sunset! then by the time we set off again it was getting dark and i very quickly realised the torch strapped to the front of my bike was not just for show! my lights didnt work so i literally had a torch to guide me back to the hostel! but did that stop me? NO! did the guy trying to wave me to the side of the road so he could fix my light stop me? NO! i just kept on riding! hell i could see so what else did i need right!! we eventually got back unscathed and upon recieveing our complimentary scooteroo temporary tattoos, we made our way back to the hostel.

on arrival however we were surprised to find that both elliot and james (elliot who we had left in rainbow beach) were at 1770 staying just down the road from us! obviously this meant we would just have to crash the other hostel for a bit of a party with our left over goon! even better when we got there i found alice was there too!! so by the end of the night i had my oz family + alice all in one room again and it was magnificent! i mean yes there was a point where james walked off and we went to find him only to encounter a strange man with a torch on the beach who answered when we shouted james but then turned his light off and dissapeared - leading us to get elliot for protection and then for him to be creeped out so us all running away very fast; there was a point very soon after that when elliot fell over and i had to clean his knee up for him when we got back and there was a time soon after that when we got back and found will straigtening james's fro with some GHD's to no success whatsoever! this all inevitably led to james rolling around on the floor laughing and maddy putting scooteroo tattoo's on his bum so that he could show them off for a discount when he went tomorrow. and yes there are both pictures AND a movie of this :P through all the gooned up fun i managed to have a great catch up with alice and ended the evening walking back with sophie at god knows what hour ready for our next leg of the trip in the morning.

see, told you it would be short, but boy was it eventful as well :P

xxx