I woke up thinking my room was on fire only to discover a neighbours cigarette smoke drifting through my window...Having had a cup of tea and two TimTams for brekkie and a Skype chat with Gary, I headed off to the tourist information centre where I was expertly helped by Leila and 20 mins later had a complete itinerary and low down on the east coast. On the way I visited the macaque monkey 'exhibit' in City Park and was responsible for a grown man trippin...

Rather than detail my experiences of Byron Bay, I thought I'd do a summary of the week. SaturdayBrekkie at Ginger Pig, where the food was yummy, after they got my order correct.Mooched around town, found the beach, chilled.Accommodation at Byron Quarter Apts is lovely, very spacious, well appointed but loud live music heard at night. Plus aircon keeps turning itself off! SundayPottered in town. Byron is a very alternative hippie place where anything goes! Laz...

Ahhhh.... A lie in opportunity! So why have I been up since 5am? Surely that's unnecessary?! I got ready and packed my bags for today's travel bonanza! Having woken up so early it gave me plenty of time to do daft things such as send a text to Gary with a big heart made of lots of little hearts to wish him a happy valentines day! I had a lovely buffet breakfast with Tracy then went on the coach to the airport. I was very pleased to see my bag is down to ...

I'm getting better at early starts! This morning I was on a minibus at 5.15 kitted up for a walk in Kata Tjuta's Valley of the Winds. We were dropped at a point where we reached a viewing platform that provided panoramic views of Kata Tjuta and Uluru as the sun rose. The weather wasn't quite so friendly this morning and the rain clouds made for a soggy start and short lived sunrise. We were then driven to a drop off for the 7.4K walk which took me 2.5...

Our morning started early (4.30am) and with much excitement and anticipation. We joined Ned, our guide, and 13 others on a small orange truck for the Dessert Awakenings Tour. I'd been looking forward to this trip which was a gift from my family. We headed out on the bitumen road for a number of miles before we hit the gravel road. Travelling under the stars, we sat at the front and could see glimpses of the bush highlighted by the truck headlights. A faint li...