Byron Bay, Australia (15th Jan 2008) We arrived at the Holiday Village Backpackers in Byron Bay and were shocked to discover the accommodation was going to cost us $33 each a night (expensive when most of the accommodation up the east coast ranges from $20-£25!) and then thankful that we were only staying one night. We could check in straight away so we went to dump our bags in the room and discovered that for $33 a night we had to walk 50 metres outside ...

Arrawarra Surf Camp, Australia (14th Jan 2008) At 6am we met up with Jonny and Sam and joined all the over tired looking faces that were loitering in the hostel lobby area. Predictably the bus arrived late and with yet another chirpy young chap who would be our driver for the next day or two. After a long day on the road we arrived at about 6pm to a load of crazy surfers cheering and jumping on the bus far too enthusiastically screaming and going mental. The m...

Sydney, Australia (10th Jan 2008) After a long day travelling we arrived at Base Backpackers in Sydney to find that Mark and I were in a separate room to Johnny and Sam even though we booked in together. It wasn't too much of an issue though as we were pleasantly surprised with our 8 bed dorm as it had a shower room and a toilet and air conditioning. It was only when Sam and Johnny came down to see us that we realised we had got lucky as they were in another p...

Jindabyne, Australia (9th Jan 2008) After another early start we left Lakes Entrance at sunrise to make our way along the Snowy River to get to Jindabyne, crossing the border from Victoria over to New South Wales along the way. We had an interesting drive along a very narrow dirt road up a steep hill. We spent a lot of the journey looking at how close the wheels of the bus were to the edge of the hill, but we also saw some lovely views, lots of wildlife & ...

Sydney, Australia (31st Dec 07) The only reason we have come to Sydney this time around is to celebrate New Years Eve on the Harbour Front and to watch the world famous firework display. Since this time around we are only in the city for 2 nights we decided/were forced to splash out on our biggest extravagance for the entire trip and ended up staying in a very centrally located, 4 star hotel which is not far from the central train station. It was an easy journ...