Brisbane, Australia (16th Jan 2008) The Bus pulled up outside our home for the next six nights, the Palace Backpackers in Brisbane at around 6pm after another long day on the road that seemed to last an eternity. To our surprise the hostel was built into a beautiful old heritage listed building that had been converted to become what the hostel claims to be "The Best Backpackers in Town". On checking in we got a coupon for a free drink in the bar unde...

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...

Canberra, Australia (10th Jan 2008) Canberra, Australia's capital city was also the next state capital that we had to visit and our 3rd so far after Melbourne and Sydney. The main reason that Canberra even exists is because the Melbourne and Sydney couldn't stop arguing between themselves which deserved to be Australia's capital when the country was first colonized; thus the ACT (Australian Capital Territory) was formed and lie near enough slap bang in the mid...