Hello All!

Firstly we must say sorry for not updating our blog in a while, we have been very busy ladies! Thank you all for your lovely messages too! Ok so we arrived in Sydney and spent the first day tucked up in bed recovering from major jet lag! However, within no time at all we were 'off exploring!'.

Sydney-

Jumping on the open topped city sight seeing bus, our first trip out was to Bondi Beach. We spent the day catching some rays and pretty much relaxing! It was lovely to be at a beach again, and we took full advantage our free drinks vouchers, sipping a cold glass of white wine in the Iceberg club and watching the world go buy!

Getting up bright and early the next morning we toured pretty much the whole of Sydney! We passed through Darling Harbour, and then on to the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, both very impressive! To get a better view we headed across the water to the botanical gardens. As you will see from the pictures we put up, the sights were beautiful! Whilst strolling through the botanical gardens we came across the biggest bats we have ever seen in our life! These bad boys were massive, very impressive indeed. A the day continued we took a walk to The Rocks, where we stopped for refreshments and soaked up the atmosphere. The day was filled with great sights, and great weather to match. To top it off, we picked up all of our tickets for the forth coming 6 weeks which was very exciting!

Melbourne-

Taking an over night bus from Sydney we arrived in Melbourne at around 7:30am, and were greated by a drunk man who wanted a picture with us, which was quite amusing! Starved, we hit the local bakery and enjoyed some good breakfast, I went for the healthy option, a bacon and egg butty! After our tummys were full, we headed to the Queen Victoria market. This market has just about everything, and Lauren and I made a good few purchases! Heading back to our hostel, we were informed that it had an open roof top, to which we took full advantage, sunbathing for a good few hours. We then headed into Melbourne to do some exploring. Melbourne is full of little side streets with cafes and coffe bars, cool bars, funky shops, and interesting graffiti. It had a really nice feel to it and we enjoyed our time there. Needless to say we tried out one of the local bars, and had a really nice night.

The next day we hit the Great Ocean Road, one of our many tours! It was a long day but we got to see some great sights, such as the 12 Aposeles (not quite as impressive as Harlong Bay however). The beaches were beautiful and everyone was out surfing!

On the Tuesday we flew to Alice Springs to begin the next part of our adventure! When we arrived it was buckiting down with rain, aparently its the worse rain they had seen in quite some time! However this didn't dampen our spirits as we had to be up bright and early the next day for our tour (and to be honest, Alice Springs isn't the nicest of places!)

Red Centre- Our tour begins, in a group of 24, we hit the road for the mighty red centre! We stopped off for refreshments at a camel farm which was interesting, our first glance at Emus and Roos! After quite along drive we arrived at our camp ground, which was five minutes from Uluru (Ayres Rock). We all mucked in and made lunch, and then set off for a walk round Kata Tjula (Valley of the Winds). This walk was great, and very educating. Our tour gide Reg (legend!) told us all about how the different mountines were formed, and about aborigional life in the area. After wandering around the tall rocky mountines, it was time to watch the sunset, at none other than Uluru! Rumour has it the this legendry rock changes colour and even glows when the sun sets, and we can confirm this! It was beautiful and the sky was amazing! Heading back to the camp we made dinner and set up camp for the night. We slept outside under the stars in whats known as swags. There basically really comfy sleeping bags! The sky was breathtaking, millions of bright stars, and a good handful of shooting ones, we didnt want to fall asleep!

The next morning we were up at 4am to do a base walk of Uluru which took just under 3 hours. Reg had told us that Uluru was a very spiritual place and that on our walk we should clear our minds, be relaxed and even ask advice and questions. This may sound stupid to all you sceptics out there, but after discussing what we had thought about whilst walking, Lauren and I have alot of faith in this big red rock! It was a really lovely morning. We took another long drive to our next camp which was based near Kings Canyon. Again we enjoyed another night of sleeping out in swags. We made good friends with two girls on our tour and spent the night telling stories and laughing lots! We also had an open fire which was great.

Again waking up at 4am, we hit the Kings Canyon. Climbing a hill known as heart attack hill didnt seem all that tempting at 4am, neathertheless, we got our walking shoes on and off we went! It was well worth it in the end, the views from the top were amazing, you could see for miles. We both really enjoyed the tour, learnig alot whilst having lots of fun! Heading back to Alice Springs, myslef, Lauren, Hannah and Chantel decided to go for dinner and drinks. We had Two massive pizzas which we couldnt finish, and then headed to Bojangles. Bojangles was interesting to say the least, Alice Springs is a funny old place!

Cairns-

On the morning we flew to Cairns i found out that a good friend of mine from university, Nataly, was also there for one night. So, as soon as we landed we rushed to our hotel, changed our clobber and headed out to the centre! We enjoyed a lovely meal for 10 dollars (just under a fiver!) which consisted of a drink, a huge main meal and chocolate cake for desert, yum yum. We consumed a good few gin and tonics and had a lovely night.

The next day we hit the Great Barrier Reef! This was an amazing day. We jumped on a boat and set sail deep into the ocean. Before we began snorkeling we were infromed of the deadly jelly fish which were present this time of year. This ment that we had to put on all in one stinger outfits, and let me tell you we looked hot! (please sense the sarcasm there). Not even Kate Moss could look good in one of these things! Anyway, the reef was amazing, we got to swim with massive fish, afew sharks, and even the most beautiful turtles (and lets not forget the jellys!). It was a great day and we could have snorkeld there forever!

The following day we set out to Cape Tribulation. This is where the beach meets the rainforest! We started on the Daintree river and spoted afew crocks, which was a little scary. Our tour guide clearly like the saying "its the nature of the beast", as it has stuck with Lauren and I, and we find it highly amusing! The rest of the day was spent walking through a forest, stopping for lunch at cape tribulation and spending abit of time at port douglas. We had a nice day, but it was a little rushed which was a shame. All in all a good time in Cairns though.

The day of the Camper- On Tuesday the 25th we picked up our 'juicy' camper van, woop woop! This is our home for the next month. We did our first shop, pumped some fuel in, and we hit the open road! We stopped off at Johnstone River Crocodile Farm. This was really fun. We held baby crocs and lizards. Fed and held Wallabys (they were the cutest things!) and even held dingos! However the most impressive things were the crocs, these bad boys were massive! We even thought at first that they might have been fake. We watched the guys who worked there feed them which was pretty scary. They even opend the cage and we were face to face with a giant croc, it took one step forward and i ran for my life! Later we headed to Wooroonooran national park and set up camp for the night.

The next day we took a look round the local waterfalls which were lovely, and then headed to mission beach. We spent the day sunbathing and chilling out. As Lauren is doing all the driving, I am chef for the next month, so we snuggled up to one of my specialities, veggy sausage, mixed veg and pesto, yum!

Ok so now i am writting in the present, the 27th, yes thats right, the day of the sky dive! Oh my god it was amazing!!!! We got there at 8am, had a quick briefing of what to do and before we new it we were up in that plane. At one point Lauren asked how high we were, he said guess. Laurens guess was 10000 ft (which i thought was pretty good). He then answerd, no, were only at 2000 ft! We sky dived from 14000 ft so that gives you some idea of how high it was! Going up in the plane was scary, then the door opened and one by one we flew out. You sit there, above the cloudes, with your feet hanging out of the plane, with no control of anything! The guy you are strapped to pushes you out and you free fall for 1 minute. That is the most amazing bit, you cant describe the feeling! Then the parashoot goes up and you start to glide down to the beach, and land on your bum! We have pictures which are really funny. We both agree it was one of the most amazing things we have done and would deffinatly do it again!

We continue to head south on our adventure, and are off to the Whitsundays next. I hope you have enjoyed the latest blog. Im very sorry for any spelling mistakes, the internet is rather expensive here and we have lots to do!

Missing you all lots! Hugs and kisses!

Louise and Lauren. xxxxxxxxxxx