Taken ages to write another blog because the internet is sooo expensive in Australia! Got to LA and definitely felt I had arrived when a girl had a pet chiwowa in h&m that proceeded to poo all over the floor! Now in America driving around and camping at some of the big national parks! Its Maria's first experience of camping and its safe to say she won't be doing it again soon!

Port douglas
A really beautiful place! Nice beaches and a massive port! Stayed in a good hostel that gave us our own private room! Very nice except Maria was concerned that the windows were made of mesh that apparently teeny tiny insects can get thru! We met 'Justin Biebers cousin' or should I say got harassed by drunken 17 year olds in the hostel bar who claimed to be his cousin - how he thought that socially acceptable I'm unsure! We went on a crocodile cruise one of the evenings and saw a massive one swimming along with the boat!! We left Port Douglas for Airlie Beach for the Whitsundays tour!

Airlie Beach
We booked onto a sailing tour around the Whitsundays Islands! The first day we went to the famous Whitehaven Beach-the most beautiful beach I've ever seen! The sand was completely white and looked like paradise! That night the tour guide started drinking games and my competitive side came out! We had to pick up a piece of cardboard from the floor with only our feet allowed on the floor. I'm not flexible but wanted to win that much I managed to pull about 8 muscles picking up the last bit of cardboard that was flat to the floor! The pictures are interesting! Then we were all fast asleep when suddenly there was a loud bang, I turned my phone light on to discover Maria on the floor - she had fallen out of the bed! Apparently because of a bad dream about red ants! The next day we spent the morning snorkeling. We saw nemo! The fish were cool but Elly became a bit uneasy after a HUGE fish
Nicknamed Elvis decided to swim up to her! The rest of the second say we visited some of the little islands before sailing back to Airlie. Next stop Hervey Bay!

Hervey Bay
After the coldest/longest bus journey ever we arrived at Hervey Bay to do our Fraser Island tour. We were put into groups and all given a 4x4 to drive. Before leaving the hostel we were informed that there would be no toilets by our camp and if we needed to go we will have to dig a hole at least half a meter deep. Needless to say this did not happen when hammered off goon at 1am! Everyone on the tour was lovely and the tour guide nicknamed Cherry was completely crazy! The sleeping situation was unfortunate in that we were last to choose our tent and ended up with the one with no wind shelter from the beach at all! The tent fell in on us in the middle of the night! Luckily no dingos came in though! The tour was one of the best things
We've done!

Noosa
We took the night bus down to Noosa for 2 nights. The first hostel was awful and disgusting and was made even worse when we realised we may have contracted bedbugs from the Fraser tour. It started with me finding many bites in little lines, then Elly the next morning found more on her. one of the most disgusting things that has ever happened to me! So we start reading up on how they live in your clothes and how you can be stuck with them for weeks! It really made our time in Noosa!

Byron Bay
So we still had bedbugs. Me and Elly were getting new ones, luckily they didn't like Maria! We decided the only thing to do was wash everything, including bags and travel pillows! So our first night in Byron was spent standing by the washer and dryer machine - fun fun! To celebrate the hopefull death of the bugs we went out to the cheesiest backpacker club cheeky monkeys. An eventful night as we
All lost eachother! I found Maria being serenaded by an Australia singing Green Day time of your life! Elly was eventually found trying to make an international call to home with pennies! The next day was spent in bed eating subway still worrying about the bedbugs as new bites had appeared! We ended up going to the chemist who told us we will definitely have ridden of the bedbugs. Elly was still concerned so she told us to buy scabies cream-definite low point of the trip!

Sydney
So back to Sydney to catch the flight to LA! We spent our last day in Australia at the Blue Mountains. Really impressive but freeeeezing cold!

LA
After a 5 films, a few epsiodes of the Kardashians and 10 cans of stolen qantas coke we arrived in LA! The plan was to get to Vegas as soon as possible but our driving licences hadn't arrived yet so we stayed in a random homeshare hostel. We were all separated into different dorms
Which was not a good idea! Me and Elly both slept talked and slept walked! Elly was convinced that she owed a girl in the dorm money and I just needed to get out of the room apparently! The day before this we decided to walk home from the shopping centre (for vegas dresses) and thought it would take about 30 minutes. 2 hours later it was starting to get dark and no one else was around. When we got back to the hostel we were told we had been walking through 'the hood'!

Vegas!
It took 6 hours and a Mcdonalds to get to Vegas! So nice to stay in a hotel after hundreds of hostels! Little did we know that we had chosen the worst weekend to go to Vegas. Memorial weekend. We have a minutes silence but Americans get a bank holiday! So we drank in the room and headed out at about 11. The ques were huge and the prices to get in were also huge! We ended up having to resort to 24 hour mcdonalds in our heels!
The next night was more of a success but we had to go out at 9 but got free entry and free drinks! The car journey to the Grand Canyon was not so pretty with Elly armed with carrier bags!

Grand Canyon
We arrived in the dark and the campsites were full so we had to sleep in the car! The car being a tiny fiesta! Worst nights sleep ever with coyotes howling in the distance! The canyon is amazing! Best thing I've seen this trip! Camping at the canyon was freezing but Maria kept us entertained by getting lost for half an hour after going the toilet!

Lake Powell
Is beautiful and great as we could lap up the first bit of sun we've had in 5 WEEKS! Which really shows as when walking out of Walmart an american took a step back and quote 'whoa you girls need some f***ing sunscreen!' He actually put his hands up to gain heat! The views beautiful! And the campsite comes with a pool! We had to cook in high forced winds - Elly was forced to cook our hot dog onions by the toilet block! We had to load the tent with bags as it came with no guy ropes!

Bryce Canyon
Back to the cold!! We only stayed for one night at Bryce. The views were amazing! Loads of orange rock! But no sunshine so out came the $3 rose!

Zion
We decided after driving through the park and after a 'moderate' trek that we only needed a day there. Its an impressive park and possibly my favourite out of them all! Naturally we decided there was only one thing to do...go back to lake powell for the last few days!!

Lake Powell 2
Still boiling hot yet very windy!! Its our last night in the tent tonight in our candy floss coloured sleeping bags! The tents flapping in the wind as I type! Had a strange visitor last night! There we were sat drinking our boxed wine on our campsite pitch area when a bearded man comes through the bushes! He comes over and introduces himself as Bruce and goes on to give us a talk on the philosophy of life! The guy was about 60 and refered to Thailand as a great small island! Once he finally felt it was time to leave the three of us spent the night worrying her may reappear in the early hours. We seem to attract many a weirdo. Spending the last day in Arizona by the pool naturally bedfore doing a night drive to LA which is gunna take 8 hours. Staying at a hostel in west hollywood for 3 nights before moving over to santa monica for the last 3! Free internet so I should hopefully have uploaded this by then!

Only got a week left now!

feels like its gone fast! Looking forward to seeing you people!

Lots of love xxx