Tuesday - Back to Brisbane Headed back to Brisbane today, but staying in a less freezing cold hostel this time - City Backpackers. It's actually a very good set-up, it figures as most of the staff are English or Irish. We are staying in a dorm for one night before we meet up with Nik's friend. The dorm is fine, even though we both have top bunks. This is interesting given that a) Hannah is primordial dwarf and b) Nik has had a sore knee and today (after carryi...

Saturday Got up and did the final bits of packing and Nik checked in with his friend - it transpired that we still can't go and stay with him. So as our greyhound tickets are booked, instead of going back to Brisbane right away, we decided to go to Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast, as the bus goes through there and it looked like a nice place. Found a hostel and booked it, although we are having to go in shared dorms as there are no private rooms available i...

Brisbane Had a lie in the next morning and decided to go for a wander to the main shopping area nearby to stock up on warm clothes, as there are lots of sales on. After wandering up and down all day, we both managed to come away with some sensible warm items for the remainder of the trip. We also saw an excellent farmers market, where there was an enormous queue of people waiting to buy a bratwurst - its like they don't have sausages here, which we know for a ...

Sailing Day! Had our breakfast yoghurts at the hotel, and then went into Airlie Beach to drop off our bags at the travel agent, before settling for a coffee at Brumby's. We walked along to the marina, and Nik did his usual of getting us there VERY early, and then pacing about anxiously. We spent some time sat in a small ray of sunshine and trying to work out who was on our trip. Luckily, some very annoying people waiting in the marina were not on it. However, ...

OFF TO AIRLIE BEACH Had a bit of a lie in and a breakfast the next morning. One really thin girl had two bowls of cereal and four slices of raisin toast. Unbelievable. A lady from the hostel took us to the bus station by ourselves not with the other packers to make sure we got the bus, and we had a nice chat with her. Our driver this time was no Alan, but he had a good bus driver name - Troy. A lot of people from our last bus were on this one in fact, but als...