Friday 16th March:

Got up and went straight to the beach, it was really nice, there was noone on the beach so it was very nice and peaceful! The water was very nice and warm so spent a couple of hours there until we went back to the swimming pool a the hostel. So nice to have a pool, and sun loungers for once!! Cooked a storm up for dinner of Spaghetti and cheese on toast. Starting to crave roast dinners, looking forwad to the 5th August meal - Em's started brainstorming her menu already!

Had a sleep in the afternoon, all this sunbathing is ahrd worlk! Went to the bottle shop to buy Vodka and Rasberry drink, 'PassionPop' and Caramel mudshake, nicer than the cheap wine we keep drinking. Shared the drink weith the girls in our room and then all went out together. Got the free minibus into the main street and went straight to the club 'Plantation', better than 'DownUnder' but wasn't amazing. Bit like a big school disco, and more guys than girls dancing, bit concerning but very funny watching them do the michael jackson moves! Got talking to two funnt welsh guys from our hostel, who we are going out with tommorrow night.

Saturdaty 17th March (Happy St Patricks' Day):

Decided today in a moment of madness that we would rent a bike for the day. After half an hour working out how to ride a bike we were off.... It's the law out here to wear helmets, so we had to wear the lovely metallic hot pink helmet that clips under the chin, very fetching! Cycled to the sea which was a very pretty view and then onto the harbour. Locked our bikes an then climbed a steep hill which goes into a nature reserve, only managed to get half way but had a great view of the harbour, jetty and two beautiful beaches. Stopped and had lunch in the harbour, fish and chips! Then began part two of the ride - after cycling up the main road and up some very steep hills, woodland and them more steep hills we got to the botanical gardens. At this point we were to tired to care about the botanical gardens so we just collapsed after a cold bottle of water. The journey back was very hard, had to resort to pushing the bike on a few occasions! Was so grateful of a cold pool when we got back!

Cooked sausage and beans for dinner, sausages were not that good though and think we overloaded on oil!! Started the night off drinking some wine with a group og guys we met and the girls from our room, all the guys were English and really sweet so nice talking to them. Went to an irish bar with them and had a really good night, gone off the wine and now drinking 'Pure Blonde' beer, think we like the name more than the drink! We came back to our hostel and stayed up chatting in the lounge area, unfortunately they were all working there way down the coast though so won't see them again.

Sunday 18th March (Happy Mother's Day Barb and Nik!)

It wasn't a very nice day today, weather wasn't too good it was raining and quite grey. Went over to the markets that were opposite and swapped 4 of our books for another Martina Cole one, don't think we got a very good deal with that one! Simone one of the girls in our room drove us to the nearest shopping centre , did some shopping and got some nice food for the afternoon as were going to watch a film. We watched 'Red Dragon' with everone in our hostel, such a good film but bit scary! Then watched 'Murder In The Outback', probably not the best thing to watch when we've still got 6 weeks in Oz! And then finally 'Best Friends Wedding', so after our eyes turning to squares we went to bed!!

Monday 19th March:

Had to get up early this morning as were checking out to go onto Byron Bay. Bus wasn't until later in the afternoon, so we watched 'Silence Of The Lambs', reaaly good film again! Bus journey went quite quickly, was 6 hours.

Arrived Byron Bay at 8pm and was so tired so just went straight to bed. Hostel looked really good, really nice atmosphere. Sharing a room with 5 other girls, and room was really messy and very cramped, reminds us of a prison cell but sure we'll get used to it. Got our room cheaper because the woman thought our names were Elaine and Stacey and we wanted a 10 bed dorm.