G'day All, thanks so much for all ur messages on the board, I love reading them it makes doing these blogs worth while!

This blog entry is seriously overdue(mainly because of dessert islands in middle of nowhere but I will get to that later!) so I am gonna do a big general sum up to get back up to date, so less detail involved! Starting of course with Surf camp and quickly highlighting points all the way up my east coast experience so far to Cairnes! Here goes...

Surf Camp- Arra Warra

Surf Camp was the first and compulsary overnight stop on the Oz experience bus. Surf camp is located roughly half way between Sydney and Byron Bay on a privately owned beach, only for the Surf company to teach beginners on. This also means that accomodation, food etc has only one option buy it at Surf Camp. With the Bus stop being compulsary overnight, it means that you get to know people, and not just sit next to them on the Bus. By the way, the person I sat next to on the Bus was called Andy Smith (ironic), but wait theres more, he was from Wootton in Bedford, (where I went to school) ok this is getting freaky, to make things even more unbelievable, he went to school with and is good friends with Chris, yes I do mean my friend  Chris from the Thailand tour group who was from Bedford aswel!!! I said it once and I will say it again...SMALL WORLD!!!

So we got Surfing and I picked it up pretty quickly, it was great fun, I was starting to look like a surf dude too with my hair being lightened everyday from the sun and growing longer too, with a bit of a tan now! We surfed through sunset in the warm ocean til dark. Later that night we had dinner and some Goon, then went to the beach for a party with flame torches and some more Goon! Goon is what us backpackers in Aussie like to drink instead of other alcohol, main reason being...were backpackers, so cant afford expensive beer or spirits. Goon is basically cheap wine in a 5 litre plastic/foil bag inside a cardboard box. The reason it's cheap is also the reason we refer to it as Goon and not wine. It has barely any grapes in it! It tastes like cheap wine, but if you dare to read the Ingrediants printed on the back of the box, you will discover all sorts of things such as, E numbers, colours and preservatives gallore , fish extracts, egg, maybe a grape or 2 if lucky, and of course the all important alcohol! This is the only part of Goon desired by backpackers. The Goon also has other qualities too, when you pull the bag out of the box, it makes for a very humourous and now famous drinking game called Slap the Goon! U basically stand in a circle and slap this liquid bag to someone across the circle and if u drop it then u must drink! Of course the biggest danger is that the bag will split and explode, that means u lose!

Quickly moving on, after that nights activities I had quickly made some new friends. So as we moved on up the coast the next morning to Byron Bay, a very small Surf town with not much else to do, I had some friends now to share a dorm with. 4 of us ended up paying only 2 Bucks extra and upgraded to an apartment which was awesome. We cooked that night a very cheap Pasta Carbonara, in our own kitchen whilst watching Neighbours, Simpsons followed by Lost on our own tv, with a box of Goon. We then went out after Across the road to a very popular (and only) club in Byron Bay called Cheeky Monkeys, and then just Beachin it all day next day. This became a routine for three days before I moved on without the others because I was seriously board of an overcast Beach that kept getting cold followed by drinking.

Surfers Paradise

Surfers Paradise was yet again more North towards Brisbane. I was chasing the Sun as it is Autumn here in Australia now, but the more north you go the less winter makes any difference at all. I was right to do so, Surfers Paradise was much hotter and less cloudy, cool. The place is a much bigger city with lots going on. By lots going on I mean, more Beach, bigger clubs and a lot more of them! So this is the east coast so far I thought, Beach, Goon, clubs, and I havent mentioned yet, the distinct lack of Aussies, with the percentage of English people being about 95%!!! No kidding everywhere I have stayed so far, the receptionists, the hostel bus transfer drivers, cleaners, shop assistants, everyone....English! All backpackers working for free accomodation or to make money. But to make it worse, all the friends I had made and people that were backpacking generally were all from the UK. It is actually really weird because it feels like England in a Parallel universe where we get sunshine. I have also compared the East coast to Newquay. Because basically it is, but in Australia. Loud modified cars with boy racers everywhere, Surfing and drunken roudy english teenagers in clubs...what more do I need to say!? This was becoming very monotonous and boring lifestyle to me, so instead of going out by myself that night I decided to really chill out and get my feet back on the ground. I slept in til about 12, first time in months! And went to the cinema late afternoon to get some normality and sense of home again. It was great, just what I needed. Eventually my friends caught up the next day, and it was back to the East Coast lifestyle again, with a really cheap pub crawl with loads of free and cheap drinks all night in all the major clubs in Surfers. Must admit it was good fun.

Queensland- State

Brisbane

Having contact only through Mum, I was told that some relatives of mine now lived in or near Brisbane. They were my 2nd or 3rd cousins I think we went with in the end, very complex to work out!? Lesley who is my Mums cousin, her Brother Dicky(coincidence with name) also Mums cousin, and Peter who is married to Lesley. Peter and Lesley had only moved to Aussie 6 months ago to live with Dicky. Dicky on the other hand has been in Australia for 30 years so he really knew the place and it was great to finally have conversation with a local instead of drunken English backpackers! They live in a place called Redcliffe which is about 25-30 mins drive from the centre of Brisbane. I had made a bit of a boo boo with the time of my bus arrival, I said I would arrive at 3.30, but was in fact leaving at 3.30 and would arrive at 6.30....DOH! I only realised the night before I left, so I quickly logged in online and sent an email to say I had originally got the time wrong, all I could do now was hope that Lesley saw the email before they left tomorrow. No such luck... at 3.30 about to get on the bus I received a txt message from Lesley to say they were already there!!! Again, double DOH!! I then sent the txt to explain what happened, and felt terrible. Eventually when I got there after a well deserved joking dig from Dicky, all was forgiven! I got on with all three like a house on fire an could not believe the level of hospitality and freedom around their house they were giving me. I was on the broadband internet for hours uploading pics and videos and updating my blog while I was there. It was great. All of a sudden I didnt feel like I was backpacking anymore, I felt home. I was talking on video phone to back home for alot of time too, so I felt like I wasnt far from home at all. The first day Lesley and gang had organised to do a day tour of Brisbane. It was brilliant, it felt like I had seen everything there was to see in Brisbane in one day, whilst learning alot about the area too! That night I was of course back on the internet again still trying to catch up to date. The next few days were nice and chilled just doing whatever we wanted to, like seeing the local area and shopping places etc. I also went to Dicky's grandsons 4th B'day party, don't even ask me to work out the family tree relation between us, or Dicky's son either!? It was really cool, getting to know more relatives and their kids who were great fun and totally exhausting because they just kept playing continuously, more energy than I had! We had a nice Barbie- for the second day in a row. The next day we got up early to go and spot wild Kangaroos before going to Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo. The problem was I hadn't paid a cent since being there, no matter what my efforts were to pay for entrance fees, drinks, ice-creams, dinner, anything they would insist on paying for me, I am forever in their debt for the kindness they gave me. The Zoo was a great day once again, with crocodile shows and all sorts. This was also where I bought my cowboy hat, which is so cool. When it came to leaving and saying goodbye, I had no idea how to say thank you, I didnt even have time to get a card, which I feel awful about. I just said thank you, with the hope they understood just how much I meant it! And I know your gonna be reading this too, so once again thank you so much, and If I can ever repay I will, anything, if you ever need a place to stay in England my room is always open to you!

Hervey Bay- Fraser Island

So back on the open road away from Home again ready for more backpacking adventures. I got the Oz Bus as far as Rainbow beach skipping Noosa. There were no seats available all the way.  From there I caught a Greyhound Bus for 25 bucks to get me the rest of the way to Hervey Bay. It worked out fine. I stayed one day in Hervey Bay and booked my Fraser Island adventure for the next day.

 The coolest thing to mention about this day however is that on this day, Dave and I reunited for just one day! My German friend Dave who I said goodbye to in Sydney as he caught a plane to Cairnes so he could travel the east coast in the opposite direction to me, met up exactly half way up the East coast, which was here in Hervey Bay! It was really cool to see Dave again, we started the day with a run on the beach at 7.00 in the morning (when he arrived). The rest of the day was just catching up on each others travels so far. We also gave each other advice on what was to come in the opposite direction we were travelling. We had Dave's favourite that night for dinner, Mexican. He is obsessed with all things South American! His girlfriend is from Peru, and the biggest part of his trip is in South America to come. We then went and saw, the desperately anticipated Spiderman 3, which I have been wanting to see for weeks, very good film too. It was now about 12.30 in the morning and time for him to catch his Greyhound Bus to his next destination more south. We said goodbye once again til we meet again. I walked the 3 miles or so back to the Hostel and got organised for the big day tomorrow.....Fraser Island.

Coming soon!