This morning Julie and I went to finish some shopping and I bought the most Australian shoes ever, that Australians don’t even seem to wear except in their houses: UGGS! (I’m very happy with my purchase as obviously they’re so much cheaper here than in England yipppeee)

After lunch Juliet and I caught the bus to Mount Coot Tha, home of an amazing view point and the Brisbane Botanical Gardens. The botanical gardens here are truly beautiful and we were immediately struck by the gorgeous smell of fresh flowers and trees, all glowing under the bright blue sky!
We first went up to the view point which is directly infront of a clearing in the trees, showing the sky line of Brisbane city centre.

Then after lazing around on the wedding lawns, reading our books and listening to music we went to explore the gardens a little bit more, crossing rivers and passing through gardens
and found ourselves in a quaint and perfectly pruned Japanese garden.

To get to the Botanical gardens we had got the bus, and when it arrived Juliet realised she didn’t have any cash and so I paid for both our bus tickets, this meant that we both had no cash for the journey home. After we’d finished in the botanical gardens we headed to the garden restaurant in hope of finding an ATM but the restaurant was closed… And so was everything else in that area. Stumped for what to do, we contemplated walking until we found somewhere but I spotted a friendly looking elderly couple so went to them for advice, asking if they knew of an ATM anywhere close or anything we could do. After contemplating trying to get us onto the bus for free and then offering us money only to realise they had no cash either, the couple gave us a lift to a shopping centre close by, that they knew had an ATM and also a bus stop with busses going directly into the city centre. We are such idiots not making sure we both had cash with us but we’re also so lucky to have bumped into the sweetest couple who were kind enough to help us out!
At the next bus stop, when we got on the bus the driver said we could pay when we got off, and when we arrived at our stop he waved us off telling us not to worry, so that was the next kind person we met this afternoon! Our luck seems to be improving!
After a very needed food shop (we’re down to our last piece of lettuce) Julie and I have had an exhausting, if not stressful, afternoon and are ready for the burgers we’ve bought for ourselves for dinner.

This morning we got on our bus at 6.45am (a painfully early start) as planned but instead of getting off at Surfers Paradise, we went straight through to Brisbane. This is because after hearing lots of not great things about surfers paradise and stories of people who regret going, we decided that it might be a let down after Byron and we’d rather have that one extra night in Brisbane to explore the city a little bit more. And we’re so glad that we made that decision!
On arriving in Brisbane we found a cute little chocolatier (of course we did) and made a plan for the next few days. Despite people saying there’s not much to do in Brisbane, Julie and I had trouble squeezing everything in! However after googling and looking up info in the guide book we now have a plan.
This afternoon we decided to go shopping as Brisbane has been named the shopping central of Australia – it just had to be done! Considering Julie and I are the worlds two worst shoppers, her with a shopping problem (she buys everything) and me also with a shopping problem (I buy nothing) it actually turned into a very successful shop with us buying nearly everything on our lists!
We also found the cutest tea shop, filled with every tea imaginable, blends, herbals, vanillas, teapots, decanters and much much more!

After a couple of weeks of home cooking budget meals in hostel kitchens, Julie and I were in a luxurious mood after shopping and so decided to treat ourselves to dinner. We went back to the hostel and dressed as nice as we could, for the backpackers we are, and went to a restaurant called ‘Healthy Burgers’ and both had a very unhealthy burger with all the toppings, bacon, avo, salad, you name it!
Then in true Julie and Steph fashion, we came back to the hostel dorm, and watched a film in our bunks. We can say it’s because we want to get a good sleep ready for the bar crawl tomorrow, but actually we are extremely exhausted after a busy day travelling, shopping and exploring!

Today when Julie and I woke up, the weather was still absolutely miserable. I don’t think I’ve ever heard rain that loud from inside a building, it was like a thousand pebbles being dropped on a stone floor. We had some breakfast and then realised that Captain America 2 (The Black Shadow) was on in the cinema in twenty minutes and as we had nothing else to do we went and saw it (FINALLY!!!).
And it was so so so good, at one point I even punched the air with happiness when he won one of his fights, I was that involved with the film. It also ends in such a way that there’s definitely going to be a Captain America 3, so Julie and I are VERY pleased with that.
When we got back, after lunch, bizarrely we both fell asleep through the whole afternoon, we must be exhausted or maybe we just need to catch up on sleep – either way the afternoon nap was obviously very necessary!

This evening we went to The Ginger Pig with our roommates for a live Reggae night. It started off with just one solitary singer playing guitar, and then he switched to the drums to tap out a beat for the next performer and so on.
And then they had a jam session with three guitarists, one of them singing, and a drummer which was a lot more upbeat and had people up on their feet dancing.
And then finally it was the dub step session with one guy on the decks while the other Reggae performers of the night took it in turns Reggae rapping to the beat. The one in the video was French and he was definitely the best – everyone was swinging their dread locks and dancing (well… swaying) to the music.

The reggae night was a lot of fun, with great musicians, a fab atmosphere and amazing reggae time decorations. It was also one of the best places to people watch that I’ve ever seen, with all different ranges of hippies, rasterfarians and then just normal people like me and Julie, all trying to dance and sing Jamaican style.

This morning at 4.45am I woke Juliet up and we both got dressed silently in the dark so as not to wake our room mates, and headed off on a one hour walk across Byron Bay and a hike up to the most easterly point of Australia, in order to watch the sunrise. It was a lovely walk and we passed 4 gorgeous secluded beaches with a few eager, early morning surfers. Then went we started the uphill hike the walk took us along the edge of the cliffs and through the woods. At 6.10am, ten minutes after the sun was meant to rise we finally made it to the view point!

Unfortunately, the weather today is atrocious and when we sat down on the grassy hill to watch the sun rise from the most easterly point of Australia which we had just woken up at 5am to get to and walked for an hour, we realised that the sky was filled with thick black and grey clouds and there was absolutely no chance of us seeing the sun rise and the clouds literally covered it. We sat for about another 30 minutes before giving up as all we’d seen was a faint yellow light shining underneath the clouds.
Not completely defeated as we’d done some more exercise ready for the inca trail and we’d hiked to a national point of Australia we decided to walk a bit further up to Byron Bay’s lighthouse, before starting our walk back to the dorm.
Ofcourse when we got back we went straight back to bed and slept until lunch time!
This afternoon the weather was still horrible so we went into town to do a but of shopping. In town there was a really sweet little girl, no more than 8 years old, selling bracelets that she’d made herself for 50cents, so ofcourse Juliet and I bought one each and they are now proudly part of our bracelet collections! We also found a man painting peoples names with three different sponges of different thickness. He was painting the coolest and most intricate designs of letters, but so quickly and with only the sponges as painting utensils! It was amazing, so Juliet got her name done!

This evening at dinner we made some more friends and then tonight we’re all going out for drinks as it’s our roommate’s last night, so all was definitely not lost today after our disastrous morning walk!

After our private rooms and aircon hotels in Thailand, Juliet and I were absolutely dreading staying in hostels in Australia with 6 or 8 person dorms. However so far they really haven’t been that bad. After a terrible weather forecast with promises of rain for today, we were pleasantly surprised to wake up to clear blue sky again. We spent the day on the beach in the sun and came back to find we have new room mates. Being in a dorm means that you meet different people the whole time from all over the world, each with different stories. Our Danish roommate from the beginning was in the room when we got back so after catching up with her, the new roommates gradually starting arriving and we got to know each of them. French, Suisse, Danish, Australian, we have them all! Then our English roommate from the night before came back to get her stuff and say goodbyes and since her bus wasn’t actually for a while, the three of us spent the next couple if hours chatting about everything, ski seasons, travelling, jobs, uni – she went to Leeds, the uni that Julie is going to next year so they had a lot to talk about! If I think back to the other hostels we’ve stayed in since being in Australia, so far we haven’t had one bad roommate and the hostel experience has been pretty good.
We just have to be patient when waiting in line to use the showers, and time our breakfasts and dinners so that we don’t go to the kitchen in rush hour… then we have a chance of getting a cooker and even clean plates and cutlery.
Moreover with safety deposit boxes for our passports and lockable lockers in the dorms for our personal items, everything feels safe and people are generally very considerate when coming back into the room late at night or keeping tidy and within their own areas (Juliet and I are still trying to master getting ready for bed in the middle of the night, super silently after nights out.)
Our fears of hostel and dorm life we realise now were very over the top as it’s a very socials, fun way to travel! (Even if there are guys shouting right outside the room at this very moment…)

We really didn’t do much today, just living the chilled lifestyle of chilled Byron. On our way home from the beach we passed a hippy market with the Byron children’s Bollywood club doing a performance and then stopped to get teriyaki sauce to make a delicious stir fry for dinner. After our bonding session with dorm mates and a very long film (The Wolf of Wallstreet) we are now going to sleep as we have an adventure planned for early tomorrow morning… Stay posted.

Today we woke up and FINALLY it was solid blue sky! The three German guys in our dorm were checking our quite early and so when they got up they woke us up. Although it sounds annoying, this worked in Julie and my favour as it meant we were up ready for the sun! But only after a big food shop first..
We bought all the ingredients for dinners and lots of yummy salads then headed to the beach where we literally spent the whole day, it was beautiful!

The sea here is so different to Thailand, it’s actually refreshing! In Thailand it was completely flat and so warm that sometimes it felt the same temperature as the air. However here there is a tide and actual big waves to surf on, and the water I has an icy chill that cools you down so quickly (especially when you’re hot from sunbathing).
As it got later into the afternoon the wind picked up and soon there was sand being sprayed all over us as we lay on the beach. It was so strong! Even when I shook out my sarong to try and get rid of the sand, the wind blew it right out of my hand and down the beach, and then when I finally had it laid out. it was flapping all over the place. We soon discovered the art was to have a person on each corner and then gradually you put different belongings that have some sort of weight on these corners (flip flops were too light for this powerful wind!) and then you have to lie down on the sarong before it has a chance to move with your bag next to your head to stop sand being blown in your face! Unfortunately it does still spray all over your body… We put up with the wind for a while but soon we were so sandy and the clouds had arrived stopping the beach even being that warm so we called it a day and headed back to the hostel to shower. (It was such a relief coming back and looking in the mirror to see we weren’t burnt – thank god!)
This evening Juliet and I were feeling very British and in need of home comforts, so for dinner we had… beans on toast! And it was goooooood.
We then went to our friend’s hostel to play a few drinking games before heading out to the town to party! Byron Bay is a big party town with some very cool places. Two that we went to were Cheeky Monkeys, a tightly packed bar and night club with huge tables for people to dance on, and then The Railway. As the train line in Byron no longer exists, the railway station has been converted into a bar and has live music playing all evening, so cool!
In comparison to the night before, tonight was very hot and once we’d had enough of the bars we found ourselves on the beach and ran into the sea (like sunbathing… To cool down!) unfortunately we didn’t think about the fact that we’d then have to walk back to our hostel in wet clothes but luckily we got to the shuttle bus just in time. We then had to say our goodbyes to team canada (for real this time, cry cry) and finally made it into bed.

It’s a funny feeling drifting in and out of sleep because even though I don’t feel like I slept a single wink last night, I also don’t feel like I was on the bus for twelve hours. Admittedly it was long, very very long but I must have snoozed at some point. Anyway, about 5am we made our first stop and pick up, 6.30am our second, 7.15am we had a half an hour stop for toilets and breakfast and then 10am we finally arrived in Byron Bay!
After many discussions on the bus about how we’d find our hostel, we were met while retrieving our bags from underneath the bus by a girl asking if anyone was staying at ‘The Arts Factory’ as she is the shuttle bus driver for the hostel. Sorted!
We knew we couldn’t check in till 2pm so on arriving at the hostel we dumped our bags in a bag room then headed into town to explore. Byron Bay is a small town which is very very hippy-esk. Not in the drug sense but because of all the hair braiding salons, tie dye shops and herbal and organic vegetable shops! And nearly every other person either had dread locks or no shoes.

Julie and I went into a lot of the cool surfer shops but as usual, found ourselves at the beach and set up for a solid, strong hours sunbathing before heading back to the hostel to check in.
We’re in a 6 bed dorm but Julie and I are lucky enough to both have bottom bunk beds (the bottom is so much better than the top as you’re right next to your stuff and the plugs!)
Then we set about exploring our new hippy abode which will be home for the next five nights. The Arts Factory is a cool place, a little bit out of town but very spacious with a pool, lots of rooms, a big restaurant and bar area and a massive car park. Then comes the hippy features: it’s got a handmade jewellery shop, an actual cinema but instead of seats there are floor cushions, it’s got a camping area just over the river (accessible via the bridge), a volley ball pitch right in the middle if the hostel, hammocks everywhere and a teepee area where you can rent multicoloured teepee tents to sleep in!

There’s also workshops every day with classes that range from early morning yoga, to learn how to make and play a digerydoo.

Whether this hostel will be a bit too hippy for me, only time will tell, but we haven’t spent that long here yet so who knows! So far so good.

On our explore of the town we randomly happened to bump into our Canadian friends who we’d said goodbye to in Sydney as we thought that was the end of our travelling with them! We met them in Koh Phangan and have been bumping into them ever since. This evening we went out for a reunion dinner with them and some of their Canadian friends and had such yummy fish and chips (reminded me of England!) and they also made us try a Ceasors. This is a Canadian drink made with ‘clamatoe’ juice (clam and tomatoes), tabasco, celery and two shots of vodka and it was… DISGUSTING! Safe to say Juliet and I swiftly gave ours away. We then had a movie night at their hostel and now we are back in our 6 man dorm, with a very loud and very annoying fan, exhausted and ready for a (hopefully, fan permitting) good night’s sleep!

I only have time for a quick blog today as Juliet and I are about to embark on a 12 hour bus journey to Byron Bay.
After a solid morning if sunbathing on the beach, followed by a girlie afternoon sewing our travel badges into our backpacks, we’re starting to feel like travellers again as we pack up our stuff.

It’s been so lovely staying in this very homely home with our own rooms, double beds and a huge two course meal cooked for us every night, but now it is time to move on, away from the quaint world of South Coogie and onto a week in the crazy world of Byron! That is if we make it through the next twelve hours on a bus…
Thank god I’ve got an iPad full of movies and books!

Today Juliet and I decided to attempt the three hour walk from our house in South Coogie, all the way to Bondi beach. It’s about a half an hour walk to Coogie beach from where we are and then after that there is a lovely coastal walk, all mapped out and marked by a decked walk way.

Despite the fact that the sky was full of clouds and the air was grey, it was actually very hot on the walk and soon we found ourselves in shorts and teeshirts, stopping for water! After passing Coogie beach and then another little beach, we came across some cliffs with the rockiest and roughest sea underneath, and there were surfers down there! Juliet and I soon decided they were crazy and couldn’t work out how they’d even got down there.

Next we came across a small, very cute little beach full of boats and sea weed, but no sign of Bondi Beach! We knew we still had a long way to go…

At all of the beaches they have these man made rock pools which are full of sea water, refreshed by the waves crashing over the sides of them. However they are such a great idea as people are able to swim their laps right next to the sea, where they can both hear and sea the waves and the ocean but also have a calm water area to swim in that is also natural! Every single one we saw was filled with people getting their morning exercise and at some beaches they even have smaller versions for children or more excluded, hidden pools that are only for women and kids!

The rock pool in the picture is also right next to an area of the sea that is almost sectioned off by concrete barriers making a nicer, less rough sea but still with currents and tides, for people to swim in.
FINALLY about two hours later, we spotted Bondi Beach!

(the furthest beach in the picture) and after passing a huge cemetery

, a smaller surfing beach…

and a higgledepiggledy pathway…

… WE FINALLY ARRIVED!!!

After our three hours of trekking through the beaches and cliffs, Juliet and I literally passed out on arriving at Bondi beach and both fell asleep on a big hill just above the beach for at least two hours! Then after a bit of shopping and a much quicker bus ride we were back in South Coogie.
This evening Juliet and I tried to make or backpacks look well travelled by sewing badges from each of the countries we’ve visited or will have visited onto them. After a lot of swearing, and not much sewing I have two of mine attached to my bag and Juliet has three, we each have 7 badges. How long my two and Juliet’s three will actually stay attached to our bags is another question.
Dinner this evening was another feast, this time for more people as we had visitors and after eating well into the evening, we have all gone to bed, once again, exhausted.

This morning I woke up in a double bed in my own room in a big house right on the cliffs of South Coogie. It was 11am and I’d had a wonderful lie in! In the kitchen downstairs, breakfast was laid out for me and Julie, with four different kinds of cereal, posh bread with seeds, spreads, marmalades, juice and a fridge filled with more food. We feasted on breakfast then made full use of their wifi, booking every single hostel and bus for the rest of our trip – we feel SO organised! It will be such a nice feeling, I’m sure, not having to worry about where we staying or booking a bus when we travel up the east coast, as it will all have been taken care of already!
After then making ourselves a ginormous salad for lunch with grilled hallumi and pine nuts ontop, we set out to explore the garden and the cliffs and to get a better look at the beautiful sea (although I have an amazing view from my window!)

Then while Juliet took Maggie, the dog, for a quick walk, I read my book on a big cosy armchair and skyped my family in CapeTown with nearly perfect connection, it didn’t even have to reconnect once!
Dinner was cooked for us tonight, a huge feast of meat pie and cauliflower cheese, served with a glass of chilled wine and then rasberrys, blueberrys, chocolate biscuits and ice cream for desert, and it was delicious!
Obviously we are ridiculously thankful for the kind couple who are putting us up for a few nights, but if you’re travelling and you have any sort of connections to people, however distant, definitely get in contact! It makes all the difference in the world even having one night in a decent bed, in a room without 7 other people, with a shower that works, a washing machine and some food that isn’t ‘Coles own brand’ costing less than a dollar.
Tomorrow I’m sure i’ll actually leave the homely house… Well we’ll see.