Cape Tribulation

We set off pretty much about 7:30, bang on time, Ben and Daryll felt awful has they didnt get in till gone 4:30, I left about 1:00AM cus i didnt wana feel like they did, as soon as we got moving they both fell straight to sleep, first stop was at Rex Lookout, this looked out over the east coastline showing Double Island off Palm Cove, this island is for sale for offers between 32 and 65 Million Dollars and is 29,000 dollars a night, Keuana Reeves likes stayin there with friends and family, and him and Jenifer Aniston rented it for new years eve last year.

Next stop Port Douglas, here Sidney the guide took us for a drive through the town, he took us along the Esplande and showed us these properties that were literally on the beachs edge, one had just been sold for 2.2 Million Dollars, and no word of a lie the place was a dump, falling to bits, but its all location! location! location!

After our little drive by, we went to the The Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary also in Port Douglas, here Sid took us around the first part of the Sanctuary explaining about all the animals we could see, were they came from etc after this all 3 of us were pretty hank, so we went for the ultimate buffet breakfast...amazin, as were were all eating this little parots flew over and sat on the table trying to get chocolate muffin and they were drinking Darylls drink when he wasnt looking, so funny. After breaky we went and fed some Kangaroos, so docile but thats probably from bein fed all day, saw some crocodiles, fed another roo, and by now time was running out so me and Daryll left Ben feeding this baby roo and went to the Kooala Sanctuary were we saw Kooalas mainly sleeping slumped over braches and I got soime photos of this one called Cubby, so funny to watch them eat, really cute and cuddly they are :)

Next we headed for the Daintree River where we were going on a river cruise to spot crocs, snakes and other natural wildlife, this is a saltwater and freshwater river as the river runs directly into the sea, had a cup of Daintree tea here and, fresh grown local tea before the cruise. On the river we saw crocs ranging from 1.2 Meters in length right up to 4.2 all waiting in the mangroves, the 4.2 meter croc is called Gummy, he is called this because he had no teeth, he has lost them all through fighting, he is the most aggressive croc on that stretch of the Danitree, also learnt that crocs dont sleep, they slow there heartbeat down to about 4BPM to conserve energy and that they could go for a year without eating!!! you'd be abit hank after a year! We also saw a couple of Python Wrapped around trees. 2 years ago the river became flooded from rainfall, the level was 10meters higher than now, the river was 2kilometers wide at it widest point, the damage is still visiable.

Next we got back on the coach and headed to Cape Tribulation through the Daintree Rainforest stopping at Alexandra Range Lookout were you can see the Daintree meet the sea. The Rainforest is somewere in the region of 260 million years old, the oldest rain forest on the planet. completely un-spoilt, it is a world heritage site, and the first phone up there was only installed in 1996.

Cape Trib was gorgeous, my photos dont really do the place justice, as there was some low cloud which around, it was really hot and humid here, lay on the beach for abit before having lunch. Didnt go in the sea, as its near to Jelly Fish Season and they can kill you. Captain Cook called it Cape Tribulation because his ship crashed into the coral reef here and he said this is were his Trials and Tribulation began.

At this point in the day everyone was on snooze mode, we stopped at the Daintree Ice cream company, were they make there own icecream from local tropical fruits, was very nice, we then headed for Mossman gorge. At Mossman Sid showed us a few plants and tolds us abit about them, one of the plants is called waitawhile, this plants has sharp teeth and will rip through your clothes and skin if you pull against it. Sid took us to another fig tree, no-were near as big as the Curtain Fig Tree and he told us how Aboriginal cultures regards these fig trees as sacred and they use them for many different purposes i.e. passing on knowledge, people wud b punished again them, some were used as burial grounds, most were used for boys and girls to gain a right of passage into man/woman hood. Me and Ben went futher on up the gorge were there is a suspension bridge called Rex Creek Lookout that the Australain army built during WW2 and it still stands.

We went back down to the pool were we all went swimming and Sidney showed us this white fury substance that grows on the trees and rocks, this is lichen, this only occurs in area of zero polution, so the air was super clean up there. We did some diving and swimming, again the water here is perfect for drinking as the granit purifies the water, removing any toxins.

We headed back to Cairns shattered, got a couple of pizzas and finished this bottle of vodka from yesterday, non of us went out, too tiered.

And that was Cape Trib, definatly recommend it to anyone. Speak soon :)

ps an interesting fact Australia moves north 3Meters a year through tectonic movement.

Cairns Waterfalls & Tablelands

God, well what a few heteic days ive had since I last posted. Have done 2 tours over the last 2 days, went to the Tablelands National Park on Sat 29th and the Cape Tribulation on the Sun 30th....but first things first :)

Thursday 27th Me, Katie, Ben and Daryll (these are 2 London lads that came into the dorm on Tuesday, quality pair of lads!) Spent the entire day (post 12 noon) down at the pool in the hostel, sunbathing, messing about in the waterfall and just taking it easy, was sooooo hot! That about somes up Thursday. Before 12 I went to the post office with Katie, to post some of her clothes home...thats rite clothes :) shes shopping mad and cudnt life her bag, so wen it gets this heavy she sends some clothes home in the big boxs from the post office. Then we did some laundry, my first mite I add, everythin came out lurvly clean :)

Friday??? I cant actually remember at the minute but wen I do I'll re-edit the post. Friday nite we all got smashed as it was Katies lastnite before she left for Singapore, I think she was most pissed, she nearly drank a 2liter box of goon to herself. Its kinda wierd not having a girl in the dorm, the place seems empty, but we all swapped contact details.

Right back to the tours. Saturday got up at 6:45 got breaky, got everyone a cuppa, said goodbye to Katie :( and wished her goodluck, she had quite a sore head. We headed down for the pickup supposidly at 7:25, it turned up closerto 8:00, which was no problem, the guide Rachel was very apologetic, we got goin, had a few more peopleto pick up...and guess were the next pick up was from??? The Cairns Beach House, frightening flashbacks struck me!!! After we had picked everyone up, we were the onky lads, with 6 swedish and german birds :) We came to a town called Babinda, Badinda participates in this queenlads competition for the most amount of rainfall, they have this measurement stick and the side of this house and it goes up to 7meters, the whole town can become flooded rite out. The prize for the most rainfall is "The Gum Boot" this is a gold welly, they have it in prime place in the post office window. We carried onto the Babinda Boulders, these are massive granit rocks smoothed over thousands opf years, we learnt a little about aboriginal culture here, and how the stories that gets past on, maybe true or not, but they all have meanings i.e. a story cudnt tell someone wot not to eat and were to find edible food, other maybe were not to swim, because of dangerous currents.

After here we got back on the bus and went to Josephine Falls, this was a magnificent waterfall with about 3 tiers and pools below to it. The man that owned this land used to explore the teritory and when he found the waterfall he named it Josephine after his wife. Here we stopped for about an hour to swim in one of the lower rock pools, because the rocks are granit and very porous, they filter the water, and all of the water it drinkable, also over the year the rocks have become super smooth and were the water runs over them, they are super slippy and are used as rock slides, so much fun :) Me and Ben spent alot of time diving off the surronding rocks into the pool, we all lay on these massive rocks and doid some sunbathin before we left for Millaa Milla Falls were we to have lunch. Millaa means Water and when used twice, it means lots of water.

You have all seen Millaa Millaa falls, if you remember back to the days of Timotae Shampoo adverts on TV, this is the waterfall were they filme the advert were the woman flings her hair back over her head. The falls is rumoured to have a monster, the Millaa Millaa monster is infact a female Catfish and shes is protective over her young and has been noted to nibble at people feet who step too close for her liking, as the water is not clear you dnt know were she is. Me and Ben swam over to sit behind the waterfall, the rocks were super slimey and it was freezing, so we didnt stay long, swam back to the group, who didnt come in (sensible as it was very cold) oh and I lost my sunnies here aswell diving in, had a look for them, but didnt wana loose any toes so I let the monster have them :)

We headed off for the Curtain Fig Tree, a thousand or so years old, this is were one massive tree fell at 45 degrees onto a neighbouring tree, and fig began to grow up the trees, figs are epiphyte, this means they dont harm the tree, they just use it to get to the sun light, however in this case the fig strangled both trees so hard it killed them, but this has left the vines standing tall without the aid of any trees as they have decomposed leaving a curtain of figs, its amazing, so big!

After the Curtain Fig Tree we left for Lake Eacham, this is a massive volcanic crater lake, were all sorts of wildlife live, saw some turtles, fish and pelicans, I didnt do any swimming here even though it was warmer than the previous 2 sites, just cudnt be arsed to get wet again, so sunbathed and chatted with the swedes for abit.

On the way back we came along a range called the Gillies Range, this road was originally a single track dirt road, which stretches through the Gillies Range, back in the day there was a gate a the top and the bottom, which only open 3 hours each way once a day, so it was supposidly a real bumma waitin for 3hours if you missed it open, so a bright spark put a pub at the top and bottom gates for those who were waiting, however this didnt do the level of accidents any good. They no longer exist, it is a proper road with 162 corners.

It quite funny traveling on the bus with every1 because, everytime we stop and go and see something and get back on the bus, we all fall asleep in minutes.

Rachel the guide was really informative, I dont think there was one question she didnt know the answer to, apart from why the bruce highway was called the bruce highway, although the most plausable answer is they the guy that made it was called Bruce, as with all things Australian, most things are called for what they look like, Pyramid Mountain because its a Mountain in the shape of a Pyramid....I think you get the gist, its quite simple.

Cairns Scuba Diving

Hey well after the my last post, went for a look around cairns city center, pretty average, the same shops every block, hostel, photo shop, travel shop, cairns tourist souvenir shop, restaurants....thats preety much cairns in a nutshell.

Went back to the hostel for a beer, cus they wudnt let me check in till 2 and time was draggin in the red hot sun, by 1 it had started to rain, and from all accounts on the papers the next day, it was a really bad storm up north cairns. Anyways, checked in and chilled out for abit. 2 english girls checked in not long after I had, katie and kathy, went out with katie for pizza, went bk to the room and had a chat with kathy, she had done scubba diving the day before and she gave me the flyer, it sounded wicked, so I went and booked on for the next mornin.

Got down to the harbour and headed to the boat...noah's ark.

All the blokes on the boats were sound, rite funny ozzies, paul the main bloke was like "wats ya name knuckles?" anyways because the weather was amazin and the sea was calm as hell, he told us we were goni to this part of the outer barrier reef which is literally the last bit and then its open ocean, it needed to be calm seas because there was no protection from currents from the ocean. It took us 2 hours to get there, and about 35mins before we arrived paul took us newbies up top for a safety breif, told all about the equipment and what we would do, and all the hand gestures that we wud be using. I got talkin to a candanian girl, Dominique, she was certified but we spent the whole day chattin.

When we arrived i went for a snorkel while they got all the certified divers in the water, even though they said the water was 28 degrees it was a shock to the body, but you soon realised that it was cold, and there were loads of really warm currents drifting through. The reef we stopped at was 3 mountains, thats not the name, but they were 3 speerate mountains of coral going down to about 15-20 meters. As soon as you jump in they are loads of fish everwhere, of every color, bright purple, luminus lime green, blue, orange, nemo coloured ones, was fab, looked around for about 20mins and then went bk to the boat to get geared up. Got the lead belt on, tank on, fins and mask, the tank is really heavy and really difficult to walk with big weight on back in flippers!!!

Jumped in and floated straight on my front, paul pulled me back and got me sorted out, got me feelin ok, then let some air out of my jacket to lower me abit, and its so wierd breathin under water, almost scary, cs the air is normal air but its filtered, so its cold and dry, but we carried on down abit futher were again he made sure me and this other guy were ok, then we headed off into the coral, its was amazin, the fish treat you like other fish and they swim with you, and all around, like rite besdie you as if to say "come on then i'll show you the way", paul was showin us dirrent creatures that we could hold and things we cud touch, and he wud point out fish that, like nemo and all his mates, like were they hide in the coral. Afetr about 10mins, my mouth was really dry and I lost sight of paul and the other guy which made me panic abit, but you have to look 360 in "every" direction and i found them after i swished around a couple of times, but you can tell your breathin changes and I really wanted to pull the regulator out of my mouth, but you have to resist temptation for obvious reasons. we made our way back to the boat....I didnt have a clue were we were or how we got back to the boat, but we did :) everyone got back on board and we set off for this near by island, that looked like a mountain of sand in the middle of the ocean, looked pure paradise, however it is a national park and nobody is aloud on the island because turtles lay there eggs there, also there is no fishing aloud there, so there are lots of fish's about, we all grabbed some lunch on route.

Wen we arrived at the new site, us newbies were the first in the water, I felt alot more comfortable here, it was only 3-5meters deep in places. We saw some baracudas, and we hid behind this massive rock/coral and waited and these 3 sharks came along, nuthin the size of jaws but about 6ft each, they seemed really timid, when we got anywere near close they shot off. I felt more comfortable venturin off abit uno like withing 10-15 meters of the others. We headed back got the gear off, and i was straight bk in snorkling, I swam over to the island were 1 of the girls of the boat was sittin in the shallow water not on the beach(we were allowed to do this, just not go on the beach, plus tresspassing carried and 8000 dollar fine), as I approached I said hello, and she said "aawwwiight geeeza" in a broad cockney accent...so funny! Sat there for abit, had a chat, she was out here on holiday and a wedding. I swam back to the boat, as I felt like I was bein toated by the sun even with factor 30 on, was amazin there, nuthin but crystal clear blue sea around and pure what looked like white sand, it was actually bigger than sand, more like gravel but very fine. On the way back I chatted with dominique about everythin we saw that day, and we got onto movies...I found another anchorman followerer.

Our hostel were in the same direction so we ledt together and decided to meet for a drink later on. So I went and got my pics developed and got changed, met up at 7 with her and her friends from canada, grabbed some food, had a few beers and went round to this bar called the woolshed, re-nouned for dancing on tables etc, had a good crack in there.

But Lisa Lashes is playin at the soho nighclub a block down 2nite...wednesday....mint, im gonna rip the place apart :)

Cairns

Im sooooo angry I just spent 45 mins typing out this post on another machine and I attached my camera to put a pic in, and it crashed the machine, loosing my whole post!!!

Well it went somthin like this.

Im up in Cairns, its soooo hot, heard the weather man say that it was currenty 31, that was at 8am'ish.

Got the flight up here from sydney domestic airport, got the flight with VirginBlue, its like cheap flights, but it all electronic check in etc.

I met this Geman girl Marcella in the lounge, we got chattin and ironically our seats were next to each other. The flight was ok until about 45 mins before beginning decent when I think we flew into a lightening storm, there lightening crackling around both sides of the plane, and the turbulanc was daft, jump around all over the place, you can see why they ask that you were your belt. Landed about 930PM 27 degrees :) Me and German girl were stayin at different places, and this is no lie, but the place were I was at, "The Cairns Beach House" is an absolute flea ridden sespit dump!!! and thats almose bad on flea ridden sespit dumps. There was absolutly no1 there, I had a nice 6 bed dorm to myself, or I though I did, put my bags down and this mutated cockroach jumped out from under the bed, i nearly hit the roof. It was similarly scared when he saw my boot, but he cud run fast, i ended up splattin him with the post of 1 of the beds, I did a through check to mak sure there were no more in sight, I made the bed wacked the pants aircon on and went down the bar for a few beers. Wen I got bk to the room, I got into bed, felt very itchy and hot. Woke up in the middle of the night and saw the shadow of a black blob behind the bin, that at first I confused with bein a lobster....it was cocky's brother come to avenge his death, he shit himself when he saw the bin headin his way, he scurried straight for the bog....bastard cus I needed a piss. I just held it in and went back to sleep. Needless to say I got up nice and early, and checked straight out, didnt look back.

Had a real loss of sense of direction wen I left, like a compass nearly metal, I just cudnt tell which way to go, but I asked a couple of locals and they pointed me in the rite direction. Gots off the bus at the last stop and went to this hostel called Gilligans, ohhhh it was such a gud sight to se a nice lookin hostel, but I cant chck in til 2PM so i stored my rucksack and went to the cafe for a english breakfast, mite add it was quality, cudnt finish it there was that much :) Now ive just come for a look about.

Its a completely different pace of life up here to down south, every1 moves around really slowly, which im now doing, its because its that hot, you have to move slow. Gonna look at doin some scuba diving, was chattin to another girl on the plane, shes just done her open water cert in Thailand, sounds wicked, mite see how much it is to do it in Port Douglas, ment to be really nice up there.

Tank Nightclub Sydney

What a great night I had lastnite, was wicked :D we all got smashed in the dorm and vodka and goon, then went to side bar for more beer and vodkaz. After asking about 20 people I finally found out were this club called tank is, I heard that this club is the best funky house club in the city, and its so true, i'd go as far to say that as for a venue its the best club ive ever been to, the music started gettin abit "funky" funky towards 2ish. I went with sophie and adi, had a wicked nite, but sophie had a tactical chunder and so we decided to make our way back to to the hostel, because she didnt feel very well, i think we'd all hit the wall actually!!!

Outside the club there were so many mint cars blippin about, I counted 4 different skyline's. makes me sick!!! and my camera was full, so i cudnt take any pics. I stuffed a maccy quater pounder down my neck, so good when your wrecked :)

We jumped in the taxi and the taxi minged of BO, it was the driver!

Again we stole the bean bags from the TV room, and we crashed on them, we were the first people back to the room, i woke up at about 6 this mornin, exactly were i sat down on it and everyone was bk and in bed, they must have all climbed over me to get in there beds as i was smack bang in the middle of the room. I crawled into bed and got some more z's in :)

We all went down to sidebar cafe for breaky this mornin, had a big breakfast, and mum you mite find this hard to beleive but i ate a fried tomato! it was well nice, didnt like the middle bit though, ohhhh and i had a massive bit of chocolate mud cake, soooo nice.

Packing my bag, what a nitemare, ive only stopped for 5days and my bag is loads fuller than when i got here, but i got it all packed in, in the end.

Gonna go down the market again after here, gonna buy a couple of cheap shirts and have a looked for some thongs (flip flops b4 any of you think ive gone strange), the weather is roasting and t-shirts just aint givin me the through draft my body requires.

Rite im off, apologies for the pic of the hairy belly above :) speak soon.

Sydney Tower and Oztrek

Well I bet you can guess what im gonna say.....

my feet are killin!!!!

Well today I was up fairly early, cus didnt go out lastnite, just chilled in the dorm and watched a couple of dvd's, drank a couple of cups of goon, and made jam sandwiches with a cardboard knife made from the goon box, had some crazy dreams lastnite that I went down to the bar and saw this girl from school (she shall remane nameless) but it was crazy :s

Came round to this place called peterpan adventrure travel, they kinda specialise in gettin backpackers around as cheap as they can. I booked a flight to cairns 2moro, today with loads of extra goodies, goin cape trib, whitsundays wiv optional scuba, hell yeah will I be taking that :D fraser island 3nights, rainbow beach stop, airlie beach stop, 2day surf camp at byron bay ummmmm im sure there is sumthin else but i cant think of it at the min, I wana stop off a magnetic island to and go up to port douglas and the everglades, they all look great.

Sh!t 10mins left of this place bein open, ill right down the highlights and expand wen im next on the net.

went to sydney tower....wicked views of the city. pratted around along pitt street popping in and out of shops looking for sum sunnies. went to the market again for sunnies.....no luck.

speak from cairns probably.

yippeeee :)

ps just quickly i forgot to add i bought a book off a man in the street called "Survivors" its some yuppe, religious, propaganda peice of crap, I bought it out of sheer comady value, as i walked away I heard him shouting, read about the fall of america, I chuckled to myself thinkin tosser! anyway ive been told its really hard to read seriously, but ill give it a go, i'll keep you updated on how bad it is.

Darling Harbour & Botanical Gardens

Another feet killin day!!!!

I can actually feel my feet throbing as im sittin here typing this, were do I begin with 2day???

I'll start with lastnite.....went to china town with the girls for dinner, my eyes were alot bigger than my belly, ordered this food and wen it came, it cud have fed about 3 people, and I cudnt finish by a long way. On the way back I bought some goon (wine in other words) nice 4 litre box, went bk to the dorm and dossed about in the dorm with mike, alex, sophie, sadie and pete, we watched achor man and started gettin drunk, such a funny film :D a fair few mugs of goon later and we went out bout 11ish I reckon, went to scu-bar for a few then onto kings x hotel for indi nite....was mint, had a wicked time, although some prat cudnt keep his sambuca in his gob and thought it wud be better on my shoulder...all in all great nite. When we got back we stole all the been bags from the movie room and crashed out on them in the dorm...its really wiered going out with a bunch of people that you dont really know from england and havin a laugh with them and crashin with and talkin general crap with, in the sense that back in england it would never happen??? now heres the bit i cant get my head round.....WE'RE ALL ENGLISH!!! so wots changed in people? it must be sumthin in the ozzy air that converts brits from bein apprehensive and stand-offish to friendly and welcoming....not a bad thing at all but abit wiered when you think about it too much!

Anyway woke up, with very sore head, im sure its because were forced to drink lager cus spirits r to god damn expensive, but got up, got some toast and cereal, made every1 a cuppa. We had to clear the floor today as the cleaners were comin round, the place actually didnt look that bad wen the floor was tidy hahahaha not for long.

Went out and bought some cammo pants (not cammo underpants) then I trekked on to darling harbour (close to chine town) were upon sittin down for 2mins i narrowly avoided bein crapped on by a seagull...by now the clouds had cleared and the sun was out in blazin force, lovely jubby :) sat down for abit and soaked abit of the old current bun up. Carried on trekkin towards the botanical gardens, I was told its were all the bats hang out (no pun intended I promise) i got to the gates and i nearly didnt go in cus the smell of sh!t was that strong, but I braved it and went in, luckily it didnt last long, so I amelessy started wonderin round the gardens, its a massive place, again quite strange, cus the city/high rise buildings stop, then this tropical garden starts, I imagine it how central park is in new york. In the garden they have got a mini tropical rain forest, and as soon as you step foot into it, its so refreshing, cool, damp, the air tastes clean and above your heads are about 10million bats, squarking and messin about, quite amusing to watch them :) Had a walk around this other place....cant think wot its called, like a massive green house, loads of plants from all of the world that live in silly places like up 20,000 ft mountains etc. Any 0121'd outta there and made my way over to the other side of the opera house, but I stopped on route for a 30min lydown in the sun, wished I hadnt, think ive been bit by some little creepy crawlies in the grass!!!

Got to the opera house, and I know yesterday I said it looked kinda dirty, well I take it back, I think it was becus of the weather that it looked dirty, cus in the sunshine its looks magnificent and its HHHHUUUUAAAAGGGEEE!!! cudnt get over the size of it, took plenty of snaps (will try upload them 2moro, im in cafe were I cant connect my camera at the min)

Gonna sign off in a sec, feelin tiered and hungry, and still got abit of trek bk to the hostel....ohhh checked out about flyin up to cairns on sunday $169 and to get a buss pass to get me bk along the east coast is about the same, thinkin i mite try and get bk to sydney for early/mid december when it really gettin hot, maybe even get a job for abit :-S who knows!


<22/10/05> Hey I almost forgot, as I was walking up Pitt Street yesterday I came across Rowe Street, not a very big street but its still there :)

Speak to you in abit :)

Sydney Opera House and Bridge

Hello again, god my feet are killing!!!! I'll rewind abit, to how I got the feet to kill.

I went out lastnite with some of the people from my dorm, we had a wicked laugh in sidebar, this is the bar under the hostel, they had this dou on, that were quality, cant describe how gud, every1 in the bar was goin mad, I got stung 15bucks for a double vodka redbull, crazy....wont be havin another 1 of them too soon....anyways got abit drunk, nuthin silly like back home, headed in about 12:30 stayed up chattin with the girls in the dorm 4abit wen i got back. Didnt think i was gonna get to sleep, cus as were on the 1st floor which is relativly close to the basement were the bar is, and you can still hear the music, but i was out like a lite!!!

Woke up this mornin (630ish) with pure carpet mouth, and to make matters worse my drink was on the floor....I WAS ON TOP BUNK!!!! so i suffered it for about 20mins, but by this i was wide awake, so i got up, chucked sum clothes on and headed out to get some shampoo and toothpaste, as in my wisdom, I left them at home.

It was raining wen i got outside, not hard but it was that fine rain that soaks you through! anyway got wot I wanted, went bk had a shower etc, and got out for about 730, I had this full english breaky (typical i know) but im not goin bk, gonna try an eat at the hostel in future.

Anyway, anyway, anyway, I started walking down george st, this has got to be undoubtibly the busiest street in the city (Katy there are a million an 1 shops on this street, youd love it) it leads you straight to the harbour bridge and great views of the opera house....now I gotta say I reckon all the post card pics of the opera house are from when it was brand new, cus it looked abit dirty to me, never the less very magnificent. It was really wiered walkin up george street, towards the opera house cus the wind was picking up, I cud smell sea-smell and then it popped into view, and you almost kinda think its not real cus you only ever see it on the tv or postcard, and then you see every1 working, delivering etc and it sinks in that "yes it is real, and they do use it" so I walked round "the rocks" (dont be worried mum I wasnt climbing over rocks on the harbour edge, its what the place is called, its near pier 1) it leads you round under the bridge, which doest look big from a distance but when you under it, its "flippin" massive, the biggest nuts and bolts ive ever seen holding it to the ground!!! its started to rain, but again, its not like english rain, your just not bothered here. I looked up and I cud see these black blobs moving along the bridge curve, some people on a tour...it looked well blowy up there and it didnt look like the rain was doin them any favours. I Carried on round the road for abit then realised I'd lost my room key for the hostel (its like a credit card you wear round your neck...typically I had it hanging out of my pocket tryin to look cool yes you may be asking yourself...looking cool with a room key "L", so I went back and it was on the floor on the other side of the bridge. Started to walk bk to the city then, through this like art gally village place, and again got ripped of 3bucks for a sprite, they must all keep a look out for me coming!

Got back to the city edge and had a look at herald sqaure, think its bin there since 1861, its like a water feature, quite impressive.

Took a walk back along Pitt street...this street run paralel to george street, but not as busy and not as many shops, more corporations and high rise buildings, so I cut back through back onto george street were I started walkin bk towards the hostel-way, its takes about 20-30mins to walk from wakeup to the harbour, its well worth it, but I can honestly say, my feet feel battered!!!

I'll upload some pics soon, I just aint got that far down my bag yet to get my camera cable, and its still abit of a trek to hostel and bk.

Its a girls birthday in my dorm 2moro so I think were goin out on route 69 2nite, its a pub/bar crawl, shud be a good crack :D

Anyhoo im off to give my feet a rest, then im gonna go get som shoppin.

c u in abit :)

Finally Here :)

I've finally made it down under, its taken over 20 hours, but I can honestly say they were all worth it, infact they flew by (pardon the pun) the longest parts of the flights werethe last 30mins when we were landing. OMG the heathrow to HK flight i had this blob of a man, who once he spotted they had the HK to AU films on decided to tell every1 how he was gonna su Cathay Pacific for false advertising or somet, then he though he P me off by whistling and coughing and reading a broadsheet.....nevermind soon went to sleep although it was about depressing to wake up and see "7 hours to destination".

Touched down in HK had a walk around for 20mins, then had to be on next flight to sydney...the pilot did warn us there may be some turbulance as there were some tropical thunder storms dotted about....was nuthin bad, although it was cool seeing the stroms from a distance seein the whole clouds light up as the lightening crackled through them, and it was strange lightening, orange, still wicked!!! beated looking at dark sky.

My first glimpses of OZ were lights spaced few and far between and then as it got lighter, could see between the cloud gaps lots and lots of sand, greenery and lines (i assume roads) my first reactions to seein Sydney from the sky...."doesnt it look like england" with a foriegn feel of course. didnt see any sight from the air :( gonna have to pay to go and see them.

Just checked into this hostel called wakeup, dead nice, clean, full of friendly people, just been chatting to these girls from UK, very nice, theyve been here for 2 to 3 months, been up and down the east coast, whcih i think will be my next port of call. I tell you wot was wiered, I booked into a dorm with 7 other people, now i didnt actually think any futher ahead than the step i was taking, i went barging into this dorm, forgetting that it was just gone 8, half of them still in bed, i didnt wake any1 but i had to creep around like the new guy, didnt wana P any1 off. Plonked my bag on my bed and skidoodled down here before the sleepyness gets a hold of me. The hostel is $24 a night, but u get showers, common room, kitchen, food storage, lounge, theres a bar in the basement.

Just opened a bank account, wot a palarva....i cant be bothered to go into it, as im still recovering.

The weather is slightly slighty overcast but its hot, hotter than UK.

Anways im gonna shoot, see wot i can see, mite have to go bk for a sleep i fink, can feel my eyes gettin heavier.

speak soon :)

London Heathrow

Well i made it, im in the departure lounge, waitin for my gate and boarding time.
it was pretty tuff sayin goodbye to my family, but we all said our bit and said our fairwells :-(

well im gonna go get somet else to eat, im feelin fine now as early i felt sick with nerves, so im gonna make up for lost time and eat loads :-)

talk to you from hong kong

ps mum well speak real soon x

Leaving for OZ

Well, i've had a really relaxed time since i last posted, and everything was ok until i woke up ths mornin shaking.....nerves :-S but im ok, its just i know im "actually" going now, said all my goodbyes, although i did miss a couple of people, sorry steph, bernie, ian and your families, I just didnt have enough time in my lastweek.

I'm going through stages of feeling sick and excited, its wiered as hell, all adds to the trip though :D

Just had a call ive got to go. I'll post wen i get to OZ.