SYDNEY, BYRON BAY, SURFERS PARADISE & HERVEY BAY

After leaving Longreach in a blaze of glory I headed for Sydney where I went to see Cousin Paul who lives near Bondi Beach, well first night we went to a BBQ and got drunk, then next day we went to the beach for the day for a relax, just what the doc ordered. Annii and Paul worked in the day so I amused myself by checking out Bondi Junction and went for a few runs. I stayed with them for a few days then I got in touch with a guy called Rhys who was doing a road trip up to Byron Bay and met up with him,he was a bit strange looking but seemed OK so we set off in the morning with another guy called Andreas from Sweden. We got to Seal Rocks the first night and camped, had lots of wine and pasta. Next day we set off in the wagon of destiny and got to Nimbin. This is a real quirky town that everyone smokes weed in, so we met up with some locals and after a few beers somehow agreed to taking part in a protest on bikes to encourage people to go green, but the catch was it was naked!!!!! So we camped in a campsite and got up ready to do the bike ride. Rhys went naked, andreas kept his pants on and so did I. All the locals were starkers and there was a woman who did body painting and was some funky art stuff going on. After that they dropped me at a hostel called the Arts Factory in Byron Bay and was another quirky place with all different kinds of rooms, I stayed in the Lakeside Lodge and was a 10 person female dorm, here I met loads of cool people and met Lisa and Arlene from Ireland. Somehow I managed to get a massive cold so didn't do much the first day but next day a few of us went to the beach and chilled for the day, a guy called Matt kept us all amused with his tall stories!!!! We checked out a local bar with live music that was cool. next day a few of us went on Jims Tour to nimbin again, we had some cookies that were interesting and he took us to a hippies home. Next day I was heading North to Surfers Paradise, this was the worst place in Oz and the worst Hostel aswell, we just checked out the town cause it rained all day!! Next day Lisa and Arlene left but I stayed on another night and left early for Hervey Bay for the Fraser Island experience. I arrived at Koalas where the tour was from and had hours worth of painful briefs by a guy who thought he was funny, next morning they had us up at 6 am to count forks etc. it felt more like a boot camp!! We eventually got on the road and I was the first driver. It was mental when we saw the terrain, I've never drove over such uneven ground. So we drove round for a few hours and got to know our group, there were Rouven and Tatiana from Germany, Dave and Cassie, Gemma, Lisa, Arlene and Me from UK. So we went to a beach near the village and had to go into L4 which is a gear for soft sand, this is when we realised we didn't have this and spent the next few hours trying to push it out. Luckily alot of the other groups were in the same bit of beach and helped us, it took a local in the end to get it out, so we abandoned the idea of camping on the beach. We went to a proper campground and there were familiesa there and it must have been there worst nightmare when 40 rowdy people pitch up. We drank goon and had a laugh. Next day Dave drove the car and we had to go and see a mechanic about the car, he fixed it but it took us all morning so pretty annoyed, then we went to Lake Mackenzie and camped near the beach. I was ill that night and went to bed early. Our last morning we got up at half 5 and drove along the beach to the shipwreck that we weren't allowed to see, I drove and it was really rocky terrain but good fun to drive over. Then weheaded for Lake Wabby that was beautiful, rainforest one side and sand dunes the other. We ended with a few hours at Lake Mackenzie. We arrived back at Koalas and got fine a few dollars cause we managed to lose some plates. Next morning I said bye to the group and headed for Noosa.