Day 65 - Nimbin

One of the best nights sleep I've had in a long time, slept right through to 10.30.

Lil had also very kindly let me use her car so I can go to some out of the way places. Took a drive out to Nimbin, just over an hour away along a really nice mountain road, the scenery on the way was great. Got to Nimbin and within seconds of stepping out of the car I was offered weed, and then about another 7 times while walking around, so weird considering there is also police walking about. A very quirky little town, based around alternative living. Hemp, weed, tie dye, VW camper vans, seems like it hit the 70's and stopped. Took a walk around the museum where it was basically saying how great weed is and how stupid it is to outlaw a plant. A very interesting place to visit.

Spent the evening just relaxing and researching the next stage of the trip.

A nice chilled out day.

Day 64 - Byron Bay to Coolangatta

Woken up a few times in the night by drunken roommates coming in, eventually woke up for good at 5.45 so decided to get up and head down to the beach to watch the sunrise. Very cold but beautiful, a few people about, some out walking their dogs, some running on the beach, some even swimming, one surfer dude serenading a young girl on his guitar (just to point out they had only just met), definitely worth the early start.

Back to the hostel to get my stuff and go to catch my bus. Just a short 2 hour journey up to Coolangatta where Lil and Chris live. They very kindly picked me up from the bus stop where I was the only person who got off. Their flat is lovely only a stoves through from the beach. Spent the rest of the day and night just chilling out watching sport on the TV and sorting through photos chatting with Chris. Was really nice just having a chilled out relaxed day.

Ended the day laying in bed listening to the waves crashing on the beach just metres away. Lil and Chris have really got a slice of heaven.

Byron Bay

Day 63 - Byron Bay

Woke up at 10.30 to an empty room, can't believe how long I've slept, must've needed it.

Out for a walk down to the beach and bought some new swim sorts. Must've lost some weight or sizes over here are bigger.

Back to the hostel to get ready for surfing. I get to the pick up point and there's 3 friendly faces from my journey up to Byron and there's 3 girls from my room at the hostel. On the bus to the beach our inductor James is telling us all the dos and donts, I don't think he could be more of a typical surfer dude, a really nice guy. Down at the beach we squeeze into our wetsuits, me squeezing more than most. He gets us doing some warm up exercises which I'm glad to say some people struggled with and I didn't 😊. Then trying out our technique of standing up on the board on dry land. Then out into the sea we go. Oh my god it's so hard, I struggled to even lay down on the board. I managed to stand up once and got a high five from the instructor which made me fall off. Then back to the shop to see all the photos they had taken, some really cool ones and considering I only managed to stand up once they managed to catch it.

Back to the hostel for a shower and a rest because it is really hard work!

Spent the night chatting with my roommates until they went out at 11pm and I sorted my bag out to check out early in the morning to catch my bus.

Day 62 - Hello Byron Bay and Happy Birthday to me

Arrived at Byron Bay at 6.30am after a sleepless night. So wondered around like a zombie trying to find the hostel, eventually found it and check in isn't until 2pm, so dropped my bags and headed to the beach.

Did a quick check on wifi and had lots of lovely birthday messages including 2 handmade cards and a video from my brother and his family, took Harry seconds to tuck into my cake, bless him.

The beach is absolutely beautiful and I can't think of a better way to start my birthday than watching the sun come up over the ocean. Went for a walk down the beach and the sand was freezing cold, I can only imagine what the water is like, fair play to the early morning swimmers. I've never seen sand so fine either, it's smaller than dust and glistens on your skin like gold flecks.

And I'm definitely not a proper traveller, saw a guy cooking and eating his breakfast on the beach.

Lil and Chris drove down to meet me at 11am, absolutely awesome to see them and catch up. They took me up to the lighthouse, glad they did as I wouldn't have fancied walking up, some amazing views and saw some turtles and whales from the cliff top too. Back down into the town to have some lunch, tried the Australian dish chicken parma, absolutely gorgeous! And had a very nice pale ale, although it doesn't come in pints, you have a schooner, which is about 2/3 of a pint, weird. They very kindly offered me a place to stay so I'll be seeing them in a few days time.

Back to the hostel about 4.30pm to check in. And collapsed in a heap on the bed within seconds.

A really good day and a great birthday!

Day 61 - Goodbye Sydney

Checked out by 9.30am and out walking again, went over to Kings Cross, parts were nice but a lot was walking around West Brom, not very nice at all. Then back walking around the bays to Botanical Gardens where I just sat drinking in the view for a good hour, continued around to Darling Harbour where I sat having a lovely ice cream watching the boats cone in for the upcoming boat show, some absolutely beautiful boats on show. Then back to the hostel to pick up my bag and walk down to the bus station to get my 12.5 hour bus to Byron Bay.

At the bus station and almost got on the wrong bus 😕. Only about 12 people on so got loads of room, it seems quite posh, wifi, usb charger, drinking fountain. Let 15 minutes late as someone was late on their train, and he also seems to be the noisiest person on the coach. Lots of stupid along the way including a breakfast stop at 2am! made it very difficult to sleep. Got chatting to a girl who had just done the same trip around Asia as me, so was quite interesting comparing notes.

A long but nice day.

Day 60 - Sydney

A much more comfortable nights sleep even though 3 of us got woke up by the other 5 people coming in at 3am, can't blame them for being drunk, just have no idea how they can afford to get drunk.

Up at 7am to get some washing done ($10!!). Then out by 9am in the rain to walk down and across the Harbour Bridge, some lovely albeit cloudy views from the pillar museum, saw some people doing the bridge climb, as it's just a long staircase I still have no idea why you're not aloud to take anything with you including your camera, just another money spinner as you can buy photos off them. Couldn't justify paying $300 to climb it and then pay more if you want any pictures.

Then to The Rocks market which had some beautiful stuff. Including a bloke blowing glass with the flame worryingly pointed at the crowd.

Back to the hostel to get rid of my jacket as the rain had stopped and the sun was out 😀. Got back and who was checking in but Joost, my roommate for my 2nd trip in Thailand, small world.

Needed a bit of normality tonight so went to the cinema to see Transformers 4, just happened to be the biggest imax screen in the world, pretty impressive.

State Library of New South Wales

Art Gallery of New South Wales

Day 59 - Sydney

Started off moving hostels, I'm now at Base hostel and is much nicer/cleaner.

Straight out to the Australian Museum where there was a Tyrannosaurus exhibit. Really enjoyed it, they'd done some really cool stuff. From the I walked down to the State Library of New South Wales where there was a free exhibit of WW1 diaries, really interesting to see the diaries and old newspapers writing about how the war was going and the old recruitment posters. Then onto the Customs House as I was told it Akzo had some free exhibits, but no.

Tonight I met up with Niranjana who I met on my 2nd trip in Thailand as she lives here in Sydney, was nice catching up and she showed me some out of the way places which were pretty cool.

Australian Museum

Sydney at night