A Snippet of Life

  So, for the first two months of this year, I was travelling up and down the east coast of Australia and it was one of the best things I have ever done. Before I left, so many people I spoke to told me this would be the case and they were right. My send off was lovely, most involving drinks, and a lovely goodbye party, held by Mike and Kathy from Moulton shop, with a delicious curry cooked by Tanja. The last day was emotional, VERY EMOTIONAL, because I am the worst at goodbyes, and have such a great group of friends and family, that I knew I would miss (as the Aussies would say) 'heaps'. Anyway, after I had been bulked up on Shepherds Pie cooked by my amazing friend, I went, to the airport in a Jaguar, courtesy of my Dad, and set off on the longest flight ever! We arrived, and from that moment on, I had the time of my life. There was not a single second that I regret, not a single moment that I wish did not happen. That is not to say that none of my trip was tough, but it was ...

So, after another FLIGHT between cities in the same country, I arrived in Adelaide, greeted by my lovely friend who I was to be staying with for the final few days of my two month adventure. In a real, lush, clean, house which lacked bed bugs and 20 dorm rooms, perfect! Six lovely people, two wicked dogs, and the most adorable baby. Witnessing how actual Australian everyday life is...paradise! First stop, the beach. Yet another beautiful one, crystal clear blue sea, golden sand and the heat to go with it! Nothing better than a nice cold cider on a day like this! Followed by a barbie in true AUSSIE spirit!   The following day began with a dog walk in search of Kangaroos and possibly koalas! None to be seen...THIS TIME... But beautiful views. We then headed to the garden if unearthly delight, and into the city. Perfect weather for another cider, mooching around and a wannabe Harry Houdini street performer who didn't half love to blab on! On the way home the views were fantast...

Having stepped off the plane, we literally thought we had somehow taken a detour back to England. Shivering rapidly, we waited for our luggage OUTSIDE (they could have at least added some warmth to the situation!). When we got to the city the streets were rammed, we were wondering if this was an average Saturday night in Melbourne, but no, white night by name! An annual light display, with art shows with added quirkiness, spreader throughout the city, originally started to get money into the city but the turn out was huge so they carried it on. Anyway, going off tangent...there we were strolling through melbourne at midnight, with our backpacks, in search if our hostel, amongst the drunks. We finally found it and ran straight to our warm beds, at least I thought mine was mine! Until about an hour later when I was patted on the head by a Canadian guy who thought I was his friend (they both had very long hair), turns out apparently I was sleeping in his bed! Goldilocks type moment! I re...

After another hideous, overnight train journey, this time with no blankets provided and with the added disruption of some complete imbecile mouthing of at the front of the carriage, which meant I got literally NO sleep, we arrived! Walking through the station, with rain outside, down to the underground, it reminded us very much of London, although the tubes were double decker- pretty cool!   We found our way to our backpackers, having given a dollar to a tramps daily fund and been told I was going to heaven, really, I was...(I only gave him money so that he wouldn't hurt me!). Shortly after arrival, we realised we had picked THE dodgiest part of Sydney, Kings Cross! The hostel owner took us to a nearby cafe for a free coffee (you suddenly become trusting of everyone you meet while travelling, especially if they offer free food or drink, pretty dangerous!). After a while of being creeped out by the hostel owner, finding out that the hostel didn't have hot water, and that th...

So...we attempted a surf! Not very successful because the guy sent us to the 'learner waves' which we were soon to find out he actually meant no waves at all, just ripples! There were a few bigguns where I almost stood up...that or completely got swept under my surf board and struggled to get back on like a complete tourist! I didn't mind though, it was just so relaxing and peaceful ( which is how I'd describe byron bay in general) just laying on the board, surrounded by glistening sea and beaming sun shining down on us! There was a magical moment when I saw a fin. Me being the ever optimist (not) immediately thought "SHIT, SHARK!!!" Until 3 beautiful Dolphins jumped out of the water, about 10meters away from where we were laying! Just amazing! Another animal to tick off my list! The day was made complete after our walk, up a mammoth hill, to the most easterly point of mainland Australia, where we watched the sunset, and what a clear and beautiful day we pick...

After a walk up and down the street, searching for our backpackers that claimed it was the closest to the beach, we dumped our bags and headed straight for the sand. So strange to look along the coast and just see skyscraper after skyscraper practically ON the beach. (Kind of what I expected though)   When we got back to our room after a pasta dinner mixed with Tomato pure instead of pasta sauce, simply because it was 10 cents cheaper and "every little helps" (IT WAS GROSS), we found a party in our room! A mix of Welsh and Irish crammed in, with their accents booming! We managed to squeeze in and get ready for the big night ahead...LADIES NIGHT! We thought there would be a catch, but we were wrong, it literally was FREE DRINKS ALL NIGHT! Champagne, vodka, anything you wanted. Bliss! We proper milked it and by 20 minutes in we were on drink number 5! That's the way you do it! BACKPACKER LIFE! It was a good night, and I honestly, hand in heart, did not spend a penny! W...

  After a lovely road trip, we arrived at the backpackers! IT WAS HOOGE! Felt like we were back at school or at UNI! Was like a maze. So modern is brissy, reminds me a bit like Lego. Very few cars on the road, well Aussies would claim otherwise but they haven't been to London have they?! I mean the nearest to a rush hour we have experienced is walking back at 5pm, this rush hour was a pedestrian one, hoards of people crossing roads everywhere like ants, but still not close to the English style rush hour!  ..very random, too...a beach in the middle if the city, we lay in the sand catching rays then for a dip, so odd. A parkland too, 16ha of it, and through the trees a view of the gigantic skyscrapers, Brissy had it all.    A funny story, well kind of sad too, sitting eating THE nicest invention ever - Nutella filled hot cross bun- YUM, and on the table next to us is a family, two little kids and dad, enjoying their pasta, surrounded by Ibis', the vultures. The l...

  Feeling smug having left the cyclone in Airlie behind, we made it after a very long, overnight, 13hour train journey, full of mostly watching kangaroos looking stunned like Meerkats, and attempting to get some sleep (NEXT TIME WE ARE GETTING SLEEPER CABIN) Despite the sun disappointing us and hiding, I still am yet to see a temperature below 17 degrees (and that was half 5 AM!).   Even though there was a cyclone up north, people were still surfing the mahoosive waves, unbeknown to us, these were probably professionals and so we thought we'd get out there and LEARN how to surf! Not our best decision! We failed and came straight back to switch surf boards for body boards (people staring at us thinking those two don't have a clue!) An equally bad decision for my stomach- grazed to shreds as the board was like sandpaper! But it was very fun nonetheless and the sun even came out to play for a bit!    Another good thing about our visit to Maloolaba, was that w...

  Well aren't I a lucky girl! After a day full of gorgeous salads (yes an actual proper meal), sunshine , failing to beat H at spit (card game, not competitive AT all) and a tub full of ice-cream we left Townsville and headed for Airlie beach. Still having seen zero old buildings: everything is so modern, everyone is so friendly and everywhere has beautiful weather! Apart from mishearing a guy on the platform, thinking he said "alright bitch" and giving him a 'piss off' face, when actually he said "Airlie beach?", a friendly question, we arrived without any bother! And so excited for it all! The first night was tame...a huge ass meal, free bevvie, spot of TOAD RACING (no that's not a typo!) and then bed, ready for the rest of it!    Day 2, and a day full of chillaxing, money saving, and prepping for our big night out. We hit happy hour at every pub (experts at this game!) and it was all going well, until two friendly Aussies joined us...friendly ...

  Surprisingly enough, we made it to the 7am train from Cairns! Such a beautiful and relaxing journey too: comfy seats, inboard tv entertainment, a pack of chocolate biscuits (within budget) and the most amazing scenery, for 6 hours! Beautiful sunshine the whole way, and it did stay with us to greet us on our arrival at Townsville. A slight dip in the day when we found our walk to the hostel was about a billion miles long, in mid-day, blistering heat - HELL. But, we made it! Dropped bags off and straight to the beach! Followed by THE most delicious cocktail looking over the sea, can you think of a better way to spend a day?   Day two we hopped on the ferry over to magnetic island! Basically paradise. Full of beautiful bays, sun, sea and sand, and very little amount of civilisation, perfect! The walk from our base (ironic that our hostel was actually called 'Base') felt like we were literally walking through the desert with one shop every 2km!!! The hostel itself was the be...

Harriet (number 2) arrived !! And haven't the Australians/ everyone we've met found that so funny- hilarious! It's really not, but easy enough to introduce "we are the Harriet's". Makes us sound like a famous double act doesn't it? HAVENT YOU HEARD OF US! Anyway...train scenario still at a low, and not at all sorted (I know, I too thought it was), we decided to just forget about it for a while and get on with our day. After having THE most amazing ice cream that I reckon there is on the planet, a bit of wandering in the sun (YES SUN IN CAIRNS) we headed back to the backpackers, met some lovely people, one of which got us a taxi two blocks away (we are NOT lazy) to our free meal! Wehey! Bangers and mash, in true British style! And then for the pub crawl. Most of which was a bit of a blur, but success in that I had lots of picture memories, one pub was an Irish pub (always a good laugh), we found our way back to our room, and at the end of the night we had ...

  Today the clan left me, and headed reluctantly on their homeward journey! I was left a lovely apartment for three nights, so I could clean the smell of the jungle off everything (including myself) and relax before the backpacking began. Unbeknown to me how hard that would be. Made me think of home, missing everyone back there, and missing the clan. I saw my first Australian tramps, and was approached by a few! But it's all part of the adventure. The weather didn't help much either- RAIN, "welcome to the tropics" they all told me! Put it this way, I am just extremely eager for my friend to arrive, so that we can head onwards on our travels and find some sun!!!   Wednesday: nice little start to the day, sun beginning to come out, me feeling chirpy, head to the train station to ask about our ticket...WE HAVE THE WRONG TICKET! Minor insignificant detail, I kept telling myself...whilst hyperventilating in a complete panic!! ...all sorted though by the following day (...

  An hour flight from Hamilton Island to Cairns,brought us to our shiny, silver 4X4 which was taking us to the jungle! After we had listened to the typical Aussie accent "turn right, mate"for 2 hours, we too a short pit-stop at Mossman Gorge, where our Aboriginal guide, Rosie, was to show us around the Rain-forest (among the bugs!) It really was very interesting and she had a good sense of humour, which made it a whole lot more fun- a very inspirational lady indeed. She gave us 5 philosophies of life, of which I have forgotten all (memory like a fish),however she did keep telling us to LOVE and BE STRONG!  So... we arrived and walked among the trees to our cabin. 3 bunk beds and a double inside effectively a marque with walls, covered in mesh- basically a big mosquito net! All beds were surrounded by a mosquito net as well, which seemed daunting at first (me being the complete paranoid fool that I am), but became quite cosy, away from the wretched bugs! In the corner of the...

  After a 2 hour flight up the coast of the same country (there is no such thing as 'popping' to anywhere in Oz!), we arrived, with beautiful sunshine and heat welcoming us with a smile. A taxi waiting outside to  take us to our apartments all seemed well and good until we climbed inside to find that we had to endure a 30 minute journey listening to possibly the two dumbest English girls, about my age, who were "travelling" but clearly not in my backpacking, find the cheapest accommodation and decide between food or beer each day, sense of the word! Are you with me? Yes, they came out with some corkers! On the way, we passed some sugar cane, and the driver pointed out that is where a lot of the sugar is produced for this area..."OH MY GOD, does sugar come from this far away all the time?", piped up the brown haired, big Boobed, bimbo..."no, mainly the Middle East", her friend chirped in ( and the whole time I'm thinking BURY ST EDMUNDS SUGAR B...

  So we arrived. It was a scorcher! Bags down, straight to get a cold beverage! Stepped out onto the street and there was an Ibis just strolling casually along the path...WHAT?!! Very odd but It's lovely. Everything so tall, enormous and new. Very clean too, in fact I have not seen a single piece of litter the whole 3 days I have been here! No dogs either, well we saw two but they were both being carried...bizarre! No cats either, and I mean NO CATS. Everyone so friendly. The modern art gallery full of aboriginal art- I love it! Walked outside and looked up to see the most colourful parrot just chilling with his mate in the tree. I mean, a parrot, in the middle of the city? So surreal, but absolutely beautiful.    Everything is so lovely but the highlight had to be the Koalas! They are just the most cutest cuddly things on Earth! Sleeping 20 hours a day, leaving them only 4 to eat their leaves! No wonder they are so tired! And the best thing of all, I got a cuddle off...

  (Completely random post but dad keeps on about it, and it is rather funny!)  So, having heard story after story of the strict Australian government, I knew I had to be extra cautious! Upon being handed the declaration form for the FIRST time I practically ticked yes for everything. If it had asked "do you have 5 heads and 6 toes" I would have probably ticked yes, I was being ridiculous. However, after a thought as to whether Paracetamol classed as a forbidden item ( we decided 'no'), dad requested another form! This time I was slightly more sensible with my answers, but I did take 'If in doubt click 'yes' to the extreme! In the queue for customs I kindly gave a lovely Australian officer a good laugh! "So you've ticked 'yes' for bringing plants herbs etc in, what is it madam?" Tea bags. "And what is the   Mud you are bringing in?" Trainers. "And you've been in the wilderness within the last 30 days?" I went...

  After a day of mostly crying (!! I know, what the heck, you ask?! I'm off to Australia...but I have a few special people who should have squished in my bag!), a posh Jag with my swag Dad and lovely driver pulled up to begin my adventure. The usual English weather that makes you so smug upon leaving the country and miserable upon your return-RAIN. We arrive at Heathrow, drag my 'lightly packed' but a 'b**** to carry' bag to check-in. And then, the palava of security- HAVE YOU ANY BOMBS, knives, swords?! - I mean seriously who do they think we are?! ...but anyway- after a few hours of chilling in the departure lounge, anticipating the flight of my life and we are off!!   So it's 10:05pm here, 8am there and Christ knows the time in Singapore, the half way point! All I knew was that I had a 12 hour (yes half a bloody day) long flight ahead of me.     With my owl (of course) neck pillow, I cannot keep my eyes open, and with a few food breaks here and ther...