Byron Bay and the Brisbane.........nuff said!!

We arrived in Byron Bay after an overnight bus and having been unable to secure any accommodation in any solid buildings we made our way to our permanent tent.....yes tent. It's ok, it only cost us $180 a night!!! The people were lovely though and it was actually quite nice to get away from the general teenage back-packer grunge that made up most of the accommodation in Byron Bay.

Now, for those of you who do not know Byron Bay is one of the must go to places for any back-packer heading up the east coast.  This is for obvious reasons as there are lots of surf schools (which can be found almost anywhere in OZ where there is a beach), there are lots of coffee shops (...again they aren't short of them in most populated areas), the beach is nice (..................Australia is kind of one big sandy beach!!) and drugs and alcohol seem to be in full flow wherever you look.

Well we jumped on the band wagon (surfing, not the other stuff!!) and had some surf lessons which left Louise close to tears and me with no skin left on my fingertips.  Needless to say that we decided our careers weren't about to change at this point and we would remain professionals and not give it up for a life searching for the perfect wave!!  We decided to move on with little persuasion and headed to the capital of Queensland, Brisbane.

It was at this point that we realised that we were 'old' when it came to traveling as we moved into our 24 bed dorm that stank of MAN and left a lot to be desired in terms of security, hygiene.... and well pretty much any creature comfort that we mature back-packers had come to crave.  Unfortunately it wasn't the only thing about Brisbane that we weren't too keen on but what it did provide us with was a great opportunity to plan the rest of our time in Australia.

We met a lovely Irish girl, Katie, who was desperate to book us tours, camper vans and diving trips.  After booking our mandatory 'hug a Koala' trip we ended up having a good laugh with her and after LOTS of discussion we left her with several options to work on overnight, which included some travel agent party (everything on the east coast seems to involve some kind of party?).  As we were a bit bored in Brisbane we spent a lot of time researching ourselves into the evening and a very resourceful Louise found a discount code on twitter to leave us in a very good position to negotiate.  For those who know us, we like to negotiate and drive a bargain!

Katie was so pumped up about what a great deal she had for us and it was a shame to see her be deflated by our own research......but what a star she was as we got an e-mail later that day saying she would not only match our price but gave us a huge discount on top!! We ended up getting our camper van for £15 a day which was an amazing deal and big discounts on our diving and other tours.  So we left Brisbane on a bit of a high and on to the paradise beach of Noosa!!

Myall Lakes, a real Australian adventure.....and some wine.

We didn't know very much about Myall Lakes national park before we went there but we are very glad we did.

Michael and Rosemary, two of Louise's parents friends, very kindly offered to put us up for a few days.  They had been following us on our travels from the very beginning and had constantly been saying we should come stay with them on our way up the east coast.  We were treated to scenic drives, another real bed and some of the most stunning views we saw in Australia.  Michael's encyclopaedic knowledge of everything from birds, snakes and the majority of Australian wildlife was an excellent commentary as we were taken to huge empty beaches and
Koala spotting.  The highlight of of the Koala spotting was after we had tramped through a small section of forest with no sightings we asked some local residents about them.  There answer will remain with us for some time, it went something like this.  Michael "Are the Koalas in that forest?", Local "Yeah, not many of them but you can hear them at night.  Don't go walking in the forest though, lots of snakes."

This wasn't the only incident we had during our
stay here.  On a lovely drive up to seal rocks near Myall Lakes we arrived at the official car park for the lighthouse at the top.  It was a 15-20 minute walk up to the top from there and what was in front of us was a gate and a sign saying "official vehicles only".  Now most people would read the sign and agree to park the car and walk up the hill but no, the gate wasn't locked so up we drove.  It was a lovely view from the top and we managed to see a pod of dolphins from the cliffs and as the sun started to set we headed back down the hill to be faced with a closed gate, that was locked.  To cut a long story short we managed to get a key to the lock and got out but needless to say it left us with a story to tell many times over.

We had many non-life threatening experiences as well including having our first swim in one of Australia's countless salt-water swimming pools and a wee wine tasting session in the hunter valley.....when I say we, Louise drank, John drove.

Our time came to an end quicker than we would have liked and after a panic filled evening trying to get accommodation booked for the next stage of our trip we found ourselves saying goodbye to our hosts and onwards to the backpacking mecca that is Byron Bay!!