cue: violins

finally home, mum's off to the supermarket to buy me food that i can turn in to an adequate dinner tonight. Her and dad are going to a ball, what a joke, dad has a bow tie. 

Today is friday, i;ve been home since tuesday morning. I think I have finally caught up on all my sleep. 

Before i left perth i got my lip pierced and britta and i dyed lis' hair brown. Oh and i saw rach bailey in for a cider back at little creatures in freo. Once i was back in perth i met britta and lis at perth station. we went to price attack or somewhere like that were they have a hairdresser as well as all the take home boxes of hair dye. Lis spoke to the knowledgable hair master who told her that as a blondy blonde she had to put this stuff in her hair before dying it brown so it wouldnt go green, who knew? So we bought all sorts of boxes of colour and went on our way with a complicated list of things we had to do to not stuff up lis' hair. lovely hairdresser, so helpful. 

Then we went to get my lip pierced. i really wanted a ring and wasn't keen on a stud but someone i met told me i could have a ring straight away so in we went. This was flatly rejected by the lady at the piercing place. She was very strict, giving me an epic list of things i wouldnt be able to do for either two weeks (alcohol and kissing) and 8 weeks (changing the stud) then she asked me one million health questions like 'are you lactating' and have you been drinking. due to the cider from earlier on she told me i;d have to have a quick snack and come back so i wouldnt vomit or pass out (which apparently happens on the regs) just as we were discussing this i started feeling a bit queasy, the place was underground and there was all this incense and heating. lis says 'romy?' and i thought she was asking me if i was ok. i look at her to tell her i'm fine as her eyes roll back and she falls, luckily into the arms of teh lady behind the counter who was surprisingly agile. we put lis on the floor and she looks like she is seizing, the lady asks 'is she epileptic?' shiiiiiit i didn;t know, well i did actually but at the time i worried that she might be. luckily she stopped and woke up. we fed her water and the lady brought her chocolate. so much excitement! 

after chocolate milkshakes we went back for my 3.30 appointment. i was super nervy thinking that i would throw up, imagining all this blood in my mouth etc.. the actual room where they do it reminded me of the dentist. it didn't hurt at all, less than an injection. i thought he was just prepping the area but he was done. how underwhelming. so now it's been four days of having a pierced lip and i'm still talking like a bit of a spastic but it doesn;t hurt at all. 7 weeks and three days until i can change the black stud to a silver ring. 

we asked the piercer man if we could take some of his medical plastic gloves but he said no. i thought he was joking until he never said, joking, here you go. very strict man. the chemist only had a box of 24 which would couldn;t afford (this was for dying lis' hair) so we got lots of free plastic bags. 

back at the hostel we raided the kitchen for a bowl and a cup for mixing and measuring hiar ingredients. my towel was sacrificed. lis is now a brunette. 

chris pointed out that my 'friends of convenience' necklace has fish bones on it. he told that his nickname is fish, how fitting. 

Goodbyes were not fun. i haven;t improved at them, i always play it ridiculously cool and then feel awful as soon as the person has gone. i said goodbye to nicolas the night before, lis at 9, then chris and i went to the kitchen to see what we could make. all we came up with was teh delicious and nutritious meal of pasta and tomato sauce, of ketchup variety. Britta refused to join in, she jsut watched us and laughed at our pathetic meal. 

Then Britta and Chris walked me to my 11pm bus. Chris carried my bag which was surprising and a little bit lovely. Perth highlight: you can get to the airport from the city for $1.50 with a concession card and $3 for normal people. 

As soon as i got to the airport i discovered that my flight was delayed and wasn't going to take off until 2.30 am. There was not much to do in the airport. I found a toasted sandwich and that took me about an hour to eat with my piercing. then i wrote in my journal and eventually napped on the airport floor (all seats taken). 

It was really upsetting thinking about finishing writing in my journal, i thought about keeping on writing in it once i got home but it seemed wrong. so i finished as we started landing. It felt like another goodbye to a new special friend. 

i landed two hours late, poor mum, and there was steam coming out of my mouth as i waited 30 mins for tiger to start sending bags through. Bloody tiger makes you wait for luggage outside. freezing.  

I wonder, where to next?

little creatures visit freemantle

today, being my second last day away from home, was nice. we had an epic sleep in after our night out on the town. then we went to freemantle for the market, fish and chips on the waterfront and then to visit the little creatures micro brewery. all in all a day well spent. also made plans to see rachel bailey tomorrow during her uni break.

our late dinner last night was a huge fail, chef nicolas tried to improvise with the random ingredients we had and used milk instead of coconut milk in our thai green curry and added tomatoees instead of other vegetables we didnt have. it was awful so we had to throw it out and find second dinner.

we went out to try and meet lis. she told us mustang bar so we walked through northbridge in that direction. apparently northbridge is the most dangerous nightlife in australia, tour guide mark told us he doesnt go there unless he is armed. when we got to mustangs we had to line up. i was unimpressed, there were creepy people everywhere, including a girl wearing a shiny ballgown with a tiara and a miss something or other sash. i didnt want to go there but lis' friend was meeting people in there so in we went. we had to have our id's scanned and photos of our faces taken like at the airport. there were police everywhere. it was a weird venue because it was like a saloon cross bar cross pub cross nightclub. very awkward. and tehre were people of all ages, like 16 to 60. so many girls wearing clothes that dont fit or with red knickers under white dresses. oh and a drag queen and some trashbag having her hen's night there.

towards the end of the night, when britta and i had decided to leave, lis and britta left the dance floor to go to the toilet. it was just me and chris on the dancefloor, so naturally that was my cue to go and sit down but i had to walk past this african boy who had been harassing me a bit, so i walked past and he stopped me and kept touching my hip and asking what i was doing. i was trying to tell him i was going but he implied that he was leaving with me and kept going on and on and i was having trouble getting away, i said i was leaving with a friend but then he was all 'i could be your friend' so eventually i did the whole 'i'm leaving with my frrrriend' and pointed at chris. it was a low point. dignity; gone. he then told me once he came home that he considered shaking his head 'no' to the boy. jeeeesus, i would have died after the most massive panic attack ever if he had.

right now chris is on the phone to his baby brother and talking about this trip to vegas that he has coming up next year with all his english friends, there is like 20 of them planning on going and so he is describing it to his brother and called it 'the last big blow out before we all settle down' hahahhaha i could not control myself, the laughter would not stop. have had the pillow over my face for a good minute trying to control my behaviour.

oh, so these are some things that i meant to say yesterday. in kalbarri (where we saw farmer wants a wife) lis, britta and i bought these silver ingot necklace things and had friends of convenience WA engraved on the back, only it's 'foc wa' the guy read it out loud and was like fuuuuuuucckwaaa, what? the same guy asked me what i was studying and before i answered he is like i know 'forensic anthropology becuase youre just like bones you know from that tv show!' highlight of my life. caroline; so unimpressed. actually i assume you all are, except maybe chip.

another thing i meant to write was an apology to caroline downes, for all the times i have given her a hard time about slaving to the man for apple, when my ipod went blank the other day i texted her saying what do i do and she text back with very complicated instructions which lis helped me with and lo and behold, ipod back in action. thanks cazz.

gosh i'm dying to go to the toilet but i want to finish this quickly so i can go to bed. oh, bought internet time for tomorrow for uploading blog photos to make these last few posts more fun. can;t do it now cause im on chris' internet so i wont be mean and waste it.

last thing to add, we drove thtough this place geraldton which wasnt big enough to be called a city in the 80s when the queen visited and decided she liked it so waved her wand and it became a city. dont get me started on the bloody queen. so anyway, this city has the highest rate of teen pregnancy in either WA or australia, i think australia. so anyway, it's so bad that the government sent in these researchy people to find out what was going. after all this money spent and time and effort the conclusion reached was that geraldton is a windy city where the girls skirts blow up. literally. that was the scientific finding.

bed time.

farmer still looking for a wife

in perth. feels strange to be in a city. a bit sad, the adventure is coming to a close. chris britta and i are in a three person dorm and nicolas is in with a rando somewhere down the hall. this hostel is like an old school or old people's home.there are little hokey pokey rooms everywhere with windey stairs and high ceilings.

cannot remember what i last said about mark, our guide. i cant actually remember when the last time i wrote was.oh yes.. from the bus when we first got signal. so since then we met the head tour guide who was a very scary lady, alm9ost a female equivalent of our guide. tough as guts, rude, loud and sort of funny.

i read 'the game' you know that book about 'pick up artists' men that are socially useless who band together to come up with tricks of seduction. it sent me into a search through my memory of boys i'd me out over the last few years since the book had been published. devoured the book in 24 hours. hardly spoke to anyone that day. mostly because it was my day to be co-pilot up the front with mark.

we've lost lis (turns out i have been spelling her name wrong - sorry lis!) she's staying with an irish horse trainer friend. but we're seeing her tonight for drinks and an explore of perth at night.

so we've been making our way down the west coast and in the last few days we've passed through shark bay, shell beach, monkey mia, the stramotolites, kalbarri (where we met the farmer from farmer wants a wife!!!! win.) and today we saw the pinnacles just outside perth.

at shell beach tour guide mark was being creepy/annoying again, throwing shells at us and then pretending it wasnt him. we started ignoring him after a while and it kept going for bloody ages. then lis was trying to give people special shell massages and i tried to get involved and sropped lots of shells on nicolas' head/down his neck. i dont think he enjoyed this because he picked me up and was going to throw me in the water (cold) lucky i have such lovely friends who prepare me for these sorts of situations. i intuitively kneed him in the face. job well done, i did not have a swim although i did feel a little bit bad for my violent reaction.

we got up super early yesterday to go to monkey mia to see the dolphins being fed. turns out we went so early so mark could have a huge breakfast at the cafe, we had hours to wait. then the dolphins didnt show up, for 15 minutes, and then 30, and then an hour. we were about to give up, sad that the wildlife had evaded us again (we missed the sharks at turquoise bay and the manta rays in coral bay) but then they came! annoying people we're blocking the way, even though the man kept asking them to move back. typical.

so yesterday when we were walkiing around kalbarri national park we bumped into another tour guide who only had one person with him. he told us that one of the farmers from farmer wants a wife was going to be at the pub. hahahah i was so excited. a couple of months ago, or maybe a year ago we had been talking about applying, i remember al and aimee being especially keen. so after dinner, and a few to many very strong vodka drinks (we were low on mixers) we headed off.

as we approached chris looked a little bit nervous. mostly boys and they were rough. but in we went, desperate to meet the farmer, well no one else quite so much as me. britta had thought that i was joking when i';d said we were going.

i really hate whoever put a video camera on normal cameras. this trip the video recorder has seriously damaged my cred. hahah, no but really. i just saw videos of me dancing on a table, on my own. it was so much cooler in my head, on camera it plays like a scene from Bridget jones' diary.

oh so i met the farmer, we had a fake wedding, he picked me up and nearly broke his wrist. then he told me the backstage goss fromk the show and how it works, some details have left me, the jugs were flowing (at $16, bloody west coast) he was a bit old for me to want to marry him (aimee? interested?) but he was very lovely. there was also a group of trendies hanging around, i was trying to guess where they were from, most of them dressed well but normaally but one girl loooked like she stepped off a fashion shoot. ingruiging in kilbarri. so i made friends with one of the boys and then went and sat with them. the girls were not so fun. then the others came over and joined me and they girls were a little bit more friendly seeing that i wasnt trying to steal their (dull) men. then i spilt my beer on one of them and friendship over. they left.

one of the farmer's friends, oh yes he was a pearl farmer, wanted to continue 'partying' at his house and i nearly got sucked in until the others talked some sense into me. so back to bed we went. not before tackling chris in the dorm and waking up nicolas by climbing all over his bed. he loves me, really.

today we were useless. teh one not hungover and sleep deprived person was co-pilot so in the back there was zero conversation. no more games of shoot shag marry and no more girls vs boys bickering.

we were meant to start making dinner at 7.30 but now it's 8.21 and nicolas is still in the shower, britta is on the phone to her sister bella (snap) laughing her head off and talking a million miles an hour in german. i need to remember t film her laugh, it;s so good. chris looks like hugh hefner reading a book on his bed,.

terrible news: britta and i forgot our half full bottle of vodka on the bus.

good news: we could feed a small country with the amount of food we took off the bus that would have been thrown out otherwiise.

up to date, oh yeah, part two of two

this is a quick apology for the retarded state of the last two posts. i wrote them on notepad which is difficult and now im uploading as we pass through carnarvon on the bus bumpy all the way.

it was strange being on the 20 seater bus/truck with only five of us, especially as one person had to sit up the front with mark, our tour guide. on that first day i felt so sick so i dont think we spoke much. there was

a lot of sleeping and ipod listening, reading was not an option. we passed through port headland, the last place we thought we would have reception until just out of perth. we were meant to visit the brothels, quite an

industry apparently because the ratio of men to women i 21 to 1. we ran out of time though, too long cruising arounf the supermarket and bottle shop buying avocados and bourbon. two very precious commodities in

the middle of nowhere. mark is not difficult to get to know, he is very upfront, swears a lot, tells inappropriate stories but is actually very compitent as a tour guide in terms of safety and information. he is also very

easy to be upfront with. some of the things he says though, honeswtly bizarre, we have a list at the back of my journal of all the stories he has told us that he probably shouldnt have such as punching gays

and stories about naked and drunk girls on tours. we've all been taking turns sitting up the front with him.

we spent the second third and fourth night in karijini national park. fully owned and run by the tradition aboriginal groups of the area. we spent two full days hiking around the gorges, climbing along ledges of rocks

and through icy cold water to get to pools and amazing views. some of it was quite difficult but it was worth it. the information centre was also great, heaps and heaps of information on the history as well as

the environment. i got so caufght up in there i didnt notice that all the otehrs had left, they waited for a while until chris was sent in to get me, he game me such i fight i was so engrossed in stuff about the night sky.

each night before bed we would play president, often in sunglasses (you play better) with a drink in hand before bed. we were so tired at the end of each day. in bed around 10 each night. i suppose it was

the same with the other group but having so many different people around it wasnt so blatantly obvious. mark, our guide, thinks we are massive downers.

so after a couple of days in karijini we undertook the epic drive from karijini to exmouth. 800 kilometers of nicholas as co-pilot choosing the music, and enjoying marks company. i was lucky, i was co-pilot one of the days

in karijini which meant only about an hour in the hot seat. although the day after tomorrow i will have a long long drive in the front ahead of me.

in exmouth we drove up to the vla-something lighthouse, past the navy base, to see the sunset. what a romantic spot, and so perfectly fitting to bump in to our lovely honeymoon couple from the last trip. they

came running over towards us with arms in the air, hugs and kisses all round. very surprising but such a highlight. we figured out that we were in the same hostel and made plans to hang out after dinner.

and what a riveting game of cards we played. there was another group staying there and they invited us to join them for drinks on the beach but it was a unanimous no from us. so reclusive in our happy new family.

the next day, which was yesterday, i'm finally catching up, we went sand boarding just outside exmouth and snorkelling at torquoise bay in the cape range national park. other people saw reef sharks and turtles

but we only saw pretty fish. my mask kept fogging up and trying to fix it i kicked a bit of coral which was very upsetting, being a terrorist to mother nature so after an hour under water we called it quits. at

lunch i was an idiotusing my swiss army knife to cut up my kiwi, i tried to wipe my knife on my thigh but it cut my skin. it was not the greatest moment for me. we arrived in coral bay last night just before dinner time.

had free hamburgers and half price beer ($2 thankyou hostel) but were still hungry (they all think i have worms and mark has been calling me fang) so nicholas britta and

i went for a scavange in the back of the bus and found teh ice cream, the one thing that mark had told us we werent allowed to eat. so we hid in there in the shadows devouring this four litre tub of ice cream

like naughty little children, then i sprinkled some coffee all over the top which meant we had to eat even more so that the others woulld never know. when we came back to the bar and sat back down we got

harassed by random men, britta was convinced that these were all men on a 'boys weekend' on the loose for teh weekend. one man came and told us that he didnt like raw fish, then told us that the new zealander had

sushimi grade fish with all that wasabi shit and we should go try some. then liz was eating an orange and had half a piece in her hand when this tall man swept over and launched towards her, when he was

cms away from it liz realised he was trying to eat her fruit and pulled it away. chris fled the scene, leaving us with all our suitors. once we finished our beers we made a quick escape to our room to watch a movie,

where half way through the film fireworks were set off outside our dorm and then a drunk man poked his head into our window and harrassed us about staying in.

so close to finishing this epic post. we're sitting in our room still, since i started writing this post we have cooked dinner, eaten dinner, found christine, drank tea, came back to our room and went through photos and

videos from the trip. so many embnarrassing ones. britta and nicholas have disappeared outside for a sneaky cigarette while we figure out what we're doing over the next few days. today was our last beach day,

goodbye tan. we were so lazy, although we did walk to the shark sanctuary and visit 'the best bakery on the west coast' for lunch. mostly we were beached whales reading and lying in the sun. although we did

have a very quick snorkel where we saw a huge sting ray.

we've been playing a lot of shoot shag marry over the last couple of days. mostly with people from the group of 20 but we ran out of combinations pretty quickly. so we hadnt covered anyone from the group for a while

until tonight when britta and liz and i were discussing the brazilian boys and jasper, the youngest boys on the bus. we decided that you had to marry all three but one would be from 25 to30, the next marriage would be

from 30 to 40 and then you would have a two year midlife crisis and then your last marriage you have to be with forever. so we decided the best combination would be marcelo for 25-30. pedro from 30-40 (for child

bearing, with that lovely skin of his, and then jasper for life becasue he is such a chiller. so we were discussing who could have who when just as chris walked in. he was very unimpressed that we were

deciding these boys futures for them. typical chris, such a masculinist.

anyway, this has taken far too long, im sure no one has read all this but still. done.

oh yes, hostel for perth booked. home soon.

blogging on the move part one of two

writing my blog from chris' miniature lap top in our dorm in coral bay. internet is stupidly expensive again so i am writing i8t here and then going to move it over quickly to the connected

hostel computers once i'm done. ah, t5hisese keys are sosmall and my fingeers are too bi8g! oh macbook how i misds you.

i need to get my journal out to remember what i was going to write about. last time i wrote was my first day in broome i think.

i'm going to make these into seperate posts so they arent too confusing. but the next three are actually all written from coral bay on wednesday the 4th of august.

both days in broome were spent at the beach, actually yhe last time i wrote i hadnt been over

to cable beach yet, i'd spent th ewhole morning at the supermarket and then doing washing, and then blogging. well the rest of the day was spent splash9ing down on cable beach before showering (what a luxary!)

and then heading into towwn on hte $3.50 bus to meet the others at tracys amazing apartment for beers before successfully watching the staircase to the moon which we had missed the night before.

it was stupidly beautiful, i know i have said that about a lot of things lately but the moon looked so big and it all happaened so quickily, the colours changing and the light coming and then goi8ng, all in a couple o9f minutes

it was an impossible choice, to photograph or to watch? luckily we had nature photographer extraudinaire tracy taking lots of professional shots so the rest of us could relax and enjoy the spectacle for the most part,

although it was difficult to resist trying, you had to keep your cameera veery very still so that it wouldn't blur, at one point my flat head became a tripod for the brazilian camera however i'm fairly confident that my photos

still came out better than theirs.

after the staircase to the moon was over we wandered over to the markets for dinner, ate on the grass and then walked back to tracys 'party house' for more beers. we were all a little delirious, maybe from sleeping

without swags or maybe because our numbers were dwingelling quickly, we'd gone from 21 to more like 15 and were loosing traacy the next day. whatever it was, an outrageous attempt of caapturing eachother in

every variation of photograph was attempted. i dont think there was a moment where there wasnt at least one photo or video being taken. marcelo soaked up the limelight making vidoes of himself in his gay

persona, he's a very good at acting the part. georgia, pedro and i were captured in possibly hundreds ofphotos where we were shaking our heads as fast as we could, jasper and nicholas once again spent a

huge portion of the night outside rolling and smoking cigarettes.

the second and last day in broome was spent entirely at teh beach, from when we woke up (after a huge egg bacon avocado breakfast) until sunset and goodbyes to tracy, we did not leave our fort of three

umbrellas set up by cory/cody whoi drills holes in the sand and looans you an umbrella for the day for $10. pedro was burried in the sand and then underwent cosmetic surgery where his sexuality became even

more confused than before.

layers and layers of sunblock were applied, note to self/any readers, do not ask pedro to do it, i'm proibably still absorbing the sunblock he put on my back. britta liz and i had ice creams up at the cafe were

i got served by my new friend in my dorm, this was a little bit awkward, not sure why. we brought georgia back her soy chocolate milkshake which was laughed at by the mean brazilian boys who had taken to

asking whether everything single thing she went to eat was gluten and lactose free.

oh, i can hear temper trap playing somewhere in the diistance. our room is a huge mess. there are five of us in this six bed dorm, thankfully the sixth bed is empthy, that could be awkward for that person. actually,

christine, one of the girls from t he group from darwin to perth is arriving here in coral bay tonight and staying at the same hostel., will have to keep our eyes open. it's been really strange, since we left broome

we have bumped into christine at two random truckstops and now she will be here tonight and we also bumped into aurelie and michael, the french honeymoon couple, in exmouth at teh lighthouse watching the

sunset. they were also at our hostel that night, we all played cards until 9.30 when no one could keep their eyes open any longer.

ok, back to broome, once tracy said goodbye we went back to our respective accomodation, most of us to cable beach backpackers but some lucky ones like georgia over to their single rooms at the kimberly club.

nicholas, french chef, cooked us thai green curry for dinner. then georgia came back over to our hostel (she got in a car with seedy drunk boys and ended up lost cruising around the streets of brroome buit made it safely

back into our arms in the end) they others started playing table tennis and pool, two games that i am appalling at, while i had a sulk with britta and chris, two other non gamers. eventually we went over to the

divers tavern, possibly the worst place i have ever gone out. there was a 'comedian' rhyming about the best sex he ever had. so so bad. and the guy from reception was lurking all around this girl fromour

hostel being a massive creepo. georgia and i went to the toilet and found some laminated signs advertisiing the miss broome compition which we yuanked off the wall and put up our tops. georgia was wearing a flowy top

so you couldnt tell at all with hers but i was wearing a maxi dress so i had to walk very strangely so that you couldnt see the sharp lines near my hips. had to walk with straight legs and hips forward. safe to say, we did an

excellent job and both posters made it out of that place unnoticed. while the others played pool britta pedro nicholas georgia jasper and maybe some others began playing the serious game, sort of like the blinking game but you have to

keep a straight face or you loose. such owild kids letting loose on the streets of broome.

on the way home from the tavern (they stopped serving us at 11.30 at shut at 12) to the hostel, a five minute walk, maybe 10, i realised i really needed to pee and could not possibly hang on for all those steps,

so i decided to pee in the bushes, i found a perfect spot off the road and then marcelo decided that if i was not going to wait then neither would he, ever the gentleman he asked if i would be offended if he peed with me.

i said no, so i went but then i couldnt, deciding that i was not relaxed enough marcelo thought a massge might help, it didnt. being in a maxi dress was tough enough as it made balancing a callange. eventually

though i got it done, there was no way i was going to let him think that i was funny about peeing near a boy (maybe i should be, dont know, but at the time i would not back down, surprise surprise) then without

the others we got lost on the wway homel, thankfully pedro had the skills to direct us back (in portugese) we linked arms and skipped home, i started on the outside but apparently in brazil boys still walk on the

road side to protect the girls and for once i didnt make a fuss about this sort of silly gallant behaviour.

sad that no where was licensed we all ran off to our dorms to search for any remnants of alcohol we had left over. on the table was my 1.5 litre bottle of vodka and raspberry cordial, jaspers absinthe and lemonade, and

bourbon. no one needed anything more to drink but we were reluctqant to go to bed as we were all splitting up the next morning, britta liz, chris, nicholas and i leaving at6.30 and georgia leaving in the afternoon. just the brazilians and jasper

would be there the next night. so we had lots more to drink and taking silly photos. georgia and i were running around like little kids taking photos of her bottom as a special treat for the rest of the group. eventually there were only four of us still

awake, britta and i, jasper and marcelo. reverting back to the serious game we played in absoloute stupor for what seems like hours or perhaps only minutes. as inebriation progressed the game regressed, becoming more like seedy chicken until

it was well and truly time for bed, with only a couple of hours until departure.

i should have packed the night before, the next morning my alarm didnt go off, or maybe it did but i turned it off in my sleep. either way insteead of waking up at 5.50 i woke up at 6.12 when i got a text message from adam

sending it from a couple of hours ahead in melbourne. thankyou adam. that morning was mayhem, i was trying to pack in the dark, still drunk, with clothes still on the washing line etc... i cannot believe that

i managed not to forget anything and to only be five minutes late. lovely jasper woke up early to say goodbye to us, so sweet, and we said goodbye to christine.

and this is where that chapter concludes.

sorry, could not connect to network at this time

speedy blogging, 6 dolla per hour for internet in broome. have had zero reception for the last 10 days or so so i am going crazy with my mobile phone and the internet. well it feels that was in comparrison to the dry spell i have just survived.

so, as said, i'm in broome, the weather is deliscious, lovely friends made on the trip from darwin to broome. don't even know where to start, it's been so long since my last post the thought is a little bit over whelming and once agin this keybard is shit. so excuse the millions of typos to come, i'm rushing to get over to cable beach to join the brazillian boys in colourful speedos.

liz from scotland is sitting next to me, she was my tent partner the one night we slept under a roof, so to speak. She will be coming with me all the way to perth. liz is from a farm in scotland and so has been both excellent in terms of practicality and excellent for laughing at over her accent.

aside from us, everyone who is not at the beach is doing washing at the moment. liz is doing her banking and talking to herself.

ok, where to start. not sure if i wrote on here my plans to track down mark, the awkward but lovely tour guide from kakadu. well i wasnt sure if i should be a stalker and track him down or not, i made a friend at the bar of my hostel and we tossed a coin, the coin said track him down but then i got distracted by this new friend craig from england. and then anoter boy spilt his beer next to me and bought me one (craig wasnt so lucky.) he was stoned and hilarious tellnig us all about his best friend that rochelle that he is in love with who he followed to darwin from perth and now they live together but she doesnt know he loves her and how he dies a little bit inside whenever rochelle has boys stay the night.

stoned beer spiller then went stumbiling away just as mark the tour guide walked in. perfect. i was three beers down and i think i overwhelmed him with my excitement at seeing him. but over the night we had a few awkward chats. craig was lovely though, he told me about traveling with ocd and how it makes dorm rooms difficult. then a girl from his dorm room came over with her latest special friend 'vin diesel' and they decided to call me christina ricci (surprise) an we made plans to go out but it was 2ish and i had to get up at 5.30 and craig was starting to get creepy and lurky so i decided on bed instead.

called adam on the telephone, cannot remember what about except maybe connors kissing some babe at rosie's house.

woke up in the morning to disruption from the bunk bellow mine. this was my first encounter of romance in the dorm and so i panicked. didn't know what to do so i decided to set off my alarm to give the new couple a heads up. turns out i had forgotten to set my alarm the night before so i suppose i owe them a thank you.

waiting in the travel agent for almost an hour for our truck/bus to arrive i met to pretty brazilian boys who were gonig to be on my tour, pedro and marcelo. early in the morning they were lovely... give it 12 hours and they would become evil tormentors.

the first day we went to edith falls, had been there before between alice and darwin but we had more time this time so we got to do the walk up to the waterfall which was amazing. so beautiful. i'm probably not even going to bother trying to explain all the walks through gorges as they will all sound the same but i'll just say now, what a beautiful part of the world.

we slept that night near katherine, right next to a crocodile infested river. marcelo offered to have his swag closest to the river and i was second closest but then when i wasnt looking he moved his a couple of inches so that i became the sacrificial camper.

on the first two days i sat up the front with adam our tour guide. it was great because i got to be dj as well as asking him all the questions i could think of. he told me about his first tour where a boy was being silly trying to take a photo near a ledge in kaherine and fell off into the water. they ran down and made a stretcher out of waterbottles and a swag i think to get him accross the river and keep him still because he had serious serious breaks and wouds. they had no real pain killers or medicine because the tour guides arent legally allowed to carry it and it was too late for the flying doctors to come out because it was going to get dark in a couple of hours. so they waited while he died. it took three hours. his brother was there. and all the girls were in hysterics. once he was dead they could call the police to collect the body. it hadn't really struck me before just how remote it can get here. you are actually on your own. without a satellite phone you mght wait hours and hours just to see another car. if its after lunch there is huge chances that if you get yourself in trouble no one will be able to help you until morning.

on my second day i got sick. i lost my voice and had this really awful can't breathe cough. luckily we passed kananara (spellling) the last town for days, and two canadian doctors that were on the trip convinced me to get cough syrup and these codine painkillers. thank goodness they did, the day walking through the bungle bungles in 30 degree direct sunight for hours and hours was impossibe, if i hadnt had it i dont know what i would have done. almost better now, it only hurts when i laugh but i told that to the pharmacist this morning and she gave me some medicine to help get my laughter back.

aside from liz and the brazilians. jasper is from holland. he is outrageously chill. although.... the other night i was plucking marcelo's nipple/nose/monobrow hairs with a headtorch by the fire after a night of drinking games and jasper discovered his swag was broken so he demanded a spot in my double shvag(that is hw he says it) there is only one of those and it was my turn to have it. i said alright as long as he doesnt try to spoon me. he agreed but silly me forgot all about the dutch oven jokes they had been making all day.

the next morning i realised the rookie mistake made.


that's georgia and lis on the bus.

christine, a girl from norway who has been in australia studying for the last fiveish years taught us about the night sky one night, she had just finished her phd in physics, so that was really special, i can now locate the southern cross and use the poiters to find south. she showed us a lot more but i cuold not retain, the scorpion will never be in my constellatin repertoir i think.

georgia is from geelong but lives in footscray, she is bloody hilarious. her and marcelo made me seem quiet and reserved in comparrison, although, lak of voice helped also.

i've been keeping a juornal so lots of 'dear diary' jokes ahve been made at my expense. but i'm glad that i ahve kept it, even if it is almost impossible to read thanks to the bumpy gibb river road.

a couple of days ago we stopped off for drinks and ice cream at a caravan literally ni the middle of no where, as in the next town is hours away on all sides. it's this little old man on his own who has trouble speaking due to lung cancer. he wasnt very nice to me because i was from boring old melbourne. so random. this country of ours does not stop to make me laugh. the more i see the more i love it.

we've walked to lots of waterfalls and swimmnig holes. there georgia liz and i conquopred fears of jumping from big hights although copped a lot of shit for holding our noses, bikini tops and screamnigh all the way down.

oh my god, but seriously, the brazilian boys are so funny in their speedos. will have to upload photos when i get the chance.

this is all infecting and encouraging my travel bug. britta from germany was telling me about her parents four years travelling around the us and south america for four years in a campervan. i want to go now.

there are 9 of us staying all in the same hostel in broome for a couple of days. it's really nice all being together. i'm running out of time on my internet and the beach is calling.

miss you all dear friends, family and who ever else stumbled upon this useless blog.

table for one, please

Now i'm in darwin all on my lonesome. sharing a dorm with three trashy boys. the room is such a mess. the people at the front desk have begged them to clean it up. i was having confused dreams this morning and hearing all this birdsong. i thought the hostel was playing it over the speaker system. (i dont even think there is one) but turns out it was the boy in the bed bellow mine, snoozing his alarm every ten minutes from 6am (he had work at 7) until 11.15 when we all woke up.

this is my side of the dorm, i really should have photographed the messy side.

i was a massive battler yesterday at the airport. in my head i was all cool calm and collected but my body let me down. being all hot and cold and shakey and hungry etc. of course i was stuck next to annoying people on the plane. i had teh aisle seat, i neeeeeed it because it makes me anxious when im on my own not being able to go for an aisle walk or take a trip to the toilet whenever i like it. but of course when i get to my spot (19c) there are is a man in 19a and a woman in 19c with three kids in 19 d e and f. they ambushed me, telling me their kids are nervous flyers so would i sit next to teh windown to preserve the happiness of the bloody nuclear family. i said ok. but they were fat. and someone kept farting, awful awful farts, the whole way. i needed to go to the toilet because i had paniced at the snack bar and bought water and juice and banana bread. but the fatty family were all sleeping instantly.

oh, this is cazz marching me to the train to the airport.

i waited for ages writing in my journal and reading my soppy love story but eventually i had to push the man until he woke up. he was not happy, then he woke his wife and they both moved their legs to the side. but they were too large, i tried to be all acrobatic but even still i got jammed in the middle of them. it was very awkward wenching my right leg out of the depth of their oversize limbs. i see that i am being mean but it was so hellish i do not care.

today i have been to the supermarket to stock up on sunblock and the like (also shampoo, my shampoo exploded all over all my stuff last night., ) then i went on an epic mission to find a hairdresser who wasnt booked out for the day (it's massive tourism season in darwin at the moment.) one hairdresser was mean and sent me away but then a lovely one directed me to another one that was free. they also waxed my legs... all for $55. winner.

tomorrow i'm up bright and early to start my mission down the west coast. not sure when i will have internet next, probably not for ages. so mum, dad, grans, bell, friends if you are reading this, i am safe, happy, enjoying myself, looking forward to the next few weeks and not to be worried over. missing you all, even you caroline,

46 hours in sydney

Caroline and i mastered the public transport in sydney and arrived at the bus stop near nicola's without drama. nicola gave us tea and toast and a squeaky bed with lots of doonas. although there are six of them that live in the sharehouse three of them were away so we had lots of room to ourselves.

the next morning we got up at 9, well we meant to, i slept in for an hour. and then cruised over to surry hills for a vegan cafe and vintage clothes shops. caroline was the baller with the monies who had intentions to buy up big but surprise surprise i spent more money than i can afford and cazza didn't buy anything.

but i had to. in one vintage shop i found a piece that i need for my birthday party. as you all know the theme is tarantino and i stumbled upon this leotard that was half leather, the top half which was sleeveless and has a massive zip down the middle. teh bottom half is all lacey. the thing is almost impossible to squeeze in but i could not resist. not sure which character i will be but i will use this piece as part of my costume no matter what.

then we went on to bondi beach. nicola dropped in that the boy she has been seeing lives around here, cazz says how does he afford it, nicola says oh he plays football, cazz says oh? nicola says, sydney swans, cazz says how did you meet him, losing her composure, all in a fluster of excitement and envy. nic tells us she is doing nutritional work experience with the sydney swans. it takes cazz a good 12 hours to recover. we also go past two of the apple stores. one with trees in it and some other massive one that we had to stop and go into, up onto each floor.

Nicola has work in the afternoon. cazz and i go to the supermarket to buy food and come homewith hair die. i meant to go blonde and cazz wanted to go light blonde. no idea why we wanted to, probably after being around helena's beautiful blonde curly hair in byron. not that ours would look at all like that but still.

stupid me, did not think about the fact that i had red and purple dye in my hair already. so now i have copper hair on the bottom and awkward blonde in the roots. cazz's colour wasnt strong enough to do anything. fail of a dye sesh.

yesterday we met up with south african ben, who we met in byron and went to the sydney bienali which was on cockatoo island. there were all these cool art installations. my favourite one being of all the dead communist leaders in glass caskets and then castro on his death bed with slightly breathing lips. it was so lifelike. they were waxy sort of. it was so so cool. we also saw lots of multimedia works and short films. such a day well spent.

that night we ordered agoodbye feast of thai takeaway. it was devine. and then cazz took me to the train station and we said our goodbyes.

caroline, please add some sydney photos to this blog post for me.

oh those cheeky little monkey's

A night that began with a game of 6 dollar wine kings and ended in perversion. After doling out our left over food (cazz and i were headed to newcastle to stay with nelson and lisa and then sydney to stay with nicola so we wouldn't be needing it) we bought the cheapest alcohol we could find and began the dreaded game that always ends memorably, or would if someone took enough photos.

Tristan watched while Helena, Jen, Ben, Nir, cazz, me and our new dorm friend KC played. Tristan was committed to his early morning surf plans. Cazz and i intended to see Diane, who we met in Darwin but at 10pm, when we were supposed to be meeting her, we were all still sitting on the couch picking cards. Paul, a very stoned, very confused boy tried to join the game with no alcohol and no sense, we spent the rest of the night taking turns looking after him and trying to shoo him away.

we finally got on the arts factory bus just after 11. And guess who was in line of sight as soon as we walked into cheeky monkey's, DIANE. it was brilliant. a lot of horendous dancing ensued.

Oh and we bumped into Jordi from Barcelona who had been wearing a skirt during the day and who should not be allowed to play have you ever. That's cazz, jordi and diane.

We went home at about three, bumped into paul again, not sure what he was doing waiting outside cheeky monkey's as we had been in there for hours and he was never allowed in but oh well, he climbed on the bus with us. When we got home we decieded to be cheeky monkey;s and have an illegal spa (shuts at 10) so we went up to our dorm and started getting changed until caroline decided that paul should not be able to come in the spa as he would be loud and ruin it for all... so she started saying very loud and slow that we were all going to bed, it took a while for everyone to catch on and stop yelling 'no we arent we're having a spa' but eventually paul was taking to his dorm and tucked in (maybe, not sure).

we all climbed in to the spa, made a whole lot of noise as we climbed in because all the water went out of the spa and into the pool, it was pretty much half full by the time we were all in. No one could stop laughing, blame it on the heat of the spa, it goes to your head, and although we were all starving no one could get out because the fun of being in the contrabanned spa was just too much to say no to. eventually the night watchman discovered us but seeing out pathetically tame we were being decided we were allowed to stay. not the same after that.

most of us got out and had showers and got all snug for bed and then ended up meeting on that bench outside our dorm. Someone points out that two of the team are still in the spa, the joker of have you ever and little british friend. Caroline says how long til they kiss? then they do. before we know if clothes are off and there are mysterious sounds coming from the spa. well not so mysterious. No one seemed to think that this was not a spectator sport and so we stayed, not quite until the end as the show ran overtime, impressing everyone after 45 minutes. eventually, sobering up, we decided it was time to go to bed. at the time there were no moral qualms, the next morning however, we were all guiltridden, hiding our faces as our two special friends greeted us good morning.

Not the Merlot

Presently in Sydney, staying at Nicola's share house in Leichardt. Nic is at work at her local pub, cazz and i just cooked dinner and now we are about to lose all dignity dying our hair shades of blonde. She is back in Melbourne next week so she will have to face being laughed at while i will be hiding on the other side of the country for the next month. Silly Cazz. Nicola's flatmate that she doesn't like is practicing his claronette, it's a comical backdrop.

This blog post, however, is about our journey to newcastle and our day there with lisa and nelson. We arrived just before 10pm in new castle and were met by lisa and nelson and the train station. The 10 hour bus trip was unpleasant, after our night at cheeky monkeys we were feeling a little bit under teh weather. plus we missed the shuttle bus from the arts factory into town so we had to run in the heat with our packs on. cazz was wearing her pleather and felt nauseous for ages after.

As we were running Helena and Nir passed us by on their bus to Nimbin. we were sad to see them go and a bit sad that we weren't making it to nimbin. The greyhound usually stops every couple of hours for snacks but that day we went nearly four before we were allowed to stop off for food. When we finally got to the truck stop place cazz got a pie and i ordered a burger. we wolfed that all down and then i ordered a pie and cazz ordered a burger. being a slow eater i didnt have time to finish my pie and had to throw it out. soul destroying. When we finally arrived so many hours later we were looking forward to a tea and a chat with anybody else. But bloody lisa and nelson provided much much more. we walked into the house to the smell of a roast chicken and vegetables. then there was apple pie and custard for desert. Nelson is a big master chef fan. caroline and i appreciated that, a lot. They offered us their bed, but we could not accept, so we slept on blow up mattresses and sleeping bags on teh living room floor. Lisa played the digeridoo for us, surprisingly good.

the next morning we hired a car and drove out to the hunter valley for wine tasting as nelson thought this was the best way to spend a day around new castle.

we paid $5 for an hour long tour at one of the vineyards, forget the name. overall we drank far too much. had to have numerous snack stops. we packed so much food in the back of the car and ate almost all of it. at the last vineyard we stopped at we discovered outrageously cheap massive bucket things of port. apparently some uni student had been buying it, packaging it and selling ti for huge profits at the uni. also popular amongst fishermen apparently.

We wanted to make sushi that night for dinner after seeing some of the wines saying that they go well with sushi and whetting our appetites. but the fishmonger said it wasnt sushigrade so we had to choose something else. natural resort back to pasta and garlic bread. but lisa caramelised bananas and we had sticky date pudding sara lee ice cream which was so yum.

That night we got back on the bus and headed down to sydney, leaving at 9.20 and arriving at 11.40. but that is another story...

byron bay, what have you done to my camera?

Useless Caroline Downes did not bring her camera cord with her and now my camera is misbehaving so we have no way of getting photos off cameras and on to the screen for all the avid readers out there.
While this is distressing, i need to stay on the computer to charage our ipods, so i will write another blog post just to waste time. We have a 10 hour bus ride tomorrow to Newcastle to see Lisa and Nelson, friends we made in Alice Springs. With flat ipods that journey would be horrendous.

So yesterday was thrown away. We did not achieve much at all. Today, however, has been fun. We are fully recovered and spent the day at the beach with new friends, Tristan, Ben, Helena, Nir and Jennifer. The boys went surfing while they girls lay on the beach (very puberty blues) Cazz and i had a frolic in the sea for the sake of beach hair and because we could not resist acting like seals in the shallows.


Some kids had built a mermaid in the sand and then another kid had ruined her face so we decided to fix her up, make a merman and a merdog as well, to keep her company. It was laborious but the end result was magnificent, i think our street art may start being commissioned. Although the merdog, my creation, ended up being a merkangaroo, the overall result was fab. Just as we were about to leave for falafels caroline says 'look rom, its steve and aj' poor troody was left off the list. Surprise surprise. Later on we also see will with his girlfriend. May bump in to them tonight at cheeky monkeys or the buddha bar.


the afternoon was spent in a falafel bar playing backgammon and listening to Nir sing along to Israeli songs. Guy from brisbane is somewhere in the arts factory at the moment, i should have a look for him. We're also hoping to see Diane tonight.

Riding in Cars with Boys

Will add photos tomorrow. In Byron Bay at the Arts Factory. Struggling with difficult/temperamental keyboard. Looking forward to a six dollar butter chicken for dinner at the hostel cafe. Had veggie lasagna for lunch, tres delish,. Today has been thoroughly wasted. We only have today and tomorrow really here and today - gone. nothing achieved except for a walk to the supermarket 20 minutes ago to buy emergency snacks for hungry campers.
Since Myella, we have been in Noosa, Brisbane and now we're in Byron. Noosa was great for our health. We stayed with my youthful grandma De and two of her good friends, Di and Wince. They grnadma'd us, fed us up, let us have access to their washing machine and taught us about the history of contraception with a focus on the 50s. Delightful. Caroline and iI arrived in noosa after a 14 hour bus trip from Myella to rockhampton to brisbane and then back up again. We were dropped at the bottom of the hill separating us from beds, at the bottom of Hasting street. The climb was hell but we had naps until three and then woke up to Deidre' classical salad, the best lunch in the world.
Caroline got her hair cut by chatty american sister hairdressers who convinced us that we should go and see the latest twilight. we obliged. There were boys everywhere in that cinema, bizarre. We joined the hairdressers exclusive club entitled 'Die Bella Die' (ps not baby sister bell, you can live a while longer) Jacob, what a babe. On our last day in noosa we also saw my other gran who was also up with two friends. Honestly, it was a long weekend of grandmas, we were indulged by six grandmas, it was heaven.


We had an 8am bus from Noosa to Brisbane, the toilet was broken so it was a couple of hours of torture for me. We stayed in a big aqua blue hostel called Chill. There were 10 people in our dorm, when we arrived there was just a big sleepy redheaded scot who smelt like last night's beer. We made friends with a pretty german boy with lovely long curly hair and decided to have a bit of an explore. Of course we found a cheap bookshop and bought three for $25 and then found a cafe for lunch. There were free postcards which was exciting, we hadn't seen them for ages. We found a gorgeous cafe in the middle of the city that was like a closed in rainforest, well not quite but you had no idea you were in the city sitting in with all the green.

That night we saw Clare who we met in Central. We explored southbank, had pizza and cheap wine, cazz and clare bought matching owl bags which are beautiful, they both could buy the same ones considering they live on opposite ends of teh world. Bundle i know you arent reading my blog as you are in NYC but if you were you would also know that we bought you your birthday present here. Clare also gave me her Global Gossip card, that is how i am writing now my pretties.

The next day we had an indulgent sleep in and then went to the super market, bought lunch ingredients, and strolled over to the botanical gardens. We had a picnic and got harassed by the birds who wanted caroline's sandwich. We went to the cinema because the weather wasn't nice and saw animal kingdom which was enjoyed. We sat at the palace cinemas cafe for hours after the film having coffees, brownies and hot chocolates, writing post cards, writing in journals and reading. Caroline is reading a Paulina Simmons and although she protests about the book often, is rarely without it.



We meant to go to the supermarket to scavenge around for a cheap dinner, turns out teh coles in Brisbane shuts at 5pm on a saturday, who knew. We went for a walk and found lots of nice little bars but no supermarket. We went back to the coles to ask a waiter at the restaurant opposite. He didnt know but a short boy with brown hair introduced himself as AJ and offered us a lift to the iga. Now we all know that you shouldnt talk to strangers, or get in their cars, especially when they are a sort of fluro bluey green but he told us of his troubles in making his boyfriend home made mandarin cordial and we decided he was harmless enough. WRONG. Listen to your parents kids, auntie caroline and i are lucky to be alive.

His friend zooms past us in his flamboyant car. AJ borrows cazz's phone to call him to say he drove past us. 10 minutes later we get in the car. the driver is not particularly friendly at first. He zooms off as soon as both my legs are in the door, door still open. He is playing loud screamy music, i feel anxious. He is literally speeding up to 40ks over the speed limit in little brisbane streets and then slamming on teh breaks. The boys tell us they are going home to be housewives, that is what they do full time, and to take copious amounts of drugs. They ask us how we feel about party drugs, impartial we say, being diplomatic, they tell us they like them but dont drink, cazz asks what their poison of choice is and the driver answers straight faced 'crystal.' We miss the iga because the driver wasnt listening to Ajs directions, we do some more hooning before arriving. They kindly offer to drop us near our hostel as they are headed back in that direction anyway, not wanting to die but ages away from home we say yes thanks.

Trying to contain our laughter, we do our shopping and get back in the car. AJ seems to be struggling in his hunt for the ingredients needed for the cordial. While we wait for him his friend, the driver tells us he got his lisence back today, having lost it for driving under the influence of crystal meth on the night of the lady gaga concert, he didnt even get to see the end because during he went to get more and that's when they got hime. He didnt seem to mind though because he hates Queens, at Gaga was full of them. He says they deserve to get bashed. He didnt seem to have much time for lesbians either. Then he worried we might be and checked that we werent. Turns out for being off your face on meth you only get a $200 fine and lose your license for a month. Before illegally stopping on a highway to let us out he tells us to find him on facebook, 'Vagina Rose' facebook me girls!

That night we were hoping to see a family friend of mine but due to me and her being useless at organising anything that never ended up eventuating. Instead we drank wine on the roof of the hostel, went to a couple of backpacker bars with new friends and eventually scoped out the infamous valley.

Arrived home at 5, setting alarms for 7 was soul destroying but we made it. Most of our dorm was happy to wake up when we did anyway, wanting to discuss the soccer.

Just before we pumped into our friend Diane in teh supermarket, not knowing she is in Byron. We might go to Nimbin with her tomorrow. Anyway, dinner time.

horsing around myella

On uor last morning in Airlie cazz and i went and got smoothies, this turned out to be a brilliant move as the lady in the shop told us that the local surf shop around the corner was giving away free clothes, shoes, bags etc because it was their 21st birthday. We were skeptical so caroline minded the bags while i went to investigate. it was pandemonium! Every visitor to the shop could take one free thing and then everything else was 50% off. That morning i had been eyeing off a girl in a maxi dress knowing that i wouldnt be able to excuse myself buying one. Thank you god, i found myself a nice one for free! I tried calling cazz but as usual she had her head in a book, and while she is always glued to her phone whenever i need her she never answers! I went back and shook some sense into her and then she came back with some fun shorts.

From Airlie Caroline and i set off on a long bus trip from airlie to Rockhampton. The bus took 7 hours. These two boys that had been on our greyhound before tried to get on without tickets, just with a recept from NAB. They argued for almost an hour which was painful because it meant we had a whole extra hour on the bus. There was also a boy who went to caulfield in the year above us on the bus who we spoke to for a while which made things a little less dull. This is caroline snoozing on the bus.


We spent one night in Rockhampton with locals constantly telling us to be careful and that the area was pretty rough. The next morning we had a 6am bus to Myella where we were staying on a farm. Myella was great, they had two birds that lived with them, one of them with that disease that makes all its feathers fall off, he actually looked like a toy with blue skin and google eyes. A family owned it, it was a cattle farm that breeds the cowes that make the marbled meat that is sold to japan for $1000. We were there for three days and two nights. There were all sorts of characters there. This father and daughter, the daughter was a bit of a winey princess, she was our age and thought she was a horse riding expert. Her father ray though was the most irritatnig person in teh world. Always trying to 'help' cazz and i, tellnig us how to pour water properly from teh billy and how to cut crusts off the bread for jaffles. He tried to saddle my horse (of course i had teh crazed horse) and nearly got trampled (highlight of my life) Cazz also had a derangde horse on the first day but wasnt man enough to keep him, poor cazz, what a weak soul she has.



I made her wear this helmet, telling her the helmet chooses the rider. hahaha. poor cazz, such a battler.

This is cazz when we were learning how to ride motorbikes. They teach you and then grade you and if you get a C you're allowed to ride up to the lookout on your own to see the sunset, the first day cazz and i got Ds so we were only allowed to go around in circles on the little track but we improved the next day.

Our cow milking skills also improved over the days, the first day i was useless, cazz was ok at it but it was quite embarrassing as the 4 year old french boy was better than us.
That is me with my devil horse, barnaby, he used to race in japan and apparenly they were quite mean to him so now he is very difficult.

Oh, this is the sunset from the night that we were finally allowed to cruise up there on our own. Actually, Liam, the 12 year old grandson of the owners 'felt like coming with us' but i think they actually sent him up with us to watch us, caroline was useless at stopping and i battled at starting.

This hen here was sitting on 8 eggs, it was very scary having to put our hands under her and feeling around for eggs while she pecked at our hands.

After Myella we got a two hour bus back to Rockhampton, had an hour to get dinner, had a bus from 7pm until 6am, then had to go back up to noosa as the bloody greyhound doesnt go through the sunshine coast on teh way south, this added like 5 hours onto our trip. At about 2am i realised i had no water and the tap on the bus wasnt working so i stayed awake until our next stop and then went looking for a tap thinking i would find one in the bathrooms, but they were locked, luckily i went for a bit of a jog and found a drive through maccas that was open. No one was around and i had no idea if the bus driver knew i had gotten off but i ran over to the drive througfh and lined up behind the cars. all the hungry drunks were very confused by me, yelling out silly questons. At the time i was very frustrated and still half asleep but now i realise that a girl wanting tap water in pyjamas at two oclock in the morning without a car would be a bit strange.

this blog is now probably about nine weeks of lurking australia

my nomadic desires are battling my financial planning. i am really really tempted to have a bit of a cruise of the west coast before coming home. i'm not sure if i've mentioned but caroline and i are now tour addicts. we love them. the painful bus music, the awkward people who loiter around you while you cut up the onions. the irritating ones who refuse to even rinse their bloody tea cups. we're hooked. and there is this 21 day tour across the west coast. it will make me outrageously in debt to the commonwealth bank, take just under three weeks of uni off me and it is incredibly cool to pay for a tour in your own country, and yet, temptation is getting me.

We're in Airlie Beach at the moment, arrived in the afternoon yesterday and we're leaving just before lunchtime tomorrow. almost everyone here is going on sailing tours but we decided against, mostly because i've done a couple of family sailing trips up here already and also because apparently you dont even really sail. not too sure if cazz wanted to because i think i just assumed we wouldnt but she doesnt seem too upset.

tomorrow we are headed to rockhampton, getting there at night before setting off on our farm stay the morning after for three days. cazz and i are stupidly excited. we're quad biking around a cattle farm, we actually have no idea what we will actually be doing but we're looking forward to it alot. lucky i have my beautiful akubra so i can be cattle farm chic.

magnetic island was strange. they had just had a half moon party a couple of days before. we were there for tuesday and every tuesday they play bingo. we nearly won the first round which had a prize of a free jug, we only needed one number. the third round prize was a double room in stead of a dorm and the fourth round was like $200. naturally the game was very tense. we were sitting by the beach complaining about the trance music being played at 11pm when an awkward english boy who was 18 took a liking to cazz, trying to impress her with him music knowledge, she destroyed him with hers, his was notably underwhelming, then we went to bed thinking we would be first... but turns out our whole dorm was asleep already,.

In Airlie we;ve met up with Lewys, the welsh boy we met in port douglas snorkeling. he is staying in the same hostel as us and might even end up being on our bus tomorrow. he isnt coming to the farm though, i think he is off to fraser island next.
Apparently welsh girls don't drink beer so lewys was impressed with our efforts and subsequently, we've decided to be adored in wales.




















In Airlie they stop doing jugs after midnight so after moving from bar to bar and even spent a while in the irish pub listening to bad live music and watching a drunk girl trying to seduce the singer we went for a walk that culminated in tree climbing and playing at the park and ultimately mcdonalds.I know this is against dorm etiquette but i couldn't resist this morning snapping a photo of the pantless annoying girl who came home in the wee hours and woke everyone up...