One Mans Odyssey

So as I said I booked onto a second Mojosurf camp. Bright and early I got up with a room mate who had also signed up and we ran down for a quick breakfast to find that Subway doesn't open at 7am. It's funny how more and more in this world you expect everything to always be open all the time. Dissapointeed I settled for a chicken sandwich at Sumo Salad instead and headed off to the bus.

With a new coach we headed down to Crescent head where there was much surfing, partying and there may or may not have have been skinny dipping in the middle of night. This time around I partied a lot more as I already had some surfing knowledge and wasn't as worried about being too tired for a lesson in the morning. Turns out I still managed to get up earlier than most everyday.

Half way through the week we moved up to Arrawarra Beach location of the second surf camp location and stocked up for a beach party. On this surf camp there were quite a lot of Germans for some reason. It was weird out of all the times this is where I have felt most like I'm away from home and it wasn't even down to Australians. The language difference ha a big effect, props to everybody who goes to countries where they can't even speak the language.

By the time we reached Byron on Sunday we were all pretty good friends and most of us staying in the parties carried on into the Beach Hotel. Those that weren't in the same hostel all came together and we ended up booking into Backpacker inn together in the end anyhow which I rated much higher than Aquarius the hostel in which we arrived.

This when the problems began. I had been trying to creatively avoid the fact that my money supply was disappearing pretty fast but now it came round to hit me in the face. After much creative accountancy and fancy plans I decided I was screwed and would have to ring home (You have to do this at least once in your trip eh?). This was probably my lowest point in the whole of my journey so far and I hated nothing more than having to do it but there you go. My amazing Aunt stepped in to bail me out. Unfortunately not realising how last minute I'd left things I ended up borrowing some money from one of the surf camp guys whilst waiting for my money to arrive just so that I wouldn't be homeless. This is not a great position to be in so kids, watch out!

Money came through and I ended up in a fantasy conversation with two of the guys from surf camp about how cool it would be to have our own party house in Byron Bay. Not content with leaving it as a nice mental image we decided to try and make it a reality. There was a purple house two minutes from our hostel with a vacancy sign on it so we gave them a call $299 per night. It seemed expensive and the idea kind of fizzled out nobody really talking about it.

Despite the fact I had run out of money days earlier I knew there was a way to make it all possible. Me being me, I couldn't leave it and calculated the costs for both the house and food for a week if we shopped together and the costs of living in a hostel buying food individually. Believe it or not the prices worked out practically the same so we proposed the idea to the group that we rent this 3 bed house for one week at an affordable price with food included. Everyone went for it! This began the "Byron Bay Purple House Crew". I'll bring you more in the next couple of days…

Funnily enough when this place goes quiet for a small while it's usually when the most is going on. Ideally I would like to update this every other day or so but sometimes this just isn't possible. When I last spoke to you I was back in Sydney. Well after a couple weeks in Wake Up - Room 204 it was time to move on again. But first of course there was the obligatory trip to the blue mountains.

Two hours on the train to Katoomba and I arrive at about mid-day. I find cafe for lunch as I have not yet eaten and proceed to have the most amazing kangaroo burger I've had in Australia yet. Good food, the sun is shining and things are looking good for the day.

I talk to a couple of the locals and decide that I will walk to the blue mountains rain forest rather then spend far too much on a tourist bus. For those that do not know the Blue Mountains is a rainforest area which gets it's name from the blue mist that eminates from it's eucalyptus plants. It is home to many great walks and views.

When I finally get to "Skyworld" the tourist trap towards the top of the mountains I give in and get a day pass to use their facilities. This includes a round trip on a canyon car which sits hundreds of metres up and has a glass floor, a cable car down to the forest boardwalk and use of the skytrain which happens to the most vertically inclined railway in the world if I remember correctly. To be honest with you the only trip out of these three that I really appreciated was the train so unless you would feel really unsafe in this or want somebody pointing out the already obvious sights that surround you then you can skip the rest.

The tourist trap drops you at a boardwalk which would take no more than 2 hours to complete if you were taking your time and reading every sign. To be quite honest this was OK but not really of interest to me as the boardwalk made me feel like I was in a man made park not a great natural beauty.

Taking the initiative I decided that I was cool enough to take the 6 hour round trip to the ruined castle by myself. About an hour in after rolling my ankles a couple times due to my footwear, climbing over two fallen trees and running through clouds of bugs I decided maybe the full 6 hour walk wasn't for me and turned back. This happened to be the best decision I made all day as literally 1-2 minutes after exiting the rainforest one of the biggest thunderstorms I have seen in a long while rolled over.

Exhausted from over 4 hours of strenuous walking and over 2500 steps to enter and exit the forest I sheltered under a public BBQ hut at a nearby campsite whilst the storm passed over. The day was really great but I feel it would be a much more fun activity to do with a friend or two. I went alone and found that though everything did look pretty there were oftentimes I would have preferred to be with someone to chat to rather than a full on day of solitary walking.

Two sleeps later and I signed up for the Mojosurf camp again. This time heading from Sydney up to Byron Bay where I am now. There is a lot more to tell but dinner beckons, check back in the next couple of days for more…

Last week saw in the first night of the Sydney Festival, something I didn't even know existed until I read about it on a poster about the city. Not really knowing what it was I set the dates in my mind and went about my business. Cut to a few days later and I'm bored in my room reading a really bad book I'd picked up off the hostel floor (it was that good). Suddenly I realise tonight is the first night of the festival. I quickly manage to find out there are two main locations (apparently there were more) and head to the first Hyde Park.

On arrival at Hyde Park it's raining slightly but there is a good atmosphere and a jazz band playing next to the fountains. The park looks great at night with the lights and stage all set up. I watch for a few minutes before speaking to a friend who is down at the other Location, Martin Place, and decide to meet him there. When I get there the street is closed off by police and they aren't letting anyone in. Eventually I find there is an alley that leads into the street that people are freely walking between and get through.

Wow! This is not at all what I been expecting. In the middle of the Central Business District there is a stage set up with DJs playing a mix between Breaks, Dance and Drum n Bass. There is a huge TV screen which keeps flashing between the stage and people in the crowd sitting on each others shoulders. The atmosphere is electric and the street is filled like you would not believe, with everyone going crazy left right and centre.

What follows is three hours of hardcore dancing in the middle of the CBD, chats with random Aussies and just a generally great time. The beauty of it all is that for the first evening every event is completely free. This really was a unique experience that you would never get back home. It's so great to see something like this in the centre of the city with everybody getting along.

There hasn't been as much posted here recently and I must apologize. It's not that I've forgotten about this place, in fact it's quite the opposite. To ensure that I can keep bringing this to you it's come to the point in my trip where work is on the horizon and I have been preparing to look at that. As much as I would like to spend my entire year partying every second not needing to work, reality won't allow this, yet.

So that was last weekend, now onto this one. It's a Saturday evening and I'm sitting here tired writing especially for you. I was out very late last night in one of the local bars named Scruffy Murphy's where you can get a steak, chips and a beer for only $10, the ultimate in low price technology. Then there is a club downstairs where I partied with some people from my hostel. When my chips are up, perhaps I can busk with my bad didgeridoo playing and still get enough for a meal here eh?

Then today for some silly reason I was awake and up at 9 in the morning. Spent a couple hours surfing at Bondi and oh my! You would think that I'd never done it before. I felt so unfit and seemed to have totally lost any ability I had to surf within just an 11 day break. I'm considering setting up camp for a couple weeks somewhere and just surfing every day to drill the sport into my brain. A warning to all aspiring surfers, Unless you have a special ability to pick things up with ease and pick them up anytime make sure you get out there regularly. It's amazing how quickly you can unlearn things. Will Daniel ever get his insane surfing skills back? Find out next time…

This is a question that seemed to grip  the whole city in the run up to new years. Where actually was the best place to see in the new years. Dancing the night away on Bondi Beach, enjoying the fireworks at the harbour or going to a club night.

For most backpackers it seemed that the best option would be the fireworks. They are free to watch and it is an experience that is unique to Sydney. The next question then becomes, from where to watch the fireworks. From what I can make out there are two great locations suited to different things.

The first is actually inside the harbour near circular quays and the botanical gardens. Problems here being that only a limited amount of people are allowed to enter and you are not allowed to bring your own drinks. There is a bar available with reasonable prices but stupidly weak alcohol to prevent people drinking all day and going crazy by night.

The second is the location we chose, Cremorne Point. You are located on the opposite side of the harbour and can see both the opera house and harbour bridge fully. Not only this but the location is only restricted by what time you get there. There are no gates or security teams, you can bring all the drinks you want and go unchecked and generally have a great day and evening.

We arrived at Cremorne at 10:30am and the place was already quite full though we lucked out and found a spot directly at the front (we are guessing people avoided it as it was on a slope right next to the rocks).  People were arriving all day by ferry and bus amongst others. It's amazing how many people can fit into such a small place when they want to.

It started to get dark at around 8PM and the first fireworks were at 9PM. The air was still warm and the atmosphere excited as the first few rockets flew into the night air. There were cheers all round and what followed were a good 10 minutes at least of family fireworks.

A couple hours and a lot of partying later the time rolled around and it was New Years. This time the entire city erupted with fireworks. There were buildings, boats, the bridge and at least 6 central locations we could see that all let off synchronized fireworks.

There is no way to put into words the display that Sydney put on, you have to see it to believe it. All I am going to say is that this was definitely the best fireworks show that I've seen in my life. It was well worth the early start and all in all a great day.

One of my main goals whilst visiting Australia was to spend Christmas on the beach sipping Pina Coladas. Seeing as how it is near impossible to find a pina colada anywhere I've been I decided that just a few nice drinks on the beach would do.

I arranged to meet with a couple friends I met in Byron and we all headed down to Coogee for a BBQ. Not quite the traditional Christmas I'm used to. The queues for the BBQ were long, I advise anyone considering this option to make sure they either arrive early or be prepared to wait.

Once everything had been cooked we all sat around eating our efforts and in true British style Christmas crackers were brought to the beach so that we could all sit around wearing the coolest of cool paper hats. I even got a brush toy in mine.

After we were all fed somebody decided that it would be a good idea to stroll down to Bondi Beach rather than get a taxi. A couple hours later we rolled in to Bondi and saw that things had been a lot more restricted here. There were fences surrounding the beach and you were not allowed to bring any alcohol down.

In the centre of the beach there was a huge sandpit. As it was a bit chilly we all ended up sitting in this to both avoid the breeze and enjoy a few drinks which may or may not have been alcoholic. All in all, even though it was very different to christmas in England it was very fun and a new experience to add to the books. The weirdest part was stopping every couple hours for a moment and remembering that it was actually Christmas.