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Publishing the results of our Ramblings, as well as current and upcoming events

Byron Bay, our last stop in Australia before moving on to Thailand. A place I have heard consistently good reports about throughout our travels. First Impressions? Party town. Very young crowd. Quite a nice looking place and the beach is absolutely stunning.

Our hostel was just out of town and the quickest route was a 10-15 minute walk from town along the beach. Set back 100 metres from the shore, the hostel is in a wonderfully tranquil setting with a small restaurant/bar/cafe at the front. Hammocks line the garden courtyard which is surrounded by a dozen or so rooms. Although due to booking late we didn’t have much choice of accommodation I am so glad we chose this place. Probably the most chilled out 5 days of our entire trip, we spent everyday on the beach bronzing our ‘six packs’ and attempting to surf.

The walk along the beach to town is even more spectacular at night with the moon and sky reflecting off the surf. Stunning. I knew as soon as we arrived I would miss this place. In the evenings we went to various restaurants and a few bars. The service is comparable to that of Airlie Beach in the whitsundays…practically non-existent. Everyone is so laid back they may as well be sleeping. I think in one restaurant I waited over an hour for a bacon sandwich. In another, after asking for condiments 3 times I just went up to the kitchen and got them myself. The best restaurant we visited was a ‘bring your own alcohol’ fish and chip shop with seating on the seafront. Food was fantastic, service great and the wine good, cheap and free flowing. In the evenings the town was full of loud, young, drunk Australians… plus a loud drunk Scotsman and Englishman. We fitted in well.

There are quite a lot of travellers passing through Byron along with the Aussies. There is a big hippie community in a town called Nimbin, not far from Byron, where marijuana is apparently readily available and apparently a blind eye turned by Police. I didn’t visit but the spill out is evident as hordes of dreadlocked bongo players in their linen outfits line the beachfront in the early evening. This actually creates a really good atmosphere. People seemed friendly and there was an open air open mic for ‘musicians’ to irritate everyone with bad Bob Marley renditions. Still, with a few tinnies watching the sun go down I liked it. Some of my most relaxed moments of this trip. Several of the bars every evening had live bands. Pretty good live bands too. A lot of ska music. And although the bars closed at midnight there were a handful of disco’s to choose from afterwards. We went to Cheeky Monkey’s one night, the place was crowded and the atmosphere was good despite the barman pouring a drink and knocking it over then making us pay for it. Great atmosphere, beautiful beach, good music (mostly), crap service. I like it in Byron.

Ok so its been 3 weeks without writing or blogging. I admit I’ve been lazy or maybe I’ve just been having too much fun. I should have made notes or written a little everyday as now I have to think back over the last 3 weeks and attempt to put all that’s happened into words. Here we go…

 

Sydney is probably my favourite city I’ve ever been to. While our accommodation in Surrey Hills was small and expensive, the hostel was very central and had free wifi. Christmas Eve and Day is pretty much a drunken haze. We went to Bondi Beach on the Eve for drinks then onto Kings Cross for a few more. On xmas day we went to marouba beach with an old friend of Tommys who now works in Sydney. A lot of drink! A lot of sun! A lot of bbq! It did surprise me though that the group we were with were all English and Scottish. It seems british abroad hang out with british. I met some Australians yesterday actually who said the same thing about travelling in England. The Australian’s hang out with Australian’s. By the end of my 10 days in Sydney I figured out why this was the case. There are no Australian’s in Sydney, it’s full of English, Irish and Scottish. Sit in any bar in Sydney and those are the accents you will hear. Sydney is full of British, London full of Australian’s. Go figure. The Ozzies we met yesterday couldn’t understand why we loved Sydney so much. I guess if you grow up there you don’t appreciate it as much. Sydney is big but not too big. You can walk around the whole city centre and its suburbs very easily. It is busy but never seems crowded (except for Bondi on New Year’s Day). You can get to most beaches within 30 mins. The harbour and surrounding area has an abundance of great bars, restaurants and nightlife. Football and cricket stadiums are all within walking distance of the city centre. There is plenty to see and do. From tourist attractions like the zoo, aquarium and such like to parks, swimming pools and gyms. Ferry’s travel frequently around the harbour and across to neighbouring Manly beach. The atmosphere is very relaxed and chilled out. Not once did I feel uncomfortable or troubled wondering the streets at night. Chinatown which borders Surrey Hills had fantastic cheap restaurants. Bondi was a beautiful beach though a little too busy over Xmas. Marouba was just as nice and much quieter. There are just so many things to do. Our best night out was probably on Oxford Street which until late on in the night we didn’t realise was the gay district. We wondered why there were so many men in tight vests. The Gypsy club had great music and cheap beer and I couldn’t believe after being on the dancefloor for over an hour nobody tried to chat me up. Maybe they don’t do fist pumping in Sydney either. New Years Eve we spent on Bondi Beach at an event called Shore Thing. A mini festival with Snoop Dogg, Calvin Harris and Pendulum. We got there around 10pm sober and discovered firstly that the drinks were ridiculously expensive, secondly they had next to no alcohol in them and thirdly you were not allowed to leave and come back. With queues around half hour long it dawned on us that we would be spending this New Year’s Eve depressingly sober. Now I don’t necessarily need alcohol to have a good time but its New Years Eve and we wanted a few drinks, to kick back and have a good time. This whole situation started to get me down. I was getting angry. I attempted to persuade people on the other side of the fence to buy us some alcohol but to no avail. I was getting desperate. After four 12 dollar vodka red bulls with half a shot of vodka and a whole can of red bull in each I sparked to life. I looked at the bar staff. I studied their form. I picked my target. The guy I had my eye on served the person next to me so I asked the girl who served me if she would put in more vodka for an extra 20 dollars. “Sorry sir we are not allowed to do that”. I let her serve someone else and waited for my target. Bouncing around, sweating, smiling, gurning. This was the man. Ill give you 20 dollars for a cup of vodka and a dash of red bull “no problem, just tell me when to stop”. Two drinks later and I’ve lost the hours between 12 and 3. Apparently we were right at the front of the stage during Pendulum and had a really good night. Although I can’t remember most of it, I think the lesson here is that they shouldn’t weaken their drinks at a New Year’s Eve party. If they served proper strength alcohol I would have got drunk slowly and steadily and would probably remember midnight. Although, the real lesson perhaps is that if you run a bar make sure you don’t hire someone who is chewing his face off. New Years Day we spent hungover on bondi beach which was far too crowded. Just check out the pictures. That evening we had a bbq with Tommy’s old babysitter who now lives in Sydney. Check out the other picture of me putting another shrimp on the barbie. Good times. The next day we were sad to leave Sydney but Byron beckoned and Byron was another wonderful place.

HATS OFF TO WANTAGE!

The Wantage based folk and ceilidh band Pandemonium are celebrating their 20th year of playing together, by releasing their third CD, under the title “Hats Off to Wantage”. This follows on from their very successful first two CDs entitled “Pandemonium” and “More Pandemonium”. The band regularly performs in and around the Wantage area and the title of this new CD is taken from a dance tune especially written by band member Wanda Oberman, to celebrate the Oxfordshire Millennium in 2007 Said Carol Warren-Smith, who arranged and directed the music, ” We are proud of our Wantage connection and heritage and hope that this selection will give as much enjoyment to the listeners as we have had putting the tracks together. This is a first for Pandemonium, in that the recording was entirely recorded and mixed in-house  at the Hilltribe Studios in Wantage by band member Howard Hill.”

The new CD has 11 musical tracks and 5 vocal tracks and is truly a musical feast for all lovers of folk music. Although it is not available for sale in the shops copies,  priced at £10 (+£1p&p), can be ordered from the Pandemonium website www.pandemoniumwantage.org.uk

Arrived into Hamilton Island on Monday 19th Dec where we took a $50 half hour ferry one way to Airlie Beach on the mainland. To travel to any other Whitsunday island costs half the price but to and from the only island with an airport they sting you for every penny. After hearing so much about the beauty of the Whitsundays it was a little disappointing that Airlie Beach reminded me of Faliraki. A typical holiday resort full of tourists drinking from 10 in the morning. Don’t get me wrong I love Faliraki, so much so that I worked four summers there in my early twenties. I love Ibiza too which I visited for the first time this summer only to go back 5 weeks later because I loved it so much. It’s not that I don’t like these places it’s just that I was expecting something else. I expected to be stunned by its beauty, by white sands and clear blue waters. Palm trees and an eternal sunset. Not a row of dilapidated bars and a swimming pool by the ocean because you can’t swim in the sea due to all the ‘stingers’, or jellyfish as we know them. They do leave bottles of vinegar for you on the shore of the beach though if you do decide to go for a swim and get stung… Or you can just rely on a drunk backpacker to stumble past and piss on you if needs be.

 

Anyway we stayed at Base hostel for one night. Rooms and facilities were nice enough and we were due to stay again on Friday but the staff were so unhelpful and unfriendly we cancelled the booking. It’s the first place I’ve been to in Australia where you feel like a burden to those that are serving you. Now it feels like England! We went out for a meal that night to a restaurant called Sorrento, overlooking the harbour. Tommy asked the waiter whether the prawns in the pasta came whole as he was considering ordering it. “I don’t know mate, they’re just f*****g prawns” The service in this town is outstanding. Backpackers serving backpackers. I want to leave. They are worse than students. All stoned with no common sense. The worst is the eternal backpacker who believes his way of life is far better than everyones elses and never wants ‘roots’. You can guarantee he will have a small chin beard, will be attempting to grow dreadlocks, have a white cotton long sleeve shirt undone to the chest and carry a guitar on which he will play Guns ‘n’ Roses Sweet Child Of Mine long into the night! Three things you can 100% guarantee you will see in any town abroad; an Irish bar, someone in a Celtic top and a w****r with a guitar.

 

Tuesday morning I woke to find Tommy had been up all night with food poisoning. Bloody prawns! After a trip to the pharmacy we headed back down to the harbour, gave a cursed look in the direction of Sorrento restaurant and waited to board our boat. We were joining the Emperors Wings sailing boat for a 3 day 3 night scuba diving trip around the Whitsunday islands and out to the outer barrier reef. Initially I was dubious. The twin room we had booked turned out to be a small double top bunk bed in a shared cabin with 3 ‘cheery’ swiss. Did I mind sharing a bed with a sweaty Scotsman with the runs? Well you don’t really have much choice. Then why ask the question?!

 

The trip was actually really great. On the way to the outer reef we did a small stop off at Whitehaven beach which is renowned as the most beautiful of all the 72 islands. It was very pretty but not amazing, nor the best beach I’ve ever been on. I think Ibiza has comparatively beautiful beaches and water. The way the beach curves out into the bay at low tide creating a shallow lagoon filled with baby sharks however was quite special. Over the 3 days Tommy and I did 8 dives each, just beginner dives but up to 12 metres in depth where we saw turtles, huge shoals of giant parrot fish (my highlight), nemo’s, cuttlefish and an array of other fish and coral and starfish and sea stuff. Swimming along the outer edges of the ‘stepping stones’ which lay on the very edge of the outer reef was spectacular. The strong currents swept you along the reef and the coral cliffs disappeared below you into the dark blue depths. The weather on the surface was incredibly choppy and unstable but the feeling of serenity and calm under the water was wonderful. I have always been afraid of staring into the depths of the ocean if I have ever been unable to see the bottom. Here I felt no fear. Steady breathing, a sense of calm. On the final dive of the second day as I stood on the back deck in my wetsuit, tanks strapped to my back, flippers and mask in hand about to board the small diving boat to carry us further into the reef our instructor asked “Is anyone afraid of sharks?” Any answer to this question was irrelevant at this stage but instead of fear I felt a nervous excitement. The small boat took us out to another part of the reef and we somersaulted back into the water. Quickly we deflated our jackets and descended to the ocean floor equalising every metre or so. We sat on the bottom, 12 metres down, instructed to stay as still as we could while our instructor tried to attract sharks by bashing a small inflated bag. Slow steady breathing. Boom boom boom. Don’t move. Boom boom boom. I could hear the jaws theme in my head. Boom boom boom. Quiet. Really was amazing seeing a white tip reef shark emerge from the darkness, investigate from a distance then swim back into the dark. Even more amazing how calm and natural it felt down there. Brilliant. I have decided that before I go home I will obtain my Padi diving qualification. Is something I could and will do a lot more of. The 3 hour journey back from the outer reef to the islands was probably the choppiest I’ve ever experienced on a boat. The captain loved it. The half a dozen people at the back being sick didn’t. You could sit on the front of the catamaran as we sailed rising and falling into the huge waves splashing over the boat. It was like an extreme rollercoater ride. Great fun for those with good sea legs. So overall it was a great trip, the food was good, accommodation tight but what can you expect on a boat. Perhaps it just shouldn’t be advertised as a twin room. The crew were helpful and enthusiastic. And it didn’t surprise me one bit when on the 2nd night one of the diving instructors pulled out a guitar! I was however surprised not to find an Irish bar embedded in the outer reef or a turtle in a Celtic top. A trip I can highly recommend if you ever visit this side of Australia. www.whitsundaydive.com.au

 

On Friday we returned to Airlie Beach where got a ferry to Long Island resort. The only island with a hostel on it. We stayed here for one night and was great value for the price. It is a resort right on the beach with relatively good facilities, a couple of pools, a spa, tennis courts, an awful gym. Why have a room full of broken machines and call it a gym? Stupid. It is a 3 star resort but could be much nicer with a little care and attention. Although for $76 you can’t really complain. And with wallabies freely roaming the island as you lay in a hammock overlooking the beach its quite a nice experience. In the morning after a good night’s sleep and a quick check of my fantasy football teams and Facebook, we boarded the ferry back to Hamilton Island airport, $60 this time bastards! Now I’m sitting on the flight to Sydney where I will spend 9 nights over Christmas and New Year. So tomorrow we will be enjoying a bbq on bondi beach. Life is tough… Big love

 

Melbourne

I had been told by several people that upon arriving in Australia I would wish I was back in New Zealand. For the first few days in Melbourne this was certainly the case. From bungee jumping, white water sledging and skydiving amid New Zealand’s beautiful scenery to casinos, dog racing and bingo in Melbourne’s city suburbs. Tommy and I were depressed. Melbourne is a big city like any other and after traipsing through the urban jungle for a day we longed to be back in the serene beauty of NZ. We started looking at flights to other areas of Australia, Fraser Island’s nature reserve, Adelaide for cage diving with great white sharks. We were chasing the adrenaline rushes we craved from Queenstown that bingo could not quite replicate but it was all too expensive and too far away. So we decided to stick it out, and with the hospitality of Tommy’s distant family as our hosts I’m glad we did.

Whenever I’ve been away for longer than a month it has always taken me around 3 weeks to adjust and settle in. And during these first few weeks I have had a bit of a crisis of faith in what I’m doing. In Melbourne I’ve endured this crisis. What am I doing? Why am I here? I miss the routine of my life, the very routine that I longed to escape throughout the planning of this trip. I miss my girlfriend. I should be at home. I expect these feelings, and while of course I will continue to miss my girlfriend, I know that the other feelings will pass. I remind myself how lucky I am to be here. I can see how this trip is going to be a ‘one of a lifetime’. I need a good slap in the face. Tommy is happy to oblige…

What I have enjoyed most about Melbourne is that we got to experience life through the eyes of a real Ozzy family. There is a stereotypical view that Australian’s love to drink beer, surf and gamble. And the reason for this stereotype is because Australian’s do in fact love to drink beer, surf and gamble. Any excuse for a beer and a bet and many pubs and bars have TAB betting centres within them. Our host Ralph took us to the casino on Tuesday and to the dogs on Wednesday. It was actually at my request we went to the bingo on the Wednesday evening but the fact that they don’t sell alcohol in bingo clubs in Australia meant Ralph wasn’t interested and his daughter took us instead. This was almost the adrenaline buzz we were looking for as the speed of the callers made it more like extreme bingo. And at 50 dollars for a ‘cheap’ session it was almost as expensive as some of the activities we did in New Zealand! I got down to one number three times but didn’t win. Still, it was interesting to compare it with my club back home and comforting to see that bingo attracts the same characters and conversations on the other side of the world.

On Thursday we took a trip to St Kildas beach. A nice place 2 hours by train on the other side of Melbourne. I have learnt that Australian cities are big places. I think Melbourne covers the largest area of all Australian cities. And if ever you’re told that somewhere is just around the corner it differs in meaning to that of back home. Round the corner in Didcot is up the road and round the corner. Round the corner in Melbourne could be from Didcot to London. That evening we visited the Eureka tower and viewed Melbourne city from above, on the famous skydeck. The highest in the southern hemisphere. Great views! Friday we took a 3 hour train and bus journey ‘round the corner’ to Torquay on the coast. We decided to stay the night in Torquay Holiday Park as a friend of the family was teaching us how to surf the next morning. The small oven masquerading as an economy caravan taught us a valuable lesson; always check the accommodation before handing over your cash. At least we were situated close to the main road so the roaring traffic took our minds off the unbearable heat. The dilapidated park made me feel as though I’d transported through time and space back to the English coast in the 80’s. All we needed was Paperboy in the games room and I would have been back to my childhood. Still the facilities were clean and showers hot so we laughed it off rather than grumble. In the morning we arose at 8am to meet Matt and rent our surfboards and wetsuits and hit the beach. Surfing was great. The conditions were apparently not ideal with too many waves but we gave it our best shot and I managed to stand on the board a number of times for a few seconds. Hard work though getting back out to catch another wave. At least I can say I’m now officially a surfer and am looking forward to trying it again in Sydney. Before we got a lift back to Melbourne we stopped off for something to eat and of course a beer and a bet.

That evening we went to Melbourne Cricket Ground to watch a game of Big Bash 20/20 cricket. The stadium is great. The attendance was 24,000 but with a capacity of 105,000 the stadium looked empty. We sat towards the front in the lively section of the crowd. Highly entertaining. With 20/20 cricket they are trying to appeal to a new audience. It’s more like baseball with music playing, beach balls in the crowd, Mexican waves and chants of ‘you’re a w****r’ if you didn’t down your pint walking back from the bar. I couldn’t understand though why they had a different beer selection in the evening games compared to the afternoon. The maximum strength beer you can have in the evening is 3.5% but in the afternoon its 4.6%. And you can drink cider and spirits during both. Bizarre. I would have thought it should be the other way round, or perhaps not as during the second innings once the beers were kicking in someone was arrested roughly every ten minutes in our section of the crowd. With a century off 50 balls and all the entertainment within the crowd it was a good game. After the game we went to a local pub and a friend of Tommy’s 2nd cousin put $500 behind the bar. When I asked why he just said ‘Australian hospitality mate’. I said I’d buy him a pint if he ever comes over to England.

Sunday we shared a Xmas get together in the park just round the corner (20 minute drive away). All friends and family. Ralph dressed as Santa making each child cry that sat on his knee. Beer flowed. There was an abundance of homemade food and of course we played cricket. It never once felt like I was imposing or unwelcome. After passing out for a few hours around 4pm we decided to take it easy for rest of the evening as we had to catch a flight to the Whitsundays in the morning at 8.30am. A trip to the cinema kept us out of trouble and was a good end to a good day. Just as we made it home a storm broke over Melbourne. Lightning lit up the sky and the smell of rain on a warm day took me to a happy place.

Eileen (Tommy’s mother’s cousin) and Ralph, their daughter Angela and her husband. Tommy’s 2nd cousin John, all their friends Timmy, Willow, Dave, Matt and co. Everyone made me feel very welcome and made Melbourne an enjoyable experience. We had good weather for the most part although I still can’t get used to Christmas songs playing in the sunshine!

 

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