Category: Uncategorized

Agra

We met our driver Manjeet in the morning and drove to Agra. We were very glad to be getting out of Delhi, safe to say it was our least favorite place in India. Manjeet was a very strange and quiet man, but we were determined to get a smile out of him!

I slept most of the way to Agra, much to Lewis’s annoyance. The first thing we did when we got there was go to the Agra Fort, it was okay but I just don’t really get forts I guess. Our hostel in Agra was called GoStops and was pretty nice all things considered and was in a very good location.

There isn’t much to do in Agra apart from the Taj Mahal so we just went for a late lunch. We went to Trip Advisor’s number 1 restaurant in Agra, a place called Good Vibes. This place definitely didn’t deliver the ‘good vibes’ as advertised. I ordered the mix veg curry thinking it was a safe option. This was, hands-down, the biggest mistake I made on this trip. It was lukewarm and tasteless and it made me incredibly ill – which I found out the next day.

On said day, we got up at 5am to see the Taj Mahal at sunrise. Getting up early was so worth it, the Taj itself is beautiful but you also miss the crowds and can actually get a decent photo without millions of people in it! We got a tuk-tuk to the ticket office and then just walked straight in without any queues. It really is a stunning building, you notice that the moment you walk in. The whole thing is made of marble with exquisite detail on every wall, especially on the inside. While we were walking around inside of the building I started to feel a bit sick, I thought it was just the heat and lack of breakfast so passed it off as nothing.

Taj Mahal

By the time we got back to the hostel I was feeling way worse – I tried to force down some breakfast and we got into the car to head to Jaipur. The car journey was horrible, I actually thought I was going to die. I hadn’t felt this sick in years. I threw up at a rest stop which wasn’t my finest moment and then tried to sleep the rest of the way. Even though I was on death’s door,  Lewis made us stop to see the Chand Baori stepwell on the way (because it was in bloody Batman!?). Luckily it only takes 5 minutes to walk around it so if you can stop and see it do, as it’s quite impressive, but if you have to make a long trip to see it, it’s probably not worth it.

Jaipur

When we finally arrived, we checked into our hostel (Hoztel) and I went straight to sleep. My body must have been using every bit of energy to fight this thing because I couldn’t keep my eyes open! I slept the whole afternoon and then the whole night. Lewis went and socialized with people in the hostel but I was very happy in my AC room, alone.

I was feeling a little bit better the next day so we went sight-seeing. Our first stop was the Amber Fort – this is the main thing to see in Jaipur and is a big red and marble structure. From it, you can see the wall that marks the perimeter of the Pink City, India’s version of the Great Wall of China.

Amber Fort

After the fort we went to the Jal Mahal which is a palace built in the middle of a lake – this is the type of sight-seeing I like, you can see it, take a photo but you can’t physically go inside because you’d have to swim across.

Jal Mahal

The final place we visited was the Hawa Mahal. This is a grand building with 953 windows, it was incredibly striking and was my favorite sight in Jaipur. It was built so Royal ladies could see everyday life on the streets without being seen. It had loads of small holes in the windows which they could see through and which encouraged the cool air to flow through.

As it was raining, our driver took us to a local fabric shop They had some fantastic stuff in there and I would have bought a lot of stuff if I’d had the money or space. I did buy a tapestry for my new room though! As we all know, no uni room is complete without a tapestry on the wall posing as real wallpaper.

By lunchtime I was done with being outside and was feeling worse, I needed to go back to bed.  Luckily for me, the hostel had amazon prime on the TV in the room! I stayed in bed very happily and watched all three Men in Blacks while Lewis played beer pong on the rooftop.

I 1000000% blame that disgusting curry in Agra for being ill. I mean, everyone gets the runs in India, it’s a given, but vomiting? Really!?

Pushkar

I awoke a new woman. I was SO happy – no more cramps! We were in high spirits on the short drive to Pushkar. We got there before lunchtime and used the early afternoon to explore the markets and have a bite to eat at Baba’s rooftop cafe. I still didn’t have much of an appetite but managed to nibble on some hummus and bread.

I got roped into getting a henna by a woman who just grabbed my hand on the street – she had a baby on her back so I just gave in. She tried to charge me £10 for it! In the end, I gave her the equivalent of £2.50 which was too much anyways but I guess she needs it more than I do.

Had to get henna at least once anyway

Pushkar was much calmer than the other places we’d been to and was quickly becoming our favourite place. In the late afternoon, when it was a bit cooler, we walked to the base of the Ratnagiri hill which has the Brahmaji Temple at the top of it. You can walk up but for £1 you can get a cable car up – guess which one we chose.

The views of Pushkar and the lake from the top were phenomenal. We sat up there for a while just looking down on everything and enjoying the cool breeze.

Views from the top

On our way back down I started to feel sick again – not a great sign. While Lewis was in the shower getting ready for dinner I fell asleep and woke up feeling worse than ever. During the walk to dinner, I was just feeling worse and worse. As soon as we got to the restaurant I was violently sick and spent the whole meal running to and from the toilet. It was rough.

By the time we made it back to the hotel, I was in agony. I was so so ill. Once I’d stopped being sick I decided that sleep was my best option so headed to bed. This is when the power cut out. This hotel was awful by the way, one of Manjeet’s suggestions – it was his first and his last. I just lay there, in the heat and the dark praying sleep would come to me soon. I must have fallen asleep because I woke up at 4am with the sound of the power going off again. This illness was not done with me yet! Sitting in an Indian loo in the pitch black with only my phone torch for light and zero ventilation while chucking my guts up was not my favourite part of the trip, I was really starting to question why on earth we had come here in the first place. We could have been on some Mediterranean beach sipping cocktails and tanning, but no, we decided to do this instead. Eventually, the power came back on and I managed to get some sleep, how Lewis slept through my whole ordeal baffles me – at least one of us was having a good time!

We woke up early with the power off AGAIN and a whole group of pigeons having a mothers morning on our AC unit. I was so angry that I asked Lewis if he would go out and ‘wring their necks’, I think was the exact phrase I used, but he politely declined #FakeLove.

The only option was to get out of this horrible hotel and get some fresh air, at least I was finally feeling better, the worst of it was over. There was only one slight issue, we hadn’t even walked out of the hotel room door before we discovered the cause of all the power cuts – the whole place was completely flooded. I’m sorry but there was no way in hell I was walking through that dysentery-infested water just for some banana and toast so we were forced up to the hotel ‘restaurant’. Correct me if I’m wrong but I somehow don’t think that some fly-covered table and chairs in a grimy room constitute a restaurant but I guess everyone is entitled to their own opinions. I had something called a ‘lemon soda’ with my hot bread they were passing as toast and it was literally just lemon juice in a glass with a bottle of soda. I loved it, it was almost as bitter as me.

We hid in the room for as long as we could before getting cabin fever and forcing ourselves to brave the big, bad outside world. We paid an extortionate tuk-tuk to drive us through the worse of the flooding but it was worth it. Our destination was a small cafe called the Coffee Temple. This place was a little gem with a nice rooftop overlooking the lake. They had really good coffee according to Lewis (I still couldn’t stomach much).

Pushkar is a very religious town with no alcohol and people come from all over to bathe in the holy lake/ghats. As a foreigner, it is basically impossible to get to the ghats without a million fake ‘priests’ trying to scam you. They try to give you flowers so you can go and be ‘blessed’ by the lake, but after you do they try and charge you up to $500 for it! If you refuse they say you’re disrespecting their culture and religion and say your whole family will be cursed – well jokes on you pal, my family are already cursed.

After coffee we went back to the Energy Cafe for dinner – I even managed to eat 2 whole pieces of pakora – plus side, I should be losing some weight right? We were told by the owner of the restaurant to head to the Sunset Cafe on the other side of the lake to watch, well, the sunset. We were not disappointed. This little place had outdoor seating directly facing the lake while the sun set behind it. Watching the sunset with a lemon soda in my hand and some traditional drumming in the background was dreamy. This was a much nicer side of Pushkar and we wish we’d found it sooner.

 

India. What a country. This is not a place for the faint-hearted! Your senses are constantly overwhelmed, there are so many sights, smells and sounds to take in. Traveling India is hard, you’re not just worn out by the heat and humidity, but you’re also mentally exhausted – as lovely as the majority of people are, there are always the ones trying to scam you (tourists are extremely easy to spot!). I went with my boyfriend Lewis and even though I am a firm believer in girl power and ‘you don’t need no man’, my blonde hair and white skin got a lot of attention. It was nice to have a guy there, as a deterrent more than anything else. I didn’t have any issues and I doubt I would have if I’d been there with a group of girls but I don’t know if I’d like to travel there by myself – but that’s just me!

Despite these negatives, it’s a place you have to visit at least once in your life. It’s like nowhere else in the world – so rich in culture and spirituality. Its vibrancy is breathtaking and the food is fantastic (as long as it’s made with filtered water!)

We only had just over 3 weeks in India, way too short of a time to go everywhere. We decided to focus on Rajasthan, it’s the largest state in India, located in the north west of the country. What drew us to this particular state was the multitude of cities and towns all drastically different – from the scorching deserts of Jaisalmer to the serenity of Pushkar. It also hosts one point in the ‘Golden Triangle‘ – the so-called ‘Pink City’ of Jaipur. The other two points are Delhi, the capital, and Agra, the home of the Taj Mahal. We also wanted a couple beach days at the end of our trip so went to Goa, with a stop off in Mumbai for a couple of days.

If we’d had longer, we would have gone to East to Varanasi to see the thousands of people cremated on the banks of the Ganges, North to Shimla to escape the heat and bask in its rich history, and south to the luscious greenery of Kerala.

Now we can get to the juicy stuff – what we actually got up to!

Edinburgh to Delhi

In step with my recent traveling luck, we nearly missed our connection at Heathrow. Our flight from Edinburgh was so delayed that they had a guy rushing us between terminals to get us on the flight! Despite the tight connection, I knew we wouldn’t miss our flight – I’ve never missed a flight in my life (touch wood), and I was not about to start now.

On the flight, I somehow ended up quite drunk. The air hostesses liked us for some reason (probably because we were a young British couple in a sea of Indian families) and just kept giving us more and more wine!

Delhi

When we arrived in Delhi I was actually a tiny bit nervous going through passport control. I may or may not have lied on my e-visa application. In my defense, it was on the advice of the visa helpline! Basically, I came to India to work in a hospital in Jodhpur when I was 17 and I thought I was going to be a doctor (lol). When you apply for the e-visa you have to state whether you’ve been to India before and give all the visa details which I obviously didn’t still have. Anyways, I got through absolutely fine. Tip: the Indian e-visa application is an absolute nightmare, give yourself 2 weeks to complete it so you can go away, have a bottle of wine, recover from the hangover, rest and complete it later on.

Naturally, our bags didn’t make it with the tight connection and after a long process of being directed to and fro from numerous airport staff we finally got our details down and we stepped out into the wall of water that is the 100% humidity of Delhi.

It was permanently overcast the entire time we were in Delhi, not that I’m complaining, I can only imagine the heat if there was actual sunshine! Our transfer to the hostel was this beat up truck with no AC and a mental driver who spoke no English. You’ve probably heard about Indian roads but you don’t really know until you experience them first hand. We’re talking dodging cows, people, bikes, tuk-tuks, let alone other cars! There are basically no rules, just beep when you’re behind another car to let them know you’re there and don’t hit anything. The car was roasting and even through the chaos, I slept the whole way there.

When our diver dropped us off at the hostel (Backpackers heaven @ Kuldeep Friends) I could have killed Lewis. It was down the dirtiest, smelliest and darkest lane I have ever been in my entire life. There was an open-air public toilet just at the side of this 2-meter wide lane and you had to walk through a cloud of flies to get to the hostel. I tried to just breathe through my mouth to limit the smell but you’d just get a mouthful of flies instead so it was a lose-lose situation.

The lanes to the hostel and then the corridor inside the hostel (not much better)

We walked into the hostel and were rushed into this room about 4 floors up without even a ‘hello’ first. We were dumped in this room consisting of a bunk bed and a fan which just pushed around the stifling air already in the room. It was safe to say that this wasn’t the room Lewis had booked, I could see the panic on his face rising, I was not happy. We had no bags, couldn’t shower, dirty hostel and a dirty room and no AC. He basically sprinted downstairs and managed to get us to change room – thank god. It wasn’t ready yet but I was so tired I passed out on the bunk bed. Once I’d woken up we headed out to get some essentials. I bought a sari to wear the next day – mistake. I definitely got ripped off and it was about a million times too small, it didn’t even fit the circumference of my arms! We also bought soap (washing your hair with soap is not fun by the way), and some pants – again, wearing pants bought off the streets of Delhi is not really something I ever thought I’d do in my life. At least they were comfy? Very elasticated and came in a number of bright colours. Lewis bought a Ganesha t-shirt and all the locals starting laughing at him – serves him right really.

By the time we’d done all that it was 5pm and we were starting to get hungry. We went to a rooftop restaurant called Exotic cafe. The food was really great and it was nice to be able to sit high above the chaos and next to a fan. Once we’d eaten it was bedtime. Thankfully our new room had AC! I’ll admit when Lewis said he was packing a double sheet I laughed in his face, but I am SO SO glad he did, no bed we slept in looked particularly clean. I say that, but on our first night we didn’t have bags (and therefore the sheet) – we slept under our jumpers. The big blanket thing on the end of the bed was coming nowhere near me.

Now, this is the first time I’ve ever traveled with Lewis and we learned a lot about each other on this trip, like the fact he is SO SLOW IN THE MORNINGS. Once Lewis had faffed about for an hour we ran to get some breakfast before a car was picking us up for a city tour of Delhi. We found this omelette stall on the side of the road. The guy mixed up some eggs with vegetables and spices and then threw it on a hot plate, he then proceeded to place two bits of bread on top of the eggs and then folded it up into an omelette sandwich thing. It was actually really tasty and only cost IDR 30 (around 30p).

Thankfully, our car doing the city tour had AC because it was boiling. The first stop on our tour was to Old Delhi. When we arrived our driver instructed us to get on a Rickshaw which then took us to a (his pals) spice shop, we stood our ground and didn’t buy anything.

The rickshaw then took us to the Jama Masjid, the biggest mosque in Delhi – it can hold up to 2 million people!

Jama Masjid

They gave us some sexy outfits and once inside the Rickshaw man promptly took my phone off me and instructed us to stand in certain places for pictures – at least he got some good ones!

After Old Delhi, we went to the Red Fort but it was shut and we didn’t really feel like waiting in the heat for an hour and a half – we’d been told it’s basically the same as the one in Agra so we’d just see that one instead.

Next, we were taken to Gandi’s cremation site. It was basically a small black marble slab surrounded by a vast garden but still pretty spectacular to see.

Raj Ghat, Mahatma Gandhi’s cremation site

Next to his cremation site is an eternal flame. I didn’t even know Gandi was assassinated before visiting which is pretty poor from me. After that, we went to the India Gate – a memorial for all the Indians who gave their lives in WW1.

The last stop on our tour was to the Laxmi Narayan Temple. It was a beautiful place made of marble. Lewis was shocked to see all the swastikas all over it – queue the eye roll. (In case you didn’t know, Hitler took the symbol from the Hindus in the first place, before it became a symbol of the Nazi regime, it was a symbol of divinity and spirituality – still is.) Once we’d finished that temple we were definitely done for the day. Delhi is intense and I could only do it in short, sharp burst.

When we got back to the hostel our bags still hadn’t arrived but Raj from our hostel was on the case. Raj also helped us sort a car and our route through Rajasthan. I know a lot of you will think this is cheating but the price worked out pretty much the same and at the end of the day, why does backpacking have to mean doing everything the hard way!? India is hard enough without spending hours waiting in boiling train stations for delayed trains. Lewis really wanted to do the trains but he was shiny and new while I’ve been on the move for the past year! (also he’s just generally more patient than me). Once we’d finalised that our bags arrived! We were so happy to shower and be in clean clothes (I was still in the clothes I traveled in due to the sari disaster). A load of stuff was stolen out the top of my bag, nothing that couldn’t be replaced but was just annoying – back to the stalls I went to find shampoo and a hairbrush. They also took my sleeping bag liner which would have been really useful, thank god for the double sheet!

We decided to celebrate how clean we felt by going out for a few beers. We ended up in this dive called Gem bar. I was the only girl in there the whole night. It was a bit grimy but the beers were good (Kingfisher being the Indian beer of choice) so it suited us just fine.

As we ended our first full day in India there was one thing I had really noticed: EVERYONE stops you to take a selfie with you. I’m probably in about 200 million Indian’s facebooks by now but at least Lewis is still buzzing off the comparison he got to Pierce Brosnan (I don’t think I’d like being compared to a 65-year-old man but each to their own).

Saying goodbye to Christie, Riss and Gabby was an emotional event – after spending every minute of every day with these girls for 5 months, not being able to see their pretty faces the whole time was upsetting! I even shed a couple tears… we all did, except Christie of course – the Ice Queen strikes again.

Seminyak

My feelings of sadness did a quick 180 when I saw Kate standing in Denpasar Airport in her grey trackies and her peroxide hair on the top of her head in a scrunchie. It was like we’d seen each other last week instead of 7 months ago, with an ‘alright mate?’ settling us back into familiarity.

Although I’ll admit Kate didn’t provide much assistance while we bartered with the taxi drivers standing in the arrivals hall, we got a good deal (even cheaper than the hostel offer!) and brought them down from 300k IDR to 175k.

We arrived at our hostel in Seminyak, Capsule, within half an hour and checked into our private room – I’m so done with dorms! As we’d arrived quite late and Kate had come a long way from London, once we were in bed we passed out.

On our first morning in Seminyak, we headed to the Coffee Library for a spot of breakfast – god was it nice to not cook in a hostel kitchen!

After that, we had a bit of a wander and then met our school friend Sol, his girlfriend, his sister and her boyfriend at the famous Finn’s Beach Club in Canggu – now this is what I’m talking about. Beach clubs are probably one of my favourite things in the world, and in Bali, you don’t have to pay through the teeth for it! Being able to Lounge on comfy beds while day drinking and being waited on hand and foot doesn’t have many downsides.

That evening, Kate and I had a few drinks and played some beer pong in the hostel before heading to the famous club ‘La Favela‘. It was probably the beer talking but this was (most likely) the coolest club I have ever been to. Think the love child of a rainforest and Dishoom. The old rustic style club had trees all the way through it and an open courtyard in the middle led onto a number of dancefloors.

The next morning we were a tiny bit hungover (and by tiny, I mean Kate was chunning) so we chilled by the hostel pool until Nia arrived around lunchtime. Once Nia had finally got to the hostel (yay!) we made our way to the beach. En route we stopped a local cute restaurant to eat and had some fantastic pork satay – pork being a Balinese delicacy – and fried rice.

After a long (and sweaty) walk, we finally made it to the beach via the beach club Ku De Ta. We tried to have a relaxing afternoon on the beach but it was extremely windy and we just ended up with sand in places I didn’t even know existed!

That evening we went for dinner at Corner House – the food was delightful and then we had an early night as we had a 5:30am wake up the next day to get the boat to Gili T.

Gili (T)rawangan

I have to admit, I was very glad we were not hungover for this journey. It involved a 2-hour mini-bus journey to the port and then a 2-hour ferry across – the boat was SO rocky and I was extremely grateful that I don’t get seasick. All were rewarded when we pulled up onto the stunning shore of Gili T.

Our hostel, Broken Compass, was only a short walk from the beach and was just what we’d hoped for – a cute little place, with a small pool, a nice bar with great food and clean rooms. The max in a room is 3 which was an added bonus for us.

We spent the afternoon at the beach, you can use the sun loungers next to the beach-front restaurants if you buy a drink. After Nia had fallen fast asleep, Kate and I had a very surreal experience. We were just on our sunloungers, chatting away, when we noticed a large group of Indonesians having a photo shoot on the beach. Before we knew what was happening, they had all surrounded us and were asking for pictures! We sat there for about 15 minutes while one by one they came up and had pictures with us… I hope it impressed their Facebook friends! Nia couldn’t believe she’d missed this whole thing happening, other people on the beach were definitely laughing at us.

Before dinner, we joined a group from the hostel to help with a beach clean-up. The amount of rubbish, especially cigarette butts was disgusting – if you are smoking on the beach, PLEASE put your butts in the bin. Other people shouldn’t be searching through the sand to pick up your slobber covered cigarette and put it away for you.

That night we went out with a whole group from the hostel – a lot of Bintang’s and Joss shots were involved and it was a fantastic night.

The next morning, we tanned by the pool before heading out on a boat to do some snorkelling. The snorkelling in Bali is fantastic, apparently so is the diving but I neither had the time or funds to do a dive. Our first stop was to a coral reef full a hundred of vibrant fish and marine life. The visibility was miles better than on the Great Barrier reef, I couldn’t really believe it.

The next stop was to ‘The Nest’, a man-made underwater sculpture designed to represent the bridge between land and marine life next to Gili Meno. It’s also circular to signify the circle of life. It was placed there in order to encourage a new reef to blossom, and in a few years, it should be a thriving ecosystem. It was a pretty spectacular thing to witness.

The final snorkelling stop was to Turtle Point – I have never seen so many turtles in one place, and I have never definitely seen them so close! I swam next to one for a full 5 minutes before it dove to the depths. I loved every minute of it.

Our trip ended with a quick stop on Gili Air, Gili T’s more relaxed and quieter cousin before heading out to sea to watch the sunset. All in all, it was a beautiful day.

On our last full day on Gili T, we worked on our tans. In the evening, we cycled to the other side of the island to watch the sunset and take pictures on the famous sea-swings, they did not disappoint.

The next day we had a very long trip to Ubud. Our boat was delayed by an hour and a half and the boat back is much longer because it has to stop at Lombok first. We finally got to Ubud just in time to check into our hostel, In Da Lodge, book an activity for the next morning and get some dinner.

Ubud

We all wished we’d had longer in Ubud but when you’re only in Bali for just over a week it’s very hard to cram everything in! We started our morning early as we’d booked a downhill cycle.

This involved them driving us up to the top of a mountain, we were given a quick breakfast of banana pancakes and then we jumped on some bikes. We cycled down through the countryside, rice paddies and a splattering of small local villages.

We were given a tour of a local Balinese house and a temple. It was a really fantastic way to see the beauty of Ubud and would highly recommend it! The tour finished with a simple lunch of satay and rice but it was perfect.

After the cycle, we got dropped off at the Monkey Forest – a place that is inhabited by hundreds and hundreds of monkeys! Watching them play and groom each other was a fantastic experience and a must do when you’re in Ubud.

We had dinner in Ubud and then got a taxi back to Seminyak that night. We actually ended getting some under-the-table deal with one of the hostel workers’ brother giving us a lift for a discounted price! Worked out well though.

Seminyak

It was sad that our last full day in Bali has already come around, it had felt like we’d just arrived! For our final day, we headed to the world famous beach club, Potato Head. You have to go about an hour before opening to secure a day bed but it worked out perfectly as they have a restaurant you can get breakfast at.

We spent the whole day tanning, eating and drinking by the end we (well, I) was quite drunk! We also met this group of Irish lads who insisted on buying us cocktails and it would just have been rude to decline! Their spin on a margarita was to die for. We ended our last night in La Favella – such a great day.

Our flights home wasn’t until late evening. In the morning we went for a fantastic breakfast at Sisterfield’s and spent the rest of the day tanning.

In the afternoon we went for an early dinner at Motel Mexicola. This place is supposed to get wild in the evening so I wish we’d been able to come in the evening! We only ate from the bar menu but the food was delicious – we completely over-ordered. The margaritas left much to be desired but you probably shouldn’t be having anything with ice…

My flight home was at 9:45pm – I couldn’t really believe my whole trip was over, I was actually heading back to the UK. Okay, so I’m currently in India till the end of August but this is the end of an era. I can’t thank everyone who made this trip so memorable enough for giving me the best 6 months of my life. Bali (and Australia), I will be back.

Planning on doing the East Coast? Well, that’s fabulous. Below is my advice on where to go and where to stay. You don’t need 6 weeks, in fact, I think 4 or 5 is perfect depending on if you’re a ‘get at it’ type of person or whether you’d rather take your time. It also depends on where you want to start and finish. We did 6 weeks from Sydney to Cairns, but if you want to do Melbourne as well you might need some extra time!

Full trip: 7 weeks from Melbourne to Cairns

Streamline trip: 5 weeks from Melbourne to Cairns (would recommend – we had a few days with nothing to do)

For hostels download Hostelworld and for campsites download WikiCamps – both on the app store and will save you!

Melbourne – 5 days/4 days

Hostels: There are so many in Melbourne. We stayed in the Nunnery in Fitzroy and it was nice. Stay in town for half of your time and St. Kilda the other half

Campsites: Not many near town. The Big4 Campsite has good reviews but I would suggest staying in a hostel or risking getting moved on in the night.

To do: National Gallery of Victoria, have a drink on the river, go out in the CBD, go to the beach in St. Kilda, go walking in the Grampians, Drive the Great Ocean Road, have dumplings in China Town, Walk around At. Albert Lake, Museum of Melbourne, have a drink at one of the many rooftop bars e.g. Naked for Satan, take the tram and go shopping on Brunswick street. There is so much fun stuff to do in Melbourne – read my two posts on the city to see what I got up to; Month One and Month Two.

Sydney – 5 days/4 days

Hostels: Bounce Sydney in Surry Hills – Great location, very near the centre of town. Bondi Backpackers – great hostel near Bondi Beach.

Campsites: Any campsite will do really. All depends on where you want to be in the City.

To do: Sydney Harbour, Sydney Oprah House, get the Ferry to Watsons Bay and get fish and chips, get the ferry to Manly – explore and chill on the beach, do the Manly to Spit walk, Bondi Beach – chill and do the Coogee to Bondi walk, go to Glebe Markets on a Saturday, go to the zoo and walk around the Botanic Gardens.

Newcastle – 1 day/skip

Hostels: Newcastle Beach YHA – closer to the beach, Backpackers Newcastle – closer to the centre of town

Campsites: Check WikiCamps or call hostels

To do: The Bogey hole, Newcastle beach, the docks/port & Blackbutt reserve

Coffs Harbour – 1 day/skip

Hostels: Only 3 hostels on Hostelworld, all look nice but just depends on where in town you want to be.

Campsites: Check WikiCamps or call hostels

To do: Beach

Byron Bay – 3 days/3 Days

Hostels: Arts Factory – for chilled stoner vibes, if that’s not your scene Byron has a lot of nicer hostels which are closer to town.

Campsites: Arts Factory – the only hostel that had a camper license. If that doesn’t tickle your fancy you’ll have to go to a campsite. Parking laws are super strict in Byron so don’t risk sleeping on the street, you will get a fine.

To do: Go to the beach, surf, shop, go for dinner & party.

Gold Coast – 2 Days in Coolangatta, 2 Days in Surfer’s Paradise/1 Day in each

Hostels: YHA Coolangatta, YHA Surfer’s

Campsites: Check WikiCamps or call hostels

To do: Go to the beach, surf & party (apparently!?)

Brisbane – 3 days/2 days

Hostels: Brisbane Backpackers Resort – great location & really cheap! There is also a YHA

Campsites: Brisbane Backpackers Resort – the only hostel with a camper license.

To do: Go to the man-made beach called Streets Beach, Botanic Gardens, walk over their many bridges, get the ferry, go to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, Mt. Coo-Tah lookout & party!

Noosa – 3 days

Hostels: Halse Lodge Guest House (YHA) & Noosa Backpackers Resort. These are the two we stayed in but there are loads of nice ones in Noosa.

Campsites: Halse Lodge Guest House (YHA) & Noosa Backpackers Resort both have camper licences.

To do: Beach, shop, eat, & drink. Go to the fairy pools and walk around the national park.

Rainbow Beach – 1 day

Hostels: Dingos Resort

Campsites: Dingos Resort

To do: See the rainbow sand, party at Dingos & go sea kayaking

Fraser Island – 3 days

Hostels: Dingos 4WD tag-a-long tour

Campsites: Dingos 4WD tag-a-long tour

To do: You don’t need to plan a thing, they do it all for you! See my ‘Rainbow Beach and Fraser Island’ post to read about all the places they take you.

Hervey Bay – 1 day/skip

Hostels: Check Hostelworld

Campsites: Scarness Caravan Park – really decently priced and right on the beachfront. Great for a quick stop off.

To do: Beach & chill

Agnes Water/1770 – 1 day/skip

Hostels: Check Hostelworld

Campsites: Horizons Kangaroo Sanctuary

To do: Visit 1770 & go for a walk

Airlie Beach – 3 days

Hostels: Nomads/Base

Campsites: Nomads/Base

To do: Beach & party

Whitsundays – 3 days

Hostels: Ride to Paradise

Campsites: N/A

To do: They take you everywhere! See my ‘Airlie Beach and Whitsundays’ post for all the details.

Townsville – 1 day

Hostels: Rambutan

Campsites: Rambutan – we slept in the car park outside and it was fine (not exactly legal, however). Maybe check Wikicamps.

To do: Chill

Magnetic Island – 2 days

Hostels: Base Magnetic Island

Campsites: You can’t take your camper across

To do: Hire a 4×4 and visit: The Forts, Radical Bay, Horseshoe Bay, the Butterfly Forest & West Point. Party in the evenings! See my ‘Townsville and Magnetic Island’ post for all the info you need.

Mission Beach – 1 day/skip

Hostels: Jackaroo Treehouse Mission Beach in Bingle Bay & Mission Beach retreat in Mission Beach

Campsites: Bingle Bay Campground– can only find this on WikiCamps! Really cute and small campsite on the beachfront.

To do: Bicton Hill walk in Clump Mountain Nation Park & beach

Daintree Rainforest – 1 day

Hostels: Daintree Crocodylus Village

Campsites: Safari Lodge

To do: Cape Tributional Beach lookout, Dubuji and the Marrdji Boardwalks

Port Douglas – 1 day

Hostels: Port Douglas Backpackers & Dougies Backpackers Resort

Campsites: Douiges Backpacker Resort

To do: Tan & chill. There is also a good bit of shopping & some nice restaurants.

Cairns – 3 days/2 days

Hostels: Gilligans to party, Calypso to chill

Campsites: We parked outside Calypso with no issues, if not, go to a campsite or get rid of the van!

To do: Dive or snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef and party at Giligans.

So there you have it – all the tips I have accumulated during my 5 months in Australia. I have no doubt that I’ve probably missed something and everyone has different opinions but I had the absolute best time – I hope you do too!

If anyone has any questions, please drop me a message. Otherwise, as they say down-under ‘Too easy mate’.

Port Douglas

Port Douglas was a really nice town, like a bigger Noosa, but it was expensive. The shopping looked quite good but I wouldn’t know really! Luckily the weather was good and the campsite had a pool so we spent a couple days tanning. The only real issue with our time in Port Douglas was the mosquitoes. There were millions. Everywhere. On our first night, it was absolute torture, it was boiling hot so we had to open the windows but then obviously all the mosquitos came in! While trying to sleep you could hear them buzzing around your head and you just knew you were getting eaten alive. I woke up with 25 bites on my left foot. The next night we decided that the only way we were going to sleep is if we got so drunk that we passed out and well, we definitely gave it a good shot!

Port Douglas

Cairns

Woke up quite hungover and drove to Cairns. Checked two of us into Calypso Hostel, the big party hostel Gilligans was fully booked. Spent the whole day just watching Love Island and catching up on admin, it was actually exactly what we needed.

That evening we went out to the world famous Gillians to party. Little Gabby was so drunk by the time we got there that we had to get her a slice of Pizza first before! We had a little pres in Frans so that we could drink our own alcohol and play our own music. The club had shit tunes but the night was so good. We saw a load of people we’d met on previous tours which was really nice, Koko had also rejoined us (the boy from Brisbane).

The next morning we weren’t actually that hungover, we were just feeling really lazy. I think we were finally getting over the van life. Having a lazy day was perfect and we had to get to bed early as we had our dive the next day!

We got up at 6:30am and headed to the boat. Christie and I had signed up for an intro dive, you only go 7m and it’s for half an hour, Riss and Gabby have already done their advanced Padi so they were doing a certified dive. I actually did my Open Water but I was only about 15 when I did it so I couldn’t remember a thing!

The dive was really amazing, both Christie and I had a bit of a freak at the start. The water was so choppy and the feeling of going completely under water was actually quite scary! We both managed it though and I’m so glad, we saw a shark, a load of Nemos, heaps of Parrot Fish and a HUGE barracuda and the coral itself was stunning. Diving on the Great Barrier Reef, what an absolute treat.

Spot the Nemo!

We were all given a fantastic lunch – the food on the boat was so tasty. We were then taken to another spot where we all went snorkeling: we saw two turtles and a stingray!

The whole day was pretty unreal, even though it was raining at the start and we were all cold and wet, we had the absolute best day. It was such a nice way to end our trip, it was our last day together. We all went out for a girly meal that evening to a Thai restaurant called Khin Khao, it was a BYO which was perfect and the food was yum. We hadn’t been out for a meal in so long, since Byron Bay – so it was such a treat to not cook in a hostel or campsite kitchen.

After dinner we made a quick trip to the Night Market, being in a market a bit drunk is a very funny experience. Riss was falling all over the place and trying to go for a Chinese massage at 10pm drunk!? It was a really nice end to the most amazing 6 weeks. I have never laughed as much as I did on this trip, everything was hysterical. Who knew 4 girls could survive in 1 van for 6 weeks? We did.

Next stop: Bali.

Mission Beach

We only stopped at Mission Beach to break up the drive between Agnes Water and Daintree rainforest, we’d been told it was somewhere you can miss but we had the time so might as well!

We stayed at a very cute beach-front campsite in Bingle Bay, which we found on Wiki Camps – only $21/night for the whole van. They only had 8 spots and it was very intimate, the guy that runs it is so sweet.

To kill time we did the Bicton Hill walk in Clump Mountain Nation Park, it was uphill but it only took us 40 mins – online it said it would take 2 hours! Was really nice through the rainforest and as it was raining (again) we didn’t have much else to do.

View of Mission Beach from the top of the walk and Bingle Bay

The next morning we got up quite early and it was absolutely chucking it down. We didn’t even go to see Mission Beach itself, it would have looked terrible in the rain and we just wanted to get out of there.

Daintree Rainforest

When we arrived at Draintree, we were pretty excited. Fran got to go on her first ferry across Daintree River! We stayed at the Safari Lodge which was $10/person (we obviously snuck 2 people in). You get a $5 discount if you have the wiki camps.

Daintree rainforest is amazing – we really love it there. It really does feel like you’re going back in time, it’s over 150 million years old – it was around at the same time as the dinosaurs! It’s so different from the rest of the East Coast and I would highly recommend paying it a visit.

That evening we cooked a lovely meal and then got very drunk. We ended up drinking and playing cards with these two French boys. It wasn’t supposed to be a big night at all, Riss and Gabby go to bed and Christie and I were supposed to be heading back after 1 more glass of wine. However, the next thing we know we’re in the back of some bogans pick-up truck, the French guys were playing their guitar and singing and somehow I’d acquired some sort of maraca!? We were jamming in the back of the car and then suddenly the tire blew. Not just a small hole – the whole tire is ripped to shreds! There was only the metal wheel!

We finally get to this creek and it seems like it’s a staff party!? Why on earth on had we been asked to come and why on earth did we go!? It was a pretty surreal experience. After a couple of hours we finally we got a new tire and could go home, we were so so tired.

The next morning Christie and I woke up and it took us a moment to remember the night before and when we did I accidentally spat my water all over christie’s face!

Our plan for the day was to do some walks through the rainforest, and they did not disappoint. We did 3 short walks: First we went to the Cape Tributional Beach lookout – it was really stunning. The forest rolling into a beach is a very dramatic landscape.

After that we did two walks in the forest; Dubuji and the Marrdji Boardwalks. The trees, leaves, and mangroves were SO nice. I’m normally not very good at appreciating rainforests but this was pretty cool.

The walks

The mangroves were really cool – look at all those roots!

Following the walks we went to the Daintree Ice-cream  Company – this place has a huge orchard and they grow loads of different fruits. With all their fresh fruit they make their own organic ice cream. It’s been voted one of the most scenic places for an ice cream! Once we were suitably full we drove down to Port Douglas.

Townsville

After our final night in Airlie Beach, we got up and drove to Townsville. Townsville is quite a dead town and we just wanted to get there and sleep before our Magnetic Island tour the next day. We stayed at Rowes Bay campsite which was quite expensive (#37 for 2 people) but it was nice enough.

Magnetic Island

The next morning we got the ferry across to ‘Maggie‘ – why do Australian’s always shorten everything!? It was only 25 mins and we paid $2 on the other side to get a bus to Base Hostel. The hostel was pretty cool it was right on the beach front and had a big bar, pool and was covered in fairy lights.

On our first day, it was pretty cloudy and we didn’t have much to do so we just got really drunk & made some new friends!  The night was really fun, we did a load of fun games –  Gabby and I wanted to win so so badly but we didn’t.

The next day we hired a 4×4 and drove around the island and it was such a fantastic day.  The car was SO old and so hard to drive but also amazing at the same time – it was an open-top which is exactly what we wanted. We were also so lucky with the weather with this being the only sunny day in the whole week.

First on our list of things to visit was the Forts. You walk up to it and it has 360 views of the whole island. The next stop was Radical Bay because it was supposed to be this ‘instagramable’ beach with a piano on it (I didn’t see any pianos – definitely missed something). Also, we were definitely not supposed to drive there… the roads were absolutely terrible! It was proper off-road. It was only once we got back into town that we noticed the map stuck to the car saying basically don’t drive here otherwise you’ll get fined… oops! Luckily we didn’t get caught.

After Radical Bay was Horseshoe Bay where we stopped for lunch and had an ice cream. We also went to the ‘Butterfly Forest’ which is basically this forest just on the side of the road but if you tap the trees loads of butterflies start flying around you. It was pretty spectacular.

We then went a picked up some beers and headed to West Point to watch the sunset. Thanks to Gabby for being designated driver. Our brilliant day was then followed by a fantastic night. We partied on the beach and had a bit of a boogie – all the tours we’ve been on have been fantastic! They’ve definitely been my favourite part of the trips.

Townsville

The next morning we woke up and I was actually dying. We got the ferry back to Townsville and then went to the hostel Rambutan. This hostel is SO nice. Dorms are only $24 but the place is amazing. Its got a lovely pool and outside area and a restaurant and bar. It’s more like a hotel than a hostel. Two of us bought rooms so that everyone could sneak in and use the facilities while the other two slept in Fran.

The whole day everyone was pretty hungover and unable to speak or think so we just chilled in the hostel all day and got a $5 dominos for dinner (well Riss had salad, as usual, I’m just not that strong). Because you really don’t need 6 weeks to do the East Coast we had a lot of time to kill, we ended up chilling the whole next day in Rabutan as well. We tanned and it was lovely. That evening we drove to a free campsite which was actually in a BP garage! It did the job and the next morning we started on the journey to Mission Beach – there was going to be a lot of driving in the next couple of days.

Airlie Beach

Now, Airlie Beach was more our kind of town! We staying in the Base/Nomads and they have a huge camping ground as well as hostel dorms, two pools and a bar, and its only $25/2 people plus an extra $5 for each extra person to park a camper. $35 between 4 a night is not bad at all. It’s also by far the busiest place we’d been to – it was good to hear some life around us again that wasn’t just crickets!

The drive was a long one and we all thought we deserved a beer after it! It was also a Friday night so would be rude not to. After dinner, we went to the hostel bar which was actually popping off. It was packed and had a proper DJ – it was really fun!

The next morning the rest were severely hungover but I really felt fine! I woke up at 8 and sorted our van our (we needed to re-check in and move spot). Eventually, the others appeared around 10am after I’d already been and had a coffee, come back, showered, moved the van (with them still asleep in it). What was a bit of a bummer was that in my drunken state the previous evening, I dropped my phone and it smashed into a million pieces, I didn’t even drop it from far and it landed on its back! So bloody typical.

Anyways, what that meant was I had to drive to the nearest phone shop and spend $200 on getting it fixed (sorry Mum). I could have dealt with the crack I guess but I would have had to get it fixed at home anyways, better to just pay the money and get it over with! It does mean that I’m officially broke now. Oh well.

We spent the rest of the day on the beach trying to tan but it was a bit cloudy. I was a bit naughty and got a dominos (it’s so hard when they’re $5!!). We then watched a great movie called Spotlight, would highly recommend it. After that, we drank some goon and played cards with our camper neighbour, a 19-year-old Aussie bloke called Henry. Once again we got an early night (well it was like half 11), I’m getting the most sleep I’ve ever had in my entire life!

The next day we did a lot of admin, we checked in for our Whitsundays tour (god I was getting so excited for it!!), cleaned Frans sheets, did some washing and caught up on our diaries. There was supposed to be a huge Sunday Session in the hostel but it was looking pretty dead we passed it, however, I heard that it got pretty rowdy around 10pm. Despite the bar being dead at the time, I managed to drink 3L of goon and watch a load of Love Island.

Whitsundays: Ride to Paradise

It was the moment we had all been waiting for, we were off to our lush villa in a private bay! To put the cherry on the cake I was miraculously not hungover after all that wine. We had some time to kill in the morning so we went to the Airlie beach lagoon. I don’t really know what we were expecting but a swimming pool was not it. Around 2pm we got on the boat and met our guides; Billy & Kane and we drove 25 mins to the resort. The place was even more amazing than we had expected!

After we had been shown our room and had some snacks we explored the resort and chilled in hot-tub. This place was phenomenal, it was originally created for a Love Island-esque TV show that only aired a couple of seasons and then was bought by a millionaire Australian. It had 4 luxury private villas, an infinity pool, a pool table, a tennis court, a table tennis table, kayaks, paddle boards – basically anything you could imagine there being it was there – and it was all free to use. We even got all our cooking done for us and all our washing up. The food was so good.

The place was BYO which was fantastic news because of my current financial situation so we all huddle around the bonfire and drank goon. It was pretty chilly in the evenings but really can’t complain! That night I probably had the best sleep I’ve had since we got Fran. We were still in a dorm room but they were huge king singles in sturdy wooden bunk beds so you weren’t woken up by the other person tossing and turning!

 

Next morning we got on the boat to go snorkelling & Whitehaven beach. It was an early start after a night of drinking, breakfast was from 7am. Our first snorkelling spot was to see some coral which was pretty cool but I’m definitely more of a fish person. The water (and the weather) was absolutely freezing. We had to wear wetsuits. The next stop was to see more fish. We stopped at Manta Bay which is run by a huge Maori Wrasse called George. Although getting back in the Baltic water was the last thing I wanted to do, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to go swimming with all the amazing fish. George was so so big, maybe the size of a small dog and he’s even been known to bite the snorkels off people’s faces so as soon as he got close I did freak out – not going to lie!

The next stop on the tour was to the famous Whitehaven beach. It was a half hour boat ride there and we were all soaked and all I had to protect me from the wind was my paper-thin microfibre towel. I have honestly never been so cold in my life. Lucky Gabby got one of the guides jackets! Not that I’m bitter at all. When we finally got there it was a bit warmer but I still had trousers and two jumpers while lying on the beach in the sun.

Whitehaven beach is really something else. It was the most beautiful beach I’ve ever seen in my life. The sand was a glistening white and was so fine that it felt like walking in a bag of flour. After another chilly boat ride back to the resort, the first thing I did was grab a cider and jump in the hot-tub, it was so needed – everyone was chilled to the bone. We were in that hot-tub so long that the soles fo Christies feet went to white and it was actually painful to walk because our skin was so soft!

The resort also boasted these extremely instagramable outdoor baths so obviously, we had to get in them before dinner! That night, after another delicious meal, we all got quite drunk with the guides, it was really fun. We went out on the small boat with our torches and saw so many turtles up close, not to be dramatic but it was pretty magical.

On our final day we were supposed to be going to another spot to snorkel on our way back to Airlie but thankfully the whole group decided that we would much rather just stay at the resort. It was supposed to be even windier than the day before! The guide said that it was the coldest tour they have ever had since Ride to Paradise began 2 years ago – just our luck right!?

We went paddle boarding after breakfast which was really fun but pretty easy as the sea was so flat and then had one last dip in the hot-tub before we were dragged away back to Airlie. It was a pretty crazy 3 days but so so much fun. I am so glad we didn’t opt for the boat option as it would have been cold and miserable on a boat for 2 nights. If you ever do the Whitsundays I would 10/10 recommend Ride to Paradise, if you book last minute (if the tour isn’t full – your best bet is in low season) you can normally get quite a good deal as well. Big shout out to the whole team for such a fantastic time – we really were getting lucky with our tour guides!

Hervey Bay

Our time in Hervey Bay was very chilled. When we arrived it was already quite late so we just cooked some dinner, read our books and went to bed. The next day we tanned on the beach all day, it was really handy having the campsite right on the beach front! In the evening we went for one drink at the beach bar next door (couldn’t afford more than that!).

We ate, drank and played cards with the girls but then ended up watching a movie and falling asleep by 11pm. God, we are so bloody old.

The next morning we drove up to Agnes Water/1770

Agnes Water and 1770

Okay, so Agnes Water is a weird little town – there is literally nothing there. Same with 1770. The Town of 1770 is supposed to be this old historic town where Captain Cook first landed, I don’t know if we missed something but it was pretty dead. Apparently, there were loads of nice walks but we didn’t find any.

The one highlight of stopping here was that we got to stay at Horizons Kangaroo Sanctuary! There were Kangaroos everywhere and the views over the mountains were spectacular.

We bumped into these two Canadian guys in town and we’re pretty sure they followed us to the Sanctuary (bit weird!?). They wanted us to party but we were getting up at 6am the next day to watch the sunrise and then driving 8 hours to Airlie beach. We hid in Fran and watched a movie but that didn’t stop them trying!

The next morning the sunrise was phenomenal – the whole thing was quite surreal, watching the sun come up over rolling hills with kangaroos everywhere you looked was pretty cool. We spent the rest of the day driving up to Airlie Beach.

So, I accidentally posted the Fraser Island post before this one – oops! I’m sure you’ll figure it out.

Gold Coast

If you remember from my post on Newcastle, Coffs Harbour & Byron Bay, I mentioned we were heading north to try and find the sun. Well, we failed. We arrived in Coolangatta and it was absolutely pissing it down. We parked up the to YHA because it was only $5 to use their facilities. We ended up just having to sit in Fran that evening – come to Australia they said, it’s sunny all the time, they said.

The next day it was STILL raining, we actually had no idea what to do in the rain in a beach town so decided we might as well go for a walk. First we went to Burleight National Park which had a short walk through the forest, obviously, the one we wanted to do along the coast was shut because of rocks falling! Could we be any more unlucky?? The answer to this is obviously yes.

We then drove up to Lamington National Park which has this really cool treetop walk you can do. Christie, unfortunately, took us to completely the wrong place in the National park and it would have taken us 6 HOURS to walk to this place from where we were! Jesus Christ. We ended up just doing a 6km walk through the rainforest which was pretty cool anyways. We saw loads of these animals that were half rabid, half squirrel? I have absolutely no idea what they were but they were everywhere!

We then drove to Surfers Paradise as it’s supposed to be the Magaluf of Australia and we were up for a party! Obviously, it was raining when we arrived (i’m starting to see a pattern here!) But we were set on the idea of going out. So, we got all dolled up and drank some goon and then realised it was the middle of the week and everywhere was shut or empty. We even drove around to all the so-called ‘party hostels’ in the area and they were all dead.

We ended up driving back to the carpark outside the YHA and drinking goon, in the rain, using Fran’s boot as a shelter. The woman in the bottle-o even took pity on us, saying we could go up and sit in the surf club if we wanted. We then decided it was probably time to give up and cut our losses.

Just when we thought we couldn’t get any more tragic, we were abruptly woken at 5am by knocking on the window – we were getting moved on… like actual gipsies!! Christie thankfully got out of bed and moved the van to another car park. We really had hit rock bottom.

The next morning we all woke up feeling pretty crappy, it was quite cold and even though we tried so hard to lie on the beach I just couldn’t, it was FREEZING! Christie and I then paid $6 to get into this health club so that we could lie by their pool (it was sheltered from the wind) and use their hot showers – why are we so homeless!?

After that shocker of a day we decided to drive to Brisbane that night, we needed to get to get back to a city ASAP!

Brisbane

We didn’t have high hopes for Brisbane but we actually loved it. It’s a beautiful city set on two sides of a river, very like London in that respect. When we arrived it was late in the evening and we parked on the street again. Thankfully we weren’t moved on in the middle of the night (we did get a leaflet left on the car about Brisbane camping laws though so we had to move her the next night). We parked closed to the Brisbane Backpackers Resort who let us use their facilities for free which we thought was bit weird but obviously went along with it! We had a couple beers in the hostel but nothing to write home about.

The next day we finally had a really hot and sunny day! Typical us though, we got to the man-made beach in Southbank (Streets Beach) and it’s under repair for the next 3 months! Luckily there was a small patch of grass and a pool open so we spent the day tanning there. Then, because we were in such good moods after finally getting some sun and because we actually saved quite a bit of money by sleeping on the streets this far, we went out for a few drinks. We first went to a German beer garden called Munich and they had $5 G&Ts during happy hour so can’t complain! Then we headed to a Mexican and I was dared to drink a whole jug of marg by myself, I obviously accepted. I have no idea how I was still standing but I was and then managed to make it to the club! We went to this horrible student night at the Royal Exchange Hotel – it was the only place open on a Wednesday. Aussies are so much more chilled on the going out front, they really only do it on the weekends. A french guy called Koko who met in the hostel actually drove us to the club which was quite funny. We were playing all our heavy UK music in his car and he was so confused. It was an interesting night with awful music and 18-year-olds dolled up to the 9s but so great at the same time. When we got back I managed to I ordered a pizza to the van! What a time to be alive.

While we were all sleeping off the alcohol we had an unexpected awakening when Rissbrook started driving the van, with all of us asleep in it at 5am! She apparently couldn’t sleep because of the ’noisy’ traffic but we were all sound asleep, so she moved THE WHOLE CAR with us in bed, despite Christie screaming at her. However, her plan backfired when we accidentally moved us next to a bin site. I just had to laugh at the situation because it honestly felt like we were being kidnapped being driven around in a blacked out van against our will. She then moved the car again (to the place we got moved on from on our first night in Brisbane) and then moved it a third and final time to the exact place we began. Can’t say we were all particularly happy with her in the morning when we woke up!

When we did wake up, I was a tiny bit hungover but really should have felt a lot worse than I did! Christie and I sat in a smoothie bar for much of the morning getting some admin done. We then visited the Botanic Gardens after attempting to eat lunch in a park but I got attacked by black ants – my foot stung the whole day.

As the walk back was quite far, we decided to get the Brisbane equivalent of Boris bikes. It said it was only $2 for 24 hours of hire… what we didn’t realise was that it actually took $50 from our account as a deposit! Really praying we get that back. IIn the afternoon we boarded the Red City hopper which is a free ferry up and down the Brisbane river. We were told it was about an hour round trip and that it was a good way to see the city. It was nice for about 15 minutes until we realised we were FREEZING and the whole thing took an hour and a half. By the time we got back, we were so so cold and starving!

By the time we got back to the hostel all we wanted to do was eat and watch a movie. Our plans were interrupted when the receptionist ended up shouting at Christie because apparently we weren’t allowed to use their facilities for free – I’m sorry but it wasn’t our fault we were told the wrong thing or that the other receptionist had no idea what she was doing! We ended up having to pay for the first two days but it wasn’t the end of the world. We had to ask a lot of people a lot of favours to get a permanent spot as Fran was too big to fit in their car park apart from the one space on the edge – luckily for us, everyone was so lovely and helpful.

That evening we watched the Lego movie all cuddled up and then slept so well in Fran that night. Riss had flown down to Melbourne to see her mum so there was no one getting up for the loo 3 times a night! The next day we went to the Lone Pine Koala sanctuary and got to hold a Koala! Probably the best day of my life. We managed to get the woman to give us student tickets which saved us a few bucks and only convinced us more to pay the extra $25 to hold the Koala and get a picture! So worth it. We then went up to the Mt. Coo-Tah lookout for 360 panoramic views of Brisbane, a definite must see. In the evening we went out to a techno night at a club called Capulet with a bunch of French guys. It was SUCH a good night – the club had a retractable roof! Centre court each your heart out.

We were all feeling a bit ropey the next morning so literally stayed in Fran all day. I left to go get us dominos for lunch and then we ordered a curry for dinner! We watched 3 movies and were so content.

The following day we picked up Riss from the Airport and then drove on to what ended up being one of our favourite places on the East Coast so far – Noosa.

Noosa

When we got to Noosa we parked at the YHA which was quite a nice hostel near the centre of town with a camper license. We walked down to the beach which was stunning and then had a few drinks in the hostel bar! Was a nice and chilled day. Koko, Christie’s man from Brisbane, actually ended up coming to Noosa with us – he has great chat so it was nice to have him around (it’s also the most French I’ve spoken since school).

We spent most of our first day in Noosa on the beach tanning which was much overdue! In the evening we went to Betty’s burgers for, well, burgers. We then had a few ciders on the beach and then went to a bar called Village bike for another. We were told that this bar and another one called ‘Little Sister’ would be busy on a Monday night but they were both dead! In the end, we just went back to the hostel and drank some goon outside Fran. We got caught though (oops) and they chucked my goon in the bin! How rude.

The next morning I probably had the biggest stress of my entire life. I’d thought I’d lost my passport. I looked for it everywhere. I cleaned out the whole of Fran, went into the restaurant, reported it to the police etc. etc. It was nowhere. Then I figured out that I couldn’t get into Bali with a temporary passport so was calling all the embassies! While I was in full panic mode (but trying not to show it), we went to the national park. It was actually a really nice day considering the circumstances! We all went for a dip in the natural rock pool called the fairy pools and the walk was nice to clear my head. In the end, my passport was in the bar we were in the previous night. They only opened at 4pm so I had to wait till then to call them! So annoying. Anyways, I was so glad it had been found and I could relax again. To celebrate the finding of the passport we got a pizza from Zachary’s. Maybe one of the best pizza’s I’ve ever had. I got the ‘Posh Chicken’ which consisted of avo, camembert, chicken and cranberry sauce – YUM. We sat on the beach with pizzas and beers and watched the sunset.

Following that stress I never wanted to take my passport out anywhere again, luckily my driver’s license had finally arrived at Christie’s friends’ house in Brisbane. We drove down that day. Christie came with me which was very nice of her and we also had to go into a Jucy shop (where Fran is from) because she had a lot of problems; the tires were half flat, the sink/tap was broken, poppers had come off the curtains and the USB portal at the back had broken. Jucy were so good though, they fixed everything in about half an hour and everything was covered by our insurance.

We have also managed to wangle both me and Gabby onto our insurance for free (should be $2/day/person) and so finally all 4 of us could drive! I drove Fran for the first time all the way back to Noosa – I’d never driven an automatic car before let alone a bloody camper van but I didn’t really get what all the fuss was about! Saying that I’ll admit that parking her isn’t the most fun of jobs.

By the time we got back in the afternoon it was raining (typical, it had been sunny all morning). We picked up the other girls and had lunch in another car park. Another day, another car park really. Our plan had been to do the 10km walk around the national park so we all put on our gym kit and drove up there. Obviously, it starts pissing it’d own as soon as we go there. So, instead, we quickly signed up for an F45! (all of us but Gabby of course). The workout nearly killed us. We felt so sick – Top tip: don’t eat a huge lunch then do an intense cardio workout. I was pretty proud of us afterwards though.

We drove to a campsite 20 mins outside of town that evening that we found on the WikiCamps app. It was pretty basic but had a nice shower so I got clean and then read my book until bedtime. We managed to get out of that campsite without paying which is always a nice feeling! We headed back into town and went for a buff breakfast at a place called No.10 Hastings Street. We then did a bit of shopping, not much else to do in the rain! I bought a new purse (so I’d stop losing all my stuff). In the afternoon we drove to our next adventure; Rainbow Beach and Fraser Island– but of course you’ve already read about it!