Australia - East Coast 2009

Anna Bay, Byron Bay

Icecream Byron Bay, Dorrigo, Natural Bridge

Myall Lakes, Dorrigo, Dangar Falls

Myall Lakes

Well I thought I am overdue a travel blog update, considering today I can barely leave the house thanks to the  DUST STORM that has descended upon Sydney. I just painstakingly aligned the photos in the top image. I am sure there must be an easier way to do it, but I've always gone for improvisation when it comes to photo editing programs (for example, print screen + crop x 3 in order to shrink large files).

Anyhoo... thanks to the first person from Europe to actually follow up with their promises to visit me in Australia, I had an excuse to go on a massive 2479km drive in July.

Sights along the way: Anna Bay, Myall Lakes, Urunga, Bellingen, Dorrigo, Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, Byron Bay, Gold Coast, Brisbane, Natural Bridge, Boonoo Boonoo National Park, then a massive drive from Tenterfield back home to Sydney in one day, skimming through Tamworth, Armidale and the Hunter Valley. Quite an epic journey.

I'm not in a particularly creative mood at the moment so at best I can say that Myall Lakes was surprisingly great. Many sunset photos were taken, such as my favourite above. Most of the NSW coastline would have been better left as wilderness, as the few settlements that are there are not worthy of the land clearing required in order to build them.

I also had a fun time driving for hours along the Mt Lindesay Highway, taking in hours of completely unpopulated stretches of sometimes dirt roads in my tiny little car.

What did I learn on this trip? I quite like Australia's photogenic nature and wildenress, and that I need to get out of here, and come back in time to cash in my baby bonus and superannuation.

International Girl Guide Camp, January 2000

*My travel friends on the beach at Mooloolaba *The tent - I would not recommend staying in a stuffy tent in the middle of summer in Brisbane, for the record *Travel friends walking around Camp *Me at Dreamworld

Seeing as I have afforded myself a day of sleep and laziness, I thought I should delve into some more travel stories. I would write about another age-12 adventure - the week-long International Girl Guide Camp in Brisbane... but I actually can't remember too many details, thanks to a lack of proper diary-keeping skills, however I will try to piece together what I can. It was January 2000. They refused to let us fly to Brisbane because the Girl Guide Leaders, in their wisdom, didn't like the possibility of all their sweet little girls crashing and burning when all the planes fell out of the sky Y2K-style. Nevermind that we were leaving on January 2nd. Don't even get me started on the debate that happened with them in the lead-up. Basically we were all put on overnight coaches up to Brisbane. Not exactly the most pleasant journey that I have undertaken. I seem to recall being miffed by all the other fresh-faced arrivees from Melbourne, Perth... even Sydney... who laughed at our being forced to get the bus. We were set up in tent groups. I was the only representative from my city, let alone group, on my side of the massive series of fields that held all the participants. Perhaps that solidified my preference for solo-travelling, as I thought I got far more out of the experience than the girls from my group who were all put together. As for daily activities... I really have no idea what we were doing. I recall a trip to Dreamworld, an overnight trip to Mooloolaba and sleeping under the shark tank in the Aquarium, various activities such as abseiling, being driven around on motorbikes, and no doubt participating in Girl Guide-esque ritualistic songs and dances. I seem to recall being herded into huge tents for our daily meals, and that by and large the food was awful. Consequently I barely ate anything, but still spent all day out and about. As a result I returned almost unrecognisably skinny after just a week. I ended up making lots of nice friends and added to my penpal collection. It's a shame I can't find any of them on facebook, I always enjoy seeing what people look like later on. I wish I could remember more about it. A few photos will have to suffice.