Having been subjected to watching endless reruns of 'Braveheart' while still at Bev and Micks, the thought that "they will never take our freedom" was stuck in our heads as we made our escape from the desert and boarded the bus for the 17 hour return journey back to civilisation, finally able to begin our adventure up the east coast. After buying some new clothes to replace the ones that fruit picking had ruined, we headed off to the Blue Mountains with one thing on our minds...
After a morning practising abseiling in the Mountains, where everything went smoothly except for one painful moment for Al that had him wincing (I'll spare the details Al!), our group of six headed to the Empress Falls canyon and squeezed into our wet suits, of which mine turned out to be two sizes too small for me (silly guides). We set out and waded, swam and jumped our way through freezing rock pools between the canyon (in slow motion, on my part, due to the lack of mobility in my wetsuit) untill we reached a 30 metre waterfall! Guess who abseiled down it first? Alex may be afraid of heights, for which I told him I was bringing the camera, but I was definitly cacking it leaning over the edge trying to shuffle into a 90 degree body position! I accidentally peered down the waterfall but couldn't see the bottom - I don't know why I did that either! Despite learning to abseil down a small rock in the morning nothing quite prepares you for climbing down a steep, slippery long drop with water cascading over your eyes, so you can't see a thing. There was no turning back. I felt eyes naturally wanting to close and went for it - perhaps not the best method! It felt like about an eternity (Alex assures me I only took about 3-4 minutes), but eventually I made it to the pool below. Relieved, soaked and freezing, but very glad I did it! Alex followed me down and was also well chuffed, especially after his little problem in the morning, which had made him quite nervous. Oh.. and we were recommended to buy a waterproof camera off the canyoning company to protect our own but low and behold the pics came out black due to not much light in the canyons and no flash on the camera!
After this we were back in Sydney for a few days and met up with Alon and our Korean friends Lee and Choi (Jar Geneet Sauh guys!) who cooked us up a couple of lovely Korean/Japanese meals before we left. It was great knowing you guys and hopefully we will meet again when we return to Sydney!
Meet the Fam!
In Brief: These dodgy looking people are
the guys (and girls) who we travelled up the
east coast with between Port Macquarie and
Brisbane. The two nipps with me and Gem in
the first photo are Paul (top) and Olly. The
other two are Leanne and Dan, a couple of
true blue scousers. We met Paul and Olly in
Port Mcquarie, and Dan and Leanne in Coffs
Harbour, at the legendary (to us at least)
Hoey Moey hostel (what a great name!). And
by the way, I have no idea what that is that
Olly is holding up to my lips in the sofa photo,
no idea at all...
In Full: Reached 'sunny' Port Macquarie and met a couple of nice Isrealis and two English eighteen year old stoneheads, whom later on we aptly named The Nippers in our growing traveling fam (We know your not impressed with this guys but it really is a sign of affection!). They struggle to go a day without a puff (and are in denial of their addiction i'm sure) though they're a laugh and (on rare occasions) mature for their age amid the pot fog lol. It rained most of the time we were here even though a local told us its statistically the sunniest spot in all of Australia, huh?
Bolders painted by children
along the beach front in P.M.
I'd definetly recommend the hostel we stayed in at Coff's (Hoey Moey's), just like Red Cliff's, for those of you who know, but better and unbelievably cheap for what you get there. Plus there's the most stunning beach I've seen to date right on its doorstep. First time I saw it there was a rainbow from beginning to end facing me across the edge of the sea. Just a shame the camera wasn't charged! Only snag about this hostel was that it was a bit quiet when we went and the beds had a huge bum ditch. Dan and Leanne, a Liverpudlian couple joined us here in Coff's Harbour. 
Ok, obviously not Gem's favourite pastime
Me and Gem
These are a couple of snaps taken while we were in Port Macquarie. It is about 5-6 hours drive north of Sydney and was our first stop up the east coast. It claims to have the best climate in the whole of Oz but while we were there over the Easter weekend it showered practically the whole time. Funny how that reminded us of somewhere else. It is a nice little town but a bit quiet, and if we had been there a month or so later we would have been able to see the whales migrating up the coast to warmer waters for their mating season. Nevermind though, we are hoping to catch them further up the coast in May or June.
Here, the first picture was expertly taken by Gem and captures me just as i am riding the wave. I've gotta say it, surfing is easy and that was the smallest wave I rode all day...If you believe any of that then you will also believe that Gem really likes this photo and thinks it captures her at her best. As Gem said when she first saw this photo, she has nothing more to add.
Wish you were here!
This is Gem's favourite beach ever, at Coffs Harbour. It's not bad to be fair and plus I tried surfing here! Well, I say that, a more accurate description would be that I waded out into the sea with a body board attached to my wrist and got battered by the waves for 45 minutes then came back in to dry off. It is good fun though and some of the waves are bloody massive!
Shock! Gem caught cheating!
This is Gem catching a smacker from Bucky at Coffs Harbour. If you ask me she looks like she is enjoying it a little too much.
Byron Bay is bong haven for most, totally chilled and kept small-like, perfect for 'Pollie'. You won't find a Mac Donald's here. On the other hand its got some fairly wild nightlife, as Alex and I got wasted a couple of times there, playing the most ridiculous card drinking game you could think of, don't bother denying it guys! Hit cheeky Monkeys after and couldn't stay on the purpose built tables with everyone, I was swaying so much. Managed a hangover for two days. I trecked round the surfer and hippy style shops all squished into one long street and there's a massive, glorious beach, where we took some really nice pics of us but were somehow deleted from the camera, whilst on the pc, gutting! You can tell the locals absolutly love living the surfer/laidback Byron lifestyle. The Beachouse Hotel is grand, brimming with peeps night and day with some good local live bands and Djs. The Balcony was nice for a more classy, relaxed night. Fellow travellers, try the doughnuts dipped in chocolate - we had a laugh, you'll know what I mean if you go with a date. Either that or Al and I just have bad taste!
'Family Outing': outside Cheeky Monkey's in Byron
Next stop was Surfers Paradise, which is the complete opposite to Byron. There seems no desire to hide the fact that this place wants to be the Miami or Los Angeles of Australia. Still, not such a bad thing as there is plenty to do. After meeting up with the gang we hit the town on saturday night on an organised backpacker pub crawl. Here we also met Dan and Leanne's new flatmates, Cas, Paula and Andy. Hooray! After a days recuperation we went to the big local theme park with Olly and Paul. It's good, but it's no Alton Towers! Having said that there are some good rides including one called the claw that me and the boys went on about four times. It wasn't that scary (Gem!) but it was strangely addictive! However, the biggest ride took us half a day to gain our courage to approach. called simply 'The Big Drop' it is one of those rides that just takes you up very slowly, holds you there for a while and then just lets you freefall. Except this was the highest any of us had ever seen. No way could I ever hope of getting Gem on it! Rollercoasters she is OK with, but "drops or swingy things is a big no no". If you are reading Amy, you would have loved it, but no joke, it was well scary being at the top and waiting (for about a minute) for it to fall. After a lot of persuading we finally dragged Gem on to the other big drop ride 'The Tower of Terror' which was also good but nowhere near as scary.
To make up the rest of our time in Surfers we had a go at Jet Skiing which was a thrill, and we even dared go to the casino. It is one of only five in the country which are free and open to the public. The official reason was to go and watch Chelsea drop points to Newcastle on the T.V. but obviously we couldn't resist trying our hand at the blackjack tables. Well, and this is mainly down to Gem, we decided to quit while we were ahead and walked out $100 richer. Nice one Gem!
A week later we were in Brisbane. This is probably the first stop on our journey where I think we would both say we are glad to be leaving! It's not a terrible place, but it's just not that great either. During our first couple of days walking round we couldn't walk down a street without seeing a building site or roadworks. The hostels are average and everyone we met seems to agree. We appreciate Brisbane is suffering a draught but asking us to have two minute showers plunged Gem into a mini crisis of her own! We did find some nice spots, and the botanical gardens by the river are a nice little haven. Southbank is meant to be nice but we never made it there. We're now running out of money again and need to start working, but after a little consideration, we decided not here.
Another reason we don't quite like Brisbane is because it is here where we have somehow managed to lose all our photos of Byron, Surfers, and our night out in Brisbane with the gang. It really annoyed us but there is no way of getting them back on these damn computers we are using. So, this is a plea to anyone with photos of our times in the aforementioned places to please email them to us as we would really appreciate it! Thanks.