So we eventually got on the Oz Experiance bus after a full night out in Sydney. We didn't need accomodation so we pulled an all nighter to get the bus at 6.00am the next morning. Everyone had said that when you travel you bump into people that you know, but i didnt expect that as soon as we move into backpacker territory i would be bombarded by 5 different people we knew from college!
Our first Oz experiance driver was Joel, a big curly haired ginger man who took a real liking to our 'full on as loud as possible' approach to the australia! He also was our driver for most of the trips we did up the east coast, just by pure coincidence, and he loved every minute of it!
So we headed off up the east coast, meeting people as we went and finding a very special someonw - a JimJim. We met him in Sydney, sat at the back of the bus by himself, shaven head, leather jacket, loud metal music on in his earphones - not who we are used to. But no - JimJim was infact and became an extention to Andrex. A medical student next year whos best friend is best friends with Simon at Leeds! After a few nights, a few too many drinks (mainly goon) and learning to surf, we ended up doing an opporation on my toe to get rid of a blister. This became a running thing and we did a few more foot opperations during our trip up the east coast, deciding that after our nicknames of 'JimJim' and 'Peter Pan', we would make 'JimPanzees Surgeries'; something we were very proud of at the time.
A few other people we met were comody rob, Uncle Iain and JimJam. This formed the 6 person alliance that moved up the east coast together, making the trip just that little bit better.
The next big adventure after Byron Bay was probably Fraser Island. We got in a 10 person 4 wheel drive and set off in convoy with 20 other people. Bottom line was 8 people drinking, 220 beer cans, 22 litres goon and a beach! You do the maths. We started at about 9 in the morning after the people came to fix our broken car and brought beer and by 11am had had 11 cans. The rest of this trip continued like this. Fraser island was beautiful tho and we had an amazing time cooking BBQ's and chasing Dingos. We also swam in alot of lakes and toured the island, it was just too good to comprehend i ever did it. Sailing in the whitsundays was much the same.
Much of the east coast went in this same patters of chilling out, relaxing and meeting people in amazing surroundings and weather. A bit of golf, surfing, skinny dipping. Everything was just amazing. That is all i have to say about that - i guess pictures will have to be the way i show everyone how i felt about that one. And don't worry - everyone will get to meet JimJim when he comes down for our welcome back party.
love
xxx
