We left Sydney in the middle of a terrible thunderstorm that seems to be chasing us up the coast. You can take the girl out of the Weege but the weather will obviously follow her.
Byron Bay was nice. It had been described to me as hippyish, but it's not really. Sure you can have a photograph taken of your aura there, but it's more about the beach than anything else. It must be given the number of shaggy haired surfer boys swaggering around with only their board shorts clinging to their beach bums and the large groups of impossibly bouncy teenage girls enrolled in surf camp. I feel ancient. I got IDed at the pub - the only time I didn't bother taking my passport with me. When I got back with it the doorman said "awwwwww, you're old! You need to grow up a bit!"
We got all oour plans for the next two weeks on the east coast sorted while we were in Byron and then it was time to move on to Brisbane. Easier said than done, because the clocks went forward the night before we left Byron Bay. The sign in the hostel said "just to spin ya out today everything will happen one hour faster". Nae wurries. But the bus north was an hour later than scheduled and yet arrived in Brisbane at the same time. All eventually became clear - Queensland doesn't have daylight savings in summer. It's a reminder of exactly how far and wide I'm travelling.
Brisbane was extremely comfortable except for the heat. I can't imagine what it would be like in summer. Unbearable, I suspect. Queensland is as mad and as lovely as I expected it to be. We took the bus to Noosa today and will visit Australia Zoo tomorrow.
