Jan 20th - Which is scarier the worlds biggest freefall ride (125m, 400ft) or the Spider?

Well if you’ve been following my blog the past week, then you will know that for me the answer is obvious, an Australian spider is far scarier than being winched up 400ft and left to admire the view for 45 seconds before plummeting to earth like a stone giving 6 seconds of pure freefall and a G-force of 5.5 upon hitting the rides magnetic breaks!

Had a great day out at Dreamworld theme park from crazy rollercoasters to an impressive Tiger show, and a wildlife section with koalas, kangaroos and a hungry looking croc!

Jan 19th - Arrive in Surfers Paradise to a nice surprise.

Had the morning in Byron Bay before catching a lunchtime bus to Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast, the Bus took an hour and a half but due to an hours time difference we arrived only half an hour after leaving Byron.

After the hostel in Byron, I was looking forward to an air-conditioned hotel room that I had treated myself to for the next 3 nights, it was cheap at $72 (£38 per night) so was only expecting a basic budget room, so was amazing when I walked in my room and found it was actually 2 huge rooms, with an open plan kitchen, and living area complete with comftable couches & and a LCD cable TV and a huge separate bedroom with en-suite , was the perfect place to stay and cool off!

Went out for a shortish 16km bike ride, rode down past so of the stunning coastline and back alongside some of the inland waterways which was very scenic, like this pic with the skyscrapers in the background.

Stopped at a supermarket to buy myself ingredients for a nice pasta meal and a bottle of wine and had a quite evening in the comfort of my apartment hotel

Jan 18th Byron Bay - Australia’s most easterly point.

I did not think much of my hostel in Byron bay, my room had 10 people in it with no air conditioning, now when 10 people are paying $34 each that’s $340 or about £185 for the room, now you would think when there receiving as much money per room as most 5 star hotels in a major city that they could afford to put in air-con, obviously when your travelling on a budget you cant always expect too many frills but in a place where for much of the year it’s hot & humid and they pack you in 10 to a room I would have expected Air-con as a bare minimum!

On the plus side however the staff were friendly and helpful and after a crap nights sleep, I got up and ended up bumping into Michael who I had met at Townsend Lodge in Perth way back in August! At times this huge country can seem small after all, we arranged to meet up that evening and I went off to finally get my Bike fixed 7th bike shop lucky, 2 in Newcastle, 3 in Port Macquarie were closed and the first one I tried in Byron was too busy.

Pleased to have a good working bike again I cycled upto the most Easterly point in Australia, Cape Byron. It was a very tough climb but I made it and not only was I riding at the most easterly point possible in this huge country, the 360 degree views were incredible, I stayed up there for quite some time before enjoying the downhill ride down, I then lazed about by one of Byron Bays amazing beaches before going for another ride early evening.

That evening treated myself to a huge steak and met up with Michael for a few beers, It was great to catch up and talk about our travels and some of the great times over in Perth!

Jan 17th - A few Hours in Port Macquarie then by an 8 hour bus journey to Byron Bay

After the previous few days bad luck and overcast weather it was great to wake up to bright sunshine and in a lovely little town surrounded by ocean on 2 sides with a river cutting through the middle and mountains in the distance, Sadly I only had 3 hours to take a look around, I was so tempted to stay on longer but due to it being peak season I had all my future accommodation booked up so decided I had to stick with my plans of moving on despite also being temped with a chance to fly a seaplane for only about £45.

Reluctantly I boarded the 2pm bus for an 8 hour journey North to Byron Bay, Was a nice journey as we passed though many more lovely little towns and I wished I had time to stop off at more of them, we also went through some spectacular storms as we headed into subtropical Australia thorough the region which grows many of Australia’s Bananas, they were even selling for 99cents a kilo, compare that to the $7 a kilo that was driving me bananas a few months ago in Perth!

We arrived in Byron bay at 10pm and were greeted by a few hippie nutters, as I tried to assemble my bike asap.

Jan 16th – Things are begging to goto the Dogs - Waiting for a greyhound to come in for 12 hours

After the previous night nightmares and poor sleep I ended up oversleeping by half an hour which wa enough to miss by ferry by I had planned on taking to the nearest greyhound bus stop by just 2 minuets, decided I had to pedal like crazy instead to make it I then had a spoke snap on my rear wheel, meaning I had no chance of getting the bus. Fortunately I was able to eventually put the bike on a local bus to get back to Newcastle, but go there well after the bus departed and after 12 noon by which time all the bike shops had closed on a Saturday. I then had hours to wait till the next greyhound which sporting this appropriate registration plate turned up at 10pm meaning that rather than arriving at my destination Port Macquarie at 2pm it would be 2am when I arrived which wasn’t very nice trying to guide a broken bike through the streets to find my accommodation.

Jan 15th – Multiple Spider problems and big sand dunes

Today started with me going to get my leg, that would later be diagnosed as a spider bite looked at, I took some pics of the bite but have decided against posting that as my photo of the day as it’s too squeamish!

The weather was still cloudy though a little better, and the doctor told me cycling would do my bite wounds good as it keeps the blood flowing so went out for a bit of a cycle around the area, this pic was taken by the beach with miles and miles of huge sand dunes.

After the relief about hearing my bite wasn’t too poisonous and my leg would survive I needed a few beers so had a good evening eating and drinking around the hostel, however when going to bed a roommate noticed a huge Spider above my bed, and given what had happened I let out a bit of a yell and demanded the roommate to kill it, which he did a good job of with his size 11’s!

I couldn’t sleep much that night however and kept waking up jumping up in my bed after having nightmares about spiders hanging by a thread over my face.

I hope this blog isn’t putting off people visiting Australia, it’s pretty rare to get spider troubles, I’ve spent a combined total of over a year in Australia over 3 trips now and this is the first time I’ve known anyone to be bitten by one it just had to happen to me before I did know anyone else to get bitten didn’t it! And indeed it was also the first time I’ve noticed one in my room anywhere.

Jan 14th - A Koala for a raining day

Was a lousy overcast drizzly day so lazed around all morning doing nothing, then had a new roommate turn up who had a rental car so he suggested going for a drive which got us out, it also allowed us to do plenty of shopping and we stocked up on bbq food and beer for the next couple of nights.

Had a nice bbq in the evening and ended up playing trivial pursuit for hours it was the 1984 Australian expert edition so most of the questions were impossible to answer correctly and I don’t think anyone got more than 2 right!

Due to the weather didn’t get any pics today, so as this is supposed to be Koala country (except I didn’t see one) here is a pic of me with a Koala taken the previous week at a wildlife park on the way to the Blue Mountains.