Slight change of plan - ie I missed the friggin bus on Thursday due to some v inconsiderate ppl in my room keeping me awake so I slept thru my alarm. Probably a good thing tho, as the next 2 days were awful weather.
On Thursday, I met a girl in my hostel called Katherine so we went to the Art Gallery of New South Wales together. Wld've been better had it not been chucking it down so hard that even tho I wore my raincoat, I was still soaked when I got there. Consequently, we didn’t stay long, and spent the rest of the day in the lush tv room in the hostels. In the evening, we went to a Hypnotist show in the bar downstairs which was quite amusing, followed by dancing til quite late.
Friday, I spent shopping with a Canadian girl from my dorm, had dinner with Katherine then went to bed nice and early to prepare for the bus on sat morning.
6.30am bus pick up from over the road, sob! We made our way to Barrington, stopping off in the Hunter Valley for wine tasting (at 10.30am!!). When we finally arrived at the lodge at Barrington River it was 3pm, cold and starting to rain, so we watched tv. We were also in the middle of nowhere, so apart from some v slippery mountain biking, there was not much else to do! Had an all you can eat home made pizza buffet in the hut they call a bar at the bottom of the hill, before heading to bed. I turned down the walk at 7am. Wonder why.
The next day, minus 3 ppl who, for some unknown reason decided to stay, we headed to Bingara, stopping off at Tamworth, the Country Music Capital of oz. Hence the giant gold guitar...At Bingara, most of the group went horse riding, which I turned down, mainly cause it was quite expensive for only 2hrs. The 2hr walk planned for the lunchtime was cancelled due to the rain the previous day. Shame. Still no signal on my phone either, grr!
On our way to Byron Bay the next day, we did a 2 1/2 hr walk up to the summit of Bald Rock, the largest granite boulder thingy in the southern hemisphere. The view was v gd, surprisingly enough! The hostel in Byron is quite nice, and handy, as its just over from the backpacker bar Cheeky Monkeys. Lots of fun. The Oz Experience had reserved tables for us, and the ppl from last night’s bus. We found out where all the loud ppl on oz exp were...on the other bus! The ppl from my bus are so quiet compared to them! But it certainly made for a gd night, especially as the dance floor in Cheeky Monkeys is on the tables!! hehe! Am off to book a couple of trips now, and even...da da da...a surf lesson for tomorrow! (I must be bloody mad!) Mustn't overdo it at the hostels all-u-can-eat, all-u-can-drink bbq tonight then...
