Well.. Off to Oz to the Sunshine Coast to visit friends.. Back to the endless beaches, sunshine 300 days a year, and warm tropical water!

My flight was pretty uneventful!! Big UP’s all round to sleeping pills!! I was only wake for 11 hours of a 26 hour journey!! However they made it interesting in Singapore when I walked of the plane in a sleeping pills/free beer daze without my passport or boarding card!! I thought I was going to get stuck there!! It got worse when I couldn’t remember what seat I was sat it!! After 20 minutes of holding the plane somebody finally found my bag with passport n stuff!! Lol.. At least I was laughing!! =)

Made it Noosa pretty easily.. it was raining at the time.. but I didn’t appreciate it as much as I do now!! Went surfing in the afternoon.. managed to fight through the tiredness until a reasonable hour and then went and passed out!! I then discovered the joys of Jet Lag.. Insomnia!! 4:30am every bloody morning I’m awake!!

Day 2.. nice and unrefreshed.. It’s still bloody raining and over cast..
where’s the sun!! I start to settle into my morning routines.. wake at
5am.. grab some fruit, some water and head into the national park.. Getting
a wave to yourself takes some commitment round here!! I get to Tea Tree
after about 45 minutes of walking.. and count the longboards all ready
there!! after ½ an hour of swearing at them I’ve had enough.. I
paddle in and after another 20 minutes discover inside granites.. a short
hollow break/dump ( reminds me of flintons, a wave back home in Scaroborough ).. A Left!! And nobody here!! I grab my fill until knackered.. grab some water and head back towards the hostel.. on the way back I pass Tea tree.. see a few nice sets.. have ½ hour there.. next up is Johnsons… it looks alright.. but can I be arsed!! Hell yeah!! A few more rights and it’s time for food and a snooze!!

Umm.. wake up mid afternoon.. check the surf… do the whole lot again!! =)  Day 3 is pretty much the same as day 2.. surf, sleep, surf more!

Day 4,5,6 are pretty much the same.. A few more cuts, a couple of bruises.. a couple of close scrapes in clubs!! These ozzies like a good fight!! But the response “Not really, I’d prefer a beer” seems to work well when asked “do you wanna take it out side!!” Both times it’s resulted in a free beer!! Better than a black eye any day!! =)

One big change is the sun starts to shine!! Which sounds nice.. except it’s 35 degrees in the shade.. and my pale English skin gives in and fry’s… despite factor 30+ everywhere every hour!! There is no respite from the heat.. even a cold shower only last 20 minutes until the sweat starts to pour..

Throughout all this I’ve only seen a few bits and bobs to smoke, and haven’t found any sellers anywhere.. I put a large part of my insomnia down to this lack weed.. However, the only place I know I can definitely get some weed is over 600km’s away.. Nimbin.. bugger.. O well.. looks like I’m going to have to hire a car and do an interstate drug run!!

I get a few partners in crime in tow, and we’re off!! 6 hours of driving and we’re at Byron.. I grab a quick ½ surf before it gets dark, get drunk and pass out.. Still got the insomnia so 5:30 am and I’m in the water… It’s head and a half with not a breath of wind.. left and right barrels aplenty.. with only 6 good surfers out.. unbelievable. I paddle ingrab some food and expect to find the water full by 10am.. but no.. even less surfers, with still head and a half sets running through! I figure I must be missing something and jump in the car and head to a few spots.. The Pass is chaos.. 50-60 surfers.. one peak.. bugger that.. I head to tallows.. same story there.. hundreds of surfers chasing the same head and a half.. I give it a go.. regret it almost immediately as a longboarder runs me over and take a chunk out of my fish.. So I head back to the wave outside the hostel.. still only 10 people in the water..

I grab a few, but Nimbin calls, so it’s on the road again.. after 30 minutes getting hassled by old toothless women with shite bush I finally get to the good stuff.. I score more weed than I intend.. (just tooo good a deal) and head back to Byron.. Unless you’re after weed, don’t goto nimbin.. it’s shit whole, where fucked up people just hassle you all day trying to sell shit weed.. I get halfway back and can’t resist the urge to stop n have a smoke.. 20 minutes later as I’m struggling to read road signs I’m really regretting the decision!! But hey at least I didn’t buy shite..

I get back to the hostel and grab a quick surf and settle down to dinner and a smoke.. a happy evening. The arrival of a large bag of weed at the hostel gets me in with the long termers, they’re all happy with my profit margin and so everybody is happy!!

The weekend then disappears in a blur of head and a half glass surf and dancing myself stupid to the best band I’ve heard in a long long time!! If you’re in/going to oz, go to Byron for as long as you can!! and then goto the Beach Hotel on a Friday night!!.. Had the best days of the trip so far there.. I finally hook up with some real surfers and can have a civilised conversation at last!! Made some good friends and I hope I can get back ASAP…

I’m up in noosa now, having a few days just chillin, taking it easy and trying to bring my spending a bit more under control.. Back to the routine of daily walks to the edge of the national park for a surf.. Giving surf lessons to a few people at the hostel has led to me giving lessons for the hostel for free digs.. It’s a pain, but at least it’s only 2 hours a day and you get to meet loads of people.. Shame most of them leave the next day!! I’m still unsure whether this is a good thing or not.. At least the total idiots, of which there are lots, are gone quickly, but then so are the cool people you meet.. The surf has been pretty consistent.. Head and ½ Granites that reminds me of Holbeck ( another home break ) , and head high inside Granites.. but..  I’ve got so many cuts and bruises.. and nothing heals over here!! I’m not sure if my body can take much more.. a few nights I’ve been so exhausted I’ve been unable to keep my eyes open by 9pm.. I’ve already snapped the nose of my resin8.. and the fish is looking a bit worse for wear… Maybe I should have brought 3 boards!! =)

I’ve seen allsorts of mad wildlife on my travels so far also.. all without visiting a zoo.... On only the 2nd day in Noosa a Pod of Dolphins came in and surfed with us. I’ve seen Wild Koalas and a Kangaroo nearly ran straight into me one morning on the track through the park.. I don’t know who was most scared, but we had a comedy frozen 10 seconds while we both kinda backed away slowly and stared at each other, then it was gone.. There’s a 5 foot long monitor lizard that often prowls the grounds of the hostel, and loads of smaller geckos and other small lizards. In Byron there was a huntsman spider the size of my fist.. it just strolled between the group one night and caused absolute chaos.. There’s a swarm of parrots that hang round the hostel who are suckers for Marmalade.. They’ll come and eat it off your hand. And every night there is a procession of over a million (or so, I haven’t actually counted em!!) fruit bats as they leave their roost.. but this Oz so these bats are the size of a small dog.. They’re like pterodactyls when they fly over head.. I’ve also managed to freak myself out of the water.. a Bloody big fish, came and started circling me.. I’m 100 % certain it wasn’t a shark, but after a few laps it got to me and I headed to shore as quick as possible.. I’m not liking being the only person out at some of the point breaks.. The best advise I’ve heard about sharks so far is if even 1 other surfer in the water reduces your chances of being attacked by 50%.. Maybe I should start listening!!

I went and saw Glass Love last night with a few local surfers.. which after such a long wait was a bit of a let down.. maybe it was the lack of anything to drink, or lack of air con, but I didn’t really think that much of it.. But having to keep going outside because you think you’re going to pass out in the heat doesn’t make for a memorable film, and there was no beer!! I thought this was a civilised country!! .. had quite a long chat to Andrew Kidman and he reminds me soooo much of Oly… It is almost surreal.. same build, same style, same passion for music, same lack of motivation to get stuff finished!! =)

And then I end up in hospital for 5 hours while trying to move from Noosa to Maroochydore.. Walking from the bus stop with all my stuff my dodgy leg just gave way and hasn’t come back yet!! Right in the middle of a shopping centre, with all my stuff!! Security called an ambulance and then 20 minutes later I’m being driven away and leaving all my stuff with the security guards in the shopping centre.. They prodded, poked and x-rayed me but couldn’t spot anything obvious, so they’ve put a half cast on and given me crutches!! They think one of my screws may have moved or the plate has separated from the bone.. both things they say will settle back over time.. So I’m stuck on crutches for the rest of the trip!! Hey ho.. I’ve had some nice waves!!