Whitsunday Islands and the good ship Broomstick

I just returned yesterday from a 3 day trip around the whitsunday islands and had the most amazing time! Had a brilliant group, good crew and nice weather so couldn't really have asked for much more. :-)
Broomstick, the 76 foot boat we were sailing on.
Sunset over the Whitsundays. Whitehaven beach on Whitsunday Island.
The route we took amongst the islands.

East Coast Oz

At the moment i'm heading up the east coast of Australia with a lovely Brazilian girl I met in Sydney named Fabiola. I'm ultimately going to Port Douglas but stopping at various places along the way. However due to the fact that I've only got 4 weeks in which to complete it i'm only spending a night or 2 in each place but am happy that i'm at least getting to see some of it!

Here's a wee round up of the places i've visited: Newcastle wasn't really anything special - nice enough, but pretty quiet; Port Macquarie was very pretty with some lovely beaches; Coffs Harbour was nice too, and home to the Big Banana - what more can I say, really?!; Byron Bay chose to rain most of the time we were there, as did Surfers Paradise (which depressingly resembles a bar chart when you see it as you approach from across the bay due to the number of high rise buildings right on the beach front); Brisbane was much nicer than I was expecting, so all good; Noosa was very chilled out and had a couple of beautiful beaches; Rainbow Beach was a nice enough one-horse town and i'm now back in Hervey Bay, having just spent 3 days driving around in a 4wd truck on Fraser Island, the world's biggest sand island that is said to contain more sand than the Kalahari Desert!

Phew! The past few weeks have been very busy and involved a fair amount of forward planning and decision-making, neither of which are really my forte as most of you will know, but i've had an absolutely amazing time and met some brilliant people and it's not over yet! Coming next i've got a 3 day sailing trip around the Whitsunday Islands which i'll update you on as soon as I get back!

P.S. I've tried 4 times now to add some pictures on to this post but it's just not working... Will have to consult with my technical wizard (aka Martin) and see what the deal is.

Bondi and Bridge Climb!!!!!

Woke up to another glorious day so thought i'd take advantage of it and hop on the train to Bondi beach! I obviously wasn' t the only one with this spark of genius and there were plenty of surfers demonstrating how it should be done! Then in the afternoon I came back to central Sydney in order to climb the Harbour Bridge, and it was INCREDIBLE! One of the best experiences of my life, without a doubt! We had an ever changing view of Sydney - started our climb towards the end of daylight, reached the summit as the sun was setting, then by the time we'd climbed back down, all the lights were coming on downtown. The photo doesn't do it justice at all (it's a photo of a photo) but it's the best i can do!

Out and about in Sydney

Following my sixth (and final) train journey with the lovely Great Southern Railways, i'm finally in Sydney! Had a nice few days wandering around so here's a couple of photos for you to enjoy!