Kroombit Cattle Station!

Got on the bus at 7am the next morning (18th October) to go to Kroombit Cattle Station! We stopped at Rockhampton to pick up a few other people then had a trivia quiz on the bus as a way to get to know each other! My team won, even though the only questions I was able to answer were 2 disney related ones, a Harry Potter question and a Care Bears question!

We got to Kroombit at about 1pm where we were greeted with a tasty lunch! 
After checking in (which included being given a cowboy hat and bandana!) and putting our bags in our rooms it was time to sign up for the afternoons activities! There was a choice between horse riding or quad biking. Because I've recently done quad biking in Cairns I decided to go horse riding - something I hadn't done since I was about 12! I had one of the smallest horses called Flame. He was very well behaved though :)
We got to ride through the outback and muster the goats for the rodeo later in the afternoon which was fun! We had to ride up behind them and shout to make them move! 

I think we were probably horse riding for about 2 hours before getting back to the cattle station where it was time to learn how to lassoo the goats ready for the rodeo! Its not as easy as cowboys make it look!! The actual rodeo was really fun, we were in teams of three. I teamed up with 2 other girls, Eleni and Serena. The aim was to catch a goat with the lassoo and brand it with a metal thing (which was cold so didn't actually brand the goats!). The team who were the quickest won, which shockingly was us! We didn't win anything though.

Next we went back for our evening meal, a roast dinner - yum! We also got to try some goat meat which was quite nice, kind of tasted a bit like lamb. After tea we learned how to crack a whip and got to ride a mechanical bull which was fun!

Had a few drinks before having a relatively early night as we had to be up at 6am to check out, have breakfast and get the 7am bus for our 11 hour journey to Airlie Beach!

Spot X and Byron Bay!

Didn’t do much in my last few days in Sydney, only notable things are that I did my RSA course which means I can work in a bar if I want to, I went to the Randwick Races - but didn’t win anything, but we did win free ‘buckets’ (a bucket full of alcohol) in the pub quiz at the hostel!

Spot X

So at 6am on Friday 13^th I got the bus to Spot X surf camp! I’m travelling on the Oz Experience bus. There was a choice between that and the Greyhound, but I went with Oz Ex as it caters specifically for backpackers and is more social!

1 night and 1 surf lesson was included as part of the bus price but I booked an extra 2 nights and 2 lessons as I’d enjoyed surfing so much in Sydney.

When we got there I was a bit nervous about the accommodation, outdoor cabins and outdoor toilets, which were full of spiders webs! Didn’t see any deadly ones though! The actual camp was amazing though, it was right by the beach, and there was a campfire at night so there was a really good atmosphere, it was really chilled out! And the food was AMAZING! Now my money is starting to run out and I’m living on pasta and noodles, the Spot X food was a real treat! I even had a roast dinner followed by apple crumble on the Sunday evening!

My favourite thing about surf camp though, was obviously the surfing! Having managed to stand up on the board in Sydney I was pleased that I managed to stand up straight away in my first lesson at Spot X. By my final lesson on Monday morning I was on a slightly shorter board (beginners have the biggest board as its easier to balance) and learning to do turns! So I’m pretty pleased with that. 

Not sure how much more I’ll improve though as the next step is attempting to ride the huge waves, which I know will involve a lot of falling off and being battered, so I’m slightly nervous about that!

It was quite sad to be leaving Spot X, I could have easily stayed there another few weeks but decided to move on to Byron Bay! I may go back to Spot X in the summer.

Byron Bay

I’m now in Byron Bay, and after a lovely sunny first day, it’s now raining! I was hoping I’d got rid of the bad weather when I left Sydney, obviously not.

I got here at about 7pm Monday evening and checked into the Arts Factory hostel, which is really cool. It has a pool and Jacuzzi, a bar, free didgereedoo lessons (which I’m yet to take part in) a bushtucker walk and just has a general chilled out hippy atmosphere! You get a choice of staying in a normal dorm, a teepee or a converted bus! I chose a dorm as it gets really cold at night here.

After getting settled at the hostel, me, Rosie and Ellie (2 girls I met at Spot X) headed to Cheeky Monkeys, the local backpacker bar, where they do $5 meals, which include a free drink!  I had fish and chips, which was pretty good for $5! Had a couple of drinks then had an early night as I’d been up early for my last surf lesson at surf camp.

The next day the weather was gorgeous, clear blue sky, sunny and warm! So we decided to do the scenic walk up to the lighthouse and the most easterly point of Australia! It was a 2 hour round trip but well worth it as the views were amazing! Treated myself to an ice cream by the lighthouse :)

In the evening we had a $2 meal at the hostel as it was cheap Tuesday! Then we headed to Cheeky Monkeys again! I had quite a few glasses of $3 house wine (needless to say it wasn’t the best!) but it was a fun night!

Didn’t do much yesterday as it was raining so just stayed at the hostel and ventured into town to use some free internet at one of the backpacker places I had a voucher for. Then in the evening we went to the hostel bar for a while but had another early night!

Today’s been another rainy day so just went into town for a while and bought myself 2 bracelets, and an iron on patch for my rucksack (I’m collecting them from each place I go to). Me and Rachel (a girl from OzIntro) met up with people she’d met on the Oz Ex bus and went for a drink. Also used some free internet again and downloaded the professional surf photos I bought from surf camp, so they’re now on facebook and there are a couple above ^^

So now I’m just back at the hostel writing this offline, the internet is so expensive everywhere, and the computers don’t seem very reliable at the places where it’s free!

I booked an extra night in Byron as I was originally supposed to be leaving tomorrow morning. I hoping tomorrow might be better weather as I really want to go on a dolphin kayak tour!