See ya’s Lata’!

6 Weeks; 4000km; 3 Blue bottle stings; 14 generous friends; 1 broken surf board; 50+ salt water nasal flushes; 0 sunburns (!); 20 meat pies; 5 excess leters of oil; ZERO snakes!

A final G’Day from Aus. Bryn here.

Wow. I can’t believe the first part of our trip is already over. Australia was absolutely incredible and exceeded our expectations so much that we have already planned  out our next trip. We might have to get a bit bigger rig next time, though, if we happen to have a couple bipedal land mammals by then.

We are currently sitting at the Changi Airport in Singapore waiting for our flight to Bangkok, after a red eye flight from Brisbane. Needless to say we are a bit tired but I will do my best to summarize our last few days in Oz-land before we start the next journey.

The majority of our time was spent in Byron Bay, Gold Coast, and Brisbane. We did our best to get in as much surfing and shark-buscuiting (body boarding) as we could before returning them to previous/new owners. Mitch got attacked by the barnacles and rocks  at Lennox Head (further research revealed this was an expert only area), which shortened the boarding time a few days. I’m pretty sure at least a stitch or two was needed on his shin, but what do I know...

Byron Bay has a very touristy, chill, Nelson-like vibe if you catch what I’m saying. The beaches and bodies were beautiful, surfers were out by the hundreds, and the oysters were deeelicious. 

My friend Pam suggested we play a game called “Drink when you see dreadlocks.” I was in bed by 8pm...

A run on the last morning in Byron FINALLY allowed me to spot dolphins playing in the waves!! Unfortunately I couldn’t catch any good photos with my phone.

Following Byron, we made our way up to Southport to stay a night with Mitch’s friends Kevin and Mike before heading up to Brisbane to return the van and do some errands. It poured rain, putting even Vancouver to shame, but that didn’t stop us from trying to see as much as we could. 

[Starting to run out of time before boarding our next flight, so I may use more pictures than words. Send me a message if you want any further details of places we checked out].

A few very expensive vaccinations later (some of which they didn’t have in Prince George before we left and some we needed to get closer to leaving for Thailand), we took the train back to the Gold Coast for our last few days. Mike and Kevin were so patient putting up with us while they still had their very busy schedules.

All in all we can’t say enough about Australia. We were treated so well by everyone, and had the time of our lives. Yes, living out of a van did have its challenges, but in the end we still love each other and can’t wait to explore South East Asia. (I would like to give huge props to the cheap Australian data and google maps for keeping our relationship going). 

We’ll be back Aus xox.