Within 8 hours I’ll be wakening up and on the ferry across the bay on the way to Sydney airport. Yes, it’s my last few hours in Australia. I’m pleased to say that despite being reluctant to come to such a westernised place after Asia, it’s been a ball. I’ve visited most states, done most of the things I hoped to do, discovered loads more I’d like to do in more remote areas, met at least a dozen mates, and some more from tours here, and spent the best part of, or slightly more than £3k in just over five weeks! Flights, buses, tours, beers, food and more. Yes, staying with mates doesn’t mean you save money at all, it just means you go out to better places, and eat better food. Due to staying at mates and constantly being on the move I’ve never cooked and done the supermarket shopping thing. It’s not a cheap place to cram things into.
I would like to say a huge thanks to all my mates, or their housesitters for making me so welcome. It’s been great to see you all again, it just doesn’t happen enough, and a special thanks to Paul in Sydney who put me up for six nights despite only meeting me on a Whitsundays trip I also have to say a huge thanks to one of his neighbours with the open wireless internet connection – thanks for all the downloads, I just hope I didn’t put you over your monthly bandwidth allowance ;-> Raleigh crowd : great to catch up again. In the last five weeks I’ve almost felt like I have more mates scattered around Australia than I do at home.
It will be interesting how I cope with the weather when I move on as I’ve pretty much had an 8 month summer. I was sitting in Sydney the other night with my fleece on : ‘Is that the same top you wore up Mount Kinabalu?’ ‘erm, yes, but I’m cold’. Apparently it was 25c but it didn’t feel like it.
Next stop New Zealand. Country number 37 I think….