Cairns to Byron Bay - Hitchhiking?

Day 134: November 28, 2010

1. Well, my birthday was pretty good. I went and did 3 scuba dives on the great barrier reef. I told the guy who worked there and took pictures that it was my birthday and if there was a discount when it was someone’s birthday on board. He said maybe, when I left, he gave me two pictures of me that he took which was.. soo nice……….. I was only have serious when I asked.

2. When I got back from diving, I tried to go to the woolshed to eat because I knew it was a good idea to try to eat even though I have not really had an appetite. I got the spaghetti, then took two bites, and left, I just cant eat lately, I feel so sick all the time.

3. Since I could not force myself to eat spaghetti, I thought It could be nice to get some ice cream, so I went to a gelatti place and got two scoops of ice cream and it was soo good. A good substitute for birthday cake.. very good and I had no issues with eating it either.

4. I went to bed, about 8 pm the night of my birthday on the actual date (nov. 27)

5. Diving the great barrier reef was really good, but not as good as beqa lagoon in fiji. Beqa lagoon was amazing, kinda surreal.

6. Now on my birthday back home, but nov. 28 here, I decided to relax. My original plan was to leave that day on a train or greyhound, but they were too expensive. So I ended up buying a plane ticket because it was cheaper.

7. Australia is sooooo freaking expensive, it’s killing me. No joke.

8. I hung out by the pool all day today over at gilligans backpackers (it’s the flashy place in cairns). There was a mini zip line set up, so I played on that for a bit, went swimming, drank water –its free here, and healthy-er than fiji.

9. Met some locals at the pool and they invited me to go to the bar that night called bellavista.

10. I went to bella vista that night with the two german girls who were in my dorm and hung out there for a bit.

11. Stayed up til like 11:30 pm.. that is super late for me in Australia.. I been going to sleep by about 10 pm.. its crazy. Time change, blah no bueno. I go to bed early and wake up early.

Day 136: November 30, 2010

1. 1.Yesterday I went hiking in the daintree, the tour guide was very annoying and the tour was a bit rushed, but the daintree was absolutely amazing.

2. I had a bit of an obsession of taking pictures with mushrooms when we were hiking around, they were so cool looking.

3. Also we went to the daintree zoo, but I did not like it to much, the staff was a bit rude to me and they threw away my sandwhich (that was absolutely disgusting) while I was at the toilet and my stuff was still by it too. It was a bit retarded.

4. The cairns tropical zoo was so much better than the daintree on my opinion.

5. I just love the daintree, I wish I could have hung out there longer!!

6. I got to see crocodiles in the daintree river! That was pretty awesome as well. Kinda creepy that you cant swim in water around here because of crocodiles.

7. In fact you cant swim in any water around here because there is either crocodiles or stingers (box jelly fish) and they will kill you. Tis the season for box jelly fish (summer in cairns).

8. I had an early flight today, got up at 4 am and got the bus to the airport at 4:30. Checked in and all that jazz, got on the plane and left by six.

9. I felt sooo sick, probably the worst I have felt in the two weeks of bacterial belly disease! But, I had to get on the plane, it sucks, cause all I wanted to do was curl up in a ball and die or roll home to Utah. Its no fun being sick while traveling.

10. Worst plane ride of my life, I got sooo sick. Spent a good amount of time in the toilet and the back of the plane trying to sip water and then I spent the other time curled up in a ball in my seat. It was absolutely miserable. I decided I should probably go to the doctor.

11. Once I got to the airport, I met some guys from Canada and they were renting a car. They were nice enough to save me $20 for transportation from the airport to Brisbane city and let me hitch a ride with them. I appreciate that, because I am extremely low on funds and im not kidding!!

12. Go into Brisbane city and call my mamma with skype, she encouraged me to go to the doctor.. So I go to one, two, three offices and none of the accept my insurance.. FML. More reason for me to hate ISEP who made me buy the stupid insurance when I left. I had not used it until that moment when I really needed it.

13. It cost $70 just for a consultation. After crying for a while, and re-calling my mom, I ended up going to the doctor. I go and I tell him my symptoms and what I think I have and he says he wants to run tests. I figured that was included in the 70 I paid to him, but boy was I wrong. I go to the lab and the technician tells me it will be about another $300 dollars to run tests for parasites, blah bleah and blahhhh. I started cryingggggg yet again.. Helllll No, I will not pay that much money for tests, that is so stupid especially when I was not informed of the cost.

14. Luckily I met a nice doctor who saw that I was crying and re asked me my symptoms and she seemed to think I had the disease that I thought I had (geardia) –I spelled it wrong im sure-. She gave me medicine and well, I really hope it works.

15. After the mortifying doctors appointment, I met up with my friend Marty and later Roscoe and they drove me to Byron Bay.

16. Which is where I am now thanks to my friends driving me here, thanksssss marty and roscoe for helping me out!!!

17. Unfortionately the hostel I’m at, YHA byron bay is a bit lame, mostly because the staff was super rude when I got there and rude staff = bad hostel. It was the most expensive hostel I have been too as well, but most of the hostels here are booked full because the schoolies are here. (schoolies = high school students who have recently graduated and come to byron bay.

18. I will for sure not be able to afford staying here another night. I don’t have that much money left.. Less than $100 and I still need to get to Sydney (another 10 hour drive, 800 k)

Day 138: December 2, 2010

1. Woke up yesterday and decided to go to the lighthouse, just left my luggage in the bin at YHA and took a bike to the lighthouse. I got a little lost, or a lot, but it was a lovely walk, just about 5 times longer than it should have been. I parked my bike once I got to a trail and then just started walking.

2. The lighthouse was very cool, and you could see dolphins jumping by the side. It was just sooo nice up there.

3. On my way down I ran into the one person at the hostel who actually talked to me and did not just sit there when I tried to talk to them. (people at the hostel were not that social, luckily one person actually talked, like a normal human being you know).

4. Anyways so I ran into him and he helped me find my bike and then he said if I could not find anywhere to stay I could stay in his car. He was going to be staying at the Arts Village if I wanted to find him.

5. Meanwhile I was also asking random people if they were going to Sydney because I found out that the greyhound bus cost 90 dollars and well, I only had about 90 dollars left and I need to eat, so that is a problem.

6. After asking about 40-50 people and getting the strangest looks, I found some people who were putting on activities for the schoolies and I basically begged with my begger face. I really cant afford greyhound, and luckily one of them is heading close to Sydney and then I can take a train to Sydney from there. He said I could catch a ride. Thank goodness!!!!! Only he was not leaving till the next day.

7. This led me to walking to Arts Village and trying to find this guy Daniel and see if his car was still open for me to sleep in it for the night. Luckily I found him and luckily he let me sleep in it.

8. Neither of us had plans and I mentioned about going to Nimdin (a very hippy town, literally.. So we decided to drive there. (its about an hour away).

9. After getting a little lost and following a very windy road, we found it.

10. We walked through all the shops and observed the stuff that was there. It was the most unique stores I have ever been too, definitely my style!!

11. We got offered weed a lot, people were smoking it together on the streets and people were smoking it in their shops, kinda crazy, you just don’t see that anywhere really, but you see it here.

12. The kids were crazy, dancing in the streets. Pretty sure they were trying to sell us weed as well.

13. I had one of my favorite conversations there with a lady at a store called happy herbs. I asked if I could take anything home on the plane and she asked me domestic or international … I said international and she said, I cant guarantee, but you should be able too. Everything is legal, but it may look like its not. I think it was funnier to hear it, reading it just does not give the vibe that was there during this conversation, but it was soo good, so funny to me.

14. We went to the museum there and sat in a room where a movie was playing. After about 3-5 minutes we looked at eachother and asked if one another felt weird.. We both did, not sure what it was, but something in there made us feel, very high, which was very weird because no we were not smoking anything, it just kinda happened.

15. As we drove away, we came to the conclusion that we had gotten some kind of high in the museum.. pretty strange.

16. On the way home we stopped at Minyon falls, it was such a nice waterfall. We had to run there and run back though because we were on a creepy road and it was already a bit dark, getting darker.. and scarier.

17. Eventually we made it back to byron bay and came to the arts village. I fell asleep in the car just like planned and it’s a good thing I had that plan because if I was homeless, I would have been in the rain all night.

18. I am still feeling a little bit sick, supposedly the medicine takes time, so hopefully it is working. I don’t want to feel sick, I want to feel healthy.

19. I still don’t have that much of an appetite, but no worries, I’m making myself eat sometimes.

20. Now I am just sitting here at the arts village typing this blog that needed to be updated so desperately and awaiting my friend to wake up and bring me to town to meet my other new friend who will drive me to Sydney, ish.