Surfers Paradise was not what I expected. I thought that it would be simular to Airlie Beach or Hervey Bay. But instead it is a large town made up of many tall blocks of apartments, exclusive hotels and a vast amount of traffic. The hostel where I stayed was poor. Named The British Arms International Backpackers it was situated to the south of the centre, near a small harbour. In order to shop or see the town centre you had to catch the hostel shuttle bus which I found a restriction. On a plus the beach was a five min walk and was fabulous. The gold coast is a rapidly expanding area that was once a number of small towns.

Near to the hostel, was the British Arms. An attempt at a british pub. English food such and pie and chips, steak and chip and roast beef with all the trimmings could all be ordered. As you can guess these were poor.

Sunday night brought the weekly beer before work the next day. Over 4000 people came to the Fisherman’s Warf. This was a large bar next to the hostel. Built over the water it was the place to be. The hostel owner told me that there would be the best looking girls here tonight. He was not wrong, I’ve never seen so many denim mini skirts. Again I felt it my duty to sample the amber nectar. Although this was a slow process due to it taking longer to get served a schooner of Tooheys compared with the time taken to drink it.

I shared my room with a guy from Norway. He had survived the temperature change (-30 to +30) when he arrived in Oz. He was at this stage of his trip a little short of money. So he had cold Heinz Baked Beans with chunky tomato and garlic or turkey flavoured spam, as he didn't like washing up. I hope it doesn't come to that for me!

So far on this trip (28 days) I have met people from Oz, New Zealand, USA, Canada, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Spain, Italy, Norway, Netherlands, Switzerland, Japan, China, Finland, Israel, Singapore, and of course England. But so far no one from Wales, not sure if that is good or bad.

My next stop is Byron Bay, the most eastly point of Oz.

PS: Keep the filling in your comments. They continuously put a smile on my face.

Hervey Bay is the gateway to Fraser Island and is similar to Airlie Beach in some respects. Hervey is made up of four small hamlets, which have been connected together, and have an esplanade. The esplanade has all the bars, backpacker hostels and places to eat along it.

I am not able to tell you anymore about Hervey as the time I spent here was mostly in bed nursing my sunburn. After a couple of days in bed I was however able to visit Fraser Island.

Fraser Island is the world largest sand island. It is nearly untouched by man and has many places to see. During my two days there with the Fraser Island Company http://www.fraserislandecotours.com.au/opp/fraser_island_company/ I was able to walk through the rainforest, visit Lake Wabby, Eli Creek, Maheno Shipwreck, Coloured Sands and Indian Head. Fraser has a lot of freshwater pools and lakes, which you can swim in or just lazy by. Lake Wabby was one of these and made everybody in our group go wow. At Indian Head we scaled the rock and looked down into the sea and watched some baby sharks (3 meters) having a patrol of the rocks. The Maheno shipwreck beached on the sand of the east coast. It's condition being poor, but still a very impressive sight. Eli Creek has some of the purest water found in the world and you are able to float down stream/creek towards the sea.

The one night I spent on Fraser was a night I will not forget in a hurry. After consuming a fair amount of the amber nectar and tackling a large steak we made for the beach. Frazer does not have any street lighting and so it was a case of following the person in front. We joined a group of locals around a fire in the pitch black and watched a brilliant storm over Hervey Bay. The lightning light up the sky and provided a great show for us. Walking back on my own up the sandy track I just hoped that there were no Dingoes about! Dingoes have been known to kill humans. Two years ago a young child was killed when he tried to run away from one.

Once back in Hervey it was back to reality, well in a away! The next morning I caught the bus to Noosa Heads.

As briefly mentioned in my last entry Arilie Beach is basically a main road on which everything is situated. It's a lively place at night with loads of pubs, clubs and places to eat. Also as with a lot of the eastern coast it is geared up for tourists, with many travel and tours shops. I think that the tourist industry employs a large percentage of Ozzeys and pommes. Anyway while I was in Airlie I had to see the Whitsunday Islands.

This group of Islands are a very popular attraction and is probably why Airlie is so busy. They offer the chance to see the Barrier Reef, some amazing beaches and to visit untouched parts of Oz. On sunday 25th I went Ocean Rafting http://www.oceanrafting.com/. This allowed me to see all the best parts of the Islands in one day. I choose to see the Southern Lights, which meant that I would visit an aboriginal cave at the Nara Inlet, snorkel at Border Island and have lunch on the famous Whitehaven Beach. The day was one I will never forget and the crew we had made it a very enjoyable day. Whitehaven Beach lived up to everything I was told before I visited it myself. The only wildlife we saw was a small spider that our guide told us was not dangerous and the multi coloured fish at the reef.

As I said before I will not forget this day, not because of the trip but because of the situation it left me in after. On departing the Ocean Rafting trip and returning back to my hostel it was very apparent that I had sunburn on my legs, ankles and feet. This caused me great problems the next day, as walking was quite difficult and painful.

On monday (26th) night I took a 12 hour bus from Airlie to Hervey Bay. This was not a wise move as my situation got much worse. This did save me a nights hostel money but my body clock didn't agree with this. Getting off the bus at 06:30 the next morning was a truly horrible experience, as I didn't quite know what time of day it was. Add to this me limping and you can well imagine how I looked.