Haaaaarvey Bay

The above location is actually spelt Hervey Bay, but thought I would show phoentically how Annie made me pronounce it a few days ago.

I am currently in Hervey Bay at the moment and it is very lovely here. This hostel has now stolen the honour of being my favourite so far. Really lovely surroundings - frogs and lizards everywhere! My room is great, the bar is awesome and they lay on a free breakfast. Top banana!

Going back a couple of days, I had a good time in Nimbin, although very quickly realised that I probably was the only person in the hostel who wasn't stoned (this does include the staff too). It was such a great place though and I got some much needed relaxation time. It occurred to me when I was in Nimbin, that I have not actually had a day of doing very little. I have constantly been out and about, so it felt ace to just be surrounded by beautiful scenery and be able to finish my book.

Whilst cooking my tea, I met a lovely chap called Robert who is currently cycling down the east coast. It was a fortuitous meeting foodwise as I had too much garlic and he had too much onion, so we did some swapping. He was also kind enough to share his bottle of organic Australian Red with me whilst we ate and hung out.

The next day the Happy Bus came to get me to take me back to Byron Bay and unfortunately Annie wasn't driving this time but this driver was rather cool too. He didn't go for the 70's rock unfortunately and one of the tunes he played was an Australian dude rapping about having sex with his friend's mum. Luckily I bumped into Nicola on the bus, so we met up for some more Byron Bay ale that evening. It was nice to catch up with her on my last night in Byron and this is one of the downsides of moving on from a place so quickly, you do leave nice people behind.

I had to catch my Greyhound Bus at 0640 the next day to take me to Hervey Bay. Not a bad bus ride actually and it took in a few of the places that I had intended to visit had my flight not been re-scheduled, so I got to at least have a look.

As I said above, the hostel here is just amazing and the staff are brilliant. I got here fairly late at night so pretty much just showered, had a quick explore of the hostel grounds (spider city by the way) and went to bed. I hired a bike this morning and did the 28K round trip of the coastal cycle route that leads you from Hervey Bay to Vernon Point. The beaches here are beautiful and it was super sunny, so had a really great ride. Still no tan though, the factor 50 is still working!

I'm just about to head off for something to eat and will have to get an early night as being picked up tomorrow at 0615. I have booked a day trip to Fraser Island which is a place just off the coast of Hervey Bay. It is entirely sand and has a rainforest, which you walk through on the trip. There is also a huge lake called Lake McKenzie and a 75 mile beach, that is taken in on the trip too, so really looking forward to that.

I think that brings us up to date! When I come back from Fraser Island tomorrow, I have to grab my stuff and head off to the Greyhound stop, as I'm taking the overnight bus to Airlie Beach. I shall no doubt blog from there.

Ta ta for now...