Sydney to Anna Bay

I am loving Anna Bay, it is so beautiful and peaceful



Quite a change from Sydney, although I did really like Sydney!
On my last day in Sydney I went to Bondi Beach... Hmmm... the beach itself is magnificent but to be honest i wasn't that impressed! It was quite dirty, especially the streets infront of the beach and i thought it looked a bit run down and grotty really.. Coogee and Manly are nicer in my opinion! I met up with Becca in the evening and we went out for cheapo dinner which was lovely! The YHA i stayed in Thursday night was fantastic in terms of facilities and the atmosphere was nice but it was sooo noisy at night because it was right on a main road so that didn't really help with the issue of having to get up at 5am! Anyway I did manage to peel myself out of bed and make it on to the greyhound bus to newcastle! I slept a little bit but was mostly awake and the second half of the journey was lovely.. we passed alongside national parks and then down the pacific highway to Newcastle. To be honest, Newcastle is a bit ugly and a very industrial city but the people I spoke to there were all reeeally lovely. I had to wait there a little while for the local bus to anna bay and when i got on the bus driver said to me "that'll be $28 love" I said "haha i dont think so" and he said "haha i was just testing ya... its $28 with some extra for a 6 pack for me...but otherwise its $6". He thought that was HILARIOUS... I on the other hand was a little tired and not quite as impressed with the joke! As we headed north from Newcastle there were more and more forests and fields full of cows, horses and goats, ranches, honey/bee products shops, farm shops, home breweries (selling their no doubt lethal produce!) butchers shops in the middle of nowhere with take-aways or restaurants attached to them (why dont we have that in england?). More and more people got on the bus and everyone who got on knew the driver .. apparently called steve! People were waving at the bus driver from the street - maybye he is some sort of local celebrity?! haha! Most people seem to know each other here and on the bus the men spend most of their time taking the piss out of each other and saying things like "how long has she let you out for today then.. have you got extra time if you do the grocery shopping"? and then laughing their heads off! Anyway... we finally arrived in Anna Bay and I was dropped off right outside the hostels :) no trapsing around with my backpack :) The hostel here is fantastic... in the middle of the woods but only 15 minutes walk to the most amazing beach ever! You have to cycle for about 30 minutes to get to the nearest town so you have to think ahead a bit if you want food or drink but it really is great here (despite the swarms of mozzies and moths and masses of spiders and beetles that you have to share with!) the owners sandy and mark are really nice and loan you bikes to get to the shops for free. I was soooo excited when i arrived and saw that they have a dog!! Whooppeee! It is an alsation called Bo and he is brilliant although he's not that great at playing fetch - he won't drop the ball once he's caught it! I checked in and asked the guy on reception what the chances were of any work in the area he told me to head for nelson bay about 10 minutes by bus which I duly did... there was a lovely little marina there and i wandered about asking places if they needed any help for a week or 2... sadly they all said they wanted someone til march at least :( i went to shoal bay about another 10 minutes by bus (yes i know lazy but i didnt have a map or any idea where i was!) and i swam and sat on the beach, bought food and went back to the hostel. When I arrived, I met two of the guys in the dorm next to mine - Darren (Scottish) and Charles (french) who are nice guys. I was donated beer by Darren and we were talking about all the different things to do in the area and decided to head off to a couple of them the following day (Darren had a car which was a bonus!) I made a huge batch of sausage casserole and then 2 other girls arrived - Sarah and rianne who are lovely and we all sat around until the early hours talking about nonsense and swapping travel info as we have been travelling opposite directions which is quite handy! On Saturday Darren and I headed off in the luxury of a car.... woooohooo.. and went to a place called Fingal Bay and then hiked up to the top of Tomaree Head for the most amaaaaazing 360 degree view of the local area.. it was so beautiful! definitely worth the knackering climb!! We drove and round a bit and the darren collapsed at the pool and i walked to one mile beach which is the nearest beach to the hostel. It was gorgeous! The waves were brilliant and some nice lady gave me a bodyboard for a couple of hours :) Walked back and then cycled to the shops for some beer and bread. Got back on my bike and cycled for 10 minutes and my head felt like it was going to split open and i had no water left so i stopped for a bit and tried again but felt worse so I decided to get the bus back as the sun was really hot and i didnt fancy being peeled off the side of the road! Drank gallons of water when i got back and the headache dissapeared! whoopeee! had another fun evening of talking nonsense and fighting off bugs and Mark who is part owner of the hostel decided to introduce us to his pet Python and literally flung it round my neck!! was a liiittle bit nervous as you can imagine! After about 5 minutes mark said "right just stay very still, i cant get it off.. its going to strike" i obviously pissed my pants and said "you are kidding, right" (thinking to myself, oh my god i am actually going to die and this bastard isnt going to save me from his own pet) Anyway turns out it was another hilarious ozzie joke!! haha! Sunday Rianne, Sarah and I headed off to Stockton dunes which is right on stockton beach for sandboarding, swimming and sunbathing. Sandboarding was sooo much fun - the dunes were massive and felt like we were in the middle of nowhere (we almost were as we got a lift on the back of a pick up to a big dune) but the other side of the dunes was a 32km beach! Oops I have got to go now... somebody is waiting for the laptop (there is only one computer here) Hope you're all ok! - Will write again soon. Have decided to stay here another 4 days and head for Byron Bay overnight on Thursday x