This is unfortunately (not sure if that\u2019s the right word\u2026) the last blog from me as I am due to fly out of Brisbane this Sunday.\u00a0 The long journey through Australia is almost at an end, and sadly I have to return to reality.<\/p>\n
Plan for the day, head up to Byron Bay from Port Macquarie.\u00a0 We had another long days drive ahead of us so everybody enjoyed a bit of time out of the truck.\u00a0 Active start for the whole crew, Amy and Louise went for a scenic walk into town,\u00a0 Paul and Steve were jogging around parts of the Port Macquarie Iron Man track and I went for a cycle and swim along the beach.\u00a0 We decided on taking the inland road to see the Big Banana instead of the coastal, so this gave me plenty of time to reminisce over the events of the last month. \u00a0So here are my top worst and best moments of the trip.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Five of the worst moments<\/p>\n
Sleeping with bugs in Marla. <\/strong> Nothing really prepared me for this.\u00a0 We got into Marla late in the evening and I was looking forward to a good nights rest.\u00a0 The state of the rooms was pretty bad but at least the beds were clean and the place didn\u2019t smell too bad.\u00a0 It was in the middle of the night that things got really bad.\u00a0 I woke up with about 20 beetles crawling all over me. \u00a0Louise was using her mobile phone to scan for bugs in her bed.\u00a0 Not sure if this was the best idea as it seemed to be acting like a homing beacon.\u00a0 Strangely, the bugs left Paul alone, maybe they had some sort of kind ship or he was smart enough to spray on some bug spray!\u00a0 I woke up sharing my bed with the biggest cockroach I have ever seen in my life.\u00a0 Still, its probably not the worst bed guest I\u2019ve ever had!<\/p>\n Being in a confined space with Steve while he has a bad<\/em> stomach. <\/strong>I\u2019ll spare you the details\u2026 It will be enough for me to say his ability to clear a dance floor has nothing to do with his dancing.<\/p>\n Losing at pool to Paul and Steve. <\/strong>Still in shock about this.\u00a0 We were in the cool rec room of the Yalara Fire Station and decided to shoot some pool with the Chief.\u00a0 It might have been fatigue or it might have been heat exhaustion, whatever it was it was painful!\u00a0 5-1 the final score.<\/p>\n Eating fast food all the time.<\/strong> Before I left London loads of people said to me \u2018you\u2019ll have some great food down under\u2019 or \u2018look forward to some shrimp on the barbie\u2019.\u00a0 However, these people probably didn\u2019t factor in that we would be eating at service station, truck stops and youth hostels most of the time.\u00a0 We\u2019ve had some great meals and they were magnificent, and some great bbq\u2019s but most of the time we\u2019ve been chowing down on muck.\u00a0 I think the worst day had to be the day we arrived at Sydney.\u00a0 We had McDonalds for breakfast, McDonalds for lunch, and to top it all off a kebab for dinner.\u00a0 I\u2019d hate to think of the sat fat count for the day\u2026<\/p>\n Seeing the Big Banana. <\/strong>It\u2019s a large plastic banana on top of a shop which sells smaller plastic bananas.<\/p>\n Five of the best moments<\/p>\n Morning swim and run on the beach.<\/strong> Nothing better to start the day then a refreshing swim and a run along the beach.\u00a0 Best place so far has to be Byron Bay.\u00a0 I do have to mention I\u2019ve started to believe in the \u2018there\u2019s s**t that will eat you out there\u2019 theory so I do limit my swims to rather shallow waters\u2026<\/p>\n Camping in the outback. <\/strong>Getting away from the roadhouses and setting up camp in the middle of a dried up river bed really brought through the sense of adventure I wanted to get from this trip.\u00a0 Sleeping in the outback under the stars is spectacular.<\/p>\n Cockatoos in Lorne.<\/strong> They have some crazy birds down under.\u00a0 Most people will tell you about the kangaroos and emus but for me the wildlife highlight has to be the birds of Australia.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t prepared to see all sorts of parrots, parakeets and cockatoos flying about all around us.\u00a0 Best moment has to be in Lorne where we could feed the wild cockatoos on our balcony.<\/p>\n Sydney.<\/strong> Sydney in general is unbelievably amazing.\u00a0 Its got cool bars and restaurants, great beaches, good weather and very chilled out residents.\u00a0 Why would anyone choose to leave this place is beyond me!\u00a0 As a side note, I was hoping to get the chance to drive over the harbour bridge, but (due to some suspect navigation that day) I actually ended up going over it 4 times.\u00a0 Happy days!<\/p>\n Driving through the Great Central Road. <\/strong>Some people think that driving through the outback would be boring as there is nothing to see there.\u00a0 But this is exactly what makes it fascinating.\u00a0 The fact that there are still places on our planet where you can go and feel truly remote.\u00a0 During our journey we could spend 7 hours driving without seeing another car or any other sign of civilisation except for the dirt track we were cruising on.<\/p>\n There you have it folks, the good and the bad of Australia. \u00a0I would say this is me done, job over, but I know that the whole team will be busy making sure Martha gets back to London. \u00a0Best of luck for the rest of it!<\/p>\n Fuad<\/p>\n [flickr album=72157625476335752 num=30 size=Square]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is unfortunately (not sure if that\u2019s the right word\u2026) the last blog from me as I am due to fly out of Brisbane this Sunday.\u00a0 The long journey through Australia is almost at an end, and sadly I have to return to reality. Plan for the day, head up to Byron Bay from Port […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-expedition-updates","category-perth-to-brisbane"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4244"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4251,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4244\/revisions\/4251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}