Western Oz

Hello,

Well after a turbulent week in the Blue mountains (2 hours from Sydney) doing lots of walking - The Three Sisters, Wentworth Falls and the Grand Canyon - Grand Canyon was awesome but felt a bit cheated at the end as the view which was supposed to be one of the best in the mountains was blocked by cloud - this theme seems to follow me round the world! That was after doing the 1 1/2 hr hike up the hard route to get there! Lots of people smiling at me going the opposite direction on the way!

I spent the next few weeks staying with my family again as my parents were out which was cool seeing as we haven't had time together as a family for the last 4-5 years! Also it helps when your 'budget travelling' around to have your parents with you!

It was the 75th anniversary of the building of the Sydney harbour bridge on the 18th March so on the day we did the bridge walk as a family which was a laugh! They closed the whole bridge for a day and let anyone and everyone walk across it. This is what they did 75 years ago when they first built it so it felt like you were part of something! Lots of events going on like planes low flying over the bridge and a few other bits going on in the evening. The whole bridge was lit up at night which looked coooool!

So after I said goodbye to my parents, I decided to get a flight to Perth which is where I am now! It's the most isolated city of it's size in the world and you can tell! It's very quiet and kind of spooky! I've spent a day at Rottnest Island which is just off Fremantle (about 20 Min's from Perth) riding round (28km's) 62 of the best beaches I have seen (classic sandy white!) and spent yesterday down the beach again at a place called Cottlesloe which is another great beach just off Fremantle! Got a bit burnt and sun stroked and spent most of last night in bed! All good though!

Sunday (1st April) was possibly one of the best days I've had in Australia! Me and an Irish guy I met managed to score half price tickets to 'The West Coast Roots and Blues Festival' in Perth! We were gonna hike the fence but decided it wasn't worth loosing a visa over! The headliners were Ben Harper, John Mayer and Missy Higgins! All I can say is that for a festival so small it was awesome - maybe 5-10,000 if that! While we were in the festival we were talking to these girls who were queuing up for some sort of free wristband, so we decided to que seeing as if you did you got a free coke (anything free when travelling is a bonus!!). Afterwards we asked what the heckers they were for and they explained that we had just signed up for a 200 person only gig with 'Bob Evans' (ex lead singer of Jebediah, real name Kevin Mitchell) and that we were going to be on TV!! Well that just topped the day off! Had a wicked day and only had 4 beers (unlike the big day out but we won't go into that here....) all day so managed to remember all of it!

Anyway in the next few days it looks like I will probably be heading to a place called 'Donnybrook' about 200 km south - population 2000, a chicken, a couple of donkeys and a tractor! I'm gonna see if I can stick out 4-5 weeks of apple picking with about 80-90 other members of the chain gang!! Hmmm we shall see but all helps towards the next years visa....

Hope everyone is cool and speak soon! Will try and get some pics up soon..

Tay