Australia is the country I’ve most wanted to visit in my life. Being there meant I’d made it to the other side of the world, an admirable conquest that few people I know can say they’ve done. I was about to witness wildlife and landscapes I’d only read about or seen on TV and gaze at star constellations that can’t be seen in the only hemisphere I’d set foot in. It was an exciting time.

It was also the first time on my travels when I would be arriving in a city with someone to meet me. Simon, an amazing guy I’d met in Koh Tao, had said I could stay at his place and through various emails we coordinated the airport meet. Having the pressure taken off me to negotiate myself across another unfamiliar city for the first time in nine months was a huge relief. I was used to it by now but it’s never nice when you are jet lagged.

Half way across the Indian Ocean however, I had a sudden realisation that due to time differences I was actually arriving on the 2nd March not the 1st which is what I’d told Simon. Durrrrrrrrrrrr!!!! I sat in hope that he was clever enough to work out my mistake but of course it didn’t even occur to him. I had stated the 1st and so the 1st it was and the poor guy wasted half a day off work waiting hours for me at the airport. I felt so guilty! Luckily being the diamond that he is he, he worked out the mix up before I arrived and was there again on the 2nd. My hero.

Despite the hick-up my stay in Aus kicked off to a good start. On my first weekend Simon took to me to see his rugby team the Warratahs play and I loved it despite previously being a football snob.

The Rugby Gang. Simon, Oren, Kim and Lauren

The same evening I got dressed up in the first pair of (borrowed) high heels that I’d worn in nine months and headed to Kings Cross to watch the Syndey Mardi Gras gay parade. It was a crazy spectacle. The evening was ended by a visit to ‘Dancers’, a pole dancing club. It was a very bizarre welcome to a buzzy new city.

Girls on the town. I'd forgotten how painful heels were!

Mardi Gras!

As well as coming to see Simon my other main reason for being in Sydney was to see my friend Ben who I'd met in New York on the Millennium Eve under passionate circumstances. We ended up meeting twice in New York before I left for home and it turned out that not only was he Australian not American but he lived 5 minutes down the road from me in Crouch End, London! When he returned to the UK we hung out for a while until his visa ran out which was not long after his return :( Although I hadn’t seen him since he went back to Aus we’ve stayed in touch through email and become good friends. Since I last saw him he has become a successful actor and is most recently recognised for playing ‘bad guy’ Gus in the Aussie soap Neighbors. He can also be seen in the great new Aussie film Kokoda playing the Lieutenant. The red carpet opening for the film was a day after I left Australia. I was most upset I didn’t get to see the movie with him. I was very proud for him.

Ben and me.

Between Simon and Ben I had it pretty cozy. Ben and I spent a lot of time eating good food, sipping beer and putting the world to rights. We did this on a regular basis while gazing over the spectacular view of a harbour. He has the most beautiful apartment not far from Bondi beach in a 1920s Art Deco building. The cool thing about it apart from the beauty of the architecture was that it had its own private swimming ‘pool’ sectioned off in the harbour itself. We also had some great times going for walks along Bondi Beach and its adjoining bays. That’s what I love most about Sydney, a city with beaches. What more could a beach girl like me want! I also got to meet and hang with Ben’s beautiful new girlfriend an ex-model who since I left has now become his Fiancé – congratulations Ben!

Room with a view. Ben's back yard. The enclosed area is a swimming pool for residents and paying public!

Simon and I, like Ben and I, also ate some great food together, sipped beer and put the world to rights. One interesting meal was a curry made with Kangaroo meat! I felt most guilty eating one before I actually seen one. He also took me to an end of season sailing club dinner which between him, his father and their friend had won the season’s trophy. We also spent time hanging out his two other friends Gus and Murray who I had also met previously in Koh Tao. One of the best nights I had in Sydney was at Murray’s house where we had an impromptu dinner party with his flat mates that got out a little of control. They were absolutely great people and every time I listen to Ian Dury I will have fond memories.

Good food, good friends, good times. Simon, Ian, Celia, Murray and Julian.

Unfortunately it soon became obvious that I’d arrived in Sydney at a bad time for Simon. He had completed the sale on his house the day I arrived in the country and the new buyer wanted to move in within three weeks! To give him space I moved in with Guy. I spent most of my time there working out the rest of my schedule and arranging meetings with various record companies to see if sponsorship was an option. I liked this city and wanted to see if there was the possibilty of staying.

Guy and Simon.

I also needed to get a plan together for the little time I had here. It was now mid March and my round-the-worlder ended on May 10th, giving me only 2 months to fit in the rest of Aus, New Zealand, Figi, the US and home. I knew it was impossible so Figi had to go and I limited my time in Aus to 7 weeks; Koh Tao had been far too much fun. The two things I decided I couldn’t leave Aus without doing was seeing Uluru a.k.a. Ayres Rock and diving the barrier reef, so that was the plan.

In a nights research I booked a flight to Alice Springs a nine day Adventure Tours package that split into a three day tour of ‘The Rock’ and other geographical sites, another three day tour up to Darwin, and a final three day tour around Kakadu Nation Park in Darwin. I then organised a flight to Cairns where I was going on a live-a-board to dive the Great Barrier Reef, then a flight back to Sydney in time for the meetings I’d organized and my final few days with Simon, Ben and Guy. Three hours of research and booking set me back a 1/6th of what It had taken me nine months to spend. It was a sharp pain in the bank account but one I had to make.

A few days later I set off, right up the middle of this huge country into the heart of the outback! Unfortunately now I was out of the comfort zone of Ben and Guy's and I had to stay in hostels. Bleugh! A requirement I’d managed to avoid throughout my whole trip up until now. I’m far too sophisticated for those things don’t you know?!

The tour left the next day so for my only afternoon in Alice Springs I occupied myself by a trip to a Kangaroo sanctuary for my first encounter with real life Kangaroos. It was most exciting as wildlife was my main attraction to this country and kangaroos alongside Koalas were top of my list.

Me and 4 month old orphan Oscar in his Surrogate pouch.

Ned Kelly.

I spent the rest of the day wondering around town looking for a fly net; a very unattractive piece of head ware to keep the flies off your face. Before I left the UK I’d been warned by my Grandma who used to live here about the fly problem, but you really have to see it to believe it. The flies were relentless and I was told it was only going to get worse when we hit the outback! A fly net was as essential as water out there.

Alice town center was also the first place I encountered Aboriginal people. Up until now their presence had been practically invisible, something I found quite dissapointing. I’d heard many opinionated stories about Aboriginal stereo-types in the past and was glad to be finally in Aboriginal territory to see the story for myself. It was very strange to see, even here there appeared to very little integration between whites and blacks and I wanted to know why.

My trip set off the next day at 6am. For the next nine days there would be a lot of driving, a lot of walking, a lot of great people to meet and a lot of fun to be had. There was a great range of people on the trips. It wasn’t all 18 year old backpackers that were out to get pissed and shag which I was initially afraid of (God haven’t I grown up!) However there were also some seriously odd people that had unfortunately signed up for the whole nine days like me that were difficult to get away from. The accommodation was camping under the stars or in permanent camp grounds which the company had set up at various locations and the eating arrangements were to all chip in with the cooking and cleaning. My kind of adventure.

Here are some of the highlights of the first three days:

Kings Canyon.

Sunrise over the campsite

Mount Connor

The Olgas

Me at The Olgas

And of course Ayres Rock.

We watched the sun rise and set over the rock, but unfortunatley the battery ran out in my camera and this is the only crap photo I got. :( A lovely couple I met said they would send me the photos they took during the trek but I lost their email address. Boo!

It was then back to the Hostel from Hell for a group tour drink and then an early night for the next trip up to Darwin. Four glasses of wine and in bed before midnight and I still work up the next morning with a hangover. I also had very much overslept! Thankfully I was already packed so I rushed down to the lobby to find that of course I was the last on the bus and they were just about to leave. Our new guide Scott delighted in making me the butt of all jokes for the next three days.

This trip was mostly about the drive up to Darwin but we did some cool things and I met one particularly cool person who was about to figure big in the rest of my trip:

Jen (and me of course)

The next three days went like this:

Crossing the tropic of Capricorn....

The Devils Marbles.

Could you imagine this happening in England? That’s roughly London to Newcastle! You’d need a hell of a lot of petrol cans to get you there!

A quick stop at a reptile house in a petrol station?! Only in Australia (Rosie don't look!)....

A couple of beers with tour guide Scott and Jen at Daly Waters, the Northern Territory’s oldest pub....

Jet boating up the Catherine Gorge...

Hypnotizing the bull from Crocodile Dundee....

It is actually the real bull from the film, stuffed of course. Bizarre excuse for a tourist attraction eh?!

Along with a few other stops along the way, this brought us to our destination in Darwin for more hostel action and another End Of Tour drink up. This one was far more eventful than the last with bizarre party games and a lot more booze. This time I really earned my hangover.

Party game only to be attempted by the flexible. That ruled me out. I’ll stick to Poker.

The next three days of the tour were by 4WD. Cool!

Jen and I still pissed from the previous night’s festivities. I wasn’t this happy a few hours later. Bleugh.

One of many huge termite mounds in the area. This is around 80 years old.

Barramundi Gorge. One of many waterfalls I got the chance to swim during this trip.

Me and a scary jumping crock. Apparently there are a couple of thousand of them in this stretch of water.

I’m sure this one was staring at me!

Welcome to Kakadu National Park! It’s land mass is equivalent to WALES!

Here we learnt loads of Aboriginal history from our guide Al and visited the Anguluwur art site which is rich in aboriginal vivid rock art which dates back over 20,000 years. We also swam a few of the waterfalls in the park and Jen and I even managed to escape from the rest of the group for a spot of skinning dipping. (I wish I’d known that when Sam and I were in Malaysia, it would have saved us our Hike From Hell!)

Jen and I get back to nature with a water monitor.

However, having said that, we found out after our swim that our skinny dipping pool had a crocodile warning.

Maybe I should have just stuck to my Malaysian experience however bad!

Aswell as the crocks we saw some other pretty awesome wildlife including:

Lizards and water monitors...

Emus

Bush Wallabies.

Fying Foxes.

Dingos

And very big creepy crawlies!

One sight I couldn’t get over was that of fancy birds such as parrots, cockatoos, and budgerigars as well as birds of prey flying as free as magpies and sparrows. It was amazing.

After a rather tame End of Tour drink I set off for an early night. I had a 5am wake up call for my flight to Cairns and my Great Barrier Reef diving trip. Besides, I never wanted to feel that bad again.

I’d like to say the diving trip was the best I’ve ever done but unfortunately it wasn’t. It was cyclone season and one had just been through the area and another was happening south along the eastern coast when the trip started. It made for a rough sunless trip with pretty crap visibility. There was a lot of sea sickness among the passengers (surprisingly sparing me for a change) and some of the diving was pretty intense. However I did get to hang with an enormous Potato Cod and watch a shark feed which was pretty cool.

Me and a Potato Cod. The average adult is 1.5 meters long and weighs about 90 kilos.

My fellow passengers were a good bunch! My buddy was this Japanese dude who spoke no English, so pre-dive communication was interesting. There were also these two cool Israeli guys on board, one of which went to the same junior school as me in London, Wessex Gardens. SMALL WORLD! He was 13 years younger than me though. Shame, as he was very cute. I wouldn’t have minded him pulling my pigtails.

On board Taka and the diving crew.

The trip was ended of course with a post trip group drink which got a tad messy but fun.

Me and T-Bear from Las Vegas.

Then it was back to Sydney for those meetings and my final days with my chums before the next leg of my adventure. However, as I had a lot of time to reflect on this trip I came to the conclusion that I’d rather poke my eyes out with a sharp stick than get back into the music industry. It took me 5 minutes to cancel all the meetings it had taken me weeks to set up. I then packed my bags again and instead headed off to see my new friend Jen in her home, the Blue Mountains to get my last fix of hiking and wildlife spotting. I still hadn’t seen any wild kangaroos and I was determined not to leave Aus without it!

The Blue Mountains

Me at Evan's Lookout.

The Three Sisters with Jen.

A Brown snake. One of the world's deadliest snakes. Jen and I almost tripped over it on our hike.

WILD KANAGAROOS!

PARROTS!

I was running out of time and I still hadn’t had an encounter with a Koala, so it was off to Taronga Zoo in Sydney for me.



Here there were many weird and wonderful animals, but my two favorite experiences where seeing this common Kookaburra up close in the sun bear enclosure…


…and finding this nocturnal Possum awake during daylight hours in the women’s toilet. He entertained me for at least an hour letting me feed him slices of apple. Who cares about snow leopards when I had this!

So now it was April and my time was up. Of all the countries I’d been to on this trip this was the most painful to leave. For the first time in nine months I had a good cry when my plane left the tarmac.

Next stop was New Zealand to see my good friend Jen who I'd met in Wales whilst at college. I knew it would be all smiles again in a few hours.