I recently went for dinner with a friend of mine, Tara and whilst we were enjoying our decadent meal she mentioned that she had signed up to complete the three peaks challenge with friends Debbie and Shelley. Together they were planning on climbing 3 mountains within 24 hours. I could blame the wine but I was certainly interested in this escapade and it didn’t take long for Tara to convince me to get involved.

I’ve never been one to shy away from a challenge but the thought of this is pretty terrifying…

The three highest peaks in England, Scotland and Wales in 24 hours?!! Ludicrous! I will definitely give it a go.

Mind kindly explains in its challenge guide:-

‘The group begins with a morning ascent of Ben Nevis (1,344m) before transferring to the Lake District and climbing Scafell Pike (978m) through the night with only your head torch for light. You’ll then have an early morning ascent of your final mountain, Snowdon (1,085m) to complete the challenge and finish with a celebratory breakfast’

Scrap the breakfast; I think I will be needing a crisp beer in celebration instead!

I mention Mind, because that is the charity we shall be completing this for, all proceeds going directly to them. Mental health is a subject close to my heart, as I have close family that suffers and the stigma that is often attached is unfair and unnecessary.

1 in 4 will experience a mental health problem in any given year

Mind  provides information and advice when needed, to those who are dealing with mental health issues and those who are directly or indirectly affected by them. Sometimes all you need to do is talk to someone, to receive honest advice and they operate help lines that facilitate legal advice and  someone on the end of a phone to just talk if you call their infoline. Plenty more information is available on their site, and I will cover more in further posts.

‘A few words can make a big difference’ To someone’s life, decisions, relationships or even to convince them to do something worthwhile.

So wish me luck and donate here if you can.

I shall keep you posted as events unfurl.

Alice x

Well, actually more than a while, and I wonder if you have missed my rambling posts.

Count this as my promise, Alice Goes Walkabout, is back on the scene.

Since I last posted, a lot has changed. I am back in the UK, working a 9 to 5 job, which has been a massive jolt to the system , and scrambling to make the most of my 20 days holiday a year.

Plans for this year are Budapest in April and a jaunt back over to Australia for Christmas. Probably the most exciting idea is a possible visit to Haiti to help support my friend Liv get a fantastic new project called EduHaitian off the ground.

There will be plenty more information about EduHaitian posted over the next few weeks, but in the meantime please check out Liv’s blog ‘Little Olivia in Haiti’ to follow her travels and her journey to Haiti from Friday.

So watch out, and keep checking back in, as I post stories from my travels in Australia and update you with new adventures.

 We caught a late bus to Hervey Bay, and the hostel we wer staying at left us out our keys, maps and also instructions for the following days including what we needed to take to Fraser Island. There was no way that our big backpacks were all going to fit in the 4 x 4 so we had to pack a smaller bag. For some reason this took us hours, and I have no idea how, which meant it was gone 2am by the time we crashed and we had to be up at 6am…. We weren’t thinking straight!

Dragging ourselves out of bed at the ridiculous time we picked up our newly packed bags and stumbled wearily to the free breakfast. Freshly renewed after a cup of tea, we perched on the numerous benches dotted around the dining area and waited for our guide to join us. He wandered through the doors and immediately got everyone organised into groups.

 We were split into 2 teams, and in our group there was us there was also an English guy called Tony and 2 german lads called Nic and Tim. The other group was chokers full of girls except for one guy called Howie so we were pretty pleased to be in our group.

 Kate and I nominated ourselves to be the food shoppers so we collected $20 off everyone and we were dropped off at the local shop to do the shopping for 7 people for 3 days, well we spent it all, and bought heaps! Lots of Black and Gold products! It is the value brand of Australia. Well to be quite honest we overspent a tad, we completely forgot the meat on the original shop, but keep that on the down low!!

 So shopping all completed we made our way back to the hostel where the rest of our group was beginning to load up the 4×4, which is massive! It’s a great big truck, with room for 8 and has a caged area to stuff all of your food and bags. Once we had managed to ram the cage full, which extraordinary amounts of food, we were ready to set off.

 1^st issue – getting to the ferry!

Our driver for the entire trip was going to be Tony, as he was the only one in our group who was over 21, Clients wishing to drive on Fraser Island must be 21 years or older and hold a current and full drivers license, and he and Nic settled into the front. Nic was supposed to be our navigator, but it was soon apparent that he couldn’t read a map to save his life. Navigational skills = minimal. So quickly the map was taken out of his hands and passed to the ladies in the back, where we deduced the correct way. Although, the other group who we were originally following and going the correct way suddenly decided to complete a U-Turn in the middle of the road and scoot off in an opposite direction. Bad move!

 We carried on and arrived at the ferry with plenty of time to spare. It was a beautiful setting, the sun was shining and we were all perched on a massive 4×4 ready to explore Fraser Island!

 However…

 The other group hadn’t arrived. We began lining up to join the ferry and they still hadn’t arrived, they were cutting it pretty fine, until suddenly screeching round the corner came a big white brute of a truck. They made it.

The guy that picked us up from the hostel we were staying at ‘Brisbane Backpackers’ was an absolute legend and convinced us to enter the Quiz which was planned for later that evening. So we checked in and wandered up to our room which was really nice. A 4 bed dorm with en suite, balcony and heaps of space for only $31 pp.

An announcement went out that the quiz was due to commence so we pulled on our clothes and wandered downstairs. When we checked in we received a drinks voucher which we immediately traded in at the bar for a free drink. One glass of wine downed we went up for our 2^nd, where lo and behold they were selling Magners for only $5 RESULT!

So once settled in with our bargain drinks, the gent that picked us up earlier wandered over with paper and a pen and requested our team name. Still fuzzy headed from necking our drinks, we just weren’t quick enough on the uptake, so we gave him free choice in the choosing of our names.

Meet the

HAIRY HERPIED YEASTY PUSSIES

Pure class!

Note, for future reference choose your own quiz name or face humiliation!

So after the quizmaster had insisted on saying our name at least 15 times and pointing us out we began the quiz.

Well ….. we failed

We failed BIG TIME!!

Surprisingly our best section was sports, we got 4/5 on that one. But it was no shock when it was announced that we came in dead last! What was a surprise was the losers prize or forfeit.

Jump into the pool!

Or be kicked in, as that is effectively what happened. Fully clothed of corse. Thanks very much! Dripping wet we clambered out to catcalls and jeers, and heads held high we ran up to our room to warm up. On a positive note, we claimed ourselves a free bevvy for being soaked!

The next day we had a coach booked for quite late in the day, so we decided to explore the city. We were advised to check out the Ron Mueck exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art so we went to take a look.

There was a cost to enter the exhibition but concession fees were offered, as long as you are a domestic student … thank you STA for saying I go to the University of NSW!

The exhibition was incredible. Everything about his sculptures was lifelike except for their size.

As reviewer Robert Nelson explains…

Ron Mueck’s realistic sculptures are technically thrilling and also full of uncanny sentimental power as images. Amid the how and wow of Mueck’s masterly command of resins and hair, the audience marvels at the lonely characters and their introspective situations.

The exhibition runs until the 1st August 2010, so if you are in Brisbane before then it is definitely worth taking a look!

exhibition completed we jumped on our Greyhound and made our way to Hervey Bay.

‘QUARTER TO!’

When Gab and myself turned up to the terminal at the allocated time the Arts Factory tout was already there. But Lindsey and Kate were no-where to be seen! The eggy Greyhound driver refused to tell us if they had already boarded, and they weren’t answering their phones. So with 5 minutes to go before the bus departs, we convinced him to hang around for us, and grabbed the Arts Factory busman and he red-footed it back to the hostel for us. We pull up and there they are. Standing like larries outside the hostel. Apparently they ‘forgot’ to check the time and were too busy snooping the movie which was playing on someone’s laptop. I ran out bellowing like a rhino, and hurled the bags into the van and we raced back to the terminal where the grumpy driver lets us load up, we’ve only delayed the bus by 20 mins. Ooh the evil stares we were getting!

 However it was only a short trip to Surfers Paradise. Well, I definitely wouldn’t call it paradise, more like a pikey Spanish tourist town.

 Welcome to the Australian equivalent of Benidorm!

 High-rise buildings and pub-crawl offers on every corner. The less said about this place the better!

 That evening I decided I was up for a night out, but the other girls didn’t fancy joining me. So I met up with Kez and Chris once again at Aquarius and hit the booze. The games were being played so I witnessed Kez running around a circuit balancing a beer on her head, which was classic, and impressive!

The evening became a bit messy after someone mentioned Cheeky Monkeys and I ended up playing wingman to Kirby and turning into an absolute drunken mess.

Cue drunken phone calls to Geoff whilst he was trying to work in the UK, and him putting me on loudspeaker as I drunkenly announced to him, whilst slurring my words, how much I love him. What a mess! Impressively I even managed to remove my entire mattress from the top bunk of my bed and put it on the floor without waking the girls. SKILLS!

 Well spit over…..

 After the fool had finished his rant we surfaced and bundled our stuff together. We checked out a little late, and the girl on the front desk was a bit sarky, but we still got our key deposit back…. Result!

 We had only booked into Aquarius for one evening as we were booked into the Arts Factory for the remainder of our stay, as everyone raves about it. So we wandered up to say goodbye to Kez and Chris and got the opportunity to perve on Chris new iPad. It’s an amazing piece of technology, I want one so badly!

We made our way to the Greyhound bus stop and caught a lift to the Arts Factory from their tout. We weren’t allowed to check in to our room until 1pm, which was a bit annoying, but we filled out all the paperwork and left our luggage in the lockers.

Until our room was ready we decided to head down to the beach, we bought ourselves some amazing fish and chips and chilled out on the sand, perfect! Kez and Chris wandered down to meet us, and invited us to dinner at there’s that evening.

We made our way back to the Arts Factory and grabbed our stuff all ready to move into our 4-bed dorm. We wandered up, baggsied our bunks and tried to close the door, which was broken. Fantastic! So I wandered back downstairs and we moved into a 6-bedder instead as that was all they had available.

So we grab our stuff, walk round to the new dorm, open the door, get hit by the overwhelming stench of alcohol, peer into the bed when the sleeping man lies, turn around and run out crying with laughter. It was only the sleazy drunken Irishman from the previous evening!

We wiped the tears from our eyes and mustered up the courage to go in and meet Ronan, and explain to him that we had already met.

Lindsey, being the mug she is, then pipes up that actually he got with me the night before  and we had moved hostels, even deliberately checked into the same room as him so that I could see him again. Thanks Linds! The poor bugger turned pale as a ghost as he thought I was some psychotic stalker – awkward!

Alice

♥

Ronan

We pushed the joke a little far and he cottoned on that we were having him on eventually. He actually turned out to be a really funny guy, and not just the massive creep we all originally thought he was. He was travelling with his brother and he asked Linds to introduce herself to the him when he came in as Lindsey Digweed, who is apparently a DJ who his brother loves.

It was pretty obvious that something was up when he walked into the room and introductions were made;

‘Hi I’m Kate’

‘Gabi’

‘I’m Alice’

‘And I’m Lindsey DIGWEED’

Well he fell to the floor in awe. I’ve never seen anyone look so faint and excited at the same time at the mention of a name. He clocked it immediately,

“Any chance your brother is THE DJ Digweed?”

 Kate had to run out of the room she was crying so hard with laughter. To Lindsey’s credit she can come up with a back-story pretty quickly, ‘oh he’s my ½ brother, second marriage’ etc. Nile badgered here for signed belongs, for everything! The farce carried on for ages till Ronan blew the cover by just laughing and pointing at his brother.

We spent a couple of hours chilling out in our room until it was time to head over to Aquarius for dinner, via Woollies for a French stick.

Kez is an incredible cook! A hearty warming soup, and all we had to throw in was $2.50 because she was bulk cooking. Great idea, and absolutely delicious. Spent the evening in great company, what more could you ask for, very chilled out!

We arrived back to our room to find Lindsey cowering under her duvet and an Irishman in a red thong who was dripping wet with pool water was trying to grind on her. Hilarious! There was an absolute throng of them, it seems they were having a reunion night and had travelled to the Arts Factory for one evening, and one evening only. Their antics went on all night long.

 We had a large room for an 8-share dorm, it wasn’t in any way cramped and we even had a seating area in the room; a table and 4 chairs which was great for relaxing. Our room was en-suite and the bathroom was spacious as well.

 The kitchen area in the main section was absolutely fantastic; modern appliances and a huge communal table. The bar area is located next to the kitchen and there are plenty of drink specials so you can get your evening started, and also games are played, which everyone can get involved in. The prize for the evening I was there was a bar tab which is always a crowd pleaser!

Everything is extremely clean and well cared for. The staff were fantastic too, obviously Chris and Kez rate top! But the whole atmosphere of the hostel is great, it has a really casual, chilled out vibe and it’s a really welcoming place.

 The only issue we  had whilst staying had been that reception had not provided us with any sheets, but when I went to speak to security about it at 2 in the morning they immediately resolved the issue and were very gracious about it.

It isn’t the cheapest hostel in town, but prices are still pretty competitive. 10 share dorms are $30pn, but if you are planning on staying for 3 days + then it drops to $28pn and if you stay a week then it’s even cheaper at $26pn.

 Genuinely a great place

Cleanliness – 5/5

Atmosphere – 4/5

Facilities – 5/5

AQUARIUS BACKPACKERS

 We arrived at Aquarius hostel where Chris and Kez are currently living and working and checked into our room, an 8 share dorm, where we were greeted by 4 eggy guys who at first refused us entry into our room, but after some persistence we succeeded in barging our way in!

 We were told that Cheeky Monkeys was the spot to hit on a Saturday night so we spent an hour dolling ourselves up and downing some goon and then we wandered over. RESPECT majorly to Gabi who managed to join us, even though she felt so dog rough!

 The queue to enter was a bit of a mission; not long but they took ages letting anyone in. We made it inside eventually and headed straight to the bar for the first round. Problem was, we just weren’t drunk enough!! Even after chugging the goon back at the hostel, we were clearly well behind everyone! Since we arrived so late, we missed all the drink specials as well, so drinks weren’t that cheap!

 What is it about drunken men?! I heard some classic chat up lines that night, but the best call was the drunken Irishman who stumbled up to myself, Kate and Linds when we were chilling outside, and after obviously copping a fair look at our breasts proceeded to announce that

‘Ladies, I would take every one of you home with me. Who’s keen?? Actually I can’t decide between you, I’ll have to have you all!’

Umm, no chance mate!

 We called it a night at about 2 am and wandered back to Aquarius, and 10 minutes later two drunken Dutchmen wandered in. Lindsey managed to convince them she was pregnant with twins, and then proceeded to have an argument with him about, of all things, Wikipedia…. Random random!

 After Kate had improved we settled down to the final prep of dinner, i.e. Mark cooks the steaks, we make sure his beer is topped up and we all sit like a harem around him chilling out on the back deck listening to him tell classic stories. Dinner served, wine poured and jokes cracked – a great evening!

 We lazed in the second day as well and eventually surfaced at around 11 to find that everyone had left the house. We waited to the chimney sweeper to attend and then we put on our walking boots and made our way to the local Macadamia farm, which is a gentle 20-minute walk away for lunch.

 It’s a really dinky little café with a great vibe – well Super Di does work there. The Macca farm harvests all the Macadamia nuts on site and they create all sorts of great products from them, which they then sell on.

 We stayed on until the restaurant and then caught a lift back to Di where she presented us with a bottle of home-brew vodka… mmm

 We made our way back to the farm with her in order to prepare ourselves. We packed an overnight bag, grabbed ourselves a bottle of vodka and got ready for the infamous….

FRIDAY NIGHT FUCKWITS!

‘Real Australian men’

Gynecological doctors – ‘I’m only training but I could take a look if you’d like

Mad times

Funny jokes

Cracking!!

Chundermonkey

‘Sorry you’ve been spiked’

‘If you want Furbie, he’s in there waiting’

‘That seats taken’

‘Pommie lass’

‘What would you think if a man spiked you?”

“ I’d think I was well in there!’

Bundi and coke

Port shots

Mudshake … mmm

I btl Absolut

3 btls sparkling wine

Choc rum

4 lts goon

Smirnoff ice cans

 Amazing night…. But we paid for it the next day!! 

 We had hit the hay at about 5 am and at 9am Mark came bounding in and dragged us out of bed. Ouch, we all felt rough but none worse than Gabi, who was chundering away merrily. Oh we were HANGING!!

We made it to Port though and went straight to Red Rooster. Best hangover cure of all time! I wandered over to Ozzie Pozzie whilst the girls munched, picked up the goon I had left and said goodbye to Simon, give us a song Mr Tambourine Man!

 We made it to the Greyhound with time to spare and settled in for another 7 hour journey, very much looking forward to the next destination!