So we left Iraq and flew to Kuwait where we found out that we were missing some paper work (thats 250th). So it was a mad rush to get everything in order. Once we did they took us to Kuwait international Airport where we changed into civilian clothes. From there we went to Dubai, where we also fell asleep at our gate and missed our plane. So we had to wait in the terminal for 15 hrs for the next flight. When we finally did board the plane I found up I had been bumped up to business class. Guess it pays off to be nice (One of the guys I was with was really mean to the lady working to ticket counter). Best plane right I have ever had. We made it to Sydney at around 6 pm.
We spent the next couple days checking out the area. Our plan when we chose to go on this trip was not to have a plan. Well that was the best idea we could have had. We rented a campervan on our second night. We were just walking down the street and saw the rental place and decided to check it out. The next day we flew up to Cairns. Coolest town I have ever been in! while we were there we checked off alot of things on our bucket lists. Two of the major things were skydiving and whitewater rafting. The whitewater rafting was the most amazing thing I have ever done. Not excluding the fact that I fell out in a rapid that killed 2 people a month before and almost drowned. I was also side by side the guy that played Steve the pirate from Dodgeball!
From Cairns we went to Airle Beach, which is the launching area to go to the Whitsunday Islands and Whitehaven Beach. The beach was breathtaking, I really cant put it into words so I wont try. Pictures just dont do it justice. I also went diving on the Great Barrier Reef, which was actually a little disapointing. This was all done during a liveaboard cruise I took on a retired racing yacht. I met some really great people, and like most of the trip I was the only American. When I first arrived on the boat I was afraid I would be the only English speaking person. I was lucky though and there turned out to be 3 Canadian girls and 2 guys from Britain all of us got along great. After the cruise we all went out that night, I drank WAY to much and some of the details are foggy. When I woke up no one was mad at me and we were all in one peice so it must have been a good time. We left Airle Beach that afternoon.
From Airle Beach we went to Byron Bay. It took us about 15 hrs to make the drive and made it to Byron at about 2 am. We drove around and checked out the town liked what we saw so set out to find a campground to park and get some sleep. Well everything was closed so we decided to just camp in a park parking lot that night. Which resulted in a parking ticket, Byron is the only place in Australia that you cant camp on the side of the road. We were just about to turn in when someone knocked on our door asking if we wanted a beer. I got a great memory that night, there were about 10 of us standing around drinking a few beers and talking about our differnt cultures. Out of the 10 of us there were 6 differnt nationalites. It was a great time. I tried surfing the next day and almost drowned for the second time when I got caught in a rip tide. After that I decided to stick to scuba diving from now on. We also went out to a few pretty cool bars and had some great times. By then our trip was coming to an end. We left Byron and headed south again, after about 14 hrs of driving we figured we had had enough so we started looking for a place to camp. Well we got lost and then got the van stuck several miles from civilization. So we had to walk to the gas station we pasted a few miles back. The whole time being followed by dingos. That was a crazy night.
We were almost to Sydney and had a day left so we went on a little side adventure down a small two lane road called Waterfall Way. It was so worth it. We slept on top of a mountain and watched a few movies on my laptop. One of which was Greenstreet Holigans, great movie. Now how many people can say that they watched a movie about an American hanging out with English soccer holigans on top of a mountain in Australia? Not many I would think. The next day we took in some of the most breath taking views I have ever seen, and even got to see a few Kangaroos.
Well that was pretty much the end, the next day we turned in our van, and got on a plane and started our journey back to Iraq. Although there was a really cool park that had a swimming pool cut out of the rock that was feed by the ocean, I have added a picture so you can see how cool it was. This is just a short discription of the most amazing 2 weeks I have ever had. Made even better by the fact that I had spent several months in Iraq before it started. I have left somethings out to keep it short and I dont feel like typeing every detail, because it would take way to long to talk about every detail. I hope you enjoyed it
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