So folks, it's that time again when I've realised I've not updated my blog for a while and it's about time I did so, so my Ma and Pa aren't worrying about me.

I must have given myself the kiss of death in my last blog, as work has totally dried up now. In the four weeks between my last blog I have only managed a grand total of four days on the banana farm. The first two days were the horrendous job of digging I've discussed in previous blogs, then one day hanging. And then half a day plant paw paw's (papaya) but even though we only did half a day our farmer paid us for a full day as we had worked so hard. Alan, our farmer, told us that when he and another guy plants the paw paw's it takes 5 days, and three of us did it in 5 hours. Work has been pretty slow because where our banana's get sent phoned the farmer and said the bananas are too skinny, so we are having to wait for the bananas to bulk out a bit. I've been trying to get other work to pay the bills whilst things have been slow but all I've managed is a 3 hour stock take in the bottle shop downstairs, which slashed my rent by $60.

So, what have you been doing with all your time Mr Murphy? I hear you ask. Well let me tell you, I've actually been quite productive and adventurous. After a few drinks one night, our bus driver Josh told us the ideal place where we could find a wild crocodile, a mere 500m away from where we are staying, and opposite the laundrette most of the backpackers. We went up there twice and saw nothing but water and trees, and were beginning to doubt Josh's credibility if he was just winding us up. But we gave him one more chance and third time lucky there it was a crocodile sat over the river from us on the bank casually sun bathing.

After this we decided to hunt more wildlife, the cassowary bird was next on the agenda. So we went on a 13.5km walk to the end of coquette point road and back (a hot spot for cassowarys) in search of the giant bird. I would describe the bird as a black ostrich type bird with a blue neck and head and a funky like hat thing on its head. These two have also known to be dangerous. Our walk was epic, we found rickety bridges, a skull, mud crabs, two dead flat frogs, a green ants nest, a beach, and to top it off we found two cassowary, one eating from a bush in someone's front garden, and the other crossing the road. It was pretty nerve racking as we didn't know how the birds would react to us so we got some photos and then slowly got out of the way of the big bird. The next day still looking for adrenaline we decided to have a walk in the opposite direction, this took us to a closed crocodile farm and fling fish point where we relaxed and had a beer. The walk back was long and there was nothing much to see unlike the previous day. So we thought we would try our hand at hitch hiking. The first car we tried pulled over to give us a lift, and it turned out to be a woman who works in the office in our hostel. She just happened to be there dropping her sons friend off. Result!

Also another adventure we had was when Luca spotted his van he sold in Sydney drive by the hostel. This was pretty random as Sydney is miles away from Innisfail and as the Italian kept saying. 'What are the chances' He had an emotional time with the van and as he put it, 'I left a little bit of my heart with the van when I sold it, so we decided to trek around Innisfail looking for the van. We eventually found it in Coles car park.

Other than this my days have consisted playing football manager, sleeping ad cooking delicious things. Me, Tom and Luca have dabbled in pasta dishes, a chocolate cake which didn't quite go to plan and banana bread. The banana bread has been a massive success and is pretty easy to make.

No alcohol? I here you ask. Of course there has been. We have had many drunken nights. One involved me getting vinegar in the eye, which left it pretty messed up for a week, but its all good now. Nine people have also left the hostel so we had to a fitting send off for them and get a bit drunk. Also a few of us also hired a car and went to Port Douglas for the weekend. This was good fun, full of drunken shenanigans and I got to hold a koala bear called Grizzy. The photo which we had took makes us look like an advert for a crime fighting duo. Murph and Griz. When I finally get the photo online you will see why!

In other news I decided about two or three weeks ago not to shave until I leave Innisfail, I only have 18 nights left before I move on to Townsville and then the full moon party on Magnetic Island. So it won't be a massive beard like Earl's after his 3 months in Asia, but it should be pretty good.

So that's about all I've got for you in this blog, my next update will be the last from Innisfail. I'm pretty excited about moving on again and starting to travel, but I not half miss the crown, the legendary people I met along the way and the good times, but more about that in my final blog.

Speak soon and stay safe

Adi

xx