Hey, I have finally finished working my way up the East coast of Australia and am now in Cairns where I start my 3 week trek to the outback tomorrow. Typically its raining here at the moment but hopefully will clear up as I am on the Great Barrier Reef tomorrow.

Right, I will get on it. On Sunday morning I woke up to Jade calling my name and letting me know I only had 15 minutes to get to the bus (almost a Syndey experience) so got ready and booted it out the door missing yet another shower and breakfast. I sat next to Pete on the bus who loved annoying me as I didn't feel my best from the night before. The drive to Townsville was uneventful and we got there about 11am to the Ferry Terminal where I said goodbye to Jade who was flying to Sydney that day (hopefully see her in NYC on my birthday) and then had the short ferry trip to Magnetic Island (20 minutes). Once off the boat a load of us got on the bus to Base hostel which is quite far out the way. The hostel itself is amazing, being the only one in oz on the beach and there being so much space and we were staying in 8 bed air conditioned hut things. I didn't stay long as I got on another bus up the road to commence on a 5km walk from Nelly Bay to Arcadia; I was on my own on the walk and I saw virtually no one for the whole time I did it. I walked over uneven ground then up a really steep hill in the boiling heat and on the way back down I sliced my toe on a rock as I was just wearing my thongs (all good fun) but could of been worse especially since there was no one else about- it was meant to take 2 and a half hours but I did it in just over 1 hour! Down in Arcadia I went to the newsagent then sat in Magnums bar for a bit cooling down and after seeing Alma Bay got on another bus up the hill to the start of the Forts Walk. This walk was much easier and geered towards the tourist but the forts were cool and there was some amazing views of the island. On the way back to thwe hostel I got food from the supermarket and walked the 15 minute back to Base in the nice evening heat. At the hostel I met my roomates then had some pasta and went over to the bar to meet them (they were part of a 9 person group) where I ended up staying alot longer than planned as Macca the bar manager ketp on buying us free drinks.

On Monday I managed a really nice lie in till 10.30am then chatted to Kelly and Joe from y room before going over to the pool to meet Pete while the big group went off on mini mokes for the day. Soon after Ben and Nick arrived from Airlie and we sunbathed next to the great pool (right next to the beach), and I decided to stay another night but had to get the greyhound which would cost 64 dollars, before busing it to Arcadia to meet Nat and Sarah who were staying at Magnums. Here we lay on the not so great beach for a while then chilled in Magnums pool (not really supposed to) then we waited an hour for a taxi not realising it had come and gone on the other side of the hostel so we ended up getting the bus after 5 ish (took ages so wasted a fair chunk of the afternoon). In the hour we had at the hostel I rushed down some beans on toast and got ready and went over to the bar for a quick one before leaving but Macca ended up giving me a mug of beer as well as a full 2 pint jug of it all for 3 bucks (just over a quid!) so had to have Nick and Ben help out so we could make the bus to Magnums. We wern't exactly sure why we went to Magnums except cause the girls wouldn"t come to base but it was so dead in there it was ridiculous. We played a spot of pool then did a crappy quiz with only 5 other teams and not so great questions so me and the guys booked a taxi back to the hostel to hopefully have a livlier evening. It was one of the big groups birthday so they were all in a party mood so we got a few cheap cocktails down and a couple more free drinks and ended the evening on a high.

The morning was spent on the internet and deciding what to do for transport for the day because the girls had arrived at base and there were 5 of us but the mini moke we wanted could only seat 4 and no one wanted to ride a scooter due to the massive cost if you crash it. We ended up deciding that we would just go back and forth whenever we left somewhere so no one got left beind and would just pay the extra mileage in the end (cheaper than a scooter). I went down to the mini moke place at 11.30 and got our Diahatsu open top beast (no radio and steering was realy heavy when going slow) then I picked Sarah and Nat up, got their signatures so they could drive it and dropped them off in Horseshoe Bay before howling it back to pick Nick and Ben up. The bay there wasn't too great so quite quickly we got restless and went for a drive with Nat being the driver (bit scary as she doesn't pay too much attention to her surroundings) and leaving Ben behind with is book. We drove around the bay then across the island to Picnic Bay but that was too windy to sit on so after paying for my greyhound at the post office dropped them off at the Radical Bay and Forts Walk car park then picked up Nick (got the car to 100 on the way). Here we spent a while walking up and down hills to get to the bays as the car wasn't allowed to go down the road. Once at the gorgious Florence Bay we decided not to carry on and stayed there for a couple of hours; the girsl sunbathed the whole time while we went rock climbing then fell asleep sunbathig till about 5pm. Back at the car Sarah drove me and Ben to Picnic Bay via the Supermarket so we could watch the sunset on the pier and by the time she got back with the other two the sun had gone behind the hill in fron tof us so we actually couldn't see anything (Olga and Alona from the boat were there as well). A bit disappointed I dropped off Nat and Sarah then found out the lights didn't really work in the car (had to keep my hand on the lever so kept slipping to high beam and indicators) so had a fun time going back for Ben and Nick in the dark- was light enough I didn't need lights unless another car was about. After getting ready quickly again and having spaghetti on toast (such uni meals) I sat with Nick on the sun loungers next to the bar looking at the waves crashing in front of us with a nice jug of Carlton Draught at my side. Ben was passed out asleep and Nat couldn't drink so I sat down on a bench with Pete and Sarah chatting and drinking for a while before Macca came over and bought us yet another load of free drinks- amazing as he only did it for a few people each night and I was involved all 3 nights. It started raining so we went undercover for the rest of the night having a good time and enjoying nice cheap strong cocktails before ending up in bed about 2 ish.

Yesterday myself and some of the girls in my room got our bags packed for the boat over to Townsville to catch the 11.30 am greyhound. We still had the car so after frantically searching for Natalie I got her to drop me off at the ferry terminal (will see Sarah and Nat in Auckland) where I met the big group of 9 (including Kelly and Joe from my room). The ferry got to Townsville just after 10 and as soon as I disembarked I saw New York Nick and we chatted about St.Paddy's Day (he made his beard green) and hopefully will see him either in New Zealand or around New York when I am there. The bus was an hour away so all 10 of us walked into town to get some breakfast which ended up being extremely good but we were worried as there was only one person working there and time was ticking. We managed to get to the Greyhound bus just about on time and once on the driver put on the quality Batman Begins film so that took up a good two hours of the trip but annoyingly we stopped for a half hour break 10 minutes from the end at the town of Seaview. Once the film had finished I sat and listened to my ipod for a while then saw off the 9 of them as they got off at Mission Beach. I finally arrived in Cairns at 5.30pm (6 hour trip) and the hostel bus picked me up to take me to the out of the way Cairns Beach House Hostel (20 min walk from main centre) where I simply spent the evening having my nice dinner, doing washing and going on the internet for 3 hours. Before bed I got my journal up to date and was so shattered I fell asleep straight away (was on 3rd floor of apartment like hostel- nice with 2 big rooms and a kitchen and bathroom).

This morning I came on here and am checking out of the hostel in about 15 minutes to go to the All Seasons Hotel as part of my trek which begins in less than 24 hours (I am meeting Anna for the first ime in over a month). The day will be spent sorting out a load of things such as putting photos onto cd, send a package and postcards home then meeting up with people from the oz bus at the woolshed later this evening.

Well I am completely up to date but hopefully it shouldn't be too long before I get enough time to up date this again.

Bye for now

Ant