Sorry we haven’t been able to update you for a while, but we have been on the road for a while and rather busy. We weren’t sure what to expect from Australia, but our second day here was most definitely a highlight of the entire trip. The hostel where we stayed was great, the staff were so friendly and helpful and they helped us organise a boat trip for the next day. Pete was keen to get another dive under his belt, so signed up for one whilst on the boat trip.
We arrived on the boat (a very nice catamaran) and we were asked to fill out questionnaires etc and put down if we wanted a free intro to diving. Unfortunately the instructor found out I hadn’t had a great experience in Thailand and insisted I do the intro. Anyway we headed out to sea, it was a beautiful day lots of blue sky, and the water was amazing with little patches of turquoise dotted about. We arrived at the first dive/snorkel site Paradise Cove and off Pete went on his dive. Luckily the idea of diving in the Great Barrier Reef took over from my nerves and before long I was pushed into the water and trying to get my breathing right. It took a while, but I got there, did the skills that were required and soon I was swimming along with the instructor and opening my eyes to a whole new world. The colours, shapes and sizes were all so different, from bright purple sea slugs, to turquoise shimmering fish, to the famous orange and white nemo fish, they were all there. It was an amazing experience and I really had the urge to do it again, while my confidence was up, so I signed up for the next dive and convinced Pete to as well (he would end up owing me big time for that). This time I went out with Pete and our instructor at Michaelmas Cay and boy was it an amazing dive. First we saw a sting ray nestled in the sand before swimming off, then out of nowhere a turtle swam towards us, the instructor grabbed some sea grass and we started to hand feed the turtle it was amazing, he kept bumping into us as if to say more food please. This wasn’t the only turtle we saw, in total five, as well as two sting rays. The coolest thing happened just when I was thinking to myself would I panic if I saw a shark? The answer would be no as seconds later a white tipped reef shark swum by, it was amazing. Now you know why Pete owes me big time for convincing him to do the second dive.
Cairns was a really cool place with BBQ’s along the esplanade, live bands in the park and people generally enjoying the outside. Next we moved on to Mission Beach for a few days where we chilled out by the pool, watched sky divers land on the beach and tried kangaroo steak (it was yummy). Next it was Magnetic Island where we stayed in a shed in the middle of the forest with a communal loo and shower!!! We saw possums, but no Koalas unfortunately. We then hit the road again, with our driver Barney, he was great and had travelled loads and he was to be our driver for the next few days.
Our next stop was Airlee Beach where for the first time I experienced dorm accommodation and it wasn’t a great experience. The room smelt of sick and it was so bad near my bed, I reckon the last person to sleep in it had been sick on the floor next to them. We had a good night with free jugs of beer, more kangaroo steaks and some fun drinking games. Not much sleep was to be had in our sick smelling dorm room and the next day we had a long days drive to Kroombit cattle station.
Obviously we had some stops to break up the day and one of those included playing bare foot lawn bowls. Let’s just say I was rubbish, Pete was ok and obviously we didn’t win. Back on the bus some more fun games to keep us amused, some animal spotting and some history lessons on Oz. We arrived at Kroombit about 5.30pm, just enough time to check out our nice double room, put some warmer clothes on because it was freezing and head back to the camp fire for dinner. It was delicious and we even had seconds. With our beers we sat by the fire and listened to a chat about the station, the speaker getting the easily distracted guys attention by cracking his whip. It was an ear piercing sound, which later on (with safety goggles on) Pete & I attempted and achieved, without causing injury to ourselves or anyone else. There was a talent show where a mad French guy stripped naked and didn’t win, followed by people attempting the nutcracker, a bucking bronco. Stupidly Pete still went on it, even after he had seen six guys come away from it walking like John Wayne and holding onto their crown jewels. We had a brilliant night’s sleep in our cosy room (we found the heater) before waking up at 6am for breakfast and then we were taken to the rodeo.
First people got the chance to do some clay pigeon shooting before our next team challenge was explained. Pete and I were called Bill’n’Nan, because the team name had to be goat related and we then found out why. Our challenge was for one team member (me) to catch the goat by its horns, drag it back to my partner (Pete), he then flipped it onto its side, held it still while I grabbed the brand. The quickest team won, unfortunately we went first and set a good time, but in the end another two beat us. It was great fun and would have been great to try again, but horse riding couldn’t wait. This was Pete’s first ever horse ride and his horse was called Alfonso the male tart of the group, I had Big Red, a name I decided would be my trucking name if ever I drove one. We headed out towards the goat pens and they were let out and we took over, herding them through the fields. It was great fun, Pete and I were the loudest of the group with our ‘hey up up up’ so he was at the front and I was at the back. It was great fun, we only needed to walk, but the goats still wandered off and we had to round them up. It was a fantastic morning and another highlight of the trip. Back on the road more animal spotting for kangaroos and emus and a quiz, which Pete and I won. That night we were in Rainbow Beach, in another dorm room, luckily no sick smell. We had an early night as we were tired and prepared for our next day of travelling with a new driver and another new place, Byron Bay. In Byron Bay in was raining heavily when we arrived and continued all through the night, so we decided to head to surf camp hoping the weather would be better. The weather was slightly better, but still cold and spitting with rain, we got into our cold wet suits, had a brief chat, a brief practice lying on our boards on the beach, before heading out to the waves. It was great fun and both Pete and I managed to stand up several times, but after I was hit on the head by others boards several times I decided to get out the water. We had a good dinner sat around chatting before it got too cold and headed for bed.
We are now in Sydney in our cool hostel where on our first night with some others won the bar quiz and earned ourselves a $100 bar tab. So by the end of the evening Pete and I were both a little drunk. We had a well earned lie-in before heading out for a walk to explore the city.