The first we saw of the town of 1770 was a stunning sunrise as Jackie just happened to wake up on the Greyhound bus as a giant ball of sun rose above the endless acres of farm land. As we drove into the town we realised that 1770 was going to be just what we were looking for after our hectic sailing experience - total tranquility in a tiny little traditional Australian town. The town has a real hippy feel to it and its residents could not be more laid back. Our hostel, 1770 Backpackers was unlike any that we had stayed in so far, there were no doors to the dorms, let alone locks and instead of threatening you with eviction for not doing your washing up the posters around the hostel encouraged you to clear up to promote peace and harmony within the hostel - crazy, but it was just what we needed.

After a quick explore of the town - literally just 5 minutes as it only consisted of about 10 shops - we made our way down to the beach as we had heard that this was one of the only beaches in Queensland that didn't have stingers. We walked through a beautiful suburb to get there with streets that looked like they could be part of the neighbours set and fulfilled every stereotype we had of an Australian neighbourhood. The beach wasn't a disappointment, it was enormous and sure enough no stinger suits required, heaven!

After making the most of the stinger-free sea we made our way back to the hostel as we were being picked up for our chopper experience - Scooteroo! We were picked up by a rather greasy looking biker with long grey hair, handlebar moustache, leather trousers and really long dirty fingernails (obviously Jackie noticed that). Despite our first impressions he was actually a really great guy. We were taken to a warehouse with hundreds of choppers in every cooler imaginable, after being given a bike and helmet we were given a two minute briefing on how to ride them (they were automatic so it was pretty straightforward) then off we went. It all went far too quickly for Jackie who was left wondering whether they had misheard her when she said that she had never ridden a motorbike before and was more than a little scared! We soon got the hang of it though and spent three hours tearing around the town of 1770 and Agnes Water. Steve took to it like a duck to water and was doing 70 km/ph after just 5 minutes while Jackie got off to a bit of a shaky start but after an hour or so was on Steve's tail doing 70 km/h too.

It was a fantastic feeling being cooled down by the wind as we sped around the town seeing parts that we would never have found on foot. At one stage we stopped to look at a family of Kangaroos and were able to get about a meter away from them to take photographs before the big (taller than Jackie) daddy roo ushered the family away to safety. The trip then ended watching a stunning sunset over the sea munching on potato wedges - it was easily one of the best things we had done so far as was a perfect ending to our brief but perfect stay in the town of 1770.