G'day readers,

We arrived in Townsville early morning on Thursday 17t of April, and made our own way to our hostel (Civic Guest House); we went for a goosy gander and tried to find a place selling some home made soup. Turned out to be a total mission, Jill and Marc ended up getting a "Maccers" (McDonalds) and I was in the huff cause couldn't get anything.We has a stroll around Townsville, it's like a Ghost town, very little to do or see. That evening we caught a movie, "How to forget about Sarah Marshall", Marc got lost in the cinema which kept Jillian an I amused, he ended up sitting in on his own for the first part of the movie!! Lots of laughing out loud at the movie, another good pick.We went home that night to find that we were not the only ones staying in the room, a rather "interesting" character was sharing with us. This much older lady proceeded to get undressed in front of all of us, Marc couldn't hack it so he went out of the room.Without going into too much detail this is not the type of person you would like to see naked, SERIOUSLY!!

Friday the 18th of April, we all woke to find that the "interesting" lady about Jillian's bed had gone.The only present she appeared to leave us was BED BUGS…OH MY GOD!!Most of Jillian's body was covered in bites, we didn't really know at this point what it was??Once at the Ferry terminal I called the land lady at the hostel and told her, obviously demanding that we be changed rooms.She advised that this would not be a problem and also offered to give us money to wash all of our clothes etc. So we went to Magnetic feeling a bit better, except for Jillian who unfortunately had them pretty bad. L

Magnetic Island is an Island just of the east coast of Townsville, you can reach it by ferry and its only about an hour away. Maggie Island has a small population of about 4,000 and is a gorgeous place to visit.When we arrived we caught the bus to Horseshoe Bay .As it was a gorgeous day we took a stroll along the beach, and then listened to Marc playing a few tunes on the old Guitar.The main reason for going to Maggie Island was so that I could go horse riding.We rocked up at "Bluey's Horseshoe Ranch" and were greeted by the owner himself " Dallas ", great name eh?Anyway, Dallas was eyeing up Marc's guitar and asked him to play….As we all know Marc does not play in front of stranger so he had to decline!Shortly after Dallas asked if he could see the guitar, he proceeded to start strumming Johnny Cash and Kenny Rodgers….His voice was outstanding and we were all in fits of laughter.Whilst I was on my bush and beach trek " Dallas " kept the tunes flowing for Marc and Jill…ha ha ha.He played a few of his own, and turns out that he is through to the 3rd heat of "Australian Idol".So Dallas is now a bit of a legend in our eyes, Quality!My Horse trek was fantastic, Bonnie was my horse (very apt) seen lots of wild life and loved the bare back beach ride, as you can see from pic's it was a brilliant experience.We were on Maggie Island for most of the evening so when we got back to the hostel we had to move our bed bug ridden stuff into our new room.The bonus was that we had been upgraded; woo hoo now we had a TV and tea making facilities…BOBBY BINGO!The hassle was washing and drying all of our clothes at 9pm.

The following morning we caught the early 7.20am bus to Cairns . Thankfully it was only a 5hour journey and they showed a DVD which made the journey a little more bearable.We passed lots of sugar cane and banana fields on the way.That's probably the worst thing about doing the Grey hound, you can't stop when you want to!We arrived on time in Cairns and it was cooking at 28 degrees.We checked into our hostel "Gilligan's" as recommended by Mr Barry Dean.This place runs like a hotel but is the usual budget backpacker's prices.Clean rooms, great lounges, big beds, internet on nearly every level. That evening Jillian and I indulged in an Irish coffee before hitting the hard stuff at Gilligan's own night club.It was a fun evening, as it was Saturday night the place was buzzing.At one point this guy stole Jill's drink of the table, seemed that he was going around randomly taking peoples drinks…before he knew it he was out on his ear, the nice bouncer man made sure of that…NOONE TAKES JILLIAN'S VODKA…. COMPRENDY??The rest of the night is a bit of a blur, but we all woke up in the correct room in our own beds, well apart from Marc, taking complete advantage of the bigger beds he was in my bed with me.

Sunday 20th April, nothing much doing today. We chilled out at the famous lagoon and caught up with a few of our buddy's from the Whitsunday trip.That evening we went for some gub at a cheap eats pizza place. As we were now totally paranoid about bed bugs we were now convinced that they were in our roon at Gilligans! Jamie did the complaning and before we knew it we were upgraded to a room to ourselves with a TV and coffee/tea making facilities. the only down side was that we had to put ALL of our bags and belongings into a massive FREEZER....Yes a FREEZER! Seemingly it kills any bugs and eggs. We had an interesting night when we all had to sit in the room with only a towel to cover our naked bodies! Jamie got the rest of our clothers washed and we sat down to watch good old Gordon Ramsay on the Telly.

Monday the 21st of April, we checked out of Gilligan's and picked up "Jess" our white 4WD from Europcar.Jillian and Jamie were both down as the main drivers, so I sat in the back and watched the pair of them get used to another automatic.Jillian nearly killed us several times by slamming on the break, nutter! Jinty was banned from driving in the towns and big City's....she just couldn't hack it!! So Jamie did most of the driving and Jinty drove every so often. Once they both got the hang of it we were off into the Tablelands.Atherton Tablelands or Cairns Highlands inland on the east coast of Australia. It is home to some of the most beautiful Waterfalls, and is known as cattle country. We headed for Yungaburra where we had booked into the Hostel, On the Wallaby, it was a nice little Hostel which was more like a house, Once we checked in we drove to Lake Eacham which sits ontop of an old volcano. After a walk round Lake Eacham we stopped in a sleepy little village, Downie was driving, it was her first time in an automatic so when we got into the village we were about to turn a corner Downie obviously thinking she was away to drop a gear forgot that she never controlled the gears, mistook the brake for a clutch, slammed her foot down and the car came to an abrupt holt, Downie had just slammed the brake on, we were all a little shocked but soon found the funny side. Wanting a coffee, first we went into a pub which was like something from the 60's. We had one look and turned about and went to a little shop along the road, Jamie and Jillian asked the lady for a coffee while i picked up a "Girlie" magazine, all i heard from the lady behind the counter was " Put that down if your not going to buy it, All you boys come in here and pick them up". Then when the girls asked for a coffee she just grunted like the pig she was and said "its off". Very charming lady. So it was back to the pub for a coffee or so we hoped, There was two old codger sitting outside that was it, we walked in and asked the man behind the bar for a coffee, He thought it was amazing because he had packet stuff, he was telling us how amazing it was and how if he stirred it fast enough he could create a little froth for us. Retard. Me and Downie had a coke and Jamie had a ginger beer. I have forgot the name of the place b ut it was in between Lake Eacham and Malanda falls. Malanda falls are some waterfalls which we went to after our COFFEE. One of the old boys in the pub told us these are the best falls in the world. Left left and left again he said as he put his thumb in the air with his back turned against us. He was also well impressed with our motor, After the waterfalls we drove back to the Hostel where there was a Duck Billed Platypus spotting tour arranged so the 3 of us went on that, we stood at the lakeside for about half an hour but never saw a thing. It was back to the Hostel for a BBQ a few beers and by the end of the night everyone in the hostel had joined in Uno.

The next morning we set off to feed some Rock Wallabies in the wild, it was a really nice part of the National Park and was very unspoilt, don't think many people know about it as we were the only people there. We all fed the Wallabies, including Jillain! After that we went turtle spotting, they were more like terrapins but still pretty cool to see...very shy creatures! It was a fun packed day and we had to fit in a lot, including visiting a Banana Plantation, buysing some street Bananas and Avacado's, getting some free Booze at one of the Mango Winery's, Visited a Coffee Plantation and had a cuppy with some delicious Chocolate, Mmmmmm... From there we had a nice scenic drive over the Tablelands to Port Douglas. For those of you who don't know Port Douglas is a great holiday destination, many Aussies go here for their hols. We checked into the hostel and had a wander, Port Douglas is certainly very beautiful and there is is lots of water sports etc for those planning to visit! That evening we cooked our own tea in the hostel and watched the band playing. After a few songs this random guy got up and started to play the mouth organ....for a a start he was BLIND (meaning drunk) and he could not really keep up with the right tune, very very funny to watch. After a few beers I was the one making everyone laugh by joining the band and playing the old tambourine.

Wednesday the 23rd, We had a semi long lie 8am! we only had today to get up to Cape Trib and back so we knew there was going to be a bit of driving involved. So who better to take over the wheel than Miss Downie herself. After a few random breaking incidents we were off. Jamie was chuffed cause it gave her a wee break from driving. The road to Cape Trib is very very very windey. Once we crossed the bridge, it was all up hill from there. We stopped off at a few of the viewing points and admired the spectacular views. For those of you who don't know Cape Trib is the only place in the world where the Rainforest meets the Sea. Jamie took us on another 4k trek throught a rainforest before we sat down for our picnic lunch. After lunch we took a stroll along the beach and did some very impressive "Bri" dances...Say another word! Before we knew it we had to get back on the road with "Jess". We arrived safely (with a few near misses) in Cairns that evening. Checked into Gilligans (bug free this time) and headed out for a nice Indian meal and a few drinks to say thankyou and farewell to our Buddy Jillian who was leaving for Sydney the next day.

Thursday 24th April - BYE BYE JILLIAN ELIZABETH JINTY DOWNIE It was a really sad morning as we handed "Jess" back at the airport and then said good-bye to Jillian. We had a brilliant time with Jinty and will carry many memories with us, lots of funny encounters and brilliant experiences were shared. Hope you had a same trip home Jillian, we miss you!

Marc and I waved good-bye to Jillain and waited to board our plane back to Melbourne. We were very excited about seeing everyone again, and the best thing was it was going to be a SURPRISE for Kirsteen and Neil....

Ok people thats all for just now, thankfully we are getting caught up with this blog...

Until next time, The Jinty's xxxx