Tuesday Feb 19th:
The weather cleared up this morning and we fought our hangovers hard! Brisbane has a river that runs through it so we decided to take a stroll along the water. The area was full of awesome bars and cafes. The highlight was a manmade beach along the river. It was quite big and was made with real sand. We'd never seen anything like it. We spent the remainder of the day wondering around downtown. We drove to Jess and Sarah's place for dinner. We had some awesome dips and really tasty tacos and were joined by a family of possums later in the evening. Plenty of bats were flying across the sky. We learned all about the various animals that can kill you here in Australia. I'm now very cautious of any spider and constantly on the lookout for snakes. Sharks are not common on the East coast but we so have to be careful to avoid stingrays and jellyfish. The beaches have netted off areas to keep people safe though.
Wednesday Feb 20th:
Today we enjoyed our last breakfast at Annie's Inn and drove off to the airport. We filled up our rental car with $1.58/L gas before dropping it off and checking in for our flight. The flight was less than 2 hours long and when we arrived at the airport a van was waiting to drive us to our place in Airlie Beach. We both love this place. It's small and laid back like Byron Bay. It really feels authentically Australian. Our hotel was overbooked so we got upgraded to a huge 3 bedroom suite alongside the pool. Today was bloody hot! We sweated as we walked down the strip to get lunch. Then we hit the pool and enjoyed our view of the bay while sipping some drinks. There are a group of parakeets who live nearby and we spent a long time just watching their amazingly colourful bodies flutter around. I got excited at the loud skwaking of a cockatoo. He flew overhead like a chubby lil b*****. We sat on our patio and watched a grasshopper munch on a leaf for what must have been an hour or so. Our favourite part of travel has got to be the opportunity and time to really take notice of the smallest things in life; the sounds of birds, the tiny movements of a grasshopper, the changing clouds as the sun sets every night. It's humbling and it's something that people need to do more often.
Thursday Feb 21st:
Another scorcher! This morning we woke up to great news when we checked Facebook and found out that Leanne made it to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro!!!!! Congrats friend! After a wonderful Maccas breakfast we enjoyed some relaxing time by the pool. Life sure is rough here. It got really hot so we both cooled down inside for a bit before hitting the town for lunch. When we went out for dinner we saw two cockatoos in a tree skwaking away. They are just the cutest. On the way home after dinner we noticed some lightning, it got more and more intense so we sat in the pool watching it for some time. When it got closer we decided not to be lightning rods and we popped inside. Tomorrow we're booked in for a jetski adventure around some of the Whitsunday islands. They are just off the coast here and are truly beautiful. There are 74 and only 8 have resorts on them. This fact makes me very happy and very proud of the Aussies for taking care of their land instead of exploiting it like other countries do.