Hi all,

This is a bit of a boring blog because I haven't done much since leaving Rainbow beach on Friday. I had an 18 hour bus journey to get to Airlie - nightmare. I've still got a numb bum!

Met 2 lovely people at the bus stop - Cara, 34 and Chris, 23. They are travelling alone so we stuck together on the bus and during a 3 hour stop at Hervey Bay we had dinner.

The bus was packed for a change so I had to have a crazy German dude next to me. He kept falling asleep on my shoulder - it was like being on the train to Liverpool Street! He got a lot of nudges from me.

Got to Airlie beach at 9.30 and went to Magnums hostel. It's really central and only $19 for a deluxe cottage - Excellent, surely there must be something wrong with it. Of course there was - it was an absolute filth pit. The floor of the dorm was covered with rotting food and empty beer cans. The people in the dorm also complained of bed bugs! I marched back up to reception and demanded my money back. I explained that the room wasn't even clean even to keep an animal in! They could see that I wasn't going to budge so they handed the money over.

Am now in a lovely(ish) place called Bush Village. Cara is here too so we're sharing a dorm and spent the afternoon looking around the shops. Found a lovely pair of shorts for my sailing trip for 4 pounds - bargain.

Really looking forward to my sailing trip now. I'm on the Ron of Argyle which apparently was used by Marilyn Monroe. I'm back on Tuesday so will report back from all my adventures. I'll be sunbathing on white sands, snorkelling in clear blue sea and eating lots of yummy food. Bliss!

Have a good weekend all.

Love Julie xxx