On what was supposed to be our last night in Airlie, the guys from Cairns we'd bumped into earlier, persuaded us to have a few drinks with them before we left. So first we had dinner at a Mexican restaurant and using our girly magic managed to swindle free drinks from the barman and 2 sombreros from the manager! Which we wore for the rest of the night. We met up with the others and moved onto a few bars, by this point in was pouring down with rain and continued t...

We boarded our Oz experience bus in the early ours, our hopes of a few hours sleep cruelly snatched away by the over excited group of 18 year olds that we would encounter all the way down the east coast. We started to feel a bit too old for all this! After organising our own way around SE Asia we found adjusting to a tightly planned schedule and limited bus departures quite difficult and so we spent the morning trying to work out how we'd get to Brisbane by the 1...

When leaving Alice Springs Leanna was randomly selected for a drug test and had her clothes, skin and belonging swabbed, a surprising nervous wait later she was free to go. Stepping off the airplane onto Cairns soil we could instantly feel a difference in heat, Alice had been very dry and dehydrating whereas Cairns is humid and sticky. We took our free transfer to our hostel and spent the evening exploring the town, We noticed how spread out everything is here, t...

Our taxi ride to Kuta airport was not without its dramas! After negotiating a rate the driver conveniently had no change and expected us to levae him the 20000 extra but we managed to scarpe together change which left him only 1000 short. We tried to convince him this was the fairer deal but his response of spitting on us, throwing the coins back at us and roaring off in anger showed he clearly didnt agree! Expecting to catch up with Zak on the flight we were a b...

We caught our bus to Lovina the next morning meeting a lone traveller, Dave from Colchester, who was grateful for some conversation after a quiet first week in Bali. We drove through stunning Bali landscapes, rice terraces, volcanoes and villages decorated for the upcoming Hindu festival. We were pleasantly surprised to find our bus ticket included free lunch on arrival and a nights free accomodation with breakfast the next day. Admittedly the room was a bit mank...