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 18th to celebrate Leannas birthday in style. We realised we probably needed a miracle! Turns out the gods were on our side when instead of getting off at Mission beach, where we wanted to bypass anyway, 2 no shows meant we had seats on the bus straight down to the enxt stop, Townsville. On the way we stopped at Bavinder Boulders where we had our first real experience of Oz wildlife, having to duck under spiders blocking the path with their webs and a red belly black snake on the path. Was only when our driver hurried us past and told us not to take photos we realised this was actually one of the dangerous ones! We continued on to the crocodile farm where we held a baby croc and Leanna let a snake wrap itself round her neck, Nikki politelt (or sensibly?) refused. We saw loads of crocs being fed and learnt not to get too close when we saw the teeth marks in the fence and were told that 1 of the rangers had lost an arm and only 1 had been killed so far! We ended our tour feeding the cute kangaroos and the Cassowary birds.

We arrived in Townsville but got a ferry straight over to magnetic island where we hoped to spend the next 2 days looking at the beautiful beaches and seeing koalas in their natural habitats. Again we were disappointed as 2 days of heavy rain meant we couldn't do anything. Even our favourite trick of seeking refuge in a cafe with a nice cake and coffee wasnt possible because the 'many cafes and restaurants' promised to us in our local guide book failed to materialise. Turns out you cant really do much here in the evenings either as everything shuts at 7 so 2 early nights and an interesting concoction of microwaveable food completed our stay here. We were relieved to be on the ferry back to Townsville the next day, but found they werent too welcoming to us when a very stroppy chef didnt take to kindly to our special requests and probably spat in our food! In the afternoon Nikki saw an underwater show at the Imax cinema, a domed screen surrounded you while you laid back as if floating in the sea. After much deliberation Leanna bravely decided sh'd face her fears but after buying the ticket and sitting down she realised maybe she'd pushed herself a step too far so waited patiently outside. That night we headed out for our free hostel meal (too good to be true!)at local Molly Malones but after being presented with a side salad we went straight across to the Italian for some more satisfying pizza. Of course an Italian meal cant be eaten without wine so our quiet dinner out turned into a night of drinking with some proper aussies from the ranches, and experiencing the non-existent nightlife in Townsville. Both of us were shocked when we did a self-breathalyser test in the pub and found we were over the limit, and our faith was restored in the australian people after our rude lunch experience when we both got home and found we hadnt spent any money on drinks!

All set to leave next morning but our bus driver was waiting with bad news. Freak floods down the East coast meant the road between Townsville and Airlie beach, our next destination, had 12m of water over it and had been closed. We were sent to a new hostel to wait patiently for news and rethink how we'd make up a lost day travelling to make the big birthday night out. We remained quite upbeat about the situation trying to calm down fellow travellers who seemed to think the weather was the fault of the bus driver, hostel receptionist, tour company etc and were behaving quite aggressively! Maybe we'd feel the same if we'd pre-booked a very expensive sailing trip from Airlie beach which we'd now miss, but instead we felt just a little bit smug that our technique of not planning too far in adavance had paid off! We spent the day walking up the Strand, the beach promenade, to the rock pool for a hangover juice and generally doing all that Townsville had to offer, nothing! Next day we waited more while others frantically booked themselves on flights and paid extra for other buses given the go ahead to travel through the flooding. By 430pm we were off on our very own oz experience bus and arrived in Airlie beach later that evening, now a day behind schedule but decided to forego the fraser island visit for more exciting adventures in Brisbane. The drive allowed us to see exactly what had kept us from getting here, with water covering every inch of land either side of us the whole drive there, and cars abandoned, floating on roads that hadnt cleared yet.

Airlie beach had more going on than anywhere we'd been in the past few days so excitedly we went out to socialise and have a few drinks, meeting some canadians, danish and the now very drunk 18 year olds from our bus. Was a good night but much like being in England and even more expensive! The next day the sun was back so we spent the day at Airlies man made lagoon and caught up with some old faces from Cairns. Back on the young bus tomorrow for a proper oz experience as we head to the cattle station....