So our flight from Sydney to Cairns was about 3 hours or more i believe, i wouldnt know as i slept through all but the last 15 mins of it! I found heat magazine in suydney airport which had been brought over from the uk, i was so excited (for those who know me well know how much i love heat) i paid $8 and it was worth every cent! Got airport shuttle to gilligans, very nice hostel, bit like a hotel to be honest with a swimming pool with waterfall and bar/restaurant, actually it classes itself as a resort. in a six bed dorm though so not really a hotel! the guys are in asylum down the road, it is a bit of a dive but a steal at $17 a night with free food 4 nights a week, tried to change hostels but asylum is fully booked! went out to woolshed for dinner and to a bar called mad cow for a drink but feeling very disappointed with cairns as its not really a city its like a small town with nout but bars and adventure tours and the barrier reef. still hoping to work at banana barracks fruit picking but weather nicht so gut here as well, i mean its better, like its not raining but still not very hot.

Next day found out no work at banana barrack for few weeks, leaving us with nout to do but a few of us wanted to do the desert venturer from cairns to alice springs so we thought that we could do that then head back after and pick up the work in a few weeks. moved out of gilligans after 2 nights as too expensive and no freebies, plus annoying canadian girl doing my head in waking everyone up talking to her mum on the phone in the morning about how scuba diving was soooo good and bringing random irish men back to the dorm, i just woke up one morning to see him lieing on the bunk near me and thought who the hell are you!? i was still sleeping with my ear plus in at this point but i dont now. i went to the cinema to see pirates of the caribbean that night after much deliberation between, nikki, chris and i about what to do for the next few weeks we decided to do desert venturer and left the next morning. checked into northern greenhouse hostel that night which i really loved, it was in the style of an american motel they way it was set out and had a massive deck, free internet, free breakfast and a good tv room. 6 bed dorm again, nikki and i the only girls in there. woke them all up at 4.45 am getting up to get our bus im sure they all hated us after there goon fuelled evening!! moohahaha!!

the first day on desert venturer i mostly slept and listened to commentary which was very interesting, about aboriginals, the flying doctors, origins of Qantas (Queensland And Northern Territory Aerial Service) school of the air (school for kiddies in the outback all done by telephone), cattle stations, termite mounds, aussie cowboys, the outback in general. We drove to north of innisfail and along to millstream falls and used rota loos all day (drop toilet) which are a horrible experience and hardly any have sinks and its so bizarre not flushing and having that breeze on your bum when someone else shuts a toilet seat!! we stopped at mount isa (they had proper toilets i was so happy!) and saw a man called russell who had lots of snakes and just dumped one round my neck, it moved quite a lot and felt like an expensive handbag.

The next stop was of course Croydon, northern queensland, no one one on the whole bus was as excited as me! i dont think the aussie bus driver is even aware that there is a croydon in the uk. its the smallest village ever! used to be really popular in the mining days but now just has a few hotels and a campsite and some houses in the middle of the outback! we stopped for a schooner in the local pub, it was just like i pictured an aussie outback pub to be like! it was amazing i couldnt stop going on about it! i fell asleep on the bus again (something about travelling long istances on buses means i always sleep except when tour guide tried to teach us the words to waltzing matilda and the actions to home amongst the gumtrees and gday gday song i can tell you that one rattled around in my head for a few days).

we stopped at normanton so see next blog so my map stays up to date...