I made it out of the Townsville hostel alive! Feels like a long time since I last wrote a blog entry, so here we go…

Well, after I wrote the last entry, Janina and I went back to McDonalds to use the Wifi. We were trying to get some hostels booked and somehow we kinda ended up staying there all day, oops. Ah well, I got the impression that there's not a whole lot else to do in Townsville anyway.

So the next day I had to make my way back to the ferry terminal to get back on the Oz bus and head to Airlie Beach. It wasn't a very exciting drive; the highlight was going through a town called Bowen, which is Australia's mango capital (and as I just said that this was the highlight, you can imagine that the rest of the drive was fairly dull). In Australia, there's a number of "big things"… in Mission Beach there was a big cassowary, in Coffs Harbour (I think), a big banana, in Rockhampton, a big bull… in Bowen, there is a big mango. (I also saw a big prawn somewhere but I can't remember where). Our driver also pointed out the "Bowenwood" sign, which apparently was put up when the movie "Australia" was filmed in Bowen a couple of years ago. Supposedly they had to find a place that looked similar to Darwin (I'm not sure why they didn't use… Darwin?) A couple of hours after the excitement of the big mango, we arrived in Airlie Beach, where I checked in to Beaches backpackers and met Janina again. The hostel wasn't the best but there was a TV in the room so we watched some Aussie trash and had a pretty early night.

The following day we took a walk along the Bicentennial walkway to Cannonvale, to find Coles (Tesco). It was freaking hot so we decided to bus it back to Airlie, but a random Aussie boy who seemed pretty young asked us if we wanted to share a taxi with him, so we did, and he paid! Random. When we got back there were some new people in our room but they were pretty weird… a Welsh couple who didn't say so much as "hi" when we got in, and a Dutch guy who was just a bit strange. That evening we went for a drink at the bar in Beaches but we weren't really going for it, so when they started the bar games we decided to watch from the safety of our balcony. It was pretty funny at one point because we noticed that some dude had randomly got himself naked and he got kicked out! He was obviously staying at Beaches though, so he had to do a lap of shame round the place and back in the front door.

On the Saturday we had to check out and take our luggage to Peterpans where it would be stored whilst we were doing our Whitsundays sailing trip. We got on our boat, the Tongarra, at 2.30pm in the afternoon. The first thing the crew, Lachy and Dave, asked before everyone got on board was if anyone was carrying any bananas on them. Janina was, so they took it from her and wouldn't let her take it on the boat! Lachy said he'd explain the story behind it later, but he never did, so we'll never know. But apparently bananas are bad luck on a boat. We were all made to put our shoes into a bag so everybody was barefoot on the boat. For 20 something passengers it wasn't the most spacious boat, but it did the job. That first afternoon we just listened to some health and safety crap and then sailed for a couple of hours and saw a gorgeous sunset just before stopping and anchoring for the night. We had a nice dinner, cooked by Dave. Myself and another German girl, Eva, were sharing some goon and a group of us played some tame drinking games on the deck for a bit, which was quite fun. Then it was time to grab a mattress and some sheets and set up a bed on the deck :) The stars looked amazing (even saw some shooting stars), so it was a bit unfortunate that they put up some canopies, but it was still pretty cool to sleep outside on a sailing boat. I woke up a lot but in general I didn't sleep too badly. It was just weird because my watch is broken (cheap Argos crap) so I never had any concept of the time when I woke up. Eventually, everybody was woken up to a really nice version of "Over the Rainbow" (the same version that plays at the end of "50 First Dates" with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore), which was sweet :) I reckon it must have been about 6 or 7am but as I said, I had no concept of the time. Either way it was warm and sunny. After some breakfast (bread and Vegemite for me) it was time to get into our stinger suits (which were stinkin') and grab a snorkel and mask. We snorkeled at the same place we'd spent the night, and it was really good. I saw some really big fish, and some of the smaller ones came really close. The colours of the coral were also pretty stunning - that was my 3rd time snorkeling the reef and I still can't get over the fact that it's real! Dave came over in the wee motor boat and was throwing some food into the water for the fish, which made them all go crazy. They didn't care that we were in the water looking at them, they just swam all around us, sometimes right in front of my face! Pretty amazing. As I was waiting my turn to climb back onto Tongarra, Lachy was also throwing some food in the water, and suddenly these giant fish were all around me. I accidentally touched one because I didn't see it, shat myself a wee bit! After the snorkel, we went to another place where we did some "adventure" snorkeling. Basically there was more of a current and it was a bit more difficult. It was good, but I preferred the first one. I kept trying to find Nemo hiding in the anemones, which look like spaghetti under the water, but the sly wee b***** never showed. I think some other people found him, and some turtles, but I was unlucky.

After lunch it was time to go on to the Whitsunday Islands national park, where Whitehaven Beach is situated. As we approached "Tongue Bay" we saw some turtles coming up to the surface! We got off the boat and were reunited with our flip-flops so that we could walk up to the lookout point. Whitehaven Beach was absolutely stunning from the lookout - exactly like a postcard. So many shades of blue and turquoise, a few white boats dotted here and there, and you could actually make out the shapes of stingrays in the shallow water. Again, it was one of those scenes where you can't believe that what you're looking at is real. We walked down from the lookout on to Whitehaven Beach (past a giant Golden Orb spider, I might add). The sand there is pure white and made up of 98.9% silicon (do I mean silica? Is it the same thing?) Anyway it's so white, like snow, and it squeaks when you walk on it. It also doesn't really get hot like other sand. So we chilled out there for a while and then had to be back on the boat for 4.30pm. We sailed back around to a place where we stopped for the night. It was Halloween, but you would never have known! A few people were sitting around trying to come up with ghost stories but it kind of died a death and eventually Janina and I just set up our beds again. We thought we had found the Southern Cross but Lachy told us that we were "full of s***" (the crew weren't especially friendly) because apparently Queensland loses the Southern Cross for 2 months of the year. That means I've still never seen it! Hoping I can just maybe find it in Brisbane before I go home, as that's in the very south of Queensland, and he said that you can still see it in New South Wales. Hmm. So that's Nemo AND the Southern Cross hiding from me! Two things I really wanted to see in Australia!

The next morning we did one last snorkel, which I kinda couldn't be arsed with as we'd already done two and I hate getting into a stinky stinger suit, but I'm glad I did it. I think I may have seen the faint shadow of a turtle when I first got in the water, but it could have been my imagination… I'll just pretend it was a turtle though! The water was really calm and there were some cool fish about. I crapped myself when I saw a jellyfish right in front of me, and I swear my left hand started to itch… I was super paranoid so I not-so-calmly said to Dave "I just saw something that looked like a jellyfish", to which he replied, "it was probably a jellyfish"… I'd forgotten that they told us that it's only the ones you can't see that will harm you in these waters. He told me to feel free to pick it up and throw it at someone, but I declined. After that, I kept seeing loads of them, and even though I knew they were harmless they still freaked me out! I kept trying to get away from them as soon as possible and I didn't let the 5% of my body that wasn't covered by the stinger suit touch them. After the snorkel we had a massive brunch, which I did completely backwards (a wrap with cheese, ham and salad, followed by cereal and a Vegemite buttie). Then we sailed for a couple of hours back to Airlie Beach, sunbathing on the deck the entire time. We checked back into Beaches and were put into a slightly nicer room where we chilled out for a bit, had a shower and did some washing, and then it was time to go to Phoenix bar where the after-sailing party was happening. Drinks were dirt cheap ($3 basic spirits and mixers = good for Australia) and if you spent $5 you got a free half Dominos pizza, yum. Janina was choked with the cold but I went on to Mama Africa with some Irish people who had been on our boat. It was a cool place but it was completely dead, so I just had one of their amazing cocktails ("Lion King" - very creamy and chocolaty) and then we called it a night.

The next day in Airlie was overcast so Janina and I quite literally did nothing. We had our hearts set on having fish and chips for our dinner and eating it by the water, but sadly by the time we went out all the chippies were shut! It was only 8.30pm! We didn't have anything else so it was another damned trip to McDonalds - GOD, I have never had so much McDonalds in all my life! But it was pretty much the only place open 24 hours in Airlie Beach. We still took our dinner down to the water, and just sat chatting until about midnight, mostly about what our friends from home are like… It provided some good chat.

Just a warning that I still have A LOT to write about, so if you were hoping it was nearly over, you should just quit while you're ahead.

SO! The next again morning I was up bright and early to jump back on the Oz bus with my favourite Kiwi bus driver, Wings, to head to the overnight Oz Experience stop at Kroombit Cattle Station. I bumped into Wings when I was checking out of Beaches so he let me on the bus first so that I could claim the best seat :) we went to pick up the others, including Neil and Chloe, a nice English couple who I've met here and there since leaving Cairns. I believe that the drive from Airlie to Kroombit is the longest on the southbound itinerary, so we stopped in a place called Sarina to do some barefoot lawn bowling. There was a group of oldies playing a really serious game, so they probably hated us, but it was quite good fun. After that, we continued on down the road, and Wings tried to keep things interesting by giving us whiteboard markers so that if anyone fell asleep we could draw a c*ck and balls on their face and he'd buy us a beer… alternatively, they could be used to draw on the windows of the bus (why has nobody ever thought of that before? Mum, Dad, all those drives to Dover…?) There was also a clothes peg going around the bus and if it was stuck on you when the bus stopped you had to do a truth or dare. Sadly there was this loud and obnoxious Glasweigan girl on the bus who was embarrassing the whole of Scotland by being a d!ck, but aside from that, it was a pretty good group and a fun drive.

When we got in to Kroombit we were greeted by one of the staff, a real cowboy (cowman?), Jonathan, who came on the bus and asked "How the f*ck are ya?" before asking, 5 minutes later, "What ya doin' ya bunch of pr!cks?!" because everybody was fannying around and not getting off the bus. Proper country folk! But they were nice really. We had a yummy beef dinner and then an old guy called Alan taught us how to crack a whip. I shat myself at first because he cracked it with no warning and it sounded like a gun going off - apparently it breaks the sound barrier or something (moves faster than the speed of sound?) anyway it was LOUD! It was difficult to get right at first but with him standing in front of me and being mean whenever I did it wrong, I was eventually whipped into shape (pun not intended but proud of it anyway) and I got the hang of it. It was so much fun once you got it right! Very satisfying. Everybody had paid $9 to get a cowboy hat and a bandana, which then entitled us to cheaper drinks at "Al's bar". Chloe and I spent the evening sharing bottles of "giggle juice" and a fun time was had by all.

We were up at 6 the next morning and unfortunately it was lashing rain :( breakfast was made up of the usual, but the toast was cooked on a fire and the tea and coffee were in big metal cans, also kept hot on the fire :) when I went up for a cup of tea, Jonathan asked "what would ya like, cowgirl?" I thought it was so cool that they always called us cowgirl or cowboy. It's a real working outback ranch, so it all felt really genuine, which made it even better. After breakfast we went to begin the "goat rodeo"… I have to say, I was pretty much dreading this, as I was told we had to lasoo and/or tackle goats, and the rain only made me dread it more… wet, stinky goats? Eww! First of all the people who had opted to do clay pigeon shooting… shot some clay pigeons (duh), then we all learned how to make and throw a lasoo. I wasn't bad at it actually, but when it was time to get into a group to begin the goat rodeo I wished I had been horrific in the practice! I went in a group with Neil and Chloe and we were told we had to get into the pen with the goats (loads of them) and one of us had to lasoo and bring a goat to the middle, where one of us would get on it and hold it still while the other branded it (or pretended to brand it - so we weren't even doing this for a reason!) I managed to convince Neil to be the person who goes and catches the goat because I had my Havaianas on and I just knew that as soon as I got the rope around the goat it'd run and I'd be flat on my arse in a pool of goat sh!t. Sadly, this swap in roles meant that, once Neil caught one and brought it to me and Chloe, I had to mount the thing, hold onto its horns and squeeze it with my legs so it would stay still! Needless to say those leggings went straight into the bin… Despite having flip-flops caked in sh!te and stinky wet goat leggings, it was actually not too horrendous. I had signed up to do the optional horseback goat muster the night before, mainly because the others were doing it, so after the goat trauma we went on to find the horses and head off into the rain to round up some more goats. It was ok but I was bloody soaking wet and freezing and my stoopid horse was so slow, so I was bored out of my mind by the time we were walking these freaking goats into another field. Finally it was over and I changed into some dry clothes and cleaned the last of the goat/horse sh!t off my Havvies before getting back onto the Oz bus and getting out of Kroombit. All in all, it was a really great experience and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, which is always nice :)

Wings dropped us off in Miriam Vale where we took a shuttle bus out to 1770. As I type this blog I'm in the Southern Cross backpackers retreat in 1770, which is such a nice place. Janina and I have a room to ourselves (she arrived before me after doing an all-nighter on the Greyhound) and it's set in really nice grounds. On Friday we had a BBQ dinner with Neil and Chloe and then sat around a bonfire (it was bonfire night!) It was cool to be with other Brits on bonfire night. Chloe and Neil had bought sparklers and we bought some marshmallows. Neil got excited about making a Guy, which later got chucked on the fire. Some more Brits came over when they saw us and were really grateful when we shared our sparklers and marshmallows with them! It was a nice evening :) it's so chilled out here - it's like being on holiday from my holiday. It also just feels like I'm staying at someone's house, as their dogs are always roaming around and there are loads of wind chimes and other hippy ornaments all over the grounds. There are loads of frogs! I thought it was just on the first day because it was raining so much, but they're everywhere, some of them as green as my bedroom at home (which, for those of you who don't know, is pretty green). Cute.

Nearly finished…!

Yesterday, Chloe, Neil, Janina and I went to do the Scooteroo tour! It's one of the things 1770 seems to be known for, so we felt we should do it. A group of about 30 or more of us all got kitted out in black leather jackets that had flames on them, helmets, and fake tattoos. We had to wear long trousers, and now that my goaty leggings are gone, I had to wear jeans, which I thought were close to combusting in the heat - yuk. We all chose a bike (I chose one that had the Aussie flag on the tank) and had a quick lesson on how to ride it. I had to go round the training ring 3 times because it was so hard to balance when you were going slowly, but once they let us on the road (without so much as checking we could drive) it was much easier and good fun. We scooted to a place where you could see kangaroos, but I was near the back and by the time I arrived they had all been scared off. Ah well. We drove/rode (?) up to the actual town of 1770 and watched an amazing sunset over the water and the mountains, whilst chowing down on some tattie wedges that had been pre-ordered. Very nice. We then all scooted back in the dark and the sky looked amazing - blue and orange, with huge bars of sunlight coming up.

I'm writing this on 7th November but won't be able to upload it until we find somewhere in Rainbow Beach, so "today" isn't today anymore… but anyway, today (Sun 7th Nov) we started the day by sunbathing at the pool after our free breakfast. We then took the free shuttle into town and walked back, which was pretty knackering. Then we hired bikes, again for free, with Neil, and went around some of the same places as yesterday. We saw a few kangaroos, which was so cool - I love seeing them hopping about as if it's the most normal thing in the world (which it is, to them, and to Aussies… but not to a wee Scots lass). Then when we got back I went for a swim, so really I've done a triathlon today. Just spent about a year typing this blog entry and that takes us up to the present moment! Getting on the bus tomorrow with Neil and Chloe to go to Rainbow Beach, which is where Janina and I will do our Fraser Island trip from, along with another 6 people (you go in a 4WD as a group of 8). Will be sure to update you on that, hopefully soon so that the next entry isn't half as long as this one!