Mission Beach - 26th September

Mission Beach Car Kilometres: 179,688

Distance Travelled: 216km

Total Distance Travelled: 11,437km

After another shortish hop of 200kms or so to Mission Beach, we arrive at the most expensive campsite since Broome.However, after looking around we decide that it's a better option than the half-the-price council site over the road.We've been warned about it being a bit rough, but decide to have a look around first anyway - it feels a bit menacing, and appears to be mostly full of long-termers (which we've learned generally leads to worse bathroom facilities for some reason), and big groups of people settled in chairs drinking beer and staring at us as we drive around.It's probably a perfectly safe place to stay of course, it's just that we've learned to trust what fellow travellers say, especially the grey nomads, who've mostly been on the road for years.Settling into our new nice but expensive pitch, we begin to see the benefits that the extra $15 a night brings us - as well as a really clean pool with a 'no kids' rule after 6.30pm (bear in mind that it's school holidays, and that the pools in sites until now have been child-soup from sunset to sundown), there is an open games room with satellite tv, and lovely clean loos.

Having not had tv for a while hasn't been a problem at all, and we tend to regard it as a treat to be enjoyed when it presents itself.However, this weekend is different - it's the AFL (Australian Football League - Aussie Rules football to you and me), grand final on Saturday, and even though the West Coast Eagles have finished bottom but one, Dave is still super keen on watching Hawthorne beat Geelong, or the other way round.We have a walk along the deep, wide beach, stopping in at the Post Office to post a birthday card for mom for 29th and a Wedding Card for our friend Mia back in Freo, who ties the knot on 4th October - funny how I never ever bothered to send anyone cards for anything at home.One day I might even get around to writing those postcards I've promised!

It's 3pm, so most of the cafes have finished serving lunch and are closed up, so we pick up some bread and enjoy luxury peanut butter (me), and chocolate spread (Dave) sarnies in the sun back at camp.We manage to solve our very own mystery later on in the evening, when what we thought were daft bats crashing into our tent turns out to be a small child methodically throwing glowstick quoits at our roof.We can't work out why, but when we emerge from the tent to investigate he says "oh, don't worry"... his parents look on indulgently, and we wish fervently that the school holidays will get a move on with finishing.

It's the morning of the final, and determined to justify the planned afternoon's vegging in front of the tv we decide to do a rainforest walk.We pick one that has a guided time of 2 ½ to 3 hours, and march along the path at a pace - it's a 4km return walk up a steepish hill to a lookout over the town, sea and surrounding islands, and since we plan on grabbing a plate of highly fattening potato wedges from the pub for lunch, we try to make the walk as vigorous as possible.This has the added effect of shortening it a great deal, so that we make it up and back in just over an hour, including stops for photo opportunities, careful steps over cassowary poo, and five minutes admiring (at a distance) a newly born plethora of baby spiders.

Feeling very pleased with ourselves, we head down to one of the local pubs well in time for the game, planning to watch the first half here and the rest back at the campsite.Once we've polished off our wedges, however, and the opening fuss of the game is just beginning, two Russian girls who have until now been sitting demurely at the bar, duck out the back and come back dressed in bikinis and high heels... this is our first encounter with skimpies, the much tamer and very popular Australian version of a topless barmaid - afterall, there were girls on the beach over the road wearing exactly the same, these girls just happened to get paid for it, and wear un-beachwear-like heels to go with it.As unfazed as we were with half dressed lovelies swanning about the place, it all got a bit much when they came up to us every few minutes to ask if we wanted another drink.Aussie Rules is a lengthy game, with most games running to three hours or so... we were attempting to nurse our cokes to the end of the first quarter and failing fast.The pressure to buy a zillion drinks was on, so we gave up and went back to the campsite early.

We make it back for the start of the second quarter, and this is where my participation in the game watching ended... I go fishing for a couple of months old women's magazines from the laundry room and settle myself in the tent for a peaceful afternoon.Not wishing to waste a minute of testosterone based sports fun, Dave zooms off to the tv room and watches the rest of the match with a bunch of other faithful supporters - coming back a few hours later clutching two empty beer bottles, freebies from his new tv room pals, and reporting that Hawthorne have indeed managed to beat Geelong.