Rich and I joined the rest of the group in Mission Beach a day later. We stayed at a hostel called Absolute Backpackers, it was so nice there, had a pool with a jacuzzi which we took full advantage of....some more than others but i'll say no more ;)

The 'resort' as they like to call it had been badly damaged by the cyclone and the owners were still in the process of rebuilding and repainting. They showed us photo's from before and after the cyclone to show us how much damage was caused, it was really sad to see. You could see that the beach hadn't fully recovered either as it was full of debris, still beautiful though. There are some islands off of the mainland that look like paradise, one apparently owned by a celebrity but it's a well guarded secret as to who that is.

It was Halloween and the guys had a made us a new friend, another Essex boy Joe, they met him in the line for the greyhound from Townsville. He told us about a party that his friend was working at, it was apparently the place to be.......it really wasn't! We got into the spirit of things and all dressed up, me and Nikki as G.I Janes, Tash, Sam and Sarah as cats and the boys as greek gods and pirates. We got to the bar and it was awful, the place was dead and we were told that because of their license, if we were drinking then we had to be seated! So, we waited for the next taxi and got the hell outta there back to the hostel and continued with our own party. Apparently Tash had a freak out when a possum or something ran acrross her foot, she has no recollection of this haha!

As anyone who's backpacked will know, in most hostels you stay in you have to leave a key deposit, usually it's around $20 which you get back when you check out if you still have your key. Alex Miller couldn't find his so instead of forfitting his money he asked reception if there was anything he could do around the hostel that he could do to pay for the key, as I said earlier on they were still redoing parts of the hostel after the cyclone, so they gave him a tin of paint and a brush and off he went to paint a fence.....we all went to the beach! And guess what.....later that evening......he found the key, much to all of our amusement! I'm sure the hostel appreciated the free labour though Al!