After we had been diving we tried to relax over the next few days. We went out on valentine’s day as it was Steve and Jo’s last day and we thought as it was Valentine’s day why not. We bought ourselves a mini laptop as well as we figured we would save so much as wireless is cheaper than internet cafes and we should be able to keep up to date easier. Over the few days running up to Carina’s bday we went to the lagoon in the town centre a few times and David spent most of his spare time planning my birthday, this was actually most of his time!! Most mornings we went for a dip in the campsite pool, it was more out of need than want, as it was so warm we had to cool down and found going for a morning dip was the best way. We saw many people come and go, it seemed the campsite was mainly a base for people either arriving in Australia or leaving so they didn’t stay long. While cleaning out the van one day I came across a spider hiding near the sliding door, I got it out onto the sweeping brush and looked at it a bit closer, I couldn’t believe I had one of the most venomous spider less than a metre away from me, that being a ‘red back’. As you will probably see we tried to get a few pics of it but they didn’t come out to well. I decided I had spent too long with it so close to me so I put it on the ground and Mark stamped on it. Well it was more of a moonwalk, funny to see!!! We had decided it would definitely be better dead as we didn’t fancy it coming near us again.
We went to the Flying Doctors Centre which David was pleased about as he used to watch it as a kid with his Nan and was gutted when we didn’t get to go to the one in Alice Springs as we were rushing to get out of there so quick. We got to look inside one of the planes they used to use which was very interesting especially seeing how they got all the equipment in such a small plane. The way they work is very different to how we do and it’s amazing to find out how many call outs they get and how it is all set up. They have 37 stations around Australia, It is a very old fashioned way but it seems to work for them and everyone praises their work. Without them many people would not be here today. Due to the distance of the country the communities that don’t have a doctor other than the flying variety are given a steel medicine box. The box is kept locked by the key holder but contains all the drugs of a pharmacy, these are numbered as the patient will communicate via phone or radio with the doc who will prescribe the dose and drug by number so the patient can match it up, this reducing the error of taking the wrong stuff. You will also see in the pics a body chart with letters on it, this is how the patient describes where the symptoms/pain are so the doc can diagnose as they are not together in person this is the easiest method. There is a separate plane which carries nurses and one doctor on a set route once a month to various places for a clinic/vaccinations/check up service and for non emergencies. A picture we took that shows the emergency call outs they had in January was said to be a “quiet” month for them!?! The service is free to all Australians and is normally covered by holiday insurance for tourists, but if you don’t have that you are allegedly to clean the plane….If you need a doc in the first place this could be pretty hard to enforce!!!!
After my birthday we went to Kuranda which is a small town in the rainforest. It was so strange how it was just placed in the middle of nowhere and seemed like any other town. It was mainly made for tourists as there were many market stalls full f souvenirs. Not far away from there were the Barron Falls, this is a pretty impressive water fall and it was a nice walk to get to them too, typically in the rainforest it was raining so we got a bit wet!! On the walk back to the car park I (the spider spotter) spotted a huge spider of which Mark informed us was a ‘golden orb’. This is a venomous rainforest spider; it is black and gold and can give you a nasty bite and make you feel not too well. It would probably hospitalise you but if you got the right treatment at the right time not fatal. On the way back down we had planned on getting a few snaps at the lookout point overlooking the rainforest, unfortunately we didn’t manage to get any as the weather had done its normal trick and turned for the worst so we couldn’t see anything other than mist.
Over the last few days we organised some of our ridiculous amounts of stuff to be sent home, we realised it just wasn’t feasible for us to keep everything we had and haul it around the rest of the world with us! We also tried to sort out the campervan for New Zealand which seemed a lot harder than we thought. As it is peak season there were next to no vans available and the ones that were we would’ve had to pay silly prices for. Luckily we managed to get our good old hitop for a half decent price. A bit more than we would’ve liked but we just hoped the exchange rate would be on our side and it should even itself out!! On the last night the 4 of us had a BBQ and reminisced over the last few weeks and want an adventure we had had getting from Townsville and how there would be only Freddie and Mark left out of the famous 10 after we left. We couldn’t believe we had actually finished the first part of our trip and heading for New Zealand. It had all gone so quick yet Ayres Rock felt like a lifetime ago.
It was goodbye to Australia and hello to New Zealand!!!!