1770, Bundaburg

We were both knackered after the nine hour drive and at half nine most of the people in our dorm were already asleep. So we went to sleep. It was a pretty good sleep, one were I had to be woken up, which I see as a good thing.

We went for a wee drive to a nearby national park which I forget the name off and can’t check because terry won’t get the guide book because he is watching the tennis and I can’t go as I developed an allergic rash and have cream all over the place and therefore cannot be seen in public.

Anyway, it was beautiful, gorgeous, wish you were here. Then we went to the beach of 1770. There was a large man running, with a dog under his arm, from a large woman who was trying to give him a fine for walking his dog on the beach. This is pretty much the start of the area where people can swim in the sea, as long as they don’t mind the sharks. We only went to 1770 as Bryn suggested it. It is a lovely spot to while away a few days but as we are a smidge time limited we decided to move on.

On the way to Hervey bay we stopped at the Bundaberg distillery so that we could do the tour and terry could get his picture taken with the giant plastic bottle.

It was interesting hearing how the different rums are made and how the barrels are still handmade by one local guy. Apparently they last a hundred years but they are not sure as they had a fire about 70years ago. It was also upsetting to hear that the taxman takes about 2/3 of the value of each barrel.

We all got two drinks in the cost of our ticket, which included drinks only available I the distillery. I was driving so I had one and terry had 3. We bought a liqueur that was only available in the distillery and was yummy.

I was speeding down the road and got caught and camera so I pulled myself over. I told the officer that I was doing about 95 and I had no reason to be speeding. He asked for my licence and then suddenly had a Dublin accent and tod me drive more carefully in future. I was delighted, (chuckling), and very thankful and have stayed in the limit since.

Airlie Beach

We booked into a hostel in Airlie Beach and tried to book a day trip around the Whitsundays. To be fair the weather was poor and there was a cyclone warning so all of the sailings were cancelled but there was a possibility they would be sailing two days later. We decided to wait a few days and see. We did not realise at the time that there is nothing to do in Airlie beach.

The weather was a bad, there is no cinema, or other distractions. We did our laundry, checked our emails, watched a few movies, had a few drinks, chatted to other backpackers and advised someone how to bake a cake. She was only backing it as a distraction from the nothing to do. Terry was very excited by a rum bar that was in the town. They had loads of rums. It was very exciting.

A couple of days later the sailing were still cancelled so we decided to move on down the coast again. We were not really sure where we were going.
We decided to keep going til we got to 1770, which I was quite nervous about as lots of receptions close at about 7m and it was all ready half past when we made this decision, after driving for about 7 hours.
We got to 1770 and passed a hostel. I went in and the receptionist should have left at 9 but luckily was late leaving. This meant that we did not have to sleeping the car, which I was somewhat delighted about. We stopped at a few towns along the way, which I cannot remember the name of right now but I do remember that we stopped at hungry jacks for dinner. Hungry jacks is burger king which has strange Eddie rockets styling. We did not know this til we went in.

Townsville

We hit road heading for Townsville. We Mission beach on the way and while enjoyig a stroll with the little crabs on the beach a bunch of skydivers made for our heads.

We had no reason to go there other than to do a dive on a wreck called the Yongala, which is apparently one of the best dive sites in the world. We spent most of Sunday waiting for the dive shop to be actually open and hanging around the lagoon. We had lunch in the surf club. It was mad being in a real life surf club. It is also mad how thrilled I am when we do something associated with an Aussie soap that I have watched at some point or another!
We also went for a walk about Castle Hill which has great views but, surprisingly, no castle.

When the dive shop was eventually open they said their dives were cancelled due to the weather and that they might be heading out Wednesday. Townsville seemed very nice but activities were a bit limited so we decided to move on down the coast, about 3 hours down the coast.
So, back onto the Bruce Highway, heading for Airlie beach and a sail on the Whitsunday Islands.

In Australia there area lot of sighs telling you to slow down as kangaroos, koala bears or emus are in the area. I get very excited every time we see one but so far no sign of any such animals. It is very disappointing. I am starting to think that we will have to go to Australia Zoo but then they are not so wild unless they are animals that might eat one of us.
Anyway, so off we went down the road passing some gorgeous scenery and no visible wild animals. It is actually fair frustrating driving in Australia as the max seed limit is 110, most of the time it is 80 but there are a lot of speed changes and it is easy to is one and you do not realise it until a truck is overtaking you, which is embarrassing, which I am sure you can imagine.


p.s. Happy Birthday sis.

Cairns

We drove from Cape Tribulation down to Cairns and decided to stay in a lace called the northern greenhouse, which we just happened to drive past. We booked to do a trip to the Atherton Table lands with Uncle Brian, on a fun, falls and forest trip. It had been recommended to us by Lorna who we had met on the Rum Runner and had had a night out with.

We had a wander around Cairns and bought some eskies and food and stuff.
The next day we hung around the man made lagoon. There are quite a few of these in Northern Queensland as there are so many stingers in the sea. I was well impressed with this lovely and free facility.
We had been chatting with our dorm mates the night before and we all decided that it was imperative to go and have a few drinks. God damn happy hour. We got back before midnight but this was still pretty late given we were doing a trip the next day.
Our guide, Shereen, was lovely but very very cheery at 8am on a slight hang over morning. I was contemplating doing something very rude and probably illegal with her microphone. This feeling past as the trip went on. We had a guided walk through the rainforest. This was followed by a snack break. We had lamingtons which was most exciting. Especially if you remember Esmie from a country practice. They were pretty good. We had a look at the Babinda boulders. Then we wandered onto Josephine Falls which were too flooded for us to swim in so we went to another falls which I forget the name of.

We then drove onto Innisfail and had a big lunch. Onto swim at Millaa Millaa falls which you have all seen if you have seen Peter Andreas Mysterious girl or a timotei add. Oh yes, we were there and it was most impressive. Especially when Terry tried to copy the timotei add and I could not quite capture it on film.

Then we went platypus watching which was successful. Woohoo, our first sighting of an Aussie animal. It was pretty extreme. Lastly we went to a volcanic lake called Malanda which was lovely and warm after the waterfalls. While everyone was swimming I went to change into warm clothes. When I came back, (all of five minutes later), there were almost no muffins or hot chocolate left and everyone was gone. Yes it is official terry abandoned me to go look at small turtles. I think that says it all. We then headed back to Cairns down the most windey road in Australia. More than 200 bends. No one got sick.

That night we all went out to for a few drinks. Terry and I left pretty early and got some pizza on the way home as we realised that we had not had dinner.
The next day we jumped out of bed, as you can imagine, and headed to Townsville.

Cape Tribulation

We flew to Cairns and on the way we decided that we would rent a car and head straight up the road to Cape Tribulation. We got a lovely Mitsubishi Lancer which was automatic even though we did not ask for it but it turned to be handy when driving on some of the unfamiliar and windey roads with frequent speed changes.

The drive to Cape Trib was stunning, with the coast line and the rainforest looking for our attention.
We stopped in Daintree and asked about accommodation. We booked into PK’s, which is apparently the backpacker central. We were basically staying in a portacabin. There is a lot to do in Cape Trib, night walks in the rainforest, diving, canopy climbs, kayaking. We decided just to do a couple of dives.

There was only one company operating out of Cape Trib, the rum runner, so we booked on with them. We were a bit dubious as the trip is organized as a snorkeling trip with diving as an added option. This meant we did not really get to check out the gear or the instructor or any of that. Also it felt very expensive after Asia, very.
On our first evening we went to a lovely restaurant called Whet. The owner asked me what had happened to my nose. After I explained I asked her about her pregnancy and due date and she said she thought she was ion labour. Cool as the breeze she was, served us all night and was still there after we left. They had a kind of cinema there, which was as expensive as the real cinema. We saw the very exciting, and yet surprisingly crap, Journey to the centre of the earth. Terry even fell asleep in the middle but that could have been the recliner.
The next day we hopped on the Rum Runner and off we went to dive the Great Barrier Reef. How exciting. They had no stinger suits left to fit me and the wet suits were all 5 millimetres so I dived in my bikini which was apparently pretty cool of me. I know I was pretty cool when we swam through a thermacline. The trip was pretty good, very relaxing. We organised our dives with our dive guide, Sam.

The dives were good and we were with a nice group. There was one really irritating guy who kept picking stuff up. Mainly sea cucumbers, but still they are living creatures too. He was really bugging me so of course my buoyancy went mad. Terry had to hold me down a few times. Terry’s mask kept fogging up so had to keep taking it off and clearing it so I had to anchor him so he did not float away or bang into some reef. This sounds bad, but the reef was not all that to be honest, which I was surprised at. We did go to the reef where Steve Irwin died. We saw no stingers though.
After a big feed we headed back to shore with a complimentary glass of wine in hand. A nice end to the trip I thought.
That evening we had dinner at the camp ground and ended up drinking with some of the lovely people we dived with and three of the crew from the rum runner. It was a good night with some sneaking off with drinks to do a spot of night swimming. I do not know how the crew got up the next day to go to work, that is all I am saying.

The next day Terry and I went on a couple of walks through the rainforest and tried to spot a couple of Cassowarys, but to no avail. Then we hoped in the car and headed back to Cairns.

Darwin - Welcome to Oz

We were lucky enough to be time travelers for a few hours. We left Bali in 2008 and we arrived in Darwin in 2009. If we had hopped straight back onto a plane to Bali we would have been back to 2008. I definitely think that is time travel. Because of the airline that Qantas had contracted our flight to we were unable to buy any duty free, which was fair annoying. Then we had a bit of an anti climactic new years eve in the air, not glass of champagne to be had on the whole plane.

We checked into our hostel and hit the streets of Darwin at 2am. We were sober as judges and everyone else was hammered beyond belief. I had about 3 drinks spilled on me in my first few minutes in the pub. We went to an Irish bar as we liked the sound of the band and stayed there for a few hours. We headed to sleep about 4am after watching two guys get manhandled out of the pub and then the police arrived and pepper sprayed the bouncers. Interesting.

The next day being a public holiday most places were closed but we decided to go on a walking tour outlined in the lonely planet. We wandered along smith street mall, where everything was closed but there were interesting information plaques along the street. We went to survivors look out and then went and peeked in the door of the WWII oil storage tunnels,(it too was closed). We strolled past the government house, the Supreme Court and Lyons Cottages. We then walked down the Esplanade. Terry was very disappointed that the deck chair cinema is closed during the wet season. We had a rest in the bicentennial park and then had a look at St Mary’s Cathedral and the aboriginal Madonna and the wounded Mary.

As we had run out of things to do and it was still only mid afternoon we decided to go to the other cinema, ie indoor. We booked tickets for Frost/Nixon and then to see Australia. It was cool seeing Australia while we were in Darwin and Terry was pleased to see the deck chair cinema in the movie, if nothing else.

The next day was a bit of a housekeeping day. We sorted out our flights with Qantas, picked up a parcel in the post office, booked a trip to Litchfield etc. we are booked to be home on the 25th of February and terry is very excited to be flying on the new A380. It does mean we missed out on a stop over in LA but apparently flying on the A380 is better than LA. I am not so sure. We then headed to a pub to have glass of wine and plan our trip down the east coast. A glass became a bottle, a bottle became two and then terry insisted on another drink. So we got another bottle of wine and were out until midnight after about 6 hours of drinking and chatting to some lovely African lads, I think mainly about dreadlocks.

The next morning I got up to get ready to head to Litchfield. it seems I was still drunk and after a series of unfortunate events I ended up whacking my poor nose off the ground and in the process got two big scabs. Needless to say i was well embarrassed and Terry went to Litchfield on his owneo.


Apparently it was great. Terry saw jumping crocodiles including a 6 meter monster of a fella. He saw magnetic and cathedral termite mounds. He ate a green ant, saw a river with lovely waterfalls and went swimming in a billabong. I am not a bit jealous and I only mostly blame him for my not being able to go. It is all his fault, that’s all I am saying and I did not want to swim in a billabong or eat an ant anyway. We went to the cinema that night so that my entire day would not be a waste and saw the Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

We got the bus to the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territories. Tis very good, if somewhat of a miss-mash and funnily laid out. There is a nice section dedicated to the local Larrakia people, a section about local flora and fauna which includes some freaky looking critters and a fair large crocodile called sweetheart, and a section about Cyclone Tracy.

Overall, despite incurring serious facial injury Darwin was a great place. all lovely and compact, with loads to do and was well easy to get around. Who knew Darwin only had 70,000 people. I reckon a good chunk of them are backpackers, including the lovely Roisin from Skib who we met in our Hostel.