Happy Mondays, Whitsundays!

Well hello family and friends! I've spent the last two days having the experience of a life time!

I'm in Airlie Beach on the East coast of Australia about an 18hr drive south from Cairns. The town centre is a street made up of little more than pubs, clubs and travel agencies, which is a little samey, but quite fun nevertheless! The town is really just a gateway to the archipelago called the Whitsundays, which is a large group of 74 islands, mostly National Park and therefore protected land.

The Whitsundays islands were named by Cook (again), and he simply named them after the day he sailed through them! However, due to the time zone difference, it was actually a Monday!

It's one of few places where normal, smelly, scummy backpackers can spend a few days on million pound maxi racing yachts, all at backpacker prices too! So it was definitely not to be missed. I was on the Boomerang!There were about 20 or so of us, and it was a real laugh. The food was great and we visited many famous sites. We set off from Airlie Beach, and the 30m high mast was overwhelmingly impressive! At one point, we were sailing and the boat was about 45degrees to the water, one side of the boat was almost submerged! I was sure we were going to capsize, but the crew said that as long as they're smiling, all is ok!

Here's the bed I was sleeping in, suitably trashed!
We visited Tongue Bay on Whitesunday Island, and the famous Whitehaven beach, which is apparently the third most photographed place in Australia. I found this a little hard to believe, but it was certainly a beatuful postcard-worthy photo!

We sailed around a few Islands, including Border Island, Hayman Island and Hock Island, and also stopped off for some brilliant coral snorkling.
So I'm here in Airlie for a few days now, until I head off to Kroombit, which is a cattle station inland! I hear many interesting things go on there...

nb. pictures can all be enlarged by clicking on them.

Geekazoid!

On my way back from the Internet Cafe last night after blogging, I took a photo of the view from my hostel, it was pretty impressive at sunset!
I slept well after the garlicky bolog, and awoke ready to pack up to go back to Townsville, where I was expecting to be collected by the bus to go down the coast to Airlie Beach. However, I soon realised I'd got the wrong day, and in fact the 25th was tomorrow. I thought I'd head back to Townsville on the ferry anyway because, as I said yesterday, I was confident I had "done" Magnetic Island, or "Maggie" as it's known.

So I returned to Townsville, and went searching for Accommodation. I found a really nice little place called Globetrotters, which sounds quite modern and coorporate, however it was actually pretty rustic and down to earth, which I liked. In addition, I was in a dorm of four beds, not bunk beds! It'll be a relief sleeping without someone on the bed above waking you up every time they fart/wriggle.

So, I arrived in my hostel and swiftly departed on the traditional walk around the town. This time, after failing to find anywhere to hire a bicycle, I had further to walk than I thought. I wanted to walk along the Strand and then down to Queens Gardens and then return to Molly Malone's for my free dinner at 5.30.

On my way to the sea front, I stopped off at a local bookshop and bought two small extended-leaflet type booklets, one on Australia's wildlife and the other on birds specifically. These were simply to know what it was I was photographing, and be able to say what that animal/bird actually is, rather than just saying how amazing it is!

The Strand is a fantastic promenade along the beach which runs for 2.5km. It was a spectacularly beautiful day, and the whole walk along the beach front was done very tastefully. As I set off, I saw this White Bellied Sea Eagle (This is what it is, as far as I can tell from my small extended-leaflet type booklet). The views back across to Magnetic Island were impressive as the sun shone down, it was getting on over 30degrees heat today!
So I wandered all the way along, resisting the lure of the Ice Cream store and arrived, excitedly, at the end of the road, called "Kissing Point", which was an utter disappointment. The actual interesting lookout from the point, was owned by the MOD, or the Australian equivalent, so you couldn't get there! I sidled along the fencing for about 2km and there were some good views out over what I belived to Rowes Bay.It was now a small mission across Townvillian Suburbia to Queens Gardens, which don't deserve to be called gardens, and certainly do not justify relation to Her Majesty. I think Peasant's Park would be more appropriate. For fear of becoming synical, this place wasn't that bad, but it was just an extended front garden type arrangement, not what I'd refer to as a public garden. This flower was quite cool though, but I have no idea what it was. *Note to self, purchase small extended-leaflet type booklet about flowers of Australia. I left pretty hastily and had my feed.

Cool, well, I'm having fun, I'm happy and under three weeks now until I'm home! Although, I have a lot to do before then!

This is me being a geek, and taking a photo of myself in a curved road mirror thing.


nb. Sorry about the small, and seemingly shrinking photos, blogger.com is behaving strangely!

Kowala Kowazy!

Charlie, you pose an interesting question about the origins of the name "Magnetic Island". It was named by the famous explorer Captain James Cook (you know, the guy who the house in Meridian was named after ? I was in Glenn!). As Cook's ship, the Endeavor, sailed past the island, the navigation compass Cook was inspecting seemed to point in different directions, leading him to the conclusion that the Island was magnetic. However, many studies after this show that there are no signs of the island being magnetic, and people generally believe the bloke was pissed blind.

Also, in my last post, I forgot to mention that with my $6 upgrade meal of Chicken Schnitzel, salad chips and gravy, I sank my first pint of Guinness. Obviously, this was about as far as Ireland you can get, so the boys assured me there were better pints to be had in the UK. Here are James and Josh inspecting my Lonely Planet.
After getting a few supplies and one of the popular green (in both senses of the word) Coles bags, we headed off to Magnetic Island. Coles is a supermarket here supplying $1 sturdy, green, reusable cloth bags. We arrived at the ferry terminal as our ferry was pulling away, which in the heat of the day, and with getting on 20kg on my back, I was frankly disappointed by. However, being Brits, we made the most of the situation and had an early picnic lunch, made some sandwiches for our walk and I taught James how to play cribbage.

We arrived at the ferry terminal and trotted toward our path from Nelly Bay, to Arcadia. It was a delightful, but tough walk around to Arcadia, with breathtaking views over Horseshoe Bay (below).
We arrived in Arcadia, had a quick look round then headed toward our destination for the day which was a WWII fort. J+J were both keen on this, being history students! This walk was AWESOME! I heard the familiar noise which can only be described as a whoopy snorty cough coming from a local koala. I strayed, excitedly, from the path in search of this fluffy-grey-bottomed beast. To my delight, I found him/her/it. I heard this Koala, I found this Koala, as far as I was concerned, I owned this Koala, it was mine. I named it Kenny, after rejecting Carlos and Karl. Picture below.
I walked hurriedly down the track in the chase of my fellow walking companions, and partly to my irritation, heard the noise again! I knew what I had to do. This koala, too, was mine, his name was dopey.
The view from the fort was fantastic at sunset, picture below w/ fill-in flash. Notice sweaty rucksack-strap marks on shoulders. Ewwwww.
We hopped on the bus, and after saying, what seemed like remarkably final goodbyes to my twin companions even though I was to see them a few days later in Airlie Beach, I went back to the hostel and joined the rest of the hostel in cooking spaghetti and pasta sauce.

After a great night's kip, my only plans for the day, after waking up to a terrible cheesy smell, was to get some washing done. After doing this, I was proud of myself, although it set me back a whopping $6 in all!

Yesterday, I had noticed scooters for hire, like little mo ped type vehicles (no idea how that is spelt, but moped looked wrong). I was toying over whether or not to hire one, with no previous experience. But, strangely, all it required was a driving license, so I thought, what the heck? and hopped on. After a 2 minute run down of the controls, I headed off with the ambition of exploring every single road on the island. Thus, after walking the best tracks on the island, and driving on every road, I could properly say I had "done" Magnetic Island.
Mildly amusing tangential sub-story. During my trip round the island, I was keen to spend a penny at the local "Exceloo", which is a 22nd century public toilet. Anyway, after the door opening automatically, and a slightly disconcerting fake locking sound emitting from the speaker, a voice told me I had 10 minutes. In my case this was fine, but I read a sign beside me that not only do they have 10 minutes, the door will open in 10 minutes! Outside, was a popular paved path down to the beach, so I feel sorry for any poor person present, either inside or outside the "Exceloo", who witnesses the 10-minute automated door opening where an occupant is present!

I stopped off at the grocery store for some onions and garlic salt, and came back to the hostel feeling lightly adrenaline pumped after travelling a whopping 60km/h, and doing something a little riskay. This is me, on the bike!

It's easy for me, to make it hard for you

Just to let people know, I was delighted to hear that I got 4As at A-Level! Also, I got 5As and a B at AS level. I'm now really looking forward to University and UCL.

So the morning after Dunk Island, I was off to Townsville on the OzExperience bus! The next day, after a morning of breakfast and Bryson I was picked up by the bus. The journey was quite uneventful, except for the purchase of a GIGANTIC focaccia ( this word processing utility didn't think that focaccia was correctly spelt, and instead offered me the following alternatives: dogcatcher, cowcatcher, fogyish, flycatcher and quackish! I found this quite funny :-) ). Anyway, this focaccia was about the size of a boulder, so pretty large! I ate half of it, and was full up . This was two days ago, I just finished it off for lunch.

I shared my focaccia with two twin brothers, James and Josh, from London, who were in their second year of a history degree in Surrey. On our bus, it was coincidentally only the three of us who were actually spending any time in Townsville, the rest were skipping it and going straight to Magnetic Island. This is a large island just off the coast from Townsville. In hindsight this was a good decision to stay.

On the bus, I asked the driver to book my accommodation for that night and unfortunately the hostel I wanted to stay at was fully booked. However, I was able to share a 4 bed room with James and Josh, for a measly $25 with included breakfast and dinner! That made my week, that really did.

The room was clean, tidy and had free disgusting tea. It was definitely no Yorkshire Tea.

The next day I was desperate to climb the local Castle Hill, which is a 286m tall granite monolith which towers over the city. It was a surprisingly easy, quick climb, and we soon found ourselves on this gorgeous day with spectacular views over the entire city. The island in the background is Magnetic Island, where I plan to spend the next two days, and hopefully see some wild koalas up in the Eucalyptus trees!
After this, we grabbed a Subway for lunch (we were cheap, and shared two footlongs and a free refill coke between three of us) and then went to ReefHQ, which is a fantastic Coral Aquarium. It was well worth the visit and I saw many types of coral and marine life, and was also there in time to catch the feeding frenzy.
The TV, Newspapers and media here generally is appallingly bad. I want the Guardian again!

In addition, Dad, I saw this Wicked Camper, I think it is the one you drove! It had written on the back "It's easy for me to make it hard for you", or something along those lines, and it also had the same flames as you, although they looked duller than they were in the pictures you showed me from your trip.

Shalalalalalalalalalaaa

Hi Everyone!

I'm still here in Mission Beach, I'm leaving tomorrow. I'll be sad to leave, it's a really great hostel, with nice people and very friendly, helpful staff.

Henny way, yesterday I washed. I know, it's impressive. Only kidding, I manage to look at water every week or so, and actually get in once a month or so. Only kidding, I have washed quite a lot, NOT! Only kidding, I wash normally, just like other people, as in NEVER! HAHA! Only kidding, I didn't wash yesterday, I washed yesterday instead.

Actually, yesterday I went on a walk down the beach, which was boring because as I walked down the beach, to my left was a large mass of water usually referred to as the sea, sometimes the pacific ocean. To my right was some trees, and the odd building, and then in front of me was constantly sand. So, as you can gather, the view becomes a little monotonous and to illustrate how boring it was, I started running for entertainment. I also met a couple of mates along the way, and, relatively speaking, relative to the view that is, their conversation was interesting. They were birds, of the flying kind.

However, today, I awoke after not enough sleep and decided to get the "Water Taxi" across to a nearby island of similar insignificance to say, Tasmania ? The island is amusingly named "Dunk Island" which sounds like some kind of afternoon tea biscuit. The above boat is not the water taxi by the way, the picture above I selected by accident instead of the birds.

On Dunk Island, it rained consistently all day, however, being a rainforest, the concept of rain seemed more acceptable to me. I set off on a good 10 km circuit walk around the island which was very nice indeed. Mount Kataloo (which to mee sounded like a Scotsman saying he's going to the toilet) was a much appreciated climb 271m high, with a fantastic view at the top, a view of the drizzly, barely visible kind.So after my 10km walk, I went to get on the water taxi, along with some strange people I won't go into. OK, that sounded wrong, I mean I won't go into why they were strange....but in essence both statements are valid. For reasons unbeknown to me, the boat did not use the nearby jetty, and instead lots of historical tourists were forced to remove their footwear and become submerged knee-deep in water before boarding the boat. Seemed a very primitive way of getting onto a boat, and the conversation on the way back revolved around getting dry, is there a dryer at the other end, this 'getting wet upon entry to a boat' business is quite an experience, wait 'til I tell the kids about this, bla bla bla. So I then walked back to the hostel in the soaking rain in shorts and t-shirt and was a little chilly, which I haven't been in quite a while!

For dinner I had air as a starter, cooked up some spaghetti, pasta sauce and bacon for mains and finished off with a nice lung full of fresh air for pudding.

Congratulations! Your place at University College London (University of London) (U80) to study Medicine (6 years) (A100) has been confirmed.

Firstly, I GOT MY PLACE AT MEDICAL SCHOOL!!! I opened up the UCAS track service to see:

Congratulations! Your place at University College London (University of London) (U80) to study Medicine (6 years) (A100) has been confirmed.

I could barely contain myself in this Internet cafe! I had to unleash Tim Henman fist clench, after all this moment would affect my career and the rest of my life!

Anyway, after my day scuba diving on the reef, I had booked myself on a two day one night tour around Cape Tribulation. Cape Trib is north of Cairns and is a region of rainforest, which stretches down onto the beach and it's all belly beautiful. On the way up to cape trib, the guide pointed out this sign, which was originally a warning for a speed hump ahead, and then a warning of the locality of Emus. Chortle, chortle, chortle...

We arrived at the Daintree River after about an hour or so, and I grabbed a fantastic B+E sandwich! I went on a wildlife "cruise" around the Daintree river, but I've always associated cruises with spending days on a hugely over sized kids toy boat. This was just a boat trip. And that's pretty much all it was, just a boat trip. I saw crocodiles, but not as good as when I saw them in Lichfield. But I did see this Tree Snake, and fortunately no Trouser Snakes.After this, we drove up to Jindalba Rainforest Boardwalk, or Boredwalk, chortle, chortle, chortle...

Actually it was quite interesting, and I ate some more green ant's bottoms.

After this we drove up to the hostel, I dumped my bag and went for a walk down to Myall Beach. It was a short walk through the rain forest and then it came out onto a white sanded beach. It was Britishly overcast and drizzling, so wasn't quite as stunning as it could have been. But, with views up to Cape Tribulation, it was very fulfilling. After wandering around here for a good coupler hours, I headed back to the hostel and opened my book. I also met a great Irish group, who I went to dinner with down at a local pub that night.The next day, the first stop was Alexandra Range Lookout, which was just a quick photo snap and back in the bus and on the way back to the Daintree River. This time we were crossing it, and the bus drove onto the ferry which took us across. We were headed to Mossman Gorge, where I went for a swim and saw a little turtle up on the rock where I was swimming. He was friendly and joined me for a swim. Either that, or he was scared and fled. I also saw this lizard, the name of which escapes me.
And then, as the leaflet said, I had "Time to walk through Port Douglas and soak up the atmosphere". Yeah, right. We had half an hour to walk around this more than averagely bemusing town. I bought an ice cream to make the experience more satisfactory. This made me feel sick. I was not impressed by this final part of the tour. From this, I learnt not to go on cheap, crappy tours that rush you around a stunning region in too shorter time.

Anyway, the next day was the beginning of my East Coast trip, so I go the ozexperience bus down to Mission Beach. On the way we stopped at a crocodile farm, where they farm thousands of crocodiles for their skin and meat. I witnessed feeding time, where Mick, the owner, sat on the back of a 6 metre crocodile and gave it some chicken. Worryingly though, he was scarred, and could barely walk from his previous crocodile-related injuries. He was the first of two nutcases I met that day. I also held a little freshwater crocodile, which, without it's mouth taped closed, would definitely and skinned me alive.
Note the pleb in the backgroud knowing that she's in the photo, and so looking at the camera and giving an awkward smile. I think she must be French.

I went for a 6 mile Rainforest walk near my hostel with 3 Germans and a Welsh woman. I spotted a Casawarry and inspected it heartedly with my binoculars. I also provided a german with an antiseptic wipe from my medikit after she walked into a thorn bush with bare shoulders. It, sorry, She didn't need this antiseptic wipe, but it made me think it was worthwhile bringing that bloody medikit to Australia in the first place, let alone on that walk! nb. The bite and sting relief has been very useful, Mother. nbb. Note the bare shoulders walking infront of me, dear dear.

That night I was staying at a hostel called "Scotty's" which was famous for it's Kangaroo. So I just had to spend the 8quid on some delicious kangaroo steaks, with chips, salad and a droolingly complimentary sweet plum sauce. After this, I realised with a bit of wink wink nudge nudge, the pool tables were free! So I then spent the rest of the evening drinking and playing pool. Heaven.

Oh, and the nutcase was a drunk woman about my mother's age, who thought she was fantastic at pool, and would bend the rules embarrasingly to ensure her victory. Which she did, of course. In the end, I conceded by pushing the black into the pockets, which she then had a smeg saying I'm not allowed to touch the balls on the table, and that I was moving them to my advantage. I then told her I had conceded, and she looked smug and proud of herself and walked away. Now I wish her husband, who was a decent fellow hadn't had to leave and be replaced on the table by his estranged wife. A very interesting experience indeed.

Scuba Divarge

Just after the last post I posted (Hm) I had to leave my hostel in Darwin so I ventured out with my Lonely Plant guide to Australia and Bill Bryson's Journeys of a Small Island (or whatever it's called, basically it's the one where he travels around the British Isles) into DARVIN (as all the Germans call it) I had a great walk. Darwin has basically been destroyed almost completely TWICE in it's lifetime. Firstly by Hurricane Tracy, and then again by the Japs in WW11.

Hi Everyone! I'm in Sunny Cairns and have had an awesome day! I arrived yesterday feeling pretty down in the dumps after the night flight and too much time on the plane to think about home, friends, family and my great country.

However, after a good sleep in a nice bed I felt good this morning! Yesterday I had booked my self onto a day trip out to the Great Barrier reef today. I had a great time, I went Scuba diving twice and saw a reef shark! No turtles though unfortunately, but I'll go diving again I hope.

Darvin

Hi Everyone, I'm now up in Darwin in my Hostel. It's 30degrees here!

So, since my last update I've been on a 9 day trip from Alice Springs to Darwin. I did it with Adventure Tours, who are a tour guide company who take small groups on these sorts of trips. I did a 3 day tour around Alice Springs, which is the red centre of Australia. The first day was a trip to "Kata Tjuta" which is the aboriginal name, or "The Olgas" as their known by others. Kata Tjuta means "many heads" names this because they a large group of domed rocks the aborigines thought looked like many heads. They are red from the iron oxide (rust) absorbed into the surface of the rocks. We did a 8km walk around the Valley of the Winds. It was a nice walk, not too strenuous but nice to stretch the legs after lots of sitting on the bus. Pictures below.

After the walk we headed to the sunset look out, and watched the sun set over Uluru (Ayres Rock), there's a pic of me there below. We had Champagne! And biscuits too, which was a nice, unexpected touch.

After this we drove back to camp, where that night I slept in a "swag". This is basically a bed rool, where you put your sleeping bag into it and sleep outside. So I slept under the stars that night! IT got a little cold around 4 in the morning, but we were getting up at 5. Lots of early mornings, I'm looking forward to sleeping in a bit longer in Cairns, but not too late there'll be lots to do and see!

So the next day we woke up early to watch the sunrise over Uluru. Unfortunately the walk up the rock was closed, which I was very disappointed about. However, the base walk, which went around the rock was good too. There were also aboriginal rock art sites, where painting which were thousands of years old still remained on the rocks around uluru.

That afternoon we drove to Kings Canyon, and after sitting round the camp fire that evening, we woke up the next day for our exploration of Kings Canyon. We did a good long walk around the canyon, and saw the impressive amphitheatre which is a circular rock formation which looks much like an amphitheatre. Kings Canyon pic below. We then drove back to Alice Springs, where I stayed for the night.

The next morning I departed on the three day tour to Darwin. We crossed the Tropic of Capricorn on our way to Banka Banka. We stopped off at the township of Tennent Creek, which is a small town along the Stuart Highway. The Stuart Highway is a long highway running from from Alice to Darwin. It is named after John McDowell Stuart who was the first man to explore from Adelaide to Darwin.

We also visited Devil's Marbles that afternoon, which are named becuase they look like huge marbles. Pic Below.We stayed that night at Banka Banka cattle station, where we saw a short presentation about the cattle ranching in the area. The famers there eat the cow's willies! Ewwwwww!!!

The next day we visited the famous pub at Daly Waters, which is famous because all over every wall are a collection of photos, IDs, underwear, hats, basically anything a guest wants to staple up on the wall they can. It's very impressive the amount of stuff they have up there! I didn't see anyone I knew on the walls though.

We then took a lovely swim at Mataranka natural springs, which are geothermically warmed, and so were lovely and hot, and very refreshing!

We then headed to camp at Katherine Gorge. The next day we went canoeing down Katherine Gorge, which was amazing! We had a good 3 hours which was awesome. After that we drove to Darwin, where my hostel was for the night. A free meal was included at a local bar that night, which was cool.

5am the next daywe drove to Lichfield park, where I saw crocodiles! Both Freshwater (freshies) and salt water (salties). Only the salties tend to eat people.

We camped that night much like we had for the nights before. I had slept in permanent tents, with 4 bunk beds in each. They stop the mosquitoes and flies, but that's about it. You're exposed to the outside air. However, I found that I was too hot most of the time, it's about 15-20degrees at night so pretty hot under the sleeping bag!

Yesterday we went swimming in Jim Jim falls, which was lvoely and cool. The falls were quite dry though, as it is the dry season up here. It's monsoon forest around here, and in the wet season, the water rises right up into the trees about 6-7 metres! So you can see leaf remains right up high in the canopy where the surface of the water is during the wet season!

So late this evening I fly to Cairns, via Brisbane which is a long flight. I arrive in Cairns tomorrow morning, so I'll be quite tired after the night flight. But after 4 days in Cairns my trip down the east coast begins. I'll be able to access Internet Cafes pretty easily down there, so more to come soon!

The Red Centre

Sorry, no pictures today I left my DVD of pictures back at the hostel. I'm afraid this will have to be brief as I'm struggling to remember what I've been doing! I had an early start this morning, that's my excuse :-P .

Last Sunday, Phil, Rosie, Laura and I drove to Winglass bay in Freycinet National Park, which is an amazing beach about an hours drive up the East Coast from Hobart. We went on a nice walk up to a viewpoint looking over the beach. It also looked out over "The Hazards" which are a series of granite mountains.

On Monday, half way through the days work we decided to drive up Mt. Wellington, which is the tallest mountain in Tasmania. It was a great day so the views were fantastic from the top, which was 1200m above sea level I think.

Phil and I were working down at their old house (getting it ready to put on the market) for Tuesday and half of Wednesday. Phil also helped me make a crib board (we've been playing quite a bit) out of Huon pine. It's a travel size board, and I made it the same size as a pack of cards, so the cards and board fit together well making it pretty convenient for packing!

Wednesday afternoon was spent packing up for my trip into the Red Centre! I flew up to Alice Springs this morning from Hobart, via Melbourne. I'm here now, and it's 29 degrees! So I put on some shorts and have just gone for a wander round the city. It's a very outback sort of place, with lots of aborigines milling about. My 9 day trip up to Darwin in the north, where it'll be even warmer, begins tomorrow. I can't wait, we're visiting Ayres Rock and all sorts of awesome places! I suspect my next update will be in Darwin, and I'll have lots of pics and lots and lots to write about!

Love to everyone!