First taste of Australia

---

The last time we wrote we were still in Lombok, Indonesia the story since then is this........

We left Lombok by ferry that took around 4 hours to Bali which is what we expected then once we could see Bali from the rocking boat we were told by a local that the boat had stopped as the ferry terminal was full and sometimes it takes 7 hours to get off!!! We waited 2hours sat on our backpacks eating there version of pot noodles. We were picked up in the port and taken to Ubud; Ubud is very green and very ‘arty’. The usual greetings from different hotel representatives trying to get you into there hotel. We went with a guy that had home stay bungalows that were out of the main town. The main street in Ubud was full of big expensive hotels and to be honest there was nothing really to look at. The home stay bungalows were lovely, set in the grounds of somebody’s house over looking a luscious garden area! After our long journey we took an early night and decided that we would probably go climb the mount Batur, as we could not climb Rinjani. We were awoken to a tasty breakfast brought to our balcony.....this was a treat for us! Ha ha ha. The guy that had brought us to the home stay tried to organise our stay in Ubud as they do. I went to check the time of our flight to Cairns. Upon checking the tickets we realised that our flight was actually that night and at 00.10, we thought it was the night after!!!! So that put our plans in a bit of bother. The guy said that he could take us out for a few w hours to see the volcano then swim in the hot springs around the area, then we could return have a rest and fly.....that was the plan.......obviously that did not happen! We got into his car and drove for around an hour and a half until we came to the top road by the volcano, it some how looked higher than Rinjani even though it was a third of the height. We carried on driving to the lake which didn’t look real it was so still. We arrived at the hot springs....I was really looking forward to this as I have always wanted to See them. I thought that it would be all natural surroundings and you could sit in them, how wrong I was! For a change they had seen a way to make money out of the whole thing so had built a swimming pool which was filled with normal water then a kind of hot tub that had the hot spring water inside!!! And you had to pay some outrageous amount to use it. We were not happy bunnies so told our guy that we thought he said that you could swim in the hot springs nothing about paying........as we were already paying a fir bit for the transport to it this really annoyed us! He told us that we could go to the local spring but were not allowed inside it so we said OK, we had to see something. The local spring was around 3 degrees and there were a few people bathing inside. We were soon a target for sellers with about 5-6 of them around each of us! Get us out of here!!!!!! We just asked him to take us back as we were so disappointed. He did that and we were back at our room within an hour or so. Then it was off to the airport................

We landed in Darwin first of all at some early hour of the morning, it was still dark! We then got our flight to Cairns. We thought that we could hire a van for a few days until we found one to buy so went to desk in the airport who told us of a cheaper hire place near by so we jumped in a taxi and found ourselves at ‘older car rentals’ hmmmmm there is a clue in the name don’t you think.....us being tired agreed on hiring what I can only describe as a transit van with windows, that must have been used by a workman. We headed into the town of Cairns and soon realised how expensive Australia is! After being in Asia for nearly 4 months the costs of things seem so high even food is more than at home! We bought a few bits to eat a cool box and sleeping bags to sleep in our van with. There is a wall in the middle of the town that people put adverts for vans and cars that they are selling so we got a few numbers off it and gave them a call to organise going to see them. We assumed being us that it would be quite easy to buy a car here then sell it well guess what we were wrong again! It is quite complicated to register vehicles as each state requires something different and you have to pay to change it into your name, or you are not insured. As well as that they do not have yearly MOT’s like at home either so you can just run your car into the ground and only when you sell it do you need to do work on it so you could be buying a real bad car! After a drive around we tried to find a campsite to park at for the night but they were all full as it was the weekend so we headed back to Cairns, along the way I had a small hiccup..........On this transit van the lights had 3 different settings, so I had them on the 2nd thinking that the 3rd was full beam, all of a sudden out of no where we could see flashing lights and hear a very loud siren-shit! I was doing nothing wrong so I thought so pulled over and was informed by the not so nice officer that my lights were not on and do I have a medical excuse why they weren’t?????? Hmmmmm I explained what we had thought and he asked the usual if I had a licence and had I been drinking, yes I have a licence and no I had not been drinking he breathalysed me anyway! A nice fine then an order to produce my licence was given then we were back on our way!!!! We ended up staying in a motel the first night then the second we found a campsite that was decent so stayed there for a couple of nights and decided our next plan........

As this blog is getting rather long and I am telling you all about different places I am going to write a new one about the past week or so we have had so bye for now! Xxxxxxx

P.S Hello to Michelle that has mailed us, we have tried replying to your message and it will not work for some reason!

---