Mission Beach

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The ride to Mission Beach was actually pretty short compared to what we’d been getting used to. A 4 hour greyhound ride isn’t much, especially when movies are playing in the background. Lol When we arrived in Mission Beach, we grabbed the YHA shuttle and headed out to the hostel. This one wasn’t of the norm because it was about 20 minutes out of town, very unusual compared to their typically great locations. But it did allow for a nice, quiet and isolated setting. It felt like a bit log cabin, minus the logs and wintery feel. Lol

The next morning we wanted to take a little nature walk. So we left in the morning and headed down the road. And even further down the road. Eventually we found a convenience store and stopped for a much needed ice cream. I was sure Hillary didn’t want anything, but she seemed to enjoy it anyways. ~_^ lol We then continued our walk and found ourselves at the beach. It seemed however that a crocodile had been spotted in the area, much to Hillary’s not-so delight. We still carried on for a bit until we finally made it to the nature walk. Lol! Well, as you may have guessed, we saw the sign for the 4 km trek and turned right around. We had no plans on making our morning walk a full day walk. Lol

Back at the hostel, we lounged by the pool and listened to some podcasts. What’s a podcast you ask? Well, it’s like a pre-recorded episode of a radio talk show. You can download it from the internet, and put it on your portable music player. So instead of listening to a 3 minute song, you can listen to an hour of people talking about whatever subject it is you downloaded. Haha I’m sure it doesn’t sound very exciting, but it’s a great way to relax and keep current with whatever it is you’re interested in. For Hillary and I, we listen to stuff about tv, movies, dvds and video games (the last one is mostly for myself, lol). After dinner, a bunch of the guys (and one girl) wanted to play some poker. It lasted a couple of hours, and before we knew it was midnight, and we were being asked to keep it down. Lol Time flies when you’re having fun!

Monday was another catch up day. We got up late, rested by the pool, picked up some groceries and worked on some blogs. There wasn’t any internet available at this hostel, so we did what we could. A sight becoming more common though is for people to have those portable USB modems. Imagine, internet wherever and whenever you want it! What a time we live in. Why in my day, we had dial-up internet through a phone line (which always made that weird sound when connecting)! In fact, when I was a kid, I remember trying to download pictures of space shuttles with my mother and having to leave the room to do something else while waiting for it to load! By the way, I also had to walk in three feet of snow to school, in minus 20 degree weather, uphill both ways. ~_^ Just kidding. Lol

Tuesday morning we packed up our stuff, and got ready for the bus. But our bus wasn’t for another three hours! So we did what we do best, relaxed. Lol Eventually 2pm came around, and we left Mission Beach for our final destination on our east coast leg of this trip, Cairns! (or as they pronounce it in Australia, Cannes, haha)

Kevin (and Hillary)

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