Blogs from Mission Beach, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 15

I can't beleive that our time is almost over here in the big Ä"- I am almost 2 weeks behind in my emails as we have been so busy here - I am getting black and I have been using #30 sunscreen every day so I might get lost in the dark back home!! where was I when we last talked - Oh yeah - getting over the weekend in Cairns! Well......... Monday Apr 16 - off at 8 am - everyone still in good mood and we are going to Mission Beach for a 10 am parachute date - no I am not doing this!! whether I fall from 10,000 ft or 14,000 ft - I will be just as dead when the chute fails - when we arrive - it is pouring and we ... read more

We drove to Cairns today on our last Greyhound journey. I thought the highlight was going to be the choice of movie(Dirty Dancing - finally something decent) but around the Mission Beach area the driver slowed down as he had spotted a Cassowary walking along the side of the rode. For those that don't know this bird, it is flightless and looks similar to an emu but has a red face, blue neck and a strange flat horn on its head. They are pretty rare so we were lucky to get such a good view. We'd barely had time to get back into the movie when the driver spotted a second Cassowary, this time crossing the rode right in front of us. Unforutunately I couldn't get a photo but we all got a good look. Another ... read more

so we made it here after our near death experience with the tsunami........well not quite but ads to the excitment. mission beach is not atal how i imgined it. i thought it would be mroe of a byron bay but it is even quieter than that! therer are about 3 shops and a couple hostels and thats about it........oh yeah and a beach! because of the bad weaher out at sea though its not looking that pretty as loads of sticks and weed have been thrown onto the beach, but we have to busy for the beach anyway! yesterday we had such a wicked day. we went extreme white water rafting and had so much fun! although fearing for my life at times it was still awsome! we were in rafts of 6 and had ... read more

After another 9 hours on the bus yesterday, i am slowly but surely making my way up to North Queensland and the first stop along the way to Cairns is Mission Beach. Mission Beach is known for its Cassowary Birds (they look a bit like an Emu, get to be about 4 feet tall, cannot fly, are super fast, and are native to the rainforest around Mission Beach). The landscape around Mission Beach and the surrounding area is dominated by banana orchards , sugar cane fields, the ocean on the right side, and the rainforest on the left as we are driving up the coast. Since the rainforest dominates the landscape, i thought it only to be fitting to spend the night in a "treehouse" in the jungle, and since the YHA has a hostel up ... read more

Leaving Cairns Once upon shore we did what all respectable backpackers would do in Cairns and had yet another dinner at the Woolshed. Those familiar with Cairns need no further comment, those who have not experienced the free/cheap-ness of hostel dinners at the Woolshed can only begin to imagine. Though if you think of school dinners that are actually edible, served with beer/cider, you'll come close! Our Open Water group then met up with the rest of the Pro Dive crew at the pub to have a drink. There was some more drinking to be had further down the road, and Dave can't remember much after that and Saz has deemed it best not to remind him... But a good time was had by all it seems! Which, unfortunately, can not be said for the next ... read more