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I think I'm in love with Australia...the people, the food, the lifestyle...everything except the prices;so expensive but this is a bearable grudge when seeing everything around you.

Cairns

We arrived in Cairns to a stereotypical scorching Australian day, and whilst very, very tired from our night flight from Hong Kong we weren't too tired to noticed the chilled out, resort feeling Cairns has; even if most of the people are tourists. We stayed at a place called Caravella 149 hostel just down from the lagoon and (when) I return to Cairns in the future I will have no hesitations about staying there, even if the owner Gloria has a bit of a pessimistic outlook to life, everything else about it was spot on.

By far the highlight of Cairns was without doubt the trip to the great barrier reef, with a group called Passions of Paradise, for the service we got it was very affordable, the weather was beautiful and the snorkelling equipment was the best I've ever seen. The crew were unbelievably helpful and friendly but without doubt the star of the show was the Reef itself, an amazing array of colours and many varieties of oceanlife. Tamara and I were lucky to see creatures such as reef sharks,an Irikanje (probably wrong spelling, but a deadly tiny jelly fish which swam in between us so I swam after it to get a picture-hardcore) and I even saw a Stingray :)

Other highlights in Cairns included a bar called the Woolshed where we got free meals and had quality music on all the time; chilling out in the man made lagoon basking in the sun and also meeting two girls from Southampton called Nikki and Tarina who are also on Oz experience and have pretty much travelled everywhere with us so far.

Mission Beach and Townsville

Mission Beach proved that you can still have fun when it rains, and it has done A LOT of that since we left Cairns, the weather has been unbelievably showery, with some of the hardest downpours I have ever seen. We stayed in a great hostel called Scotty's where we met amongst many people a guy called James heading northbound from Wolverhampton who was the spit of Jimmy Carr. Mission Beach will always be remembered as the place where we went rafting on one of the best rivers on the world to raft on, the Tully and as it was wet and wild; so were the rapids. Health and safety in Australia is not as anal as in England as well and though it resulted in a twisted ankle; a dislodged contact lense and many random bruises, rafting and jumping off very high rocks was one of the most fun things I have ever done.

Townsville however was probably the most boring place we stayed. It was wet, reminded me a bit of Oldham and all the locals were in a bad mood as the North Queensland Cowboys (whose home is Townsville) had just lost their away derby to Brisbane so the streets were toooo quiet. Our hostel was very open also and full of interesting wildlife like cockroaches and rats but at least it had a TV room to watch Superbad and the Hangover so the night was not completely wasted!! We only stayed one night in Townsville (more than enough) before heading down to.....

Airlie Beach and the Whitsundays

Again it was very showery here but I loved EVERY second in and around this quaint beach town before heading on our boat trip around the islands. On our first night we went out with the people from our Oz ex buses starting off at Beaches bar, also our hostel before moving onto a place called Mama Africa's which was overrated but fairly cheap. Beaches was well priced for the room only a tenner each per night and the atmosphere was very lively and a good time was had by all....Tamara would concur I think.

Our boat trip for two days and two nights was aboard the SV Whitehaven and it was very, very, very wet but for a few pockets of dry sunshine here and there, notably when we were on Whitehaven Beach (the 3rd best beach in the World) and our final venturing back to Airlie Beach which was very picturesque. It was the people on the boat that made the experience memorable, so a big shout out to "Dana International", "Big Baby" Nicko (two germans); Nikki, Tarina, Tamara and Jenni.
When we returned we also went out that night as a boat group with the crew as well, a night which Australia has yet to recover from...I am now an owner of a special Kiwi necklace that keeps you safe on water so a special hello to Ash (the deck hand aboard the Old Whitehaven) for that; I'll definitely wear it in the bath :)

I think I'll have to do the boat trip again soon, maybe in our winter so it'll be good summer weather over here as whilst the Whitsundays were still pretty special in cloudy conditions I imagine they'll be something else in bright sunshine...who knows depending on the bank balances I may want to return sooner than I thought I really do love Australia :D

From Airlie beach we have travelled a 100KM down and inland to a remote Cattle ranch in Kroombit so for my next blog prepare to be regaled of tales of Lassoing;Bucking Bronco riding, and Goat mustering :/...let yet more fun times roll

And I think to finish I should just repeat that I LOVE AUSTRALIA....but not all aspects of Oz Experience so many hidden charges it's unbelievable, actually feel like they are robbing us blind at times...more of that in my next blog I'm too happy to whine at the moment

James...out xx

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