Tramping, tramping, still tramping...

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Thursday 24th January
Ouch, 6am, alarm goes off. Slam it off quickly to avoid waking dorm-mates, quickly gather everything together and am quickly grabbing breakfast when the driver bangs on the door. He's not happy because a) his coach clock is 10 minutes fast so he thinks I am late b) I am late as I didn't realise I was supposed to be standing outside 10 minutes early! Few others I recognise are on the bus, including Netty who says she was late out too so the driver was not happy with her either! Oh well, he soon chills out again once he has his full bus load, and starts the drive off, stopping here and there to pick up/drop off more passengers, and tells us bits and bobs about the coastline, the food that is grown there (a very fertile reason), and explains the naturally formed harbour... which has been given a bit of tweaking to allow in larger ships (and now sports a koala carved into the rock). He points out the rocks spelling out names on the mudflats - apparently the first was placed in memory of someone, and the habit has caught on...

After 2.5 hours on the bus, we finally arrive at , check in for our water taxi, climb on and we're off on the water. Our driver is a complete character - stops for any photo opportunity and tells us a load about the area we're speeding through (keeps telling us there are goblins in the water, think that's for the children!), but finally, 10.15am, we're off on our walk. Beautiful weather, beautiful views, and until Torrents Bay the four of us (all from the Magic Bus) chat with each other. Soon after Torrents Bay Vicki and Netty speed off, and Susan and I just keep going. We arrange to meet at Anchorage, but as we head down there we realise we're going out of our way and can't see them when we get there. Then see a sign which says 4 hours back to the bus stop - we only have 3! We speed off without stopping and trudge pretty much continously, occasionally pausing for water/breath/view stops and when I fall over and take half the skin off my leg! We finally make it back, treat ourselves to a beer/iced chocolate respectively, check out the store named 'Unique Arts' over the rode, before the hours bus ride back! I have a shower, eat my pizza/salad, get some hot chocolate, chat to my Swedish room mates before reading a fluffy novel and falling asleep!

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