Australia

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The night was unbearably hot and we kept getting up to put the aircon on and turn it off at intervals. You know how it feels at home when it’s been hot for a few days (think back!) and a storm is coming. Here it feels like that times ten. The air feels thick and being outside for a matter of minutes is uncomfortable and sticky.

This morning was the first time in my life that I chose to have a cold shower as the shower block was just silly hot - the windows were all open but the air outside wasn’t moving and I had a feeling that having them open made the room hotter still.

After spending a bit of time starting our packing for the Whitsunday Island cruise, we walked to the bus stop outside the campsite. Town had looked busy as we drove through the day before so we didn’t feel like taking the van in. We sat in the shaded shelter and waited desperately for a bus which never came. Twenty minutes later, soaked with sweat, we were back in the lovely cool air conditioned reception area waiting for a taxi.

Town was heaving. It was schoolies week which meant that the streets were packed with eighteen year olds who were celebrating leaving school. There were a few shops, plenty of bars and restaurants and a big lagoon which was the town’s attempt to make up for having no beach. We had a wander around some shops, checked into our cruise office to fill in some forms and then headed to a Mexican restaurant for lunch where we had some really tasty burritos and margaritas.

After lunch, I spent the afternoon being pampered in a day spa. I felt guilty for spending but then again I reasoned that I’d spent very little on trips and tours so far so needed to even up the score a bit.

I had a wallnut body scrub, massage and facial and it was lovely to just lay back and relax for a few hours. When I finished, I met up with Matt again and we had another quick walk around town before catching a cab back to our site.

We had so much to do before setting off on the cruise, so the night was spent emptying the toilet, filling up with water, packing, and finally spending the rest of the night trying to work out a way to call Matt’s parents to say happy birthday to his mum - our wifi signal was terrible so skype wouldn’t work and after queuing at the phonebox for ages in the sweaty night heat, we were annoyed that when our turn finally came it wouldn’t take our money! By the time I’d walked across the site and back to get a phonecard from our van there was another long queue again. Matt pointed out that there was only a couple of minutes left on the card anyway so suggested we give up and head back as we were so hot and sticky.

After the quickest ever bowl of soup for dinner we finally got into bed exhausted and hot.

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