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Published: March 25th 2009
scooteroo tour
me on the red devil!in my last blog i was in the town of 1770 soaking up the sun and chilling out. on my second day i spent the morning on the beach and then did the scooteroo tour that runs in the town. this is ace, you basicly get given a motorbike and spend the afternoon riding around the town with other bikers looking out for kangaroos and watching sunset from the view of a little pub. i was a bit nervous getting on my bike at first but as soon as i set off down the road i was fine! and then when we came to a road where we didnt all have to ride in one long line and could take over other people i had great fun!! it turns out i had picked quite a powerful bike and there were a few bruised egos from the boys as i wizzed past them! there were around 40 bikes out there that day and i was riding up front with the big boys!! haha! the leader actually did come up to me at the end of the tour and said the bike i was on was called "the red devil and i had
done really well on it". so after off-roading on fraser island and riding a motor bike around 1770, im not sure my little 206 back home will be exciting enough!!
the evening was spent in the towns only pub celebrating st patrics day with a few of my friends from fraser island which was a good laugh.
the next morning was the bus journey to kroombit cattle station. this is a place where the oz experience bus stops overnight to break up a very long journey. after lunch there, the first activity was goat mustering on horse back. my horse was named 'alfonso' and was fiesty to say the least! he was so stubborn and kept falling out with the other horses. i was always having to move him away from the pack as he started getting angry! crazy horse!! he did me proud with the goats though as he did exactly as i instructed him to and we managed to round up all the goats and get them in the pen. afterwards was a different story though, as what was suppossed to be a nice walk around the woods before taking the horses back, turned into a full scale
goat mustering
with the naughty alfonso horse war and alfonso kicked off big style, he bucked twice and im not quite sure how i managed to stay on him! naughty boy.
next was learning how to lasoo and then getting into teams for 'goat branding'. in teams of 3 we were sent into the goat pen and were given a goat to catch with the lasoo (my job!) and then one of the other girls flipped it onto its back and the next girl branded it with the iron rod (not a hot one!). we were timed and our team came 5th out of 12 teams, so not bad really.
after all the afternoon animal fun i practicly ran into the shower to get clean before dinner.the evening activities included learning how to crack a whip, which i can tell you really hurts if you dont do it right, and riding a mechanical bull. i stayed on for the grand totoal of 4.5 seconds!!
the next day was a very long driving day, made even longer by the fact that the oz bus just about broke down and after 11hours we finally crawled into airlie beach. i checked into my hostel and met the rest of
goat branding
trying my best to lasso a goat! the oz bus for dinner and also met up with rich and tom from fraser. thats the lovely thing about travelling the east coast, you often bump into people who you have met previously in a different place.
up very early the following morning for my boat trip to the whitsundays islands. after being stood at the pick up point with a few other people for what felt like an age, we got the news that our boat had been cancelled due to high winds. i was told that they could transfer me to the island where i would be staying for 2 nights though and i might be able to get on the 'camira' the next day. this was fine with me and i joined the ferry over to long island. however, due to some new sea sickness tablets that i had taken that morning i was a total mess!! the tablets contain hyoscine, ward 12 ladies you will know what i mean when i say my mouth was so dry i didnt think i would ever be able to swallow again, and no amount of water was helping! and i was so sleepy, i fell asleep as soon
long island
the view from my hammock as i had checked in and when i woke a few hours later, i stumbled down to the beach and fell asleep for another 2 hours in a hammock!! next time i will just be taking half the recommended dose!! the resort on the island was nice though, although as a backpacker, not really that appropriate as part from one other lovely girl backpacker on her own, we were surrounded by couples. so me and christine chilled out together and had a cocktail in the evening.
woke early on saturday morning and ever the optimist, i got my bikini on and covered myself in sun cream before the receptionist told me that the camira had been cancelled again!! so after breakfast christine and i took a walk around the island, where we saw a snake and a wallaby and i spent the rest of the day either by the pool or chilling in my hammock. christine left in the afternoon and to be honest i got a little bored, the resort is expensive and i had even finished the book i was reading so didnt have much to do. im not sure if i will ever be able to go
on a normal beach holiday again!! i did enjoy sitting on the beach at sunset with a cocktail watching sunset but it turns out i cant just sit and do nothing all day anymore! or maybe it was just because i was on my own. in the evening i went down to the bar, hoping that as a sturday night it might be a bit lively and as i was sat there, a woman came over to me with a free glass of wine. she worked there and thought i looked a bit sad sat on my own so she wanted to cheer me up! i didnt know wether to be happy or very embarrased!! she and her colleague invited me to sit with them though, and after a while a few more people turned up and after being given a second glass of wine i ended up in the staff quarters playing pool in the staff bar. it turned out to be a fairly good night!
sunday was third time lucky and i finally got on the camira!! the camira took us on a tour of the lovely whitsundays islands and first stop was for snorkilling. after getting in
magnetic island
another lovely place my stinger suit (its the season for poisonus jelly fish at the moment, if you get stung you have approx 4 minites to live unless you get treated instantly) i got in the water and was very disapointed. visiblilty was very poor and although i saw a few fish, i couldnt see them clearly. and after thinking about all the jelly fish, i started to worry so got back on the boat! next stop was whitehaven beach. a stunning location, but quite amusing when you see everyone walking around it wearing stinger suits. although the boat trip was nice, i was expecting more island stops. but never mind, i cant complain as i am still very lucky to be visisting such lovely places.
after an early night, i was up early for my oz bus to townsville and then transfer to magnetic island. this is a really nice place and although you still cant go in the sea, its gorgeous and made all the better by having some really nice people on my bus who i spent the day with, again i had met them previuosly at the cattle station and in airlie beach so we chilled by the pool
and set our selves up for an interesting night.... it was our bus drivers birthday, and along with the other oz bus that was there (driven by buck, who had taken us from 1770, kroombit and airlie) we had a fab night together!! we got the cheesy tunes playing and there was alot of dancing, playing leg guitar, ymca was carried out on top of the tables, there was a game of limbo and for some reason boys flashing thier bums. a great laugh and lots of fun! a few of us went to the beach to wind down before going to bed.
dragged myself out of bed at 7am for the transfer back to townsville and the coach to mission beach. everyone was looking a bit worse for wear!! so spent afternoon at mission chilling in the sun.
its my second day in mission beach and this is one of the best places in australia to do a skydive. i have been thinking about it so much and it would be great to do one and land on the beach, but i just dont think i can afford it. i cant do everything, and it seems alot of money
to do something that is going to scare the life out of me!! it will just have to be one of the things i put on my list for when i come travelling again!! xxx
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Swillys trip
Hi Swilly realy enjoyed reading your blog am amazed this the only comment u have done a marvelous job keep up the good work Keep Well honda