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Published: December 22nd 2007
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Mission Beach
This is our beach and unswimmable ocean right now Alright, so we have officially concluded that Australia is hot - big surprise. The day after our diving trip we took the bus down to Mission Beach which is a couple hours down the coast from Cairns. Not a bad bus ride, they showed Star Trek VI on the way which seemed very odd to me, but it was pretty cool as far as something to do on the bus. We got into Mission Beach around 9:30 yesterday so we had 2 full days here. It has been hotter here than anywhere else we've been so far. I haven't seen the exact temperature but I'd guess around 95 with enough humidity to never stop sweating. The water is not fit for swimming due to jellyfish. There are box jellies (they use "baby-talk" for way too many things in these countries but it works for jellies) which will kill a child within 2 minutes of being stung and then there are some that are about the size of a pea and they will basically make every muscle in your body have severe cramping and cause enormous pain. Therefore, we have stayed out of the water for the most part. They do have
Timely stream
This is where you should not be within 2 hours of high tide "stinger nets" in some spots which box off about a 100ft x 100ft area of ocean but you can't get in very deep and they say the little guys can still come through sometimes. There are also rivers crossing the beach here which you aren't supposed to cross within 2 hours of high tide due to the presence of salt-water crocodiles. Ahhh....this country is funny.
Yesterday we walked up the beach to the actual town of Mission Beach - we are in Wongaling which is about 5 km south - and learned that the sun here is a little more powerful than anywhere we've been. For instance, my belly tends to not be affected by sun. Without sunscreen it never starts to show color except for once in my life when given about 12 straight hours of sunlight. However, with spending about 1 1/2 hours in the sun yesterday, it is a nice shade of pink today. I also picked up a few burnt spots from not-so-thoroughly applied sunscreen, but not too bad due to not being on the beach all that long. Our hostel has a swimming pool and our room has AC (for the first time in
Absolute Backpackers
And this is our hostel Australia we won't be dripping in sweat while we try to sleep) so this has been very convenient. We shared our room last night with a couple guys who go to Cal Poly and are here for their winter break and tonight we have a 6-bed dorm to ourselves. There is also a backpackers/bar & grill on the beach here that offers free wine and cheese from 5:30-6:30 every night. This is a wonderful deal. The wine is from a box but it is certainly tolerable and you get a good amount of it and lots of crackers and cheese and yet both nights we have been the only ones taking advantage of this. There were other people at the bar paying for their drinks and many other backpackers in town planning to go out and pay for their drinks so I would imagine that people would jump all over an offer like this. Either it was too early for them or wine and cheese sounded a little too classy, either way...weird.
Today we went on a hike through the rainforest. This was a pretty cool experience. Most of it was on an old, abandoned service road so the
Dunk Island
The view from the beach in front of our wine and cheese bar path was wide enough not to be overgrown at all, but some was more in the thick of it. Now in the jungle there are a couple types of spiny vines and bushes with mild poisons in them and a tree whose sap is a major irritant to human skin so brushing up against the plants is not a good idea. There are also ticks, leaches, sand flies, spiders, and a few types of snakes so we wore long pants and boots and sweat a rediculous amount. I was sweating so quickly that the drops were visible as they grew on my arms. This was a definately different feeling than the "easy-going" hikes we did in New Zealand. The forest was really cool though, way more animals in it than anywhere we went in NZ. There were tons of little lizards on the ground, a wide variety of birds, lots of butterflies some of which were really large and brightly colored, and a wide variety of insects. We also saw a cassowary which is a large, ostrich-like bird but dark in color and with a crested head. They are endangered and only 40 are thought to live in this area
The jungle walk
This was where the path was very easy to follow so it was cool that we saw it. The hike went north into the forest and out of town so when we came out the other end we hitch-hiked, for the first time in my life, back down to our town. It's been a pretty nice place here, mainly because our hostel has has such amenities, but we are certainly ready to move on - which we're doing in the morning.
Our plan from here is: bus down the coast and spend a night Townsville, then bus to Airlie Beach for one night bringing us to Christmas. Due to lack of availability anywhere we will be getting on the bus at 5:30 or so on Christmas evening and riding it until we get to our next stop, Noosa, at 10 the next morning. From there we will be doing a full-day trip out to tour Fraser Island and then spend a couple days in Noosa and a couple in Brisbane before flying out to Bangkok. We were hoping to get down to Byron Bay but everywhere to stay there has been completely booked for well over a month now and we would want to be there at night as
Butterfly
couldn't get too close, but it's pretty big well as during the day, so we're going to look into buses taking us down and then coming back late, but it probably won't happen. Well, that's about all for now, so have a great Christmas everyone and enjoy the cooler weather.
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kamdab
a.k.a. Kameron Ahler
kam the man
yo paul, havent really been in touch with the blogs as of late - lots to do and i've been sick. merry christmas!