A Rainbow on Rainbow Beach.

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Following on from Cairns, we caught our bus from the town centre and headed towards Mission Beach with our driver guide Squirtle. First stop was a nice stroll through the rainforest where Amy pointed out spiders and I ducked around the spiders. Fun times! It was very humid in the rainforest but very pretty and after our brisk walk we had breakfast in a small town which looked like it was stuck in the 1950s. We then, accidentally, ended up at a Crocodile Farm where the keepers informed us that it was a commerical farm, meaning all the crocodiles in the end, end up as a handbag. Lovely. By the time we found this out, we'd already paid so we made our way around the farm and stood amazed at the crocodiles. They were huge and very scary. No kidding, you've never seen anything move so fast in the water. There also happened to be baby Kangaroos at the farm which we got the pet and feed and they were adorable. We both wanted to bring one home! Amy also held, like a baby, a Dingo which the park keeper was madly in love with. It was cute.

That afternoon we arrived at Mission Beach to find nothing there. We stayed at Scottys Beach House which had its own pool and we slept in a four bed female dorm, complete with pink sheets and a hairdryer. Starved after our bus ride, we went in search of a restaurant but after about half an hour of walking we were getting nowhere so we stopped to ask a man sunning himself on his lawn. He informed us that where we were headed was 5km away but he did point us in the direction of a Greek Tavern which did a backpackers special fish & chips. It was very yummy. We also found ourselves a Woolworths, which is like an Australian version of Asda, and we officially in love. They have everything and do some of the best bargains! So much so, we've been cooking for ourselves. Score!

We spent the next few days at Scottys, getting burnt and getting a free T-shirt. The people working there were rather rude and even tried to make us pay again for our room. We told them we had already paid and they made no effort to apologise. Some people hey! We then left again on the bus headed towards Townsville which turned out to be a total ghost town. We're so glad we only had one night there because there was just nothing there. The Strand, a long walkway along the seafront, was very pretty though and there was a really cool water park for kids which had this massive bucket that filled with water then poured if over the whole park. Brilliant! Dinner consisted of a Subway, as every other restaurant was closed. It was good though.

The next afternoon we headed to Airlie Beach and stopped in a town called Bowen along the way. Bowen is where they recently filmed "Australia" but we only saw the service station. Our driver was called Squatter and he was really interesting, giving the bus mini history lessons along the way. As we can into Airlie he invited us all to have dinner with him that evening at Beaches where he could get us all free beer. We stayed at a place called Magnums, apparently the party capital of Airlie, however was way more fun. Our room was tiny and we shared a bathroom with two other rooms but it was all open to there were bugs everywhere. As Amy put it, disgusting. We did have dinner with Squatter and ended up meeting four Swedish guys who were actually good fun and we danced in a club called Africa. The next day however it rained, so all our plans to go to the lagoon were washed away and we spent the day more or less in our room eating cookies and going crazy. The following day we went on a brilliant boat ride with Ocean Rafting to the Whitsunday Islands, a must for anyone who wants to visit the islands. Forget a boring two day sailing trip, this is the trip to take. It was really windy so the water choppy and the boat went speeding over them, bouncing up and down with Ben, Ben and Carl as our guides. One of the Bens looked remarkably like George, so we think George is really working out there in his spare time. We went snorkelling on the reef which was really fun and had lunch on Whitehaven Beach and the sand was gorgeous, pure white and it didn't even get hot. On our way back it poured with rain and we all got soaked and nearly fell out of the boat as well. However, we did make it back alive and after a drink at the bar we swiftly went to bed.

Our next bus left very early and we were headed towards a cattle station in Kroombit for the night. This time our driver was Sonic and we instantly fell in love with him. He was so cool! With his pink pod he played the best music and gave us interesting facts about Australia along the way. We also stopped to play bare-foot bowls and we played against Sonic, much to our pleasure. Unfortunately, we did lose and decided perhaps a career playing bowls would not be a good idea for either of us. Along the way to Kroombit we also stopped at a huge bat colony by the road and it was unbelievable. There was thousands of them, all scrambling for tree space when they should have been sleeping. The noise was really bizzare and they made no effort to attack us Batman style. The drive to Kroombit was long and we played a quiz along the way, the front of the bus against the back. We at the front made our questions light-hearted and fun whilst the back went for proper brain teasers, so it's safe to say we didn't come close to winning.

Kroombit was pretty cool. We learnt how to crack a whip, which Amy was especially good at, and she also rode the mechanical bull. However, this may be an exaggeration as she did fall off after one buck after taking forever to get on the thing. It was a late night and had a bottle of "Giggle Juice" between the two of us; it did in fact make us giggle over dinner whilst everyone looked at us confused, a situation we find ourselves in quite often. Dinner was really yummy, although the Bush Bread was a bit strange. The next morning we were once again up very early. We learnt how to lassoo a goat and then got into teams for the goat rodeo. Amy and I ended up with a guy called Luke, who clearly needed a personality transplant after he didn't find Amys team name of "The Goat Barrier Reef" particularly funny. So, as the "Goat Catchers" we caught our goat and branded him in record time until the next team, who were ridiculously fast. After all this, Sonic took us for a walk up a very large hill to a look-out point where you could see the farm land for miles and miles. It was really beautiful. We then boarded the bus for another long day of travelling to Rainbow Beach, our final stop for a couple of days. We stopped once along the way in a small town for $5 burgers which were really good and we then hit the road again. At Hervey Bay, we picked up a huge group of people which ended our roomy way of travelling as we then had to go back to sitting next to one another. Coming into Rainbow Beach, we went on a "rollercoaster" ride along the road and the pink pod played my favourite song ever, "Electric Feel". We checked into a place called Frasers on Rainbow and we ended up in a 10 bed dorm opposite the bar which was not fun times. It also stunk of feet. We said goodbye to Sonic, something we didn't look forward to as we wanted him as our driver the whole way down to Sydney because he is quite simply, brilliant.

Due to being directly across from the bar, the music was really loud in our room and even at 7am they were still playing music so we asked Reception to move us. We are now sleeping on the top floor in an 8 bed dorm which is much nicer and the people are far friendlier. Our first full day at Rainbow Beach it rained, typical but then today we finally got onto the beach for the first time in ages. Tommorow we leave for Brisbane at 8am so it'll be another early night for us. Party animals, I know.

We'll try not to leave it so long next time, that is if you're still reading after all...

Missing you all, one person in particular. WE LOVE YOU BABE.

Love

Tasha & Amy

xx xx

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Photos

amy and a snake
this was just before it strangled me!

whithaven beach
it looked like coffee

rainbow on rainbow beach :)
it was pretty...then it poured it down with rain!