Brissie to Townsville

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Gday! sorry it's been so long guys, been a funny old time over here down under. Last time I was leaving Brisbane for Bundaberg aboard the Sunlander train. A very long journey on which I saw a camel in a field and lotssss of scenery. Still a nice way to travel. At Bundaberg we checked into Charm City Motel which sounds slightly dodgy but was a lovely little apartment. Unfortunately while there the weather wisnae too hot and we arrived on a Sunday evening, when all the pubs were shut! all except 1 that is.. There ain't much to do in town cept the Bundaberg Rum factory which we toured, and all promptly decided we preferred beer. But open minds and all that. On the way back we passed the coolest playground, check facebook, I'll try put the video up there! And as with every stop along the coast we did the standard croc / snake hunt. No luck there.
Next was Rockhampton or Rocky, advertised as cow country in the Lonely Planet / bible. High number of cows in the region, tis the Beef capital of Queensland and also a big place for bull-riding woohoo! We got a great wee hostel run by the self-proclaimed Backpacker mum 'Ronnie' and decided to extend our stay slightly to watch a bronco practice night. So we sat in a big bull arena, ate steak and watched kids as young as 14 being thrown off cows! The bulls are all herded into little pens, the cowboy gets on and holds on very tight, then the fence is opened and off they got! Thes best bit, the cowboys! They all wore Levis, checked shirts, boots and hats. I even donned an attractive 'flannie' to fit it. 😊 Another evening was spent with a pack of snags and 2 boxes of goon on the Fitzroy river, where we barbied a feast and again went croc hunting. (Oh and I should mention Stef saw a snake in Rockhampton......lucky bugger). Also in Rocky, we visited the Botanic Gardens (cos it was free) and suprisingly a good way to spend the day! We saw dingoes, crocs, a baby croc, awwwww and the coolest chimpanzees who were shouting at each other then blowing raspberries at us.
From Rocky it was on and northwards to Airlie Beach via overnight bus (not te comfiest ride) where we disembarked at 6am. Of course the place was deserted so we settled down for a McD brekkie till the hostels opened. Home for 2 days was Magnums, the party hostel of the Costa Del Sol. People come to Airle to party or go sailing to the Whitsunday islands, neither of which we could afford 😞 so we gazed at the sea a lot, which was beautiful, job-hunted, had another barbie and met the funniest old man ever, Bob and his collection of party hats!
All aboard the Greyhound again and off to Townsville! Which is again a nice place but not much to do for the skint ones. Fortunately the weather had improved greatly although my health deteriorated 😞 . Got a bad bout of Swine Flu ( only joking, it was just a sore throat ) and spent the time stuffing painkillers down my very sore and swollen throat. Tis OK, I saw the doc and he gave me medicine, so I'm on the mend....... The job situation was getting worse, it seems the fruit picking season is quite behind and too many people are looking for the same work so we weighed our options up and worked out it would be cheaper to spend a week travelling than staying in a hostel. We called a campervan company and got a great deal to take a van back to the Darwin dept within 6 days, sorted. Next day we got the 7am bus to Cairns to collect our van and the adventure began............ to be continued.....

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Comments

[scotty boy]

G'day
Ah your back in communication again.Good story and shame about the sair throat.Keep taking the strepsils.