Blogs from Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 1252

Nothing to complain about today. The weather wasn't beach weather so we went to a shopping village. After waiting an hour on the wrong side of the road we caught the bus to go to Pacific Fair. Did a bit of cheap clothes shopping which is always good! We came back and watched neighbours and had cheese on toast, the real life of a backpacker!... read more

Hello readers! I've actually got a few messages from people and that's always encouraging. It is so much easier to do things when you know people are actually reading and/or expecting an update. Nothing's really happened; I'm only updating so people don't think I've died or been abducted by some crazy kangaroo. I was poking about for a job and what I thought was the perfect job appeared...a polo trainer! Now, I don't know the slightest bit ab out Polo, but I know and love horses. The guy was really nice and actually came and picked me up for the interview. The interview was actually just me "getting" to ride a horse! It started off with me tacking up the horse and my pride swelled a bit because I got my horse bridled much faster than ... read more

Having regained our energy Sara and me hit the bar this evening. Meeting up with some of the people she'd met earlier in her trip. Crazy Dancing and the usual cheesey music meant a long night of boogie-ing. We headed from our hostel to Beaches Bar for more cheese and boogie. When Sara and I found ourselves as the only people remaining on the dance floor at 2.30 we decided to head home. The boys from our hostel decided to navigate. Badly. "Boys, this is the wrong way" I cried "No its not, little blonde girl, as if you'd know" Matt replied. Fine see ya in a few hours. So sara and I headed home the right way and awaited the head-hung return of the foolish followers of matt. Matt was made to walk home with ... read more

I awoke half expecting the roof to be missing from the 180Kph winds we had experienced the night before. Wondering around in the tranquil morning sunlight there was very little visible damage. A few palm leaves littered the damp ground, and a few shops displayed handwritten scrawls to the effect of "closed due to cyclone damage". Other than that It seemed we had escaped unscathed. With little else to do in Airlie I set about on my various chores- backing up CDs, getting refunds and booking onward travel. I went for lunch at a waterfront cafe and ordered the delicious sounding Grilled Wild Barramundi with Macadamia Nut Pesto and Sweet Potato Chips. The meal arrived with a birdsnest of vibrant orange sweet potato shavings piled high over the brilliant green of the pesto and the fish. ... read more

Just a quick note to say we made it safely out of the path of Cyclone Larry yesterday. The eye of the storm was supposed to hit land about 50 km south of where we were (Cairns) bringing 280 km winds, so we hoped in our car and drove 9 hours down the coast. As it turns out it was a Category 5 storm by the time it hit Cairns (about 14 hours after we had left) so there's pretty extensive damage. Where we are now it is fine, sunny but with strong winds. -Michelle... read more