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Published: February 20th 2015
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Hello from not so sunny Australia!!
Well we have done our fair share of travelling since we last blogged. A ferry, car, bus, raft and catamaran later we are in 1770/Agnes Water! No we didn't need all of them just to get here. Let me explain!
So we last spoke in a rather wet Cairns. I would like to say we saw and appreciated the real beauty Cairns had to offer. We really didn't. The first time we saw the sun was at the bus stop waiting to leave the place. Cairns was obviously glad to see the back of us. As a city however, despite the rain we could appreciate it was beautiful. It's where two ecosystems meet; the Daintree Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef. Unfortunately our need to swim in the sea was delayed once more as the jellyfish were still partying! East coast is where it's at! However, they do have a lagoon which is free (even better) so we spent rather a lot of time in there, as well as general walks and wandering and getting rained on. Getting rained on ended in quite a tragic death.... Beth's phone. So to anyone who has
tried to message her. She isn't enjoying my company so much, and too busy to reply. She just can't!
One activity that happened in Cairns that will stick with us for the rest of our lives was of course going on a day trip to snorkel in the reef! This was unbelievable and where the catamaran fits in to the blog. The view underwater was so clear and colourful and the reef was left pretty much untouched. We were swimming alongside tropical fish of all shapes, sizes and colours. This was beautiful in itself until out of nowhere two giant sea turtles came and joined the waters just centimetres away from us. This was an experience seeing them in the wild in their own habitat. The only down side to this was we didn't see any Nemos! There was a reef shark swimming around thou, not that we come into contact with him. Thankfully, as we swam fast enough away from the jellyfish despite having our jellyfish suit on which covered us head to toe (it even had a hood).
Onwards to Magnetic Island! We left sunny Cairns and headed back to Townsville where we got a ferry
there. I'm struggling to find a word that can describe Magnetic Island without the usual amazing, beautiful, stunning bla bla bla! I can guess you get the point. What made this place even better was... We were allowed to swim!!!!! There was a beautiful beach called horseshoe bay, just 300metres away from our hostel. It was marked out to keep the jellyfish out and guess what.... Beth got stung by a jellyfish on her hand!! So I stepped up and peed on it. No I'm joking. Well she did get stung but I didn't pee on it! The lifeguard did thou... Nah I'm still kidding. He put vinegar on it. Thankfully, that did the job and we were okay to live to the next day where we decided to hire a car. This was no ordinary car! It was pink. It was topless i.e. Had no roof. It was a typical barbie doll car, and we looked awesome in it!!!!! We had this for the day visiting all different bays and falling in love with the island further. It was an experience, we didn't crash and we drove in a foreign country! Feel so grown up!
From Magnetic Island,
we headed for Airlie Beach. Airlie beach is a typical backpacker, surfery, beachy, tacky town. It was small and nice thou. It came alive at night so I'm sure you can imagine. Here, once again was a lagoon where we spent a lot of time. The weather was highly temperamental with it being unbelievably hot to suddenly unbelievably wet. We did a hike to see the islands from above, a couple of other walks, and visited the town (which didn't take long).
Oh yes and of course the Whitsundays. Thankfully the weather was on our side here and it was beautiful all day. We went ocean rafting and saw turtles swimming from the boat. This was so much fun and made better by our raft driver being an adrenaline junkie. We were flying over these massive waves, doing what I can only describe as wheel spins on water and getting soaked in the process. We went snorkelling once again, went to the viewpoint of the islands which was probably the highlight of the 5 weeks so far and went to Whitehaven beach. This beach is in the worlds top 3 beaches. It was stunning! White sands, crystal clear blue
waters, coconut trees and giant lizards are what welcomed us to it. From a distance we thought it was a baby croc. So stupidly I ran over to go see. Thankfully, there was no big mumma waiting and it was just a giant lizard!
I have no idea what has happened to the weather. We certainly did not order rain but it seems to be following us down the east coast. Not only that but it's turned into a cyclone. A grade 5 one at that. They can't be much worse. However, as it's hit land it has gone to a grade 3 which isn't ideal but is certainly better. We are stranded in Agnes Water where we had a few plans but can't do any of them. However, it is expected to be flooded for a good couple of days so I'm sure we will have plenty of time to do them. Here in Agnes Water, there isn't much to do except for cafés, surfing, surf shops and tattoo places. So yes that's right I got a tattoo!! No last joke I promise! I didn't!
Regardless of this, we are still on cloud 9 with every day
offering a different task. These tasks vary in difficulty for example walking 300m to the beach and surviving a cyclone but hey ho!
Anyways we hope everyone is okay and one day I will let Beth speak. I just have to much to share! Love to all!!
Gem and Beth xx
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GrnDa S
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Its All Right for Some!!!!
Hi Gem & Beth, we have been avidly following your blog and have enjoyed seeing some of the pics. Glad you were able to to visit our old haunts in "Singers". Hope the typhoon was not too scary!! Aus sounds a "fun" place what with; snakes, crocks, spiders, sharks, jelly fish and indeed their cricketers! Yugh!! However the weather does appeal. At the invitation of your Ma & Pa we took a stroll round Attingham park yesterday to view the snowdrops in full bloom, temp as we set off was just above zero and hail was falling "Nan" was not impressed! However it faired up and the sun eventually reappeared so all was well. Apart from "surviving" a couple of trips to Tesco during half term week we have few adventures to report,,,, so we look forward to haring about yours... "Stay Safe" lots of love from Nan & Me. xxx