Week 3

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7/10/10 - Cairns
Day of shopping and chilling out by the pool as it reached 35 degrees today... nice!

Quote of the day from Terry Pratchett 'you'd be out of your depth on a wet pavement'.


7/10/10 - Magnetic Island
Early start on the Oz Experience at 7am. The bus took us to Babinda Boulders again, but it was good to see when it wasn't raining.

On the journey I spotted some interesting shop signs including: Everhard, The sex grooming shop and Murdering point winery (childish I know).

Next stop was a crocodile farm and OH MY GOD it was amazing! We started the tour by holding a baby crocodile who's mouth had been taped shut. Went on the tour which included crocodile feeding and they move so fast! We were stood around 4 feet from the crocs with only a flimsy chain fence between us. Amazing how much power the crocs have and the sound their jaws make when they snap shut, it sent shivers through me.

We went to feed some kangaroos and one had a joey in her pouch that was too big, time to move out matey. We went to see the endangered cassowary birds and on our way we were passed by emu's randomly running around us, a bit intimidating at times but amazing to see.

Back on the bus and on our way we spotted a wild cassowary in the road which is an incredibily rare sight as there are only around 1500 of them in the wild, eeek so amazing. I could see why they are endangered though as it paid no attention to the traffic.

Stopped at tully which is Queensland's wettest town and they built a giant golden gumboot the height of the highest level of rainfall at a whopping 7.9 metres high which occurred in 1950 (not in one go of course).

We have offically left the lush green tropical rainforests and mountain ranges of the north, the trees further south are much smaller and spaced out, they look like twigs with leaves on. Many of them had a couple of metres of black at the base which is from the controlled bush fires, amazing that the trees survive such fires.

We got to Magnetic Island and checked into our hostel, BASE. It feels like an island get away in paradise and has steps down to the beach. We are sharing an 8 bed dorm with some Americans and Dutch.

Headed to the bar to be handed 2 bin bags each and told to make a costume. I made a pirate costume and Bobby made a Batman (Trashman) costume. A few drinks later and I stupidly volunteered for a competition to win a $25 bar tab and it was only after I got up on the table was I told that I had to get on my knees and blow up a balloon on the end of a tube until it burst, the catch was the tube was placed between Bobby's legs (not as bad as it sounds mum). I won of course and got the drinks in. There was a prize for the best costume and me and Bobby made it to the final but lost to the Penguin from Batman.

Awesome night filled with giggles, dancing and meeting a lot of people.

Quote of the day from Emi 'SPARTA!'


9/10/10 - Magnetic Island
Woke up to the sound of the ocean and feeling very groggy. What a way to get over a hangover, I sat on the beach in my bikini with a glass of water and contemplated my life and what I want to do. very deep stuff.

Chilled out all day while Bobby planned all the busses we needed to catch and how long we were staying in each place, I knew I brought him for a reason.

I was asked by the bar manager if I would help out in tonight's bar games and paint national flags on people and he would give me a bottle of champagne, I said I would and I found I was painting faces for a couple of hours. Great crowd of people here and it turns out we're all on the same bus tomorrow and staying at the same hostel, awesome.

Had a few to drink which didn't help with the face and body painting. Everyone thought I worked for the bar and asked me what time I finished lol.

Quote of the day from Bobby 'Health and saftey is there to stop stupid people from dying and allowing them to breed more stupid people'.


10/10/10 - Airlie Beach
We checked out of BASE early and caught the ferry over to Townsville. Popped to the centre which seemed like a bigger version of home. We walked around the market and I bought some bracelets.

Hoped onto the Oz Experience bus with the crew from BASE. Got to our new hostel, The Beaches, in Airlie Beach. We are in another 8 bed dorm where the lights don't work and the shower was either scolding hot or freezing cold.

We went to the bar/resturant and had kangaroo again which was very tasty. Got chatting to 2 girls from Holland who's facing I painted yesterday, they have been to Peru which is somewhere I've wanted to go to and they didn't help as the told me how amazing it was.

Bed by 12:30 after a sand fight with Bobby where I managed to get a cut cheek and proceeded to make him feel very guilty on the walk back, ha ha ha ha!

Quote of the day from Emi 'did you know if your hand is bigger than your face then you have cancer? (SMACK tee hee)'


11/10/10 - Airlie Beach
Another day of not much, we went for a walk around and got chatting about all the travelling we want to do, I think it will be a while before I get my travelling bug fix. Bobby wants to drive around the world!

We decided to finally make use of the free BBQs they have most beaches in Australia. Bobby was very excited as he has been here 3 times before and never used them. It was pitch black by now and we only had the lights from the pool to cook by so we are waiting for the food posioning to kick in.

Such a different feel to the communities in Oz, no litter, no drunken fights, no glass in open swimming pools and no one doing drugs in the parks. Everyone here seems to respect their surroundings.

Quote of the day from Bobby 'daydreaming'.


12/10/10 - Airlie Beach
Hangover today. Met a new room mate, Daniel from Holland, who didn't seem to have an off switch and sounded like Arnie. Daniel seemed to have a passion for everything and complained about the weather with such emotion that we couldn't help but giggle.

Spent the day in the pool messing around.

Quote of the day from Bobby ' How many horses does it take to stop a lorry?'

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Comments

[Julie]

Fab blog
Hi Emily Really glad you are having such an amazing time, you are bringing back such wonderful memories of our trip. Your blog is very entertaining, keep it up, I am printing it off for Pearl, she is well hooked and asks for more every week, she then passes it onto friends so you are well read and quite an icon. Continue to make the most of every moment, I expect you are sailing the Whitsundays now. Take care, say hi to Bobbby Julie & G