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Published: August 30th 2007
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Right then, time for some serious sightseeing. Enough of all that socialising in Cairns and the rainforest and what not, it's time to put Madge to the test and cover some serious Queensland kilometres...that's the plan anyway.
Cairns proved to be yet another difficult location to say goodbye to, although I was beginning to get the feeling that the same people could start popping up where you least want them - it's a small place, and a lot of backpackers seem to get trapped in the Cairns timewarp! So armed with a number of maps (oh can't you imagine how much I love my maps) and some helpful advice from hostel bloke Paul (Aussie pronunciation: Paaaaawl) we finally started to head South. Well actually we headed a little bit North and then a little bit West, but it's all working out well.....
I thought Ireland had a lot of national parks, as a result of childhood holidays spent in the Emerald Isle (with retrospect I now realise that we just kept going back to the SAME national park. i.e. Kerry), but good lord, Australia fairly knows how to pack 'em in. I would imagine that there are more national parks per
square mile than people in Queensland. But through a process of elimination we managed to pick out a couple to drop in on on our way through the Tablelands, which is basically a massive scenic area just inland from the north Queensland coast. First off was Kuranda; which is both a national park (complete with stunning waterfall) and a cutsie little tourist village. We drove on and stayed in a place Yungabarra, in the sweetest little hostel I have ever seen; it was full of couches and free magazines(vital Britney updates were provided), and there was little handmade signs everywhere, and....a fire (although it wasn't that warm, and Yungabarra was THAT cold, which caused a bit of a problem; I have one pair of baggy jeans and one Penneys cardigan, and that constitutes my entire "Warm wardrobe" at the moment. Luckily there were blankets).
The following day we drove on through the lake circuit, and in the style of my mum and dad, had a grand cup of tea and a scone in the tearooms at the edge of Lake Barrine. Sure it was only lovely. I should add that this was a major splurge, for we are living the
picnic lifestyle these days. The picnic lifestyle, as it turns out, can be quite hazardous. Madge came complete with some basic camping equipment (we still don't even know what size the tent is, but I am convinced it's only big enough for two, ergo, there is no point finding out what size it is, so, oh well, we best just keep staying in hostels. Dry hostels.), which includes a gas cooker. Due to a caffeine addiction shared by myself and Sabrina, we finally decided to try and get it going one afternoon. When produced from its black container, the hob turned out to be a little rusty - none the less we managed to get the gas cannister inside, but after ten minutes of staring at a pot of water displaying NO heating activity, and slightly concerned by the plumes of smoke coming from the side of the cooker, the whole thing was abandoned, and we went for coffee and cake. Close one if you ask me.
After a night each in Mission Beach (doesn't that sound promising?) and Cardwell (not so promising) - both of which contained NOTHING - we arrived in glorious glorious Townsville. (Oh and I just
remembered we stopped off in Paronela Park before we hit Cardwell, and it was the most romantic place on the planet; an old castle and grounds built by some eccentric Spanish bloke in the 70s, which was recovered from the jungle about 15 years ago - old crumbing ballrooms, a waterfall and endless picturesque walkways, it was gorgeous! The two girls were worryingly interested when we found out they do weddings. Watch out Pauls.)
Anyway.... Townsville is not considered glorious by most who pass through it, but oh, it was glorious to us, due to one crucial factor - FAMILY. The backpacker's holy grail. Yes yes, my cousin Tim and his lovely wife Kate have been living in Townsville for the last year, and of course we decided to pop in just one week before they put their house up for sale. Perfect timing!! We arrived in Townsville in the afternoon, spent a few hours on the beach (just on the sand mind; giant warnings for killer jellyfish everywhere), and then met Tim and Kate in a bar along the seafront.....after a couple of beers we followed them back to their gorgeous gorgeous house. This is the first HOUSE we
have actually been in since we left home, and good god did we feel like we were in Cribs! They had literally just finished doing up the place, so it was looking like Oprah's home makeover team had just left. And didn't the lovely couple make us feel right at home.....wine, followed by steak on the barbie! We had a great night, but unfortunately it was followed by a rather early morning - Timmy had to get us all up at 7.30am to clean up the place before the photographer from the local paper arrived. You should have seen us - hair all over the place, in our pjs, doing the hoovering and polishing when the property supplement people came through the door. But we just about pulled it off..... And as you can see from the photos I nabbed, the place looked great! We spent the rest of the afternoon languishing on the (giant, giant leather) couch watching Oprah on their (giant giant widescreen) tv. In a word - HEAVEN. It was so good to be made feel totally at home somewhere and just to be able to chill out in luxurious surroundings. With a fully stocked fridge nearby!
So, obviously we don't want to leave. I have offered to buy the house and just stay here for the rest of the year, but it seems my bank balance is a tad below their asking price. So we gotta hit the road again - we have a long drive ahead of us, but it's ok, cos the Whitsunday Islands are awaiting further (about 500 kilometres further) down the coast! Whoo hoo!!
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Maco
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Wat the hell??
Girls what is that GIANT insect with flaming the largest type butterfly wings ive ever seen - SCARY. I can only imagine screaming nina's reaction when she saw this bad boy. Sarah serioulsy your cuz is the spit of your da, like carbon younger copy!!I must say the house looks fab and i can see how yee would of had a Orla and Donal house moment when arriving, I can still taste the hot chocolate croissants :-)