18th October 2007, Hevery bay to Noosa Heads

OK, got up today, well tell a lie, got woken up today by oliver. saying it was 9:30am. Zara and i had booked a bus down to noosa beach that leaves at 10am. oops.

Literary staggered down to the mini bus that takes us to the greyhound terminal. Got on the greyhound. tried to sleep most of the 4 hrs down to noose beach. didn't do to bad, but they put a film on, no idea what it was i was trying to sleep. But how rude are these buses, it's like 10:30am, im trying to sleep and they put a bloody film on, well i never !!!!!

So finally got to noosa beach, feeling a bit better then when i got on the bus. So HAd to call the hostel we had booked because for some reason they weren't there like the rest of the hostels. thats not a good start surely.

anyway got to the hostel its quite a nice hostel, nothing bad from what i can see. they hire out free kayak, so will give that a try some time.

So because both zara and i was so knackered, we did nothing today, walk around the town, had a nice chinese meal as we both didn't want to cook and hey you can treat yourself ever so often.

Got back to the hostel, actually it was strange the whole of our dorm, which was full. 8 people were all in bed and asleep by 9pm. i have never seen that before, apparently the night before was a full on mess and the guys in the dorm had a party going on till the early hours and have now had a bollocking and if they do it again they will be kicked out. which is good for me as i want sleep, sleep sleep.

17th october 2007 fraiser island, back to hervey bay.

Ok got up today, at around 7:30am, i actually only got up because i thought i heard the voices of my group, however on getting up and checking it out they were the voices of the other groups. oh well.

this time i cooked my own breakfast. fuck everyone else. no bloody thank you's or nothing.

So finally everyone else got up, steve's turn to drive again, not sure i would want to drive in the morning. lucky i don't have to. this time we are off to lake wabby. Parked up had about a 30min walk to the lake. nothing special it is another clear water lake, so nice not to have any salt water. hang around there for a while. Got back to 4x4, made some lunch, actually we had the dinner we never had on the first night, so roast beef sandwichs and mash potatoe's. does the job.

Next i we went off to eli creak. yeah they even have creaks over on this island. i hate to think how many creaks i have seen or gone over in australia, there are thousands, every little bit of water is a creak. anyway walked down this creak took a little over 10mins. got to nothing. didn't see anything, just got my legs wet up to the knees.
checking the itenerary, it says it should take us an hour to drive across the island, however we all think it will take more, so we have given ourselfs a good 2 hrs. to make sure. dont wanna miss the ferry if we do it is a $250 fine. yeah ouch !!!!

this time i drove again. still love driving on sand, good fun. got to the ferry port, about 40mins earlier so thats quite good. had some left over food while we waited. Got the ferry back to hervey bay.
I drove to the garage where we got the 4x4 from. how strange to drive on roads again. mmm.
got to the garage had to clean out the car and get all the stuff down, then we noticed that the camp stove we had, was somehow broke the metal had actually broken nearly in two. not sure how that happened, but i think we were lucky. Lisa and philly worked at the hostel i am staying at and got to know these guys that loan the 4x4 to us quite well, and the bloke said "i didn't see it" as he took it into the garage. which is always nice.

not sure they would of been as nice if lisa and philly weren't they. Well at least those two were good for something i guess !!!!! (oohhhhh bitch :). )

so got back to the hostel, had time to chill they give you a room with everyone in. Oh i forgot to say the irish girls started drinking at 8:30am this morning, they felt they had to finish off the supply or something. i don't care i had my fair share, plus i was driving, not a good idea to get back to the garage smelling or goon (that cheap wine to you and me england, and no it doens't mean arsenal Mr roche )

So anyway we had to pay nothing which is great, i hear while we was away, some group got salt water on there engine and had to pay $200 each which was the deposit we put down when you take the 4x4. i also understand they were not happy and started a punch up with the bloke, claiming they hadn't done it. not my problem anyway.

So chilled out in the hostel, everyone want to go out and keep drinking, well the irish girls did anyway, i guess they were already on there way, so what did it matter.

We all got pizza delivered to the hostel played the drinking game again, i think it's a hit. must play it a few times when i get home, if i get home. not thats more likely when i get home.

So went out i thought we were going to a club, but ended up going to another hostel that has a big bar. played some pool, drunk some beer. had a chat and a laugh with a few ozzies that were there, strange they are the nicest ozzies i have meet.

anyway got home around 4am in the morning not sure what happened to the irish girls they left early. can't handle the pace i guess, typically irish all mouth no stamina. lol.

16th fraiser island.

got up today, impressed my self actually, i was first one up, and was last one to bed last night. oh well. these kids of today, just dont have the stamina that i had in my younger years. ohhhh must be all that TV and computer games, well when i was a kid we were lucky to get a stick and a stone to play in the streets with. my god they don't know how lucky there are. hold on thats not me, mmmmm.

Anyway !!!!
i started cooking breakie this morning, that got everyone up once they had smelt the sausages i was cooking. funny thing was, not one person said thanks, which kind of annoyed me a bit, well actually one did but she didn't need to as she was a veggie and cooked her own food. nevermind. hangovers i guess are a mother****er.

so oliver drove today, we went down the beach north to indian head, apparently you can see dolphins and whales from up here, but i think we are a little too late, i thought they normally come out early morning or late afternoon. anyway we didn't see them.

so then it is a hour walk to the champagne pools. wasn't bad, but i dont think it was worth the hour walk, you can drive up to them, but our insurance for some reason doesn't cover us past indian head. Basically it is a little pool the otherside of sea rocks. (pic 2), and when the water comes over the rocks i guess it looks a little like champagne, it wasn't deep though you can't even swim in them. Basically we are here till 2pm, due to tides again, so we had 4 hours to waste. Sat in the pools, talking to people for most of them time then took a slow walk back. had something to eat in the 4x4. waited around, playing cards with zara for a while. haha this time she isn't irish and i won something like 6 games to 1. hahaha. (bloody irish, yes thats you paul!!! lol)

this time we went for a little drive about, then got back to the camp before dark. yeah we was able to get some firewood and stuff in the light, so much easier. And i had an axe, so i was chopping down trees. it felt really manly too. Got back to camp decided to let other people so some work as the bloody women were doing sod all as usual. god knows what would of happened without 3 men in the group (yes i am a man before i get comments thanks:) ) well as i said no one can start a fire, i watched for abuot 20mins, then decided they had, had enough and helped out, they were putting may to much wood on the fire to start with and wasn't using the correct type of wood to start it with.

so finally got the women to do something, well actually it was dora and julie, which also helped to get some wood, they cooked dinner this time. spag bowl. which was ok. all food is precooked before we get to the island so there isn't alot involved really.
the Aborigines came along that own the camp and told us, that however build the biggest fire gets to have the Aborigines dance round it later tonight at 930pm. However 30mins later they came and asked us for a lift into the local town to get some supplies (and what made me laugh that included marajuana. mmmm not sure how Aborigine that is but whatever.

So because we took them to town i thought i would blag that they dance round our camp fire and we wouldn't have to go to someones elses. which i did. go Ian :)

So we had dinner, actually feed other campers from our food, as there group was messing around with fish they had got of a fisherman on the island or something, i wasn't realy listening, too busy drinking and talking to my group. but there was plenty to go round.

So everyone want to play the drinking game again i introduced them to yesterday, bloody group twisting my arm to drink and then play drinking games, im not sure how i am ever going to survive this traveling thing, It is such a hard life (or yeah england hows the working life going, lmfao (thats laughing my fucking arse off, for the older people that don't know, i won't say who they are ;). )
So played the drinking game again, everyone was still alive and well i was gonna say sober but that would be lying, still awake thats better.

Aborigines came to do there dance around 930pm, which was really really good. however my camera decided to die on me and i thought or was told we was gonna share photos, but it seems no one has, thanks zara for offering to send me some, when i actually get to emailing you.
so they were amazing, can't really describe it really, lots of foot stamping, banging woods together( no not my wood thanks). and singing, well sort of hopefully you know what i mean.

Oh yeah i forgot to say there are two rules when around these guys you can't whiste and you can't spit on the fire, it brings evil spirts. so come on people guess what ian did when they stoppped one of there dances, yep that right, gave a nice big whistle of appreication. boy did i get some looks from them and told very sharply not to whistle. oh well i am still alive and didn't see any evil spirts. plus lets be honest if they had come when i was a sleep my snoring would of scared them off, a Michael (hope i spelt that right this time).

so finsihed the night off by more drinking games. then a zara oliver and myself wanted to go down to the beach to check out some stars. wow there are more stairs here then in the outback. it was so beautiful. by the time we got back everyone else was asleep, no sorry sally wasn't she didn;t want to sleep alone and got me to sleep near her so she was not scared. Boy did she pick the wrong person to sleep near and she found out and proceeded to tell me in the morning, ian you snore !!!! :0 oh do i sally sorry must of been the drink. lol.


Bloody hell thats alot, i must be getting back into the swing of this writing thing. hope my writing is gettting better for people to understand i am trying to not miss words out. hopefully. hope everyone is well :)

15th October 2007, fraiser island.

ok up and away we go. Got to island explorer which is the company lending us the 4x4 car for fraiser. did all the usual contract shit. if we brake this and that we pay, got extra insurance for the underside of the car.

Got the 10am ferry over to fraiser, stephen is driving at the moment, looks like fun driving on sand. So we have an itinerary, which should take us to the best places and miss all the high tides, as we definitely dont want to hit any sea water and mess the engine up. big no no !!!!

So from the ferry we went to lake mackenzie. Wow what a lake, the best i have ever seen for a lake. and it was so strange the lake had spring water, it feels strange to get a mouthful and not have salt water in your mouth. absolutely brilliant. We stayed there for a few hours, played a few games in the water, had a few races in the water. People were quite shocked how long i could hold my breath for underwater, espeically being a smoker. oh well !!

so this is all that was on the itinerary for today. was meant to get to the camp site before dark, however we decided to stop at the famous ship wreak on the beach which we had to go past to get to the camp site. Oh yeah i was driving.

Wow how cool is it to drive on sand. the beach was ok, just had to adjust to the soft sand which would send you in the tracks of our cars whereever they went, which was ok. just turning into the turn (if that makes sense !!!)

however when not on the beach you are on sand tracks, which are all soft sand that is a good 1f soft sand. most interesting and definitely worth the experiance.

So by the time i actualy got to the camp site. everyone was well on there way to being drunk, as they started just after we left lake mackenize. me driving, well i didn't get drunk, but i was drinking. my co pilot was also my personally cup holder thanks lisa, she did a good job :)

so we got there it was already dark, found some tents that were not occupied, although they were alittle out the way, which was properly a good thing, we were the noisest group in the camp site. come on ireland/england.

So i went and got some fire wood, which was too easy in the dark, when your told there are lots of dangerous snakes around and be careful, plus i was the only one with a torch. well done guys/girls.

so got some firewood, i was surpirsed to know that know one else can start a fire, so i did that aswell. by the time that was all done, most people were pretty much pissed, and couldn't be arsed to cook. so we all had a liquid lunch instead and got pissed.

Played the drinking game i had learnt on whitsundays, which everone seemed to enjoy. zara went to bed about 7:30pm. me and steve carried philly to bed around 9am, she was in a sorry state, dam !!! :) lol.

And i think everyone else went to bed around 10pm. i stay up till about midnight, i had some drinking to catch up on, plus i am not driving in the morning, oliver is. nice one oliver, as i don;t think most people will be ready to drive. We are meant to leave by 730am.

We will see how that goes !!!!!!!!!

14th October 2007, Hervey bay.

So got booted out the hostel at 10am. Decided to walk to the other one, doesn't seem to far on the map !!!!
Yeah anyway took me an hour to walk to the next hostel, this is nothing special it has a pool, but doens't look like much. Room is ok, again it is just me and 3 women. god must like me. actually these women are on my fraiser island tour.

Did nothing hung around the hostel did nothing all day again. Had our briefing for fraiser island at 6am. There is 3 guys and 7 women. 3 english, zara sally and i. 7 irish, oliver, stephen, lisa, dora, julie, philly and sue. Looks like this is going to be a piss up with that many irish.

again chilled in the evening have to be up at 7am to get to the 4x4 and have another briefing and get all the stuff ready for our self drive tour of fraiser.

13th October, down to hervey bay.

So was on this bus heading down to Hervey bay. bloody hell how annoying is this bus driving, for some reason whenever he stops he feels the need to tell everyone, surely he knows if anyone is getting off. so at 2am he stopped to let people on, and then stopped at around 6am aswell.

so didn't get too much sleep. Anyway got to hervey bay, actually forgot i had 2 free nights in hervey bay, as thats what i got when i booked the tour to fraiser island. So got to a hostel anyway that i payed for, it was ok. nothing special it was run by a family with a few kids so at least, i knew it was gonna be quite.

did nothing went down to the local town, which was about 5min walk. got some food went back to hostel and hired a couple of DVD's from the hostel itself, which are free. chilled in my room which had a dvd player and watched them. There were both films with val kilmer in, nothing special, i can't even remember the names of them, but it was nice to just hang out in my bed and do nothing.

booked on my tour for fraiser island, i can't wait this should be fun. It is the largest sand island in the world and i have booked on a self drive tour, basically me and 9 others get given a 4x4 jeep and let loose on the island. I want to drive never driven in sand before, sounds like fun.

12th October, whitsundays, back to airlie beach and onto

so up today. wow feeling that drinking game. think i was first up though. only because the yacht starting moving and i can't stay downstairs while the boat is moving, makes you feel so sick.

so didn't do anything today, i did volunteer to be on the ship for a week and and do general cleaning, they started saying yes to me, then just as we were getting off phoned to say there wasn't enough people to warrant 2 volunteers. i could stick around they and they will let me know. sod that, im not sticking around for 3 days just to be told they don't need me again.

oh well, back to dry land. got to the hostel and realised my next destination, Hervey bay, is like 14 hrs away. so it is best get an over night bus. checked the timetables the bus leaves at 11:50 heading for hervey bay.

so did nothing for the rest of the day, just hang out, nursed the hangover.

so i had to leave the hostel at 10pm, as that is when the office closes. im not loosing money i had a free night in this hostel. so got down to the bus station sat around talking to a few people while we waited for the bus.

11th October 2007, Whitsundays.

OK, got up with major hang over, today. can't wait to get into the water, always helps the hangover.

So we got dropped off on white haven beach, which has to be the nicest beach i have ever been to, can't believe how white the sand it and how clear the water is. its just a a shame we can't really swim much out here, again there are jelly fish all over the place.

so had a little stroll around, as you can see we located the lookout point. how nice are these pictures. well you can more when i get home, or i have some more on facebook.

after we chilled on the beach for a while, well i actually located myself a rock from everyone else round the corner of the main beach and just sat there, thinking. feeling alone on a desert island, it was a really nice feeling you know.

anyway got back on the boat, got told we would find a place to do some diving, well i was looking forward to this, but once we got there, the qualified divers had to wait for all the intro divers to have theres, this took about 1.5hrs, not much fun really the beach wasn't even sandy. apparently there is a storm coming in and they can't take us to the normal place.

Well diving, what a load of shit, we could only go down 5 metres and there was nothing there a really really really really big let down. most upset about that and all the other divers were aswell. well thats a lie the intro divers liked it, but hey what do they know.

So got back on the boat and we went to a bay. anchored up for the night and played drinking games, this time everyone joined in.

we played slaps, for a while, then played kings, which is the same as the other game i played yesterday where every card has a different mini game. but this time if you get a king you have to pour some of your drink into the a mug in the middle and the forth king that is out the person has to drink the concoction that has been made, then the game stops. Other then that the only other difference is we had a gimp. yes a gimp. if you pull out an eight then you have to wear a dive mask and you can't talk only grunt. if you talk then you get spanked by a flipper. and people get to order you around. that was quite funny. we made a guy pole dance and do other things.

anyway we played that till the early hours and all got very drunk and went to sleep.

10th October 2007, Airlie beach, whitsundays.

Well got up reasonable time today, had a walk round the place in the light. found the lagoon, again you shouldn't swim due to the stingers, (Great) chilled there for a bit, i think i prefer the cairns lagoon.

went to my hostel to book a trip to whitsundays, they actually have a deal that includes fraiser island aswell. so i took that deal, only thing is the whitsundays either leaves today or friday. Well i dont wanna hang around airlie beach till friday. sod it i am going today.

had to go book into the whitsundays thing at around 13pm, did that. then was told i have to get to the docks for 3:30 ready to board at 4pm.

ok so didnt really do anything except pack a little bag for the 2 night sailing trip. got to the docks, all of us are waiting to go. another english guy, 3 german women, 1 malaysian women, 2 chinese women. 1 austrian guy, a swiss couple, and irish man and women and a ozz women.

the yacht is called Romance, and is a 23m sailing yacht, with aircon. (sorry about the pic i was on it so didn't get a good one and this is the only one i could find on the internet )

I am doing well women out way men again. So got onto the boat, meet the crew, headed out towards whitsundays. pretty much just seeing lots of beautiful islands. we dont land on main islands, just the main one which i believe we do tomorrow.

tonight, we just sail out to a bay past lots of islands (pics of a few above, there are 74 islands all together) , chill out have dinner. have been told that we had to bring our own beer as they dont sell anything like that on the boat.

However we got to this bay, as it was just getting dark. There is a resort on the island, and we could go over there to the bar. Personnaly i didnt want to i came to sail on the yacht, and i brought beer with me. It seems i am the only one that thinks like that, actually me and an irish guy stayed on board while everyone else went over to spend money in the bar !!!! whatever.

so me and the irish guy kevin, stayed with the deck volunteer who washes the dishes and bed stuff, and general dogs body, and wow what a body. i can see why they picked her, a beautiful blonde norwegian women. yummy.

Anyway stayed on there with her and the chef chris. basically we had our own party and played a few drinking games, one called slaps. where you start by slapping your legs. the starter person asks everyone "whats the name of the game ? " we all say "slaps" he says "whats the name of the game?". we say "to get fucked up".

right so the starter hits his left of right shoulder and says one, then then goes round in a circle which depends on which side of the shoulder you slap, left or right so you can change direction at any moment. When you hit seven, instead of hitting your shoulder you have to but you arms out hoiziontal and seven. then when it gets, sorry if it gets to ten, you have to say "get fucked" and point to someone, and they drink. Not a bad game but we really needed more people.

when ever you fuck up you drink.

next we played horseracing. which was the jacks are horses we bet on a horse then turn cards over, what ever suit comes up that horse moves forward. whatever horse wins, the person/s who bet on that horse can give drinks out to people. again not a great one this if you ask me.

whoever the last game we played i thought was excellent. not sure what this one was called. imagination or something like that.

ok, you get a piece of paper and call cards means something. one's like drink 3 gulps, give 3 gulps. make up a rule, start a story. one called pussys (i.e all women drink) one called dicks (all men drink) lots of different things. sorry i can't name them all. so we played this for a while. story one person says a word and the next has to repeat and add another word. that was ok.

the best one was chris the chef had to make a rule, you have to say "up the arse" after ever sentence for the duration of the game. now as you can imagine this was rather hilarious, and we actually went through the whole deck with 4 people, so plenty of drinks. but it was so funny as you said things like, who's turn is it up the arse. mine up the arse. i want a card up the arse, and several other things. so we was laughing all the time. and plenty of drinking with all the other games.

so when everone else got back we were still playing, and after every sentence we said up the arse, didn't we get some funny looks. oh well i had a good night.

lets see what tomorrow brings im told, beautiful beach, diving. and more beachs and sun.

9th october 2007, townsville to Airlie beach.

Got a bus to airlie beach, kerry tells me she drives there sometimes in abuot 2.5hrs, however the bus i am getting takes 5-6 hrs. oh well.

Arrived in airlie beach, doesn't seem alot here really, again just a beach but the real reason i came here was to do some sailing in whitsundays. told it is paradise. we will see.

little disappointed with the hostel and my room mates. i am in a dorm room with 7 other people. its full. however they all went asleep about 2hrs after i got here, at aorund 8pm. not sure what they have been doing, i know one or two of them work.

so i sat outside the dorm most of the night had a beer and read my book. now two dorms down seem like they are having fun. a bit too much if you ask me, when i finally decided to go to sleep it was aroudn midnight and they were still partying on the step of there dorm, shouting, and i mean loudly, morning, and then singing songs as loud as they could.

maybe i should of joined in, but the bus ride has me knacked abit and im not just walking up to a group of 10 people, hi i am ian. well not today anyway.

so i did actually get to sleep i was impressed howmuch the sound goes down it you are in the hostel.

7-8th October 2007. Townsville.

Nothing really worth noting, chilled out around the house. played games with the kids. chilled some more, watched a film.

6th October, Magnetic island, back to townsville.

So got up nice and early today, actually i was woke up at around 5am by lots of animal noises. But i got back to sleep which is good.

We hired a topless moke today. kerry tells me they come in different colours but hopes we get a pink one. only because i said i would never buy a pink top and wear it. i think men should not wear pink, well unless the obvious.

and guess what she booked it in her name and it was pink. great thanks kerry. So now i am driving round the island in a pink topless moke. (oh yeah a moke is just a little mini/small fiat car thing) hard to explain and it looks like it didn't really get a good picture of one, sorry.

didn't actually do much today, i wanted to swim in every beach there was on the island, just like a 30min swim or something and yes we managed it. Other then sat laid on the beach and topped up the tan. getting rather brown now. yeah baby !!!!!

We took a little trip to the place wear the rock wallabies are. this was the last thing we did as when we got there early during the day they were no where to be seen.

So took the boat back to townsville. Kerry was going out in the evening, i was thinking about going but they were going for dinner then clubbing and i decided to stay at her place, and just chill in the evening. actually spent most of it on the internet doing different things.

kerry got home about 6am, and i was still up for some reason, so went to bed.

5th October, Magnetic Island (refered to as maggie)

Kerry was kind enough to acompany me to magnetic island, which has koalas living on there. which is good i have not seen a koala yet. kerry was actually been several times but seems to enjoy it.

got the midday ferry over to maggie, it takes only 30mins. I wanted to say at the koala sactuary, kerry had never stayed at it, but always goes to the tour they have there.

so we got there, nice little place. might me a bit noise has it is a koala sactuary and has lots of different animals. oh well it is only one night.

a tour was set for 15:00 so we just chilled out in the bar had a drink. Went on the tour, which had baby crocs, koala's (pictured), blue tongue lizards. another type of lizard (pictured above), white paraket, rainbow birds and wallabies. The tour took 2 hrs, you could have your picture taken with a koala hanging onto you, but i decided against that. i like koalas but not paying the same i paid for the tour, just for a picture with me it in. why would i want my ugly mush to ruin and no doubt scare the koala. but i think i got a few good ones of them anyway.

After that we walked down to the beach, got some food and sat and watched the sunset, think i am getting the hang of this picture stuff. this time i used my sun glasses to take the sunset. i think it came out really really well.

So just back to the hostel a few more drinks and then to bed.

4th october townsville.

Wow what a great sleep, i remember waking up at around 9ish. and all i could hear upstairs was " can we wake ian up yet kewwi". so i thought i best get up before i was jumped on, actually the kids are very nice and pleasent so i dont think they would of jumped on me.

so had breakfast, kerry took me and the kids, ok yes the three of the kids she was looking after now (craig, juilette and me) down to the beach area, called the strand it has a water park for kids, so we had a picnic by the waterpark and then i got taken into the waterpark with the kids. there are some jellyfish things, which is basicaly a toadstall that has water coming out of it, but as juilette told me it is a jellyfish. has a few of them. some water cannons, which i had to let the kids get me with. (this is so much fun, kids are great. for start i am the same height as them, and they keep me amused.) there is a climbing frame thing with a slide, and water coming out of it all over the place, and on top there is a bucket that fills up with water and every min or so drops lots of water and everyone around it.

then we went down farther and went to the beach had a wee swimin the sea, actually no i didn't kerry had juilette and i had craig and we were jumping waves. there is to many waves to let the kids go in on there own, although they can both swim, they are only 2 and 4.

next we built a volcanoe in the sand, i will say mine and juliettes was much better then craig and kerrys. hahaha. then juliette decided that was enough and destoryed it. we then proceeded to bury kerry, then the kids one at a time. (actually i have a good picture, but as normal i haven't brought my camera out with me, next time)

after the beach, we took a little stroll in the botanic gardens in townsville, where the kids went to a little maze and we located them. i took a picture from the gardens of castlehill, (picture attached, i thought it was very artistic, maybe)

after the gardens we took a drive up castlehill, saw the sight from there which was pretty good. walked round the top of the hill.

got back to the house, had some dinner, kerry put the kids to bed, then we just hung out again in the evening. it is nice to relax. and to be in a house again.

3rd October cairns to townsville.

Saw got up at around 8am today, got to get a bus down to townsville at 9am.

bus takes 6hrs to get down there, bus is nothign special, just a normal coach, does have a TV but that wasn't working !!!! typical, so i slept some more on the coach, and finsihed reading harry potter (the last book) which was pretty good, should be a good film when it comes out, and i found on a coach i can read, which i was a little surprised at. sweet.

so got to townsville, around 3pm. kerry white (girl that use to live in my road at home and we kind of grew up together) was lovely enough to come pick me up with one of the kids she looks after craig who is 5. Was really nice to see a friendly face, it felt a little sureal actually meet up in townsville in oz. very strange.

she was also kind enough to let me crash at her place. we went and picked up the other kids she looks after juliette who is nearly 3.

we all went for a swim in there swimming pool, and i am so impressed with juilettes swimming and it is realy nice to be around kids again, they keep me entertained.

we had to jump in together and play around in the pool, being a life guard and stuff. had dinner, plently of talking in the evening over a few beers. and i got to stay in a nice king size double bed, how nice that was i can't explain, normally i am in a bunk bed (yes always the bloody top stil) and now i have a huge double bed all to my self. this is heaven.

2nd october cairns.

Diving really takes it out of you. so i tried to sleep for a while, but a fucking bloke, and yes i think he was french again. woke me up at 6:30am, to tell me i was snoring. this time i wasn't so nice and just said so fucking what, what can i do, then proceeded to swear into my pillow about being woken up at 6 fucking 30 in the morning. i did manage to get back to sleep, although took a while.

went and booked my greyhound bus, which takes me down to sydney, i get unlimited stops all the way down to sydney and can get on and off where ever it stops. the ticket lasts 6 months, it was about 300dollars, which isn't to bad, at least now i dont have to pay for buses and things like that. i can just spend money and not have to worry about it. i have to book my seat they say 24hrs before i want to go, but you can do it via internet and phone so thats easy as pie.

what did i do for the rest of the day, thats a good question. i think i just chilled out really. i am getting very lazy, there are such nice beachs and so much lovely sun, pretty much always at 30c. and i did so much in all the other countrys i desive some well earned r&r.

went to dinner, read some more. the day went pretty quick actually. i meet 2 welsh people who i hang out with in the evening, just general chit chat.

29th september - 1st october, great barrier reef.

So diving for the next three days, wowthe great barrier reef is amazing. I thought for some reason it was one big reef, but it is infact lots of reefs. On the 3 days we dived at saxon reef and norman reef. and sorry i can't remember the other reef. i am getting bad for not updating this as i am having so much fun and i seem to have forgot a few things. oops.

So the diving was unreal, i saw lots of different fish and this time i know what they are called, saw my first turtle which was really cool. i actually now have seen about 5. i saw a lovely cuttlefish, which was i think the highlight, my buddy didn't see it as they are really camaflauged, not sure how i saw it really, it looks like a rock, but something was different with it. anyway it turned out to be a cuttlefish and my buddy got closure to investigate and got a little to close, and we saw it change colour from a rock colour to white and then to like a blue colour as it was swimming off, wow truely amazing sight.

Saw lots of damsel fish, parrot fish, angel fish, sharks this time white tip reef sharks. cuttlefish, turles, im pretty sure i saw an octopus aswell, but i can't be certain it was in a dark hole looked like it, i will say it was just because i always wanted to see one.

so i actually did 11 dives in total. had a few different buddy, did a night dive, which again i thought was crap. actually i thought the bloke said we need to have a guide with us that cost $15 dollars, but it turns out you didn't if you had done one before, so i complained as the diving blokoe didn't understand what i was saying. so they told me i could have a free guide during the day.

so i took this guide when i had my camera, i thought it would be a good idea and she would show me some good stuff, but how wrong was i, it was the worst dive i had. she was just so quick, like she was just going to the end of the reef and back. there was no time to look at anything, so so disappointed. and when i got back to the boat and one of the intructers asked me how it was, i told him straight, absolutely shit. the guide just really wasn't interested in on the dive. really strange.

anyway 2 dives out of 11 being shit, isn't bad if you ask me. the first dive was at 06:30 in the morning, which i think is the best, all the night fish are still out and going back to there hideout, and all the day fish are waking up. glad i got up early each day for them. other dives were 9am, 11am, 4pm, and a night dive at 7pm.

the boat i was on, was simply amazing. couldn't fault that. the inside was so posh i really enjoyed it. they had a lovely bar with suade sofas, a big 50inch plasma screen. i was in heaven.

because diving takes it out of you, i didn't do anything in the evening, watched 12 monkeys one night, mostly read the others. and slept.

28th cairns lagoon.

so today i thought i would have another chilled out day. this time went down to the beachfront in cairns it's selve. pallm cove is just outside.



you can't actually swim in this area much as there is loads of stinger, jelly fish to us english. so they have built a lagoon. which is pretty impressive. it is just a big big swimming pool. with lots of green grass on one side and some sand on the otherside.



chilled out there for the day. only thing interesting, well sort of interesting was watching two women have a fight. lad's come on women fighting in bikini's. all i needed was some whipped cream or some jelly to complete it. yes there was boobs flying everywhere, and i must admit for a nice change both women were hot. lovely bodies. nice boobs. can't be bad. there was a couple of punchs mainly hair pulling as you can imagine.





seen as i have been chilling alot lately i decided i would book a diving tour on the great barrier reef. i book a 3 day liveon, on a lovely boat. this is for tomorrow. i can't wait.

27th september 2007 cairns.

Right, sorry people is it not that i have forgot what i have done but the next few days will be rather boring.

someone in the hostel told me that the best beach around here is palm cove. so managed to get the bus to palm cove. yeah i know bloody amazing isn't it, i can get a bus somewhere, instead of paying through the nose for a tour. wow. i like this.

so got to palm cove, it is just a beach, but a rather nice beach. must admit i have been on better in the travel, but the nicest beach i have been on in oz.

lazied about in lovely 30c weather, topped up my tan, and pretty much did nothing. swam for a bit.

back to hostel. nothing exciting there. went for my free meal with tania, a dutch girl in my room. back to the hostel.

26th melbourne to cairns.

Got up at around 5am this morning, flight it at 7am, and bus to the airport is 5:30am, nice.
had arranged for the night manager to book me out so i can get my key deposit back, however, i tried to wake him up, by knocking on his door, then knocking louder, then near enough kicking his fucking door down. but still no answer.
actually i am not surprised, because before this day i had found him, smoking cannabis outside the hostel. i also heard someone say there wasn't manager at the moment just an assistant manager, which makes alot of sense, as there so not meant to me any alchoal in the hostel, but every night there are people getting really pissed right outside my room. nice isn't it.

so no key deposit back. so i left them a rather "nice" message and left it on the recpetion, whcih i hope they got, yes there was a few swear words in the message and said thanks for the fucking key. i didn't actually take it because i was worried they might charge my card for a new key or something even though they have a depoisit, but i didn't leave it on the repection desk either to make them think i hard. fucking night manager prick. i can't believe he didn't wake up, i mean i nearly kick the door down, i was worried at one point then i had, when i kicked it. fucking stone head.

sorry to keep going on, but that did really annoy me (yeah you may of guessed that one !!) what is the point of making arrangements twice with the day staff if he isn't going to get up and book me out.

anyway, flight was ontime and was ok, nothing special. budget airline, jetstar, so was a little cramped but nothing to worry about was only a 2.5 hrs flight, so maybe not even that much. anyway i near enough slept the whole way, not a great sleep but one of those, close the eyes and time goes quicker ones.

landed in cairns. wow sun is shining weather is sweet yeah (thats a song incase you wonder) it is much better weather up here. down in melbourne it was only about 18c, still sunny, but up here in cairns it is only a meer 30c. hahaha, hows the weather in england then. hahahahaha

so got a free airport bus to the hostel, hostel seems ok. same as usual. decide i would head out of the hostel and just have a walk round the town. the town centre is about a 10-15 min walk. yeah walking again i miss sam ( the wicked camper people !!!) but it is nice and bright so i don't mind. located the town centre, nothing special. a shoping centre is right behind the hostel which is good to get some bits and bobs.

locate the lagoon, i was told they built a lagoon for people to swim in because the sea is not safe. soo many stingers, which i guess means jelly fish to the real english speakers, bloody ozzies with they thongs (flip flops) and i can't think of any other examples sorry. mess up our english langauge just like americans.. although not as bad.

chilled out near the lagoon read some more of me book, yeah i am reading alot, but it keeps me busy and i am quite enjoying the reading. and yes hopefully my spelling and writing my improve. lets me honest it can't get any worse.

back to the hostel, had an early night as i was tired. bloody getting up early is killing me now adays. getting old you see, 27, nearly 28. haha although not nearly 30 am i clair, lol.