Rainy Beach and the Whitstormdays

Wednesday 31st January

This is the Whitsundays, pristine beaches stretching for miles and miles, 84 islands blizfully gleaming in the rays of Australian sun, crisp blue waters glimmering in the heat, got it? Ok now imagine rain, not just rain but rain type rain, now imagine wind blowing hard, now imagine dark grey clouds, now imagine it being 30 degrees heat all in one. Got it? That’t today. Quite cute really. But I really dont care, I think I was only here because its a “must do” for travellers. We worked out yesterday that if we want beaches and glimmering waters then we go elsewhere. It doesn’t matter and it feels like a tourist trap. Yet I am so happy. I have realised this morning despite the grey skies and bucket loads of rain I am really happy. I’d fantasised about travel but to go through it is something else, inspiration, wisdom, self belief, to bring change to yourself, make you appreciate what you have and what you don’t need. All my needs packed into a rucksack this includes the luxuries some people go without; laptop, camera, kettle, mug and teabags and the necessities that people don’t go without; food and water. All worries are rubbish, there is nothing anyone can do and to think of all the rubbish worries would just make you go crazy. Don’t worry. Be Happy. Normally sitting on a coach for 7 hours as the rain gushes down the windows would make one feel a little depressed yet I feel so content. 3 of us were going to Rockhampton, its so easy to hook up with other people, find your feet and similar like minded people of that too.

Decafinated

Tuesday 30th January

I Didn’t sleep at all last night, my worst nights sleep ever. I Was wide awake at 4am this morning. I think it was because I ran out of decaf tea bags and there were free tea bags at the hostel so I drank those. Back on the decaf when I find the next “Coles” or “Woolworths” (a.k.a. Safeway in Victoria). I left at 4.45am and trungled the 20 minutes or so to the tcoach station. As i had time to kill it was a good time to phone home – they’re 10 hours behind. Great to speak to my Mum and Dad I miss them dearly. They’re flying out to New Zealand in 2 weeks time and I meet them a few days later in my favourite place; Wellington. I can’t wait to see them. It will have been 3 months since I last waved them goodbye at the train station in Sheffield. I have sore feet today from walking around Townsville Vegas in Thongs all day (oh how Australian of me – thongs not flip flops). They are cheap £3 ones so hurt my feet – note to self; must buy some nice open toe walking sandle shoe things when I find an outdoor place. Big walking boots smell due to heat – not good to wear them when its hot. I am such a geek, I am sat here at 7.15am on the Greyhound bus with banana fields passing me buy typing my blog- what a geek. : Later… Arrived in Airlie Beach – around 11am. Very small with a main street smoothered in tourist shops. Walked the length and breath of Airlie in about 5 minutes. I bought some walking sandles, pricy but my feet were suffercating in the heavy walking boots. Having feet as wide as the 6 lane M25 its difficult to get cheap footwear to fit. Even the shop lady commented on how wide my feet were. Been raining all afternoon so headed back to the YHA Hostel which is very nice and clean to sort out a diving trip. The reception staff were really friendly and helpful and checked the weather on the internet and recommended that I didn’t go out which was very sweet of them. Spent the afternoon doing some web work for my Friend Fiona’s business, in photoshop land. A good afternoon to catch up with things. No free internet, and I am also unable to use my USB card here so its all off line at the moment. Not bumped into the Canadian and German travellers who I spent my time with in Magnetic Island but I did find Laura – an english girl the same age as me and after about 3 hours of deliberating what we were going to do with the next week, we both decided to head off to Rockhampton and do a farmstay for a night. The trip from Airlie Beach to the next travel stop is a good 12 hours plus so stopping off and doing something a little different is better than wasting money on a boat around the Whitsundays when its pissing it down with rain. Furthermore the girl the other night recommended this farmstay to me if I had a few days spare. Its something a little different.

Townsville Vegas

Monday 29th January

Early start for 5 of us who travelled back to Townsville together on the 9am ferry. The others were departing for Airlie Beach where I will go in a few days time after my diving. I booked into a hostel which they told me was 5 minutes walk away, half an hour later I arrived sweating buckets. The hostel – Civic Guesthouse is the worst I have stopped in so far, its very old and the staff are not overly friendly. The room is ok as there seems to be only two of us, but its just a little substandard compared to the others. Anyway its just a bed for tonight so I can go diving tomorrow. Townsville is very much like the hostel, a dump. I was hoping to do some internet work today so went into an internet place, they charge $40 for a 24 hour session – er hello I had it free in China and paid only $10 in both Sydney and Port Douglas. Sod that, and I walked out again. Managed to do some washing and get a bit of food for the next two days. Glad I am not sticking around here much longer I don’t feel that comfortable here. I need to confirm my livaboard trip today so over and out for now… Just rang the dive centre – the dive is cancelled, something to do with the boat not being good, thats their excuse anyway. Not happy as was so looking forward to it. There’s a reason why it happened I guess. They asked me to pop into the dive centre the other side of town so I trapsed down only to find that I had to call the previous hostel to get my refund. Its one of those going round in circles day. So i did some shopping to chear myself up, just what a girl needs, purchasing some new shorts out go those dodgy bright blue size 12 BHS short that I have had 10 years and are far to big for me and in come some nice black modern ones suporting “rip curl australia” on them – half price of course along with some new bathers (or Toggs for Kiwis) Back at the hostel I had to do all that administration stuff, phoning previous hostel for my refund, asking if I can check out of this hostel early to catch Greyhound bus at 6am and booking Airlie Beach hostel. Lots to do. Kitchen at the hostel is so scanky I didn’t want to use it so went back to the room. One other girl was there who we had briefly said hi to each other at the Mission Beach YHA a few days before. We both thought Townsville and the hostel was really dodgy and both out of there in the morning.

Coconut Bowling Champion

Sunday 28th January

An amazing Canadian lady in her mid 60s is in our dorm, we ended up chatting for most of the evening. She’s got so many stories to tell. So this morning a small market was on so three of us – the canadian woman, myself and an english girl called Laura who I had met making a cup of tea in the kitchen at 7am this morning all set off to the beach market. Nothing to shout home about so we headed back to the hostel and lazed about by the pool chatting. It’s a lovely pool, big enough to swim in. There’s more of a mature group of people here – more likeminded and most importantly no Oz Experience. Lunch was over 3 hours as we were chatting away watching the peahens and peacock in the grounds. Such an amazing laid back day in a gorgeous laid back place. The evening drew in, we were sat in the bar area just chatting when one of the owners asked if we wanted to play a round of “coconut bowling” – ten pin bowling with white painted bottles and a coconut. It’s called entertainment on the island. Tonight I am the world champion of Coconut Bowling. I beat nationalities from all over the world, to win a round of drinks. Fantastic and most enjoyable.

Life’s a Beach

Saturday 27th January

As an early riser I was lucky today that most of my dorm were leaving (including a really obnoxious Canadian girl who spoke at you rather than to you). So I was able to get up early too. Breakfast was drawn out for a while as a few of us chatted about our travels and forthcoming plans. I then decided to get my act together and plan the next week. I have booked myself on a Livaboard – diving for 3 days and 3 nights on a boat on the Outer Barrier Reef – how cool!! I hope it runs as they can cancel due to bad weather. So today I took myself off to a number of different beaches via a walking track or two or three. Overall I walked over 10km, went swimming (didnt spot any stingers), sunbathed and read my book and hitched a lift up the hill with some guys who I got chatting to at one of the first beaches. (That’s what the walkers do I was told and its true everywhere you go…always take the weather, the weather with you – and your kettle and tea bags). I eventually rolled up back at the hostel around 4pm, exhausted and ready for some good nosh – leftovers from last nights’ chilli. Theres no free tea and coffee at this hostel, although its a nice place the kitchen and the bugs and lack of a lounge room lets it down a little. Our room does however have its own bathroom which is nice and its clean. Bumped into a woman who I had met in Port Douglas YHA, along with two other english girls who I had shared a room with in Cairns a week ago. Small world when you are travelling. I had made a mistake by not going to the YHA in Mission Beach as all these guys had gone there and spoke very highly of it – hey you live and learn, and if I hadn’t gone there I wouldn’t have known where the “oz experience” stops in hostels down the East Coast so I can now avoid these places. Rah!!!

Australia Day

Friday 26th January

Happy Australia Day to everyone of you out there whereever you are reading this. Eat Pies. So today my adventures took me to Magnetic Island. A four hour journey on coach to Townsville and then a ferry across to Magnetic Island. I was on a ferry full of “Oz Experience” people (18 year old brits mainly out there to do nothing but drink) Luckily I worked out from last nights hostel where these people were staying and booked in elsewhere – far far away on the other side of the island. You see I do have some brains on me! The YHA “bungalow bay” is so quaint; little cabin huts surround a camp ground. As its Australia day lots of silly activities going on. I took the quiet option and went down to the beach where I found the two girls I had just met in my room when I first got to the hostel watching the world go by sipping on ginger ale and coffee. So I joined them as we people watched and chatted for the rest of the afternoon. Their english/switz kindness invited me to have dinner with them – so I wasn’t going to refuse. I contributed a tin of tomatoes to our gormet meal of chilli. The hostel doesn’t have a hanging out room, it only has a bar which was fine for tonights celebrations. Fire dancers came to entertain us for half an hour which was memorising to watch. As the evening pressed on those that had been drinking all day were getting rather roudy including a few silly 18 year old English girls who just stand out a mile (or is that 1.6km), I’m so old sometimes – where’s my cup of tea and packet of tim tams – oh goody I have one pink tim tam left – ok out comes the kettle and tim tam. YUM – Happy Australian Day – Cheers.

On a Mission

Thursday 25th January

Early rise and shine as we were all quite early risers. Hilary managed to get to the beach for a swim before 7am however I was a little slacker as I didn’t sleep that well last night due to being a little chilly. Air Con is great but it was just a little over chilly for my liking. I have also been biten 57 times so I was rather itchy. Hilary had kindly offered me a lift back to Cairns which meant I didnt have to rush for the free shuttle. En route we stopped at a lovely cafe for a tea, coffee and piece of carrot cake. Yum. We also bought lunch here which doubled up for my tea as well purchasing a Pumpkin rice risotto cake which was humongos. Fantastic. I had not booked anything post Cairns but had an idea I was to go 2 hour bus ride down to Mission Beach. As Hilary was dropping the car off and catching the bus down to Mission Beach as well I managed to get on the same coach as her through my big purchase of the week a coach ticket from Cairns to Brisbane with my YHA discount. My YHA card has now well paid for itself. I had no accomodation booked in Mission beach and imagined knocking on hostel doors but as I got off the coach the “touts” were there (people from the hostel with signs) nice and easy, four to choose from. I decided against the YHA this time as it was 7km out of town and opted for somewhere next to the beach called Scotties with an 18m pool. After saying our goodbyes we went on our own seperate missions.(Hilary was meeting her son on Dunk Island for a few days). The hostel “scotties” is different to the YHA. THe “Oz Experience” stops here, more of a younger crowd, though there aren’t many people here so it’s ok. The quality of the accomodation isn’t as good but there is air con and en suit bathroom (although it smells a bit). The room has a fridge which is great (saves using the communal one) and most importantly the room itself has a kettle. OMG the room has a kettle. ARRRRHHHHHH! AND (double AND) there is free tea and coffee in the morning. So all is not bad. Nothing really to do here as there are stingers in the sea so we are not allowed in. Shame really but the pool made up for that as I spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool talking to a few people – one who’s accept I recognised, all the way from Cheery Chesterfield. Hurrah! Only one night here as I move on tomorrow to Magnetic Island. Australia Day tomorrow

All Change

Wednesday 24th January 2007

Bags all packed bed stripped off I was all about to set off for Cairns and Mission Beach today when I came back to my room and Hilary who came in around 2am last night who I had chatted to briefy this morning asked if I wanted to go with her to cape tribulation. What a fantastic invitation I thought. I am in no rush so I took her up on the brilliant offer. funny how initially I felt a bit rubbish on arriving here and so far the people and the place have been fantastic – differnt set up to other hostels more likely to socialse in the dorms than in the lounge area. It’s that TV I blame the TV – ban the TV! So after booking a third night in the hostel we set off on our days’ road journey in a little yellow car to explore the most ancient rainforest in Australia, or in the brouchers “where rainforestmeets the barrier reef” Our first novelty of the day was crossing the daintree river by a little ferry, this is where most tour operators take the hundreds (or 10s up here) of tourists to go crocodile sightseeing. No crocodiles today however. The trail up is full of exciting rainforest boardwalks. The first boardwalk a delightful 1km at Jindalba, the discovery centre was $25 to get in so we gave that a miss and stuck with the freeby walks as they too were educational (but free!) Our next stop was a bay called Moo bay, the proper name being Cow bay – beautiful desolate beach. All these beaches support a bottle of vingegar incase people get attacked by stingers, apparently its supposed to ease the pain. Now you know. The other YHA in this area was the Crocodylus; hidden beneath the rainforest canopy with tent like accomodation. Being nosy we took a visit. It was so peaceful here, somewhat deserted but staff were very friendly and showed us a proper rainforest walk we could do following the orange rope (three guesses what the walk was called…) The walk was the best rainforest walk I have done so far, as it was not boardwalk it was much more authentic and only guided by this orange rope. (Can you guess what it is yet?). Spiders, spiders, spiders and more spiders awaited in our paths, I am getting good at handling them, or at least avoiding them. Lots of rainforest sounds were so welcoming to the ears. A stunning walk of over an hour. We had lunch at the hostel then headed forth to Daintree Ice Cream company where a simple but very very effective set up involved only 2 choices – a small bowl of icecream of four flavoured scoups or a small frozen something or other. Everyone was having the bowl of four flavours of only Rasberry I had tasted before. Everything is grown on site; all the exotic trees are named as we drove through. Simple but very very effective and delicious. Another stop at Thorton Beach, where rainforest did literally meet the beach. Its so beautiful up here. Words can not describe it. Back on foot both Marrdja boardwalk and Dubuji boardwalk took us through rainforest and mangroves where we saw an abundance of wildlife. Both boardwalks were just over 1km so a good distance to fit them all in. And finally up to the stunning view point of Cape Tribulation. This was as far as we could get as the rest was 4WD. By now it was around 5pm but the sun was still beating down, no rain in sight today. A stunning setting of calm and tranquility across Cape Tribulation beach and out to the reef. Back down to cape tribulation village for a nice cup of refresing english breakfast tea, before heading back to our hostel. En route we saw a Cassawara – an amazing creature (I think i saw one yesterday but it didnt register what it was), whilst i was failing to take photos of it (camera steaming up due to the humidity and Cassudora moving so quickly) a young boy going the other way slowed down in his car and asked if we wante to “see something cool” – of course you say “yeah sure” – he pulled out this “bird eating spider” – it was huge, now two females in a car confronted with a spider in the middle of a rainforest road is quite an interesting position to be in. It was all in the name of locals being friendly though. We laughed about it on the way back. What a fantastic day, we had. Hilary was great company – we enjoyed all the same things a most beautiful day. All in the name of not planning.

Porto’call

Tuesday 23rd January 2007

Feeling 110% again today and very happy after a relaxing evening in the dorm. Sounds wierd or unsociable but actually it ended up being very sociable as the two other girls in the dorm had the same idea, so we spent the evening chatting and sharing recommendations. The hostel is infact lovely, the room is very much like a big hotel room with ensuite bathroom – very clean, luggage storage and a fridge, so out came the kettle – although I got laughed at by my fellow roommates it started off a conversation about the item of luxury that people travel with. The younger girl carries around her hair straightners with her and the older woman carries around a humongous tub of body lotion. Me, I carry around my flask and my gigantic beach towel. So sun blazing this morning I headed to the internet cafe to sort out my accounts but it was shut so I went for a walk up to a view point to see 4 mile beach. Gorgeous white sand stretching as far as the eye could see. Back down town the internet cafe had opened so I used my token to sort out my accounts. Something has gone wrong as I can not access the account on line either, so out came the credit card to draw money out. The only reason I dont use credit card to draw out money is that I have a Nationwide Debit card which doesn’t charge for transactions abroad. Clever huh? Their credit card is also very good as they don’t charge on that for items spent abroad (but do charge for transactions) – so there is Helen’s handy financial tip of the day. Helen’s second financial tip of the day is also a great money saver, which I was telling people about the other day. Most hostels have a “free food” shelf of both dry and perishable goods. I always check this out before heading to the supermarket, you never know what great goodies you can find in there. Of course always check the date on things. There are often herbs and spices, salad dressings, rice, pasta or couscous (as I got yesterday) which are all in date and save money buying packets and transporting them around with you. The other day someone left 2 gigantic tomatoes which I knew were fresh as they hadn’t been there the day before. It’s easy to be tight on a tight budget. Some hostels also provide free tea and coffee like this YHA that I am staying at. Take advantage of it – saves a fortune if you are an avid tea drinker. Also check whether things allow you a discount with your YHA card, I can save myself $40 with it on my transport ticket apparently. Lecture over…. Walking back to the hostel a local guy shouted to me, thought in my very english way that it was a bit odd, but he was being friendly, and we chatted all the way back to the hostel. How quaint and friendly I thought. Quaint and sweet. It’s nice that people can do that, just chat down the street. I couldn’t see that happening back at home. So this afternoon I went to a gorge which was lovely, Mossman gorge set in the Daintree National park boasts an amazing downpour of rain around the 1pm region. Those clear blue skies of Port Douglas are all an illusion for when you step deep into the rainforest, the forest glitters with raindrops, more raindrops and even more raindrops. The raindrops seap through any clothing you are wearing and right though any backpack. However it is still around 35 degrees. It was an amazing experience walking 3km in the drenching rain. I am being serious here for once too. I loved this place so magical despite everything being Wet Wet Wet (wasn’t that the name of a Scottish pop band of some sort or other once upon a time?

Congratulations from Port Douglas

Monday 22nd January 2007

First and formost I would like to say a huge congratulations to my 2 mates back in Brum – Veronica and Noax (they even have a joint flickr account bless them). They have just got engaged after nearly 6 years. They met at a housewarming that me and an old flatmate had way back when I lived in smelly London – so big congratulations to you both from Port Douglas in Queensland Australia. (The birthday card is on its way hope this compensates for lack of an engagement card!) The rest of my adventures will commence soon…

Got picked up by the shuttle bus at my next hostel – Portocall (YHA) today; a great service, its about an hours drive from Cairns to Port Douglas so that saved me some hassle and money. We even stopped en route to take photos. The YHA here is lovely, clean and very quiet. Just what I feel I needed. I found a laptop friendly cafe and bought a 24 hour geek session. It’s a good 20 minute walk into town thats the only problem so I will go back there tomorrow morning to finish off all my catching up. How time flys when you are having fun, I didn’t realise it but the afternoon soon passed by. I wondered around Port Douglas for a while, taking in the tranquility of this quaint town, bought some supplies for evening tea and attempted to stock up on $$$. However the cash machines have refused to give me any cash despite there being enough money in my account. I have the receipts of proof of doing a transaction so I am hoping nothing has gone wrong. I will have to sort this out tomorrow morning. I have exactly $15.95 on me and the trip I want to do tomorrow will cost me $16. Oh dear. As mentioned already – I heard my friends back in Birmingham UK have got engaged. Bless them. That put a smile on my face, as did chatting to my friend on MSN who I had left behind in Melbourne, as well as being able to catch up with a few emails (appologies for anyone who I have yet to email). I am feeling a little homesick today, I guess its a combination of being away for over 2 months, not having contact with friends or family due to lack of internet, phone running out of credit and the telephone in the last hostel being in the kitchen (what a stupid place to put a phone talk about not being able to have your own privacy). So I think I deserved a good geeky session don’t you? The hostel is very quiet but people seem friendly enough – that’s quite nice though I wouldn’t want to stay here too long I don’t think. Or maybe today I am just having a bit of a downer day. My washing that I did when I first arrived at the hotel is still wet, its been sub tropical rain today. There are dryers but I would like to avoid them if I can. Lets leave it out overnight and see what happens. At least the hostel is nice.