Hey peeps, so since my last blog, I have started travelling on the Oz Experience Bus, which is awesome! Its a bus, that has 24 seats, so it's quite a small and sociable/personal bus; which is taking me from Cairns all the way south down to Adelaide. The great thing about the bus is that you can jump on and off at a stop for how ever long you want (ie how much you love/loathe the place!) The Oz Experience has a bus driver/guide who are great, really fun/crazy and tell you the history about areas, what they would recommend to do, basically they help you with your trip and they can book your accomendation if your feeling lazy; I've also played the crazy game, that is WINDOW BINGO!!! The only negitive of the bus, is that there isnt that much leg space for a 6'2 guy, ha! Travelling down the east coast in parts, makes it easier as well, as they journeys are shorter and more compact, and the scenery I have passed is just breath taking! The bus has been great, as a lone traveller, as I've met some really cool people, and I'm now travelling with a group of 8 people, Matt, Cath, Gemma, Gareth, Louise and Sicdly (her name is spelt wierd, they are from Denmark), Ailie (Scottish) and the rest are from the UK, who I met on the bus. It's great to be travelling with a group, as its alot of fun, doing different activities together in the day, cooking dinner as a group and then partying by night! So since I hopped on the bus at Cairns, I've been travelling with these guys; from Cairns to Mission Beach, Magnectic Island and now Airlie Beach/Whitsundays. So the question is, what have I been doing at all these places?!
My first stop was Mission Beach, where I stayed for one night. But before we got there we had a pit spot at a crocadile farm, which was so awesome; because I got to hold some aussie animals! First I held a baby croc, which was cool, very slimy/scaly skin, I had a parrot on my shoulder, ARGH MATEY, and wait for it........ I even managed to challenge myself to hold a snake, which was a bit freaky as it wrapped itself around my neck and started hissing, ha, but it was so cool to do, and you only live once! I also got to hold a dingo, they are wild dogs, but the one I held was so tame and was falling asleep in my arms, nearly as cute as Lottie :O, obviously in the wild they aren't like this, they are dangerous and have attacked people; so I will be staying away from them when I go to Fraser Island! I also feed some kangers, which was cute as they held you arm, as they ate from your hand, so cute! I then saw some of the crocs being fed, and boy, these animals are so deadly, their jaws are so powerful, more than twice as strong as a shark's jaw!! Ouch!!!
After the croc farm we went through the wettest town in Australia, Babinda (cool name). Beacuse its the wettest place down under; it was awarded the Golden Gun boot, and the locals are very proud of this. Tully, which is near Babinda also gets alot of rain, so the two towns are big rivals, competing for the gumboot; and they get very competitve. One year Babinda beat Tully and the Tully people couldn't believe they lost, they thought they had much more rain so they hired lawyers, it turned out that Babinda didn't have a post office, so they couldn't be called a town, so Tully won it that year! So you get how crazy competitive these two towns are towards each other, for being super wet, I wouldn't be so proud myself!!! Tullycurrenlty holds the record of the wettest year in 1950 with 7.9 metres (glad I'm not living there)!!!
So after stopping off on all those places, I arrived at Mission Beach! Mission Beach is a pretty small place, so not much was going on, but the beach was beaut, just a shame the weather wasn't as great! I had my first barbie, burgers and sauages, yummers, and my first experience of the vileness that is called goon. What is goon you ask? It's the most aweful wine ever, basically its really cheap, poor, quality wine (it has fish bones it in :O), but it gets ya drunk quickly, so it does the trick; even though after every sip I wanted to barf! Lovely image there for you all!!! So that's all I really got up to in Mission Beach; and the next day I jumped back on the bus with some of the gang I met on the previous bus, heading over to Magnetic Island.
Magnetic Island is just offshore of Townsville, so we had to get a ferry over there! Magnetic Island got it's name from Captain Cook; when he found it, in the 1770s; because his compass went crazy on the island (apprantly due to a magnetic vibe), sounds a bit like Lost, huh?! So, the hostel we stayed at was awesome, it was less than 1 metre from the beach, heaven! I stayed in a beach hut (so cool), which was right by the sea, so it was a great sight to wake up to; and the sound of the waves crashing against the rocks! I went on the Forts Walk, which was SUCH an effort in the heat, alot of uphill climbing with a hangover.... But I managed to spot some wild koolas, as around 700 live in the area! We managed to spot a mum and baby koola, so cute!!! I really wanted to stroke them, but koola's have chlamydia, and this causes them to go blind; so I didn't think it was a good idea to touch one! At the top of the hill/mountain, there were awesome views of the whole island, a beaut sight! In the evening me and some of the group sat at the beach at night, playing drinking games with goon, happy days!
The next day, we hired a Moke, (a four wheeled buggy) which you can drive around the island, so we got to explore the city more; and it was a topless car, which was great in the hot weather, and the breeze was good times! We went over to Horseshoe bay, and all 8 of us, in groups of 4 went tubing! Basically you sit in a tube and get pulled along the sea, by a speed boat, which was awesome, we went really fast and it was a bit of a rush! We then went to part of the island where wild rock wallabies live, where we feed them carrots, and these critters look similar to kangers! So, Magnetic Island was such a great secluded place to be, very chilled out, although I don't think I could have stayed longer than 3 nights, because I felt it was just a bit too secluded for me; but it really was a very beautiful and tranquil place to be!Living on an island was very cool!
We then got back onto the Oz Experience, heading over to Airlie Beach. On the way there, we passed through Bowen, which was where the film Australia, with Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman was filmed (a very bad film, as I found out with Helen!). Airlie Beach is a small town, and it's name is a bit silly, as it doesn't actually have a beach(!) so the locals had to make a manmade a beach, so they could keep it's name! The main reason for visting Airlie Beach is that is by the Whitsundays; which are a number of continental islands, 74 in total. That night arriving in Airlie beach, all the people on the bus went out together into town, which was a fun night, and there was lots of free alchol, which is always good! Altough that night I stayed at my worst hostel so far though, as I was about to have a shower and saw a cockroach, YUK, my first ever, not a pleasant sight....... I checked out the next day!
So on Wednesday (I loose track of days and dates so easily when I'm on holiday, ha) Matt, Gemma, Cathy and I went on our sailing trip to the Whitsundays! Our boat was called Habibi, which had a crew of 3 and there were 18 passenegrs! The people on the boat were great, as they were from all over the world, Canada, the states, Germany, Denmark, France, so a great mix of people; and great company for the next two nights! During the trip we visited Whiteheaven beach, which has been listed as one of the best beaches in the world, and the world's top eco friendly beach. The sand is 98% silica, so its very white, and it squeaks when you walk on it, cool huh! I also went snorkling again, in a really cool sexy stinger suit...... On my snorkel adventure I managed to spot a turtle, which was such an awesome sight! The second night we had a barbie on the boat and then played some drinking games; 'Ring of Fire', but with 2 packs of cards, I have never been so drunk, and I passed out on the deck with the stars above me, happy days! It was great being in the Whitsundays, it was such a beautiful place, the islands were an awesome sight and I felt very happy on the sea! Although its takes a while to get used to the rocking on the boat, especially when sleeping; when we came back on land, I still felt like I was rocking!
So I've got one more day in Airlie Beach, and then I'm getting back on the Oz bus with the gang, and heading to Kroombit, a cattle station in the middle of nowhere, where it's compulsory to stay for a night! Here we can ride a mechanic bull and go quad biking! I will kinda of get to experience a little bit of the outback. After that I'm heading onto Hervey Bay to go Whale watching!!! It's a tough life........
Until next time, Angus x
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