Well the morning after Julie's birthday celebrations, we lazed around on the beach until it was time for our bus which would transport us to Agnes Waters/1770. Arrived at 10pm and crashed into a rather rickety bed and slept. Awoke to find beautiful sunshine and (miraculously) no rain! So we spent the morning exploring Agnes and 1770, which took about 15 minutes! And then we booked onto a scooter/chopper tour of the towns. Julie chose a chopper, a mini Harley, and I chose a scooter. Ok, so mine didn't look as impressive as Julie's (that's why there isn't a picture of me on mine!!) but we both had a really good time, riding around for 3 hours and then ending up sitting on the beach at 1770 watching the sun set. Beautiful! Then on board another over night bus (last one!!) to Airlie beach, the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands.
If you know myself and Julie well, then you'll know that we do not make good sailors, although I am slightly better than Julie! So we decided that a 2 night/3 day trip on a boat would be suicide and a day trip would be a much more sensible idea. So we got to see the major sights of the Whitsundays and the weather wasn't that fantastic so we weren't that fussed about condensing them into one day.
As usual, the place where everyone raves about the nightlife, was a let down for me and Julie because we don't really enjoy the big party 18-20s atmosphere. So we had a quiet night in with hot chocolate and Tim-tams (divine!) and a chat with a boy from Bolton (spotted the accent a mile away!). Decided that there wasn't that much else to see in Airlie so we boarded the early morning bus to Mission Beach and checked into Scotty's after a 9 hour journey.
Again there didn't seem to be much to Mission so we booked the bus to Cairns for the next day and enjoyed a few hours of sunbathing and then a night out in the local bar with the friendly locals.
Finally, we made our last bus journey (thankfully the shortest) to Cairns and settled down for a few days exploring the Queensland capital. We stayed for a couple of nights in a hostel called the Park View, which was adequate accommodation, but the staffing left a lot to be desired! Run by 2 ageing brothers and an old woman (at least 80) who seemed to be the only cleaner, the energy efficiency officer and water saving monitor! Explain later.
But apart from the humourous lodgings, we embarked upon a day's snorkelling on the reef (not as impressive as Fiji) and white water rafting on the Barron River (great fun).
Whilst shopping in the night market, we met Seb and Nicole, who we had shared the Stray experience with in New Zealand. It's a small world after all!
So the next (and our last) day was spent sunbathing at the Lagoon, which is the closest thing to a beach that Cairns has. For those of you who aren't acquainted with Cairns, I must inform you that it is a city built on mud flats. When we visited 10 years ago, there was no Lagoon and so the nearest beach/swimming was an hour away in Port Douglas. Not great. So someone designed and built a beach/swimming pool and so, now, Cairns is a lot more attractive and much more of an attraction.
And so the end of our visit to the Land of Oz. It was supposed to be 10 days longer but myself and Julie decided that money was running short and that we needed a change of scenery. One beach in Australia looks pretty much the same as all of them! No offence to Australia.
And so it is with excitement in our hearts that we cross the sea one last time before our return to England.
Watch out Asia, here we come!!
xx L |
Locations Visited: Airlie Beach, Mission Beach, Cairns, Singapore City
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