Yellow Brick Road - part 1

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Yo yo blog fans! This is my story from Cairns to Sydney. Down the yellow brick road... The "blog diary" style of writing seemed to work well. So I'll try to write about the coast section by section. Instead of one big summary at the end... So, do your belt up tight! Coz it's gonna be a bumpy ridddeee!

So... I arrived in Carins by bus after leaving MORDOR, aka #Idontevenrememberthatname bullshit farm. It was a nice sunny day, and Cat was there waiting for me at the terminal with her friend Laura. We checked into a hostel in the middle of town, and went straight out for a pub dinner and catch up. Cat told me all the things thats booked for us, and our schedule down the coast. As I left it all up to her to organize, and I had no clue... Our first day trip was the Great Barrier Reef. Not a bad start ay? We got up early to set out for the day. We had 2 different dive spots to visit, and the sea and coral looked sexxxy from the boat... The snorkeling didn't go quite as "swimmingly". (See what I did there?) Cat was having a bit of a hissy fit as she asked for a wet-suit and they gave her an XXS. She got in it, just, but it was so tight she walked and swam like she was doing the robot or something lol. I was also having troubles with my mask. I kept getting water in my mouth. Then Cat switched her mask with mine, and she had the same problem with it. I went back to change it, and the guys kept saying our heads wernt up right, or its because of my tash, or any other excuse they could think of. Eventually I got a good one, and we were both able to have a decent swim on the 2nd spot we visited... To be honest, with the reputation the barrier reef has, I was expecting the colours of the coral and the fish to be more amazing. It was still a good day, but I reckon snorkeling in Mexico and Belize was just as good, or better. Maybe this boat didn't take us to the best spots. I heard some boats go way further out, but they go on over night trips. So, I dunno.. Other than the reef in Cairns, we checked up on my visa, and went to the lagoon. Which is a public pool / man made beach... My visa is still on hold and being investigated though... Hmmm...

After Carins we got the Greyhound bus to Mission Beach. We drove past other banana farms and rural areas. Bad memories... One guy got on with the worst b.o. EVER and sat right in front of us. So farm life is still managing to haunt me... Our main reason for being in Mission was SKYDIVING :) Was so excited. There wasn't much else at Mission, except a nice long quiet beach. We got up early on our first day, to get picked up by the skydive team. They took us to the base, and signed us all in and gave us safety talks etc. The group before us came back with massive grins telling us how good it was, and that we would love it. We then got our harnesses on, got video interviewed and photos taken by the crew and driven to the airport. It was all starting to sink in that we were jumping out of a bloody plane! As we got there, the crew said the clouds were getting a bit thick, but we should be fine to go in 15mins... We waited 15mins... 15mins turned to half an hour, half an hour turned to an hour... They then decided we should go back for lunch, then come back out later... FML blog fans. We got picked up at 7am and ended up waiting ALL DAY to jump, and it never happened! It was a bit depressing... We were so close and totally psyched, and Mission Beach is supposed to be one of the world's best skydive spots. With views of Dunk Island and the Barrier Reef below it, and then landing on the beach. We ended up rescheduling it for Byron Bay, which I'm sure will be great, but... im still a little bit pissed lol.

We were scheduled to leave Mission Beach the next day... The weather was perfect... Perfect for skydiving... FML... I was starting to feel my sinus infection flaring up. I usually get problems with it 3 or 4 times a year, and I was due some illness... Just seemed to rub salt in the wound a little more. But I was happy anyway, as we were off to see MAGNETIC ISLAND. The place was best. And a perfect place to get over farming or illness. We checked into Base hostel, which was right on a beach, with a pool, a bar, little cabins, great views, and it was the perfect place to either chill out, or have some drunken fun. We also spent a lot of time on the island going on walks to different bays and different view points. It was really nice. I even found a $50 note on the floor one day! I never find money! I felt a bit guilty and thought I might get bad karma, but there was no one around to claim it... I fed a possum some left over food one night. They're ridiculously tame. But it accidentally bit my finger, so I reckon that's the karma "biting back". I was hoping I wouldn't get a disease or more Ill, but so far I've only had diarrhea... We met some really cool people in Magnetic. We should be seeing them more. On our last day a few of us walked to a night market, which took about an hour longer than I expected. When we got there we ate, and saw a TOAD RACE. People were actually betting on which toad will win. They even gave the toads names, coloured ribbons, nationalities and everything! Made me remember I really am on the other side on the world...

One ferry and one Greyhound bus later, we arrived in Airlie Beach. Its most famous for the WHITSUNDAYS boat trips, which is why we were there too. But I actually liked Airlie itself. The town was small with everything you need on one strip. Subway, McDonald's, bars, pubs, clubs, and lots of cheap shops. In fact, the whole town was pretty cheap. Kinda like a holiday in Spain where everything down the strip is competitively priced. They also have a SICK lagoon there too. Cairns lagoon was nice, but this was better... Anyway on the 2nd day we set off for 3 days and 2 nights, sailing around the Whitsundays on a boat called "Spank Me". The captain assured everyone this was not a party / sex boat, and "spank me" actually meant it was fast, and it was a challenge to other boats to beat it in a race... Seemed unlikely to me. Wasn't really in the mood to be on a boat full of young drunk arrogant guys, trying to impress girls and showing off etc. But the group we had and the staff on board were actually perfect. 26 people and 3 staff. Everyone was really cool... We went on a few snorkeling trips on the first day. Technically, we were still in the southern part of the Great Barrier Reef, but I would actually say this part was a lot better snorkeling. Most people I've spoken to don't necessarily agree, so maybe we just had a crap boat in Cairns. On the 2nd day on the boat we visited WHITEHAVEN BEACH. This is probably only one of three or four beaches in the world I really wanted to visit, even before I left the UK. It was the SEX! It was actually SEXUALLY AROUSING... Definitely the best beach ive ever seen in my life. And I'm about 90% sure I'll never beat Whitehaven. Def didn't disappoint. We all got woken up early on the final day to go snorkeling with turtles! Its only the 2nd time ive ever done this, and I love it. "I like turtles!" As the little zombie American kid would say. All in all, the Whitsundays was awesome... An after party was arranged by the staff as we left the boat, back at Airlie. So I started drinking all my left over booze from the boat at 6pm. I then met everyone else at the first bar for free pizza and drinks at 7:30. Then between 8pm and 5am, things got a lil strange... A girl invited a load of us round her hostel for drinks, but when we got there she was locked in the bathroom, passed out with some guy. I then realized I somehow had about 900 raffle tickets in my pocket for a $100 prize. But the pub seemed to close 10mins before the draw was due. By this time, the remaining 5 or 6 of us decided to sit in a park and drink someones left over goon. Gangster... We got interrupted by the friendliest policeman ever, who seemed to let us drink the last cup or two before sending us off. We then went to the only club open, danced like special kids, and ended up in McDonald's eating all the world cup themed hamburgers they had... Good night... On the last day I just wondered from place to place chatting to anyone with a 2ltr bottle of choccy milk. I seemed to know everyone in town. Felt popular :p I battled the hangover til midnight, then caught a 9hr night bus to our next town...

Cue the town of "1770"... (Yeah, that's its actual name). We checked in to a hostel called "Cool Bananas". A lot of online reviews said the hostel owner was a dick... Couldn't of said it better myself blog fans. Only a hour or two after checking in, he came straight up to me, and asked my name and room number. So I told him. He then stood next to us, flicking through all his reservation cards for 10mins and asked everyone on our table which rooms they were in. One German friend said "I'm not actually staying here tonight". And the owner basically told him to piss off in the rudest, most unnecessary way. Then he said "I knew there was a strange vibe about this table" like we were hiding something! It was in the middle of the day and we were having a casual chat. The whole hostel was full of "cliquey" long termers anyway. So it wasnt the most welcoming place... Got up early the next morning for the CASTAWAY tour. Two nights on a lonely, deserted island... Sounds bit like farm work really... I set an alarm, but some chubby girl in the bunk below me woke me up with her farts... Three very loud panty ripping ones. So I was wide awake... We got picked up by Bruce the pilot. He was flying us to the castaway island. The flight was awesome! The views and everything were beautiful, but he also did some craazzyy stunts to make us shit ourselves. At one point he even cut off the engine and let us freefall for a couple seconds! He loved it... he has a youtube page of him filming girls jiggling in the plane called "Bruce's Bouncing Boobs"... But he's probably the nicest pervert you'll ever meet blog fans... The island experience itself wasn't really very "castaway" like. We all had tents, lighters, food, alcohol, nice beach... No hunting or shelter building was necessary. We did a few walks and saw big lizards and wild turkeys, kayaked on the beach, and we all helped cook together by the fire like a family... We also played drinking games with goon - naturally... The only problem there was the sand flies and mosquitoes. The mozzies were bad, but the sand flies were relentless! On the last day, 3 of us got up to kayak towards the sunrise and see dolphins... But we didn't really see anything too interesting... We got picked up from the beach by Bruce again, and checked back in to Cool Bananas. The owner hassled me again, more long term pricks, bad people, bad vibes, bad times... Natalie told me and Cat it was her favorite hostel on the eastcoast when she was here... psst Natalie...
We finished our time in 1770 with a beach bbq with everyone from the castaway island - GOOD people, GOOD vibes, GOOD times... psst Natalie... :D

So that's basically what's happened in the last couple of weeks blog fans! Our next stops Fraser Island which everyone told me will be AWESOOMMEE. Might be a lot of blogtastic things happening, so I'll split the eastcoast trip into 2 or 3 blogs... I think I'll leave it there for now though... Tune in for the continuation of this yellow brick road voyaaggee...

Til then...
Keep those shorts TIIIIIIIGHT

Zeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeepu!!!

Cha x