A Snippet of Life

  Feeling smug having left the cyclone in Airlie behind, we made it after a very long, overnight, 13hour train journey, full of mostly watching kangaroos looking stunned like Meerkats, and attempting to get some sleep (NEXT TIME WE ARE GETTING SLEEPER CABIN) Despite the sun disappointing us and hiding, I still am yet to see a temperature below 17 degrees (and that was half 5 AM!).   Even though there was a cyclone up north, people were still surfing the mahoosive waves, unbeknown to us, these were probably professionals and so we thought we'd get out there and LEARN how to surf! Not our best decision! We failed and came straight back to switch surf boards for body boards (people staring at us thinking those two don't have a clue!) An equally bad decision for my stomach- grazed to shreds as the board was like sandpaper! But it was very fun nonetheless and the sun even came out to play for a bit!    Another good thing about our visit to Maloolaba, was that w...

  Well aren't I a lucky girl! After a day full of gorgeous salads (yes an actual proper meal), sunshine , failing to beat H at spit (card game, not competitive AT all) and a tub full of ice-cream we left Townsville and headed for Airlie beach. Still having seen zero old buildings: everything is so modern, everyone is so friendly and everywhere has beautiful weather! Apart from mishearing a guy on the platform, thinking he said "alright bitch" and giving him a 'piss off' face, when actually he said "Airlie beach?", a friendly question, we arrived without any bother! And so excited for it all! The first night was tame...a huge ass meal, free bevvie, spot of TOAD RACING (no that's not a typo!) and then bed, ready for the rest of it!    Day 2, and a day full of chillaxing, money saving, and prepping for our big night out. We hit happy hour at every pub (experts at this game!) and it was all going well, until two friendly Aussies joined us...friendly ...

  Surprisingly enough, we made it to the 7am train from Cairns! Such a beautiful and relaxing journey too: comfy seats, inboard tv entertainment, a pack of chocolate biscuits (within budget) and the most amazing scenery, for 6 hours! Beautiful sunshine the whole way, and it did stay with us to greet us on our arrival at Townsville. A slight dip in the day when we found our walk to the hostel was about a billion miles long, in mid-day, blistering heat - HELL. But, we made it! Dropped bags off and straight to the beach! Followed by THE most delicious cocktail looking over the sea, can you think of a better way to spend a day?   Day two we hopped on the ferry over to magnetic island! Basically paradise. Full of beautiful bays, sun, sea and sand, and very little amount of civilisation, perfect! The walk from our base (ironic that our hostel was actually called 'Base') felt like we were literally walking through the desert with one shop every 2km!!! The hostel itself was the be...

Harriet (number 2) arrived !! And haven't the Australians/ everyone we've met found that so funny- hilarious! It's really not, but easy enough to introduce "we are the Harriet's". Makes us sound like a famous double act doesn't it? HAVENT YOU HEARD OF US! Anyway...train scenario still at a low, and not at all sorted (I know, I too thought it was), we decided to just forget about it for a while and get on with our day. After having THE most amazing ice cream that I reckon there is on the planet, a bit of wandering in the sun (YES SUN IN CAIRNS) we headed back to the backpackers, met some lovely people, one of which got us a taxi two blocks away (we are NOT lazy) to our free meal! Wehey! Bangers and mash, in true British style! And then for the pub crawl. Most of which was a bit of a blur, but success in that I had lots of picture memories, one pub was an Irish pub (always a good laugh), we found our way back to our room, and at the end of the night we had ...

  Today the clan left me, and headed reluctantly on their homeward journey! I was left a lovely apartment for three nights, so I could clean the smell of the jungle off everything (including myself) and relax before the backpacking began. Unbeknown to me how hard that would be. Made me think of home, missing everyone back there, and missing the clan. I saw my first Australian tramps, and was approached by a few! But it's all part of the adventure. The weather didn't help much either- RAIN, "welcome to the tropics" they all told me! Put it this way, I am just extremely eager for my friend to arrive, so that we can head onwards on our travels and find some sun!!!   Wednesday: nice little start to the day, sun beginning to come out, me feeling chirpy, head to the train station to ask about our ticket...WE HAVE THE WRONG TICKET! Minor insignificant detail, I kept telling myself...whilst hyperventilating in a complete panic!! ...all sorted though by the following day (...

  An hour flight from Hamilton Island to Cairns,brought us to our shiny, silver 4X4 which was taking us to the jungle! After we had listened to the typical Aussie accent "turn right, mate"for 2 hours, we too a short pit-stop at Mossman Gorge, where our Aboriginal guide, Rosie, was to show us around the Rain-forest (among the bugs!) It really was very interesting and she had a good sense of humour, which made it a whole lot more fun- a very inspirational lady indeed. She gave us 5 philosophies of life, of which I have forgotten all (memory like a fish),however she did keep telling us to LOVE and BE STRONG!  So... we arrived and walked among the trees to our cabin. 3 bunk beds and a double inside effectively a marque with walls, covered in mesh- basically a big mosquito net! All beds were surrounded by a mosquito net as well, which seemed daunting at first (me being the complete paranoid fool that I am), but became quite cosy, away from the wretched bugs! In the corner of the...

  After a 2 hour flight up the coast of the same country (there is no such thing as 'popping' to anywhere in Oz!), we arrived, with beautiful sunshine and heat welcoming us with a smile. A taxi waiting outside to  take us to our apartments all seemed well and good until we climbed inside to find that we had to endure a 30 minute journey listening to possibly the two dumbest English girls, about my age, who were "travelling" but clearly not in my backpacking, find the cheapest accommodation and decide between food or beer each day, sense of the word! Are you with me? Yes, they came out with some corkers! On the way, we passed some sugar cane, and the driver pointed out that is where a lot of the sugar is produced for this area..."OH MY GOD, does sugar come from this far away all the time?", piped up the brown haired, big Boobed, bimbo..."no, mainly the Middle East", her friend chirped in ( and the whole time I'm thinking BURY ST EDMUNDS SUGAR B...