Oz Experience to Townsville & Magnetic Island

*please read previous post before, as was posted same day*

MONDAY 3RD AUGUST

We woke up EXTREMELY early, at about 5am to get ready and get our taxi into town to be ready for the Oz Experience bus - as it turned out, we were about 1.5 hours early for it, oh well better to be there early! The bus pulled up right on the dot at 7.20am as scheduled. We were slightly worried about luggage, as the paperwork states on 15kg... and lets just say mine is alot more than that! - and Sarah's suitcase is HUGE! But there was no problem as you pretty much stock up the compartments yourself. As we got going, the driver introduced himself as 'SCOOTER' and told us what we'd be doing that day. Basically, Oz Experience don't just drive you to places, they stop at various points of interest on the way. - The bus also doesnt have a toilet, so these stops are pretty neccessary! The first stop was a small town, which gets the most rainfall of anywhere in Australia, as it's next to all the rainforests and mountain ranges - I think the most that they ever had was about 10meters in a year.



Next up we stopped at a 'croc farm' - where we fed kangaroos, saw Cassowarys (finally), Dingos and a large amount of Crocodiles in various enclosures. We also saw the feeding of the crocs, which was really a site to be seen. How this young lad did not get eaten I do not know. He was shouting "C'MON BRUNO, GET UP GET UP" and hitting them on the nose with a stick to make them come out of the water for the big lump of chicken meat. The rule is that if they don't come out the water and 'work' for their food, they don't get any. Apparently Crocodiles don't need to eat that often, they get their energy from the sun. There was an opportunity to hold a baby croc, which had it's jaw held together with Cellotape, but I swear this little baby was eyeing me up, even when other people were holding it. So I decided I wasnt going to risk it, thank you very much.



Another quick stop to grab lunch and then on to Townsville. The driver announced that "no-one in their right mind would want to stay there" - to which we said "uhhh... we are for one night". - he gave his condolences.



Townsville was quite a nice place really... I would describe it as Kingston, with a port... and in the twilight zone, as it was just dead. - All the bars and pubs said that they were open... as in Monday - Friday etc etc but nowhere was... maybe it was low season... or maybe a bank holiday?

The place we were staying at was certainly interesting... resembling an old prison. The room was like a cell as well, with white breeze block walls and painted concrete floors.



We had a long walk around Townsville and took some pictures of some of the sights. One of these was a HUGE spider hung across the road on a 'web', which was really quite scary! - Some kind of art I think! In the evening, Sarah and I went to a curry house, which was attached to the hostel. It was very nice, but they got our order wrong. Sarah had asked for VERY mild and I wanted medium. They swapped these unfortunately, so we had to swap!



Sarah and I both had a great night sleep as we didn't actually have anyone else in our cell (room), so the only snoring was me for ten seconds - must have been REALLY comfortable!


TUESDAY 4TH AUGUST

Woke up quite early again and got the bus down to the ferry which took us to Magnetic Island - so called because Captain Cook (again) had had a bit of compass trouble when they sailed around it. The weather had gotten ALOT nicer, not a cloud in the sky - phew. Once we got to the island, which is VERY tropical and full of palm trees and hills. Reminded me alot of Maui or maybe the LOST island.



We got to BASE hostel very quickly, having heard alot about this hostel, supposedly the 'best hostel in australia'. Not sure I would go that far, it certainly has the best location, RIGHT on the beach, but there was a few 'issues' we had with them. i.e. the wireless didnt work, half the computers didnt work, the kayak and bike hire wasnt available during our stay, the MOKE hire (small barbie cars) were alot more expensive than we had come to expect.
- $78 for the day!?!? that's more than a regular car. There was also a shortage of fruit juice, so the cocktail list consisted of 1 choice. The dorms were basically a hut built off of the ground with not alot of room and quite alot of ants.

Otherwise it's a pretty nice hostel and the food at the bar was EXCELLENT - very much enjoyed our 2 meals and free breakfast!!!

For this day, Sarah and I had a little hike over to the next bay - Picnic Bay, which involved a very steep slope and then lots of stairs going down. Picnic bay was very secluded and had a little fishing pier. We stopped for a milkshake at an italian family restaurant before heading back for a nap and then dinner.




WEDNESDAY 5TH AUGUST

Today we decided to rent bikes and cycle around the island. As the hostel rental place was not open, we walked for about 20 minutes down the road to the nearest shop. - Somehow, they had the new releases of our favourite magazines?! - so a day before most mainland shops? very weird. Anyway, the lady at the till told us about a nearby rental shop which we got to quickly and rented a bike for the day for $20.00. We had a good ride around just to remind ourselves how to ride a bike! We rode back to the port and went to go round to the next bay - horseshoe bay, but Sarah wasn't brave enough to cycle round the high corner on the road. So instead, we rode back to the hostel and then continued further to Picnic bay again, which involved cycling down a very steep hill. It was fun riding so fast! - yes we had borrowed helmets too.



After around 3 hours of cycling and some very sore bums, we returned back to the shop to return the bikes and then back to the hostel for a fantastic dinner and a few cocktails. We also saw a possum climbing one of the palm trees on our way back to the room.

White Water Rafting

28th July 2009

Today I mainly just relaxed and recuperated after a long long day, in order to get rested and ready for White Water Rafting the next day. In the evening we mainly just went into town for our free meal at The Rhino Bar, or The Wool Shed, we managed to get free food from either.




29th July 2009

We woke up VERY VERY VERY early... at around 5.00am to be picked up just after 6am by R'n'R, can't remember what that stands for, but this is the company we had gone through to do white water rafting on the Tully River, just 2 hours south of Cairns. The guides were very funny and the journey passed weirdly quickly and we were not bored at any point. - Although I did get a migraine pretty much as soon as we got onto the bus, but luckily it was not that bad a one and I managed to shake it within an hour. During the journey, the driver played a DVD of some rafting footage, mostly showing people falling in! - I'm sure they do that on purpose! The guides also gave us a brief of what we would be doing for the day. I made a decision that my challenge for the day would be to not fall in (unless I wanted to).

When we eventually got to the location, i.e. quite near the top of the Tully River. Apparently the rapids are manufactured by a power plant who have turbines that generate the fast flowing water. We changed into our safety gear; a fetching pink helmet, a red splash jacket, with puffy yellow life jacket. We then armed ourselves with paddles and strode down to the river to be split into teams of 6 (plus guide at the back). Sarah and I were put with a family of 4 Americans. (Dad, 2 daugters around 16 and one son about 13/14). The American family had experience of Rafting already having done it twice before. It took a while to get used to the instructions, alot like driving a car, as your natural instinct is to let go of the paddle with a certain hand, which actually makes it dangerous for other people. We had 2 practise rapids, which were on their own. The first one, a grade 2 was quite easy but the second was grade 4, which was alot harder. Unfortunately Sarah took the instructions a little too literally and wedged her foot under the bit of raft infront of her; which the American Dad (big guy) had then sat on. What happened was; when the raft hit the grade 4 rapid, it shunted us one way and as her foot was stuck, her knee wasnt able to go that direction too. - She was in quite a bit of pain, but after a quick assessment by the instructor, it was assumed it wasn't too serious and Sarah bravely insisted on continuing with the rafting; albeit in rather more pain.

Just after this incident, it was announced that we had to get into the water, to show we could demonstrate the floating technique - i.e. keeping your legs together and up out of the water and your arms out - looking rather like Jesus on the Cross! I was not impressed with this at all, I hadn't planned on getting into the water until maybe a swim at the end of the day. - The water was actually quite warm and it was pretty fun being carried slowly downstream! The main issue was getting yourself back into the raft, not easy with all that extra weight and bulkiness.

The rest of the morning passed well, we seemed to make a good team and were able to overtake other teams with ease, with one instructor shouting out "is this the olympic team?". Just before lunch, every one of the 11 rafts were taken under a waterfall - which "is a hot spring" - WHAT A LIE! - it was freezing! Lunch consisted of a 'MAKE YOUR OWN BURGER' with a sausage and fruit with tea/coffee. Due to health and safety rules, they were not able to give Sarah any pain killers, so I went off with our instructor to get my ibroprofen from my bag. When I got back to Sarah, the other instructors had bandaged up her knee. Anyway, we all got back into the raft. It was suggested that Sarah and I swapped places so that her left knee couldnt get stuck. - Not such a good plan, as the first rock that we bumped into, sent us shooting over to the right side of the raft and me food right into Sarah's knee - oops!

We did a few more rapids etc and then came to one called "guides revenge" - hmmm I was fully prepared that this was gonna be a toughy where they pretty much plan on getting everyone to fall in. - little did I know that the instructors actually engineer it so they can push everyone in. As the impact came and every other 'civillian' was pushed with the force into the river, I somehow managed to keep my balance and stayed in the boat! - I looked to the instructor as if to say "yeah how cool am i" - and then he tried to push me in again! - yet again I managed to get my balance! - with the camera still on me I gave it a big victory salute!

A short time later, Sarah and I happened to look back at a splash noise - the instructor had fallen in! - "yeh, probably don't mention that to anyone else!" hahahaha - So I was the only person on the raft not to fall in! - challenge realised!

After quite a few more hours of rafting through the stunning river, past incredible views of huge trees and waterfalls, we pulled in to the end of the rafting for a 'team photo'. As Sarah had a bad knee, she was excused from carrying the raft up the hill - i.e. on our heads. Only trouble there was they put me and the young american lad at the front, which meant that I had pretty much ALL the weight on me. - very painful and stiff for a few days from that little escapade!

We then changed into our dry clothes and were taken back to a backpacker pub to view a few photos for our team (Team 10 - DV8) and had a few ciders. We were given the option of buying a cd of photos and/or and DVD of the footage. - there was also a screening of a bit of the DVD. As the deal was 1xCD + 1xDVD = $70, I asked if it would be possible to have 2 dvds and 1 cd for $80? - He said he could do it for $90 and throw in another CD, which we agreed to.
- so only $45 each for a CD and a DVD each - not bad.

Here's SOME of the pictures. You'll have to request a viewing of the DVD if you want when I get back to blighty.

*please click on each photo for a slightly bigger version, I'm sat at the back on either side*****









- my favourite... I look very professional and in alot of concentration.



The CD also included a few of the area as well, so you get an idea of the area.













We eventually got back to the hostel around 7pm and went to bed pretty soon after!

''''''''''''''''''''''''

For the next 5 days, we had planned on going to Cairns Beach Lagoon, which is a man made beach on the sea front. - Unfortunately due to mining and port activity, the Cairns coast is pretty much sludgy mud (which apparently you can get stuck in) so there's no possibility of swimming there. - Unfortunately, VERY uncharacterically, the weather was rainy, dark, cloudy and cold for the rest of the week so we basically spent alot of time in the hostel just watching the free to rent movies and downloading stuff off of the internet. I've just got into a show called ' The United States of Tara' with Toni Collette - fantastic actress. The story of the is a family with a mum called Tara, who has a few alternate personalities because of 'SOMETHING' that happened in her past. - as the only way to find out what happened they have to take her off of medication and let the alternates out so they might be able to reveal what happened to her. There's currently 3 other personalities; T = a 15 year old slutty teenage girl, Alice = a middle aged stepford wife, with old fashioned values and cake making skills, and Buck = a southern, foul mouthed guy who smokes and is pretty confontational. - It makes for very good viewing and much hilarity.

next up is the OZ EXPERIENCE BUS - which picks us up on Monday 3rd August to take us to various places down the East Coast.

'''''''''''''''''''''''''