Travel to Australia, Queensland, Airlie Beach.

There's probably not a huge amount to say in this post. I spent a week on the west coast staying with Rich Miles, and probably got a little more comfortable than I should have. I originally had planned to spend the weekend in Perth and the rest of my time further down the west coast. However I only ended up spending one night down in Margaret River and the rest of the time was in Rich's house. When it came time to leave the thought of rejoining the backpacker circuit wasn't massively appealing, a few days in Cairns though and I'm somewhat back in the groove.

In Perth Rich took me to see King's Park, a fairly nice park just outside the city. Heard some local hippies playing one of the worst songs I've ever heard, D's D's double D's/ In the middle of a riddle. Can't remember the rest of it but I remember thinking Will.I.Am would be proud of some of the
Aussie Rules A game so simple even Australians can understand it.lyrics they'd come up with. Drove to the other side of the city and had a look for some kangaroos, without any success.

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Travel to Australia, Queensland, Hervey Bay.

So today was supposed to be Fraser Island day. But, when I got there, I quickly realized the bike couldn't handle what the island had to offer. The roads are all like beach sand. I knew that going in, but the dude at the hostel said I'd be fine. He takes dirt bikes there all the time. Dirt bikes...

The Tenere (you know, Beatrice) has tires suited for the road, not the sand. So, I still gave it a go, but in the end ended up playing it safe and only going a few kilometers to what's called Central Station and parked it, took a hike, and waited for the ferry back. Bummer because I was all set to camp out on the island with the rest of the hostel folks... They were in 4x4s... Haha.

So, even though I couldn't get to the other side of the island and romp up the coast, it was still a fun day. Well, maybe wrestling the bike through sand for like 8km wasn't fun. But it was a good workout! What a hike though!

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Travel to Australia, Queensland, Cairns.

Today it stopped raining!!!! And as I am staying quite near to the Botanical Gardens I thought that I would see what they had to offer. Well it didn't disappoint, there were some interesting plants in the Aboriginal gardens, some lovely foliage and very unusual flowers. Also they have an art gallery and events centre which were originally storage tanks, so they are round with some metal structures in them but that's about all and they are used for concerts and all sorts of things really good inventive architecture. Cool.

Spent the afternoon in the centre of Cairns where a concert was held, free of charge and provided by the local council. There is a manmade lagoon on the sea from for people to use instead of the sea as it is stinger season in the summer here. This means that jellyfish the size of the nail on your little finger float around in the sea, if you are unfortunate to get bitten by one of the little blighters you are likely to suffer cardiac arrest and there is no antidote you either live or die there is nothing much a medical team can do except monitor you. There are
imagealso another species of jelly fish larger than this variety which although don't have such a deadly sting can make you feel very uncomfortable. On the entrance to the beach there is a bottle of vinegar and a notice which says use the vinegar and seek medical help immediately. All of this make the manmade lagoon look very inviting.

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Travel to Australia, Queensland, Lizard Island.

This is the highlight destination of our trip! We arrived here on our 6 person prop plane! It was pretty amazing to see the Great Barrier Reef from above. We have been to 2 places that you can see from space - The Great Wall of China and now the Great Barrier Reef. We were met at the Lizard Island "airport" pavillion by some of the staff and were taken right to the resort where welcome beverages were waiting. Once we got settled in our room, we got our little boat, our picnic lunch and our snorkle gear and headed out around to Watson's Bay to get a look of the reef from below. There are a few pictures from our first snorkle visit below :) We are pretty happy with the underwater camera so far. I also got some video, but after reviewing it, I learned that I need to pan a whole lot slower! While down there we saw a sand reef shark! It was probably 5-8ft away from us and about 5ft long, but quickly swam off - I was kinda happy about that! While eating our bento box lunches - which were really good, a bunch of
It was a little tight...little tiny fish started jumping in schools around our boat! It was like they were being chased and just skimming the water - but the staff here says its just what they do. After our final snorkle, and after losing an earing while trying to take off my mask (Sorry Michael & Laura - final resting place is the great barrier reef!), we headed in for the day so we could clean up and get ready for dinner. Dinner was a 7 course tasting menu - just small portions of everything - - from tuna tartar to huge prawns to grouper to venison...the fish was so fresh - you can tell the difference.

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Travel to Australia, Queensland, Rainbow Beach.

We arrived in Rainbow Beach from Tin Can Bay, quaint little town, but right on the backpackers trail and so the townies don't like these "your not from around here, are you, types" infiltrating their little patch of tucked away paradise. We tried to do a spot of free camping by the ocean side park, but it looks like ranger phil, is on the beat, and has harassed several van packers, slapped them with a goldcoast type fine for breaking hick town bylaws, anonymously passed in an out of session midnight council meeting when topped up with the sauce they passed these draconian bylaws, where you are not allowed to sleep in your car, any where in town, unless it is in backpacker alley. you guessed it, backpacker street is full of hostile hostels, where all the young dudes party like there is no tomorrow and for some of them, by the way they party, there probably won't be. Sooooo let me set the scene, bilbo and basho did the right thing and parked our freedom machine in backpacker street, with all the other ten thousand party vans, all knockin and a rockin, till sunrise, ah, did not sleep a wink,
amazing streak art rainbow beachwith all these party types yahooing, yaheeing, all night long, some of them did a lionel ritchie, and were probably dancing on the ceiling, you get the feeling, that we were reeling,

meanwhile back in the town that is reminiscent of a 60's style byron bay where every shop sells surf boards or surfwear, or alcohol or sometimes all of these at the same time, don't mind packing the back packing dollars just don't want them freeloading in suburbia. like check out the only laundromat, oh yeah, its owned by the fish and chip shop next door, that will also sell you a shower for five dolleros. so clean your clothes, clean yourself, before you bring your stinky arse into my house of greasy stuff thats probably been festering all day, o'k we havn't slept a wink, we probably stink and its raining, maybe the towns not that bad, did i mention its raining,

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